Raised across the state as edifices of high culture (at least in name), opera houses are now being restored and revisited for community events and performances

In the late 1800s, railroad lines were expanding across Kansas and youthful, boisterous communities were building up around them. Each new community aimed to be a promising regional center and to capitalize on their ironlinked connection to the greater world. The railroads brought in building supplies, trading goods, potential settlers … and even actors. Traveling theater companies would board trains and present vaudeville acts or other performances in the towns where they stopped.

“Trains would be held until the show was concluded, bringing in business as well as entertaining residents,” says Melissa Swenson, director of the Brown Grand Historic Opera House in Concordia.

The opera houses competing to attract the actors and visitors ranged from purpose-built theaters with extravagant, double-tier seating to open spaces with a raised platform at one end and often located in the second story of commercial buildings. Touring theater productions, livestock shows, vaudeville acts, political rallies, high school basketball games, church services, skating rinks—all of these appeared in Kansas opera houses, notes historian Jane Glotfelty Rhoads in her book, Kansas Opera Houses: Actors and Community Events, 1855–1925. Some opera houses near the cattle trails even featured a stage at one end of the room and a bar and gambling tables at the other.

Leavenworth’s Public Hall, constructed in 1854, just a year after Kansas was opened for Euro-American settlement, was the first public space in the state custom fitted for theatrical productions, but many more followed—even if they took the name “opera house” only to seem more cultured.

“Theaters had been considered sinful places … so, although these opera houses were really theaters, calling them opera houses made them high class and kept the bluenoses from attacking them,” says Kansas playwright and actor Phil Grecian.

Swenson adds that once talking motion pictures arrived, entertainment began changing rapidly. As the years went by, many opera houses were transitioned into movie palaces, then fell into disuse as school and civic auditoriums were built, automobiles allowed for travel to bigger towns, and radio replaced live entertainment.

Opera houses closed, and many were torn down. Of the estimated 900 opera houses built in Kansas, there are roughly 200 still standing. The oldest is White Cloud Opera House, constructed in 1862.

But, due to the efforts of community preservation activists and the Kansas Historic Theater Association, some of these opera houses are coming back to life.

“People love to see the old buildings and want to see them used; [they] hate seeing them sit empty,” Swenson says. “They are proud of their communities and their history. And they want landmarks of the community that they can continue to be proud of.”

Peabody built three opera house buildings, but only the latest one—constructed at the cusp of the cinema age—is

Volunteers in Peabody are working to preserve the Sunflower Theatre’s historic architecture and bring it back as a community cultural center. still standing. Sunflower Theatre was built in 1921 by Arnold Berns, a trader of grain, coal, and cattle, when the city was booming as a supply point for regional cattle feeding and awash in oil money. Three buildings were razed in order to build the theater. Originally there were businesses, doctors’ offices, and a lobby in the front and on the first and second floors; the theater hall featured live performances and motion pictures until it closed in the 1950s. The theater was turned into a bowling alley, and then it sat closed and neglected, but the community has rallied around it, and Sunflower is on its way to becoming an arts and event center, already hosting events from art workshops to 1920s cocktail parties. The Sunflower is one of more than 300 theaters designed by brothers Carl and Robert Boller, architects from Kansas City. “The Boller Brothers did a ton of theaters, and I think our theater face is one of their more beautiful works still standing,” says community volunteer Susan Mayo. Recently, Peabody received a matching grant from the Kansas Preservation Trust to repair and renovate the art deco sunflowers, glaze brick and terra-cotta tile above the building’s front entrance, as well as to do structural repairs throughout to restore the opera house to its role as a community gathering spot and cultural center.

What do you get the man who has everything and can afford anything?

Take, for instance, Colonel Napoleon Brown—Concordia’s local business bigwig in the early 1900s.

“The colonel had a 23-room mansion; he was the first in town to have indoor plumbing, owned a bank that charged 15–18% interest, [was] wounded in the Civil War, listed as a major, [and] he purchased his next title, colonel,” explains Swenson. So, when a gift was needed, Brown’s son decided to get his father décor for the opera house he had built for $40,000 in 1907—an ornate stage drape featuring an image of Napoleon Bonaparte and designed to match Col. Brown’s Napoleonic ambitions. The enormous drape hung across the theater’s main stage until it was damaged by a tornado in 1967. A replica was completed in 1978 and has remained one of the theater’s most impressive features ever since.

