Using Fort Worth's 1936 celebration of the Texas State Centennial as a case study, this dissertation analyzes the way civic leaders and city boosters used the celebration as an opportunity to reinforce the city's western identity while proclaiming an image of modernity to fairgoers.
Chapter one describes the origin of Fort Worth's bid to host a memorial celebration to the livestock industry as part of Texas's centennial festivities in 1936 and the efforts of city boosters to use the celebration to repackage the city's western identity and simultaneously promulgate its images as a modern metropolis. The second chapter describes the gradual disenchantment of West Texans with the eastern focus of state's centennial plans and their support for and participation in Fort Worth's celebration. Chapter three describes the early efforts of Frontier Centennial planners to develop "authentic" western attractions while omitting references to the city's southern heritage and the prominent role played by Fort Worth's club women in refining the celebration's commemorative message. The fourth chapter analyzes the circumstances which ultimately brought Rose to Fort Worth and his pitch to revamp Frontier Centennial plans. Chapter five describes Rose's sexualization of the celebration and explores the paradoxical role played by women during the Frontier Centennial. Finally, the sixth chapter demonstrates Rose's use of prevailing symbols of the mythic West in the creation of a "themed space" in the physical layout of the Frontier Centennial fair grounds.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:TCU/oai:etd.tcu.edu:etd-12092011-145049 |
| Date | 09 December 2011 |
| Creators | Olmstead, Jacob Wayne |
| Contributors | Todd M. Kerstetter |
| Publisher | Texas Christian University |
| Source Sets | Texas Christian University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.tcu.edu/etdfiles/available/etd-12092011-145049/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to TCU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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