Derby Festival Week Celebration: Carnival Parade Wednesday Night, Rain or Otherwise--Immense Crowds Arriving in Louisville Daily--Many Special Trains, Daily Racing Form, 1936-04-30

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f DERBY FESTIVAL WEEK CELEBRATION « Carnival Parade Wednesday Night, Rain or Otherwise — Immense Crowds Arriving in Louisville Daily — Many Special Trains • LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 29. — Although visitors for the Kentucky Derby have been arriving here for several days and the Derby festival week celebration got under way Monday, last night and today found the pleasure-bound fans swarming into Louisville in great numbers, and tonight the Derby week carnival parade will put the celebration on a new high plane. Three dozen bands will add their music to the color and gaiety of the occasion, and the parade will be held regardless of weather conditions. The festival parade, which is expected to be participated in by thousands, will be featured by the first public appearance of the festival king and queen. Debutantes and young bloods of the city will appear as jockeys, moonshiners, Kentucky colonels of the old days, clowns, and miltary bands and huge decorated floats will take part in the extravaganza. Last night the Jefferson County armory, where an old-fashioned square dance was held, was packed to overflowing. Hill-billy bands and old-time fiddlers played for the dancers and among the visitors were many leaders of the nations civic, business and social world. Railroad men were very happy today. They expected the biggest business of any Derby. All the regular trains will be loaded with extra Pullmans and the special trains and private cars will be the greatest number to have converged on the Derby city for any running of the famed event. A delegation, consisting of 125 persons, was disappointed when word was sent them that seats were not available for the j arty. That the Derby week tension has reached the masses, as well as the classes was vividly shown today. Even the newsboys yelled louder, the street car motormen rang their bells louder and the pedestrians stepped along at a faster clip. Every window dresser for the past several days has included scenes of the previous runnings of the Kentucky Derby in his display. By late Tuesday the Derby housing bureau had assigned 600 visitors to private homes and thousands more are expected to be assigned quarters between now and Saturday. Two special planes, in addition to the regular service will be operated by the Eastern Airlines. One will bring a party of fourteen from Washington, and the other will convey a New York party. Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, general manager of the Airlines, will arrive in the special plane from New York. The American Airlines will have a special plane from Cleveland and two special planes are tentatively scheduled from Chicago. Eight special trains will be run by the Pennsylvania railroad from Chicago and the Continued on twenty-sixth page. DERBY FESTIVAL WEEK CELEBRATION Continued from first page. Big Four has booked two special trains from j the same city and an undetermined number . from the East. The Monon will run four special trains from Chicago, one from French Lick Springs and one from St. Louis. Seven cars, to take ! care of visitors from Atlanta, Chattanooga, Bristol, Knoxville and Columbia, S. C, are I booked by the Southern Railway, and the I Louisville and Nashville Railroad will handle ] two cars from Chattanooga. This road will | run two specials from St. Louis, two from , New York and two from Detroit. The first of the Detroit specials will arrive Friday. The Tennessee Electric Power Company has chartered a special train from Chattanooga. Among the special cars from New York are those of Mrs. Payne Whitney, T. F. McCarthy, C. C. Conway and William J. McCormack. The Elks Derby Special, hraded by Exalted Ruler George Haszinger and another special train that will convey sixty members of the Rex Club, and forty members of the National Burial Association will come up from Memphis. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad will bring three cars of Kentucky Colonels from the East, and will handle five cars filled with eastern members of the National Association of Hotel Greeters. This group, en route to their national convention at New Orleans, will stop in Louisville long enough to witness the Derby. Among private cars to be handled by this road are those of Mrs. Jsabel Dodge Sloane, M. J. Bernet, Col. J. M. Hartfield and C. K. Billings, all of New York. The New York Central Railroad will bring the Powers Tour from Chicago, and special trains from Cleveland and Springsfield, Ohio, Detroit and the East. G. Lee McClain, adjutant general of the Kentucky National Guard ordered 663 na-j tional guardsmen and twenty-five members of the state police department to report for duty at the Downs Saturday. Major Joseph Kelly will be in command of the units. General McClain explained that the men are not to serve primarily as peace officers, but as aids to Derby visitors.


Persistent Link: https://drf.uky.edu/catalog/1930s/drf1936043001/drf1936043001_1_4
Local Identifier: drf1936043001_1_4
Library of Congress Record: https://lccn.loc.gov/unk82075800