Fillmore County Flashback “The Womanless Wedding”

By Susan Ritter

Lanesboro Museum

In Lanesboro, Minn., on March 1 and 2, 1927, at the old Lanesboro High School auditorium, the Guttormson Post of the American Legion put on a three-act comedy “The  Womanless Wedding” to raise funds for the Legion and entertain the citizens of Lanesboro.

Around 77 business men took part playing both the male and female parts. Trunks of costumes came from the Sympson-LeVie Company of Bardstown, Kentucky. The director and probable playwright was Ester Dee Ladwig of Hampton Iowa. Teman Thompson of Thompson Brothers Furniture & Undertaking, the largest man in Lanesboro, played the bride and Carlton Bier, the manager of the Lanesboro cinema, the smallest man in Lanesboro, played  the groom.

There was the bride’s weeping mother E.P. Johnson, aka Ant Marta, who honked and bawled, and the bride’s comforting father H.T. (Hank) Aske, who had to continuously purchase  handkerchiefs to dry the weeping mother’s tears.

Teman Thompson’s brother, Olaf Thompson, equipped with a rolling pin, played a “Devoted  Wife” to H.C. Shattuck’s, leather goods shop owner “Hen-pecked Husband.”

There was the groom’s haughty parents, the aunt and uncle from Whalan, the old maid aunt, the country cousin, twin sisters, and bad little brothers. The baby sister was played by Harold  “Duffy” Lewis, a clothing store owner who overflowed the baby carriage being pushed by the  nanny played by Theodore Bell, Sr. There was a ring bearer, flower girls, present takers, punch  girls, maid of honor, matron of honor, bridesmaids, pages, best man and groomsmen.

In the last act, the butler, played by Paul Dorn, announced the distinguished guests as they  paraded down the aisle – President & Mrs. Coolidge, Governor & Mrs. Christianson, Mr. & Mrs.  John D. Rockefeller, Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Edison, Mr. & Mrs. Henry Ford, and Representative  from Minnesota & Mrs. Magnus Johnson. Then came the actors and actress, singers, musicians, cinema characters – Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Theda Bara aka “The Vamp,”  Italian coloratura soprano Madame Galli Curci, composer statesman Ignacy Paderewski, and violinist Fritz Kreisler. The parade of attendees gives a glimpse of the popular culture in 1927, the who’s who of popular films and prominent musician, politicians and businessmen.

The Lanesboro Museum has this record of the production of “The Womanless Wedding”  because of the local photographer Mathias O. Bue, a Norwegian immigrant and professional  photographer. Mathias Bue also put on ringlets, a bow and a dress and played one of the twin sisters with Henry Langlie. Not only did Bue take the cast photograph, but he also shot  character studies of various actors such as Gerald “Jerry” Olson as Charles Chaplin, Dr. R.N. Palmer as Theda Bara with towering headdress. These character studies were printed on  postcards so that the actors could inform friends and family of their theatric endeavors.

Lanesboro was one of the first towns to perform “The Womanless Wedding.” But a search of the  internet shows many towns throughout the midwest put on “The Womanless Wedding” play  during the late 1920s and early 1930s including the town of Preston, Minn.

Formed in 2020, the Fillmore County History Partners is a voluntary collaborative of local history organizations and museums. Participants include: Canton Historical Society, Chatfield Historical Society, Fillmore County Historical Society, Harmony Area Historical Society, Historic Forestville, Lanesboro Historic Preservation Association, Lenora Pioneer Church, Mabel Historic Preservation, 1877 Peterson Station Museum, Preston Historical Society, Rushford Area Historical Society, Whalan Town Hall Museum, Wykoff Area Historical Society.