Cleveland Centennial Day

Cleveland News - Tuesday, July 21, 1936

One hundred years ago tomorrow, a group of intent men met and signed a charter signifying to the world that Cleveland, the town on the Great Lakes, was a city and was to be recognized as such.

And tomorrow, Cleveland, grown into size and importance far beyond the fondest hope of its incorporators, will officially celebrate its birthday and the 140th anniversary of its founding with exercises and speeches, with factory whistles screaming, auto horns tooting and a general half holiday for all the town.

Mayor Harold H. Burton declares:

“Wednesday, July 22, 1936 is designated as Cleveland Centennial day at the Great Lakes Exposition.

“That we may better understand and develop this opportunity, the afternoon of July 22 is hereby designated as a municipal half holiday when we all are urged and invted to attend and promote the exposition of the lake front and also the international exhibit of the Museum of Art, with the realization that they open new and important doors to Cleveland’s future.”

Centennial!

The Plain Dealer - Thursday, July 23, 1936
32,720 Visit Expo As City Has Birthday
75,000 watch parade
Mayor Starts Cleveland on Second Century

Cleveland at midnight last night formally ended its first 100 years as a corporate city and turned to face its second century.

From her sister Great Lakes cities of Lorain and Erie came delegations to help Cleveland celebrate. At the formal anniversary ceremony in the Mall plaza the leaders of those delegations, Mayor E.A. Braun of Lorsain and J,.D. Parent, “Ambassador of good will from Erie,” told Clevelanders that their cities were vitally interested in the growth and progress of Cleveland: that the bond that shipping had created among the three would, they hoped, bring them even closer together in the next 100 years.

Speaking at the ceremony in the plaza, (Mayor Harold H. Burton) urged Clevelanders to look ahead with confidence, pointing to the progress and accomplishments of the city since 1836.

“Let us look into the future after our first 100 years. Our ancestors fought with courage and determination to gain control of this land. Now we must fight with the same courage to rid ourselves of the osbatcles in our path to future progress.”

The parade was a conglomerate of almost every parade that has ever been devised. It was led by the conventional mounted police and by infantrymen. There followed bathing beauties in jinrichishas, a lion in a cage, a midget band and midget performers, elephants, monkeys in tiny automobiles, actors from the Globe Theater dressed in Elizabethan costume.

Pygmies from the Belgian Congo there were and several hundred men and women in the costumes of the various communities respresented in the Streets of the World, and palmists and a Chinese dragon, Indians, dinosaurs, Yeomanettes, Conestoga wagons, streamlined trucks and busses, the original steam engine Tom Thumb and a replica of the Wright brothers’ first airplane from the Parade of Years.

Actors parading in Shakespearean costumes? How gay is that?

Also on tap for Cleveland's Centennial celebration:

Ness Orders Full Report In Bet Probe
Told 3 Sons of Deputy Inspector Worked At Track
Officer Defends Self, Family
(Deputy Police Inspector Timothy J.) Costello told a reporter last night that he thought it “highly unfair and unjust” to question his conduct as a police officer because three of his children worked at a dog track.

Seek Name of 5th Headless Corpse
Police Hunt Maniac Killer; Coroner Not Sure Man Was Murdered
“There is nothing to indicate that there was any violence on skull or body,” (Cornoner A.J.) Pearce said. “ The whole thing was so decomposed that it is possible for the head to have dropped off and have been carried a few yards by a dog or other animal.”

Mayor Burton

Harold Hitz Burton (June 22, 1888 – October 28, 1964) served as the 45th mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, a member of the United States Senate and later Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was known as a dispassionate jurist who prized equal justice under the law. - Wikipedia

Bipartisanship is a quaint ideal. Burton was an Ohio State Representative and then law director of Cleveland before being elected as Mayor in 1935, running as a Republican. He held that position until 1941 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate where he met and befriended Truman. Harry S. made him a Supreme Court Justice in 1945.

As the 45th mayor of the city, he has been credited with rooting out organized crime and his pious public demeanor gained him the nickname the "Boy Scout Mayor."

When Burton became mayor of Cleveland in 1935, the city was infested with underworld mobs, riddled with police graft. He appointed young Eliot Ness safety director, started a clean-up which had spectacular results. One racketeer it dredged up was Albert Ruddy, who this week was convicted of shaking down building contractors for thousands of dollars during his 20-year reign as a union tsar. Burton earned for Cleveland, once a city shamed by its record of traffic deaths, the National Safety Award in 1939 and 1940. He turned his attention to public health, and this year Cleveland won the National Health Award. He has fought for free speech and tolerance. To Cleveland this year went the National Civil Liberties Award. - Time Magazine, Oct. 1940

He secured over $40 million in federal funds towards relief assistance, and championed Cleveland as a convention center - the Great Lakes Exposition and the Republican National Convention occurred under his watch.

I find it difficult to imagine he initiated those events, as they occurred in the first full year of his term.

Additional Soucres:
Ohio History Central
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History