Veiled Prophet Parade and Ball

The Veiled Prophet Parade and Ball was a yearly civic celebration in St. Louis, Missouri, over which a mythical figure called the Veiled Prophet presided. The first events were in 1878. The last parade under that name was in 2019, but the observances have continued as Fair St. Louis on the Mississippi riverfront and America's Birthday Parade every July.

Program cover, 1883

1885 Veiled Prophet Parade, with theme An Arabian Night.
The representation of the King of the Jinns, with an outstretched arm, first float, is bearing the Veiled Prophet and his attendants, beneath umbrellas. Second is "The Fairy of Poetry and Romance," with two giraffe representations, and, passing in front of the Old Courthouse (St. Louis) is a float with the theme "The Modern Story-Teller of the Orient". On the street, torchbearers carry lanterns.

Overview

The identity of a given year's Grand Oracle, or Veiled Prophet, has been a secret, but members of the Veiled Prophet organization in 1878 were reported in 1964 to have included Alonzo W. Slayback, Frank Gaiennie, John A. Scudder, Henry C. Haarstick, George Bain, Robert P. Tansey, George H. Morgan, Wallace Delafield, John B. Maude, D. P. Rowland, Leigh I. Knapp, David B. Gould, Henry Paschell, H. I. Kent, E. Pretorious, William H. Thompson, and William A. Hargadine, H.B. Loudermann, and George D. Capen.

The event was organized and funded by the Veiled Prophet Organization, an all-male association founded in 1878 by prominent St. Louisans. Each year, one member was chosen to serve as the "Veiled Prophet of Khorassan," to preside over the Veiled Prophet Ball.

In 1881, nearly four thousand invitations to the Veiled Prophet Ball were issued, and in 1885 there were more than seven thousand, of which some six thousand were used.

Queens included the daughters of the most influential members of the organization. In 1999, actor Ellie Kemper was crowned as Queen. Kemper's father, David Kemper, was then the chief executive officer and chairman of Commerce Bank.

The parade and ball were both originally held in October. The ball was eventually moved to the Friday before Christmas; the parade and fair celebration, once called the VP (Veiled Prophet) Fair and VP Parade, are now called Fair St. Louis and America's Birthday Parade and are held during the week of Independence Day.

Historian Thomas Spencer believes that the event generally revealed rather than soothed class conflicts. Spencer wrote that the VP parade was created in part to displace the parades regularly held by the trade unions. Spencer believed it cast workingmen in a passive rather than active role, not merely in the celebration, but in the mythology asserted for the history and economic life of the city. Occasionally the unions would stage events intended to mock the pretensions of the VP Ball. The leading socialist and working-class newspaper, St. Louis Labor, "wrote negatively" about the VP event and its organizers between the early 1900s and 1930.

The ball, which most recently took place on the Friday before Christmas each year, was attended by thousands, but was protested by Black Lives Matter supporters, as well as the St. Louis-based group Missourians Organized for Reform and Empowerment, which linked St. Louis's wealthiest one percent to the VP organization.

Founding

The event had its roots in the St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Fair, an annual harvest festival which had been held in St. Louis since 1856. It attracted agricultural crops, crafts, demonstrations and attendees from throughout the region. In the economic difficulties after the American Civil War in the 1870s, such events declined. Spencer wrote that city boosters devised the Veiled Prophet Fair in an attempt to reclaim, from the rapidly growing city of Chicago, pre-eminence for St. Louis as a manufacturing center and agricultural shipping point.

The Veiled Prophets organization was founded by prominent St. Louisans who had been invited to a meeting in a letter signed by John B. Maude, John A. Scudder, George Bain, John G. Priest, and D.P. Rowland.

On March 20, 1878, Charles Slayback, a grain broker who had spent several Reconstruction years in New Orleans after the Civil War and become acquainted with its Mardi Gras traditions, called a meeting of local business leaders at the Lindell Hotel. He and his brother Alonzo, a former colonel with a Missouri Cavalry Regiment which fought for the Confederates, created a mythology for a secret elite society, whose public demonstrations would coincide with the annual St. Louis Agricultural and Mechanical Fair. Alonzo wrote The First Panorama of Progress of the Veiled Prophets. The brothers borrowed the name "the Veiled Prophet of Khorassan" from Irish poet Thomas Moore's Lalla Rookh; they also incorporated features from the Comus of New Orleans. In Moore's poem, the Veiled Prophet was a horribly disfigured man who considered himself a prophet.

In a 1956 promotional book by Vincent H. Sanders and Theodore D. Drury Jr., the Prophet was a world traveler who chose to bless St. Louis, and reporter Walter E. Orthwein of the Globe-Democrat wrote in 1958 that the VP was conceived as "a kind of Santa Claus for grownups."

First parade and ball

Initial Veiled Prophet Parade, 1878, with the Prophet as a giant figure on a horse-drawn float. Men walked on the side to cast light with portable burners.
Image by Edward Jump from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, October 1878. (Click to enlarge.)

The first parade and ball were held on Tuesday, October 8, 1878. The Prophet was selected secretly from among the members, who were made up of St. Louis's business and civic elite. The first Prophet was John G. Priest, a member of the city's Board of Police Commissioners.

Attendance at the parade was estimated at more than 100,000. Two days earlier, a Missouri Republican feature writer had described the Veiled Prophet as dressed with a white hood and robe while armed with a pistol and rifle. "It will be readily observed from the accoutrements of the Prophet that the procession is not likely to be stopped by street cars or anything else," the text said. But the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's description of the 1878 parade said the day after the parade that the VP had been " a huge figure, about twenty-five feet high, and looking like an overgrown cigar store sign, with a mosquito bar over its face."

