What began as a short story quickly grew to become Melora Fern’s novel Whistling Women and Crowing Hens.”
After finding a box of mementos and learning that her grandmother, Verna Hintz Kurtz, traveled with the Versatile Quintet in the Swarthmore Chautauqua circuit as a trombone player and whistler in the 1920s, Melora Fern was inspired to write her debut novel.
In this Five by Five, Melora talks about her grandmother’s experience it’s the Chautauqua circuits, the research done for the book, and her next project.
When you learned of your grandmother’s story, what led to writing a book about it?
I found the little-known history around musical whistling and Chautauqua circuits fascinating and after more research, I decided I had to write about it. I first tried to write my grandmother’s story, but soon discovered I didn’t know enough to write that since she wasn’t around to give me answers to my many questions.
Before I knew it, these characters started living in my head. They were quite persistent that their story be told so I started writing down scenes involving the Versatile Quintet ladies. I wrote Birdie’s audition for the Chautauqua circuit as a short story first and soon found she had much more to say. After about 40 pages in, it became obvious this was going to a novel.
Since I hadn’t been schooled as a creative writer — my earlier career had been accounting — I knew I had much to learn! I went to my first writing workshop in North Carolina and kept writing until I had a very bad first draft! After many more workshops, online writing courses, following craft books and advice from my faithful writers critique group—I rewrote it, edited it, and honed it into a manuscript. It took eight years of writing and editing and then another year of querying to get it published as a book!
Tell me about your grandmother and her time with the Versatile Quintet.
Based on her scrapbook and brochures I believe my grandmother, Verna Hintz Kurtz, traveled with the Swarthmore Chautauqua circuit as a member of the Versatile Quintet during the summers of 1926-28. Unbeknownst to me, she played the trombone—a photograph of her holding one was at the top of the pictures I discovered in a family memento box. She was also a talented musical saw player and whistled in perfect pitch.
The few Swarthmore Chautauqua brochures she saved show that same photograph along with the other Versatile Quintet members; one holding a banjo, one behind a harp and the other two are smiling young women with bobbed haircuts. In the description, it reads “These five young ladies give unusually artistic programs of vocal solos, duets, quartets, readings, costumed songs, and humorous sketches.”
My grandmother also took a correspondence whistling course from the California School of Whistling founded by Agnes Woodward in 1923. I have her letter of acceptance, a certificate of completion, and her textbook, “The Art of Whistling” with her pencil markings in the margins. I have no idea how she did it, since my grandmother lived in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and the school was located in Los Angeles, California! You can see where I got many of my ideas for the characters in my novel.
I did know my grandmother whistled because I have a treasured memory of sitting with her on their back patio. Grandma whistled bird calls and several birds flew or hopped closer to converse with her, without any bird food or bread. I thought she was magical, like Snow White! She could whistle over 50 distinct bird songs. She whistled with the U.S. Navy Band on July 12, 1937, at a concert in Washington D.C. that was broadcast over many radio stations (based on several articles and a program). She continued to entertain through the years using her whistling, musical saw, and singing at local ladies luncheons, church groups, lodges and even the nearby Pocono Manor Resort. Sadly, she had a fatal stroke when I was 8 and neither she nor my mother had ever told me about her Chautauqua circuit days.
For those not familiar, what are the Chautauqua circuits?
The Chautauqua Movement, an American phenomenon at the turn of the 20th century, began as a Sunday school teacher’s camp in upstate New York in 1874. Loosely translated from the Iroquois language, “chautauqua” means “two moccasins tied together” which some say describe the shape of the nearby Lake Chautauqua. American history has appropriated the word Chautauqua to now be defined as “any of various traveling shows and local assemblies that flourished in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that provided popular education combined with entertainment in the form of lectures, concerts, and plays.”
“Mother Chautauqua,” The Chautauqua Institute, is still thriving today as an educational and recreational lakeside destination in upstate New York. President Teddy Roosevelt, who was one of four Presidents to visit the institute, has been quoted saying that Chautauqua was “the most American thing in America.” Because of the popularity of the institute at Lake Chautauqua, several towns adopted their own independent autonomous sessions, known as “daughter Chautauqua’s,” often sharing the same lecturers and musical acts.
However, it was the traveling Chautauqua circuits that brought the arts, educational lectures and cultural enrichment to small-towns all over North America. Any town could host a Chautauqua circuit, as long as the community leaders ensured the required number of season ticket sales. Circuits were a win-win for educating rural America—the circuits provided the tents, stage, talent, lecturers, and the town provided the ticket sales and people. And educate they did—in 1924, considered the circuits’ peak, there were over 1000 circuits in at least 10,000 towns providing culture to as many as 40 million people.
Circuit Chautauqua’s highbrow entertainment and lectures are referred as the forerunners to TED talks of today. They also influenced modern journalism, radio, television and podcasts. From around 1910 to 1936, circuit Chautauqua’s tents were set-up in tranquil areas—by a river, park or among trees and all daily activities were stopped so the townspeople could dedicate a week of their life to learn, be entertained, and connect with their families and communities.
Tell me about the time period and how it influences the book?
