Literary Festival of 1919

This week we are going to look back at a cultural event that happened 86 years ago in our town.

For four days in Dec. 1919, culture came to Huntington Beach when the student body of Huntington Beach High School arranged to hold a big literary festival from Dec. 3 through Dec. 6 in the auditorium of our grammar school, located on Orange Avenue between 5th and 6th streets.

It was during these four days that the residents of Huntington Beach would be exposed to music, drama, poetry and oratory staged by the Wright Chautauqua System of Los Angeles.

For those who might not know what Chautauqua was all about, it was a popular form of entertainment during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

It was a type of cultural circus that traveled about the country giving our culture-starved public concerts, lectures and dramas in tents and public halls.

The Wright Co. had previously given programs at schools in both Redondo Beach and Tustin.

To the delight of our city’s residents, each of those four days would be devoted to one type of entertainment -- one day it would be oratory, another day drama, poetry readings and classical music.

The first evening was devoted to the art of the spoken word, as Edgar Fay Daugherty spoke eloquently on “The Builders of Tomorrow.” There were many empty seats in the auditorium due to inclement weather, but those who did venture out enjoyed his splendid lecture despite the rainfall.

Drama was the topic of the next afternoon, and despite the continuing rain the seats were filled by our cultural-minded residents as the Wright Co. performed classical plays and original works.

That evening the company put on original comedies and scenes from classic plays.

During these first two days, nearly an inch of rain fell in our town, but this rain was not going to stop the festival or its audience.

These shows were an important way of bringing culture to small towns at a time when there were no radios or televisions and few motion picture theaters.

The high school’s entertainment committee held their breath that the rain would end and their event would be a success for the school.

The next day saw the clouds disappear and the sun again shine, to the delight of both the student body of the high school and to the many residents who had waited for this event to come to town.

With the weather cleared up, the next two performances on the third day were well attended.

The afternoon’s performance saw Colette Duval entertain the audience with songs while dressed in Oriental costume.

This was followed by the reading by John Miller of the poem “The Poetry of Psychology” and a second poem read by Mrs. Carl Johnson.

The evening’s prelude was delivered by Miller, followed by a rendering of Spanish and Dutch songs by Mrs. Johnson, who dressed in the costume to fit the song.

That evening Colette Duval read her poem “In a Poet’s Workshop” to an admiring audience.

It was music that concluded the last day of the festival, as members of the American Girls’ Quartet performed “Songs of the Sixties” -- that’s 1860s, not 1960s.

This group was composed of four young girls by the names of Smith, Stone, Lake and Bennett, lovely girls who sang, gave readings and performed in short plays.

When the girls finished, it was time for ventriloquist Eska Wilson to come onstage and end the afternoon’s performance.

The last performance of the evening saw more of the American Girls’ Quartet in concert.

This was followed by encore after encore from the audience and when they exited the stage ventriloquist Eska Wilson’s act ended this four-day literary festival.

Huntington Beach High School Principal M.G. Jones got onstage and thanked those in attendance, the student body for having brought this event to our town and the entertainment committee for helping plan the festival, despite the rainstorm that occurred on the first two days of the event.

Even now, cultural events appeal to our townspeople just as much as they had to those early residents of our fledgling beach community.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box 7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.

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