{"id":2462,"date":"2017-12-14T00:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T00:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=2462"},"modified":"2018-08-13T11:26:49","modified_gmt":"2018-08-13T11:26:49","slug":"showbiz-hooked-kids-of-cairo-illinois","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/?p=2462","title":{"rendered":"Showbiz Hooked the Kids of Cairo, Illinois"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seventeenth in a Series<\/em><\/p>\n

By Matt Chaney, for ChaneysBlog.com<\/p>\n

Posted Thursday, December 14, 2017<\/p>\n

Copyright\u00a0\u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney<\/p>\n

Following the Civil War, the children of Cairo, Ill., experienced an array of heroic models to emulate, including celebrity Americans and Europeans.<\/p>\n

The community of 6,000 residents was remote yet strategically located at confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, serving as intersection for a transient multitude from nationwide and abroad. Cairo kids encountered steamboat pilots, locomotive operators, military officers, civil engineers, politicians, doctors, authors, poets, philosophers, teachers, preachers and athletes, among intriguing types.<\/p>\n

Figures of \u201cshow business\u201d were powerful symbols for a Cairo youth, regardless of the kid’s socio-economic class, race, gender. Stage-struck children were common, given the\u00a0influence of Cairo\u2019s entertainment choices and glittering performers, ranging from circus to theater. Show organizers, talent scouts and news writers were regulars around town, juicing showbiz\u00a0atmosphere.<\/p>\n

The circus captivated Cairo kids. \u201cNo less than eighty-six youngsters white and black, male and female, were, at one time today, in full chase of the circus bandwagon,\u201d The Cairo<\/em> Bulletin<\/em> reported on Nov. 18, 1870. \u201cTheir object was to hear the musicians in red coats \u2018blow.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cairo kids witnessed\u00a0America\u2019s grandest circuses, including the shows of Spaulding and Rogers, P.T. Barnum, Cooper and Bailey, C.W. Noyes, John Robinson, and Dan Rice. When a circus was due at Cairo, children gathered at the Ohio levee and railroad depot, turning somersaults and handsprings, popping handstands, singing and dancing.<\/p>\n

All ages anticipated arrival of Dan Rice\u2019s circus boat on a Saturday morning in September 1869. The steamer\u2019s calliope organ boomed across the flatland, pumping music from miles out, and folks hurried to the Cairo wharf and immediate shorelines of Missouri and Kentucky. \u201cThe steamer Will S. Hays<\/em>, with banners flying, and giving out strains of delicious music, sailed into port this morning with Dan Rice\u2019s\u2026 circus on board, under the special management and direction of the irrepressible Dan himself,\u201d The Bulletin<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n

Performers strode off the boat, down the gangplank; horses were led off and caged animals unloaded. Circus workers and levee roustabouts hauled equipment for show setup. \u201cThe canvass was soon spread at the corner of Poplar and Tenth streets, an eager crowd eyeing the operation, in delightful anticipation of the sights and sports of the afternoon and evening. While we write [at the newspaper office], the shouts of a delighted multitude reach us from the cover of the canvass.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big-top tent seated 5,000 spectators, with more tickets for standing room. Boys with no money plopped down outside, peering underneath tent flaps for \u201ca thrilling glance at the horses\u2019 hoofs as the animals lope around the ring,\u201d the paper described. \u201cOther youngsters find small rents in the canvass, not larger perhaps than a finger would fill\u2026 They tell [their] eager companions gathered about that they can almost see the clown; that they did see a man in spangles; that the bass drum stands in full view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Circus personnel and exotic animals posed a spectacle by merely shipping through Cairo. \u201cCol. Robert Stickney, the famous bareback rider, arrived here from Memphis with a large circus yesterday, and had his menagerie wagons and other circus paraphernalia strung along [the] Ohio levee, with the intention of have them forwarded by rail to Pana, Ill., where he intends to give a show,\u201d The Bulletin <\/em>reported.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmong his curiosities he had a horse\u2014a hump-backed horse\u2014that was about as intelligent as man could make him\u2026 At the command of Col. Stickney, he walked backwards, knelt down, sat on his haunches and stood up and walked around on his hind legs. The cages of the wild beasts were standing just below the stone depot on Ohio levee; some of them were open and were surrounded by a large crowd of curious spectators.\u201d<\/p>\n