The 1920s were tumultuous, exciting, and ever-evolving. For many, especially those who lived in cities, there were dramatic cultural changes, economic prosperity, and new freedoms. However, just as many people who lived in rural towns resisted these same changes—they clung to their Victorian principals and morals. Prohibition is just one example of this push/pull of the 1920s. People had survived the Great War, which ended in 1918, followed by the Spanish Flu epidemic hardships, and many folks were not as open to all the social changes the “Roaring Twenties” brought. White women experienced the most transformation—from gaining the right to vote in 1920, to working many blue-collar jobs that had been considered “male only” before WWI, to riding in or even driving automobiles that became accessible during the 1920s.
“Whistling Women and Crowing Hens” is a coming-of-age story about a naïve woman who escapes her small town by train-traveling with a group of modern women all over America in 1924. It’s a perfect time period for a novel about a young woman finding her voice! I wanted to write a story that wasn’t about flappers, speakeasies, or jazz music because I learned that many women in the 1920s didn’t have those experiences. Most women adopted the new fashions, hairstyles, and phrases but they were uncomfortable with the social and sexual freedoms portrayed through the media about the flappers. It was important to me to represent these people, especially the women, the rural towns, the circuits, and the culture of the 1920s time period as accurately as I could.
Will there be another book?
Ab-sol-ute-ly! I’m in the research stage of my next novel. You can be assured that it will also be set during the 1920s because I find that time period to be rich with little known historical facts. Birdie and her Versatile Quintet friends most likely will make an appearance.
I did know my grandmother whistled because I have a treasured memory of sitting with her on their back patio. Grandma whistled bird calls and several birds flew or hopped closer to converse with her, without any bird food or bread. I thought she was magical, like Snow White! She could whistle over 50 distinct bird songs. She whistled with the U.S. Navy Band on July 12, 1937, at a concert in Washington D.C. that was broadcast over many radio stations (based on several articles and a program). She continued to entertain through the years using her whistling, musical saw, and singing at local ladies luncheons, church groups, lodges and even the nearby Pocono Manor Resort. Sadly, she had a fatal stroke when I was 8 and neither she nor my mother had ever told me about her Chautauqua circuit days.
For those not familiar, what are the Chautauqua circuits?
The Chautauqua Movement, an American phenomenon at the turn of the 20th century, began as a Sunday school teacher’s camp in upstate New York in 1874. Loosely translated from the Iroquois language, “chautauqua” means “two moccasins tied together” which some say describe the shape of the nearby Lake Chautauqua. American history has appropriated the word Chautauqua to now be defined as “any of various traveling shows and local assemblies that flourished in the U.S. in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that provided popular education combined with entertainment in the form of lectures, concerts, and plays.”
“Mother Chautauqua,” The Chautauqua Institute, is still thriving today as an educational and recreational lakeside destination in upstate New York. President Teddy Roosevelt, who was one of four Presidents to visit the institute, has been quoted saying that Chautauqua was “the most American thing in America.” Because of the popularity of the institute at Lake Chautauqua, several towns adopted their own independent autonomous sessions, known as “daughter Chautauqua’s,” often sharing the same lecturers and musical acts.
However, it was the traveling Chautauqua circuits that brought the arts, educational lectures and cultural enrichment to small-towns all over North America. Any town could host a Chautauqua circuit, as long as the community leaders ensured the required number of season ticket sales. Circuits were a win-win for educating rural America—the circuits provided the tents, stage, talent, lecturers, and the town provided the ticket sales and people. And educate they did—in 1924, considered the circuits’ peak, there were over 1000 circuits in at least 10,000 towns providing culture to as many as 40 million people.
Circuit Chautauqua’s highbrow entertainment and lectures are referred as the forerunners to TED talks of today. They also influenced modern journalism, radio, television and podcasts. From around 1910 to 1936, circuit Chautauqua’s tents were set-up in tranquil areas—by a river, park or among trees and all daily activities were stopped so the townspeople could dedicate a week of their life to learn, be entertained, and connect with their families and communities.
Tell me about the time period and how it influences the book?
The 1920s were tumultuous, exciting, and ever-evolving. For many, especially those who lived in cities, there were dramatic cultural changes, economic prosperity, and new freedoms. However, just as many people who lived in rural towns resisted these same changes—they clung to their Victorian principals and morals. Prohibition is just one example of this push/pull of the 1920s. People had survived the Great War, which ended in 1918, followed by the Spanish Flu epidemic hardships, and many folks were not as open to all the social changes the “Roaring Twenties” brought. White women experienced the most transformation—from gaining the right to vote in 1920, to working many blue-collar jobs that had been considered “male only” before WWI, to riding in or even driving automobiles that became accessible during the 1920s.
“Whistling Women and Crowing Hens” is a coming-of-age story about a naïve woman who escapes her small town by train-traveling with a group of modern women all over America in 1924. It’s a perfect time period for a novel about a young woman finding her voice! I wanted to write a story that wasn’t about flappers, speakeasies, or jazz music because I learned that many women in the 1920s didn’t have those experiences. Most women adopted the new fashions, hairstyles, and phrases but they were uncomfortable with the social and sexual freedoms portrayed through the media about the flappers. It was important to me to represent these people, especially the women, the rural towns, the circuits, and the culture of the 1920s time period as accurately as I could.
Will there be another book?
Ab-sol-ute-ly! I’m in the research stage of my next novel. You can be assured that it will also be set during the 1920s because I find that time period to be rich with little known historical facts. Birdie and her Versatile Quintet friends most likely will make an appearance.
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