Milwaukee Theater History
Terrie M. Little Sr.
(work in
progress.)
Your comments
would be helpful.
.
Forward
Like an
unfinished thought........ America's
map entered the 1840s dotted with new hamlets configured like milestones leading toward the West. Towns such as Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas
City were on the outer edge of American civilization in those early years with
the wilderness settlement of Milwaukie
(yes, thats how they spelled it) an even more remote overland detour to
the north. Theater had already cought
the fancy of the Eastern cities and as
a residual, eclectic troupes of itinerant actors began to exploit the
theatrical vacuum of these emerging Western
frontiers. Actors posessing moderate talents suchThomas Lynn
and Thomas Powell found the audiences of the wilderness to be far more
appreciative of their efforts than were the more critical patrons of the East. Lynn and Powell assembled a troupe which
they named The Detroit and Chicago
Company, appearing in those two towns respectively. Having experienced moderate success in
Detroit they moved on to Chicago's, Rialto
Theater where each performance was rewarded with huge audiences.[1]
Following two successful weeks Lynn and Powell understood that in order
to maintain such momentum, considering the limited population from which to
draw, that they'd need to bolster their troupe's strength and appeal. Two emerging stars, Danforth (Dan) Marble,
perhaps America's first of many beloved large nosed comedians and Martha
Silsbee, an up and coming actress who complimented Marble's specialty of comic
Yankee characterizations were contracted as headliners. This arrangement, which came to be known as
the "star system, guaranteed
the featured performers a sizable percentage of the company's receipts. Show producers, as a whole, were not known for
their generosity, and therefore this engagement was a gamble on the part of
Lynn and Powell. Not only was this
successful season maintained but increased in popularity as crowds flocked to
the Rialto to enjoy these two
genuinely American comics. Marble and
Silsbee, following two weeks of full houses, began to wonder why they had yet
to enjoy a pay day in return for their efforts and demanded payment in full
from their tight fisted employers. Lynn
and Powell were stunned by such a bold requisition. In their experience members
of that profession never made such
demands. The unwritten contract between performer and manager of
itinerant theatrical units (the code of
the West?) was that salaries would be doled out in small, sporadic payments at
the manager's convenience. All of
life's necessities such as lodging, meals and transportation were provided by
the managers, leaving actors with simple monetary requirements, for such items as beer, tobacco and clean
socks. Too much money in hand might
inspire the "irresponsible" performers
to do something foolish, like leave.
The reputation of such vagabond enterprises preceded them, prompting innkeepers and theater hall
managers to require payment in advance.
It was equally wise for restaurant owners to enforce a pay before you
eat policy as well. Normally such fixed
expenses depleted much of a company's resources allowing the managers to pacify
the cast with promises of payment only after a truly successful run. Management, of course, reserved the right to
define success. It seemed quite
apparent to these two headliners that a successful run had indeed arrived , leaving Lynn and Powell
squirming on the hook for much of their newfound wealth. For these two frugal managers this was the
unfortunate downside of their successful Chicago run, and an eventuality, which
they had not foreseen. Lynn and Powell
argued that even the most successful " seasons*" had the potential of
ending abruptly, sometimes following a single after hours performance by an overly indulgent actor. And for the sake of the entire company a
contingency fund should be held in reserve, insuring the expedient relocation
of the troupe. But Danforth and Martha
exercised their own contingency.
Slipping quietly into the box office they extracted all that was owed
them, and then exited, stagecoach! Such a brilliant coup may have inspired
some ambivalence among the remaining underpaid cast. Cast and management soon found themselves in a dispute of mammoth
proportions. Seemingly the trouble bgan, not over salaries, but rather over a
laundry bill. Encouraged by what they
knew to be such a profitable season, a couple of actors had foolishly turned some shirts into a
local laundry without first getting approval from their managers. Lynn and Powell flatly refused to honor the
unauthorized laundry tickets. This sent
the unfortunate pair of actors packing, seemingly with lighter suitcases. And so concluded the Chicago season. Understanding that the depleted cast might
well be perceived as a lesser corps of actors by the Chicago audiences, a state
of affairs which usually meant box office poison,
Lynn and Powell loaded coaches with cast and props as the Detroit and Chicago Company set out for a new
"season."*
* A "season" consisted of a loosely
scheduled series of plays which
would
last as long as the performances were profitable.
Often
seasons were terminated following one or two poorly attended
offerings, sometimes with the
company quietly leaving town under
the cover
of darkness; bills unpaid.
It wasnt
until communities enjoyed the reliability of local
theatrical
companies that a theatrical "season
was understood
to
describe a stated number of performances within a fixed period of
weeks or
months. .
The preceding tale sets the stage for
Milwaukee's first and countless subsequent theatrical performances. Having admitted to the fact that the number
of "seasons"
are indeed countless I must confess that license was taken with this book's
title, but 10,000 seems to be a fair estimate of the number of professional
performances which have opened before Milwaukee audiences. Perhaps we can leave that census to an
overzealous grad student, or is that an oxymoron. Here in an important legacy has been preserved. Theater seems to have been of such little
importance to past historians that many published accounts of this marvelous
story are represented inaccurately.
What wasn't recorded at the time was left to the memoirs of
someone's "Aunt Tilly",
recorded decades after the fact, and hardly historically reliable. The following pages hope to provide an
accurate depiction of the time and events which earned Milwaukee the respectful
title of, "Athens of the West, not to mention a half dozen or so other
reported nickname s which also included the name "Athens."
Milwaukee was provided
with well over fifty theater buildings for the exclusive purpose of live
theatrical performances prior to the turn of the century. This work attempts to accurately describe
both the structures and the events, which took place within them. As the chronology of these buildings
unfolds an intriguing sub-story evolves.
Quickly you'll begin to understand and appreciate the evolution and
revolution that took place in Milwaukee.
Some of American theater's most important innovations were pioneered in
Milwaukee, most specifically the ability to quickly and quietly change scenery
during a theatrical performance. Save
for electricity, nothing greater enhanced technical theater presentations than
the "t-bar arbor" system, which was pioneered in the 1895 Pabst
Theater.
The actual
performances are gone forever. No one
can provide reliable critical representations of those thousands of magical
moments. This book will not attempt to
dissect the artistic merits of those efforts.
But it will highlight some of the individual performances and
productions, which were noted as significant at the time.
. Theater, for the purpose of this work is
defined as drama and comedic performances, including opera and ballet. The history of music in Milwaukee deserves a
book onto itself but is tied so closely with theater that its early origins are
also detailed here in.
Chapter I
1842 - Hustis' Hall
"Dan Marble, the celebrated comedian,
has been playing in
Chicago for two weeks past to full houses. A theater in
Milwaukee would be a rarity."
Milwaukie Sentinel Sept. 1842
On September 27,
1842 Lynn & Powell's Detroit and
Chicago Company opened a new season at Hustis'
Hall in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. [2]
Thomas Lynn and Thomas A. Powell were fine actors in their own right and
were supported by a strong cast. The talents of Dan Marble and Martha Silbee
would not be missed. Yet the managers
entered the season with some trepidation.
Coach fare for the company had been a considerable expense and there was
no convenient town to which they could move should they find the untested
waters of Milwaukee to be shallow. Such
a miscalculation often meant the demise of a company but then such risks were
simply part of the business. To a
company such as this one a good audience was nearly as rewarding as a good box
office.
An itinerant performer
named Billy Foster, who played Milwaukee some years later, had failed to earn
enough to pay for his lodging. A
special benefit performance was given for him, which failed to raise coach
fare. So Billy pawned his watch to
satisfy his debt. When asked later why he didn't just skip out on the hotel
bill, a common practice among his profession, Billy replied that he settled his
debts, " not out of compunction of
conscience" but that Milwaukee was such a good theater town that he
wanted to play there again.[3]
Lynn and Powell
found Milwaukee to be well into recovery from its monetary depression of the
1830s. Had The Detroit and Chicago Company arrived a few years earlier they
would have found themselves performing in exchange for potatoes. But in 1842 Milwaukee was again in
possession of cash-money and willing to spend it for an opportunity to enjoy
the "new" novelty of
theater. Solomon Juneau's, Milwaukie
Sentinel (the spelling is correct)
announced that the first theatrical offering had been "The Merchant of Venice."[4]
A quite reliable history of the era seemed to disagree in part, naming
"Shylock" as Milwaukee's first professional play.[5]
The later is probably more correct, suggesting that an abbreviated
version of "Merchant" was
given. Lengthy plays were often edited
down to better hold the attention of wilderness audiences who were not
accustomed to passive entertainment.
Also, in an attempt to draw repeat customers from such a limited
population, different plays were performed each day, requiring actors to retain
a great amount of dialogue. Milwaukee's
first season of theater consisted of
sixteen performances. Within this
repertoire Lynn and Powell quite wisely provided the works of Shiller, Kotzbue
and Shakespeare. With Milwaukee's ethnic
mix well provided for, the houses were sufficiently filled. Hustis'
Hall was entered following a climb to the third floor of the commercial
block that measured 40 feet wide by 50 feet deep. Its location at the northwest corner of Chestnut Street (Juneau)
and Third Street had been curious when built two years earlier since the
overwhelming majority of the area's population was located on the other side of
the Milwaukee River. And there had been
no bridge by which to cross. Perhaps
the allure of new shops and offices which Hustis'
Block offered inspired the East side wives to nudge their husbands efforts
to bridge the river. Milwaukee's first such thoroughfare between east and west
ran right past Hustis' front door. [6] Hustis' Hall was not unlike many other
such meeting places throughout the city.
It would be unreasonable to assume that John Hustis had intended for one
of the primary functions of his hall to be theater, but evidence shows that
theater was a consideration. The actors
of The Detroit and Chicago Company upon their arrival crudely constructed a
stage, as none was provided.[7]
The performance area was small and curtains or other theatrical
trappings non-existent. Theater was not
only a new experience for the appreciative towns- folk but seemed to catch the
press by surprise as well. Milwaukee's
first theatrical revue became so issue oriented by the east side based Sentinel, dwelling on the fact that the
venue was on the wrong side of the river, that it failed to mention the name of
the theater, the company performing there, or any insight into the quality of
the performance. With all due respect
to the journalist, it is said that his editor cut the copy short, printing only
the important information. And the following day's paper provided more
relevant copy.