Spencer interpreted the Republican's reference to "street cars" as related to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. "Newspaper feature stories since the 1950s have described the 'first Veiled Prophet parade' as a way of healing the wounds of a bitter labor-management fight," the 1877 St. Louis general strike, he wrote. But he claimed that the first Veiled Prophet parade was "more a show of power than a gesture of healing." There is no record, however, that St. Louis streetcar operators joined the nationwide strike of railroad men. The Globe-Democrat reported during the 1877 labor unrest that "wherever else a strike takes place, there will be none on the street cars unless outside interference brings it on."

Arrival

Normally the Prophet was introduced to the public when his parade exited the Den, where the organization had its headquarters. But five times he came via a different method.

Boat

Judge Selden P. Spencer leads the Veiled Prophet from the riverboat War Eagle to the dock at Jefferson Barracks in October 1892.

The Prophet came to St. Louis by boat just once. That was on October 1, 1892, when a group of civic leaders sailed to Jefferson Barracks via the Republic and the Paul Tulane to greet that year's VP, who arrived on the upriver steamer War Eagle. The First Regiment marched from St. Louis to greet him as well. Everybody went back to St. Louis in fifty carriages or marched there in a special afternoon parade through crowded streets before a reception was held at the Exposition Building.

The Post-Dispatch reported:

A wagonette drawn by four horses went down to the staging[,] and the Prophet took his seat on a raised cushion so that he might be seen by the curious and admiring multitude which he was to pass. . . . The most striking object of the whole parade, besides the Prophet, was his baggage. It consisted of an enormous pile of trunks which filled a gaily decorated stake wagon. . . .

In St. Louis, Samuel Kennard, an organizer of the Saint Louis Exposition, presented the Prophet with the keys to the city; he was honored with the playing of "Hail to the Chief" by Galennie Gilmore's band.

Airplane

The Prophet arrived by airplane four times, from 1923 through 1927, followed by an informal parade to the Den.

Notable VP Ball incidents and activities

The Belles and the Queens of Love and Beauty

See also: List of Veiled Prophet Belles and Queens

Suzanne Slayback, 1878

The custom of singling out a young woman for special attention began with the first Veiled Prophet Ball in 1878, when Suzanne (Susie) Slayback was chosen by the first Veiled Prophet, John G. Priest, to be the "belle" of the ball at the age of 16. According to a 1958 article in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, in those earlier times it was "the custom of the Prophet to select a girl for his partner in the first dance at the ball."

In 1884 the title of this honoree was changed to Queen of Love and Beauty. She was to "act as regent" between the Prophet's yearly visits.

Dress code

19th century

Mayor Ziegenhein, 1902

The rules soon required "full evening dress" for attendees, which for women, according to the investigation by a newspaper reporter in 1880, meant that "low neck and short sleeves" would not be "insisted upon, but the wearing of hats or bonnets will not be countenanced... it is expected that ladies will appear in an elaborate coiffure."

"A peculiar thing" about the ball in 1881, a Kansas City Times reporter averred, is that "the committee lays down a law that no lady in bonnet or gentleman not in full dress shall be admitted." Full dress for men was defined as "Black swallow-tail coat, black low-cut vest, black pants, white cravat and light gloves." Nevertheless, the reporter wrote, "Despite this... ladies were seen on the floor with bonnets. Gentlemen were there in light coats, the tails of which were pinned back, thus making an improvised swallow tail."

St. Louis Mayor Henry Ziegenhein refused to wear a dress suit when he was invited to attend the Veiled Prophet Ball and "welcome" the Veiled Prophet to his city in 1898. He said he had never worn one and never would, preferring a Prince Albert coat (frock coat), which he wore on all state occasions.

In 1884 a carpet was laid for dancing, "to protect ladies' dresses.

20th century

1901-1934

• 
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Journalist Marguerite Martyn sketched these Ball attendees in 1911 and in 1916.
Martyn drew herself seated in the right panel.

1935 and after

By 1935, men and women in the "floor seating and standing spaces, the boxes and balcony," were to be in "full evening dress," but gallery viewers were expected only to be "neatly dressed."

In summer 1986, Jennifer Knight, that year's Queen of Love and Beauty, headed a group of her court members in a fund-raising fashion show at Buder Park. The dress code was "sporty Sunday clothes, fun skirts — certainly not blue jeans," spokeswoman Ginny Orthwein said.

A Post-Dispatch fashion writer advised in 1992 that for the Veiled Prophet, Fleur de Lis and St. Louis Charitable Foundation balls "white tie" for women can mean "a genuine ball gown, more opulent than most [other] formal attire worn" in St. Louis.

Tableaux

In 1883 the organization began a series of tableaux, which was "not to be an exclusive affair, nor to be confined to the members of the Veiled Prophets. . . . Any person, of respectable character" could send for tickets, which were limited so that they should "not fall into the hands of improper or disreputable characters." Seats at the Olympic Theater were five dollars each , and there would be "no discrimination." In addition to the tableaux, musical attractions were on the bill. There would be no requirement for "full dress."

In conjunction with the 1889 removal of the VP Ball from the Merchants Exchange to a new site at the Music Hall, the program was changed from a March and Veiled Prophet's Quadrille to "a series of magnificent tableaux" with "elegantly costumed" participants.

