Colorado Women: A History

8. Conformity and Change

181 In 1914 Charlotte Perry and Portia Mansfield founded a summer dance camp near Nederland. Although the inaugural camp was successful over­ all, there were problems. The camp was located too close to Denver, which meant proximity to the peering eyes of men anxious to see “scantily clad nymphs” dancing on the hillsides. At 9,000 feet above sea level, the rarified mountain air exhausted the dancers. Lightning storms frightened campers as well as their leaders, who were not known for their timidness. After all, how many women founded their own dance camp on a shoestring budget, even in the intoxicating Roaring Twenties? Only Perry and Mansfield, defying their parents and conventional wisdom, proved adventurous enough.1 Unwilling to abandon their dream, Perry and Mansfield crossed the Continental Divide and settled in Steamboat Springs, where they continued to shock and intrigue local citizens who alternately complained about their existence and eagerly sought out news and views of the camp and its denizens. E i g h t Conformity and Change (1920–1929) DOI: 10.5876/9781607322078.c08 182 C o n f o r m i t y a n d C h a n g e Although their cows provided milk and their garden provided vegeta­ bles for the dining room, Perry and Mansfield purchased meat from neigh­ boring ranches. Delivery boys were treated to a multitude of sights and sounds. Girls and young women not involved in practices rode horses, splashed in the stream, and swam in the lake. Others hiked along narrow paths woven between strands of pine and aspen trees. If practice was in ses­ sion, delivery boys caught glimpses of dancers clad in skin-fitting tights, sin­ ewy wraps, and flowing chiffon robes.2 At mealtime, the dining room was a beehive of noise, as laughter and chatter emanated from every corner of the room made of rough-hewn wood. These sights and sounds were duly relayed to friends, who further spread the news. Many townspeople were shocked, but their disapproval did not affect the popularity of the Perry-Mansfield Camp among dancers, as the 1920s proved to be a time of artistic innovation and creativity. That, however, was not the case for everyone. A Decade of Contrasts For American citizens, the password of the 1920s was conformity. The Great Crusade of World War I had only disillusioned progressive reform­ ers and internationalists. The peace treaty process at Versailles and President Figure 8.1 Dancers, clad in flowing garments, at the Perry-Mansfield Camp captivated the attention of Steamboat Springs delivery personnel and set townspeople’s tongues wagging. The innovative camp still operates from its home in Strawberry Park. Courtesy, Tread of Pioneers Museum, Steamboat Springs, CO. 183 C o n f o r m i t y a n d C h a n g e Woodrow Wilson’s unsuccessful struggle for its ratification had reinforced the views of cynics and isolationists. War-induced nativism not only endured but actually worsened during the 1919–1920 Red Scare, when the Bol­ shevists became the scapegoat for the country’s labor-capital troubles. The public and politicians, seeing Red everywhere and encouraged by the yel­ low journalism of Randolph Hearst and others, made mass accusations and clamored for the arrest and deportation of suspected troublemakers. The Denver Post’s pro-management articles incited such animosity from labor that its offices fell victim to rioting during the Denver Tramway Strike in August 1920. But with little substantial proof of any real Red danger, the scare petered out in the early 1920s. However, this was not the case for nativ­ ism or its silent partner, Americanism. As was true in other states, the influx of large numbers of immigrants influenced state and local politics, demographics, and progressive reforms in Colorado. Starting in the 1880s, as boat after boat disgorged thousands of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, nativists gained politi­ cal strength by wailing over the new immigrants’ racial inferiority, drinking culture, and non-Protestant religion. One way to counteract the foreigners’ different-ness was through Americanization, or assimilation into American society. The federated women’s clubs made Americanization their project for 1918–1920. In their efforts to Americanize foreigners, clubwomen realized that they needed to study American government and citizenship. The North Side Woman’s Club of Denver invited Emily Griffith of the Opportunity School to discuss the topic, while other club meetings discussed “immigra...