Milwaukee's first theatrical revue:
The Milwaukie Sentinel, September 28, 1842
"Theater - For the first time since this place
has been occupied by white man, it is visited by a theatrical corps. The company come well recommended and
although they are not exactly located in the right spot. Yet good horses and
carriages can be had of
Davis & Moore that will carry
persons to the right spot in about 5 minutes. We have been longer than that getting to the theater in New York."
Missing from this
travelogue was the fact that passage could also be booked upriver aboard the
steamer, Trowbridge. As the season drew to a close a
journalist, presumably the same one was in full stride. In the October 12th edition he noted that
the bills posted around town were announcing "Forty Thieves" to be the next offering and questioned why an
actor named Noonen wasn't listed among the cast. He went on to suggest that Noonen should play "...the
character that Nature has fitted him for - that of a jackass...." Now that
was a critic! The premier performance
by The German Chorus (see: Emergent
German theater) plus other musical productions of lesser note are recorded as
having played at Hustis' Hall, which
never became more than just another local hall. Public dances, religious services and political debates became
its fate. Hustis' Block, which had at
one time stood as " the symbol of Milwaukee's return to prosperity", [8] was condemned in 1876.[9]
(Ad Milwaukee Theater -
Milw. Courier 6-07-43)
The Milwaukee Saloon 1843
Thomas A. Powell
returned to Milwaukee in 1843 with an assemblage of lesser talent than had
accompanied him the year before to Houstis'
Hall. Powell's former partner,
Thomas Lynn, who did return to reside in Milwaukee from 1855 to 1859 was no
longer affiliated with Powell. An
interesting aside is that in 1859 Lynn elected to convert to the Mormon faith
and became the stage manager of the Mormon theater in Salt Lake, Utah. Powell's career followed less religious
lines as he rented space in the Milwaukee
Saloon.[10]
His choice of this North Broadway Street saloon was a perfect fit for
his company's repertoire of vaudeville-like skits and variety acts. Opening night featured Powell in the title
role of "The Mysterious
Stranger," with Mrs. Powell playing the heroine. Surrounding this
light drama were comedic songs by Mr. Dickerson, stand-up comedy from Mr.
Bernard, a light comedy entitled, "Animal
Magnetism," as well as incidental variety acts.[11]
Among the other productions presented during this season were "The Gambler's Fate" and "The Drunkard's Fate," which
was probably quite similar to that of the Gambler as Yankee morality dictated
that the wicked be punished and the wayward be returned to the flock. The one
offering which seems to have given this company legitimacy was "Lady
of the Lake." Following the
" thunderous applause which it
is said to have received, local patrons collected the sum of $500, which they
endowed upon Powell to be used for the establishment of Milwaukee's first
resident theater company. With such a
princely sum Powell found an old abandoned warehouse, formerly called Tuft & Crandall's. Some remodeling was done among the rotting
pines and for a brief while performances were given.[12]
Powell's makeshift theater never caught the public fancy and soon he
departed for his home in Chicago, with no future mention of Tuft & Crandall's to be found. The Milwaukee Saloon
continued to provide entertainments but they seem to have been somewhat tawdry
in nature as the press ceased to take any notice of these shows. A rare mention was of a gymnast, Signor
McFarland who was reportedly "quite good."[13]
But more notably was William Johnson who appeared in McFarland's
company. Johnson became one of Milwaukee's most admired theatrical managers and
the theatrical promoter of Young's Hall,
a theater whose name he eventually changed to Johnson's Athenaeum.
Military Hall 1845
(Engrav: Military hall)
Milwaukee's
first German militia, The Washington Guard maintained a 60-foot by forty foot
meeting hall on the South side of Oneida Street (East Wells) between Market
Street and Broadway. [14]
With its open space construction and central location this hall was an
ideal venue for touring attractions such as Christy's
Minstrels, the prototype company of such entertainments, in November of
1845. In November of 1846 Milwaukees
principal newspaper with the ever-changing name, The Sentinel and Gazette, announced the arrival of The Chicago National Theater, C.N.
Lewis, manager. A cast of 18 performed
that evening with, the featured performance being, "The Spirit of the Black Mantle." Variety acts, including
a noted Ethiopian (black) dancer
named G. Ames,
and a comedy entitled, "Jealous Wife" filled out the bill.
(pix unident. Amateur production State His Soc.)
caption: The surroundings of this unidentified group of Wisconsin actors
typify the minimal stage size and oil lamp footlights of the era.
Immediately
following the appearance of Lewis troupe, a noted Eastern actor named John B.
Rice traveled from Chicago in search of a space that he could equip for
theater. Rice had assembled a
marvelously talented theatrical company in Chicago and wanted the luxury of a
satellite theater in which he could repeat his Chicago productions before a
fresh audience. Finding the open space
of Military Hall to his satisfaction,
Rice immediately summoned Mr. Phillmore, his stage manager, to convert the
tired old hall into a suitable playhouse.[15]
"Stage Manager" was a title that few who wore that mantle
cherished. It would be many years before
that discipline became a profession onto itself. Mr. Phillmore was an actor, as all stage managers of the era, who
accepted all of the menial tasks of the company as sort of an acting
apprenticeship program or hazing, depending upon how well the performer
accepted sweeping, mopping, painting and in this case carpentry. Quickly the room was converted into a
workable theater with a platform stage, curtains, one or two pieces of scenery
and the house divided into pit, parquet and dress circle seating. Both the stage and the auditorium area were
lit with whale oil lamps. Military Hall became exclusively a
playhouse and opened on December 3, 1847 to a large and receptive
audience. As the patrons became seated
they barely had time to absorb the incredible transition that the tired old
drill hall had made into a clean and comfortable playhouse when the curtain was
rolled up and they first observed a spellbinding wisp of a woman whom their
program identified as Mrs. Hunt. Mrs.
Rice, the boss' wife was cast in most leading female roles initially but
Milwaukee soon let it be known that Louisa Lane Hunt, soon to be Mrs. Mossop,
was unquestionably their favorite. This magnificent actress, with such notably
large eyes seemingly glided through every role that was offered her. T. Allison
Brown who was one of America's most influential drama critics, writing for The New York Clipper, called Louisa,
"the most wonderfully versatile
actress on the American
stage." [16]
In 1850 while playing at The
Albany Museum in New York State she met and entered into her third marriage
with noted actor John Drew. Their children, John Drew Jr. and Georgiana Drew
Barrymore pursued careers on the stage often leaving Louisa to care for her
grandchildren, Lionel, Ethel and John Barrymore. The Military Hall
premier cast also included Mr. and Mrs. John Rice as well as Mr. and Mrs. Jerry
Merrifield. Rosalie Merrifield, soon
divorced, originated the character of "Topsy"
in a new 1853 play entitled, "Uncle
Tom's Cabin", with her name listed as Rosalie Cole in the
program. It is not known if she then
became a career "tommer."
(actors who made their career of that one play.)
(pix -
Topsy Wis Hist. Soc.)
(Ad:
opening night-TMS 12-2-47)
The Rice
Company's opening night offered a variety of entertainments which began with a
pair of farces (comedies), "The
Wife and "His Last Legs." Miss Homer followed with a comic song and "The Cracovienne."[17]
Each subsequent performance by this company became the talk of the town
with the company's popularity soaring.
But nothing would compare with a nautical drama entitled, "Black Eyed Susan." So popular was this play that it continued to
be performed to sold-out houses for an unprecedented two weeks. Milwaukee's deep admiration and trust of
John Rice was exhibited in dramatic fashion when during an 1848 performance the
wooden balcony (constructed by poor Mr.
Phillmore) of Military Hall gave out
a loud shriek as it settled into the floor.
Those seated above felt some motion while the audience below bolted in
sheer terror. As panic began to
overtake the hall John Rice jumped to the stage and calmly explained that he
would never allow his balcony to collapse.[18] Amazingly the audience returned to their
seats, even those below the balcony and the play continued. So great an impression had Rice imprinted on
Milwaukee that in the fall of 1848 a public offering of stock was tendered in
order to build a real theater for Rice and Company. It was apparent that this would not be a profitable investment
but citizens of Milwaukee purchased shares as an investment in the town's
cultural future. Military Hall was left behind with all of its theatrical trappings
as an inspiration for The German Dramatic
Society as well as other amateur theatrical groups. On May 1, 1851 Milwaukee's first orchestra, The Milwaukee Musical Society provided
their public premier at Military Hall. Hans Balatka was the orchestra's conductor
with Jacob Mahler the president, Rufus King vice president and Charles Geisberg
the Society's treasurer. Not long after
that concert, during a heated and largely attended anti-temperance rally (a big
draw in these parts) some of the floorboards of Military Hall gave way, depositing a number of stunned but
otherwise unhurt participants in the basement.
Several years later the hall was placed on logs and rolled to a North
River Street (Edison) location where it was used for the manufacture of sash,
doors and blinds.
Gaiety Theater 1847
Only a few doors
South of the Milwaukee Saloon stood
an old wooden frame bowling alley that in 1847 was converted into what the
press identified as a saloon/variety hall. This description indicates that The Gaiety was primarily a saloon which
also provided staged entertainments, not so unlike a Western dance hall. The audience seating may have been in rows
of folding chairs but more likely the audience enjoyed table seating, like a
dinner theater so that the tavern could effectively sell its beverages. Following a long line of unsuccessful owners
this venue became a popular place of amusement under the capable ownership of
John Ryan. Having resurrected a failing business to profitability, and knowing
the fickle nature of saloon audiences, Ryan sold the business to John C. and
G.D. King shortly before disaster struck.
