This Month in St. Louis History

Artist George Catlin's Indian art grew in St. Louis

Noted artist George Catlin was in St. Louis when the U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act on May 26, 1830. That started Catlin's obsession for trying to capture on canvas as much Indian culture as he could.

Catlin could see that native culture would be destroyed as the U.S. government moved masses of Indians away from their home territories and onto remote reservations.

The Tivoli Theater opened its doors on May 8, 1932. That anniversary will give us a chance to look at how the theater business has changed from single-screen theaters to the gigantic multiplex.

A couple national figures-the founder of the Mayo Clinics in Minnesota and former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston-have unique connections with St. Louis.

Each month, the Missouri History Museum provides to Young Saint Louis.com items from the rich history of St. Louis and this Midwest area. Each item has an anniversary in the current month that links the person or event to our area.

Here is information about items with May anniversaries. When possible, YSL.com gives additional Internet links so you can learn even more.

Artist George Catlin and the Indians

The U.S. Congress passed the Indian Removal Act on May 26, 1830. That legislation brought a renewed sense of urgency to famed artist George Catlin's efforts to depict Indian culture before it was gone.

Catlin was in St. Louis in 1830, visiting William Clark of Lewis&Clark fame. Clark served as a mentor for Catlin as he shifted his art emphasis from portraits of people in the East to paintings about native Indians.

He roamed the Midwest from his base in St. Louis to paint scenes from the lives of plains Indians. The paintings ranged from a portrait of a Sioux Indian ball player in the 1830s to a buffalo stampede.

Catlin's Indian Gallery collection is now at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum.

Many of the paintings were done in the 1830-1836 period when St. Louis was his home.

Here are some interesting websites about Catlin. They include several copies of paintings from his Indian Gallery. They are: www.vmfa.museum/catlin/expansion.html, http://www.tfaoi.com/aa/4aa/4aa189.htm and www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/catlin.html.

The Tivoli Theater opened in 1924

The Tivoli Theater in the Delmar Loop in University City opened on May 24, 1924.

The opening night's festivities included speeches by St. Louis Mayor Henry W. Kiel and University City Mayor Warren C. Flynn. There was also a "photoplay" called "The Confidence Man," music by the Jules Silberberg Orchestra, Art Lee Utt on the Kilgen Wonder Organ and five vaudeville acts.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch described the theater as having "luxury and splendor eclipsing that of any other St. Louis theater."

The theater's economic history was one of ups and downs. It closed in 1994 but reopened in May 1995, after a $2 million renovation. This brought back the 1924 look and the theater has become one of the premiere independent and foreign film theaters.

The theater is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Here is a good short explanation of the evolution of U.S. theaters: www.nbm.org/blueprints/90s/spring95/page2/page2.htm.

Boxer Sonny Liston's link to St. Louis

Former heavyweight champion Charles "Sonny" Liston's connection with St. Louis was one that the city probably would just as soon forget.

Sonny Liston

His birth certificate said he was born May 8, 1932, in Arkansas. But, others said he might have been born as early as 1925. Regardless of when he was born, he was beaten regularly by his father.

Liston came to St. Louis at age 13 to live with his mother.

But, she wasn't up to the task of rearing the huge Sonny. He fell in with a bad crowd and, shortly afterward, was convicted of armed robbery and went to prison. It was while in prison that he was introduced to boxing.

He got out of prison in 1952 and, by the end of the 1950s, he was the top challenger to Floyd Patterson's heavyweight crown. Liston beat Patterson in one round in 1962 and, a year letter, did it once more, again in one round.

By 1964, a young Cassius Clay got a bout with Liston. Unlike Patterson, Clay wasn't intimidated and easily took Liston's crown. After a rematch, which Clay won, Liston was done and Clay was on his way to being Mohammed Ali.

Liston declined quickly, with the help of booze and drugs. He died of an overdose.

Liston's origins and final days were shrouded in mystery. But, when he flashed onto the national scene, St. Louis was his home-for better or for worse.

For a full story of Liston, visit http://www.blackathlete.net/artman/publish/article_0117.shtml.

Mayo Clinic founder's local connections

Dr. William Worral Mayo was born on May 31, 1819, in an English village of Eccles. He attended college in nearby Manchester, England.

Dr. William Worral Mayo and his family

After short periods of medical studies in Manchester, Glasgow and London, Mayo traveled to the United States in 1845.

He was a pharmacist at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. He stayed for a time in Buffalo, N.Y. He settled in Lafayette, Ind., where he was in the men's tailoring business.

By 1849, he returned to medicine and worked with Dr. Elizur Deming, one of the founders of Indiana Medical College.

He was married in 1851 and was on the move shortly afterwards. He spent a winter in St. Louis as an assistant in anatomy at the University of Missouri's medical department. He received a second MD degree here.

He moved back to Indiana but suffered recurring bouts of malaria. Finally, in 1854, he hitched up a horse and buggy and told his wife, "I'm going to keep driving until I get well or die."

He ended up in Minnesota and decided that was a good place to live. Malaria mosquitoes don't do well in that cold climate.

In 1859, he started the first medical practice in Minnesota. At first, he had to supplement his income by working on a riverboat and as a publisher of a weekly newspaper.

By the time he died in 1911, shortly after turning 92, he didn't need any second or third job. The Mayo Clinics today are known throughout the world. For more, visit http://www.mayohouse.org/mayo_story.htm.