2023, Fantasy, Gatherings, History, Theatre, Uncategorized

Being Teddy

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Medora, ND is a tourist town about 40 miles west of us that capitalizes on its connection to Theodore Roosevelt, who lived on a ranch near there in his younger days. It is on the border of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The town has an Old West feel, with a homespun outdoor musical every night in the summer, stores that sell Western memorabilia, and trail rides. They also have people dressed as important figures from the town’s history, including Teddy Roosevelt and the Marquis de Mores, a French beef packing scoundrel. Every night at the musical, a local cowboy on an actual horse reenacts Teddy’s charge up San Juan Hill. The commercialization of Medora was the brain child of a wealthy North Dakota businessman, Harald Schafer, who owned the company that manufactured Mr. Bubble bath soap. He wasn’t that well liked in town, though, for some reason. His son became governor.

I read recently that there are about 60 people in the US who are Teddy Roosevelt reenactors. This summer, three of them were in Medora. One lives there all year long. They all work simultaneously in the summer. At least one is a young Teddy. The other two portray him when he is older. They walk around town and talk to people and get their pictures taken and seem to have a great time.

If you were to be a reenactor, who would you want to portray? What is your favorite bubble bath?

39 thoughts on “Being Teddy”

  1. If you were to be a reenactor, who would you want to portray?

    I think I’d like to go to Sunday school picnics and portray Adam in paradise (except I’ve got that annoying belly button), or Noah in the tent. Maybe I’d get all “Gospel” and be the young man who ran away when Jesus was arrested, or the Gadarene demoniac. If you read those perceptively, you can see a theme running through them.

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  2. One of my roommates in college was related to Harald Shaefer’s second wife—his aunt, I think. At some point we were supplied with several pounds of ground buffalo from Shaefer’s ranch.

    I wouldn’t want to be a reenactor of anyone and certainly not of Theodore Roosevelt.

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      2. Native friends of ours used to raise Buffalo, but the animals kept jumping over the fences. Now our friends raise goats, hence the goat meat in our freezer. Ground goat is good.

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  3. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    Years ago, probably in 1987 or 1988, I traveled to Connecticut, then took a side trip to Plymouth Massachusetts. There they had the original Plymouth Colony rebuilt, circa 1630, and full of many re-enactors. It was really fun. You could engage the “citizens” in conversations, ask questions, etc. I was in a cabin talking with a woman and asked her something about life in that time. I think I asked her if her long dress was hot or if her skirt ever caught fire. She stepped back, looking appalled and exclaimed, “You are dressed like a wild Indian! Dress Thyself,
    Woman.” I had on shorts, a top and sandals. The re-enactors stayed true to their character and the time they lived in.

    While I was there they also re-acted a firearm drill, a wedding, and a meal of some kind. I could see myself doing that. Especially because they were careful to be accurate about the culture and the Puritanical practices. Years later I discovered that by 1630 I would have had several grandparents of that generation living there, and in Salem which I also visited. I discovered that during the witch trials, my grandfather of that generation, Nicholas Jackson, turned in his sister-iin-law, Elizabeth Howe Jackson as a witch and she was hung because of his suspicions.

    I would not volunteer to re-enact that particular event.

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  4. One of the re-enactors was many years ago a friend of mine, Steve Stark, out of Fargo, no doubt very good at it, who was also a cartoonist. We were in a very good production of Music Man together. He of course was Harold Hill. Excellent singing voice. Would be approaching 80 now.
    I once did Martin Luther but only in a very scripted situation I wrote, all in his words. Or reading one of his sermons. All politely soon forgotten.
    Clyde

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  5. I got a rash from “Mr. Bubble” when I was little, so I am in sympathy with the townspeople who disliked Harald Schafer.

    Years ago I did a cosplay of Utena from the anime “Revolutionary Girl Utena” at Anime Iowa. People don’t usually expect you to stay in character the whole time you’re in costume at a con, but anime characters always have a signature pose or move and you’re asked to do that for photos.