The King Brothers employed Milwaukee's favorite and most sure-fire
promotional gimmick, a parade, on November 15, 1869. A band marched throughout Milwaukee's downtown where it was
joined by enthusiastic paraders who little cared for whose honor the parade was
given nor where it was headed. To
Milwaukeeans all parades were worth joining. Even if the celebration lost a few
participants as it was led under the Chinese lanterns that illuminated the
doorway of the Gaiety Saloon/Hall the parade was a success and the venue became
filled beyond capacity. At a quarter
((())) smashed an oil lamp that hung precariously over the stage for the
purpose of general illumination. This
created a small fire upon the stage. As
patrons instinctively began to bolt for the door an actor removed his coat and
placed it over the flames. As he began
to offer his assurance that there was no danger, his garment began to
smolder. With that he retrieved the
coat and used it to beat at the flames, upsetting another lantern in the
process. Within a minute or two the
entire dry wooden hall became an inferno. The tavern's egress was covered by
folding doors that served to lock behind the saloon's swinging doors after
hours during the summer and seal out the cold in the winter. These
unfortunately folded toward the interior of the hall and were inoperative under
the weight of the frantic crowd. The
orchestra's conductor suffered severe cuts to his hands as he punched his way
through a window, but his wounds were minimal when compared with the several
who burned to death and the many more who became permanently disfigured. Among those who were badly scarred was John
King, manager of the Gaiety.[19]
While the carnage of this tragic event certainly places this fire
prominently upon the pages of Milwaukees history, an argument can be made that
this was not Milwaukees most horrific theater fire, as is often reported. The fact that this was a saloon which
charged no admission leads one to the conclusion that if the fire had occurred
earlier in the day while a free lunch was being offered, a common practice
among such establishments, that it then would have been Milwaukee's most
horrific restaurant fire. And if loss
of life is any criteria, (see Davidson Theater) the Davidson Theater where nine firemen lost their lives would
certainly give it the dubious distinction of Milwaukee's worst theater fire.
Pretentious Opera Houses
The
Theater 1848
AKA:
Temple of Thespies, Temple of
Thalia, Temple Opera
House, The Opera House and Rices
Theater.
John Rice had
arrived in Milwaukee two years earlier with little more than his reputation for
honesty. Now he was presented with a
magnificent new theater. This gesture
not only stood as a testament to J.B. Rice but also to the farsighted citizens
of Milwaukee who had invested their hard earned money to finance what The Daily Sentinel called "a pretentious opera house." Located just South of Grand Avenue on Main
Street (Broadway), on the site which later was occupied by the Newhall House Hotel,
this brick theater building was named by Rice simply, The Theater. Many of the stockholders also purchased large blocks
of season's tickets in order to insure that Rice would experience the immediate
profitability necessary to firmly establish his young company as a permanent
community asset. [20]
The quality of Rice's acting company was thought to be among the best in
the nation, and was certainly the best in the West. Noted and accomplished performers such as Louisa Mossop had
quietly endured some hardships, playing in a dingy drill hall but now these
troupers were rewarded with what was described by the normally conservative Sentinel as "Among America's finest
theaters." [21]
The December 1, 1848 premier of The
Theater was certainly among the proudest moments of the then two year old
City of Milwaukee. "As You Like It had been selected
as The Theater's inaugural
performance but an illness among the cast caused the company to opt for a less
challenging, "The Honeymoon"
to be offered instead. [22]
Over one thousand tickets were sold for opening night providing a
capacity house at a cost of fifty cents for reserved seating, twenty-five cents
for pit seating and twenty-five cents for "colored"
seating in a segregated area of the pit.
Milwaukee's favorite, Louisa Mossop co-starred with a new leading man, James H. McVicker. This soon to be Nationally renowned comedian
quickly became a local celebrity. With
a good mind for business McVicker saved enough from his modest acting salary to
create a chain of important theaters, building what was described as Chicago's
finest, which he named, McVickers and
New York's, Lyceum Theater among
them. Notable performances were also
provided opening evening by George Harris, Mr. Donovan and far from least, Mrs.
Rice. So popular were her performances
that a long list of Milwaukee's elite sponsored a benefit performance, sort of
a popularity poll, to show their appreciation for her. The list of admirers read like a modern
Milwaukee road map. Among them were,
Byron Kilbourn, Nelson Ludington,
Daniel Wells, George Douseman,
Alexander Mitchell and Rufus King.
George Stevens conducted the house orchestra masterfully and provided
musical accompaniment for most every production staged by Rice in this theater.[23]
Seated among the many talented musicians who played with Stevens' pit
orchestra was a young, newly arrived immigrant violinist named Christopher Bach
who was soon acclaimed as Milwaukee's most popular maestro/composer. [24]
The premier night's entertainment was concluded with a comedy, "The Eaton Boy." Many Milwaukeeans who had limited or no
theatrical experiences by which to gauge the events of that evening strolled
home in a state of ethereal wonderment. Unlike Military Hall, with its limited theatrical trappings, The Theater was as functional as it was
overtly ornate. Lighting was still
provided by whale oil lanterns but they were so ingeniously configured that
limited yet effective theatrical mood lighting could be accomplished. While so very crude by today's standards,
the audience had until that time only known two light settings, bright to read
and dark to sleep. Whale oil lanterns
were located around the stage area, mounted inside of wooden boxes called, birdhouses. Each box had a hinged door
to which were connected two piano wires, called tracker wires. The steel
threads were loomed across and under the stage to the prompter's box where the
complex manipulation of these wires would open or close the birdhouse doors, adding or eliminating
light. [25]
The chimneys of foot lights obstructed the spectators view from the pit
area but when not needed for a lighting effect the entire row of lanterns could
be dropped down into the stage with a door closing above them. Lard-oil lamps with glass globes achieved
the general illumination of the auditorium.
This light level remained moderately bright while performances were
underway. With skeptical eyes cast from every religious pulpit in town a
darkened auditorium would have been more than the moral leadership could have
tolerated. The dimming of theater
auditorium lights seems to have become a more common practice at the same time
that motion picture projection required it.
The warm effect of this house lighting was later described by the local
newspaper, The Daily Wisconsin as
being, " more agreeable, and appreciably less bright than the gas lights
of later years," indicating the writer's instinctive desire for a darker
auditorium during performances. [26]
The seating within the house was divided into dress circle, parquet and
pit. The thirty-nine by thirty-seven foot stage was adequate for productions of
that era as scenery consisted of flat painted backdrops, period. It was unheard of for an actor to retreat
back (upstage) to perform within a set, and props rarely consisted of more than
a table and chairs. Hand props, which
actors carried on and off stage, such as poor Urich's skull, which was
sometimes a carved pumpkin, provided the only device with which an actor was
allowed to interact with. They were restricted
by sacred tradition to remain somewhat fixed immediately in front of the foot
lights and therefore limited to dramatic readings as opposed to today's
blocking which makes actor, set, and props inseparable. A small building stood directly behind the
stage and provided the performers with a green room and dressing areas. The grandiose trappings of The Theater ended at its front
door. A narrow board acted as a
sidewalk, with mud (or worse) on either side.
Performers learned to always carry a lantern with them following an
evening performance as a sudden encounter with a cow or pig in the pitch
darkness could inspire some dialogue not permitted in polite society. The
Theater, whose initial success had been more than adequately served by the
exceptional talents of Louisa Mossop and others, learned that such artists were
not kept nor easily drawn to employment in such a wilderness as Milwaukee. Louisa Mossop was far too talented to remain
in this wilderness and continued her acting career out East where, aside from
her husbands fame, became legendary in her own right as manager of
Philadelphias Arch Street Theater. Rice found it necessary to institute a star system theater. This is a common practice among theater
groups to this day. A big name star was
hired as a drawing card for a brief season and was supported by the resident
company.[27]
Danforth (Dan) Marble had done quite nicely for himself since he
abruptly terminated his star system
arrangement with The Detroit &
Chicago Company in 1842, rising to among America's acting elite. Rice made Marble his first star-system
performer, an honor that again earned Marble a large slice of the box office
pie. Not so many years earlier Marble
was required to pay the sum of $20
for the honor of appearing for his first time on stage in 1831. Now Marble was among the highest paid actors
in the West. This master of
Yankee-dialect died quite wealthy, shortly after leaving Milwaukee, in 1849. [28]
The following season Julia Dean; The
Star of the West arrived to replace Mossop as Milwaukee's favorite female
entertainer. [29]
The casting of such stars became increasingly difficult as the Milwaukee
audience began to weary of classical dramas, such as those of Shakespeare. The star
system required that the resident company would perform what the star knew best, and that was often
works of Shakespeare. George Stevens
explained that countless small (in talent) companies brought their limited
repertoires of Shakespeare to Milwaukee, sometimes returning with the same
feeble offerings a few months later. Milwaukee simply became sick of uninspired
Shakespeare, according to the bandleader.
But Rice continued to present classical drama, in part to appease
Milwaukee's preachers, both religious and political. Rice even invited Milwaukee's bench, bar and grand jury to a
matinee performance of "Love
Chase," in order for them to witness first hand that his innocent
plays were not assaulting the moral fabric of the town.[30]
( Ad: Othello and Dumb Belles TMJ )
Comedies, then
called farces where the most popular audience draws and allowed the spectators
who had been seated for a long time to laugh and interact. Frontier audiences who had little theatrical
experience where rarely adept at remaining passive for prolonged periods of
time. Even church services employed
audience participation with song to keep the congregation's attention. Most every serious drama was followed by a
farce, which provided the necessary outlet for a fidgeting crowd, but such
activity during a serious piece was dealt with swiftly. Rice was known to step onto the stage or out
of character to censor audience members who did not maintain what he deemed to
be strict decorum. Popular performers
were cheered each time they appeared on stage, often being required to disrupt
the action of the play and offer a bow in order to satisfy the enthusiastic
crowd. Whistling and the stamping of
feet continued to be a problem well into the 1880s. Rice patiently understood the adjustment required by frontier
citizens but the press, on the other hand, took quite a different stand on the
issue. It was most commonly the
contention of Yankee-puritan newspaper editors that such boisterous behavior
was in justified response to the provocative material of "leg-drama"
and double-entendre.[31]
But for all of their opinions about Milwaukee's theater scene, rarely
did members of the press actually attend performances. Band leader George Stevens later recalled
that the only contact The Theater had
with the press was when the errand boy would appear nightly at the box office
to collect the day's advertising bill.[32]
What little press coverage that Rice's establishment did receive would
indicate that the simple name of The
Theater was far too mundane for a creative local press. Writers for the Daily Sentinel displayed their own artistic license as virtually
every reference to this venue was by another name. Readers in other cities must have marveled at the number of
theaters which were in operation here as The
Temple of Thespies, Temple of Thalia, and Temple Opera House, etc. all
produced plays. Rice did own a second theater but it was on
Randolph Street in Chicago. This venue,
also named simply, The Theater had
been built one year prior to the construction of his Milwaukee Theater and his
seasons were divided between the two.
