ST. LOUIS — The Twitterverse turned its outrage this week to longtime St. Louis resident and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” star Ellie Kemper nearly a quarter century after she was crowned …
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Ellie Kemper became the 105th young woman to become the queen of love and beauty when she was crowned at the Adam's Mark Hotel's ballroom. Post-Dispatch file
Comedian and actor Ellie Kemper speaks to a sold-out crowd at the St. Louis County Library Headquarters branch to promote her new book, "My Squirrel Days," on Saturday, Oct. 13, 2018, in St. Louis. Kemper, a native of St. Louis, starred in "The Office" and was nominated for an Emmy in the Netflix original series "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." Photo by Chris Lee
Helen Conant, left, with Drucie Snyder, the daughter of the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and Margaret Truman, right. Post-Dispatch archive photo
Carol Gardner, escorted by John M. Olin, bows before the Veiled Prophet at the 1949 ball at Kiel Auditorium. Gardner's paternal grandfather was a Missouri governor; her maternal grandfather was an early St. Louis auto manufacturer, then the Federal Housing Administrator. Post-Dispatch archive photo
In his 46th visit to St. Louis, the Veiled Prophet crowned Maud Streett the queen of love and beauty. The ball was held at the Coliseum; Streett was the daughter of the 1902 queen. Post-Dispatch archive photo
During the December 1972 Veiled Prophet Ball, Gena Scott yanked the veil off the Prophet. Scott was protesting with ACTION, a civil rights group. Scott and another white protester, Jane Sauer, entered the ball dressed in formal gowns, then dropped leaflets denouncing the ball to provide distraction as Scott approached the Prophet. The mysterious man was revealed to be Tom K. Smith Jr., a vice president of Monsanto, but the Post-Dispatch and Globe-Democrat didn't print his identity at the time. In this photo, the prophet readjusts his disguise. Post-Dispatch archive photo
Before the September 1963 ball, Mary Flaven (left) gets help with her formal gloves from Trent Barnes (right) and Ann Weise. Post-Dispatch archive photo
The Veiled Prophet is escorted by his "Bengal Lancers" in 1959. Post-Dispatch archive photo
The queen and the special maids of honor at the 1950 ball: (from left) Florence Weld, Jean Lewis, Eleanor Koehler (the queen), Celeste Smith and Anne McCandless. Post-Dispatch archive photo
Eleanor Koehler is crowned at the 1950 Veiled Prophet Ball. Her escort is William H. Luyties. Post-Dispatch archive photo
The parade and ball were both televised. The first televised ball was in 1946. In 1950, KSD-TV broadcast the ball to the 175,000 homes in St. Louis that had a TV. The broadcast was also sent to 40 stations in the country through Columbia Broadcasting Co.; it was estimated that 20 million people saw the show. Post-Dispatch archive photo
While her father was still president, Margaret Truman (center) attended the 1948 Veiled Prophet Ball. She watched the pageant from a special box with (from left, front row) Evelyn Snyder, the wife of the Treasury secretary, and Drucie Snyder. Behind the women, on the left, is Secretary John W. Snyder. Post-Dispatch archive photo
A scene from the October 1947 Veiled Prophet parade shows the size of the crowd at Grand and Olive. Post-Dispatch archive photo
A 1938 portrait of the Veiled Prophet in full regalia. In the first decades of the ball, it was held in October. Post-Dispatch archive photo
Children, teens and adults await the start of the Veiled Prophet parade on Oct. 3, 1934. An article about the parade noted that some in the crowd created a "rain of peas and BB shot." Post-Dispatch archive photo
Alaysia Belmo, 16, of Mascoutah, Ill. and a member of the Mascoutah Marching Indians, waits for instructions before the start of the Veiled Prophet parade in downtown St. Louis on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. Photo by Cristina M. Fletes, cfletes@post-dispatch.com
Jaleel Walters, 18, of St. Louis, laughs and dances while dressed in a cluster of balloons shaped like a star at the Veiled Prophet parade in downtown St. Louis on Wednesday, July 4, 2018. Photo by Cristina M. Fletes, cfletes@post-dispatch.com
The Veiled Prophet, seated left, and Cecilia Fox, the Queen of Love and Beauty, wave at the crowd during the 137th Annual VP Parade on Thursday, July 4, 2019. Photo by Cristina M. Fletes, cfletes@post-dispatch.com.
