New Britain Herald Newspaper, February 19, 1927, Page 11

NEW BRITAIN DAILY HERALD, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1927, Half Century of Amusements Here - From Union Hall to Real Theaters Turner Hall As It Was Wooden Structure on Site! of South Church, ’.l‘urnerg Hall, Hanna’s Hall, the Opera House and Lastly Present Day Playhouses Enjoyed by Successive Generations. It is indeed a long, long stretch of years from the early seventies to the present day, from the d of little old Union hall with it entrance up a short flight of steps Horseshoe balcony and its tota seating capacity of probably 700 to New Britain’s latest and larges theater, the Strand, with its go geous decorations) its graciou boxes, loges and balcony and its seating capacity of 2,500; and in the interim there have been many changes. But there still is a few persons in this” city of 70,000 o 80,000 people who can bridge thi gap of 50 or 60 years and trace th: devclopment of the modern pl house insofar as it affects this ¢ Centennial of Vaudeville This present year, as many hu: read, marks the hundredth ann ersary of the inauguration ¢ vaundeville in the United States. I W in the old and now forgott Lafayette theater in Laurens strect near Canal, in New York, th vaudeville first came into being in | 1826. But it is not 100 years since vaudeville made its initial bow in this city, although it can be traced back fully 70 years in Hartford. according to some of the old timers." Vaudeville here was first| presented as such well within the memory of the present generation tor it is less than 25 years sinc Jrank Keeney of Brooklyn took over the old New Britain Op House opposite the old Stricklan House, remodelied it and prese vaudeville for the first time un that name. “Tol Vaudeville,” was advertised as in those days. Old TUnion Hall But the seeds of present day vaudevilla were being sowed here long, long before that. Back in the Union hall there were v would vaudeville. In known as m i Amusement Resord Rear of Arch %Ircu City's Third Dublic were variety shows a vast majority of New Brit- however, the same means nothing, hardly memory. It might" not wtion to say that pos- sibly no more than a hundred citi- zens living here today can remem- bher that hall, certainly not many mor Ol Unlon hall was tbe first sructure in this city erected for the sole purpose of being a place of entertainment, according to the old timers. It was situated on corner at the intersection t Arch, Chestnut and Wal- s on the site now occu- the South Congregational public nut pied church Although originally;located on the corner, it later was moved back to| Main at Fast Main Strect as it Appeared in Bygone Days, make room for the South church and | Stone Store—Note the Ol Type Street Light. then was placed about where the g South church chapel now is located. 53 Incidentally the old New Britain | Pistro Gosheau, | Waters.” militia companies used to drill inland a trick performer who.by some | ‘Traveling Medicine Shows the basement of Union hall and a|freak mechanism of his own walk-| But entertainment of this type was newspaper was printed in it as well. | ed across the ceiling o not all that came to Union hall. In Cohan’s Father There | upside down like a fly those day of the early seventies there The early seventies, when this hall | Cohan also came here were the traveling medicine shows, was in its prime, were the days of company, this Cohan having been now sometimes seen as part of a monstrelsy and many of the per-|the father of the new f: George 'movie plot. In old Union hall there formers who afterward became na- [M. Cohan of song and stage fage. |were several of these Indian shows. Illy known favorites of the stage | The elder Cohan traveled with his Eventually however, Union hall James O'Connor of Lin- | wife, son and daughter and did a|was destroyed by fire and New Dirit- t, a citizen born and bred [skit of their own known as “The 'ain was wit re, and who always, from boyhood | Four Col Healy and Cohan's At the time the First Baptist on, had a great interest in the stage | big hit however, was their “Pano- held its services in a little and stage folk, remembers being | rama of Ireland” and this was indeed | wooden building which stood on the taken down to old Unlon hall as a|variety for those days, !sight of the old Burritt school and child by his mother and father to| Equipped with a large magic lan- ' in the basement of this church build- see some traveling variety show and |tern, or projection lens, colored pic- [ing an old academy administered to later attending performances there |tures of Ireland were thrown on the the educational nesds of the children Jimself. Among the other well|screen and at the same time some of tho town. This old church-acad- known troupes which appeared there | appropriate bit of cntertainment was y build was moved across the were Sam Sharpley's Minstrels, |given by the performers such as an strcet and converted into Hanna's Yarry Bloodgood's Minstrels, and @ |Irish monologue, an Irish jig or