A grand parade

LIMA - Seventy-five years ago, Lima was a city gripped by economic turmoil. Many were out of work. The good life of the previous decade was a distant memory.

Three days in the summer of 1933, however, helped breathe needed life into Lima's economy. Thousands of people converged on the city ushering in a spirit of revelry and jubilation. One event so riveted the community that it drew the largest crowd in the city's history to witness the spectacle.

A city besieged by the Great Depression threw out the welcome mat and embraced the 15th annual Ohio State American Legion Convention with open arms. The three-day gathering's crown jewel - a parade on the second day that drew more than 40,000 observers to the city's downtown streets.

As early as July 1933, news accounts from the time recall officials preparing for 10,000 to 12,000 people to come to town for the convention. There was certainly plenty for Legionnaires to see and do in town.

Speakers at the gathering included Ohio Gov. George White as well as national commander of the American Legion, Louis A. Johnson of Clarksburg, W.Va.

The convention began Sunday, Aug. 13, 1933, and ran through Tuesday, Aug. 15. The unofficial kickoff was Saturday evening, sponsored by the 40 and 8 club.

"With exploding bombs, blaring bands, flaming lights and rollicking humor, the skirmish lines of the World War veterans served notice that the city is completely at the mercy of the invaders until Tuesday night," an account of the kickoff in The Lima News, read. The Legion had "taken" Lima.

Delegates from all 492 Ohio posts were expected to turn out for the festivities. So many were anticipated, officials worried there would not be enough sleeping rooms to accommodate them all. Lima's hotels of the era had a total capacity of 2,500 guests and officials were anticipating more than the 10,000 visitors who attended the conference the previous year in Toledo.

Hotels, private homes and even other public and private buildings were sought for housing all the delegates. Some were taken to the old City Hospital building on East Market Street. Others sheltered in the gymnasiums offered by the YMCA and Central High School.

A whole slate of activities was organized as part of the three-day affair. In addition to business sessions, a number of drum and bugle corps were set to appear at a competition, a jubilee in the streets was planned following the 4:30 p.m. Monday parade that had more than 5,000 marchers.

The city embraced the convention. News accounts reflected on the difference in receptions some of the Legionnaires received in Lima to those received just 15 years before when many were engaged in battle during World War I. They occupied a willing Lima, but in Europe a decade and a half before "the only welcome they received was the roar of big shells and the spiteful clatter of machine guns."

The American Legion convention wasn't the only thing going on in Lima at the time. A number of local businesses were beginning to buy into a new effort spawned by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "New Deal."

The National Recovery Administration was authorized as part of the National Industrial Recovery Act, passed by Congress in June 1933. The idea was to enable industry-wide agreements exempt from anti-trust laws that aimed to set minimum wages and maximum hours.

To encourage business and industry to subscribe to NRA principles, a marketing campaign featuring a blue eagle and slogan, "We Do Our Part" was established. As the American Legion convention was preparing to come to town, nine trade groups in Lima began displaying the blue eagle. Newspapers advertisements for Lima companies during the period included the NRA blue eagle and slogan to show they supported the changes in the workplace.

One report in 1933 said more than 1,000 workers in Lima would be affected by the recovery program through adjustments in working hours, pay increases or re-employment plans. The NRA effort was supported by the Ohio American Legion during its convention in town.

The blue eagles would have been displayed in shop windows along Main Street and elsewhere when the largest crowd in city history would descend upon them for the Monday evening American Legion convention parade.

Approximately 100 uniform marching groups, bands, drum corps and drill teams were expected to take part in the 4:30 p.m. parade. Many shops in the downtown closed just in time for the parade to let their workers watch.

Every police officer in the city was called into headquarters at 2 p.m. that day for traffic duty during the parade. And for good reason - 17 streets in the west end of Lima were cordoned off to be used as staging grounds for the parade participants.

The parade was headed by a squad of motorcycle police officers from Columbus, Dayton and Lima. Their "sirens announced the coming of the marchers," one news account read.

There were military units, bands, drum and bugle corps, marching groups, floats and the Boy Scouts all taking part in the parade.

Of particular pleasure to the crowd were a pair of floats that made their way down the nearly four-mile long parade route.

"The American Legion locomotive, one of the singular floats in the parade, drew applause, as did the huge portrayal of ‘The Bells of St. Marys,' from the city of the same name," a newspaper account read.

It took an hour and 40 minutes for the entire procession to pass the reviewing stand.

When all was said and done, the convention had certainly left its mark on Lima.

In addition to drawing the largest crowd in the city's history, it also left an impact on area businesses. Warren J. McLaughlin, executive vice president of the chamber of commerce, estimated that more than $250,000 was spent in Lima by the visitors during their three-day stay.

For a city in the midst of a depression, the three days was an economic boom.