The Swing Chorus: How Seattle’s Elite Turned a Concert into a Tropical Fantasy
At Frye’s Opera House in 1903, the Harmony Club staged a bizarre and beautiful musical revue featuring twenty-six young women swinging on hammocks and teeter-totters, proving that Seattle society was ready for something new.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
During the past week Seattle's society has been in a continual flutter of enjoyment. The events were numerous and largely attended.
Thursday night came the event of the week, the Harmony Club's musicale, as well as the reception tendered Rev. and Mrs. H. L. Bates. But it was the Harmony Club's concert that truly captivated the city.
When the curtain arose at Frye's open house Thursday night it disclosed to the expectant gaze of one of the largest and most critical audiences that ever assembled in Seattle a scene of tropical beauty, to which had been transported a bevy of twenty-six pretty young Seattle misses in Greenaway costumes. The effect was admirable and the audience expressed its appreciation of the picturesque stage grouping by a spontaneous outburst of applause.
The occasion was the first public concert of the Harmony Club, and these twenty-six young ladies, seated in real swings, reclining in hammocks, and balancing themselves on 'teeter' boards, composed a chorus that sang in sweet accord to the rhythmic motion of the swings and seesaws. The scene and its unique accompaniments was an effective one, and it was a fitting prelude to the entertainment that followed.
The young ladies who made up the swinging chorus were: Misses Etta Allen, Pearl Bovnton, Mamie Boardman, Marguerite McKinney, Marion Canfield, Ethel Carter, Othelia Carroll, Sarah Carroll, lizzie Ferry, June Hoyt, Millie Hansard, Dollie Jacobs, Hannah Kierski, Elma Lynch, Fannie MacDougall, Rosa Morgenstern, Josie Beede, Katie McGraw, Lizzie Marshall, Laura McPherson, Mamie Ranke, Lulu Reynolds, Lottie Seiden, Louisa Osborne, Clara Wilson, Clara Fisken.
The male quartette, 'Forsaken,' by Messrs. C. E. Bowman, Gilbert D. Smith, E. M. Henderson and F. A. Woodward, was only fairly well rendered. It lacked energy, and the parts were not well balanced; but the audience demanded an encore, and the quartet sang a serenade in a manner that more than made up for the defects of the initial selection.
The interval between the first and second parts was pleasantly taken up by Vaughn's orchestra in a well-played selection. Fourteen misses, prettily attired in pink dresses, and armed with large fans, inaugurated the second part by the performance of a number of military evolutions and concerted maneuvers with their umbrellas under the direction of Mrs. Story.
One of the best appreciated performances of the evening was the violin solo of Dr. Frank Fisher. He rendered two numbers—'Cavatina' and 'Polish Dance,' (Raff). The execution was exceptionally accurate and distinct, the phrasing good, and the performance, on the whole, much better than is often heard on the professional stage.
The finale was a lullaby by Mrs. Story, Miss MacDougall and Miss McKinney, with octet accompaniment. It was a pretty selection, and closed the most notable musical entertainment that has been given in Seattle for many months.
Today, we might view this 'swinging chorus' as an early example of immersive theater or performance art, but in 1903 it was a radical departure from the stiff, formal concerts typical of the era. It reflects a Seattle society that was rapidly maturing and seeking cultural sophistication beyond its rough-and-tumble mining and logging roots, embracing avant-garde European styles like the Greenaway costumes (referencing illustrator Kate Greenaway) to signal their refinement.
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