ST. LOUIS — The Twitterverse turned its outrage this week to longtime St. Louis resident and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” star Ellie Kemper nearly a quarter century after she was crowned “Queen of Love and Beauty” at a high society ball.
Hundreds of people have taken to Twitter to share their take on the annual Veiled Prophet Ball and its ties to class and racial conflict in St. Louis.
“(I)t’s unethical to be a movie actor from a rich family,” one person offered.
Many called out Kemper, who graduated from John Burroughs School and was a 19-year-old Princeton University student when she was crowned queen in 1999. Kemper first gained fame for her role on the popular sitcom “The Office.”
Others drew attention to the controversial history of the ball itself.
The Order of the Veiled Prophet was co-founded by grain merchant and former Confederate cavalryman Charles Slayback eight months after the 1877 railroad strike in which nearly 1,500 St. Louis workers, both Black and white, brought rail freight to a standstill for a week.
In response, business leaders gathered guns and volunteers for a militia, and days later more than 600 marched on the headquarters of the strikers. A vanguard of police rushed the building, arresting 75 men. The rest fled.
In the wake of the strike, and looking to promote St. Louis commerce, Slayback and his brother, Alonzo Slayback, felt the city needed an annual parade and celebration, and looked south, to New Orleans and its Mardi Gras, for inspiration. The “veiled prophet” was taken from a poem by Thomas Moore, “Lalla Rookh,” which includes an account of the “Veiled Prophet of Khorassan,” loosely based on Al-Muqanna, the leader of an eighth century revolt in a province that today is part of modern-day Turkmenistan.
The first St. Louis “veiled prophet” — the only one ever officially revealed by the secret society — was Police Commissioner John G. Priest, who had worked to suppress the strike.
The masked prophet is selected each year from a group of board members to preside over the ball. That person remains masked and anonymous for the entire event.
Some Twitter users compared the prophet’s costume with the white hoods worn by the Ku Klux Klan, calling Kemper a “KKK princess.”
There are no known connections between the ball and the KKK, but historians and civil rights groups have noted the organization didn’t admit any Black men until 1979.
The ball has also garnered the attention of civil rights protesters from the 1960s to recent years.
In 1969, protesters gathered outside the event chanting “white racism must go, the Veiled Prophet must go,” and carrying picket signs reading “Let ’Em Eat Cake, Veiled Profit,” and “Entertainment for Rich Paid for by Poor.”
Three protesters got tickets to the ball in 1972 and unmasked the “prophet,” who turned out to be the then-executive vice president of Monsanto, Tom K. Smith.
The Veiled Prophet Organization has held a parade for decades and helps pay for the Independence Day celebration known as Fair St. Louis. In recent years the group has partnered with the Royal Vagabonds, a social group for Black men formed in the 1930s because other organizations weren't available to them, to build a playground in Ferguson.
Veiled Prophet also started a foundation in which it volunteers and donates to charitable causes. Since 2003, it has worked on more than 255 projects in the city, according to its website. Calls to board members Tuesday were not immediately returned.
In a statement provided to KSDK Channel 5 news, the organization said it "believes in and promotes inclusion, diversity and equality for this region. We absolutely reject racism."
Prophet queens have included many notable and historic St. Louis names, including Busch, Danforth, Schnuck, Chouteau, Cabanne, Niedringhaus and Desloge.
Kemper’s family founded Commerce Bancshares, and her grandmother is Mildred Lane Kemper — the namesake of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University.
An email to a manager for Kemper was not returned Tuesday.
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