Charles F. Horner’s Tent Show

Charles F. Horner and the Redpath-Horner Chautauqua and Lyceum Bureau serve as the documentary foundation for the development of the performance work A Series of Unmentionable Acts. In the summer of 1906, Charles F. Horner launched the first circuit chautauqua program of the Premier Circuit. After several years working for other managers, Horner ventured out and established the Redpath-Horner Chautauqua and Lyceum Bureau in 1912. Officed in Kansas City, Missouri, the Redpath-Horner Bureau provided continuing educational programs for communities west of the Mississippi River for the first third of the 20th century.

The first decades of the turn of the century witnessed Americans' hopes for a more democratic world in both domestic and foreign affairs. They made strides in making their country more democratic by expanding the right to vote to white women and participated in the Great War to ensure the world a safer placefor democracy itself. This generation of Americans aimed to make society a more prosperous and safer place to live by cleaning up corruption in local governments, improving working conditions in factories, bettering living conditions in city slums, and focusing education to teach children to be productive American citizens. Reform speeches and inspirational talks were popular attractions and the likes of Carrie Nation, radical of the temperance movement, and William Jennings Bryan, three-time presidential nominee, graced the temporary stages for the Redpath-Horner Premier Circuit in 1909 and 1910 seasons. The era is characterized by progressive reform, and the Redpath-Horner Bureau was a platform for messaging and educating Midwesterners.

Circuit or "tent" chautauquas were among the first traveling, adult continuing education programs in the United States and developed from the merger of two nineteenth century forms: the lyceum and the permanent chautauqua.  The resulting programs capitalized on 19th-century  American values of self-enrichment and betterment. In the summer of 1906, Charles Horner launched the Premier Circuit Chautauqua. The secret of the circuit Chautauqua's success was a leap-frog method of moving from town to town. With a seven-day program, the talent in the first day would move on  immediately  after their scheduled time to the next town where tents were already set up for their arrival. This schedule would repeat for each of the successive days. Thus in 1921, the Premier Circuit, incorporated into the Redpath-Horner Chautuaqua and Lyceum Bureau, entered Kansas on August 5 and continued with its leap-frog programs throughout much of the state until September 6.

The state faced significant challenges that shaped the lives of its residents during this period. The agricultural sector, central to the state's economy, suffered from fluctuating crop prices, leading many farmers into debt and land loss. The environmental devastation of the Dust Bowl, coupled with the Great Depression, worsened economic conditions, displacing families and crippling rural communities. Prohibition fueled underground crime and strained law enforcement, while social tensions were heightened by the presence of the Ku Klux Klan and persistent racial discrimination. These factors formed the backdrop of this transformative period in which the traveling tent show was presented.