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10th Re-enactment of Bank Robbery, 2011, the best yet Green River Cowboys, Street Actors, Narrator Stanley Lawson Deliver Great Outdoor Theater, again. Whether it was a record crowd or not - that's still being thrashed out between impresario and exactician Charles Grimsley and Chief of Police Jason Cross. The chief is willing, in the tradition of and in tribute to the great Columbia Mayor Mayor Coy Downey to let practical hyperbole prevail. CM is calling it a record: it just feels like one needs to be pronounced. Above all, no one can argue that A good time was had by all. Click on headline for full story, photo(s) By Ed Waggener Columbia Chief of Police Jason Cross is willing to call the crowd which saw the 2011 re-enactment of the April 29, 1872 robbery of the Bank of Columbia, a record crowd. But Charles Grimsley, who has counted the crowds since the first re-enactment, initially was unwilling to say that spectators exceeded the 850-1,000 at the October 9, 2010 re-enactment, according to Chief Cross. It was the safest one ever, Barry Jones of the Green River Cowboys said. The Cowboys have been staging the thriller since the year 2000, missing only one year, 2009 when there was a small dispute which was settled in 2010 and the tradition continued. Jones said that the group has already been asked to come back for Re-enactment No. 11 in 2012, and that the group has tentatively agreed. He said that the Columbia Police and Re-enactment coordinators had provided the best crowd control ever. "It can be a dangerous endeavor," he said. "The worst problems usually come from sudden unexpected actions from a spectator. But this year, the police kept everyone behind the safety line, and that made it go the most smoothly it ever has. The show continuously changes. This year, in the preliminary street scene, a crowd-pleasing Jerry Parnell and Gizmo Loy rode through the streets in a road wagon, with Parnell preaching and Loy driving. "Parnell was a doctor who was bringing a doctor back to the funeral home," Jones said, "And Parnell just decided to add in the preaching." It came off really well. Traditions get better and have added meaning with each portrayal. The voice of Stanley Lawson now evokes the remembrances of re-enactments past in the same way Caywood Ledford put people in the spirit of Rupp Arena or, closer to home, the voice of the late John Shelley was the Adair County Fair. And there is a whole poignant story wrapped up in the simple portrayal of a bystander by Edgar Holmes. Holmes first was assigned the whittler's role following the tragic death of Green River Cowboy Junior Holmes. He's done the job ever since, as precisely as any movie character actor could do: He sits and whittles the same throughout the morning; through the placid spring comings and goings, through the sweeping scene, and barely pays mind to the Jerry Parnell's preaching, and scant more to the mayhem of the robbery nor to the top performance by tragedian Kenneth Bennett. Bennett plays R.A.C. Martin, the young bank cashier killed in the robbery. His death scene, with pretend blood splattering his starched white shirt, is carried as a fine moment of theatre. Preston Gaskins and Tony Coomer played business people transacting bank business. Brad Hatcher portrayed a street sweeper before the robbery. Landon Lightner was a bystander. The stars of the show, as always, were the Green River Cowboys: Columbian Barry Jones on his Palomino; Milltown resident Jeff Hatcher on a sorrell horse; Gary Phillips, Campbellsville, and Bo Horstman riding black horses, and Stephen Noel, from the Taylor County frontier town, Mannsville, filling out the cast of riders. It was another day of wonderful anachronisms, with the town's collective moods shifting to the tragic day of April 29, 1872, while signs in the window of the old Russell Building, the scene of the re-enactment have posters announcing the October 2, 2011 Adair County Salutes Medal of Honor Recipient Dakota Meyer at the same time.The story was told over loud speakers as the action played out before the crowd. The Bank of Columbia was staged for the event in the old Lerman's building at the corner of the Square and Jamestown Street, though the actual robbery took place on Burkesville Street, two blocks away. But, as Barry Jones noted, "We're moving away from the actual history to just putting on a great show." And what a show it was! -ED WAGGENER This story was posted on 2011-10-08 17:54:09
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