Fiddling with Friends in the 1920s: A Chautauqua Trouper’s Story

By Ken Weyand

Before the Internet, TV or even the mass popularity of radio, performers boarded trains and Model T’s to tour North America, entertaining live audiences on the Chautauqua circuit. Author Ken Weyand captures the life of his mother who, as a young woman, left her small town behind for a great adventure and a chance to get a first-hand look at a changing America in the early 20th Century.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ken Weyand
• Release date: Jul 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9780996522908

Ken Weyand

After receiving a degree in Journalism at the University of Missouri, Kenneth Charles Weyand worked ten years for the "Kansas City Star", becoming Advertising Copy Chief. Later he published several publications, including "Discover North", a monthly history and travel newspaper. After expanding the distribution from a single county to more than nine states, Weyand sold the publication in 2001, but continued to write for the paper, renamed "Discover Vintage America". For the past ten years, he has written a monthly history and travel column, “Traveling with Ken.”"Fiddling with Friends in the 1920s: A Chautauqua Trouper’s Story" is Ken's first book, capturing the life of his mother who, as a young woman, left her small town behind for a great adventure and a chance to get a first-hand look at a changing America in the early 20th Century. A much larger book, "An Unlikely Love Story," tells the unique story of two people from vastly different backgrounds who overcame great odds to begin a new life in the country during the depths of the Depression.The author's own remembrances of a country life are recounted in "Dirt Road Diary: Recalling a Country Childhood." It picks up where “An Unlikely Love Story” leaves off, and includes a lot of country-style memories. Both books will be published in the near future.Another book, "Early-Day Flying in Kansas City", based on a similar history published in 1970 and including material not in the original book, was released in October 2015.Weyand’s passion is kayaking, particularly in Florida. He is currently working on two eBooks on kayaking, both non-fiction, and plans to release them in the near future."Lost in the Everglades and Other Florida Paddling Adventures" recalls a harrowing experience, but is balanced with other experiences that were equally adventurous but more successful. If you’re a paddler or would like to be, you’ll enjoy reading this one."A Florida Paddling Bucket List" is currently being compiled for paddlers (and would-be paddlers) looking to make the most of their free time on Florida rivers, creeks and estuaries, with helpful tips on where to launch and take out, and what to expect at each location. Factoids of local history are included.Contact Ken at [e-mail].

Book preview

Fiddling with Friends in the 1920s:

A Chautauqua Trouper’s Story

By Ken Weyand

Copyright 2015 by Ken Weyand

Smashwords Edition

ISBN: 978-0-9883201-9-2

A Kyakker Book, in partnership with Caroline Street Press

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used in any manner

whatsoever without the written permission of the author/publisher;

except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews

The author is indebted to his daughter, Holly Weyand,

who designed the cover of this book

and provided editing and production expertise.

Special thanks also to his mother, whose diary entries,

letters and photographs made the book possible.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Small town beginnings

A Canadian adventure

Fiddling through the South

Discovering Florida

Seeing both sides of the ‘Sunshine State’

Florida attractions

Life after Florida

On to other things

Working with other Chautauqua troupes

Life after Chautauqua

A Note to You

About the Author

Return to Beginning

Introduction

Every writer needs a source. For this book, mine was my mother, Mabel June Forrester. She not only achieved success as a musician and entertainer, but she maintained a daily journal of her adventures, beginning in her high school days and continuing until a few years before her death in 1983.

Her diary, although it included numerous mundane weather reports and updates on the current health status of Mother and her friends, also provided tidbits of information that revealed the challenges she faced, from the worldwide influenza pandemic of 1918 to the Great Depression. As she traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada and performed on the Chautauqua Circuits in the 1920s, her frequent letters home to her folks provided more details of her unique life. Fortunately for me, her diaries and letters were saved, along with postcards depicting the various hotels and attractions she encountered on her Chautauqua tours.

During her career, she became a member of two college faculties, and had traveled throughout much of the U.S. and Canada with several Chautauqua and Lyceum touring companies as a performer. Although her adventures as a professional traveling musician had ended by the time she met my father, she continued to recall her Chautauqua days as I was growing up. I can still