(upbeat music) - For over the past 60 years, Arizona PBS has told incredible stories of Arizona's distinctive people, beautiful landscapes and treasured history.

Now, relive those memories we've pulled "From the Vault."

Hello, I'm Alberto Rios.

Immerse yourself in the timeless treasure of the history behind the Biltmore Hotel.

And we introduce you to the intriguing life of Native American and US Marine, Ira Hayes.

"From the Vault" presents another edition of "Arizona Stories."

(cheerful music) - [Narrator] In 1929, the Arizona Biltmore Resort was born in the hot dry desert, north of Phoenix.

Then as now, this oasis was known as the Jewel of the Desert and whose very existence was symbolized the potential of a gracious life in the midst of an arid uncultivated landscape.

It sparked the development of Arizona's tourism industry but more than that, it stands as a testament to the power of architecture.

- Now here's a building which is built with concrete, exposed, no marble, no plaster, no faux finishes, no fanciness, and it's the unquestioned symbol of appropriate design and the unquestioned symbol of living elegantly, and it does it by greatness rather than exaggeration.

One of the great legacies of the Biltmore, one of its striking messages is this thing which we refer to as architecture is actually real.

It's not a matter of opinion or taste.

It's not a matter of fanciness or budgets.

It's a matter of appealing to the human instinct for beauty.

- [Narrator] If mysticism indeed imbues the Biltmore's design, it is due to the architect on record, Albert Chase McArthur, and his collaborator and teacher, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Construction of the resort was costly, and MacArthur's brothers, who originally owned the hotel, lost it the year after completion to chewing gum magnet, William Wrigley, Jr.

Controversy remains as to the extent of Wright's contribution to the design.

His influence is evident in many ways but specifically in the Biltmore block, precast blocks made from the desert sand on site.

- Everybody agrees that Wright worked on this building.

There's no question about that.

Everybody agrees that Albert Chase McArthur and he came to a parting of the ways, and so the whole question is, what did he do while he was working on it?

And those of us who feel strongly about some understanding of Wright's philosophy and the expression of his architecture just see the unmistakable imprint of his designs.

(bright jazz music) - It was also a very gracious establishment in those days, and I think that enriched the community, because people were able to enjoy that way of life if they came here.

When Mr. Wrigley owned it, when we owned it, it was the number one resort in the nation.

It was the only five-star hotel in Arizona, so, of course, wealthy people all sought the best.

And when they saw the Biltmore was the number one resort in the United States, they came here.

Also, there was a very loyal following in the early days, mainly when Mr. Wrigley owned it of Eastern families who would come and spend the bulk of the winter.

They would take one of the cottages or a suite.

They enjoyed the wonderful clean air we had then.

It was open spaces, it was beautiful desert, 1200 acres of open land, all around the hotel as well as there wasn't much beyond it in those days, so it had a special magic.

I mean, people really loved coming and enjoying that.

(bright jazz music) - [Narrator] In 1973, the Biltmore caught fire shortly after the Wrigley family sold the hotel to Talley Industries.

Rather than raze the cherished Arizona institution, the Talleys decided to rebuild.

- Up until that time, all the resorts in Phoenix basically closed for the summer, which was the Biltmore's pattern, so it was closed when the fire started.

Price Waterhouse was the first convention that was booked in for September 23rd.

And so, a decision had to be made, whether to go into high gear, like three shifts a day and get the hotel ready, which meant horrendous expense and effort or to miss a whole season, and so the decision was made to restore the hotel quickly.

- We did somehow manage to finish it.

They were laying the carpet in the lobby at 3:00 am the morning that we opened for our first guests to come.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] Today, the hotel is under new management, but the jewel still sparkles, and the legends endure of the place where Irving Berlin wrote "White Christmas," where guests could get around prohibition, where a multitude of celebrities and politicians continue to stay.

The Arizona Biltmore is not overtly lavish or especially exclusive, it is simply one of a kind.

- There's only one Biltmore, and it's that because it's authentic.

It's genuine.

It's of the place.

It's of the time.

It's true to its sense of materials.

