While browsing through an area flea market today, I came upon a little booklet about Marvel Cave that I purchased for $2. It's called "The Story of Marvel Cave," and apparently predates the Herschend Family involvement and SDC. From what I can see in the booklet, it was initially published between 1951 and 1955. The booklet was compiled by Pat Luce, and authorship is credited to "The Marvel Cave Crew." My memory is dim, but I think Andy and Pat Luce were early SDC employees, so they may have been with the Lynch Sisters when they operated the cave, and were "inherited" by the Herschends when they took over the operation about 1955. I have three photos of the booklet posted on my Flickr site that you can check out. The shot of the Cathederal Room is a highly retouched photo that shows the wooden entry tower that predates the steel tower built by the Herschends that we know and use today. CAN ANYONE TELL ME MORE ABOUT THIS BOOKLET?? It apparently was self published, and was probably sold at the cave gift shop.
See the photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juniordugan
Very cool Junior. I have seen one for sale for $24.00 online -too much for a booklet in my mind, So needless to say, GREAT FIND!
I also found at the flea market some little E. Haldeman-Julius published booklets titled "On the Trail of Pretty Boy Floyd," "Old Grubstake Days in Joplin," and "The Blood Soaked Career of Bonnie Parker," by W.R. Draper, and one titled ""Belle Starr the Bandit Queen" by William Yancey Shackleford. The author of all of the booklets was really noted Ozarks folklore collector and writer, Vance Randolph. He eked out a living as a writer in the 1920's-1980 and had to do these little cheap books to make ends meet. Most of the material in the little booklets wound up in his Ozarks books later. He was not proud of the "hack writing" he was required to do to earn a paycheck, and used pen names for most everything like that he wrote, except for some titles on Ozarks subjects that he proudly had published using his own name. The little sensationalzed booklets were sold at train stations and news stands for a dime, and were cheap, popular reading material for travelers in the 1930's and 1940's. I had to pay $5 for each little booklet, but that is far better than $8 to $20 I'd have to pay for the same material at my favorite used and out of print bookstore in Fayetteville, AR, the Dickson Street Book Shop.
In looking through the book "The Story of SIlver Dollar City," I see the Herschends took the lease out on the cave in 1950. It says the improvements made were the installation of electric lights in the winter of 50/51, so my little booklet is POST Herschend, PRE SDC. Pat Luce is shown in a photo in the book with Mary Herschend, and it states Pat was Mary's niece. Andy & Pat Luce were married in Marvel Cave! Here's a real "kicker" for me...in researching further this afternoon, I remembered to check my old Branson High School Yearbook. In the 1979-1980 yearbook, Pat Luce is listed as a special education teacher at the high school. I didn't require special education (although my family wonders how! ;)) but I remember Mrs. Luce from high school. She was a very dedicated and well thought of teacher. Hmmmmmmm....small world, ain't it!
I love making connections like that. The connection is the treasure.
thats all very cool guys!!! Great find!
Pat Luce was Pat Green, Mary Herschends niece. I have been looking for this book for a very long time. If there is any way I could get a copy (Photo Copy/Scanned) of this book from you I would be most happy and happy to pay for it. This book is missing from many libraries throughout the Ozarks and is very hard to find. I haven't even seen in amongst the archives at SDC.
Copper, check private messages. I'll get a photocopy of the booklet to you!
Copper, a photo copy is in the mail to you. Hope you like it. :)
Does this book talk about Rex Johnson or Lester Vining? My grandfather is Rex Johnson and I just wondered, this would be a great piece for our memorabilia. Rex Johnson was one of the original tour guides and as a boy knew the Lynch sisters. He worked for 25 years as a tour guide. Thanks for sharing your info.
Shelly Malicoat
Shelley: no direct mention of Rex or Lester in the booklet. However, I do want to STRONGLY ENCOURAGE YOU to feel free to contribute freely to this website, as any input, memories, photos, and memoribilia you have would be welcome here. As a former SDC employee, I am familier with Rex and Lester by name, I didn't get to know them. They are legends among the "Who's Who" in SDC, Branson, and Shepherd of the Hills history! So, please dig through the family scrapbooks and see what you can come up with. The people at this website are true fans and love to see things from the early decades of SDC. Thanks for any input you can give us here! ;D
Thanks Junior!
Welcome Shelkay I am looking foreward to any great info. stories you might have.
Wow, I lost track of this forum. I was happy to find it again. I am going to try to post photos in a couple days. I have a couple of Grandad, (Rex Johnson) with tour groups.
i love the cave. i still wish SDC would mention the cave in their commercials.
RIDES RIDES RIDES is what brings those young folks in with their cash. I really cannot think of anytime in recent years when they even featured a photo shot of the cave tour on their TV commercials.