7/26/2011:
If you want a comfortable view of life in the rugged old West, look no further than Medora, North Dakota. Each year, thousands of tourists hike through the town’s bordering badlands, delight in steaks at the pitchfork fondue, and of course witness the rollicking, western-style Medora Musical: North Dakota’s tribute to Theodore Roosevelt and the time he spent here.
Fred Walsh wrote the show, originally called “Ol’ Four Eyes,” to honor the President, who always said he “would not have been president had it not been for (his) experience in North Dakota.” Before it became the famous Medora Musical, it premiered in 1958 to commemorate Teddy Roosevelt’s one hundredth birthday. The first show opened in the Burning Hills Amphitheatre, which was hand-carved right out of the badlands. A crew of volunteers put benches into the slightly modified hillside and placed a group of buildings around the stage for a set. They didn’t even need a sound system since the bluff provided natural acoustics.
And on today’s date in 1959, the Fargo Forum newspaper checked up on the progress of “Ol’ Four Eyes” in its second year, and chatted with some of its company that were based out of Fargo, but there were also actors coming from places like Massachusetts, Florida, California, Ohio, Chicago, and New York. Wherever the actors hailed from, apparently the Western attitude was contagious. Tom Radcliffe of Fargo put it this way … “From the first time we set foot in Medora we felt tough like natural born Westerners, and ever since we’ve had a great time playing native. Sometimes we even fool the natives.”
Although most crew members were students, teachers, or professional theater people with little outdoors experience, they were having a great time expanding their horizons. Another actor commented that “. . . deer, chipmunks, antelope and birds of all kinds . . . provide background sound effects. It’s what you would call a first class unplanned natural setting.” They went on to say that they hoped to continue with “Ol’ Four Eyes” for “the next twenty-five years.”
And today, the musical is still presented each summer night in the modernized Burning Hills Amphitheatre. The wilderness still provides a natural setting, and although it has changed names and shifted ownership, the Medora Musical still provides a look at the bully Wild West that made Teddy Roosevelt fall in love with the state.
Dakota Datebook written by Leewana Thomas
Sources:
http://www.nps.gov/thro/historyculture/theodore-roosevelt-quotes.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medora_Musical
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/ND/200003261.html
The Sunday Fargo Forum, Women’s Section, Sunday Morning July 26, 1959