Like Milwaukee, Chicago's first experience with carpeted boxes and the
pretentious theatrical adornments were at the playhouse that a less inspired
Chicago press simply called Rices
Theater.[33]
When the Rice company performed in Chicago, Milwaukees showhouse became
available for local productions and traveling attractions. The first such touring artist, (or artists
if you are a bird lover) to appear at The
Theater was Signor Blitz with his troupe of trained canary birds.
( Ad; Signor Blitz)
Mr. Gilbert of
Edinburgh Theater and Miss S. Emmons performed a "ballet" entitled "Sandy and Jenny" on December
8, 1849. Since the press regarded all
theatrical dance as ballet it is difficult to tell if this was classical,
ballroom, or perhaps more of a modern type.
Following Rice's first season in the new theater was an appearance by
James E. Murdoch, a noted tragedian who so enraptured audiences with his
offerings of "Hamlet", "Macbeth", and "William Tell" that he was
engaged by Rice, along with Eliza Logan for the 1850 season. Eliza brought her successful Broadway
characterization of Pauline to
compliment Murdoch's, Claude Melnotte,
in "Lady of Lions."[34]
The critic for the New York Herald
described Eliza's acting as, "Impulsive,
electric and at times impressive from the power she throws into a few brief
words." Eliza proved equal
to the powerful Murdoch and together effortlessly held the attention of
Milwaukees audience. It became
apparent that truly good Shakespeare was still welcome. James McVickers and Miss Helen Mathews
created the minstrel characters of "Mose
and "Lize" for the 1850 season.[35]
These portrayals became wildly popular with Milwaukee audiences and one
skit in particular; "Mose in
Milwaukee" brought the house down.
The Rice Company performed the first three weeks of the 1850 season and
then stepped down as The Italian Opera
Company arrived to provided Milwaukee with its first season of (non-German) opera. (The Milwaukee Musical
Society who had already provided Milwaukee with a full-length production of,
Czar und Zimmerman disputed this claim.) "La
Sonnambula" by Bellini was their first selection, followed by "La Fille du Regiment", three
nights of "Positillion of
Lonjumeau" and "Norma"
was presented on the sixth evening. The
Italian Opera then traveled to Rice's theater in Chicago where no one
disputed the claim of "first opera
season." During the opening
night performance the audience was shocked to its feet as shouts of fire! fire!
were heard from outside. As he had done in Milwaukee, John Rice jumped to the
stage and calmed the audience by announcing, "Sit down, sit down, do you
think I would allow a fire to occur in my theater?" Shortly after he had calmed the audience,
Rice led the orderly evacuation. His
theater burned to the ground as one quite drunk patron applauded the amazing
theatrical effect of flames. [36]
Back in Milwaukee Rice was beginning to experience another sort of
heat. A new theater named Gardiner's Hall had opened in 1850. The new venue's management expressed their
intention to cater most exclusively to Milwaukee's elite. The very group of
wealthy businessmen, the new aristocracy, who had financed Rice's theater and
who had purchased blocks of tickets in order to insure its success had grown
weary of the shallow repertoire and more importantly the class of people whom
it attracted. Gardiner's Hall originated as a snobbish ballroom and concert hall
but during the 1851 season began offering dinner theater. Rice realized that the financial control of
his own theater building was still in the hands of these businessmen who had now
deserted him. Exhausting most of his available
cash and credit Rice acquired the majority of The Theater's outstanding shares of stock, opting to not rebuild
his Chicago theater. John Rice was an
actor with great respect for his craft but now stooped to a gimmick to lure an
audience back to his once full theater.
Feeling the financial pressure of such a cash outlay Rice conceived "The
Exelsior Scheme." His
performances became almost secondary to the raffles that accompanied them. On
one occasion ticket numbers were drawn from a hat as two pianos valued in
excess of $650 were given away. Rice's
" scheme immediately became a
popular practice among theater owners throughout the country, many of who were
not as honest as Rice. Local
ordinances prohibiting such activity were enacted almost as quickly.
(Market lottery ticket MCHS)
After struggling
through much of the 1850 season where attendance had been dismal, on January
18, 1851 Rice abruptly ended the season and returned to Chicago. While his theater here remained open to
traveling attractions, Rice appears to have not performed for nearly a
year. On December 6, 1851 the Rice
Company opened to a large and enthusiastic crowd with a favorite, "Love Chase". Unfortunately,
what had appeared to be a return to past glory had only been an
aberration. With attendance again on
the decline Rice provided a four play billing which featured a departure from
the light comedies that had become his usual fare, perhaps in response to Gardiner's Hall. On New Year's Eve of
1851 an adaptation of Mary Shelly's classic,
( Ad: Frankenstein)
"Frankenstein" was offered with the sub title of "The Man Monster."[37]
Rice pulled out all of the stops as he included on the bill, the second
act of the local sensation, "Black Eyed Susan and the
always-popular "Dumb Belles"
concluded the evening on a lighter note.
For his effort Rice received the great theatrical lament, "Great reviews, no audience." On January 5, 1852 John Rice again canceled
his season prematurely and his company never again performed in Milwaukee. The German Dramatic Society, a
determined group of amateur performers who had inherited Military Hall seized this opportunity to perform in the big-time
theater. Fritz Keneke produced and directed
the January 17, 1852 appearance. On the
following October 4th Rice returned alone to perform in support of the former
Rice Company star, Julia Dean, who by now had reached the pinnacles of American
stardom. So popular had this actress
become that she drew an entire week of capacity crowds performing only one
title, "The Hunchback." In sad retrospect, this was the finale
for Rice's Theater. On a calm Sunday evening, January 23,
1853, "Old No. 1 was summoned to extinguish a storeroom fire at Armstrong's
Saloon. By the time that the volunteer
brigade had assembled, the blaze was burning out of control. Without an adequate supply of water to
contain the flames it quickly spread to The
Theater next door. Within two
hours all that remained of "The Temple
of Thespies were two brick walls. The damage to Rice's unoccupied
structure, including contents, was estimated at $7,000.00 of which $3,000.00
was insured.
(Rice pix)
John Rice
remained in Chicago where his reputation for honesty, coupled with his
demonstrated powers of persuasion earned him a term as that City's Mayor and
later a seat in the United States Congress.
Gardner's Hall 1850
The fear of
aristocracy was as real to nineteenth century America as was communism in the
1950s. Angry mobs were summarily
assembled from time to time in order to remind the wealthy "swells" of that fact.
Had a Gardiner's Hall attempted
to open ten years earlier it would more than likely have become the center of a
schnitzel roast. But by 1850
Milwaukeeans had begun to realize that equal opportunity and equality were
really two separate abstracts with opportunity the issue worth fighting
for. Privately many Milwaukeeans had
begun to respect their contemporaries who had risen to the upper class, but who
were "swells" none-the-less. Earlier, in the 1830s one of the founders of
Milwaukee's first orchestra, Thomas Wettstein sent out invitations to his
friends and business associates, announcing a private dance
which was to be
held at Wettstein's mansion. The
working class crowd was gathered at a public dance on the same evening as
Wettenstein's affair. Mixed with large
mugs of beer were discussions of how the new aristocracy was holding a "cell block" meeting down the
street. Tempers began to flair and only
a personal visit by Mr. Wettstein kept a violent mob from attacking his
home. American democracy was still
being defined in those years with the memory of a ruling aristocracy quite
fresh in the public's mind. But 20
years later the management of Gardiner's
Hall was quite candid as they revealed their plans to open an exclusive
public ballroom. [38]
With public the key word, the
hall would cater almost exclusively to the wealthy of Milwaukee but all
citizens were welcome if they could pay the price. But prior to Henry Ford there was really no middle class who
could pinch enough pennies in order to afford an evening of hob-knobbing with
the "swells". This new ballroom was to be exclusive, as if
memberships were issued from the blue book. (not actually published until
1884) The wealthy of Milwaukee who
had financed Rice's Theater had begun
to resent both its light repertoire and having to sit in close proximity with
the great unwashed. The new Gardiner's Hall was located on the west
side of East Water Street at Wisconsin Street.
It was a four-story building with the hall occupying the top two
levels. Configured as a ballroom the
hall was used exclusively for classical concerts and ballroom dancing during
the first year. In 1851 it was
announced that theater would be provided, challenging Rice's monopoly on that
discipline.[39]
In the spirit of upper-class benevolence or to simply pacify those
Milwaukeeans who saw the "Sky Floor
above Martin's Block as an American throne room, in February of 1852 a ball
was given to raise charitable donations for Milwaukee's destitute. The wealth that could best support a
struggling theater was attracted to
Gardners and Rice felt the impact.[40]
Young's Hall
1852
The measure of greatness which Milwaukee's
performing arts
were to achieve
was determined in part by a few civic minded
businessmen with
the familiar names of Pabst, Pfister,
Allen, and to a
small degree the failed efforts of one very
unlucky William
P. Young. Mr. Young saw a great city
emerging and
understood that the education of its youth
required more
than the memorization of facts and figures but
the ability to
break abstract concepts into understandable
parts. The educated classes of Europe had long
believed
that such
abilities were stimulated by a broad exposure to
classical
literature and music. Young took it
upon himself
to provide a
center of such enjoyment and learning.