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Other signature fixtures of the Brown Grand are the dark green velvet seats, a marked departure from the traditional red for theater seating. The original 1907 chairs were green, and in the mid 1970s seats donated to the theater from Bethany College were also green. The interior of the building is green with ivory and gold leafing, so green was an easy choice when new seats were installed in 2020.

A massive two-story carved stone arch marks the entrance to the Opera House in McPherson. Built in 1889 from red brick and carved limestone, the theater’s exterior ornamentation is sublime, both in its quality and abundance—there are balustrades, gables, and arches. And in a time of kerosene and gas lighting, the Opera House had electricity. According to Rhoads, the opera house had such brilliant electric lighting that when

it was fully lit, the lights at nearby McPherson College and Industrial Institute either dimmed or went out. For 30 years the Opera House was the cultural center of the community. With the advent of movies, it fell into decline, was made into apartments and later sat vacant. Its future looked grim, but, in 1986, the McPherson Opera House Preservation “People love to see the old Company was formed to save the buildings and want to building. Volunteer efforts, donations, and a special sales see them used; [they] hate tax enabled the Opera House to reopen in 2010, seeing them sit empty.” grander than ever. The builders of the Opera House had —MELISSA SWENSON intended to finish the lower level, but they ran out of money and postponed the project. The delay turned out to be 121 years, but now the lower level has been completed, is in use, and would almost certainly hold up to the highest standards of any late 19th-century bluenose.

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The nonprofit Kansas Historic Theatres Association is dedicated to preserving historic theater buildings and promoting the various businesses and organizations currently actively hosting events and performances within them. Some of the buildings were built specifically for cinema or, as in the case with the Peabody, as a hall for film screenings and musical performances, but like the earlier opera houses they were—and remain—important cultural institutions and landmarks in their communities.

The current theater members of the association include

1. Anthony Theatre in Anthony 2. Augusta Theatre in Augusta 3. Blair Theatre in Belleville 4. Brown Grand Opera House and Theatre in Concordia 5. Burford Theatre in Arkansas City 6. CL Hoover Opera House in Junction City 7. Colonial Fox Theatre in Pittsburg 8. Columbian Theatre in Wamego 9. Dream Theatre in Russell 10. Dunbar Theatre in Wichita 11. Granada Theatre in Emporia 12. Great Bend Community Theatre in Great Bend 13. Gregg Theatre in Sedan 14. Hutchinson Fox Theatre in Hutchinson 15. Jayhawk Theatre in Topeka 16. Kingman Historic Theater in Kingman 17. Marquee Performing Arts Center in Winfield 18. McPherson Opera House in McPherson 19. Orpheum Theatre in Wichita 20. Paola Community Center in Paola 21. Plaza Cinema in Ottawa 22. State Theatre of Larned in Larned 23. Stiefel Theatre in Salina 24. Sunflower Theatre in Peabody 25. Theatre Atchison in Atchison 26. The Rex Theatre in Clay Center

This holiday season, you can shower your special friends and loved ones with thoughtful gifts that speak to their specific tastes and remind them of either their home or the home where they are always welcome to visit.

Our team at KANSAS! and Kansas Tourism has selected some of our favorite Kansas-original gifts, most under $50, which can be easily mailed in-state, throughout the nation, or even internationally. Each one is created by a Kansas artist or company, and most come in different varieties that can be tailored to the recipient.

Of course, these aren’t the only great Kansas-themed or Kansas-made gifts. Throughout the year, our magazine features other unique items in our “Made in Kansas” section. So, whether you are buying for the holiday season or a special occasion such as a wedding or a birthday, consider setting your gift apart by making it a Kansas-made memento that is just as enjoyable to select and send as it is to receive.