It has a sense of space, which is not about grandeur or bigness, but about responding to the human scale, the human feelings.

And when that occurs, wherever it is on the face of the earth, it endures.

(gentle folk music) (gentle folk music continues) (inspirational orchestral music) - [Narrator] In the spring of 1995, Valley High School students paid tribute to a Phoenix tradition called, "The Masque of the Yellow Moon."

For all of the young performers, it was an exciting new experience.

(crowd bantering) But for most of the people who bought tickets, this was a nostalgic trip down memory lane.

(gentle guitar music) ♪ Oh, the masque of the yellow moon ♪ ♪ Now it's passed ♪ ♪ It was gone too soon ♪ - [Billie] Oh, I remember it was very, very exciting.

It was just exciting.

It was the highlight of the school years, you might say.

Might have even been one of the highlights of early Phoenix.

- [Narrator] Every spring, for nearly 30 years, the big event in Phoenix was "The Masque of the Yellow Moon."

(horn solo) You might say, it was the Super Bowl halftime show of its day.

People from all over the state would pour into Phoenix Union High School's Montgomery Stadium to witness what may best be described as an outdoor extravaganza.

(crowd cheering) - It was just the thing that the community always went to see.

But of course, we didn't have much other entertainment.

Whatever entertainment we had, we made ourselves in those days.

We didn't have television.

(cheerful orchestral music) - [Narrator] "The Masque of the Yellow Moon" gets its unusual name from an Indian legend about the yellow moon of springtime.

It first made headlines in 1926 when Phoenix had fewer than 50,000 people.

By the mid 1930s, critics were calling it one of the most outstanding theatrical events in America, comparing it to New Orleans' Mardi Gras and Pasadena's Tournament of Roses.

- I believe that it was capacity crowd every year.

It was something that Phoenix looked forward to.

I think they've even touted it as being the pride of Phoenix and which received national acclaim in "Reader's Digest" and the "Life Magazine," and no, it was something that everybody truly looked forward to, and I would say it was an event that brought Phoenix together.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] "The Masque" was an unbelievably popular community event but what's more amazing is that it was produced almost entirely by students from Phoenix Union High School.

(people talking) - [Walter] The speech department, the drama department, the girls athletic department, the military, ROTC at that time, all had their own definite spots in the show, and they would rehearse oh, for many, many weeks.

(upbeat marching band music) - [Narrator] Eventually five Phoenix high schools and Phoenix College would participate.

Carver High, the old Black high school was finally invited to join the show in 1949.

- Miss Betty Fairfax, our PE teacher, man, I mean, she would practice us in the morning, in the evening.

I mean, when we left the field out there, we were tired, but we had to get it, we had to, and we did, and we felt so proud of ourself.

(gentle music) "The Masque of the Yellow Moon," yes.

- The home economics classes cut out the costumes, according to our measurements and gave them to us in cut-out pieces with instructions how to put them together.

Sometimes I wouldn't doubt, some of the girls themselves made them, but in my case, my mother made them.

This was the costume that was used in "The Masque" the second year I was in high school, sophomore year.

That would've been the spring of '35.

And this is the time I was an Indian, had a shield as well, but that disintegrated a long time ago.

(laughing) (bright salsa music) (gentle trumpet music) - [Narrator] Cordelia Perkins is the person who made "The Masque of the Yellow Moon" an unbelievably spectacular event.

As its director for 21 years, she designed both the costumes and the enormous sets that stretched across the stage.

She also decided what the theme of "The Masque" would be.

It was different each year, but usually related to the history and heritage of the Southwest.

That was the case in 1936 when "The Masque" was entitled, "Thunder Bird."

Walter Garbarino had a leading role that year.

- I don't recall all the other characters, but I was picked to play an Indian called Shooting Star.

You'd go out there and you'd find your place on this stage, in the dark, and then all the lights come on, and "The Masque of the Yellow Moon" starts, and to see all of these people out there, and you know that that stadium is just full of people, just crammed full, 10 to 12,000 people, if they could get 'em all in.

It's something that you just don't realize how it would affect you.