hall. show which came here vearly and |Irish music. Mr. O'Connor remem-| Thus old Hanna's hall came into was known as Washburn's Last|bers this act distinctly and in a|being on the site of the present Sonsation. It was named thus he-;rcm\msccm mood the other day re- ! Palace theater and was owned and vause Washburn claimed to have in | called that during the showing of | operated by the father of tha late i sany the very latest sensation | the picture of the beautiful lakes of | William W. Hanna who ran the hall in the world of amusement. On one|Kilarney the musicians with the{in conjunction with his stone cut- of his last visits here he brought troupo played “The Meeting of theting business. The floor of old Han- ‘nl.s hall was level and it had a lit- tle gallery encircling it and it was | here that people found their enter- { tainment for a time. Turner Hall Erected A few years later however, old Turner hall was erected on Arch street. This building at present is in the rear of Arch street behind the 0dd Fellows building which sup- planted Turner hall about ten years or 80 ago. And to this old Turner { hall came many of the best attra tions which played In this country. | That seems quite a boastful remark, Showing Ol an acrobatic dancer he theatc Healy and with their YOUR CHOICE& Which would you buy if you had five or six hundred but a fact nevertheless as a perusal dollars to invest in trans- e e T portation—a small new car, e or a larger and higher grade stk e RaNE obvious to anyone who season in Turner hall one year. He looks over our selection and knows our reputation for honest values, |opened one hot August day in Turne our friend O'Connor. In the follow ing Jenuary Primrose came to the New Britain Opera House which by that time had been built. Mrs. Siddons Here Twice. In connection with Mrs. Siddons' appearance in this city, Thomas H. Yarroll of Jefferson strect recalls { that this talented womar was here | twice. He has an old program, | printed below, ot her apperance in Union hall and also recalls her ap- pearance in Turner Hall. At this last showing, he remembers, Mrs. Siddons wore a long train on hei dress, this train being so long that | the end of it was in the wings of | the small stage According to the The S & F Motor Sales Corp. 1129 STANLEY ST. PHONE 731 A USED CAR IS ONLY AS DEPENDABLE AS THE DEALER WHO SELLS IT program under hout a public amusement , hall and among those present was | it was' spice that she appeared in Union at that time, ground 1571 or 1872, | it will be remembered the G. A. R. | | occupied a place like that of American Legion today. Its mem- | bership was large and composed of | younger men. The Union hall program follows Mary I, Scott Siddons | m:.\mx(.: AND RECITATIONS | Auspices | Post, No. 11, G. A. R. Union Hall, Tuesday Evening, Nov. Prdgramme PART 1. s You Like It,” the Stanley ith . A Chapter from cents Abroad,” . The Maniac, .... Interval of 10 Minutes PART 11, from “The “of Ventee,” John Burns os Merchant . Shakespeare Gettsburg, ; Peter and Lady Teazle “School for Scandal,” .. Sheridan. Among other things of note in the Turrer hall was a big minstrel nber known as s nd billed as “Twenty Black and wenty White.” This was a big nstrel troupe for those days. r Dowd Byron, who later be- a noted actor, plaved there in Continent” and the | s r Sisters accompanie by the then nationally known color- °d comedian Sam Lucas also played | here. The Hyler Sisters were so- lly prominent as ot | < | % stood on the site iy 1r<t; M. B. Leavitt's| her attraction | ».m.nx Tom Thumb likewise | re. ¢ old Unfon hall and Ha er hall had its r anded another pu lic amusement building and then | came the first nest-to- goomr-sl theater — Hanna's Opera House, known as the New Britain Opera | House. i Opened With Fanst | This theater was formally nprv‘!rl' ay h Anderson, C;'nl‘ to the illett of feld by old opera hot of Hartford w bert and 1to prominence, ater brought the This opera estab | t might well be a record of pop- | famous at each visic. The lats W, W, Hanna | once laughing! lied that the first appear of the Mikado was | on an eighty ty split in favor of Gilbert and Sullivan. The next time | the producers were satisfied with a | twenty-thirty split and on the third | time a sixt fom Lm\mm\ that a | the large end. Again it was a sell- | out at each performance. John Drew, Henry Miller, some of y's plays and the fa- his noted Rip Van Winkle were some of the other big attra ng the gr 1 Jaunesche sed with these, offered v of today audeville. ing the name of Jul then one of the ular actresse Ackerstom, try's m tania, the days and | his offerings. Chen came the R n Lyceum @ history of this theater is more popularly known and the hig plays offered there are st mory with many it to say that the coun! ind ablest ed there, John Drew de Adams, Robertson and a host of others became world known, Hamlet in Street Clothes Edwin Booth, the arean actor, never p an interesting t when he pla bury is recalled. Booth appear in one of his great rols of Hamlet. There was a train delay | \nzl the baggage car with his cos- es failed to arrive. Rather v.