$16 POTTERY SOUP SPOON REST Created by Friesen Art Location McPherson Order from Friesen Art on Etsy About Artist Daisy Friesen specializes in customized, practical pottery with a range of vases, mugs, serving bowls and more. In addition to holiday gift possibilities, some of the items she creates are for weddings, Communions, and other important occasions.

Created by Sock Dogs Location Olathe Order from sockdogs.com About Artist Stacey Hsu pays homage to this Kansas silverscreen legend in her mug portrait. Hsu also specializes in personalized pet-portrait items, including customized stuffed animals created to look exactly like your beloved pet.

Created by PK Designs Location Toronto Order from PKDesigns of Kansas on Etsy About The handcrafted leather creations of PK Designs feel, smell, and wear like luxury goods. Wallets, clutches and small purses can be purchased in the $10–20 range, while large waxed leather canvas tote bags cost $250.

Created by Zeep & Co Location Wichita Order from zeepbath.com About These handcrafted soaps are blended with coconut oil and whipped to a luxurious, creamy consistency. The scents include traditional ones such as lavender or berry, as well as house blends such as “Hustle & Grace” and “Drop of Sunshine.”

Created by Ruff House Location Lawrence Order from ruffhouseprintshop.com About These 70-page journals come in a variety of colors and cover images, but all are created in Kansas from quality, acid-free coverboards and thick interior paper. The design house also offers themed greeting cards, tote bags, and more with free shipping for orders over $35.

$895 SOY WAX MELTS Created by Kansas Earth and Sky Location Ellinwood Order from kansasearthandskycandle.com About These fragrant, artistically cut pieces of wax are designed to be placed on a hot plate or tea light to gently infuse an area with a particular scent, many of which are inspired by the natural smells and flora of Kansas, such as the lavender, sunflower, and prairie wildflower melts.

Created by H&H Collection Location Augusta Order from handhcollection.com About Scented candles can be found almost anywhere in the United States, but these quality, hand-poured, vegan soy wax candles that burn up to 60 hours come in unique Kansas-themed scents such as “Kansas Summer” and “Satchell Creek.” The company has even created the “official scent” for some Kansas cities such as El Dorado.

Created by Dandelion Stitchery Location Ingalls Order from dandelionstitchery.com About Artist Pamela Millershaski creates a range of cross-stitch art and shares her expertise with patterns and online tutorials. Some of her best-selling work includes personalized work for businesses, weddings, and—our favorite—pet portraits.

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Created by IBISwoman, Small World Gallery Location Lindsborg Order from smallworldgallery.net About Located in the heart of Lindsborg, Small World Gallery excels at curating unique and beautiful objects from local and international artisans. This series of necklaces contains a centerpiece of a round token used by Kansas merchants as store cash or for promotion during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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Created by Flint & Field Location Olathe Order from flintandfield.com About Flint & Field specializes in customized home goods with regional flair, particularly the KC metro region. But this “HOME” hanging with the outline of Kansas was the first—and you can see why we think it’s still the best—item created by designer and owner Brandon Ratzlaff.

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Created by Angie Pickman Location Lawrence Order from ruralpearl.com About Angie Pickman has earned wide acclaim for her unique handcut paper art that is crisp, precise, delicate, and full of narrative detail. Many of themes are based on fables or the natural Kansas landscape. Young gift recipients might appreciate Pickman’s Merry Menagerie, an alphabet book featuring animals ($14.99), or the A–Z animal poster ($65).

Created by Susan Geiger Location Tonganoxie Order from susangeiger.art About Susan Geiger’s art often explores and celebrates the beauty of rural Kansas. She is represented by Kansas City’s Leopold Gallery, which sells many of her original works, but affordable flat- and stretched-canvas prints can be purchased directly from her site.

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STORY BY

Debbie Leckron Miller and Bill Stephens

Since galloping onto the jeans scene in 2011, Ryan Martin has stitched his way to fame, fitting famous actors, musicians and a fan base with his awardwinning, vintage-inspired W. H. Ranch Dungarees.

But from his home in Olathe, Martin doesn’t seek to claim the title of “a big deal.”

“I’m not even a big deal in my own home. There’s a stack of dishes waiting for me in the sink,” he jokes.

