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Identifier
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PUA_MS166_001
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Title
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Carol Drew oral history recording
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Description
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Carol Drew oral history interview on the Gay Nineties and Barbershop Ballad Contest, recorded June 20, 2025 at her residence in Forest Grove, Oregon. Born in 1939, Drew has lived in Forest Grove since the 1950s. A prominent member of the local community, she graduated from Pacific University in 1960 with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. Elle Griego, the interviewer, was a History and French undergraduate student at Pacific University from 2022-2026.
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In the interview, Drew shares her memories of the festival and contest, as well as her childhood growing up in Van Nuys, California and Lebanon and Sweet Home, Oregon during the 1940s. She first started participating in the Gay Nineties Festival as a Pacific University student in the 1950s, describing how the event celebrated the town's history with parades, costumes, and barbershop quartets. Drew notes that the decline of the festival coincided with the decline of small businesses and the town becoming more of a bedroom community. She emphasizes the importance of community traditions and suggests that Forest Grove could revive similar celebrations to get the community to come together again. Drew also reflects on her involvement with Friends of Historic Forest Grove, a group she co-founded to preserve local history.
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The Gay Nineties was an annual festival in Forest Grove, Oregon, centered around a theme of nostalgia for the 1890s decade. The event, which ran from 1947 through the 1990s, featured a parade downtown, residents dressing up in 1890s-themed costumes for the celebrations, local businesses decorating their window displays, and the crown jewel of the event, the Original All-Northwest Barbershop Ballad Contest, which earned Forest Grove the nickname “Ballad Town U.S.A.”
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This is one of a collection of oral history interviews on the Gay Nineties Festival and the Barbershop Ballad Contest at the Pacific University Archives. This recording is accompanied by a transcript, which was made through AI in 2025 with manual corrections.
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Date: Year(s)
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2025
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Date: Display
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June 20, 2025
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Extent
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1 video file (1 hr., 36 min.)
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Copyright
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http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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Contributor
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Griego, Elle
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Format
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MP4
