Not to worry, this is not a post about the lame ’70s rock group — you can sleep soundly in your beds knowing I’ll never waste time writing about that. Rather, this is the latest in my catch-as-catch series of posts honoring American states, which thus far has included Florida, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Rhode Island (because I’m from there). Why Kansas next? Because it’s National Kansas Day, and its history is more interesting and exciting than its reputation allows.
Unlike Iowa and Indiana and Nebraska, Kansas has genuine romance in its favor. Laugh me to scorn if you will, but I stand by it. If you’ll only chew your food properly for a minute you’ll realize I’m right. Twisters and tent shows! It’s the beginning and the end of America’s favorite homegrown fairy tale (and my favorite movie) The Wizard of Oz, as well as the birthplace of both Buster Keaton and Fatty Arbuckle. The great Americana painter John Steuart Curry, depicter of circuses and carnivals, is from there, as is the beloved clown Emmett Kelly. The peculiar theatrical form known as the Toby Show, which I wrote about here, is a Kansas creation. The hatchet wielding temperance advocate Carrie Nation made her name breaking up Kansas saloons before she tried the vaudeville circuits. Silent movie star Louise Brooks started her life and performing career in Cherryvale — and, at her lowest point, had to return. Barnstorming aviatrix Amelia Earhart was a Kansan.
Granted Kansas tends to be a place that people ESCAPE from. but among the places that people want to escape, this one has more color to it. And that color is RED. This aspect of Kansas legend is less to be celebrated than sung about soberly…Kansas is famous for True Crime, for murders and robberies.
As “Bleeding Kansas” the state was born against a backdrop of dozens of murders resulting from conflict between pro-slavery Missouri border ruffians and Free Staters (later known as Jayhawkers) in the lead-up to the Civil War. The fanatical John Brown was a leader among the latter group, many of whom came from Back East. During the war Quantrill’s Raiders massacred hundreds of people in several Kansas towns. Kansas cow towns like Abilene, Wichita, and Dodge City were the sites of notorious gunfights, and the early stomping grounds of lawmen Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Wild Bill Hickok. The James, Dalton, Doolin, and Younger gangs included Kansas among their multi-state maraudings. The luckless aspirant to their ranks Elmer McCurdy spent his final years there — only to travel more widely as a carnival attraction posthumously.
The serial killing spiritualists known as as The Bloody Benders operated out of prairie homestead near Cherryvale. Truman Capote’s masterpiece In Cold Blood recounts the Cutter family killings near Holcomb by Perry Smith and Richard Hickok. In more recent times Dennis Rader, known as The BTK Killer committed his unspeakable deeds in the state.
Could there BE any more drama than this? Yet in the 20th century its reputation changed. Once synonymous with the Old West, after America expanded all the way to the Pacific, Kansas became the literal geographic center of the U.S. No longer the Far West, it was now the MIDwest. Ike Eisenhower, the ultimate middle of the road President, was our one Chief Executive from the state. Clark Kent, alter ego of the ultimate All-American superhero, is depicted as hailing from the fictional town of Smallville. Native son William Inge wrote great melodramas like Picnic, Bus Stop, and Come Back Little Sheba inspired by his home state, stressing conventionality and repression.
Kansas is also famous for being the “driest” of states, not in terms of rainfall, but from the standpoint of alcohol prohibition. But we tend not to think of the colorful Carrie Nation with her speeches and her hatchets in that context. Nor do we think of the gutters running thick with blood, or serial killers. Nowadays, people tend to think of Bob Dole. Now that’s what I call a makeover.