In 1852
Young
constructed a three story commercial block which
covered 60 foot
by 80 feet on the Northwest side of
Wisconsin at
Broadway Street. In the building's
heart was a
Three-hall
complex of theaters, much like today's
Marcus
Center for the Performing Arts.
William Young's civic
commitment was
evidenced by the unprofitable rehearsal space
and recital
hall, which accompanied the large auditorium.
As
the theatrical
spaces became completed before the rest of
the building had
become occupied, Young decided to show off
his new building
with a benefit concert for The Orphan's
Asylum. [41]
His new theater opened to a capacity crowd on January 3, 1852. The
Milwaukee Musical Society joined with the voices of the Sacred Musical Society
to provide what
can aptly be described as a musical extravaganza. More than 200 musical instruments and voices joined in what was
described as warm spirited competition.
The audience
showed its appreciation with thunderous applause all evening. Such a magical event necessitated the
scheduling of a repeat performance, set for Tuesday,
February 17,
1852. The two societies met and
practiced at Young's rehearsal hall early on the Saturday evening prior to the
scheduled performance date. Following
the rehearsal
and with many of
the Society's musical instruments safely
locked away, fire was detected raging within, reportedly in the vicinity of the
ticket office "Old No. 1",
the town's most capable fire brigade, and whose station house was only next
door, still required time for the volunteers to be assembled. By then the fire was raging so out of
control that their concern was also directed toward their own fire station. Ironically, one of the few events which had
been held in Young's Hall prior to its demise had been a charity ball given for
the benefit of Old No. 1 [42] Much of the lower portion of the
building was reduced to rubble with the upper floors only suffering smoke
damage but Young's Block was found to be a total loss with the structural
integrity too greatly damaged. Mr.
Young was greatly under-insured and the damage to his block estimated at
$30,000.[43]
But Young was not the only one who suffered a great loss. Dr. Fessel's irreplaceable Cremona
violin had been
stored there along with a number of violins and cellos valued at over three
hundred dollars apiece. Young rebuilt
with a six-story structure that measured 100 feet long by a narrow 40 feet
wide. This time only a single
theater was
provided with the rehearsal space and recital
hall deemed too
expensive to replace. On April 8, 1853
the new hall was
inaugurated with the first full length
German opera to
be performed in the Northwest, and only the
second in all of
America.[44]
It was again the Milwaukee
Musical Society with maestro Hans Balatka living up to
his
reputation of
"musical genius". All of the
music for the
full length
opera, "Czar und Zimmerman"
had been lost in the
fire. Balatka
reconstructed all of the music, both
instrumental and
vocal from memory.[45]
This new Young's Hall was the
first Milwaukee theater to provide
illumination from gaslights[46],
a major innovation that
marked the beginning toward dramatic realism, as we know it today. Later
in that month
the famed Norwegian violinist, Ole Bull
performed there
for the first of his many visits to
Milwaukee. Aside from being one of the world's premier
violinists, Bull
is credited with providing his fellow
countryman
Henrik Ibsen with the opportunity to pursue
play
writing. Maurice Stakosch provided
piano accompaniment
and thirteen
year-old prodigy Adelina Patti sang such
standards as "Coming thru the Rye", and "Home
Sweet Home".
Bull's
performance of "Carnival of
Venice" was noted as
exceptional. The following months at Young's Hall were
described as "a vacuum only partially filled". An
Opportunistic
dramatic company managed by Milwaukee born
actor Charles R.
Thorne leased Young's new hall with a
season of
half-hearted theatrical productions. Musical
conductor George
Stevens provided a degree of quality to
the otherwise
uninspired troupe. When an unexpected
work of
Shakespeare was
inserted into the company repertoire, and
proper sheet
music was unavailable, Stevens would listen to
a musician
whistle the tune and would then pen the score.
Stevens later
confided with a Milwaukee Sentinel reporter
that Charles
Thorne had nothing but contempt for his
wilderness
audience.[47]
One evening, during a play given by Thorne's company an actor was to
say, "Armand, you are ill? Let me prescribe something for you."
After the
performance Stevens pointed out to Thorne that the
actor had
instead uttered, "let me proscribe something...
Thorne's
arrogant response to Steven's harmless observation
was,
"What's the difference anyway?
They are only savages."
Fortunately for
Milwaukee few of Thorne's contemporaries
shared such
disregard for their patrons. Young
replaced
Thorne as
quickly as the lease ran out with a local
favorite,
William F. Johnson. Johnson was one of
Milwaukee's
earliest pioneer performers, having appeared at
the old
Milwaukee Saloon. A quite talented
group of
resident actors
were recruited, largely from Boston, Mass to who replaced the apathetic Thorne
troupe. So popular and well
identified with the hall did this company become that Young's Hall was renamed Johnson's
Athenaeum in 1858.[48] The Milwaukee Musical Society had been
drawn away by the superior acoustics of Albany
Hall in 1856 but
Johnson's
company as well as an exiting new medium called panoramas kept Young's theater quite active. Panoramas
were gigantic oil paintings, which often measured 20 feet high, and
hundreds of feet long. They depicted
historical, biblical or geographic highlights that were slowly scrolled across
the stage as a narrator described the scenes as they were revealed to the
audience. This art form was almost
exclusively of Milwaukee origin and became immensely popular throughout the
nation. "Beauties and Horrors of
Arctic Exploration" was the
scheduled panorama on June 21, 1859 when fire again destroyed Young's block
building. It was of little solace to
Young that the painting was saved, in fact it would almost seem that Young
lamented the loss of the
Milwaukee Musical Society to a rival hall more than he did the
total
destruction of his second theater. He
immediately
elected to again
rebuild but this time Young was determined
to provide a
concert hall of such quality that Hans Balatka
would be
compelled to return with his orchestra.
The
project's
architect was instructed that beyond anything else
the new theater
was to feature flawless sound
characteristics. The designer's solution was to duplicate
America's finest
such hall, "The Academy of
Music" in
Philadelphia. An exact copy of the legendary Philadelphia
hall rose on the
spot where the two theaters before it had
burned. But in order to utilize an already existing
foundation
Young's new hall measured 100 feet deep,
including the
stage, by 64 feet wide, which was considerably
downsized from
the famous Eastern hall. With a shorter
distance for
sound to carry before it reached the back wall
and echoed back
toward the stage, the scaled down theater
certainly did
not offer the same resonant qualities of the
concert hall
which it was modeled after.
Optimistically the new theater took the name of the grand hall from
which it was modeled. Had Young waited
for the new hall to open, before christening it "the Academy... there can
be little doubt that he would have chosen another name.
The new Academy of Music was richly furnished
with private boxes on each side.
The fourteen
hundred seats were divided into the usual
parquet, dress
circle and balcony seating in an ellipse
shaped hall.
Young's dream for a superb concert hall opened
with a lecture
by a Green Bay man on March 16, 1860. A
Sentinel editor
reported of the new hall, "It is no
more an
Academy of Music than this newspaper
office is a meat
market." Rather than a
concert hall Young again owned a
quite average
playhouse. Well suited for panoramas and little more
. The Milwaukee
Sentinel and Gazette reported of an exceptional such presentation,
which depicted a trip up the Mississippi
River, representing all of the important sights from St. Louis to the falls of
St. Anthony. A team of German artists
spent
months laboring
over this canvas, which when completed was
900 feet long
and stood 12 feet high. Stored on enormous
vertical wooden
spools a stagehand slowly cranked the
stretched
painting across the stage behind a narrator who
dramatized what
the audience was seeing. This presentation
lasted 2
hours. Sand and shrubbery decorated the
stage floor
and tree
branches framed the proscenium. Two
such studios
were active
until around 1890 when the interest in panoramas
waned. The Civil War had provided great demand for
these
early newsreels as there was a natural
curiosity about
what was
happening on the battlefields.
Sometimes several
copies would be
made of the same canvas in order to satisfy
the demand
around the country. "The Battle of Atlanta" is
the last
complete panorama remaining of the uniquely
Milwaukee
"moving pictures." An
exhibition hall was built
in that Georgia
City specifically to display that marvelous
work of art.
(3 pix panorama building/painters)
In 1862,
following the departure of Wm. Johnson, an
experienced
promoter named Wm. Riley became the lessee and
announced the
bookings of, among others, John Wilkes Booth[49] who in that same year made his sensational
New York debut as Richmond in Richard III.
It was three years
later that Booth
made his unexpected farewell performance at
Ford's Theater in Washington D.C. Despite some notable
engagements this
theater functioned as a second rate
playhouse until
1872 when it was sold to The Young Men's
(Christian)
Association. The Young Men's
Association
immediately
accommodated The Milwaukee Musical
Society by
releasing their
claim to the ill-conceived name, Academy
of Music. That
prized name was
immediately and fittingly affixed in place of The Music
Hall to the Musical
Society building. Young's dream
concert room
became Germania Hall which provided
religious
services,
temperance meetings and occasional amateur drama.
(pix - Miller Block)
Chapter
III Emergent German Theater
1847 Mozart Hall
John Amberg was
an accomplished violinist who found few
opportunities to
perform professionally. Since he
seemed
reluctant to
meld into another trade as many musicians had
found it
necessary to do, Amberg had much idle time to fill.
He spent his
summers high atop Kilbourn hill, approximately
where the
present County Courthouse stands today, some 70
feet above the
low points of swampy Kilbourntown. Here
Amberg was on
top of the world. Musicians would
gather at
an open pavilion
called Bellview and music would fill
the
summer air. The Germans who came to picnic and enjoy the
free concerts
nicknamed the area,
"Walkensitz" or seat of
the clouds. Knowing no greater pleasure Amberg reasoned
that this
delight could be felt throughout the year if only
there was a
suitable establishment upon "Walkensitz." In a
wooded knoll
somewhat southwest of Bellview Amberg built a
tavern and hall
which he named, Mozart Hall. This location
was just south
of the present Wisconsin Avenue in the 800
block. Amberg's prediction was correct as musicians
brought
their
instruments for impromptu concerts and sing-alongs.
