Chautauqua returns to Sandpoint this summer

SANDPOINT — The June 17, 1914, edition of the Northern Idaho News ballyhooed the story — Chautauqua was coming to town.

These were the times when merely uttering that hard-to-spell word was guaranteed to generate a buzz in the community, for the event rolled into town with acrobats, jugglers, comedians, musicians, orators and actors alike. Best of all, the traveling troupe of performers came for a whole week, presenting workshops, providing a platform for public speakers and political candidates and hosting an impressive number of acts during their stay.

This July, almost 100 years later to the week, the New Old Time Chautauqua returns to Sandpoint as part of what founder Paul Magid called its “historical tour.”

“We’ve kind of reinvented the Chautauqua, but what we do is pretty much what they did,” he said. “We’re trying to recreate some of the actual things that transpired on the Sandpoint stage 100 years ago.”

In a heyday that peaked in the mid-1920s, Chautauqua was the event of the year for rural communities — a fact that stands out in newspaper accounts from the early 1900s. Also notable was how local business people ponied up in for the cost of the week-long visit by selling advance tickets and putting themselves on the line for any financial shortfall.

“Sounds funny that business men enter that kind of deal,” a Northern Idaho News account read about a month before the 1914 event in Sandpoint. “Still, they consider it good business. They want the Chautauqua because it is a good thing for the town and for everybody in the town.

“To them the Chautauqua is not a money-making proposition,” the copy went on, “but in the same class as the public schools, the library and kindred institutions.”

Pretty heady stuff, even given the elaborate prose of the day. A century later, Magid and veteran Sandpoint performing artist Jerry Luther were inspired to take a similar tack to fund the upcoming New Old Time Chautauqua tour.

Sandpoint paid $3,000 in 1914 to have Chautauqua come for a week, which is the equivalent of about $75,000 today. For its historical tour this July, the group seems to be thinking in 1914 dollars, since its fundraising goal is approximately $4,500 to cover the visit and the cost of permits, fees and Panida Theater rental.

Following the path laid out 100 years earlier, Luther is leading the fundraising efforts through advance donations that carry a few perks with them, while, at the same time, generating matching funds for a local charitable organization.

“With a donation of $250, you get two tickets to the Chautauqua and a classic, desktop executive model of the Hooey Stick with an engraved nameplate,” said Luther, who, for years, has amazed audiences with his otherworldly command of this magical, mystical stick.

Money raised for Chautauqua also will benefit Transitions in Progress Services, a local organization that, last year alone, provided more than 18,000 “bed nights” to homeless families through its Blue Haven and Trestle Creek Friendship Center facilities. Nearly two-thirds of those served by TIPS are children, according to program manager Tammie Martinsen. On the front end, the $4,500 total will qualify as matching funds for TIPS grant-writing purposes, Luther explained.

“And after the show, all proceeds will go to TIPS,” he said. “So the money turns twice — that’s a good investment.”

The Luther family was the catalyst when the New Old Time Chautauqua made another trip to Sandpoint almost 30 years ago, as the performers became the first act to grace the Panida stage immediately after the community rallied to save the theater from the wrecking ball in 1985.

One of the performers featured in that show was vocalist Faith Craig Petric, an Orofino native and Chautauqua lover who died at the age of 98.

“When she was a girl, the Chautauqua came to Orofino every year,” Magid said. “Inspired by that, I wanted to do the Chautauquas in this area in honor of Faith.”

The 2014 event poster bears the words “Keep the Faith.” During the stay in Orofino, Magid plans to meet Faith’s daughter and travel to the family’s remote, original homestead on the Clearwater River to spread the performer’s ashes there.

Before visiting Sandpoint this month as part of a pre-event planning schedule, Magid spent time in Orofino, where he had to tell the arts and business community about the high-profile role Chautauqua once played in their community. His discussions also reacquainted the town with Faith Craig Petric’s history as an artist there.

Such explanations would never have been necessary a century earlier, when the Chautauqua was considered a required venue for anyone looking to attract a truly nationwide audience. For townspeople, the event was seen as a gateway to the world at large.

“It was a way of finding out what was happening in the world, but it was also the Jefferson ideal that farmers should not just be these dirt poor, uneducated people,” said Magid.

At its zenith in 1924, some 40 million Americans attended Chautauqua performances across the country. The Northern Idaho News reported that the troupe coming to Sandpoint in 1914 was one of 60 such groups managed by the Ellison-White System out of Portland, Ore. The paper listed that there would be “30 entertainments given” during the stay that year, including “10 concerts, 10 lectures and 10 special novelty entertainments.”

The volume of entertainment was made possible through the intricate scheduling of Chautauqua troupes, which shared acts as they crossed paths on the road.

“In its flowering glory, hundreds of performers were moving through this amazing showtime mechanism,” Luther said.

The last of the traveling Chautauquas folded their tents in 1935, and it was decades until Magid and his co-founders revived the concept in the form of the New Old Time Chautauqua. Although the idea continues to exist in stationary, venue-based shows, taking things on the road has only one remaining proponent.

“We are the last traveling Chautauqua in the country,” Magid said.

This year’s historical, “Keep the Faith” tour will be made up of 60 volunteers who will be on the road for a month, visiting Orofino, Sandpoint and Hot Springs, Mont., on their route. At each stop, they will give credence to the old saw that “an army travels on its stomach.” According to Magid, the promise of great food is what fuels this artistic militia.

“It’s a lot of people and it’s amazing how much food it takes to feed them,” he said. “We’re an army, basically — a battalion of people.”

The New Old Time Chautauqua will be in Sandpoint from July 17-19 (see sidebar for schedule). For advance donations — don’t forget that executive Hooey Stick — call TIPS at (208) 265-2952.

Information: www.chautauqua.org