Mexican visitors

In 1898, St. Louis was one stop for a large group of visitors on tour from Mexico, and Mrs. Otto F. Forster of St. Louis arranged for the women of that group to be "given an insight into the high social life" of the city, but she could not find "enough society women who can speak Spanish to form a reception committee."

From the local Latin-American Club she received a list of women who could speak the language, but, as the Post-Dispatch reported, "it didn't suit. The ladies were all stenographers and probably not one of them figured as a maid of honor at a Veiled Prophet's Ball or acted as a lady patroness at a swell function. They were all nice and good, no doubt, Mrs. Forster argued, but they didn't represent what is conceded to be society in St. Louis."

After coronation

Before 1915, the newly crowned Queen was taken by family and friends to a fashionable hotel for a "light cotillion," or light refreshments, and then escorted home. In that year, the supper was supplanted by an elaborate party, first at the St. Louis Country Club, then over time at the Chase Hotel and next the Jefferson Hotel (for 27 years). In 1964 and after it was at the Chase Park Plaza Hotel.

In 1926, as in "past years" and after "a ceremony of allegiance to the new Queen," the custom for her and some others was to leave the venue "and spend the rest of the evening in hotel ballrooms or dining rooms."

The married Queen

In 1928, Mary Ambrose Smith, who was selected as Queen, was found to have secretly married Dr. Thomas Birdsall days earlier, violating the rule that the Queen of Love and Beauty must be a "maiden." The Post-Dispatch quoted a man "high in the councils of the Veiled Prophet organization," who said: "We have no precedent to guide us. The disclosure is most extraordinary, astounding, to be exact."

In a 1979 interview with the St. Louis Times, Smith recalled how the Veiled Prophet:

gave her traveling money and told her to "begone, don't register at any large hotels, and don't use your real name."... Smith was "made to feel she disgraced her family. None of her friends stuck by her (she was told she could not visit their houses), she was never invited to another VP ball, her picture was removed from the collection of queens' portraits at the Missouri Historical Society, and her name was deleted from the Social Register.

Bengal Lancers

An honor guard for the Veiled Prophet began around 1922 with uniforms modeled after those of a British first life guard; then, a West Point cadet and, next, a cavalier. In 1935 the men were fitted with a new look: that of a Bengal lancer of India, with a royal blue turban, a scarlet tunic, white breeches, white gauntlets and black jackboots with silver spurs. The Globe Democrat reported that year:

The turban is striped with yellows and reds with a green center stripe; each color representing a religion of these fighting men. The green signifies Mohammedanism, while the other colors stand for the various other Eastern faiths.

Each year, the guard performed an exhibition drill before the introduction of the Prophet to the assemblage. As time passed, their movements drew laughter:

(1937) The Prophet's Guard, still garbed as Bengal lancers, began squads-righting and forming perfect fronts. The laughter which greeted them . . . must have been caused either by their [fake] black beards or their bamboo lances, which, when held defensively before them, caused some of the spectators to ask whether the fishing was good.

(1949) Another highlight was offered by the pompously correct Bengal Lancers, who won applause and some deliberately provoked titter when their military maneuvers . . . went awkwardly awry. They seemed to enjoy the few bobbers perhaps more than their 10,000 spectators.

In 1960, the Lancers rode horseback during the Parade, just ahead of the Prophet's float.

By 1986, laughter was expected, with Patricia Rice of the Post-Dispatch observing that the Lancers'

antics begin and end every Veiled Prophet Ball, setting its tone, and last night . . . the bearded, turbaned lancers once again kept the 1,500 guests laughing. Such fun is just one of the ways in which the guests are reminded that the ball is primarily a party, and that nothing must be taken too seriously.

Celebrities identified

In 2021 and 2022, two celebrities were singled out in social media as having been Veiled Prophet Queens when young.

Some Twitter users called actress Ellie Kemper a "KKK princess" because in December 1999, she had been Queen of Love and Beauty at the VP Ball. She responded in a five-slide Instagram apology, beginning:

Hi guys - when I was 19 years old, I decided to participate in a debutante ball in my hometown. The century-old organization that hosted the debutante ball had an unquestionably racist, sexist and elitist past. I was not aware of this history at the time, but ignorance is no excuse. I was old enough to have educated myself before getting involved.

Trudy Busch Valentine, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, apologized in early 2022 for having been the VP Queen in December 1977. She wrote: "I should have known better, and I deeply regret that my actions hurt others."

Location

The first VP Ball in 1878 was held in the "beautiful precincts of the Chamber of Commerce," also known as the Merchants Exchange, the largest hall in the city with some 1,400 seats. But much of the space was taken up by a rostrum, a fountain, telegraph desks and tiers of seats around the sides.

In 1889 the venue was switched to the Grand Exposition Music Hall, with a gallery of 1,100 seats and a dress circle of 1,400. There, "the Prophets will be able to give a tableau on the stage before the ball, as is done in New Orleans."

1937 ball in the Municipal Auditorium, with Bengal Lancers in formation

In the first part of the 20th century, the ball was held at the St. Louis Coliseum. Beginning in 1936 it was held at the Municipal Auditorium (which had been renamed the Kiel Auditorium) until a lawsuit was brought against the Veiled Prophet organization for shutting down the public auditorium for weeks at a time, arguing that the common taxpayers did not have access to the event. In the 1950s, the Chase Park Plaza Hotel constructed the opulent Khorassan Ballroom specifically to host the annual debutante ball, and the event was formally moved to the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in December 1975.

Memorabilia and thefts

1894: Silver and washed gold special maids crown with green and red inset jewels, and adorned with 14 four-pointed crosses separated by fleur-de-lis, made by Mermod, Jaccard & Co.

