The Priests of Pallas

The Priests of Pallas (often abbreviated “POP”) was Kansas City’s grand autumn parade-and-pageant festival, first staged on October 13, 1887.¹ Organized by a clique of local businessmen and built around the theme of Pallas Athena — the Greek goddess for whom the festival’s “Priests” were named — it featured a secret society, elaborate illuminated floats, and a coronation ball. Conceived as a booster spectacle to rival New Orleans’s Mardi Gras and St. Louis’s Veiled Prophet and to brand Kansas City the “Athens of the West,” it ran as an annual fall event through 1912, was revived briefly in 1922-1924, and was again revived as a fundraising ball in the mid-2000s.²

Origin (1887) + the boosterism era

The festival was launched in 1887 by a group of Kansas City businessmen known as the Flambeau Club, headed by Lambdin E. Irwin.³ At a moment when American cities competed openly for population, investment, and prestige, the organizers wanted a signature civic spectacle: New Orleans had Mardi Gras and St. Louis had the Veiled Prophet, and the Flambeau Club set out to promote Kansas City as the “Athens of the West.”¹ To that end they adopted the theme of Pallas Athene (a pseudonym for the Greek goddess Athena), the festival’s patroness, and styled their members as her “Priests.”³ The first parade was held in downtown Kansas City on the evening of October 13, 1887, and President Grover Cleveland and his young bride, Frances Folsom Cleveland, were on hand to witness it during a national tour.¹⁴

The parades, floats + the secret society

The Priests of Pallas was organized as a secret society of business leaders, and much of the public’s fascination came from the members’ undisclosed identities and plans.⁴ The horse-drawn floats were assembled and hidden inside the “Priests’ Den” — described as a warehouse on Lydia Avenue between 7th and 8th streets — and revealed only when the parade began after nightfall.¹ Crowds gathered at the Den’s gates; as the doors opened, fireworks lit the path for mounted, armored guards, the robed Priests, and a float bearing the festival queen Athena, portrayed by an elaborately costumed performer.¹ Over the festival’s run the floats evolved from the horse-drawn variety to electrified floats that glided along the city’s streetcar tracks, a spectacle that strained Kansas City’s electric system.² The week-long festival also culminated in a coronation ball.²

Civic role + spectacle

The Priests of Pallas functioned as a boosterism vehicle: a publicly visible demonstration of Kansas City’s wealth, ambition, and capacity for spectacle, intended to draw visitors and tourism revenue in the manner of its model festivals.³ Each year the city “spared no expense” on the public festival honoring Pallas.³ The illuminated night parades drew large crowds and made the event one of the region’s major annual civic celebrations during the late 1880s through the early 1910s.⁴

Decline + revival attempts

The festival’s expense ultimately undermined it; by the 1910s some observers had come to regard the extravagant spectacles as tacky, and the 1912 ball proved to be the last POP event for nine years.² Contributing factors cited include the difficulty of securing a building to serve as the “Den,” the loss of the streetcar company’s complimentary facilities amid its financial troubles, and competition from the rising American Royal livestock show and parade, which by then occupied the same autumn slot.² The parade and ball returned in 1922, with revived editions held in 1923 and 1924, but the public — by then content with the American Royal — did not respond, and organizers announced after 1924 that it would not return; the festival’s assets were liquidated and the remaining floats were reportedly sold for scrap in 1928.² Decades later, in the mid-2000s, area historical societies revived the Priests of Pallas as a fundraising ball (held at Union Station) rather than a parade, with a final ball reported on October 26, 2007.²

Significance to Kansas City

The Priests of Pallas is remembered as one of Kansas City’s defining civic spectacles of the Gilded Age and early 20th century — an emblem of the city’s booster ethos and self-promotion as the “Athens of the West.”¹ Its decline coincided with the ascendance of the American Royal, which absorbed the autumn-festival role the POP had pioneered, making the two events linked chapters in the history of Kansas City’s fall celebrations.²

Sources

Footnotes

1. KC History / Missouri Valley Special Collections, Kansas City Public Library — “We Play the Pallas.” https://kchistory.org/this-week-kc-history/we-play-pallas ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. KC History / Missouri Valley Special Collections — “Who were the Priests of Pallas? KCQ investigates KC’s on-again, off-again fall festival.” https://kchistory.org/blog/who-were-priests-pallas-kcq-investigates-kcs-again-again-fall-festival ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

3. Kansas City Public Library — “Who Were the Priests of Pallas? What’s Your KCQ? Investigates Kansas City’s On-Again, Off-Again Fall Festival” (September 2022). https://kclibrary.org/news/2022-09/who-were-priests-pallas-whats-your-kcq-investigates-kansas-citys-again-again-fall ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

4. Martin City Telegraph — “The Priests of Pallas parade entertained thousands in Kansas City” (July 1, 2019). https://martincitytelegraph.com/2019/07/01/the-priests-of-pallas-parade-entertained-thousands-in-kansas-city/ ↩ ↩² ↩³