With a low-profile, one-man–shop approach, and working solitary to the hum of his 1942 Singer cast-iron sewing machine, Martin continues to piece together artisan jeans so good that customers pay $375 to $1,000 per pair.

A sixth-generation sewer and pattern maker, Martin started sewing at age 7, soon after his family moved from his birthplace of Salina to Overland Park. His mom was a professional sewer and his dad an architect and illustrator. “Those things rubbed off on me,” Martin says, especially his mom’s skills and love for her sewing machine. “Honestly, I just thought sewing was fun as a child. I could step on the pedal like a car, and it had that sharp needle that was cool, too. And, you made something in the end.”

In summers, he took sewing lessons in the morning, had art classes in the afternoon and played baseball at night. “I had a pretty well-rounded childhood. But admittedly, I probably was the only teenager with a subscription to GQ in the neighborhood!” he recalls.

“No one thought it was cool that I could sew. I was the only guy in home-ec class making stuff. I’m sure they thought it was weird,” he recalls. “I had a reputation for being welldressed and marching to the beat of a different drum.”

But at that age, he wasn’t thinking of apparel design as a profession. “I watched The X-Files and thought I’d be a great FBI agent,” Martin says. But in 2000, when he enrolled in his first design class at his dad’s alma mater, Kansas State University, he began to reconsider. “I walked in the lecture hall with 300 people, and I was the only guy. I liked those odds.”

Martin first became enamored with old-style jeans in college but had little access to the small lots of fabric to make them himself. Nonetheless, he continued to study fashion both at K-State and abroad in London his junior year. By his senior year, he was set on his profession and other plans, marrying Kim, also a Kansas State University apparel and textile student. “We had our professors at our wedding,” he recalls. Martin continues his K-State ties as a guest lecturer and member of the Fashion Design Program Advisory Board. Kim is an interior designer at Nell Hill’s home store in North Kansas City, Missouri.

After graduating, the couple moved to Colorado, where Martin began successfully selling men’s ties on Etsy under the name White Horse Trading Company, an homage to Johnny Cash’s biblical references to “the pale horse” in his 2002 hit “When the Man Comes Around.”

But Martin still dreamed of working in denim, so he sold all his best cowboy boots to buy a 1942 Singer, along with a few spools of vintage-style thread, zippers, metal notions and denim. “I set up an Instagram page and had maybe 100 followers, posted photos of jeans and me making them, and said I could make 10 pair. They sold out in a week. The business took off like a rocket ship and never looked back.”

Renamed W.H. Ranch Dungarees, the business has stayed true to Martin’s roots on the Kansas plains. “There’s this romanticism to replicate what my forefathers wore on the farm during Dust Bowl days—the denim they went to the feed store to buy. It’s important to me to have that vintage fit and durability. It’s amazing how well-built those garments were.”

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Ryan, Kim and their five children returned to Kansas in 2017. In his Olathe studio, he displays posters and memorabilia from stars he’s outfitted for denim jeans or jackets, clients such as Kevin Costner, Harrison Ford and Lyle Lovett, who has a standing order. Martin’s studio also holds vintage jeans in progress, patterns and about 20 pairs of his cowboy boots. He flows from the cutting table to his five vintage sewing machines and rare Reese buttonholer while listening to political podcasts or music of his favorite indie band, Calexico (whose lead singer Martin styled for the Grammys).

Martin makes a dozen different fits of men’s jeans, all custom made to client specifications, and six styles of jackets, including a line for women. But don’t expect a speedy turnaround—orders are added to the stack and could take two years to receive, and the jeans cost a minimum of $375.

Why the hefty price? Jeans are tailored to each client and constructed with specialty denim and thread, along with pure copper rivets, heavy-duty brass zippers, triple stitching and leather hand-branded WH pocket patches. “It’s all these components that make a superior pair of jeans,” Martin explains.

The versatile Steer Ryder is Martin’s most popular style because its slim leg fits over boots and also looks good with loafers.

