Continuing our series on the 1924 Pekin Centennial Celebration, this week we present an article from the Thursday, 3 July 1924 issue of the Pekin Daily Times that tells of the Centennial Play that had been presented in Mineral Springs Park on the previous evening, Wednesday, 2 July 1924, which was the opening night of the Centennial Celebration.
The play, entitled “One Thousand Years Ago: A Romance of the Orient,” was presented by the Pekin Players under the direction of C. Hubert Ropp (1894-1973), who also designed and painted the stage scenery. The leading roles were played by Everett McKinley Dirksen (1896-1969) and Louella Carver (1899-1979). Carver was a member of Pekin Community High School Class of 1917, the first class to graduate after the opening of the new Pekin high school (West Campus). Ropp and Dirksen were, respectively, the president and vice-president of PCHS Class of 1913 as well as valedictorian and salutatorian of their graduating class. Dirksen and Carver, who both sang in the Presbyterian Church choir, began their courtship during the production of the Centennial play — up till then, Ropp had been courting her.
“One Thousand Years Ago” was written by American dramatist and poet Percy MacKaye (1875-1956) of Cornish, New Hampshire, and first staged in 1913. MacKaye’s play was inspired by earlier plays named Turandot, written by Carlo Gozzi (1762) and Friedrich Schiller (1801), both of which derived their subject matter from François Pétis de la Croix’s 1722 adaptation of a 12th century A.D. epic by the Persian poet Nizami. The plays of MacKaye, Schiller, and Gozzi are set in an imaginary, fabulous Chinese past, and tell of the meeting and marriage of Calaf, Prince of Astrakhan, and Turandot, Princess of Pekin (i.e., Peking or Beijing, China). MacKaye’s play was chosen for the 1924 Centennial Celebration because of Pekin’s longstanding tradition of associating itself with China. Pekin’s having been named in Jan. 1830 after China’s capital Peking soon gave rise to a tradition of fanciful association with different aspects of Chinese culture. Thus, Pekin residents very early on took to calling their home “the Celestial City.” Later on Pekin’s professional minor league baseball team in the early 1900s was called the Celestials, and the old downtown Pekin Theater was decorated as a Chinese pagoda. Local businesses often used Chinese themes and written Chinese characters in their advertisements. Most notable, of course, was the old PCHS team mascot, and Chinese themes are often found in old Pekin high school yearbooks.
Below is the Centennial play’s program or playbill, which was published on page 2 of the 3 July 1924 issue of the Pekin Daily Times, followed by a transcription of the accompanying article on that page.
Audience of 10,000 Witnesses Play At Mineral Springs Park
The great natural amphitheater in Mineral Springs Park —
An audience estimated as high as ten thousands, covering the rolling slopes, temporary seats and extending back to the road —
Pretentious lighting effects, the Chinese play, “One Thousand Years Ago,” with harem girls, coolies and Italian vagabond players, a brass band and the festival spirit.
That was the opening night of the Centennial of “a whale of a town” — Pekin.
Banked row on row, down the steep inclines of the hills on which the trees keep a lone vigil, down into the valley, and up again to the heights in three directions, was a crowd the size of which no one could estimate accurately.
Electric lights playing upon the scene revealed hundreds perched in different positions on the outskirts of the natural bowl, some in trees, some in cars and others standing on the edge of the slopes. It was a sight not to be forgotten by Pekin, a town that has witnessed many large gatherings before.
The flare of lights on the brightly colored scenery, representing a room in the Imperial Harem, Great Hall of the Emperor, anteroom of Harem and Calaf’s bedchamber, with living characters moving and talking, gave the stage a charming effect.
The sky, overcast with dark clouds, threatened rain any minute, but failed to dim the enthusiasm of the audience.
The spectators had assembled to see what had been billed as “the biggest thing of its kind ever undertaken in Pekin.” And the advance notices had not over-rated it.
The play by Percy Mackaye (sic), as presented by the Pekin Players, under the direction of C. Hubert Ropp, was a fitting event to inaugurate the first night of the Centennial. It was well cast, ably acted and elaborately staged.
We will continue our 1924 Centennial Celebration series next week.