In 2018, two "jewel-encrusted" gold and silver Veiled Prophet tiaras, worn by a Special Maid in 1894 and the Queen of Love and Beauty in 1896, were stolen from the Missouri History Museum. They were never recovered.

Notable VP Parade incidents and activities

Second parade

Lawsuit

John G. Priest

In 1879, George Soulie, who had been living in New Orleans engaged in work on the annual Mardi Gras celebration, sought to do similar work for the second Veiled Prophet Parade in St. Louis. He was placed in touch with businessman John G. Priest, known as a kind of "boss" Prophet. The two signed a contract for Soulie "to paint, decorate, and fix up generally in first-class style twenty-one chariots, or floats" for $630. He worked for three weeks, then was discharged by Superintendent Daniel E. Carroll.

Because the Prophets were supposed to be nameless, "every effort" was made to keep the matter quiet, but Soulie filed suit against Priest, president; Frank Galennie, secretary; Daniel Carrol, superintendent; Charles E. Slayback and Preston T. Slayback. The Daily Globe Democrat reported that after "the indignant artist threatened to reveal all he knew concerning the Prophets and their identity," a "consultation of the high-muck-a-mucks of the V.P.'s was held," they offered $200, Soulie withdrew the suit, "the bounced artist promised to remain true to his plighted word not to squeal, and the awful mystery which surrounds to Prophets remains as impenetrable as before."

Courthouse Square

Advertisement in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for a suite of rooms overlooking the second Veiled Prophet parade, 1879

In the second year of the pageant, 1879, the Post-Dispatch reported that the "dazzling display" would cost some $70,000 and that "seats are being erected at every available corner, and fabulous prices are being paid for rooms along the proposed route. . . . At the Court-house the grand procession will come to a halt[,] and there will be a splendid display of fire works."

The paper reported that:

The corner grass plots in the Court-house square have been boarded over and will, it is said, accommodate 3,500 people just at the very turning point in the procession. . . . Fire-works will be displayed at frequent intervals, and the fiery shower from the dome of the Court-house . . . will be one of the grandest sights ever seen by any public . . . .

But there were worries about the fairness of these preparations, according to the Post-Dispatch.

The erection of seats in the four corners of the Court-house square, which will be sold to those desiring to obtain a view of the pageant . . . created a great deal of dissatisfaction and discussion as to the right of the city to allow the public square to be used for a private enterprise."

Police Commissioner Leslie Moffett, "understanding that some trouble might ensue to the police, owing to the general popular opinion that the people had a right to the Court-house square and might try to force their way into the enclosing, undertook to discover by whom and for whose benefit the seats were being erected." Contractor E.C. Simmons responded that the seats were "for the benefit of the Veiled Prophets" and that they were "not a private enterprise or speculation in any sense whatever."

The Post-Dispatch added:

In this connection it may be stated that the hackmen who stand around the Court-house square, having been requested to vacate the place tonight in order not to obscure the view of the occupants of seats in the court yard, refuse to do so, saying the city gives them permission to stand around the square, and they will not forego it for the accommodation of those who purchase tickets to the inclosures.

And "most prominent of all, the four corner grass plats in Court House square have been boarded over and furnished with seats, which a painted sign announces may be purchased and reserved at a Fifth street music store. . . . The Mayor and city officials will view the pageant from one of the Circuit Court rooms."

In response to a "report that he was controlling the Court-house" on the evening of the parade, Mayor Henry Overstolz countered that he had simply "asked Judge Thayer for a window in his court-room, and he gave me his private room. I merely suggested that the invitations be extended by the heads of the apartments [departments?] so that the right parties will assemble there, as there are a number of valuable papers in the building. All sorts of rumors are flying about."

Postponement and crowding

The parade and ball were postponed for one day in 1879, until Wednesday, October 7, because of rain. The St. Joseph (Missouri) Gazette said: "The interest in this affair is simply amazing. Excursion trains on all the railroads leading into the city have been crammed to excess all day[,] and not less than forty thousand people came into the city."

The Chicago Tribune reported in 1879 that the streets "were thronged to such a degree that at times the procession was obliged to halt until the mounted police force and company of cavalry . . . could make an opening in the dense crowd. Every window and doorstep was filled to its utmost capacity. . . ."

Reaction of onlookers

In 1881 a "gang of roughs" pelted the floats with mud and stones.

But in 1883, the Post-Dispatch reported that "The large and overwhelming majority" of the crowd were . . . visitors to the city who were enjoying their first holiday since last Christmas." This over,

they repaired to the beer saloons, the restaurants, the theaters and hotels and proceeded to 'round off' the occasion in such manner as their tastes dictated. A few indulged too freely in their ardent devotions to Bacchus and were nearly corralled in the police wagons . . . very little rowdyism was indulged in, such as there was . . . being . . . for the most part, the boisterous good humor of the 'smart Aleck' era of a rising generation. A few boys, lined up in 'hand to shoulder' fashion, occasionally forced their way through the crowds of women and children, but this rudeness was received good-naturedly.

During the 1911 parade, according to Marguerite Martyn in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch,

The slapstick, so long indispensable to low comedy, found a new use among the crowds . . . they used the slapstick to the extreme embarrassment of many women. The carnival spirit, for the most part tempered by high good humor, at times verged on rowdyism. Girls used a stick ripped with feathers to tickle the faces of young men, and they retaliated vigorously with the slapstick.

In the 1930s, some onlookers used pea-shooters, rocks and other missiles against the floats. Confectioners' shops stocked the pea-shooters in anticipation of the parade, according to Robert Tooley, who identified himself as VP "den superintendent" in that era.