Circuses visited Cairo year-round at the southernmost tip of Illinois, parking massive, domed barges and more showboats at the wharf and on Missouri landings across the Mississippi. Circus trains and special cars often parked along tracks circling this railroad town. Performers wintered in the area while show managers restocked talent and revamped programs. Watercraft and equipment were stored and repaired, new parts shipped in. In springtime circus outfits organized and launched from Cairo while others opened show seasons at the locale.<\/p>\n

Cairo anchored northern end of the delta trough, flatland stretching south to the Gulf of Mexico, draining major rivers of the interior. National railroad and wagon routes intersected at Cairo, with Missouri situated across the Mississippi River and Kentucky across the Ohio. Cairo boosters proclaimed their tri-state vicinity as the navigation head for water, rail and trail through the continental heart, \u201ca gateway between the Northeast and Southwest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Barnum circus and accompaniments, arriving by some 150 railcars, attracted enough humanity to cover the little peninsula of Cairo Township. \u201cThere were people of all sizes, shapes, sexes and colors, who came from all around us,\u201d the newspaper reported. \u201cThe trains were all full, the [railcar] transfer boats ditto, the ferryboat was crowded at each trip, and our streets were full of farmers\u2019 wagons loaded with produce and children. The great Barnum took everything in, and no doubt departed with a snug sum of money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Circus was only a facet of\u00a0amusements<\/em> in Cairo. Dramatic productions had been popular since the floating theaters of troupes like the Chapman family, and stage venues on land had been established during wartime, when federals strengthened Cairo levees and installed pumps to reduce seep water.<\/p>\n

Headliners of American drama, including Kate Claxton and Lawrence Barrett, played Cairo venues in the 1870s. Sol Smith Russell and Katie Putnam, former precocious players locally, were renowned in comedy and song. Russell was a Missouri native, Putnam of Chicago, but Cairo proudly claimed the youthful stars. Russell and Putnam headed major troupes touring under their names, with each boosting Cairo\u2019s theater reputation by appearing regularly.<\/p>\n

Variety format led river entertainment, with requisite sex appeal, and audiences loved Putnam, always applauding for encore. In Cairo and throughout the delta, Putnam enjoyed sold-out runs for \u201cher exquisite songs, dances, and her unrivalled banjo solos,\u201d per an advertisement. She adorned herself with diamonds and rubies on stage.<\/p>\n

The market embraced performers such as Andy McKee, a comic and \u201cbreakdown\u201d dancer. \u201cAndy McKee first appeared professionally in 1865 at Cairo, Illinois,\u201d author Edward Le Roy Rice noted in Monarchs of Minstrelsy<\/em>. \u201cMr. McKee\u2019s success was so pronounced with his eccentric dancing that he had little trouble in obtaining other variety engagements in Memphis, New Orleans, Cincinnati and St. Louis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illinois historian Roy Stallings concluded that Cairo competed mightily with Chicago in western theater. \u201cIn the post-Civil War period, amidst a general revival of drama in the United States, southern Illinois, and Cairo in particular, were beginning to develop their own brand of drama culture\u2026 Cairo was as important a center to southern Illinois and points farther south, as Chicago was to its surrounding territory. Cairo was not only immune to Chicago\u2019s brand of drama, but she developed a drama that was more influential and more widely distributed than that of Chicago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSouthern Illinois\u2019 own heritage was blended into the drama of the showboat, giving way to the age of the theatrical halls, and finally reaching the zenith of development in the last twenty years of the century,\u201d Stallings wrote for Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Showboats and fledgling theaters coexisted along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, with the Cairo area long a center of floating entertainment. And that wouldn\u2019t change for generations yet, well into the 20th<\/sup> century, as long as extreme southern Illinois and southeast Missouri remained swampy delta frontier. \u201cThe showboats had come into being to serve a region where civilization had been slow to penetrate, especially where\u2026 the social niceties of living were retarded by the environment,\u201d wrote historian Philip Graham.<\/p>\n

