Local glories: opera houses on main street, where art and community meet

457 Pages·2016·32.68 MB·English

by  Satterthwaite, Ann

Local Glories

Local
Glories
OPER A HOUSES ON
MAIN STREET
WHERE ART
AND COMMUNITY MEET
Ann Satterthwaite
1
3
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
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Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Ann Satterthwaite 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
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You must not circulate this work in any other form
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Satterthwaite, Ann
Local glories : opera houses on main street, where art
and community meet / Ann Satterthwaite.
pages cm
Summary: “This book explores the creative, social, and communal roles of thousands of
‘opera houses’ that appeared in towns in the late 1800s and flourished with an astounding
array of cultural performances and public activities until the advent of movies. Now, these
entertainment halls are coming back to life as theaters and art centers, as people
become increasingly aware of their potential for ‘historic preservation,’ ‘cultural
activities,’ and ‘community vitality.’ ”— Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978–0–19–939254–4 (hardback)
1. Theater—United States—History. 2. Centers for the performing arts—
United States—History. 3. Theater and society—United States.
I. Title.
PN2226.S28 2016
792.0973—dc23
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Edwards Brothers, USA
To all those who made opera houses happen then
and now—and to Sheafe.

Contents
Introduction 1
PART ONE
A Heady Time: Thousands of Opera Houses
1 Signs of Civilization 9
2 A Time of Change 18
3 Culture and the Public 38
PART TWO
On Stage: Performances, Performers, and Patrons
4 Early Struggles 53
5 Theater Thrives 62
6 Celebrities and Stars 78
7 Other Entertainments and Enlightenments 94
8 Music and Opera 106
9 What the Public Wants 123
viii Contents
PART THREE
In Town: Public Halls and Public Roles
10 Business Connections 147
11 Public Places and Civic Events 162
12 Challenges 182
13 Immigrants 195
14 Symbols of Pride 209
PART FOUR
Born Again: Revived Opera Houses and Their Communities
15 The Phoenix Rises 253
16 Successes 274
17 Engines for Regeneration 306
18 Like Family 326
19 Connecting Again 339
Afterword 353
Appendix: A Listing of Extant Opera Houses by State 359
Notes 383
Bibliography 395
Index 413
Introduction
Dowagers in mink coats and men in tuxedos gracing New York’s opu-
lent Metropolitan Opera House spring to mind at the mention of “opera
house.” So it is not surprising that I was curious about the opera houses
I kept finding in small American towns such as Stonington, Maine,
and Minden, Nebraska, and even in off-the-beaten-path Death Valley,
California.
A fascinating tale unfolded. In the fifty years after the Civil War thou-
sands of opera houses stood proudly in small towns, with innumerable
traveling performers appearing on their stages. They brought live enter-
tainment to more towns than at any other time in US history, making
this a golden age of live entertainment and also the heyday of the small-
town opera house.
By 1900, opera houses were everywhere: on second floors over hard-
ware stores, in grand independent buildings, in the back rooms of New
England town halls, and even inside a Mississippi department store.
Midwestern states were dotted with them. Almost every town in newly
settled states like Nebraska and Iowa had an opera house, in places as small
as David City, Nebraska (population 1,845) and Pella, Iowa (population
2,623).1 By the late nineteenth century opera houses were being incorpo-
rated in public town halls—even in New England, despite its puritanical
antipathy toward theater. Tough mining towns in the Colorado Rockies
displayed a newfound urbanity with their handsome opera houses, and
Appalachian coal-mining companies followed suit. Even public assem-
bly buildings and music halls joined the bandwagon and were renamed
“opera houses.”