AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  OF  UNIVERSITY  WOMEN FREMONT,  CA

100th ANNIVERSARY WOMEN’S RIGHT TO VOTE

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Votes for Women Presentation Gets Vote of Approval

By Shirley Gilbert

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Cast members pose for a picture after their performance:  (left to right top row) Bob Garfinkle as Senator Sanford; Dave Fishbough, narrator; Avis Kresin as Mary Keith; Eleanor Pickron as Clara Foltz; John Monkman as John Gardiner; Steve Barnett as John Hyde Braly.  Bottom row, left to right, Pete Angelides as Robert Martin; Shirley Gilbert, writer and narrator; Kathy Garfinkle as Selina Solomons; Miriam Keller as mastermind of the project; Ann Crosbie, director and Mary Lynn Pelican as Sarah Hannigan.       It’s tough writing about a Readers’ Theater presentation you wrote and acted in but, as website content editor, I’m happy to do so.       The one-hour long Readers’ Theater presentation with 10 local actors in costume was a collaboration among the Fremont Branch AAUW, the League of Women Voters, the National Organization for Women, the Fremont Main Library and Patterson House (for costumes).       It was quite a gala celebration. There were balloons in the colors used by the suffragists of 1911 -- purple and gold; cookies made by members of the three organizations; posters; banners; information on the vote; even a quiz to test your knowledge of the Votes for Women campaign.  (For example:  What state first gave women the right to vote?  The answer is:  Wyoming.)       As the large crowd filed in and took seats, songs of the suffragists filled the room -- the words rewritten for the campaign from the popular music of 1911.       A slide show came next, depicting suffragist slogans, pictures, some of the principal characters in the Votes for Women play to come, and shots by Mary Lynn Pelican of AAUW, LWV and NOW members marching in the Newark Days Parade on September 17.  The slides were creatively put together by Judy Huff, AAUW Fremont member and her husband Ed.       There was a bugle fanfare to bring the crowd to attention just as the Votes for Women suffragists did during their whirlwind campaign so long ago.  After that, a Barber Shop Quartet serenaded with a song of the era.  That was another campaign feature of the 1911 special election.       AAUW member and Bay Area lawyer Pauline Weaver welcomed the audience, named the presentation’s collaborators and introduced the Votes for Women narrators Shirley Gilbert and Dave Fishbough.

Mary Lynn Pelican is here with Congressman Pete Stark who called the performance “magical.”       For the next hour, theater-goers were introduced to the four principal real-life characters that told the story of this incredible and creative campaign with the help of the narrators.   League of Women Voters member and drama specialist Ann Crosbie directed the production.       AAUW’s Kathy Garfinkle was the saucy and spirited Selina Solomons (1867-1942) from San Francisco who was a leading suffragist in the campaign and chronicled it all in her book:   How We Won the Vote in California.       AAUW member Avis Kresin was the kindly and hardworking suffragist Mary McHenry Keith (1855-1947) who was known as ”Berkeley’s Mother of Suffrage“ and who headed up the campaign in Northern California.       League of Women Voters member Eleanor Pickron played the role of the mesmerizing, forceful speaker and brilliant lawyer Clara Shortridge Foltz (1849-1934).  She headed up the campaign in Southern California.       Steve Barnett of the Niles Rotary was John Hyde Braly (1835-1923), a retired Pasadena businessman, who brought many of Los Angeles’ most prominent men into the campaign.       There were several “antis” and rabble-rousing opponents of the amendment in the audience and they inspired boos and hurrays from the crowd.  Pete Angelides played the angry Henry Martin, who was afraid the women would take away his booze.   Mary Lynn Pelican was the “typical housewife” Sarah Hannigan who believed women would get more respect if they stayed as they were without the vote.  Bob Garfinkle was Senator Sanford, a well-known opponent of women petitioning for the vote.  Bob Monkman was John Gardiner, an “anti” who felt women would get dirtied by the mud of politics if they were granted suffrage.

Miriam Keller, who chaired the team who presented this Votes for Women Readers’ Theater Show, stands in front of the questions and answers on the subject of women’s suffrage in California.       There was thunderous applause when the performance was done.  The actors took pictures with Congressman Pete Stark, congressional representative from the East Bay, who called the performance “magical.”       At the close of the Readers’ Theater a cornucopia of cookies along with juice, coffee and tea were available for munching.  AAUW’s Liz Poe was in charge of getting the cookies on the beautiful tables and she enlisted many members to help her.   Janice Longo created the Votes for Women sashes and decorated the room with posters.       Putting on an ambitious celebratory program such as this one took an army of volunteers from the five sponsoring agencies.   AAUW and LWV member Miriam Keller was the mastermind who headed up the whole effort, keeping everything on track.  Thanks go to all the contributing members who had a hand in a glorious celebration and cause.       The show ended with the cast and everyone else shouting:  Happy Hundredth Anniversary!   This was a fitting ending to a great story.        Click Here to view the album of pictures from the Votes for Women afternoon at the Fremont Main Library on October 15.

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