Mom's Turn on Stage: The Cleveland Folk Festival

Mom is third from right in this newspaper clipping.

In a stroke of serendipity following last week's post on my Grandpa's involvement in Cleveland's Theater of Nations, I ran across an email I had sent in an attempt to identify the newspaper and date for the clipping above.¹

My mother, Anna Kozlina Gilbride (1937-2010), is pictured third from the right, seated on the floor. Since I was fortunate to learn the background surrounding Grandpa's role in The Colleen Bawn, I thought I'd check the newspaper websites again to try to find this clipping and finally date it. And I did find it, in the 5 February 1952 edition of The Cleveland Press; Mom was 14 years old in this photo, lots younger than I had imagined!²

The caption states that Mom was performing as part of the Croatian Slavulj Society. Slavulj—Croatian for "the Nightingales"—was founded by Joseph Gregorincich and operated from 1937 to about 1951. The group began as a singing and drama club and later added instruction in tambura (Croatian stringed instruments) and kolo (circle dances). Their diverse programs ranged from plays to operettas to concerts and dance recitals, and they performed widely. After the group disbanded, former members reconstituted the group as the American Zagreb Junior Tamburitzans, which still exists today.³

The Folk Festival 

I wanted to learn more about the folk festival mentioned in the photo caption. What was that all about? 

Much like the Theater of Nations sponsored by The Plain Dealer newspaper, the Folk Festival was a relatively new event in 1952, sponsored in part by The Cleveland Press, the other major city newspaper. It was the brainchild of Theodore Andrica, who served as The Cleveland Press's nationalities editor for more than 45 years, inventing the field of ethnic journalism.⁴ 

Andrica announced the festival on the paper's front page on 15 December 1949:

"From the famous Austrian Schuhplattler dances to the yodeling of the Swiss, from the stately Czech Beseda to the spirited Don Cossack steps, from the Croatian Tamburitza orchestras to the Scotch bagpipes!

These and many more, in fact all the color, gaiety and harmony of the songs and dances of Cleveland's nationality groups will be presented in a gigantic and colorful Folk Festival Saturday... on Sunday, January 28 at Public Music Hall."⁵

Ironically, Music Hall was housed in the same Public Auditorium where Grandpa's play was held some twenty years earlier. Music Hall was the second largest of the auditorium's three venues, with a capacity of 2,800. In the inaugural 1950 festival, over 500 dancers and singers from 24 different groups participated, split between matinee and evening performances. Performers ranged from Scottish to Slovenian, Czech to Israeli, Romanian to Japanese, and more.⁶ 

The shows sold out and hundreds were turned away.⁷

 

Within days of the sold-out performances, plans for an even bigger festival for the following year were announced. And by February 1950, a new organization was founded based on the festival's success : the Cleveland Folk Arts Association. The association had among its goals: "To uphold the freedom to be different and encourage the growth of an American culture which will be truly representative of all elements that make up the American people." It immediately announced the next folk festival was to be held in January 1951, for four performances.⁸

 

Mom's Turn on Stage

In 1952, the third annual Folk Festival drew 30 nationality groups and over 1,000 performers. The matinee program featured Croatian, Latvian, Romanian, Swiss, Jewish, Latin American, Byelorussian, Hungarian, Serbian, Saxon, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Slovak, and Scottish performers.⁹ That meant that Mom's group—the Croatian Slavulj—were the very first on stage that day! I performed in my younger days but never faced an audience of nearly 3,000. I can't even imagine how many butterflies were somersaulting in Mom's stomach as those stage lights went up! 

Mom in costume.

The 1952 festival was every bit as successful as the two earlier ones. The Cleveland Press wrote, "It was pretty hard to watch the Folk Festival yesterday without a lump in your throat. There was beauty and laughter and the songs and the sadness of millions of men and women and children, brought together for a few wonderful hours on the stage of Music Hall." "The spirit of brotherhood filled the place. Those were not tiny compartments of the human race, but friends and neighbors, side by side."¹⁰

The Theater of Nations performances two decades before were inspired by similar sentiments, as were the organizers of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens. Each wanted to celebrate the city's diversity and show that all people yearn to connect through the cultures that make them proud. Folk festival audiences likely saw many more similarities than differences among the dances and songs of various groups. Exposed to unfamiliar cultures' dances and songs, perhaps these performances were a place where hearts opened and tolerance for differences was born.

Having participated in dance concerts where groups new to me were performing, I recall how eye-opening it was to see how others danced - what their costumes, sets, and lighting looked like, which movements resonated with my own, what worlds each dance created. I can imagine my mom watching so many diverse folk groups rehearsal for the festival, each with their unique story to tell, and perhaps feeling that same thrill of discovery. 

Until next time...

© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2026. All rights reserved.

 

NOTES 

¹ "Folk Festival's 800 dancers," undated newspaper clipping, private collection of Nancy Gilbride Casey, Tioga, Texas, 2026. My mother, Anna "Margie" Kozlina, is pictured in the photo promoting a folk festival in Cleveland.

² "Folk Festival's 800 dancers...," The Cleveland Press, 5 February 1952, p. 29, cols.1-4; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cleveland-press-cleveland-press-folk/200312401/ : accessed 29 June 2026).

³ ActaCroatica (https://www.actacroatica.com/en/orgs/AZJT/ : accessed 29 June 2026), "American Zagreb Junior Tamburitzans," short history, undated.

⁴ Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (https://case.edu/ech/articles/a/andrica-theodore : accessed 29 June 2026), "Andrica, Theodore"; citing Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland. 

⁵ Theodore Andrice, "Nationalities to Join Talents for Folk Festival," The Cleveland Press, 15 December 1949, p. 1, cols. 3-5; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cleveland-press-folk-festival-1949/200314116/ : accessed 29 June 2026).

⁶ "Capacity Crowds Wait Folk Festival," The Cleveland Press, 28 January 1950, p. 1, col. 1; imaged,, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1160552210/ : accessed 29 June 2026).

⁷ "Groups Should Plan Now for More Folk Festivals," The Cleveland Press, 30 January 1950, p. 8, col. 2; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1160552306/ : accessed 27 June 2026). Also, "Capacity Crowds Wait for Folk Festival," The Cleveland Press, 28 January 1950.

⁸ "A Bigger Folk Festival Planned for Next Year," The Cleveland Press, 30 January 1950, p. 2, cols. 1-2; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1160552321/ : accessed 27 June 2026). Also, Encyclopedia of Cleveland History (https://case.edu/ech/articles/c/cleveland-folk-arts-assn : accessed 29 June 2026), "Cleveland Folk Arts Assn"; citing Theodore Andrica Papers, 1928-1956, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland. Also, Theodore Andrica, "Folk Arts Association Formed by 24 Groups," The Cleveland Press, 15 February 1950, p. 36, cols. 1-2; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1160522181/ : accessed 27 June 2026).

⁹ Theodore Andrica, "Annual Folk Festival Is Set for Next Month," The Cleveland Press, 4 January 1952, p. 32, cols. 2-3; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cleveland-press-3rd-annual-folk-fest/200314041/ : accessed 29 June 2026).

¹⁰ "Folk Festival Was Much More Than Just Singing and Dancing," The Cleveland Press, 11 February 1952, p. 12, col 2; imaged, Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/image/1160551031/ : accessed 27 June 2026).