Helen Korngold Diary: July 14-20, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

This year I am sharing the 1919 diary of Helen Korngold of St. Louis, MO.

After graduating from Washington University Helen went on a trip to Colorado.

July
Monday 14

Village not very exciting. Edith & I waded in Big Thompson – lots of fish – Met Mr. Strothers from K.C. Used to go to Central. Played ball with him & danced. He’s a fine chap. To bed, after a long chat with him.

Tuesday 15

Mr. & Mrs. Nieman took me riding – They are just too dear for words. We had a lovely dinner – time to go to lunch. Danced with Edith & Durand. Fooled around – dinner – talked & danced.

Wednesday 16

Walked to Country Club with May – rode back – met a mutual friend Harry Thomas McGarry. Took pictures & talked – lunch – home to ret. Dinner. Danced all evening. Smith is a wild dancer. While Strother is almost pep-less.

Thursday 17

Tired. Rest all morning. Read. Lunch – talked. Took a long hike with David. Home – He’s nice, but not very excellent company. 

Friday 18

To town with May & David. He’s a sport when it comes to (?) Home in time for lunch. Slept all afternoon. Dinner – played cards. Edith may leave tomorrow morning.

Saturday 19

Write letters. Walk to village with Durand. Longs Peak Inn & Copland Lake. Drove into lake. Wild. Danced in evening.

Sunday 20

Judge went to Longs Peak. Outside all morning. Met Betty Kouchin’s chum Julia Cross. Spent afternoon with them. Out with David & girls in evening. Durand & I got home at 11 bells. Not very exciting.

NOTES:

July 14

Mr. Strothers of Kansas City who went to Central High may be Lewis Strothers in the 1905 Central HS yearbook, born 1889

July 16

Longs Peak Poster

Harry Thomas McGarry appears in the Colorado Springs 1922 City Directory as an attorney. He was born in New York around 1895. In the 1921 Colorado Springs City Directory, he is listed as president of Farmer’s and Miner’s Trading Company. July 19 Copland Lake is a manmade lake in the Rocky Mountain National Park Longs Peak Inn was a lodge purchased by Elizabeth and Esther Burnell summer of 1916. In 1918 Esther married Enos Mills and they ran the inn together.

1912 photo of Long's Peak Inn

See another photo here

July 20

Betty Kuchai/Kouchin may be the Betty G. Kuchai on the 1916 through 1922 Denver, CO city directories, working for Cranmor & Co. as a stenographer or bookkeeper. There is a death record for Betty Kuchai Mendel, born October 10, 1901, in Colorado and died October 31, 1980, in Los Angeles. Her father’s name was Kuchai and mother’s maiden name was Kirchner.

An Abraham Kuchai appears on the 1910 Denver Census married to Ray with children Rebecca, Esther, Lena and Hyman. He was Russian/Yiddish, arrived in America in 1904, and worked as a job lot peddler. In 1915 he appears on the Denver City Director working for Girvan Furniture & Auction. In 1916 and 1917 his business is listed as ‘clothing.’ In 1924 Ray is working as a milliner and Hyman is a clerk in the Piggly Wiggly. In 1942 Ray Kuchai donated $35 towards the Jewish American Congress, organized in 1917 to secure Jewish rights at the end of the war.

Helen Korngold Diary: June 30-July 6, 1919

Helen Korngold, Dec. 1919, New York City

Every Saturday in 1919 I am sharing excerpts from the 1919 diary of Helen Korngold of St. Louis, MO.

The summer after graduating from Washington University, Helen visited her uncle Joseph Frey at Colorado Springs, CO. She went to the new tourist destination of Pike's Peak.

June
Monday 30
Orchestra party

July
Tuesday 1
Wild – Leaving for Colorado – nice trip – but car sick

Wednesday 2
Missed our train in Pueblo but arrived in Colo. Springs o.k. Dined at Elks & met one. J. W. certainly had a time of it.

Thursday 3
Rented new quarters. Shopped. Mts are gorgeous looking. Went all over Colo. Springs. It’s a nice, clean town – I can’t realize how beautiful the mts are. Just look at them all day.

Friday 4
Motored to Pikes Peak. 1800 miles from Colo. Springs. 2’hd miles above sea level –We went with some people named Dunn – very lovely folks. We were far above the clouds – quite thrilled. The peak is gorgeous – beautiful view.

Saturday 5
Took long Cripple Creek Drive – 210 miles – saw Gorge (Royal) – climbed down – almost fell off- thrilling! Gorgeous granite & rock formations – beautiful scenery – cool & refreshing drive.

Sunday 6

Broadmoor Hotel – golf – swimming & dinner. Very comforting – loving place. Went then came up winds - most wonderful limestone formations – beautiful crystal & stalagmites & stalagmites – one of the prettiest I have ever seen.

NOTES:

from The Jewish Voice, July 11, 1919

the Broadmoor Hotel

Colorado Springs and Pikes Peak were fashionable and upscale resorts. Helen stayed in the Broadmoor Hotel, built by Spenser Penrose in 1918. It featured a golf course with a women’s locker room, quite a novel idea, and also offered the largest indoor pool in the West. The ballroom had marble pilasters, plum colored wall curtains, and crystal chandeliers. The floor was made of layers of wood and springs for dancing! Also offered was horseback riding.