Mozart Hall became the favorite resort of German Milwaukee,
earning its own
title of " Venus Seat." By 1851 Amberg
began to
experience poor health and the job of tavern keep
was beginning to
drain his strength. He sold his still
thriving
business to F.L. Sauer who in turn passed it on to
O.G. Hook. The business
had diminished under Sauer's
ownership and
Hook who, try as he might, did not posses the
showmanship of
Amberg either, and the business of the hall
went into great
decline. Another German tavern, Buena Vista
was drawing the
crowds to Market Square on the other side of
the river. A social singing Society had been formed by
that
tavern's owner,
"Papa" Joseph Kurz and music filled that
hall
nightly. O.G. Hook desperately needed a
gimmick to
draw customers
up the steep and often muddy hill but was
without the
personal resources to provide it. When
Hook
learned of the
intended visit of a respected German poet
named Gottfried
Kinkel he envisioned the crowds that such a
celebrity would
bring to his establishment. Upon
ascertaining
that Kinkel's
fundraising campaign for Germany's revolution
had been
scheduled for Military Hall, the
undaunted Hook made
preparations for
a military type salute in honor of the
patriot, with
perhaps a parade back to the Mozart
to follow.
Hook hired
Little Cannon Becker, the keeper of the town's only such piece of artillery,
who stood at the ready in Market Square, across from Military Hall.
The events that followed are unclear but
suffice it to say that
Hook gave the
order to fire at the most inopportune moment.
The ensuing
blast cost Hook to loose a hand and an eye.
The
bitter irony is
that this tragic event once again brought
Mozart Hall to its former glory and beyond. Elements from every corner
of Milwaukee's
German community rallied to Hooks aid.
A
benefit performance
was planned to be staged at his Mozart
and his former
business rival, Joseph Kurz, who had by then sold
the Buena Vista,
volunteered to produce the event. Kurz
had
not only formed The German Singing Society in 1847 but
had
failed in an
attempted to create an amateur dramatic
Society, which
presumably he hoped to feature at his own
hall. With all of the assets of the German
community
assembled, an
admission of 25 cents was charged of the
capacity
audience on January 3, 1852. Kurz'
productions of
"Das Strandrecht" and "Der
Hahnenschlag" were more than
anyone thought
possible so far from the Fatherland.
Following the
final bows Kurz climbed behind his blonde
grand piano and
dancers took to the hall's floor.
Faster than the youngest dancers, plans began to swirl in Papa Kurz'
head. Having enjoyed the diverse
talents which had been hidden in this remote frontier town, Kurz now envisioned
a professional theater.
Upon his return
to work the weakened and financially drained
Hook welcomed
Kurz' offer to lease the hall for the purpose
of providing
professional theatrical productions.
Kurz had in the meantime opened another hall, Zur Stadt Wein, but as
fate would dictate it was destroyed by fire almost simultaneous with Hook's
return. "Papa" Kurz first
looked to his to his own talented family to select a cast of players then
accepted some additional local
talent into his
troupe. The company provided a quite
polished
performance of, "Nactwaechter which
popular demand
required them to
repeat a week later, and Kotzebue's, "Die
Feuerprobe" also required repeating, in part due to
the
sensational
wardrobe complete with enormous plumes.
Admission was
set at 5 shillings for a gentleman who
escorted two
ladies, 3 shillings for a couple and 1 shilling
for a
child. There is no mention of either
men or of women
attending
unescorted, presumably a practice which was
discouraged. The
audience was seated at tables, cabaret
style where the
gentlemen drank beer and smoked while their
escorts were
said to crack nuts. During a dramatic
scene,
early in the
first season a gentleman from the crowd offered
a beer to an
actor on stage. Kurz immediately and
publicly
chastised the
patron establishing for once and all his zero
tolerance policy
for such behavior. German audiences
proved to be far
better behaved than their American
counterparts. [50]
With an
ever-growing audience it became necessary for
Joseph's master
carpenter nephew, Heinrich to get out his
tool bag and
enlarge the hall. With $10 in the
treasury
there was enough
money to tear out a rear wall from the hall
and add a 3-foot
high stage to that end. Sixteen year
old
Lewis Kurz,
Joseph's talented son painted the main curtain.
The curtains at
that time were not designed to "fly" high
out of sight
like today, but rather rolled onto themselves,
like an upside
down window shade. This form of
rigging remained quite popular beyond the turn of the century, especially with
vaudeville. This roll drop curtain
became later known as an oleo curtain, short for oleograph, a picture printed
on canvas in color by a chromolithograph technique to imitate an oil
painting. Kurz provided a few pieces of
scenery which were painted and stored out in the weather when not in use.
The remodeling
took less than two weeks and the newly
enlarged hall
was christened with, "Deserteur," "Blind
Geladen, and "Dr.
Robin," where it was believed that no-one
could perform
the title role better than Moritz Morgenschein, The First Ward night
watchman." Also performing that
evening were Joseph, his son and daughter
Pepi and Hedwig,
Heinrich and Joseph's young English wife
who spoke very
little German but rehearsed her lines so well
hardly a fault
could be detected.
The carefree Kurz German Stock Company performed
several nights a week with bad weather sometimes allowing them only pennies for
their performance but these were good times.
There was always a warm meal and a roof over their head. Their
theatrical offerings were of the lightest variety but everyone had fun. In August of 1882, with Hook's health on the
decline the hall was sold to Adolph Wagner.
Wagner wanted nothing to do with this theater foolishness and the Kurz
Company was evicted. With only weeks
before their second season (fall and winter) was to begin "Papa" set
out to find suitable quarters.
1852 Prairie Street Theater
The homeless
dilettantes of Mozart Hall
followed "Papa" Joseph Kurz
down the hill to Prairie Street (Highland Blvd.) where they again called upon
the carpentry skills of nephew Heinrich who provided them with a stage where an
alter once stood. The religious zealots
endured that desecration but protested loudly as a bar was installed near the
entrance to the sanctuary. If the
Mozart crowd was to be attracted, beer and wine were a necessity that had to remain. The new Prairie
Street Theater proved to be far more accessible to the German audiences and
audiences became larger in the makeshift venue. The only advantage that was had
by the Mozart was that in rainy
weather already costumed actors provided pre-show amusement as they would
chivalrously attempted to carry portly female patrons over the large puddle
that always collected in front of the Mozarts
door. "Langren Isreal" by Bendix became the theater's first
production in 1852 with Joseph Kurz exhibiting "rare ability" in his
role as the senior student. [51]
Some of the original Kurz players were lost on the journey down the
hill. Joseph had recognized that this
move was also his crossroads where he needed to decide the direction and degree
of commitment his company was to follow.
It is quite evident that Kurz elected to develop America's finest
professional German theater. Wm.
Biersach, E.F. Deuster, Dr. A. Richter were drawn from the local pool of
seasoned amateurs. A lovely young
actress named Alwine Schindler was found working as a seamstress in a local
dress shop and was also recruited by Papa Kurz. Miss Schindler had been a
budding star in Germany but found it necessary to employ her costume making
skills outside of Milwaukees fledgling theater in order to earn a
livelihood. More than thirty
Saturday/Sunday performances were given before the end of 1853. "Die
Rauber" concluded the company's very successful run. The one thing that became evident was that
they had quickly outgrown their temporary theater. Before long "Papa" Kurz had again found a suitable
sight and Heinrich again pulled out his tool bag.
1853
Market Hall
(Pix - Market Hall &
Water St.)
Among the monumentous
flops of Milwaukee civic planning stood the Market House, on the site where the
present Milwaukee City Hall stands. It
was constructed by the city on Market Square, East Water Street and Oneida
(Wells). A farmers market seemingly
always had existed on the square with shops and taverns surrounding this hub of
commerce. Local farmers sold fresh
produce directly from their wagons, fishermen offered the catch of the day and
wood cutters, tinkers and handy men of every description milled about looking
to market their skills. The square
became also a hub of social and political rallies, several taverns and halls
surrounded the square in order to provide an armrest for political wags. The city fathers watched this smooth
running public marketplace without a great deal of interest until the idea
struck one of them that there was potential revenue to be had there. Placing a tax upon potatoes might inspire
patriotic Milwaukee Irish to throw a great deal of that vegetable into the lake
and the Germans would feel too strongly about their cabbage so another plan was
needed. Market House was their
answer. A building that greatly
resembled an oversized schoolhouse was constructed on the square with the
farmers then instructed to lease space inside for the sale of their
produce. Like many unpopular ordinances
in Milwaukee this one was generally ignored.
Attempting to convince farmers of the benefit derived from paying "cash money " to get out of the
rain was fruitless. What were these
city folks thinking? A subsequent
ordinance which ordered all retail sales of meat and fish to be conducted from
within this structure met with equal apathy.
Jacob Nunnamacher, whose butcher shop stood directly across from Market
Hall, was one of the few merchants to comply.
But it can be safely speculated that rather than civic obligation, his
decision was based on the
fact that he'd
be the most convenient target for angry politicians when they
found their
farmer's market unoccupied. Jacob's
butcher shop later became the site of two quite popular theater buildings. When "Papa" Joseph Kurz approached
city hall with his plan to convert the upper floors of their quite empty market
house into a theater it must have sounded like manna from heaven. Always with an eye on the next election, the
embarrassment of this folly would be far less evident with revenue coming
in. The political spin could become
that they had showed the wisdom of building a multi-purpose hall and that now
the common good of the community would be served. The German half of the community was so supportive that they
immediately raised the $250 needed to
build a stage, partition walls and install seats. "Papa" Kurz'
players opened in July of 1853 with an expanded repertoire of light and less
demanding productions. With less
challenging scripts, a greater variety of works could be provided. This plan
appeared as sheer genius. From July
through December he realized an astonishing income of $1000 which was more than
his combined investments at Mozart Hall,
Prairie Street and at this new venue combined. To some the lighter works
were an artistic step backwards but the box office is theater's voting booth
and the results there were that the majority approved and company remained
quite profitable. With his blueprint
for success, Joseph Kurz left for Chicago in the fall of 1853 where he intended
to establish a similar German theater.
