In 1911, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Lawrence, Kansas, yielded a Masonic job, which meant a lot of work for the Land Show.” Land shows were held for the purpose of exhibiting and explaining the agricultural and other resources of the states with exhibits that included lectures and the distribution of information.
Scenery for Lawrence Scottish Rite was a little free advertising for Sosman & Landis, leading to the Kansas exhibit for the Land Show in Chicago. On Nov. 8, 1911, the “Evening Telegram” reported that Charles I. Zirkle of Topeka was leaving for Chicago to “install the Kansas Land Show exhibit” (Garden City, Kansas, page 3). Later, Zirkle spoke at the “Kansas Realty Men” convention in Topeka, delivering the same daily lecture from the Chicago land show that promoted settlement and travel to the Kansas (Parson Daily Sun, Parsons, Kansas, 29 Dec. 1911, page 4).
In 1911, Land Shows were held in Minneapolis, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Omaha, Pittsburgh, and Salt Lake City. Of the Land Show in Los Angeles during 1911, the “Los Angeles Times reported, “The big railroad companies interested in the settlement of the West immediately grasped the possibilities of the show and bought space in the Coliseum Building and spent many thousands of dollars in getting together splendid exhibits of fruits, grains and vegetables from districts along their line.” (5 Nov. 1911, page 21). A general sales agent for the Southern Pacific Railroad said, “The big land shows are a wonderful illustration of newspaper initiative and railroad co-operation,” explaining that when the land shows commenced, Chicago was then “the great land distributing center of the country.”
For the Chicago Land Show, the “Chicago Daily Tribune” advertised the event as “the greatest exposition in Chicago since the World’s Fair” in 1893 (Nov. 16, 1911, page 20). The exposition was held in the Chicago Coliseum on Wabash Ave., near 16th St. and exhibiting space was valued at $47,000 and filled with the finest produce of the land from fifteen states, inviting men and women of Chicago to exchange their steam-heated flats for rural homes.
The Union Pacific Railroad exhibit at the Chicago Coliseum was installed at an expense of $20,000, consisting of three specially prepared rooms and thousands of feet of moving picture films. Of the exhibit, the newspapers described, “Continental moving picture travelogues are to be operated in the rooms, illustrating mining and agricultural industries in the territory through which the railroad furnishes transportation (Nov. 16, 1911, page 20).
Local advertisements urged, “Come down and talk to the men, who like yourself, could not get ahead in the big city and who gave up their jobs, went West and South and are now independent of the landlord.” Each day of the Land Show, one farm was given away to a lucky visitor. Other daily prizes included potatoes; 40,000 of which were distributed on Idaho day at the expense of the state. The State of California shipped in seven carloads of fruit and one carload of violets to be presented to female visitors on California day.
The first Land Show was held during 1909. In 1911, it was estimated that $33,000 were spent by the management and exhibitors in decorating the interior of the coliseum, with the entire collection of exhibits valued at $150,000, the spending equivalent of over $4,000,000 today. Of the $150,000 in 1911, $47,000 worth of products was sold during the show, and increase from $34,000 in 1909.
Of the Salt Lake City Exhibits, the “Los Angeles Times” reported, “According to the Salta Lake Tribune, the Commerical Club and the Utah Development Company of Salt Lake are arranging one of the best exhibits that Utah can produce for tge land show here.‘The results of the exhibit sent to the last land show at the Los Angeles were so successful that it is proposed to make the best of this opportunity.’ Says the Tribune. Elaborate and extensive preparations are in progress in Salt Lake City for a series of excursions from the city during the land show, and it is expected that hundeds of members of the Commercial Club and other organizations will come here especially to attend the exposition. General Manager Wilson is in receipt of a letter from Frederick Thompson, scenic artist, who designed Luna Park, Dreamland and A Trip to the Moon at Coney Island, stating that he will submit plans for decorations and entertainment which he expects to surpass anything heretofore attempted in the West” (“Los Angeles Times” 5 Nov. 1911, page 21).
To be continued…
