A lighted sign announces “The Big Free Moving Picture Show” outside a huge tent. The latest automobiles are parked and on display. A 15-piece band stands, primed and ready to play a tune to draw in a crowd. A man in a straw hat sits in the center of the image with a look of authority and ownership. Another man, likely a salesman, leans behind him with a megaphone as a boy peeks around a poster from inside the tent.
A photographer readies himself, releases his shutter, and …
CLICK!
A colorful moment is captured.
In all honesty, “colorful” isn’t the word that I would have necessarily used to describe this picture. However, it was exactly the word chosen by Christian County Historian William T. Turner when he brought it to my office.
For this month’s “Snapshots in Time,” I asked William to pick a picture — any picture — for us to feature. This photograph was his choice out of the tens of thousands of local images that he has collected over the last 70-plus years. When I asked him why this one, his response was that it contains so much color.
Now William isn’t referring to the pigment of this old, sepia-tone image. He’s referring to the colorful details of a good story. Or, in this case, many stories.
The place
The picture was taken 100 years ago at the Pennyroyal Fair. Located on what was then known as Palmyra Road (in the vicinity of today’s Pardue Lane), this incarnation of the fair operated from 1913-1924. The fair was always scheduled for the early fall and lasted one full week. The races were the big draw — and by 1922 — automobile races and stunt car shows were hits. Local car dealerships set up tents to show off the latest models of their brands.
That’s what we see here: the Hudson-Essex Sales Co. tents. Hudson-Essex was one of 10 automobile dealerships listed in the City Directory for Hopkinsville that year. The company produced high-dollar automobiles of the day — as seen by the sale signs on the right corner post of the tents. Listed at a bargain price of $1,375 and $1,895, the models were close to four times more expensive than a Model T Ford in 1922. (According to William, you could buy a used Model T for $35 in 1922. A quick Google search indicates that you could buy one brand new for about $300.)
The man in a straw hat
The man with the straw hat seated in front of the tent is Edgar Renshaw, the company’s owner. Described by William as a ladies’ man, Renshaw owned the dealership from 1920 until 1928, when he was appointed postmaster. Located on the southwest corner of Ninth & Clay streets (where Brawner’s Furniture is today), the Hudson-Essex Sales Co. would be renamed the Renshaw Motor Co. in the years after this image was captured. A big man with a bigger personality, Renshaw owned the land along Fort Campbell Boulevard from Hopkinsville Milling Company to Country Club Lane, where he hosted skeet shoots and air shows. Yes, air shows. He also established the Renshaw Airplane Co. in the late 1920s. Pilots from all over the country traveled here to fly in the skies above Christian County. Who knew?! William Turner, of course.
The band
The band posed to the left of the tent was a group of local business and professional men known as Lebkuecher’s Band. Under the direction of Harry L. Lebkuecher, the band was a frequent feature at dances, cotillions and parties. They played in festivals at Virginia Park, at Hotel Latham and at the resorts at Cerulean and Dawson Springs. Hopkinsville had its own orchestra full of highly-skilled musicians that played at local events. Who knew?! Yep. William Turner.
Bandleader Harry Lebkuecher (pronounced Leb-ketcher,) stands proudly in the center among his crew of brass, woodwind and percussion players. Born in New York in 1876, Lebkuecher made his way to Hopkinsville as a young man and married Gertrude Lindsey in 1899. Professionally, he owned and operated a cigar factory at Seventh and South Virginia streets. Lebkuecher’s Band was a frequent site on the social scene through the early 1930s. From the 1930s until his death in 1943, Lebkuecher served as the band director at Hopkinsville High School. Who knew?! You guessed it. William Turner.
William identified one other man in the band: the man seated on the far left with a bushy mustache and holding what appears to be a clarinet. Referring to him simply as “Smitty,” William told me that this musician came to Hopkinsville with Sousa’s Band in 1906. Under the direction of composer and director John Philip Sousa, the famous 60-piece band (including Smitty) traveled by private rail car to perform here at Union Tabernacle on March 2 to a packed crowd. The story goes that Smitty got drunk in Hoptown, and Sousa fired him on the spot. Our friend Harry Lebkuecher quickly hired him to work in his cigar factory and to play in his band. And thus, Hopkinsville gained a new citizen. Who could have known that tidbit? None other than William Turner.
The picture show
But what about “The Big Free Moving Picture Show”? William told me that his guess was that the movie was a gimmick to sell cars. The show titled “The Trail of the Arrow” featured stunt drivers putting a car to the test and showing how well a Hudson or Essex could perform. He noted that the dealership had set up four tents to accommodate a big audience for this film. Hudson-Essex Sales Co., under the leadership of Edgar Renshaw, hired a band and showed a movie to promote its automobiles.
Talk about pulling out all the stops!
I did a bit of internet sleuthing on the movie and discovered that William was spot on with his guess. But get this! The stunt drivers in the movie were two young women! Filmed in 1919, “The Trail of the Arrow” featured Nell Shipman and Marjorie Cole Dougan driving an SX Arrow through the Mojave Desert and an area known as the Devil’s Punchbowl.
The 32-minute film touted scenes where the car was tilted so much that the women had to be strapped into their seats, and one with the rear wheels overhanging a 400-foot precipice. Shipman, the film’s writer and co-star, proved, in her words, “.. that woman is on a par with man in driving a motor car, as she is in every other walk of life. All she needs is the experience — the physical training — the freedom from restraint.”
The film was financed by an automobile company (presumably Essex) as a promotional tool and was shown across the country, including at the 1922 Pennyroyal Fair in Hopkinsville, just as William Turner knew.
The stories that this photograph tells went far beyond what I saw at first glance. Thankfully, William brought this picture to my — and now to your — attention. And I see the color that he sees in it now, too. The color is in the stories of the people. The human interest stories, as he often describes them. Because that’s what really draws him in and what gets him to draw us all in with him: the real stories of real people who lived and loved and contributed to this community, to our world. Whether you’re the owner of a car dealership or a drunk clarinet player, you add value to our collective story. We all add a little color.
And guess what?
William Turner already knew that, too.
Alissa Keller is the executive director of the Museums of Historic Hopkinsville-Christian County. She’s a graduate of Centre College with degrees in history and English and of Clemson University/College of Charleston with a master’s degree in historic preservation. She serves on the Kentucky Historical Society and the Kentucky Museum and Heritage Alliance boards.
