310209 - Chief Black Hawk

Recording status:  recorded, not located

This offering of Empire Builders is one of the last broadcasts remaining in the series for which we have no recording, and no known copy of a continuity. The Great Northern Railway did pay to have this program recorded, but to my knowledge that recording has never surfaced, and might be lost for good.

There are a few things that we do know about this broadcast, however.

While the railroad referred to this play alternately as “Chief Black Hawk” or simply “Black Hawk,” the record is clear that the story submitted by its author was originally titled “Across a Copper Sky.” I think it’s a shame the railroad elected not to use that title.

In the February 9, 1931, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, the following synopsis of the show was featured:

The story of Black Hawk, famous leader of the Sacs and Foxes in the last great Indian wars of the Mississippi valley, will be presented over WTMJ and NBC stations at 9:30 p.m. Edward Staadt, head of the drama department at the University of Minnesota, is the author of the play from which the radio drama is adapted.

On the same day, the Seattle Times had this preview of the broadcast:

An Indian classic replete with suspense, drama and surprise is given over KOMO at 7:30 o'clock on the program of the Empire Builders. The drama brings to listeners the romantic days in which the famous Indian Chief Black Hawk led his warriors to tragic defeat, while on the fringe of the narrative is a youth, Abraham Lincoln.

The author of this night's play, Edward F. Staadt.

When the Great Northern Railway conducted their radio script contest in the late summer of 1930, one of the conduits for the solicitation of entries was radio station KSTP in St. Paul, Minnesota. The winner of that contest was 31-year-old Edward Fred Staadt. He was head of the Dramatic Department of the School of Speech at the University of Minnesota. As winner of the contest run through station KSTP, Staadt was awarded first prize of $250.

Fortunately for Staadt, he lived long enough to enjoy hearing his radio play performed over the radio on the Empire Builders program.

Sadly, he drowned in Lake Minnetonka in Minneapolis on June 24^th, 1931, before he could celebrate his 32^nd birthday in October.

Edward F. Staadt, 1899-1931

One measure of the lengths to which Harold Sims and the GN management team went to judge the reaction of their radio advertising campaign by the listening public was the open-ended direction made to all GN agents on the line to gather feedback after every broadcast. Some of the correspondence found in the Great Northern archives in St. Paul indicate that very little filtering of feedback was done. Certainly, people providing feedback – voluntarily, and directly to representatives of the railroad – were probably inclined to have something positive to say. The railroad’s methodology of collecting feedback was hardly scientific, and by its very nature may well have left a significant amount of unflattering opinions on the table. However, it is still instructive to see what feedback was coming in on a regular basis, and accept it as the trend that it was.

Here are a few excerpts of feedback collected by GN agents after the airing of Chief Black Hawk:

We heard last night over the radio … a recital of the story of Black Hawk. One of the characters in the sketch was General Joseph W. Street, Indian Agent at Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin. My wife, a granddaughter of General Street, was very much interested, and wants to know the source of the information on which the story was based … My wife was raised at Fort Benton, Montana, her father being in the trading business there during and after the Civil War, and she greatly enjoys your Empire Builders stories. 

                 --  Charles Cunningham, St. Louis, Missouri

Your stories are entertaining and best of all, have a moral, which all good ones have. Your playlet two weeks ago, about the boy and the boat made tears come to our eyes, while last Monday’s proved most interesting to us because we live in that region along the Mississippi where Black Hawk had his camp.

                        --  Verna Kiehue, Burlington, Iowa, in a letter addressed to the Old Timer

Enjoyed your program last Monday night so well that I just feel I must write and tell you about it. Was born and raised in Prairie du Chien so understood your play very clearly. Although it made me feel blue, I enjoyed it. The Fort Crawford is only a short distance from the school I attended. The Black Hawk tree is a thing of the past, it decayed so that it was taken out and I think they have monument there. They also have a monument of Father Marquette in the St. Mary’s College yard.

                        --  Mrs. George Steinbach, Superior, Wisconsin
 

Vintage postcard showing the fabled Black Hawk Tree

 

Until next week, keep those dials tuned to Empire Builders!