"For the first time in years," the Globe-Democrat reported in 1937, "great volumes of paper were dropped from windows." Some of it was ignited when it came in contact with sparks from trolley wires. Downtown merchants played safe either by "boarding up windows or lining the window sills with boards in which nails were upended" to prevent crowds from pushing against plate-glass windows. "Youths with bean shooters were active, as always."

In October 1966, a judge sentenced an 18-year-old man to sixty days in the city workhouse after convicting him of throwing stones at a police car during the weekend VP Parade.

Ethnic floats

19th Century

Drawing of the Irish float in the Globe-Democrat, October 4, 1882

In 1882, the parade was marked by a controversy over a float which was adversely criticized for its portrayal of Irish people. It was reported that the Irishmen who drove the parade's teams and wagons would "withdraw their services" if the float was included in it, so the entry was removed.

St. Louis members of the Irish Land League were incensed, and after two hours of argument, "it was universally agreed there that there would be a grand and frightful riot unless the Irish float was taken out of the procession."

Alonzo Slayback, one of the principal organizers of the Veiled Prophet organization, replied: "Why, the float is perfectly unobjectionable. It is not a caricature, but merely a piece of pleasantry and is not calculated to hurt the feelings of anyone but a fool."

He said that the message of the "first procession" in 1878 had gone "over the heads of the spectators" and since then "we found that a float which aimed rather to convey a pleasant bit of fun pleased the people much better[,] and we have carried out this idea ever since. . . . Let them raise a finger against any part of the pageant, if they dare. I feel sure that there will be on hand a sufficiently large number of people . . . to prevent any attack. Yes, sir, just let them try it."

Then followed in the newspaper a description of the proposed float as it was drawn and pictured in the Veiled Prophets' official publication, including shillelagh-wielding men and a woman in "peasant costume" dancing to a fiddle. A "drinking booth with the Irish harp" is nearby. "A pig sty, with a couple of grunters anxiously peering over the side, stands to the left, a bushel basket of potatoes evidently tempting them."

The offending scene was eliminated, and other props were used on the refurbished float.

20th Century

In 1938, an Irish-descended group headed by Circuit Judge O'Neil Ryan protested the imagery on a float with the title of a popular song, "Has Anybody Here Seen Kelly?" The title was changed to "The Sidewalks of New York." A statement from the Veiled Prophet organization said: "At the same time the Order announces that the float entitled 'Schnitzelbank' has been changed to 'Harvest Moon,'" which the St. Louis Star-Times said was done "to forestall possible criticism arising out of the recent European developments."

Biblical theme

A thinly veiled Prophet leads the way in this grand entrance to the post-Parade 1887 VP Ball, followed by Biblical characters. The parade theme was the Old Testament of the Bible. At lower right, people dancing. (Click to enlarge.)

St. Louis Protestant minister S.J. Nichols castigated the Old Testament theme of the 1887 VP Parade. He said:

In this shocking prostitution of things sacred, there is a failure to make a distinction between sacred and profane, or common things, and it is calculated to foster the spirit of irreverence and bring God's Word into contempt. . . . All this is done in the name of a great city for gain. . . . [This] last great blunder is well calculated to bring St. Louis into disrepute with other cities . . . .

David Swing
'foolish old boys'

He was soon answered by David Swing, a widely known progressive minister from Chicago, who wrote:

The "Veiled Prophets" are a set of rather foolish old boys, who are not worthy of any special notice from the pulpit. Their parade once a year can not have much influence for or against the real cause of Christianity. . . . No one is hurt. . . . nearly all the episodes of the Old Testament have been repeatedly pictured in a humorous aspect . . . there are thousands of persons in St. Louis who will gain . . . their first lessons in sacred things . . . . They will learn by pictures of Bible scenes what they can never learn from the baseball grounds alone, nor from a life-long association with cigars and beer.

Lighting

Torchbearers

The first parade was lit by a thousand torchbearers, all dressed in brown habits, with cowls, "priest fashion," walking beside the floats, carrying gasoline lanterns with three burners each,

the affairs looking not unlike sections of the footlights in a small theater in a town where the gas was uncertain as to brilliancy. Others held, with outstretched hands and averted face, long beacon lights, which burned alternately red and blue. The air was filled with the stifling, sulphurous fumes from the burning lights; the eyes of the throng were dazzled, and the air was filled with a unanimous cough.

Each man carried "a quadruple gasoline torch with a reflector behind the flame, [flanking it on either side] . . ., respectable but disagreeable flambeaux." The lamp bearers wore protectors to keep their wrists from burning.

In the second year, 1879, Daniel Carroll was in charge of the six hundred men hired to lead the horses and carry beacons and torches. He told his men

to be as mysterious as possible and to keep their cowls well drawn over their faces. . . . But the temperature and the weight of the torches began to tell . . . and . . . they threw back the cowls and . . . revealed in the ruddy light a perspiring congress of nations, for Carroll [in choosing his marchers had not been] hampered by any prejudices of race, color or previous condition of servitude.

Each float was drawn by six horses, "covered with snow-white trappings, on which two cabalistic letters, 'V.P.,' were wrought in deep red color." Two mounted horsemen rode before and two behind, and "at each side were four bearers of reflector torches and an equal number of flambeaux carriers."

