Before Harold Ensley’s Gone Fishin’ Show became nationally syndicated, he made frequent appearances in Nodaway County in the 1960s and 1970s, including two Spoofound athletic dinners at the First Christian Church and giving the West Nodaway commencement address. He made appearances in Arkoe and Elmo.
There’s another Nodaway connection. His original fishing song was written by Smiley Burnett, who lived in Ravenwood in the 1920s.
Ken Rex, the off-Broadway play about Ken Rex McElroy in Skidmore, won two Drama Desk Awards on May 17. It was nominated for a third award Outstanding Sound Design of a Play for Giles Thomas. Continue reading
In December 1928, Maryville High School put on a production of “In the Garden of the Shah,” which starred 86 actors – nearly the entire school population.
Photos of the show, which appeared in the 1929 Maryvillian Yearbook, also featured the classical Greek sculpture panels of the Washington School auditorium. The AI colorization places some of the panels into the set. They were actually around the top of the auditorium. When the Washington School was torn down, many of the panels were moved to the Nodaway County Historical Society.
Two of northwest Missouri’s most famous and iconic houses — the Ted Robinson house (623 West 3rd) in Maryville and the Rankin house in Tarkio (106 South 10th) are Sears kit houses. Both are The Magnolia, dubbed “Mansion-in-a-Box”. Both were modified by architect A.A. Searcy. The Magnolia houses are very rare, with some reports indicating there are only 7 left in the country
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Colorized photo in the first Tower Yearbook (1917). This is also the first Bearcat team since football was discontinued after one season in 1908. That caption in the opposite order we expect today. The first row is the top row. The stylish stripes in various forms were part of the Bearcat uniforms into at least the 1930s. There are only 15 players to choose from! As the rosters grew, they moved away from group shots in later years. The team, which was 2-7, included losses to William Jewel 102-0 and Kirksville (Truman) 92-0.
The Maryville Aviation Club, formed in 1940 to make and fly model airplanes, had to split into two groups: junior and senior high school. The above image is from a very poor-quality copy published by the Forum and is AI-generated and colorized. The faces probably do not match reality.
On October 12, 1939, five Maryville area children dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz arrived at the art deco Oz-like Tivoli Theatre on a carriage pulled by two Shetland ponies that had actually been used in the movie in the scene where Dorothy rode out of Munchkin Land to begin her Yellow Brick Road journey.
The Tivoli had just opened 14 days earlier on August 28 after moving from its original location in the renovated Electric Theatre 110 E 3rd Street (site of Cobbler Corner today – the marquee is still there).
The parade to the theatre was part of an MGM promotion that went nationally where the ponies and carriage toured the country.
BOB BOSCH (LEFT), a former Maryville R-II High and now assistant to Senator Thomas Eagleton, recently presented two American flags that have flown over the nation’s Capitol to Raymon Schuster (second from left), Washington Middle School principal; Mrs. Sharon Slagel, Washington-Eugene Field PTA president; and Dana Sharp, Eugene Field principal. Each flag came with a letter certifying it had flown over the Capitol on a certain date. The flags will be flown in front of the two schools. They are much larger than the flags normally flown there. (Heywood’s).
This is an unusual 1969 photo that shows of two people who are something of Maryville High School music legends — singer Mike Mike (Class of 1965) and Dennis Dau (Spoofhound band director 1979-1999).
Caption: Northwest State College students chosen as members of the Missouri All-College Band and Chorus gathered for a picture before leaving for St. Louis. Seated left to right in the first row are the Misses Linda Strain, Peggy Clausen, Connie Clara, and Diane Bergren. Second row, left to right, are the Misses Vickie Gillispie, Melody Price, Sherry Cook, Paula Florea, and Dianne Mannasmith; third row, left to right, Rick Ashby, Hugh Campbell, Dennis Dau, Jack Briggs; and fourth row, left to right, Ralph Taylor, Roscoe Porch, Mike Miller, and Gail Christiansen.