Broadmoor Hotel offered modern facilities

Broadmoor Hotel accommodations

The bedrooms were carpeted in olive green with a small pattern. The paneled walls were French Gray. Scrim curtains and figured cretonne drapes dressed the windows. The rooms had glass topped dressers, a silk shaded light, a chiffonier, table desk, twin beds with silk coverlets, an upholstered armchair, and a nightstand with a phone. The bathrooms were tiled in white with white porcelain fixtures. A green bath matt gave a splash of color.

the Pauline Chapel

The Pauline Chapel was built in the spring of 1919 and was named for Penrose’s daughter.

Motor Touring Pike's Peak

Later Helen and family removed to the Hotel Craggs, another legendary hotel. They motored to Pikes Peak, Longs Peak, The Garden of the Gods, Monument Park, Fall River and the Big Thompson River.

vintage image of Hotel Craggs

Garden of the Gods

                                                              

Gold Digger: A Rags to Riches to Rags Love Story

Baby Doe Tabor, born Elizabeth McCourt, was author Rebecca Rosenberg's life-long obsession and now Roseburg has resurrected Baby Doe in her newest book Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor. Rosenberg is the author of The Secret Life of Mrs. London--the 2020 Read Across California book choice and winner of the Independent Book Publisher's Gold Award.

The beautiful Baby Doe married for the promise of a gold mine--her mother always intended her to be the family's way out of debt. When her immature husband abandoned Baby Doe she supported herself by working for a tailor. Ever since she arrived in the Western wilds of Colorado, Baby Doe had turned heads and men scrambled for her favors. But the only man to claim her heart was the married Silver King Horace Tabor, who had rose from miner to riches to the U.S. Senate.

Baby Doe broke hearts when she and Tabor divorced their spouses and got married. The 'Tabor Luck' brought them spectacular wealth before the Eastern bankers convinced the Federal government to adopt the gold standard, sending silver prices plunging.

I was propelled to read Gold Digger. Baby Doe and her world are vividly rendered, and the economic and social challenges of the times are addressed through the action.

A terrifying scene of an attack on Chinese immigrants illustrates the anti-Chinese sentiment toward the people who came to do the manual labor. And the shunning of the Tabor wedding in Washington, D.C., even though President Arthur attended, illustrates the social rejection of the divorced.

Baby Doe's experiences ran the gamut from pampered daughter to the hard-working miner's wife who actually donned overalls and worked on site. She suffered a miscarriage and was abandoned by her first husband. She worked to support herself, fending off sexual predators and suitors. Then she coped with social rejection for her divorce and a relationship with the man she loved. Tabor showered her with riches and gave her two children before losing everything, but she stuck with him. No wonder that Rosenberg calls her 'remarkable'.

The sequel to Gold Digger, Silver Dollar (Baby Doe's daughter) is scheduled for release in September 2019--so readers won't have to wait long for the conclusion of Baby Doe's life!

Title: Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor
by Rebecca Rosenberg
Lion Heart Publishing
Price: $15.95 (print) $9.99 (e-book)
ISBN: 978-0-578-42779-9 (Print)
ISBN: 978-1-7329699-0-2 (Kindle)
Publication: May 29, 2019

Rosenberg writes about women who are survivors. She knows about resilience. She and her husband lost their home and lavender farm in a California wildfire in 2017.

Rosenberg's first novel, The Secret Life of Mrs. Jack London, imagines the relationship between the legendary novelist Jack London and his second wife Charmain, and her rumored affair with Harry Houdini. The story opens nine years into Jack and Charmain's marriage. Charmain had been Jack's typist. He divorced his first wife to marry Charmain.

I became his typist, his editor, his muse.--from The Secret Life of Mrs. Jack London by Rebecca Rosenberg

Romance is a prominent feature of the novel. Charmain was raised by an advocate of free love and she was comfortable with her sexuality.

In the novel, Jack finds Charmain essential but he also neglects her and carries on affairs. Charmain longs for their earlier passionate relationship. Men pursue her, making Jack jealous. Her suitors included Harry Houdini who loved his perpetual child-wife but found sexual fulfillment outside of marriage. Charmain's diaries refer to her affair with her 'Magic Man'.

Jack struggles with health issues and is burdened to pay for his many projects, both working hard and playing hard. Both Jack and Harry Houdini are charismatic, lionized, risk takers whose physical charms attract Charmain.

He said he'd never met a woman as game as me for adventure.--from The Secret Life of Mrs. Jack London by Rebecca Rosenberg

There is a desperation about Charmain that made me sad. Jack admired what he perceived as a masculine strength and bravery which matched his own. But what a burden it had to be to live up to his ideals!

Charmain not only typed his novels as he dictated them but cleaned them up, edited, and ghost-wrote them. She desperately wanted to succeed on her own as a writer but the publishers dismissed her until Jack arranged to have her books published.

Charmain discovers that men hold the power in the world and in love. Walking away, her life a blank journal, we hope she finds success on her own terms.

The Secret Life of Mrs. Jack London
by Rebecca Rosenberg
$14.95
Lake Union Publishing
ISBN 9781542048736