"Papa" Kurz died in Chicago on May 13, 1855. [52]
With Heinrich Kurz as the heir apparent to the enterprise the future of the
venture was uncertain. Henry had
become German Milwaukee's favorite comedic actor but did not exhibit a
well-rounded education in German literature and arts. Recognizing his own limitations, Henry wisely incorporated the
company, depending then on the combined wisdom of a board of directors to
determine the company's fate. Quickly
the new directors agreed to turn over the artistic control to Mr. Julius Boetzow of Louisville,
Ky. Boetzow not only provided
Milwaukee with an experienced manager of German theatrical productions but also
served as the company tailor, handbill carrier, and janitor. Boetzow provided Milwaukee with a greater
understanding of the Teutonic arts while netting the company a good profit
during the 1855-56 season. Hans Balatka,
maestro of The Milwaukee Musical Society
was appointed as the hall's music director during that season and the orchestra
occupied a rehearsal hall there.
Balatka began to present full-length German operas at Market Hall with many of them U.S. premiers. An American acting company that called
itself St. Charles Theater took up residency in 1856 and a Polish ballet dancer
named Louis W. Vizay provided a performance which so impressed the local
citizens that by their urging a school was immediately begun at an East Water
Street studio. Soon this studio
became inadequate as the enrollment multiplied. One year later Vizay's school was moved to the rehearsal room at Market Hall.
( Pix market hall -
Nunnemacher's)
Prof. L.W. Vizay
who was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1839, studied dance at The Royal Ballet
Dancing Academy of Warsaw, but postponed his professional dancing career to
join the military. Vizay became a
prisoner of war but escaped after two years of captivity and made his way to
America. In 1880 Vizay accepted a
summer position as dance instructor for the U.S. military academy at West
Point. By that time his Milwaukee
ballet school enrollment had swelled to 400 students and was located within
Kilbourn Block.
The popularity
of German music and theater continued to expand as did the requests for
performance dates at the city owned produce mart. For the 1859-1860 season Pelosi and Balatka were again named
co-managers with ((())) Pelosi also directing the German acting company. Pelosi juggled all of the schedules to
everyone's satisfaction and the following two seasons at Market Hall were both successful and uneventful.
In 1863
Milwaukee's Mayor, Edward O'Neill, a strong willed Irishman who only aligned with
the Germans politically in matters of anti-temperance, found himself with (((a
burned-out City Hall to replace.)))
With the stigma of the Market House folly still somewhat fresh in the
voters minds nothing would suit Milwaukee's politicians more than to make
proper official use of that civic structure.
With the urging of an Alderman named Schulte, who is said to have been
an enemy of theater Market Hall
became City Hall and the German theater was again out on the street. (((Sentinal quote)))(((2-17-1860)???))
The Kurz German Stock Company performed at Burchard Hall on West Water Street (Plankington) from
1863-1866. Pelosi continued as the
company's artistic director and introduced new works which he acquired through
visits to Germany.[53]
In 1866 fire destroyed Burchard
Hall, once again relocating the German players. Many of their next offerings were held at Turnhalle, the home of the Milwaukee Turners and which stood
immediately south of the present Turner
Hall on North 4th Street.
Fortunately for the German company Heinrich Kurz provided them with a
permanent home in 1868 as the Turnhalle burned the following year.
(pix -
Turnhalle fire)
Grand Showplaces
Albany Hall 1856
It was said that
the acoustics of Albany Hall were
comparable to that of some of America's most heralded halls such as (()) Academy
of Music. There is
no way that we
can determine how well these sound
properties were
but suffice it to say, to The Milwaukee
Musical Society there was no other hall in 1850s
Milwaukee
worthy of "operatic" music. This hall became their personal
venue of choice
and they were allowed to construct a stage
at one end. Built of the finest "cream city"
brick, Albany
Block was "one of the architectural ornaments of our
City."[54]
This imposing
four-story structure fronted 120 feet on Michigan Street, 80 feet of
Main Street
(Broadway), and the Vermont slate roof stood 40
feet high. Business offices occupied the lower floors
and
the two upper
stories were filled with a grand ballroom 116
and one-half
feet long by 60 feet wide with its arched
ceiling 28 feet
high. Meeting rooms adjoined the hall
on
each end and
doubled nicely as dressing rooms for visiting
entertainers.
The hall was accessed through two wide
doorways, each
with its own staircase.
(engraved Albany hall)
saved by John Johnson of Bijou
fame
Alexander
Mitchell and Thomas Ogden were businessmen and it
is most likely
that their intended use of this facility was
primarily for
business gatherings and formal balls where
business was
always conducted. But without banquet
facilities it
seemed better suited for musical concerts
than business
conventions. With the idea of
expanding the
building's
functional appeal, James S. Brown quickly struck
a deal with
Mitchell and built a structure of similar
proportions that
attached to Albany's south end,
effectively
enlarging Albany Hall by two-thirds.
This new
addition faced
Main (Broadway) with only forty feet of
frontage but was
120 feet deep. Combined the two structures
created a single
building which measured 100 feet by 120
feet. The ground floor of the new wing featured an
elegant
restaurant, the
second floor an exclusive billiard hall for
gentlemen of
means and on the third floor was a unique oval
shaped rotunda
with a 35-foot high ornate dome. A spacious
walkway
connected this banquet area with the Albany
Hall.
This open area
was a spacious 74 feet in length by 38 feet
wide. When not brightly lit with sun-light
forty-nine
gas lustres
provided ample illumination. A kitchen
area
was located on
one end and was equipped with a dumb-waiter
system which
took delivery of food from the five-star
quality
restaurant below. This space also
served to host
concerts and
lectures of less than 500 persons. As
the
reputation of
this hall's
( pix- Albany and Newhall House)
to note the two fires
superior
acoustics became known throughout the industry
more important
artists wished to appear here. On June
22,
1860 a rare
assembly of noted artists was gathered.
Among
them, Adelina
Patti, Madame Strakosch, Brignoli, Ferri,
Junca and
Maurice Strakosch. The Milwaukee
Musical Society
built its
concert season around this facility and also
employed the
fine acoustics for several operas. This hall
remained in
constant use. [55]
On March 1, 1862
fire was
declared at five A.M. A leaky gas
fitting in the
basement was
blamed for the infernal which leveled the
building in a
couple of hours. While the Musical Society
suffered a
financial loss of a couple hundred dollars, the
loss to the
building's owners was in excess of seventy-five
thousand. With the experience of such a fine sounding
environment The Milwaukee Musical Society would not
rest
until they again
could create such heavenly music.
The Music Hall 1865
When Albany Hall went down to fire there no
longer was a hall in Milwaukee which The
Milwaukee Musical Society deemed worthy of serious classical
performance. While William Young had
good intentions, the acoustics of his Academy
of Music
were a great
disappointment. Taking matters into
their own hands the Society launched a fund raising campaign. With community leaders such as George Allen,
Charles Ilsley and Charles T. Bradley on the committee the first sixty thousand
of the needed seventy-five thousand dollars was raised with little effort. Soon the entire sum had been
collected and
property was secured on Milwaukee Street, just South of Wisconsin. To insure proper acoustics the architect of Steinway Hall was commissioned to draw
the
plans. On January 31, 1865 The Music Hall was dedicated and Milwaukee marveled at the crisp,
clear sound which the new auditorium provided. For the sake of achieving these fabulous acoustical properties
there were no private boxes or balconies installed in the theater. The Society
would soon learn that the "swells" who had financed their grand new
hall would not be satisfied with seating among the general public. Their wealth and positions required more
respectable accommodations. It also
became painfully obvious that there is more to a theater than just the
performance space. Following their
first season in the new Music Hall
the building's face was removed and the building expanded. Added were a box
office, lobby, rehearsal room, business office, and dressing rooms that
connected with the stage by a long corridor. This addition created an
indebtedness for which a benefit concert was held in 1869. As a result of that concert a surplus was
realized in the amount of $66,000.00.
Soon a letter appeared on the desk of Society President, H.M. Mendel.
signed by several of Milwaukee's wealthy and influential. It urged that the surplus be used to dress
up this rather plain looking hall. In short they wished for the hall to
represent the money that had built it.
With some trepidation for the hall's acoustics, a parquette, dress
circle and balcony were added with no apparent ill effects on the sound
properties. The private boxes that
many of the patrons longed for were not provided in fear that they would baffle
the hall. A
letter was
received not long after the remodeling from Parepa Rosa who declared this hall
to feature the finest acoustics of any she had ever sung in, the Philadelphia
Academy
included. The building covered 120 feet
by 120 feet with the hall measuring 120 feet by 80. The stage was 40 feet deep
with a 50-foot wide and 35 foot high proscenium opening. The auditorium floor inclined to a height
of 5 1/2 feet at the rear of the house.
The ceiling was at a height of forty feet and the horse-shoe balcony
offered a clearance above the parquette floor of 10 feet. The lighting for both
the auditorium and the stage were gas burning but by the time that the
all-electric Pabst Theater was built
this theater had
two Edison Dynamo electrical power
generators. The original gas stage
lighting fixtures were controlled independently so as to allow lighting effects
which created
moods and highlights. This was
achieved by a series of valves which controlled the passage of gas to the
instruments. A stagehand was located in
the wings of
the stage where
he carefully manipulated the handles to provide the stage manager with the
desired effects.
The hall was
decorated with a French influence. The predominating colors were a salmon-tint
and with blue-gray and gold relief work. The main curtain was antique gold in
color and featured a painted pastoral scene.
This theater was allowed to assume the name, Academy of Music in 1867 when The Young Men's (Christian)
Association acquired the Youngs Block theater of that name. Since the Musical Society, like all serious orchestras spent so much time in
rehearsal, and also traveled to various parks and theaters from time to time,
there were many open dates at their Music
Hall that needed to be filled.
