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Identifier
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PUA_MS166_006
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Title
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Myra Beeler, Laura Frye, Jerry Frye, Jane Romig, and Peggy Alexander oral history recording
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Description
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Myra Beeler, Laura Frye, Jerry Frye, Jane Romig, and Peggy Alexander oral history interview on the Gay Nineties and Barbershop Ballad Contest, recorded July 11, 2025 at the United Church of Christ in Forest Grove, Oregon. Elle Griego, the interviewer, was a History and French undergraduate student at Pacific University from 2022-2026.
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The group being interviewed are church friends, with many growing up together in Forest Grove in the 1940s and 1950s. Several are Pacific University alumni, and Jerry and Laura Frye owned Frye's Action Athletics in downtown Forest Grove. In the interview, the group discusses their memories of the festival and barbershop contest, as well as their early lives in Forest Grove, their connections through church and Pacific University, and their personal involvement in the festival. They reflect on the festival's origins and earliest years, and the decline of the event due to changing times and technology.
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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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July 11, 2025
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Extent
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1 video file (1 hr., 12 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
