Artist Betty Jean Alden with her Samuel Gompers statue in 1982. The commissioned artwork honoring the labor leader was widely criticized for being out of proportion and unattractive. The statue was dedicated on Sept. 6, 1982, and remained in its downtown spot for nearly 40 years.
FILE PHOTO
For nearly 40 years, a stature honoring labor leader Samuel Gompers remained in its spot at the River Walk Public Art Garden on Market Street, across from the Convention Center.
J. MICHAEL SHORT/SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS-NEWS
San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros, shown in this undated file photo, holds a replica of the Samuel Gompers statue that was installed in downtown San Antonio in 1982.
Jose Barrera/San Antonio Express-News
A commissioned piece of art honoring labor leader Samuel Gompers faced harsh criticism 43 years ago, even before the “hideous” sculpture was officially unveiled.
The statue was dedicated on Labor Day 1982 in downtown San Antonio. The controversy started weeks earlier, as the full scope of the artwork became more widely known.
The 15-foot statue of Gompers, created by artist Betty Jean Alden, depicted the labor union advocate speaking to a group of workers and their children. Gompers, with one hand raised and the other holding a rolled-up notebook, appeared to be standing on a soapbox. Critics said the statue’s proportions made those gathered around him appear much smaller than Gompers, whose head and hands looked unusually large compared to his shoulders and chest.
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Adding to the controversy was that Alden created a full-length statue, rather than a “small bust on a pedestal” that was approved by the city’s Fine Arts Commission, a predecessor to the Historic and Design Review Commission. The result, commissioners said, was a statue that wasn’t suited to the proposed site on Market Street, across from the Convention Center.
Some critics called the statue “hideous,” and others pointed out its odd dimensions, including a “much larger head than a body would normally have,” according to newspaper archives.
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The sniping overshadowed Gompers’ work that was being honored, Alden’s family said years later.
Gompers, the founder of the American Federation of Labor, the precursor of the AFL-CIO, fought for eight-hour workdays, higher wages and safer working conditions, according to archives. Gompers, a New York resident who traveled extensively for his work despite failing health, died in San Antonio in 1924.
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The Fine Arts Commission recommended that the city not install Alden’s piece, but the AFL-CIO — whose Texas and San Antonio offices, along with the American Federation of Government Employees, commissioned the work — appealed to city leaders and won, archives show. A celebration was planned to dedicate the statue on Sept. 6, 1982, the 100th anniversary of the Labor Day holiday.
“At the time, I had my feelings hurt a lot,” Alden told a San Antonio Express-News reporter in 2003.
Alden said the statue captures what Gompers looked like — a bit irregular.
“He was called many names because he was built so strange,” she said in 2003. “I could have made him an anatomical person, but it would not have been Gompers.”
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For years, local union organizations gathered at the Gompers statue every spring to remember workers who were injured or killed on the job.
“The statue is an emotional icon for union members,” Alicia Garza, president of the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council, told the Express-News in 2003. “It’s not real pretty, but it means a lot.”
For nearly 40 years, the Gompers statue remained in its downtown spot, where exposure to the elements took its toll. The statue, made of a shell and sandstone mixture called shellcrete, deteriorated to such a condition that the city decided to remove it for storage in 2019.
The statue was replaced by Labor Plaza, which honors San Antonio’s labor history and is part of the River Walk Public Art Garden, a public art space dedicated to San Antonio’s labor history, in 2022.
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Also, this week in San Antonio history, the University of Texas at San Antonio Roadrunners played their first football game on Sept. 3, 2011, in front of 56,743 fans at the Alamodome.
UTSA set a record for the highest-attended game for an NCAA Division I FCS start-up program, archives show.
The Roadrunners won 31-3, over Northeastern State. The team finished the 2011 season with a 4-6 record under head coach Larry Coker.
UTSA started its football program from scratch, following a practice year in 2010. UTSA football kicked off its 15th season Saturday.
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This week also marks 39 years since the minimum legal drinking age in Texas was raised from 19 to 21 years.
The new law was effective Sept. 1, 1986. The change was made to comply with the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act, which called for U.S. states to prohibit anyone younger than 21 years from purchasing alcoholic beverages. States had to comply with the mandate or face losing federal highway funds.
The minimum legal drinking age in Texas had been 19 years since 1979, when it was raised from 18 years. Texas was among 29 states that lowered its minimum legal drinking age in the early 1970s, a time when minimum-age limits for other activities, such as voting, also were being lowered.
Researchers found that a lowered minimum legal drinking age led to an increase in traffic crashes, the leading cause of death among teenagers. Several studies in the 1970’s showed that traffic crashes increased significantly among teenagers after the minimum legal drinking age was lowered, according to the National Library of Medicine.
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Playland Park closed for the season on Sept. 1, 1980. Though owner Jimmy Johnson assured patrons the park would reopen the following spring, it did not, according to records kept by the San Antonio Public Library’s Texana/Genealogy Department.
By October, word came that the park, which typically closed for the season after Labor Day weekend and reopened around St. Patrick’s Day, was closed for good. Johnson said increasing operating costs and the growing competition for families’ entertainment dollars forced him to shut down, archives show.
The playground that made carnival games and amusement park rides affordable for many San Antonio families originally opened in 1941 near Brackenridge Park. It moved to its longtime Alamo Street location in 1943.
Built as an entertainment venue for military personnel and their families that relocated to the Alamo City because of World War II, Playland Park entertained locals for over three decades.