Without the expertise nor the willingness to risk their own capitol,
they found professionals who were willing to take that risk. These
theater managers
leased the facility, booked acts, advertised, sold tickets and swept the
isles. Among them was a knowledgeable
and savvy theatrical producer, Harry Deakin, who had conducted a successful
national tour with his company of midgets, Deakin's
Lilliputian Comic Opera. In 1876 Deakin became the sole lessee and
manager of
The Academy of Music[56].
Later Jacob Litt assumed that role.
Under the direction of these two managers, among others, The Academy was Milwaukee's most
respected
theater for the presentation of touring Broadway productions prior to the 1890 Davidson Theater.
In March of 1880
Deakin booked Sara Bernhardt for his Academy.[57]
Milwaukee's townspeople stood in line for up to three hours to purchase
tickets for this momentous event, yet the show did not sell to capacity. The
"Divine" Miss Bernhardt was the single greatest icon of her time
and the entire city was in awe with anticipation. Deakin, with a publicity stunt that would have made P.T. Barnum
proud, publicly announced that a fountain of perfume would provide a spray of
the most pleasing aroma from the back of the auditorium while Miss Bernhardt
performed.[58]
For many, personal hygiene in 1880 was achieved by standing next to the
pump and rinsing ones hands and face.
Some patrons must have urged that this fountain gimmick be installed as a regular feature of the
theater. In November of that year the theater's main curtain caught fire from
the gas footlights. Quick action from
the theater's stagehands extinguished the fire as the audience was already in
panic.[59]
With the opening of the theater season in 1890 it was
announced that
The Academy was so thoroughly renovated that practically the only thing left
unchanged was the outside walls.[60]
An additional 600 seats were installed
increasing the
theater's capacity to 2,000 and the height of the stage loft was increased to
sixty-five feet. The auditorium ceiling
suffered minor water damage over the
years and had
begun to deposit small bits of plaster down upon the seats. Since it was feared that large fragments
might injure audience members and the cost of replacing the
entire ceiling
prohibitive a novel plan was employed.
The ceiling was covered with an enormous canvas that was decorated as a
work of art On Sunday July 26,1896, Milwaukee was drawn to The Academy for a
demonstration of an intriguing little novelty that would forever change live
theater. Thomas Edison's "Vitascope." Capacity crowds marveled at
trains rushing by and cheered for Gentleman Jim Corbett, the World champion
pugilist.[61]
(Vitascope Ad - )
Before the turn of the century a group of greedy New York producers and
theater owners achieved a strangle hold on New York's, Broadway. Milwaukee's Davidson Theater became the only local theater affiliated with this
Syndicate. This allowed the Davidson a monopoly of all major
Broadway shows. Aside from its own
concerts, The Academy was reduced to
booking nothing but second-rate tours and local repertory productions. In 1901 the one national chain of theaters
who had successfully maintained a foot-hold on Broadway and established its own
large circuit of theaters, purchased The
Academy and its name were changed to The
Shubert Theater.The Shubert brothers immediately installed The Thanhouser Company, its own in-house
resident corps of actors. they remained an active stock company well into the
1920s, originally under the direction of Lee Shubert.
( Pix - Shubert TMJ
1-25-1937)
The historic
building that housed The Academy of Music still exists in the form of an office
building on the west side ofMilwaukee Street, between Wisconsin Avenue and
Michigan.
TAVERN THEATER
1880 Wig Wam -
Adelphi
Long before 1880 Milwaukee had accepted the
corner saloon, or tavern when in a German neighborhood, as an integral part of
adult male social life. Nowhere did the
double standard of Yankee morality assert itself greater than on the issue
of maintaining Milwaukee's saloons as an
exclusively male domain. The division
of the sexes, with their socially mandated roles were clearly defined. Aside from tavern waitresses
and other saloon employees of the fair
sex who were already viewed skeptically by polite society, there were strict
penalties for violations of these male sanctums. The
Milwaukee courts levied fines against
unescorted women who entered the front door of a saloon. But respectable theater had already
established a strong foothold in
Milwaukee, and theaters were often
attached to, or within establishments who dispensed strong spirits. This
created a quandary for those who wished to maintain this area of gender
dominance. German Milwaukee had already
established a vague standard which
dated back to the early Mozart Hall
days where ladies were admitted, but
those early accounts place
walnuts before the ladies while their
escorts hoisted glasses of beer. In
the late 1890s women were still found dutifully stationed in their seats during
intermissions at the Pabst Theater
while their men quaffed beer and enjoyed a free lunch in the attached Pabst
Cafe. Open air beer gardens and parks,
such as Schlitz Park, seemed to offer a slightly more liberal
standard in the unwritten law as women were allowed to sip a small glass of
wine as they enjoyed a musical presentation.
In there lay a loop hole which tavern keepers began to explore in the
late 1800s. With such a
disproportionately large number of saloons in
Milwaukee any niche that a tavern keeper
could find to increase his clientele was worth a try. Even if women didn't drink, their escorts would. Early examples of such places of
entertainment were The Milwaukee Saloon
which was also called The Milwaukee
Theater and the Gaiety which
tragically burned in 1869.
In 1880 a dilapidated saloon/variety hall
which was located on West Water Street (Plankington) and Cedar (Kilbourn)
formerly named The Wig-Wam was
cosmetically improved with an exterior cladding of brick and its interior
refitted to become, as advertised, a "first-class variety theater." [62]
The new Adelphi Theater, as it
was named, advertised its grand opening of Monday November 29, 1880 with "20
First-Class Artists 20". W.
Swetland, the new proprietor pointed out that his was a different environment
as the ad went on to state, "Don't
be confounded with so-called variety shows as this is a first-class
establishment. No bar
attached." Unfortunately for Swetland, the advertisement also brought
the careful scrutiny of The Board of Public Works. The brick cladding of this building did little to protect its
dry timber frame and with the Gaiety
fire still a vivid memory, notice was
sent to the building's owner to, "remove
the frame building forthwith, its construction being contrary to buildings
allowed within the fire limits."[63]
During the
1880s this sort of variety venue became a
quite popular destination for couples to enjoy an evening out, with most such places serving alcohol. Among the variations upon this
theme was the Ethiopian Opera House.
Most all of its entertainments were provided by the talents of
African-American performers, but considering the small black population and the
hall's location in the predominately Irish Third Ward, it must be assumed that
this establishment catered to Caucasian audiences.
The
Favorite Theater,
located at 242 W. Water Street (Plankington Ave.) opened at about the same date
as the Adelphi. While this theater's name seemed to share the
same
longevity as the Adelphi, the business fared far better. The owner, John Slensby was a veteran of
show business and apparently a master of public relations. It
is uncertain if this had been a playhouse
prior to its remodeling or another saloon conversion, the later is more
likely. But Slensby managed to convince
the press that he
was opening one of Milwaukee's finest
theaters. Not just once but seemingly
every year he changed the name and staged a gala premier.. The second summer that the theater was
open Slensby built an outdoor platform
to perform on and hosted the grand opening of Slensby's Summer Garden
During that summer the indoor theater was given a facelift. On November 6th, 1882 the Sentinel gave
favorable press to the grand opening of Slensby's
Theater. "This new and elegant resort was formally opened by the
proprietor last evening ...." [64]
was a surprising journalistic treatment for a
variety hall, not to mention one which was celebrating its third grand opening
in three years. John Slensby sold this
theater in 1884 and later opened a saloon.
Slensby's Trocadero at 730 N. 3rd Street presented the City's first
boxing film on September of 1889 [65]
Mssrs. Ward and Reynolds purchased
Slensby's theater and renamed it The
Variety. With an eye on the
growing female audience, the Sentinel was informed that "... the strictest order and decorum will be observed in the new
theater." [66]
Opened in October of 1884 The
Variety enjoyed Slensby's former success for a short while but simply lost
momentum. Within a year the theater was
again sold. It was greatly refurbished
in 1886 to become Peoples Theater.
Theaters of the Turnverein
1871
North-side Turning Society Building
(pix Northside Turners MCHS)
The free-thinking Milwaukee Turners,
German immigrants of 1848 were, as a rule, well educated political refugees who
had lost a revolution and a country. As
a society the
Turners were committed to "healthy body - healthy mind." On
the second count they were politically active, with their sights on
safeguarding the freedoms which they had fought so
hard for back in the Fatherland. A new breed of immigrants had arrived in
Milwaukee during the 1860s and were welcomed by the Turnverein. These new arrivals consisted in great
proportion of blue collar workers who appreciated the American liberties and
expected their new government to protect these rights for them, the sort of
naive trust they
had placed in the monarchy back in
Germany. Their primary goal was gainful
employment and a roof over their heads.
Needless to say some quite heated meetings were held at the
4th Street Turner Hall with these two
factions in attendance. Separating
themselves from the politically active climate of the West-side Hall the
working class members found a suitable location on Walnut Street between 10th
and 11th Streets. Here they built their
own,
North-side Hall in 1871, complete with a
stage. The following year the
facility was leased for theater by a Mr.Schmitz who enlarged the facility, upgraded the stage and installed some
scenery [67]
Soon thereafter it was announced that this venue would thereafter be
known as Schmitz Theater. It appears that Schmitz didn't last too long
there as that name didn't stick to The
Northside Theater. Amateur theater
was continually produced at this
hall until 1878 when it appears that
Julius Hermann opened the season on September 9th with a professional
company. Both amateur and
semi-professional companies remained quite active well into the 1890s. At some later date this theater was sold by
the Turners and became The Columbia
Theater which established a niche with touring Yiddish comedians.
Later The
Columbia became a straight movie house and was razed in 1936. A South-side
Turner Hall was located on National Avenue and also provided both professional
and amateur companies. Sometimes
referred to by the press as Thalia
Theater it housed an ambitious
company who shocked much of Milwaukee in the winter of 1887. The
Thalia Verein staged Ibsen's, "Ghosts" at the
Grand Opera House. (See Stadt
Theater)"
1882 West-side Turner Hall
(pix 1864 bldg.)
(Exterior of
three bldgs)