    I wouldn’t want to try to play a specific historical person. However, if I ever rejoined the Society for Creative Anachronism the persona I’d create would be a 12-14th century nun, probably from either Helfta at the time of St. Gertrude of Hackeborn or Rupertsberg at the time of St. Hildegard of Bingen.

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    1. L O L, my first thought was Hildegard von Bingen, or Eleanor of Aquitaine. But I’m guessing you make a more relevant reenactor if you are dressed up and acting as someone that people know.

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  7. It would take a lot of reading/research into some era in which women had a lot fewer choices than we have today… I can’t think of anything at the moment that appeals to me, but can imagine running into something that piques my curiosity, and running with it.

    CG mentioned Society of Creative Anacronism – went to a couple of SCA meetings here back in early 80s. One was a pot luck when we were to bring something from medieval times – there was a delicious stew with differently spiced meat, I recall…

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  8. My dermatologist doesn’t approve of a lot of the bath products I might like to try. She has a limited list of unscented body washes that she wants me to stick to.

    OT – the cicadas have hatched out in my neighborhood and are singing away.

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  9. The mystery of the pink shoe update. The pink shoe is gone. But the mystery remains. Did the owner of the pink shoe finally find it? Did a squirrel run off with it the middle of the night? Did the owners of the house where the pink shoe was sitting get tired of me walking by and taking pictures?

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  11. For several years, back in the late eighties and early nineties, Robin and I belonged to the Living History Society of Minnesota, a group dedicated to representing the civilian population during the Civil War era and a counterpart to the military reenactors of the same period.

    Members researched topics of interest of the period and costumed themselves appropriately. How appropriate the costumes might be depended on the depth of research of the individual but generally, at least in the core group, the representations were credible in appearance.

    When we first joined, the organization was informal and anything we did in public was for our own amusement. We were background dressing. But a faction of the group wanted to be able to write off some of the expense of their hobby and so registered the group as a nonprofit. With the ability to claim expenses came the obligation to provide a certain amount of “educational” interaction with the public. That meant presenting ourselves at events “in persona”— presenting ourselves as allegedly realistic individuals from the time period our costumes suggested.

    I loved the research. I still engage in it. I enjoyed making the clothing and when I left the group some of my wardrobe went to a motion picture costumer. But I hated acting in persona. No matter how much one may research a time period, your accumulated knowledge and awareness of the milieu is exceedingly thin. The historic individual would have been immersed in a culture of myriad details, most of which have gone unrecorded and the sensibility of that individual would represent not only the time suggested by their costume but also the accumulated experiences and places of their life.

    An historical reenactor’s only salvation is that members of the public know even less than they do and are willing to suspend disbelief. To represent a truly authentic mid-nineteenth century individual, one would have to mute all knowledge of modern technology and science and medicine and adopt attitudes of ignorance, casual racism and sexism that the modern public would consider offensive.

    If the person you represented were a famous one, that representation would have to be so edited and bowdlerized to make that figure acceptable—likeable—to modern sensibility that your portrayal would be false and cartoonish. As they are.

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  12. One of my English teacher colleagues wore the uniform of a lighthouse keeper at Split Rock but he did talk as if he were that person. A couple of my students did the same in other roles there. Like Bill I have not been drawn to people playing real figures. I know of a man who portrays Lincoln but he is not emotionally stable and loses touch with reality for himself. The role players at Old Fort William in Thunder Bay were and I hope still are delightful.

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    2. Many of the living history people also reenacted at Fort William, at least they did so under the previous regime. I understand from them that the management has changed and not for the better.

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    2. I don’t think we had any hail here. I was watching pretty closely for the rain to let up because the wind blew over one of my bales, plants and all. So if there was hail, it was very small didn’t last long.

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  16. I don’t have experience with reenactors, although I did at one time go the the Renaissance Festival for several years running. The Lord High Sherriff once made advances but I dodged him.

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    1. This reminds me that when living in San Francisco, two other singers from the SF Civic Chorale and I got in costume and sang madrigals while strolling around, during the Dickens Christmas Faire that took place in The Cannery (near Fisherman’s Wharf)… They provided our costumes, and we had a great time.

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