Looking Back: Roaring (wind) 20’s

Frank Farnum is coaching Pauline Starke in the Charlston in this 1925 photo. Farnum was an actor who appeared in 1,100 films, while Starke appeared in silent films, accordign to the internet. Local history records are somewhat silent on when and if the Charlston caught on in Ellensburg.

Looking Back: Roaring (wind) 20’s

by MICHAEL GALLAGHER managing editor

Perhaps hopes are irrationally high and, just as perhaps, no one actually knows what they’re talking about, but one hears the common refrain of late, “It will be just like the roaring ’20s.”

The reference is to what life will be like once the COVID-19 restrictions are completely lifted — the sense that people will feel a need to get out and live life a bit.

The roaring ’20s were a reaction to both coming out of the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic and the end of World War I.

Given that none of us were of age during the 1920s and few popular movies (actually no movies) focus on life in Ellensburg in the 1920s, there is only one place to turn for a sense of how much roaring took place locally in the 1920s. That one place is the The Evening Record. And, in turning to the Evening Record, the one person we turn to is Dorothy Black, the woman behind The Evening Record’s In Society column. (Readers were directed to call Dorothy at Main 9, not sure who has that number now).

As we start the process to come out of our COVID coma, it is timely to look back at Ellensburg, circa de April 1921.

In following are excerpts from Black’s April 1, 1921 In Society column. She starts with an introductory essay, as pertinent today as it was 100 years ago. Yes, Dorothy does

mention roaring.

“In spite of the concerted effort of Ellenburg’s loyal people to overlook and ignore the wind, and never let anyone from any other town hear an adverse word about the Kittitas valley zephyrs, it is fitting, that in a quiet manner, merely as one neighbor to another it might be observed that is is blowing a bit today.

There are a number of us who, in spite of good intentions cannot help being annoyed at the things that the perverse wind, which is stored in a giant warehouse somewhere in the north end of the valley and is occasionally let loose in roaring gusts. For instance one of the sufferers is the woman, who finds the carefully laundered clothes that she hung on the line, either in a grimy condition on the ground, or tightly wrapped about a dusty tree trunk or who finds them not at all. And there is the bald headed man, getting along in years who must chase his hat for several blocks, moving at a rate of speed not in keeping with his dignity. And there is the carefully coifed maid who leaves home, a veritable dream of large hair puffs, and curled bangs, who comes home again, bedraggled, blown, storm tossed wreck.

But this is merely between ourselves, and the person who tells any of these confidences to any of the rival cities who claim that the winds blows here, shall be sentenced for first degree bad citizenship.”

So now we know that a more accurate title for the time may be the Ellensburg Roaring Wind ’20s, but then Black did delve into what Ellensburg’s loyal people were up to that week:

Card Party

“Mrs. Avery Stevens and Mrs. L.J. Richards were hostesses yesterday evening at a delightful card party at the Wolsdale Gymnasium when more than a hundred of their friends enjoyed an evening of cards and dancing. Winners of the high prizes at cards, which took up the early hours of the evening were Miss Edna Bates and Mr. Welch.”

It’s possible that “delightful card party” for a hundred friends was code of a gambling den/speakeasy — Dorothy is nothing if circumspect on that subject.

Friday Club

“Places were marked for twenty members of the Friday Club at two tables at the Antlers hotel yesterday when the club entertained with its annual luncheon. Pink snap dragons made an effective color note, centering each table. At each place were favors, in the predominating color of rose. Following luncheon the club adjourned to the home of Mrs. F.P. Wolff where they enjoyed an informal social afternoon. the committee in charge of arrangements for the luncheon was made up of Mrs. F.P. Wolff, Mrs. C.W. Johnsone and Mrs. T.R. Jacobson.”

The question here is, when did informal social afternoons stop being a thing because they seem prime for a comeback.

Dorothy closed with this item, which reflects the longterm effort to bridge the town-gown divide. Reading this raises the questions of whether people of that day suffered for coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and what Dorothy means by “interesting.”

Normal Party

“When the town girls entertained for the out of town girls attending the Normal, sixty girls enjoyed an April Fool party last evening at Kamola Hall. Greeting the guests as they arrived were members of the entertainment committee dressed as clowns. They presented each guests with newspapers to be converted into hats, giving a prize for the best creation. An interesting program made up commenced with a one set play “Old Sweetheart of Mine,” with Miss Leila Beckett as lead, and Miss Louise Peterson, Miss Bernice Myers, Miss Dorothy Williams, Miss Elfie Cofer, Miss Irene Berto, Miss Minnie Mathews, Miss Ada Spaulding, Miss Agnes McKenzie, Miss Mary Hinch, and Miss Dorothy Englehardt as the “sweethearts.” A “Romeo and Juliet” number with Miss Freda Tamm and Miss Leila Backett as Romeo and Juliet was next on the program. A chorus of girls accompanied them. Miss Ann Stroud and Miss May Shaw appeared in a clown dance. Miss Ada Spaulding and Miss May Shaw appeared in a duet. An April Food supper preceded the serving of dainty refreshments.”

While we do not know what Ellensburg’s post-COVID days hold, it is a shame that Dorothy Black won’t be around to chronicle it. •

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