Other illuminations

In at least two locations in 1878 locomotive headlights lit up the streets. "The Court-house was the center of the grandest illumination along the entire route," being lit "and covered with Chinese lanterns," the St. Louis Evening Post said. "'Red fire' was made and placed behind the fountains and caused the water to take the appearance of being sparkling blood." An electric light in front of Tony Faust's building at Fifth and Elm made the block "as bright as day."

The Daily Commonwealth of Topeka, Kansas, said the procession, under the

light of various colors thrown upon it, and the glare of illuminated buildings along the route, presented one of the most gorgeous sights imaginable, and elicited almost deafening and continuous applause from the greatest crowd of people ever seen in St. Louis . . . on Bridge Square the most brilliant and beautiful ever seen in the city took place, the air being densely filled with stars of nearly all colors for a height of three hundred feet."

Natural gas

Some business owners "expended large sums of money" in 1878 to furnish lighting in front of their properties by natural gas, using it "as extravagantly as though it were to be found on the streets for nothing," but they found that their attempts were "so eclipsed" by the "gorgeous dazzle" of the VP Parade "that they became disgusted" and vowed not to do it again the next year.

In 1884, a fund of $19,000 was being sought to pay for lighting for the parade, Almon B. Thompson, a contributions manager, reported.

In March 1885, Charles H. Lewis and his wife received $283 from the city for the injuries they had received from the falling of a gas pipe at Broadway and Washington Avenue during the VP Parade.

Electricity

The 1903 parade was the first in which the floats, with more than forty thousand mounted electric lights, moved along the streetcar tracks with everything powered by the overhead electric trolley wires. "The pageant will be more clearly seen," The Republic predicted in an advance story. "There will be no dull patches in it. . . . The floats will move much more easily on the streetcar tracks" than they had done before on the asphalt or granite streets. Each float was to be supplied with "300 to 400 incandescent bulbs . . . to produce every effect of lighting that can devised, . . . vivid and full of color."

Horses, however, still pulled the floats, "it having been deemed inartistic and impractical to supplant the gallant steeds with buzzing motors," the Post-Dispatch said.

In 1919, a United Railways employee walked behind each wagon, carrying the "trolley rope." The trolley on the Prophet's float was accidentally torn off at 7th and Olive, so it had to be lighted by torches the rest of the way.

Shift to daylight

In 1969, the parade was shifted to daylight hours and incorporated into a larger civic celebration. That year was the first in which the Prophet did not appear in the parade.

Traffic

In 1919, reported the St. Louis Star, "never before were so many automobiles massed in the downtown district. It took virtually the entire police force to handle the traffic. Owners of trucks permitted their use by employees, who fitted them with seats for their families and friends." Autos with men and women in evening attire, bound for the ball at the Coliseum, had the right of way].

Later incidents

In 1987, fair officials and St. Louis Metro Police Department were confronted with accusations of racism when they closed the Eads Bridge to pedestrian access, which reduced the ability of attendees from East St. Louis to reach the VP fair, where predominantly black residents were blamed for the crime that had been occurring there. Judge John F. Nangle ordered the bridge to reopen, saying that there was no proof that the crime was caused by East St. Louisans.

In 1992, the name was changed to Fair Saint Louis. The fair is still funded by the Veiled Prophet Organization.

In 2003, the organization created a Community Service Initiative, through which members participate in a wide variety of projects in and around the city of St. Louis. In 2016, it secured a trademark for the name America's Birthday Parade.

Civil rights

First mention

Walter W. Witte, rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, set forth the first widely circulated opposition to the ball in a letter printed in the Post-Dispatch on September 30, 1966. He wrote:

. . . I recall my fascination some 10 years ago when I was told that St. Louis had a Veiled Prophet Parade. I was new to the city then and I presumed that this gala event must be some climactic community celebration, perhaps historical in nature. Then to discover that this was the yearly feast of the rich, culminating in a "coming out" ball at the municipal auditorium . . . was indeed a disappointment. Since then disappointment has given place to disgust. The spectacle of the wealthy daring to parade through the neighborhoods or near neighborhoods of the poor is outrageous.

And the ritual. Is it merely "cute," or are we witnessing the honest to God cult of the affluent with its prophets, queens, attending angels, heavenly courts taken seriously and paid for dearly by the educated business and professional men of the community? . . . .

Could it be turned into a genuine community event? I have an idea. If the powers would contact me, I have several outstandingly beautiful candidates in my parish for the Queen of Love and Beauty. Mind you, these candidates are not Mary Institute graduates nor are they currently attending Wellesley, Smith, or Vassar, nor are they likely to be. But they would, indeed, add beauty. Then again they would probably be disqualified. They suffer from one serious limitation. They are black.

Protests mount

Protests against the VP Parade began in 1966 after police shot a black robbery suspect and Percy Green, head of the Action Council to Improve Opportunities for Negroes (ACTION) passed out leaflets urging that the annual VP parade be "stopped" in response to the killing, calling it "the personification of St. Louis racism and white supremacy.

The next year, ACTION scheduled a "City Dwellers Week" to coincide with Veiled Prophet activities. It was code named Target 84, a reference to the Prophet's 84th visit. The aim was to force an end to the VP, which William L. Matheus said was "a symbol of racial and economic oppression."

On September 30, 1967, ACTION sponsored a "Black Veiled Prophet Ball" in parody of the VP Ball, the latter which was said to be fostering "racial discrimination and segregation." The group planned the selection of a Queen of Human Justice, who would be chosen according to the number of tickets sold on her behalf.

On October 1, 1967, a "small group of marchers," led by Patrick Dougherty, a St. Louis University professor, contended in the suburb of Clayton, Missouri, that the VP Ball and Parade were "offensive to the Negro community" and should be transformed into a children's event.