Famed performer Dan Rice remodeled a steamboat in the area, owned by Cairo pilot A.J. Bird, for their partnership’s launch of a show craft in 1880. Rice disavowed circus as pass\u00e9 and wasn\u2019t much enthused about staging dramatic productions on the new showboat, in his speaking with a Kentucky newsman.<\/p>\n

Rather, said Rice, native of New York City, his mission was to educate and to elevate \u201cthe people along the great Mississippi and its tributaries\u2014to music.\u201d Perhaps Rice was dishing more trademark hyperbole, or was indeed an aging performer, as critics alleged, out of touch with his time and place.<\/p>\n

Because fine music already resounded in the delta, from Cairo south to New Orleans, progressing toward greatness.<\/p>\n

Children of Cairo sensed achievement ahead for their rural,\u00a0unique community, and teen Maud Rittenhouse identified entertainment as essential culture. The talented schoolgirl kept a diary of her life in Cairo during the latter 19th<\/sup> century\u2014a vivid narrative to become an American bestseller, titled Maud<\/em>. In 1881 she wrote excitedly of the new opera house in town.<\/p>\n

\u201cThree years ago people said all the hateful things they could about Cairo. Now they\u2019re lavish in their praises\u2026,\u201d Maud crowed, \u201cwe are altogether citified.\u201d<\/p>\n

Select References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Afloat. (1837, June 6). New Orleans Times-Picayune<\/em> LA, p. 2.<\/p>\n

Amusements This Evening. (1865, Oct. 5). Cairo Evening Times<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Around Town. (1879, Jan. 14). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Around Town. (1879, Jan. 18). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Atheneum! (1873, April 9). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Barnum Day! (1880, Sept. 16). [Advertisement.] Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Barnum, P.T. (1927). Barnum\u2019s Own Story<\/em>. Viking Press: New York NY.<\/p>\n

Briggs, H.E. (1954, Autumn). Entertainment and Amusement in Cairo, 1848-1858. Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society<\/em>, 47, pp.231-251.<\/p>\n

Cairo. (1869, May 12). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Cairo, Ill., March 4th<\/sup>, \u201963. (1863, March 13). Winchester Randolph Journal<\/em> IN, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Cairo, One Day Only. (1874, June 16). [Advertisement.] Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Chapman. (1839, Aug. 15). New Orleans Times-Picayune<\/em> LA, p. 2.<\/p>\n

City News. (1878, Jan. 6). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Dan Rice\u2019s Circus. (1869, Sept. 4). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Dan Rice\u2019s Only Own Circus. (1869, Sept. 3). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Dan. Rice on the River. (1880, Feb. 29). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Dramatics on a Flatboat. (1884, Jan. 20). Louisville Courier-Journal<\/em>, p. 14.<\/p>\n

Everything Grand, New, Fresh and Bright. (1875, June 12). [Advertisement.] Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p.2.<\/p>\n

Friday and Saturday. (1880, Oct. 12). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

From the St. Louis Evening Chronicle. (1880, Aug. 7). Ste. Genevieve Fair Play<\/em> MO, p. 2.<\/p>\n

General Items. (1875, March 30). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

General Local Items. (1880, Dec. 17). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

General Local Items. (1881, April 6). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

General Local Items. (1881, April 26). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

General Local News. (1880, Sept. 24). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

General Local News. (1880, Oct. 10). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

General Local News. (1880, Nov. 16). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Graham, P. (1951). Showboats: The History of an American Institution<\/em>. University of Texas Press: Austin TX.<\/p>\n

