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Al MacLeod, right, plays the public drunk in an earlier performance of the Cast Iron Mary melodrama. Sammie Mosley played a temperance woman. (Observer photos/LAURA MACKIE-HANCOCK).

By Jeff Petersen

Staff Writer

Public drunkards, head for the hills.

Houses of ill repute, lock your doors. Fancy ladies, get out of town.

The temperance ladies are back, and with a vengeance.

The Cast Iron Mary melodrama is among the highlights of Celebrate La Grande! coming to Max Square Sept. 9.

"The first time we performed it, downtown during Crazy Days, some people thought it was for real," says melodrama writer Zee Koza, laughing. "What are you doing here?" some were saying, astonished, before realizing it was all for show.

The paper mach Cast Iron Mary replica used as part of the melodrama survived being run over by a classic car borrowed from the antique car show. After some hefty touch-up work over the summer, Mary is set for an encore.

"It was tall and stately when the summer began. But as the heat came, Mary has begun to look more like a little Italian grandmother," Koza says with a smile.

This year is the centennial of Cast Iron Mary's launch in La Grande.

In 1904, the city was a wild place. Some 20 saloons and six houses of ill repute were open for business, most centered along Jefferson Avenue and Fir and Depot streets near the railroad station.

Moonshine was readily available at local stills.

It's a time in U.S. history when Carrie Nation, standing nearly 6 feet tall and weighing 180 pounds, was cutting a swath through the country's saloons. Wielding a hatchet, and rallying her female troops behind her, she would burst into saloons and forcefully promote temperance.

Concerned La Grande citizens followed Nation's lead. Some La Grande women, shocked and appalled at public drunkenness, formed a local chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union.

Of course, the group had more than temperance on its agenda. The WCTU also focused on health and hygiene as well as reforming prisons and promoting world peace.

But the battle with alcohol was their rallying cry.

The WCTU would march in the street and gather in the town square and outside bars, calling out the names of alcoholics.

"John Doe, you drunken lout," they might cry. "Think about your poor wife and little children huddling at home, abandoned, penniless."

That same year the WCTU erected, at the intersection of Adams and Elm, the statue that became known as Cast Iron Mary. The statue was described in the Answer Man column by Dick Mason as "a life-sized female figure clad in flaming robes and carrying a water urn." The drinking fountain/statue served as a symbol of purity and abstinence from alcohol.

Thirsty men of the community were supposed to drink from the fountain rather than indulge in alcohol.

About 10 years later, Cast Iron Mary was moved to the intersection of Fourth and Depot to carry on her mission there.

But the mission was short-lived. At 2:50 a.m. April 29, 1922, the fountain met its demise. Cast Iron Mary, one story goes, was knocked over by a car full of bootleggers. Other stories say the driver had been drinking. Still other stories say the arresting police officer smelled no alcohol on the driver's breath.

Whatever story you believe, Cast Iron Mary has become a local legend.

"There are so many arguments over what the real story is," Koza says. "I took some writer's liberties (in writing the melodrama). But it's just fun, and every one in the cast adds so much to the show."

With encouragement from Di-Lyn Larsen Hill, who was instrumental in bringing a replica of the original Cast Iron Mary statue back to grace Max Square, Koza wrote the melodrama that brings a rich chapter of La Grande history to life.

The 10-minute show features Koza's husband, David, as narrator. Colleen MacLeod and Zee Koza play the temperance crusaders.

"Colleen carries a little Bible," Koza says. "We have picket signs, long dresses, hats of purity."

Al MacLeod plays the public drunk.

A barbershop quartet consisting of Ariel Bean, Doug Campbell, Cam McGuinness and Ed Hoofnagle, wearing straw boaters and vests, sings, among other things, "Good Night, Ladies" with Koza and Colleen MacLeod contributing, from "Music Man," the song "Pick a Little, Talk a Little" as a counter melody.

Sammie Mosley, who played a temperance woman in the first show, unfortunately won't be able to make the Sept. 9 performance.

But she has fond memories from Crazy Days.

"The most fun was walking up and down the street with Zee in WCTU outfits, carrying signs and shouting, ‘No drinking in La Grande!'" Mosley says, "and seeing the reaction of people thinking we were for real."

Mosley says it's fun to relive this big part of La Grande history and sharing what Cast Iron Mary is all about.

Word has gotten out about the trio of female actors. They've been invited to perform at the Rotary district meeting next April in Portland and are considering doing an Andrews Sisters act.

The trio might also be back in future years presenting other important pieces of La Grande history. Koza says it's a goal of the La Grande Downtown Development Association to have a new historical melodrama every year celebrating another chapter in the city's past.

"I think it's possible if you get some energetic folks working on it," said Doug Campbell, association president. "It would be a nice part of Crazy Days and give La Grande more of an identity for travelers."

No classic car will run over the paper mach Cast Iron Mary in the Sept. 9 show, which is being staged off the city streets. Thus, the cast will have to come up with some other creative ending.

Many possibilities are being tossed around. One is Mary this time being run over by a "sloshed" Al MacLeod riding a mule.

The only way to learn the ending? Go to the show.