The Hope Lions are not the oldest civic club in Hope, but they are the largest by enrollment and the club does have a 78-year history here.
The March 19, 1947 edition of the Hope Star features below the fold of its first page, which usually placed big national and state stories at the top, a short paragraph headlined “Local Lions Receive Charter.” The induction meeting of the Hope Lions Club took place the night before, a Monday. As the story explains, the charter for the club was brought by deputy governor Ben McCray of District 7-B to Hope High School. It’s not specified which room. But as 150 attendees looked on, the Hope Lions Club was born. It’s tempting to think it took place in Hope High’s auditorium, which came with the main building itself in 1931.
As you might expect of the meeting’s setting, a bit of education took place that March evening: “Herbert Shull, Sr. of Texarkana acted as master of ceremonies. Lionism was discussed by Phillip Alston, also of the Texarkana club, which sponsored organization of the local club.” Charles Armitage is listed as welcoming visitors, always an important part of club meetings today, while club vice-president Leo Robins is said to have answered. This must have been part of a Lions ritual that is no longer practiced in Hope. Whether Armitage was acting in his capacity as Hope Chamber of Commerce secretary or as a Lion, isn’t known.
The invocation was said by Rev. S.A. Whitlow and three musical performers are listed, Luther Hollamon Jr., W.W. Andrews and Mrs. C.P. Whitsill. No photos of the occasion are included. Unfortunately, the inclusion of local photos in the Hope Star was a relative rarity in that era, but there were ample photos of world and national events, and even Hollywood stars in pages that offered promotional articles on the movies about to appear at the Rialto Theater.
In the next few weeks, the regular meetings apparently happened every Monday evening at the Hotel Barlow, which was located for 75 years on 102 South Elm, current home of the Melon Patch Restaurant. For these first meetings, there are also short articles.
The first of these meetings noted in the Hope Star has the Lions welcoming the boys of the Hope 4-H Club to talk about their travels to exhibit livestock animals. One of their visits was to Chicago, a disclosure causing the paper’s editor Alex Washburn to write in his everyday column Our Daily Bread that week that the police escort accompanying the boys through the Chicago streets had to be more for the protection of the town than for the boys he saw at that Lions meeting.
On April 22nd the Lions hosted Hope Chamber of Commerce president Charles A. Armitage, most likely the same welcomer of visitors at the induction a week before. His remarks, as quoted and paraphrased in the story, are revealing about priorities for Hope in the immediate post-war years.
Armitage says the chamber is “non-political and non-partisan” and represents not only employers but employees and “the community in general.” The principal goals concerning the use of the former Proving Grounds north of Hope are to “secure the opening of the major roads in the area, decontaminate as much of the dangerous area as possible without major delay and maximum utilization of the industrial area.”
Armitage also said the chamber was working toward the building of “a second underpass in the city” and “mapping out a program toward more equitable property tax assessments” so as to fund two much-needed school buildings. He closed by saying anyone operating a business could join as a member of the chamber. The story notes that guests to the meeting were Talbot Feild Sr. of the Texarkana Lions and Talbot Field Jr. of Hope. J.A. Gunter Jr is also listed as a guest.
At a meeting described in the Hope Star on the bottom of the May 6th first page, Superintendent of Hope Schools Jimmy Jones followed up on Armitage’s call, saying “This is your school district and it is to your interest to help secure equalization of assessments.” Say that three times fast. Jones went on to say local funds were down and no federal aid was likely forthcoming. With the number of students on the increase, Jones said the system needed to rebuild the Brookwood school “off the highway, build a school in Ward two on property already acquired for the purpose and change Oglesby school into a junior high school.”
The last line of the story, headlined “Lions Hear Discussion on Schools” may be the most crucial one where continued Hope Star coverage of meetings was concerned. It announces the change of meeting times to Monday at noon in the same Hotel Barlow location. From this point forward, very few descriptions of Lions meetings will be seen in 1947’s papers.
But first, we learn about the proceedings of the first Monday noon meeting in the May 13th issue. On that lunch hour, the Lions arrived in the Hotel Barlow dining room to find a film projector. They would be shown what is described in the story as “an athletic training film shown by E.R. Brown, county supervisor of Education,” which featured “the many-time AAU champions Phillips ’66’ Oilers in action against competition and in training.” The film showed “such stars as Gordon Carpenter and RC Pitts, both former University of Arkansas all southwest satellites, and Bob Kurland, 7-foot former Oklahoma A&M basketball captain and twice all-America center who can jump into the air beside the basket and score by tossing the ball downward through the hoop.”
This breathless prose, likely by Washburn but without a byline, goes on to say the film was from Phillips Petroleum, had sequences of slow-motion and had an instructional purpose in showing how the players made their various moves. But, impressed as Washburn seems here, he does not make it to any other Lions meetings in 1947. We learn May 26th of plans by the Lions to sponsor a “hillbilly musical” entitled Cornzapoppin’ to be performed at Hope High June 5th and 6th, directed by Mildred Duncan Williams and expected to involve a local cast of 60 to 75 men. It must have been loud.
The next mention in the Star of the Lions is a July 8th announcement of a softball game in Fair Park against the Kiwanis club. The Lions are said to have challenged any civic club to take them on and the “Kiwanians” were the only ones to take up the gauntlet. No mention is made in subsequent issues of who won.
The next mention of the Hope Lions comes in December, when it is announced the Lions will hold a Christmas banquet. Christmas auctions and fish fries were still yet to come.