(joyous orchestral music) - [Narrator] The highlight of every "Masque" came halfway through the performance when the queen was escorted to her throne.

- [Katherine] I remember the crowning well - [Narrator] Katherine Kronan Kunze was Queen of the Masque in 1927.

- I felt it was a great honor, and I don't think I ever really got used to the fact that I was there, and it was I who was being crowned, and it was wonderful.

- Well, it was almost that you just could hardly believe it was happening.

It was just like you get to be queen for a day, and you just thought how fortunate and how lucky I am to be doing this.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] For three decades, "The Masque of the Yellow Moon" had been a Phoenix tradition, interrupted only briefly during the war, but in 1955 the curtain came down for the very last time.

Its demise is partially due to the retirement of Cordelia Perkins and a growing student population that made it too expensive and time consuming to produce.

Besides, Phoenix was well on its way from small town to big city, and like many of its traditions "The Masque of the Yellow Moon" was simply lost amid the change.

(bright music) (truck horn blares) - [Narrator] On the northwest corner of Courthouse Plaza in downtown Prescott, stands a historical marker proudly declaring the city's status as Arizona's first capital.

President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed Arizona a territory in 1863.

Most assumed the capital would be Tucson, then the state's largest and most cultured city, but the region's military commander, having just driven the Confederates out of Tucson a year before, persuaded the territorial government to bestow the honor to Camp Whipple.

For five months, the officers of the Territorial Government of Arizona were operated from tents and log cabins here before being moved to nearby Prescott.

The state capital was moved one more time to Phoenix in 1889.

(horn solo) - [Narrator] 70,000 Marines were sent to capture the island of Iwo Jima.

More than 23,000 died trying.

Six became a symbol of courage for our nation at war.

It took just one click of a camera.

(camera shoots) Of the six flag raisers, forever frozen atop Mount Suribachi in this famous photograph taken by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press, one was a Pima Indian from Arizona.

His name was Ira Hamilton Hayes.

- [Sarah] So most of these pictures are of the family.

Here's another one with Ira right here.

And these are the originals that I make copies from.

These are the originals.

That's Joe Rosenthal and Ira.

- [Narrator] Sarah Burnell is Ira's niece.

She's become the family historian and an expert on her famous uncle.

- He was born in Phoenix at the... Yeah, it used to be the Indian Hospital in Phoenix.

- [Narrator] Sarah lives with Ira's younger brother, Kenny, in Sacaton on the Gila River Reservation not far from where Ira was raised.

Photographs and memories cover the walls of their modest home.

Kenny proudly displays the medals Ira earned, (drum beats) but he finds it difficult to talk about his brother.

- Oh yeah, want to speak to you?

Yeah.

- [Narrator] Ira died at the age of 32, a tragic ending to the spectacular story of an American Indian who chose to fight for the Stars and Stripes, never wanting to be a star himself, but this photograph made Ira Hayes an instant celebrity.

He and the other two surviving flag raisers were sent on tour to raise money for the war.

(dramatic orchestral music) ♪ From the Halls of Montezuma ♪ - [Narrator] They appeared in the sands of Iwo Jima.

In that movie, they reenacted the scene that made them famous.

(Sarah comments indistinctly) - [Narrator] Kenny says his brother grew tired of all the attention.

- He's was never one of those guys that liked to brag and stuff like that.

He's not the kind of guy.

- [Narrator] Sarah believes fame and the war took a toll on her uncle.

- The only way he probably could combat it was through drinking.

- [Narrator] Alcohol became IRA's best friend and his worst enemy.

It landed him in jail on occasion and claimed his life much too early.

Just months before he died in 1955, Ira was in Washington DC for the dedication of the Iwo Jima Memorial.

- I really feel a lot of pride, especially when you see that big statue in Washington DC.

And I go over there and I say, "That's Ira."

I've learned in traveling that more people off the reservation respect him more than our own people.

I went overseas to Iwo Jima, and I met a lot of his old buddies, his buddies that were on Iwo Jima.

Some were very close to him, but some of them just read about him, and they were all amazed that they wanted to meet Kenny.