The next weekend, some fifty demonstrators were in a sidewalk protest across the street from the VP Ball in Kiel Auditorium. Leaders, who had no tickets, demanded entry to the hall, and on October 6 three of them were arrested on charges of disturbing the peace and failure to obey the commands of a police officer; they were released on bond. They were Precious Barnes, in regalia as the "Black Veiled Prophet," Esther Davis, who was the Queen of Human Justice, and Witte. Journalists said the newspeople were shoved and jostled by police and that some officers held hats and hands in front of cameras to prevent photos. Ron Gould, an 18-year-old seminary student, said he took a photo of a policeman beating a black woman, and another another officer smashed his camera with a baton, then stepped on the exposed film. He later filed a complaint against the police department, which ruled he had no case. (Charges against Barnes, Davis, and Witte were dropped on January 23, 1968, because of insufficient evidence.)

The next day, Barbara Torrence, Ruth Poland, and Mary Ann Kerstetter were arrested for lying in the street in front of the Veiled Prophet Parade in protest of alleged racial discrimination. They were sentenced to thirty days in jail for resisting arrest but were placed on probation for a year.

Bishop George L. Cadigan asked Witte and William Matheus, St. Stephens Church curator, to resign their positions because of "misunderstandings about procedural matters and the seeming inability of Mr. Witte to relate to the program of the diocese." The activities of the two in demonstrations, particularly against the Veiled Prophet Ball, had "incurred the wrath of many Episcopal laymen," a newspaper report said.

Witte said he and Matheus regarded the annual VP ceremonies as symbols of social bigotry and economic discrimination. In an interview, Cadigan responded that he "holds no brief for the Veiled Prophet Ball and Parade, and it may well be a serious affront to the nonaffluent members of the St. Louis community," but, he said, the two clergymen "vastly overrated" the VP's significance, devoting "great energy, but little skill, in attacking it."

Count Basie cancellation

Count Basie in 1974

In 1968, ACTION threatened to stage protests against musician Count Basie unless he canceled an agreement to play in the VP Parade, whose theme that year was "Music for Everyone." Basie agreed on September 25 to withdraw, "for personal reasons."

Changing parade route

In 1968, United Press International reported that "ACTION has staged demonstrations at the ball and parade in recent years to protest that the ball was for whites only and that the parade flaunted white wealth down a route that skirted Negro neighborhoods. The route of this year's parade has been shifted to avoid some of the poorer neighborhoods."

More arrests

Percy Green, William Brown, and William Mitchell were arrested on September 27, 1968, when they "attempted to attend the ball but were denied entry," the Post-Dispatch reported. Later the newspaper said the arrests were made when pickets ignored orders to stop marching directly in front of Kiel Auditorium.

Sarah Jones and Barbara Jean Saper were arrested after they chained themselves to one of the floats in the 1968 parade. They pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace and were fined.

In 1969 Carl Jackson (that year's Black Veiled Prophet), Madame Carol (the Black Veiled Prophet queen), Lois Greer (Queen of Human Justice) and George Johnson were arrested after Jackson and Carol presented a slip of blue paper at the Kiel Auditorium door which they said was an invitation and refused to leave. Arrests were made again in 1970 when ACTION members again attempted to enter the VP Ball by presenting a written statement in lieu of tickets. Those taken in were Judge G. Johnson, Sharon Hall, and Rita Scott.

Percy Green, Melvin Carr, Florence Jarrett, Ralph Brown, and Gina Scott were arrested on December 22, 1971, on a charge of general peace disturbance when they attempted to enter Kiel Auditorium with no tickets.

Episcopal resolution

A convention of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri in October 1969 adopted a resolution stating that "Actions of the Veiled Prophet Society are such to be a source of constant irritation to the black communities" in the diocese.

Unmasking the Prophet

On December 23, 1972, six women were armed with tickets provided by debutantes, and white women Gena Scott and Jane Sauer walked together into Kiel Auditorium, with no problem. Then Charles Reed, that year's Black Veiled Prophet went to the entrance with Beverly Crosby and Florence Jarrett, presented the gatekeeper with three tickets and a statement demanding entrance. They were denied entry because they were not "dressed properly." Refusing to leave, they were arrested and taken to a police station.

Sauer and Scott took balcony seats on opposite sides of the house. During the program, Sauer began dropping leaflets into the audience, then "threw the rest of the leaflets over the railing" as two men converged on her and began to pull her away.

Meanwhile, Scott was rappelling on a rope from a balcony when she tumbled hard to the floor, climbed to her feet, rushed to the stage, grabbed the crown and veil and yanked it from that year's VP. The Post-Dispatch reported that "the Veiled Prophet, whom everybody could see was bald, and very angry, struggled gallantly to restore the veil and its 95-year old tradition [of anonymity] to its proper place." The VP was later to be revealed as Thomas K. Smith.

Scott said: "The chairman of the VP committee, Alexander Cornwell Jr., had wanted to press charges, but when he was informed that the Veiled Prophet would have to appear in open court to do so, the whole matter was dropped." Scott's ribs were diagnosed as bruised and possibly broken.

Aftermath and changes

In early 1973, Scott was awakened when her car was bombed outside of her apartment. Her apartment was vandalized numerous times. In 1975, ACTION member Patrick Dougherty unfurled a banner on stage reading "ACTION Protests Racist VP," and in 1976, two ACTION members sprayed what Green called "commercial tear gas" at VP audience members along the stage.

