June 07, 2003

Finding Rex Oregonus

While we've established that I am one of those "several hundred thousand sleepwalkers" who live our lives without the alleged benefits of the annual Rose Festival, I return to the subject now because the historical aspects of even the Rose Festival can occassionally be interesting.

In a profile of some Rose Festival history, Portland UpClose offered up some worthy tidbits (although that link goes to a Google cache of the document, since the publication's website currently comes up, "No web site is configured at this address." for some unexplained reason).

To begin with, there's the matter of a figure known as Rex Oregonus:

Although a high school senior girl now rules as queen of the mythical Realm of Rosaria each year, the Rose Festival monarchy was originally patriarchal. From 1908 to 1913, a city committee chose a candidate from among prominent Portland businessmen to serve as "Rex Oregonus," but kept his identity secret. At the beginning of the four-day festival, Rex, his face hidden behind a bearded mask, rode aboard a rose-covered barge that led a flotilla down the Willamette River. His identity remained a mystery until the last dance at the Grand Rex Ball, when he stepped down from his throne and removed his mask. (The Rex Oregonus character made a brief return from 1924 to 1930, when he ruled alongside the queen.)

Nothing in the article manages an explanation of just why this particular aspect -- a mysteriously masked business man -- was included at all. But if you scroll down through this page (from a site that reviews Portland history through old postcards), you'll find a representation of Rex Oregonus.

Then there's this roarer about occassioal troubles with the parade floats:

The parade has not been without its occasional snafus. A 24-foot high Statue of Liberty certainly made for a spectacular float one recent year, but it proved a logistical nightmare. Designers from Studio Concepts, the festival's official float builder, rigged a mechanism allowing the statue to tip backwards to prevent an embarrassing decapitation by the Coliseum door frame or strangulation by overhead electrical wires.

"Unfortunately, Miss Liberty spent most of her time on her back," recalls Gene Dent, president of Studio Concepts. "It didn't result in much drama."

That damned Liberty, she's such a whore. Then again, perhaps she spent all that time on her back because she was waiting for the stranger in a mask. It certainly wouldn't be any more twisted than having a beauty pageant associated with all of this.

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