Corn Palace Week has gone through several changes over the years since I’ve lived in Mitchell. I moved to town back in 1982. That fall was my first Corn Palace Week. Prior to coming to Mitchell to teach and coach at Mitchell High School, I had never heard of Corn Palace Week or even of the Corn Palace itself and I lived in neighboring Minnesota. Hopefully, the publicity people are doing a better job of spreading the word about the existence of the Corn Palace now, forty years later.
In 1982, Corn Palace Week was a grander affair. It took place in mid to late September. My birthday is September 20th and Corn Palace Week was always in full swing then. I don’t really celebrate my birthday, never have, but in those days I always hit the midway on September 20th for sure. The midway ran from 12th Street to 1st Street. The exhibits from 12th to 7th were agricultural in nature, for the most part, with the occasional camper or small mobile type home on display as well. When Dakota Fest started up, that portion of the festival naturally moved out there and quit being a part of the Corn Palace Week. Over the decades, the festival has gotten smaller, moved largely off of Main Street and now has relocated to north of the Corn Palace.
Corn Palace “Week” used to be longer, around ten days. The first weekend would consist of entertainment on the Corn Palace stage, like the kind I’ll be describing in the paragraphs below, along with the amusement rides. There used to be more “carnival” type of things as well. In addition to the games of chance on the midway (ring the bottles, sink the basketball etc. for a prize) there were attractions like the “prehistoric man frozen in ice” and other “freak shows” as they were called in the pre-politically correct days. After the first weekend of entertainment, it was just the rides until the final weekend when the Polka Fest would be in full swing. There also used to be, for a while anyway, an ecumenical church service on the final Sunday of Corn Palace Week in the Corn Palace. Now Corn Palace “Week” isn’t really even a week long anymore.
1982 was the first time I attended a Corn Palace Show. It was Red Skelton performing all his famous characters from his radio and television show days. The Corn Palace was packed and Red did at least three shows (maybe more) as I recall, and all of them sold out. Entertainment had stayed in that format for quite a few years. Eventually, entertainers couldn’t sell multiple shows or weren’t interested in staying in a relatively sleepy little town for piddly money compared to the bright lights in the big city, so we developed the multiple entertainer concept. There used to be a country act, a “kids’ show” of some kind, a rock act and an “oldies” type of show as the mix of entertainment on stage at the Corn Palace. That has changed as well.
The Corn Palace used to get big names, people like Bob Hope, The Three Stooges, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, Andy Griffith, Jack Benny, Andy Williams and others. Then there were the top tier country stars like Trisha Yearwood, Brad Paisley Martina McBride, Kenny Chesney, Jason Aldean, Tammy Wynette and Willie Nelson among others. For the older audience there was first Lawrence Welk and when he passed away, Myron Floren and others from the Welk program. The retro acts included Frankie Vallie and the Four Seasons, Neil Sedaka, the Happy Together tours etc. I took my parents to Jim Nabors at the Corn Palace to celebrate their 42nd anniversary. My folks always enjoyed him, especially on his variety program in the 1970’s. We sat in the front row. Mom and Dad thought they had died and gone to heaven. It was the best present I ever gave them.
The Corn Palace Shows are in rapid decline. Mayor Bob Everson wants the entertainment booked a year in advance. On paper, that’s a good idea but as a practical matter I’m not sure it’s doable. I know, from talking to members of the Corn Palace Committee, that several feelers and even contract offers went out to a variety of entertainers. There were even some initial commitments given, then the entertainer won some industry award or rocketed up the charts, and their appearance fee went up – out of our price range. Others hemmed and hawed, holding out hope they would appear, only to turn Mitchell down in the end.
The budget for the Corn Palace Shows is woefully inadequate; that is, if we want to attract true “headliners”. This year’s country act, Michael Ray, wasn’t a “nobody” but nor was he “somebody” either. Face it, a “name” sells tickets and to get the big names is impossible now. It’s impossible for several reasons.
First, in the heyday of the Corn Palace there was no Pentagon concert facility in Sioux Falls or the Swiftel Center (now Dacotah Bank Center) in Brookings. That meant an entertainer in Omaha or Minneapolis on their way to Denver was willing to play a smaller facility, like the Corn Palace, for a little extra dough for a leg of their trip that would otherwise be “wasted” in terms of revenue. Now, those headliners play Omaha or Minneapolis and then Sioux Falls or Brookings while skipping little Mitchell and the dinky (in terms of seating and revenue) Corn Palace all together.
Second, the budget for entertainment has not kept up with the times. I experienced something similar to this in directing the musical at Mitchell High School. I had $5000 for a budget to put on the musical in 1985, my first year directing musicals. In 2015, “old timers” from the audience would comment to me how much “grander” musicals back in the day were compared to today. That’s because I still had only $5000 to put on the musical but with 30 years of inflation and other rising costs to contend with. The same is true for Corn Palace Shows. Sums that attracted well known entertainers years ago are not enough now. The limited seating of the Corn Palace and the desire to keep ticket prices under $50 or so, also limits revenue opportunities as well as the talent that can be booked.
Third, people will drive to Sioux Falls or Brookings for a concert. They will pay $100 or more for tickets, buy gas and food as well as souvenirs and think nothing of it. However, they will clutch their pearls, write letters to the editor, appear at City Council meetings etc. if the cost of concerts at the Corn Palace rise significantly. Folks can’t have it both ways, either we accept second or third tier entertainment and support those shows at the Corn Palace or we have to pony up more for tickets to get bigger acts.
I know the City will not increase the budget for entertainment in any significant way and certainly not enough to draw the big names acts of old. I know ticket prices won’t rise to realistic levels to get top notch entertainers into the Corn Palace. So, what to do?
There are several solutions. The first is just not to have concerts anymore. The Corn Palace Festival has gotten smaller, shorter and otherwise lost majesty and wonder over the years, this may be just the next step in the evolution of an event that’s hanging on by the thread of tradition.
The second solution is to have an “amateur night” for one of the nights. Local people performing a number, a performance piece, a bit of comedy etc. tied together with an emcee for a nominal admission of $5. The local folks would get an opportunity to perform – unpaid – the City would get the pittance of admission plus beer and concession sales. The next evening could be a night of local professionals, those who perform in bars and other venues regularly for pay, with the Corn Palace charging $10 or $15 admission with the local professionals getting their usual performance fee and the City getting the rest, including concessions. The Saturday night show would be the “big name” using all of the money budgeted for – in previous years three and this past year two – Corn Palace Shows, with the usual ticket price for a traditional Corn Palace Show.
The third solution is for the City to recognize it isn’t 1985 anymore and drastically increase the budget for Corn Palace Shows and to continue booking shows like it has always done in previous years.
I know the third suggestion won’t fly. I hope the first suggestion, ending the shows all together, isn’t acceptable either. However, I think the other idea of a mix of local talent, amateur and professional, followed by a nationally known entertainer has merit.
Clearly, what we’re doing now isn’t working. It isn’t anybody’s fault, not really. Times have changed. Entertainers’ expectations, both in terms of income and attendance at a venue, have changed. Budgets, however, haven’t materially changed. I suspect the City and Corn Palace Committee will attempt the current format for another year and perhaps they should. However, it is time to start considering other options for Corn Palace Shows, if there are to be any in the future.