Calgary's history of fancy parties shatters Cowtown stereotype

Home of the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth,Calgarianshavenever been the type to shy away from a party not even in the early 1900s.

We're not talking aboutfrontiersmen and womenwearing plaid and hides,stomping out a saloon dance or two in their muddy boots.

No, the city'searliest partiersdressed to the ninespicturetop hats and tails, glitteringgowns,avant gardefashionsand even dance cards.

"From the very beginning, people have always talked about what everyone wore,"saidJenny Conway Fisher withtheGlenbowMuseum.

"You see these breathy newspaper articles about all the dignitaries and what they were wearing," detailing the intricacy of the lace, the sheen of the satinand the quality of the brocade, she said.

"When we looked at all these old records of parties and the history of celebration in Calgary, we found that from the very beginning, those early, early citybuilders and community-minded people, they wanted parties," Fisher said.

Dancing, in particular, was crucial to these social events.

"Itwasn't just a practice of the wealthy elite," said Fisher, who pointed to photos from the Jenkins' Groceteriawhere employees are pictured "dancing foxtrots, waltzes, you name it."

"ThePalliserHotel was an enormously popular venue for dances and galas," with rotating house bandsand dancesevery Wednesday and Saturday, Fisher said.

A metropolis, not a cowtown,from the start

A 1912article in the Calgary News Telegram takes great pains to break the stereotype of Calgary as a "wild, woolycowtown."

It details the failed travel plans of British playwright William Somerset Maugham, who had intended to come to Calgary to study frontier life and gather material for a boisterous, gun-fightingplay.

"The minute the playwright got here, obviously, he turned tail and left, because there was no wild west here to be found. It's a metropolis and a thriving, worldly city," Fisher explained.

The Glenbow Museum willcontinuethe tradition of snazzy Calgary parties this weekend with its annual Schmancygalafundraiser, with cocktails, theatre artists and local musicians.