Local History Mystery

A local history Facebook group recently posted a pair of pictures.  Apparently no provenance was available to the poster.  I found them interesting.  Worthy of closer study in fact.  Take a quick look at each.

A downtown setting.  Some odd things catch the eye.  Some of the people are dressed in Old Timey clothing.  Some are in modern apparel.  

Here's another picture.  It sure looks to have been taken the same day.

Same street.  Same general arrangement of people.  And yes, I'd say for sure same day.  Look at the open window behind the OK Store sign.  And the shape of the trees in the far distance.  

Time to look closer.  Apologies for image quality, you work with what you have.

In the smaller group picture, over on the right side, you have two distinctive people.  A girl in a white dress wearing a head band, and a portly fellow who I think, for no particular reason, is trying to do an impression of a windbag politician.  Maybe he is one.

Notice the kid in a baseball cap over Mayor Windbag's shoulder!  Can we find these two in the less detailed group picture?  Yes, but on opposite sides of the view.  Here they are.

 I think "Hizzoner" is even holding the same cane in each view.

Although the initial Facebook post had no information to help us out, the mystery here is easily solved.  Let's see.  You have a downtown that looks to be early to mid 20th century.  In the far corner of the larger view you can even see the bumper of an automobile.  1930's I'd say.  You have a large group of people turning up for two posed photos.  Some of them in Olde Timey clothing.  Bonus points to the guy who brought a mule.  Two different pictures were taken but at least four individuals appear in both.*  The smaller group view was supposed to just be the Olde Time cosplayers but the kid in the baseball cap sort of photobombed 'em.  For that matter a couple of fellows in wide ties are also present.  Clearly this was not a totally serious event.

This is what people do for a Centennial celebration.  And with a 5 second google of Chippewa Falls Centennial I got the same image and the helpful and entirely consistent information that it was from 1937.

Doing just a little actual research I discovered that the celebration was supposed to happen in September of 1936 but was rescheduled to begin June 6th, 1937.  The usual sort of things happened.  A beard growing contest.  Speeches honoring old settlers.  A log chopping contest in keeping with the city's early lumbering history.  There were parades.  Governor Phil LaFollette was the guest of honor. **  Although an assortment of entertainments are described as happening downtown I can't pin this photo to any of them.  There is mention of a "historical pageant" at the fair grounds and I'm assuming the costumed people, and the mule, were part of that.  The pageant by the way was followed by fireworks.  The Eau Claire paper says the crowd was estimated at 10,000 people.

There are of course some loose ends.  Who were these people?  Everyone knew them back then so no need for captions.  I've tried to match the most clearly shown fellow - our portly politician - with people known to be there.  But he does not look like the Governor nor like a former opera singer mentioned as being part of the festivities.

Another nagging question is whether this was "photoshopped".  Obviously not with the modern software but with old school cut and paste.  I don't think the baseball cap is evidence, they were an acceptable fashion for youngsters in 1937, although the people in this photo generally would be appalled to know that in 2023 grown men wear them in restaurants!  The wide ties on the guys in the back row are a bit weird, but I don't know enough about fashion to call them incongruous.  We were roughly in the Zoot Suit era after all.

Then there is the question of photo quality.  In both views there are guys with unusually large heads.  And people are standing on things you can't see behind the crowd.  Sometimes they look pretty weird, especially in the smaller group view.  In that one there are areas of the photo with great clarity and others that are blurry.  The mule looks to be standing still but the guys on either side not so much.  The single weirdest looking person is a fellow I call Lumberjack guy.  He's in the far right in the large group shot.  And over on the left in the smaller group.  

At first glance it looks as if the head does not fit on that body.  But I think it does.  There is a combination of shadowing on the right side and a dark hat brim covering part of his neck on the left.  The open collar shirt is the same in each photo which would be an odd coincidence.  Note also that he has a cigarette in hand.  Cigarettes were uncommon before 1920, but of course we already "know" this was 1937.

I think if this photo had been altered to include, say, people from the 150th anniversary in 1986 it would probably be more obvious.  For one thing I lived here then and don't recognize anybody!  Altered photo?  Mmmmm, I can see the argument for it but I think no.  Some people just like to dress up in Olde Timey duds.  And others have big heads.

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* Look for the guy with the badge on his hat, probably intended to be a copper.  And the Lumberjack guy discussed above.

**Phil LaFollette was the son of the more famous Wisconsin political figure known as "Fighting Bob" LaFollette.