In Colorado, Martin’s company was named one of the state’s top 25 manufacturers in 2015. Two years later, industry specialists Denimhunters proclaimed Martin the “World’s Best Jean Maker” after awarding his W.H. Ranch Dungarees top prize in the “Artisan Challenge” that required that someone to wear the same pair of a designer’s jeans every day for two years to test endurance. Martin found a friend to do the wearing!

More recently Martin has started an apparel consulting firm, Ranch Brand Productions, and was named senior designer for Tecovas handcrafted boots in September 2022.

Two of his daughters take sewing classes, and his 6-year-old son says he wants to do what Daddy does when he grows up. But, don’t look for Martin’s one-man show to expand. “If I brought in someone else, I feel like people would say ‘it’s not the same as when you were making them. We sort of want this crotchety guy who gets upset when we email to ask when our jeans will be ready!’”

Want a custom-made pair of W.H. Ranch Dungarees? Start the process with an email request for a phone consultation with Martin. Once connected, he’ll get your specifications:

• What do you plan to wear these jeans for—work, play, church, with cowboy boots? • What type of denim do you prefer, such as shrinkable, dark wash, 13-ounce? (He says the most popular is the 1950s-era denim from Japan.) • Pick your price: a standard order for W.H. jeans is $375,

“but your order goes in the stack, and I can’t tell you how long it will take. The last order

I pulled off the top to work on was from 2½ years ago,”

Martin explains about his

workload. But, he takes four rush orders each month: for $225 extra (total of $600), he’ll get your jeans made afterhours within six weeks. • For the proper fit, W.H. sends you photos illustrating how to measure at home for waist, thigh and knee width and length. • Once the order is finalized and your invoice is paid, “It’s hurry up and wait! You’re in line in the queue. Just don’t email me and ask for updates!” Martin laughs.

If you plan to visit Lil Grizz or Joy (who goes by “Mizz Grizz”), you are instructed to just come on in the front door and stomp on the floor a few times. That is because they spend most of their time working in the basement and can’t hear you knocking at the door. One of them will come to the bottom of the stairs and invite you to come on down.

This basement is where all the haberdashery occurs. For more than 50 years, Lil Grizz has been creating felt hats, most in Western style, though also fedoras and customized varieties. Over the years, he has gathered and perfected his collection of oldschool tools that could have been used at any point in the last two centuries and continue to serve him well.

The only electrical tools of his trade are support items—the overhead lights and a computer for communicating with clients and for updating Lil Grizz’s social media accounts, including his sassy Instagram account where he might demonstrate how to shape the brim of a hat one day and how to dance like Mick Jagger on another. But, ultimately, the focus comes back to the pride in his pre-industrial craftwork.

“We don’t use any mechanized tools here,” Grizz proudly explains. “The shears are manual, the water is heated over our gas furnace’s burners; flat irons rather than electrical irons are used to shape the hat brims. Even the finished stitching is done by hand,” he adds.

Lil Grizz says his fascination hats began at an unexpected moment, but one that will probably make sense to most Boomers who grew up around a television set in America of the 1950s. While watching Captain Kangaroo, Grizz became fascinated with the Captain’s hat rack that sat in the background, and the fact that the Captain or his guests could transform themselves or their world simply by putting on one of the hats from that rack. That might have just remained a childhood fascination if he hadn’t begun riding for his high school’s rodeo team in Shongaloo, Louisiana, and also began working part-time in a Western clothing and gear store whose owner dabbled in hatmaking. Soon, Lil Grizz—who had had developed an interest in Western history after seeing the early photographs of Matthew Brady—gave the craft a try as well.

Grizz estimates he has made over 10,000 hats in his halfcentury of work. Though he worked in the lumber business and has oil field experience, he has always been interested in hats and considers hat construction his true calling. Once he began to earn enough money from selling them directly to clients, he focused all his work on them and has shipped his handmade designs to every continent except Africa and Antarctica.

New Almelo, a Norton County town of less than 200 in the state’s northwest pocket, might seem like an unlikely place for a global fashion designer and distributor, but it’s been home for Lil Grizz ever since he relocated from Hill City (a short halfhour drive to the southeast) eight years ago. Here, he finishes approximately one hat a day, working beside Mizz Grizz and their advanced apprentice Maudina Palmer, who goes by the trade name of Lander Red.

