Gimme

The amazing Chuck Plunkett goes multimedia to explain the growth of private financing for presidential nominating conventions.

More: Denver pop historian Tom Noel on the 1908 Democratic convention:

Denver had raised $100,000 to woo the Democrats, outbidding Atlantic City, Chicago, Louisville and St. Paul. . . .

[Security] in 1908 consisted of only a few Pinkerton detectives and 16 extra police officers. They faced no protesters, only pickpockets and a snowball fight — in July.

What, no mint levitation? On the other hand, the 2008 convention will almost certainly lack one draw the last one had:

Since the nomination of [William Jennings] Bryan was a foregone conclusion, Denver tried to provide other enticements. So the city hired 40 Apache Indians to entertain an estimated 40,000 conventioneers. Their dances and war whoops made it difficult to distinguish wild Indians from celebrating Democrats, reporter Damon Runyon wrote, except that the latter were "wearing a lot of badges" and "yelling all the time." . . .

Maybe Ward Churchill . . . never mind. But even without Recrea!te68, the 1908 convention had at least one mass arrest:

Making good on Denver's promises to provide a cool escape from sweltering lowland cities, the Moffat Railroad Company daily hauled in wagons filled with snow and pulled by donkeys. Locals piled the white stuff up outside the Denver Municipal Auditorium (now a restored landmark) at 14th and Curtis so delegates could cool off. When one snowball fight turned rowdy, police arrested 50 feuding Democrats.

More: A piece on the potential benefits and drawbacks of the media focus on Denver during the DNC that doesn't mention protests. Weird.