Great Central Emigrant Route. (1868, March 31). Stanford Banner<\/em> KY, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Harrell, M.B. (1865, Sept. 9). The Cairo That Was: Number V. Cairo Evening Times<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Harrell, M.B. (1865, Sept. 11). The Cairo That Was: Number VI. Cairo Evening Times<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Harrell, M.B. (1865, Sept. 19). The Cairo That Was: Number X. Cairo Evening Times<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Immense Posters. (1869, Nov. 24). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

In and Around The City. (1879, Aug. 30). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

In and Around The City. (1879, Oct. 8). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

In and Around The City. (1879, Oct. 11). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

In and Around The City. (1879, Oct. 19). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

In and Around The City. (1879, Oct. 28). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

In and Around The City. (1880, April 20). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Items in Briefs. (1876, Oct. 5). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Katie Putnam. (1882, Dec. 12). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Lansden, J.M. (1910). A History of the City of Cairo, Illinois<\/em>. Southern Illinois University Press: Carbondale IL.<\/p>\n

Lawrence Barrett. (1877, April 17). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Lennox\u2019s Floating Theatre. (1848, Dec. 12). Louisville Daily Courier<\/em>, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Local Brevities. (1870, Nov. 18). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Local Report. (1879, Jan. 22). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Mayne, I.M. (1939). Maud<\/em>. Macmillan & Company: New York NY.<\/p>\n

Miss Kate Claxton. (1880, March 30). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Opera House. (1882, Nov. 26). [Advertisement.] Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Personal. (1874, Dec. 12). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Return of the Veterans! (1869, Feb. 8). [Advertisement.] Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p.4.<\/p>\n

Rice, E.L. (1911). Monarchs of Minstrelsy, from \u201cDaddy\u201d Rice to Date<\/em>. Kenny Publishing Company: New York NY.<\/p>\n

River News. (1875, June 29). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Rothchild\u2019s Great Show. (1876, April 22). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

Sol. Smith Russell. (1882, Nov. 26). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

St. Louis, Cairo and Paducah. (1880, July 30). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Strang, L.C. (1900). Famous Actors of the Day in America<\/em>. L.C. Page and Company: Boston MA.<\/p>\n

Stallings, R. (1940). The Drama in Southern Illinois (1865-1900). Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society<\/em>, 33, pp. 190-202.<\/p>\n

Thalia. (1872, March 6). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

The Atheneum. (1869, Oct. 14). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

The Average Small Boy\u2019s Ambition. (1879, April 3). Lawrence Chieftan<\/em>, Mount Vernon MO, p. 1.<\/p>\n

The Commercial Position of Cairo. (1865, Oct. 5). Cairo Evening Times<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n

The Springfield \u2018Register.\u2019 (1873, May 16). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 2.<\/p>\n

Town Topics. (1879, Feb. 8). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Town Topics. (1879, Feb. 15). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n

Two Monster Shows. (1870, Oct. 18). [Advertisement.] Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 2.<\/p>\n

\u201cWait For The Wagon!\u201d (1858, May 6). [Advertisement.] Glasgow Weekly Times<\/em> MO, p. 1.<\/p>\n

Matt Chaney is a writer and consultant in Missouri, USA. For more information visit\u00a0<\/em>www.fourwallspublishing.com.\u00a0Email:\u00a0<\/em>mattchaney@fourwallspublishing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seventeenth in a Series By Matt Chaney, for ChaneysBlog.com Posted Thursday, December 14, 2017 Copyright\u00a0\u00a92017 for historical arrangement by Matthew L. Chaney Following the Civil War, the children of Cairo, Ill., experienced an array of heroic models to emulate, including celebrity Americans and Europeans. The community of 6,000 residents was remote yet strategically located at … Continue reading Showbiz Hooked the Kids of Cairo, Illinois<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[283,374],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ywFp-DI","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2462"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3139,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2462\/revisions\/3139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourwallspublishing.com\/BlogMChaney\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}