In November 1973, a class-action suit was filed on behalf of all black St. Louisans by Percy Green, George (Judge) Johnson and Melvin Carr, claiming the VP organization's rental agreement for Kiel was illegal and that blacks viewed the VP Committee as an "antiblack, semisecret organization made up of members of the economic, political and social white power structure" of St. Louis.

In 1979 the Veiled Prophet Organization admitted its first black members, three physicians.

The 1980s and 1990s saw the Veiled Prophet Organization become more secretive as the group took steps to lessen its public profile. The Veiled Prophet Ball was reworked in order to be a more private event and the parade changed to be more focused towards general entertainment, though the Veiled Prophet and his entourage still rode in the Parade.

Notable guests

President Grover Cleveland and his wife, Caroline, attended in 1887 and Margaret Truman, the author and daughter of President Harry S. Truman, in 1969. At the former, the number of invitations to "perhaps the most exclusive ball of them all" had been "somewhat limited" and the guest list "carefully scrutinized," the St. Louis Republic recalled in 1900.

In 1893, sixty representatives from 34 countries or colonies exhibiting at the World's Fair in Chicago arrived by train and were escorted in carriages to the Southern Hotel. They were feted at a dinner, witnessed the parade, and taken to the Ball. The next day featured a tour of St. Louis sights.

The governors of fifteen U.S. states participated in the annual VP festivities in 1907. It was the largest number of state executives ever assembled up to that time in one city. They met with President Theodore Roosevelt and accompanied him on a voyage down the Mississippi River.

The Den

The Den has been a building or complex of buildings where the floats and costumes have been prepared for the VP and America's Birthday Parade activities.

In 1879, the Den was described by a reporter as a "great black building running along the side of Twelfth Street, from Market to Chestnut. It stood dim and grim against the evening sky, with not a luminous line or brilliant knot-hole to be seen against its gloomy walls until 7 o'clock, when the yard gate to the east of the building suddenly opened and displayed to view an array of torch-bearers ready to march forward at a moment's notice." The Den was at 12th and Chestnut in 1883.

The Den land on the northeast corner of 12th and Market was sold in June 1884 by Charles L. Hunt to Thomas T. Turner, bundled with other property.

In 1890 through 1924, the floats were prepared in a "large building" between 21st and 22nd at Walnut street. In 1893, it was written that:

The squatty brick building was the den of the Veiled Prophet. . . . 2120 Walnut Street is the number. . . . It contains no window nearer the ground than 15 feet. . . . In each door, about 20 feet from the bottom,, are two windows, heavily grated and covered on the inside with curtains, . . . a wealth of skylight perforates the roof. Around this building as early as 6 o'clock people began to gather [on VP night]. Little lads in the mischievous years were as plentiful there as the proverbial leaves in Vallambrosa. They got down flat on their stomachs at the bottom of the corrugated iron doors and tried to get a look at his mysterious Majesty's splendors.

The Stroh Brothers purchased this property in 1924, to replace the Den with a large garage for "trucks and passenger cars."

In 1932, the Den was on "dingy Rankin Avenue," the Post-Dispatch reported, number 102 South at LaClede, where it remained until at least 1958, when a fire damaged five floats being prepared for the VP Parade. Five firemen were overcome by dense, acrid smoke. The victims received bouquets and notes from the Veiled Prophet which said, "With deep appreciation and gratitude." The South Rankin building was demolished in April 1960 for redevelopment of Mill Creek Valley, and the Den was resurrected in a warehouse on Prospect Avenue.

The Post-Dispatch in 1981 described the Den as "a complex of former Falstaff brewery warehouses at 301 Prospect Avenue that serve as a combination workshop, storage facility and archives for VP parades and balls dating to 1878."

In February 1991 the Den was a large cinderblock building near Spring Avenue and Forest Park Boulevard.

Gallery

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  Missouri History Museum. "Household of the Veiled Prophet." From Veiled Prophets Sixth Annual Autumnal Festival, October 2, 1883

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  Program, 1886

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  Two medallions with Veiled Prophet images, 1902

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  Metal World's Fair (1904) tray with image of Prophet on throne, building, and female personification at left

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  Ball invitation, 1913, with measuring marker at the bottom

See also

• List of Veiled Prophet Parade themes
• Fleur de Lis Ball – St. Louis's other debutante cotillion
• Jewel Ball – another debutante cotillion in Missouri
• Walter B. Stevens (1848–1939), active in the VP organization

Further reading

• Darst, Katherine. "The Prophet's Pearls", The St. Louis Magazine, Vol. 1, No. 4, Sept. 1963.
• Nance, Susan. "The Veiled Prophet's Oriental Tale: St. Louis' Famous Festivals in Context, 1878–1895." Missouri Historical Review 103, no. 2 (January 2009): 90–107.
• Stevens, Walter B. St. Louis The Fourth City, 1764–1909, S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1909.

External links

• [1] Official site, Veiled Prophet organization

• [2] Veiled Prophet Collection finding aid at the St. Louis Public Library
• [3] "Veiled Prophet History," Missouri Historical Society, September 12, 1959 (video)
• [4] The O'Fallon High School marching band at the 1997 VP Parade
• [5] Memories of the Veiled Prophet; How the Floats Are Made in The Den, June 2008, from 9PBS
• [6] Veiled Prophet activities in 2009, video report by Anne-Marie Berger, from 9PBS
• [7] Veiled Prophet Parade, July 2, 2011, by Dickson Beall
• [8] “The Long and Complicated History of the Veiled Prophet Parade, Organization,” KMOV St. Louis, July 6, 2021 (video feature report)]