CAPITOL BEGINNINGS
100 years after building’s groundbreaking, film footage of event remains missing
A MYSTERY of sorts surrounds the July 20, 1914, groundbreaking ceremonies for the Oklahoma state Capitol building. What happened to the documentary film footage of the event? An article in The Daily Oklahoman on the day of the groundbreaking said two sets of films would be made, “one to show in the 194 picture theaters of Oklahoma and the other to go in the ‘Animated Weekly’ features to be shown wherever the ‘movie’ is known.”
The next day’s story of the actual event also mentioned film cameras present at the groundbreaking ceremony:
“Amid the whir of moving picture cameras and the hum of thousands of voices, coupled with the shrill screams of the sirens of many motor cars, Governor Lee Cruce Monday morning stepped from his automobile and with a mighty swing, drove a silver pick into the ground at the very spot where the cornerstone of Oklahoma’s new capitol will be laid.”
Oklahoma Historical Society Executive Director Bob Blackburn said
newsreel cameraman Benny Kent, of Chandler, was involved in documenting the groundbreaking.
Some of his other work can be seen at the Lincoln County Museum of Pioneer History, but there’s nothing showing the groundbreaking.
Other films shot in Oklahoma in that era have survived, including a 1904 short about cowboys and Indians made by the Edison Co.
Blackburn said one reason film of that time may not have survived is that it was made of a nitrate substance that decomposed and was very flammable.
“If you had the wrong conditions, it would self-combust,” he said. “It would just go up in smoke. That’s the reason the old projector booths in the old movie theaters were insulated. They had to have it fireproof because that stuff would blow up. “If we found it, it would be rare.” There are still photographs from the groundbreaking.
One shows Gov. Lee Cruce swinging a pickaxe and breaking ground for the Capitol. The shot was taken at the moment the pick hits the ground, raising a little cloud of dirt as men in straw hats and people carrying parasols watched him.
And there is The Daily Oklahoman account, with the flowery prose common of that era. The writer of the newspaper article stated that 5,000 people attended the ceremony and that they “cheered themselves hoarse and waved many flags.”
Modern-day groundbreaking events seem tame by comparison.
After the governor broke ground, it was W.B. Anthony’s turn.
The Marlow man was chairman of the state Capitol Commission.
He got to work with a silver spade and began “throwing each shovel full of dirt high into the air until the operator of the moving picture camera signaled him to cease.”
People tried to get clods of dirt to commemorate the occasion and some were forced to scramble back as “four monster teams of mules and horses” started plowing the ground.
Young people apparently got a tad too rambunctious: “The ceremonies were
If you had the wrong conditions, it would self-combust. It would just go up in smoke. That’s the reason the old projector booths in the old movie theaters were insulated. They had to have it fireproof because that stuff would blow up. If we found it, it would be rare.” OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR BOB BLACKBURN ON WHY FILM MIGHT NOT HAVE SURVIVED
marred only by the inopportune cries of young boys who could not be prevailed upon to remain silent.” There also was some controversy. Anna Laskey, Democratic candidate for state commissioner of corrections and charities, wanted to participate in the groundbreaking ceremonies, but leaders of the event felt that it would not be right to have her involved in so important an event “inasmuch as the state does not recognize woman suffrage.”
Undeterred, she brought her own shovel and tried to get in the movie. The director told her he would cut her out of the film.
She replied that she was going to shovel anyway on behalf of woman suffrage.
Upgrades to start soon
Of the many things that have changed over 100 years is the price of construction. The entire state Capitol was built at a cost of $1.5 million. The state is now preparing to repair and refurbish the building at a cost of $120 million.
John Estus, a spokesman for the state Office of Management and Enterprise Services, said planning is underway for exterior repairs to begin late this year or early next year. Interior repairs should begin next year.