Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1923 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “During June, Mr. Hall and Mathis came down from Chicago to see me, on their way to San Antonio. I will have a chance to get in on that job with Barnard, who is entitled to the work, being a member and boss of the Shrine stunts.” Moses was referring to Herbert Barnard, a well-known scenic artist and art director in San Antonio, Texas. In 1923, newspapers listed Barnard as a pageantry expert whose work was famous throughout the south. Later that summer, Moses later wrote, “Left El Dorado for Tulsa, Oklahoma, spent a day with Barnard and saw the city. Enjoyed it immensely.”
In 1923, Barnard was secured by the parades and pageant committee of the International Petroleum Exposition of Congress to supervise the presentation of the three spectacles which were given in connection with the big oil and gas show in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Expo was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that July. The “Tulsa Tribune” described the Barnards spectacles on 29 July 1923: “A second entertainment feature will be the brilliant pageant staged during the week under the able direction of Herbert Barnard, of San Antonio, Texas, well known scenic artist. The first of these will be a fashion show, the most gorgeous ever presented in the southwest, given though the co-operation of the merchants of Tulsa. The second pageant will tell by means of floats the history and development of the petroleum history, from the earliest discovery and use of oil by the ancients down to the present day. The third pageant will take place on the last night of the exposition and will lead into the coronation of Queen Petrolia. Every state and every foreign nation represented at the congress will be requested to enter one of its most beautiful women as a princess, and from this number the Queen will be selected. The crowning of the Queen, a beautiful and impressive spectacle, forms a fitting close to the first annual international Petroleum Exposition and Congress. “
On July 22, 1923, the “Tulsa Tribune” reported, “Barnard’s work as a director of festivals is famous throughout southern states. For many years he has had charge of San Antonio’s annual Fiesta San Jacinto, designing and supervising the construction of the floats for the pageant, the ‘Battle of Flowers,’ and setting the ceremony for the coronation of the queen. Previous to this, he was connected with the Mardi Gras at New Orleans, where his brilliant work excited much favorable comment. His remarkable versatility is displayed in the number of varied activities in which he is engaged in San Antonio. An artist as well as scenic director and designer, he has decorated three of the largest theaters of the Texas city, and is now under contract to make the stage scenery in a number of the junior high schools. He has also been connected with the establishment of some of the most prominent architects of San Antonio.
“As director and designer of outdoor festivals with their floats and other spectacular trappings. Barnard stands almost unrivaled in America. Despite the number of years that he has been engaged in scenic decoration, his work displays ever-increasing ingenuity and originality. He builds the floats in keeping with the spirit and nature of the event for which they are designed, and in some of his former connections has produced carnivals and festivals of bewildering lavishness and startling originality.”
To be continued…