The rural location hasn’t kept Lil Grizz from reaching his clients, including global names such as Whoopi Goldberg, Nicholas Cage, and Patrick Gorman. These stars, like all Grizz’s clients, receive hats measured to fit their heads, including extra room for hair preferences. Goldberg’s hat, for example, was one of the largest Grizz made because it was designed to be worn comfortably over her hairstyle at the time, thick dreadlocks. While individual film stars have placed orders for hats, sometimes Hollywood calls in one large order. Recently, Lil Grizz completed a batch of hats for the 2022 Nicolas Cage film, Butcher’s Crossing. Based on the novel of the same name by John Williams, the film is set in the early 1870s and begins and ends in a small Kansas community at the edge of the fading Western frontier. “We did hats for all of the main characters and their doubles,” Joy explains. Being able to create hats that would be authentic to the time and place is an important aspect of Lil Grizz’s work and a reason he also has a client base among historical reenactors who attend events such as mountain man rendezvous and festivals. “The majority of our hats are worn by working cowboys and other outdoor workers. Some of the hats are purchased for the fashion conscious, but mostly they are used by folks needing good head covering,” Grizz notes. And these customers add up. “At any given time, we will have 30–50 hats in the queue, being stretched, trimmed, formed and conditioned,” Grizz explains.

Lil Grizz creates a variety of styles, most of which can be described as variations of cowboy hats, mountain man hats, derbies, or historical models. But he has created and continues to create customized variations.

“There’s a lot of leeway in what we can do with a hat,” says Lander Red, “as long as we have a reference photo for the hat, we

can create it; or people can send in examples and say they want a crown that looks like that, a brim that looks like this and so forth.” Whatever the style, the process cannot be rushed. Shaping the felt mass into a hat requires repeated stretching, pounding, and crimping, as well as applying copious amounts of steam obtained by covering the hats with hot-waterdrenched towels and applying additional heat from heavy irons and elbow grease. Between these steps, the felt hats have to rest, dry, and absorb the new shapes that have been applied to them. “Usually we have an 8–10 week turnaround time from when we receive the order until we ship out the final product,” Grizz adds. When finished, hats are sometimes taken to festivals or living history events such as Wild West Days at Cowtown near Wichita, but the Connecting majority are sold online. In addition, Grizz has put together a two-week course in hat making with Grizz skills that is teased on his YouTube channel. The course explains the techniques used in making the Though he specializes in authentic fashionwear hats out of felt blanks. Mizz Grizz says that during the pandemic, many new hatmakers got their start with these videos and some, such as Amy from the past, Lil Grizz Margerax of Malaysia, have gone on to start new is all over the internet. careers as advanced hatmakers after being inspired by Lil Grizz. You can find him and look over But back in the basement studio of the Grizz his hats at: place, the pace continues with a sharp focus on one hat at a time, well, with a break every now • hatsbygrizzmadewithjoy on Facebook for updates on latest and then to put a new Lil Grizz dance jam up on work and news TikTok. It’s all in a day’s work for one of the • Hats by Grizz — Made with Joy world’s top historically authentic hatmakers. on YouTube for demo videos • @hatsbygrizz on Instagram for portraits of stylish hats, hatmakers, and happy customers • @hatsbygrizz on TikTok for Lil

Grizz techno dance moves • @HatsByGrizz on Etsy main page for an overview of models and prices

Lil Grizz creates hats in a range of styles and colors. Here’s a selection of some of his best-sellers and personal favorites.

Hats, clockwise from top left: The Lil Grizz Mountain Man style hat; Upgraded Classic Derby style dress hat; Upgraded Buckaroo style cowboy hat; and US Cavalry style military hat.

Lil Grizz says he developed a love for hats competing in rodeos and working at a Western school as a high school student. But one other experience sparked his love of hats early in his life—watching the children’s show Captain Kangaroo. The Captain had a hat rack with various helmets and hats behind him. Lil Grizz realized that simply by putting on a different hat, the Captain and his friends could become different people in different times and in different places. For little Lil Grizz, it was a magical realization that helped lead to his lifelong career.