Even if it's just his brother, they wanted to meet him.

(truck engine humming) People have come through our reservation.

They've never seen anything on Ira.

I guess he was sort of forgotten here for awhile.

- [Narrator] But Sarah is trying to change that.

Evidence of her hard work and Ira Hayes is beginning to show.

(horn solo) - To me, it's that he was a warrior.

He was a honorable person.

He did something that was very honorable going to war, and he was recognized for what he'd done, and that's one of the things that I'm proud of to be part of this of O'odham people is that to say that Ira Hayes was one of us, one of our people.

- [Sarah] I want him to be remembered just by him raising the flag.

I want him to be remembered.

I figure if we don't, he might be lost in history through our own people.

(bright music) (cheerful piano music) - [Narrator] Time stands still at the old Pinal County Courthouse in Florence, at least on the stamp metal clock faces.

- [Ernie] There've never been clocks in the clock tower.

There wasn't enough money, and so they brought in clock facings, and these are made of pressed metal.

- [Narrator] Some folks think the clocks read 11:44, others, 9:00 or 11:43.

Here's one version of why the hands rest where they do.

- [John] Back when they built this courthouse, they set the time on there at about a quarter to 12, so people coming into town would know they could come to the courthouse and get their business done before they shut it down at noontime.

- [Narrator] But there's no doubt, time has been flying for the rest of the structure, the oldest continuously used public building in Arizona.

The 111 year old courthouse was built in 1891 for $29,000.

- This was the second courthouse that the county built.

This was the third courthouse they used.

They rented the first one, which was an adobe building, but the second one, or the first one they built was McFarland State Park now.

- [Narrator] The courthouse was constructed to show that the county was planning to prosper even though the curtains in the clock tower are actually just paint.

- This is American Victorian architectural style.

It's a little bit later in the period when we begin to see we're getting away from adobe construction, and we have a railroad now, and we can bring in materials from other parts of the country.

- [Narrator] The building is rich in architectural detail.

Mill work abounds throughout with some of the original doorknobs still in use, not something you can get at Lowe's.

Feliz, whose family has lived in Florence for about as long as the courthouse has been around, has fond memories of the building, especially the staircase.

- Now I'm talking five years old, my mother brought me in here, I walked in and saw that split staircase, that was something I wanted to run up and down all day on, because it just looked so fabulous.

- [Narrator] But the building where John Swearengin worked as a clerk of the court in the 1940s is falling apart.

- [John] The only thing it's done, really since I worked here was deteriorate more or less, because like me, it got older, and you have to allow certain deterioration.

- [Ernie] The most pressing problem is the clock tower and the cupola.

It wasn't constructed very well to begin with, and then over time, it's just gotten worn and worn and worn, and it tends to sway, and it could fall down.

And then there's the roof, which is in bad need of repair, it leaks.

- [Narrator] The weight of the signature clock tower is crushing the attic.

In the 1950s, county supervisors wanted to cut off the clock tower, but citizens fought that as they fought a move in the 1990s to install real clocks.

Temporary solutions such as baling wire, and bracing the sagging roof with numerous boards have held for decades but a more permanent solution to the building's decay will be expensive.

It'll take $2.5 million to renovate the old courthouse and help continue its reign as the state's oldest, continuously used public building.

(dramatic music) The old courthouse in Florence has seen a lot of history.

Trunk murderess, Winnie Ruth Judd had a sanity hearing there.

The last stage coach robber in America had her trial in it, and there's even talk of ghosts.

- [John] The one thing that I can say there might be a ghost somewhere in there, it's not the ghost really, it's the ones who were left behind in the cemetery.

This building sits on what used to be the town cemetery.

And when they took all the bodies out, they missed a few naturally, because a lot of 'em weren't marked, and some of those ghosts may be floating around in there.

That's the only basis for our ghost story that I know of from this building here.

- [Narrator] But ghosts don't stop people from loving the old courthouse.

- [John] Oh, they love this place.

It's a treasure for the whole county and for the state really, the people in Florence particularly, because it's a part of our lives.

(playful orchestral music) (gentle music)