Rummaging through a junk-filled closet on the second floor, I came across an enormous bound volume of newspapers from the summer of 1921. How they got there I haven’t a clue, but I suspect that I bought them decades ago at a garage sale, or at Ross Auction, or … who knows?
The newspaper was the Colorado Springs Evening Telegraph, one of the predecessors of today’s Gazette. Opening up the volume was as close as any journalist can get to time travel – here was our city, scoured every day for news by the Telegraph’s eager reporters.
Imagine putting out a daily newspaper in that era, when everything had to be done without the mechanical and scientific conveniences that now make publishing daily newspapers far less arduous. To publish clean, well-organized and readable copy was far more difficult in 1921, so you’d expect a few typos and factual errors.
Amazingly, there were none. The papers were beautifully composed, error-free, and fun to read – as were the ads! The Burns Theatre “ranks high among America’s foremost moving pictures accompanied by Clarence Creame and his 10-piece concert orchestra.” The movie? “Trust Your Wife,” starring Katherine MacDonald. Down the street at the Odeon, Theda Bara starred in “Cleopatra,” preceded by the Anderson Melody Maids “Eight Beautiful Girls.”
Each edition had a couple of pages of classified ads, including homes for sale. A six-room house at 1902 W. Cucharras could be yours for $900, while a spacious estate with a 20-room house, a five-room house and a three-room cottage with a garage, all modern and furnished, was available for $8,000.
I wondered whether my parents or grandparents were featured – and they sure were! My ambitious young father had a quarter-page ad on July 3, touting his firm Hazlehurst, Cogsdill & Flannigan, investment securities. Located in the Exchange National Bank Building, the firm would remain there until he died in 1956.
A six-room house at 1902 W. Cucharras could be yours for $900.
My grandparents didn’t advertise, but they were often featured. The newspaper covered local sports, including women’s tennis. On Aug.1, my grandmother Edith Smith reached the finals of the annual women’s tennis championship, where she was defeated by Charlotte Gile 6-3, 7-5. Edith and my grandfather, Francis Drexel Smith, often hosted parties and attended others. I remember my grandparents as they were a third of a century later – quiet, kindly and old. It’s so fun to realize that they were party animals in 1921!
And if the Telegraph’s ads and stories are any guide, Manitou Springs was also full of fun. A half-page ad for Hiawatha Gardens on July 12 invited readers to show up at 9 p.m. and enjoy Paul Whiteman’s Syncopated Orchestra. One hundred and twenty-four years later, it still sounds appealing.
C’mon, Manitou and Colorado Springs – we need to be less 2025 and more 1921! Life is short, so let’s party.