\ n ppoint the large audien went to the theater and began the presentation of Hamlet in his clothes, Before the show w the baggage arrived and changed to costume. Within the past year or two m ment was made when Barrymore played the role of Ham- let in evening clothes, but Booth, vears and years bef had go him one better by playing the role in | ordinar; reet attire. Polite Vaudeville Enters Tn the interim however, the New Britain Opera house again was de stroyed by fire and between twenty and twen ive years ago was taki over by Frank Keeney who opened it as a vaudeville house and M'!mli his acts as “polite vaudeville.” This | was the first presentation of real | vaudeville as it is now know, in this city and it was a distinct hit. Several years later the late P. S. \h\|\hun went into partnership with I | then bought him out and in turn sold out to the Contaras Brothers and Perakos who last year went into a merger with the Hoffman {interests. Something more than a decade the Electric Building on West \l\m ot was built, with a theater in- uded and this was leased by Wil- llam Fos. At that time Fox special- ized in vaudeville as well as motion pictures and then there were two | vaudeville houses in the city and | about the same time George LeWitt ! took over the Lyceum theater, re- modelled it to some extent and he too, put in vaudeville for m time, | Thus at one period of the last dec- ade there were three udeville houses'in operation h hat, ap- parently, was the peak of vaudeville hero for within the past year or so the Capitol, which or ¥ it will be remembered, was re- ¥ 1 into a movie house, the trned into movie house, Lyceum presents only movies and as| @ result, the modern Strand is the, o fic For lu s wi great d in dent of d in Water- as slated to that v v | vgriety as it was once known. | av |it | new form of e | seven * | “horsemanship by M land Miss c d K OFFICERS A. J. Sloper President S. Chamberlain Vice-President and | Cashier i i | ] i the v N. Stanley Vice-President William H. Judd Assistant Cashier C. L. Sheldon stant Cashier and Trust Officer A. S. Parsons sistant Cashier d of our officers explain. NEW BRITAIN NATIONAL BANK TRUSTEE FOR ville, or of he prictor which And from the of the ighting, e cru 1 to the pr brilliant lighted ive foyer, its brilliantly torium its massive stage, 1 able seats for 2300 person high grade of vaudeville tures, is quite a step. It tion that has taken age lifetime, yet in the old timers it is a che sterday ut do those of the 1 luxury enj such ron s, wooden ations of old 1 rand, with quee, its now in On February comfort- | to the variety pro; and its he and ar ore t} n war lances.” on vy song and perform Fireworks were March have he as the um or I d? Do t of enjoyme ave any bett much the extrer sible? Do they ter tha seats a cts in o question! The old tin enjoyed old Union hall and ail that offered because it was new, be- cause It was out of the ordinary. To- at montl in the te, earlier in management advertise chang ¥ program odrama. marks what ers announcen is believed to be the permanence of the fund our insurance will provide. a spec conjunction with Dependents They are usually the dearest people in vorld; the ones upon whom our hopes are centered; the ones for whom we make the great- est sacrifices. We insure our lives so that they may be sure to be protected. The next step is to insure the safety, That means an Insurance Trust. Let one INSURANCE FUNDS m “vaudevil program was an elaborated version of variety which had been first ine troduced at the Lafayette in De- cember of the previons vear. Thus vaudeville took its first step for- ward attesting that the public had received the innovation warmly. Tuesday evening next, De- French company will n will be d and Christin. Ma Garco! comic German Scientist Saves Life of Chicago Hunter Nairobi, Africa, Feb. 19 (P — Honore Palmer, of Chicago, stricken with sleeping s while lion near Nguru, owes his life to & German scientist. The fortunately encounter- st, making a special eping sickness, just as me ill. This was in the ¥ilds of the Gurumeti river region. ately the German administers ed treatment and in a short time *almer had improved sufficiently to he journey to Nairobi. a of about 350 mile. Ha progressed so well that he is now | walking. ness pes IS hunting On April 19 ot the day these things are taken more as matter of course. For those interested in tion of vaundeville during THEWORLD AT ITS WORST—GETTING THE PRIZE By GLUYAS WILLIAMS years a brief sketch of this forn ertainment shown in the yette theater in New York at “boxes cts. pit 25 cts.” is not without interest. The Lafayette, records show as a regular drarn 1826 with “1 and, for the Dumb Until the advent lalace and his “wonderf was an exclusive with, of course, the me fhat went with the drama at that Its sudden turn to vaudeville t tha arly date n ks the eleva-| jon of the between.s specialties to an individual positi £ impor- tance as an entertain Further eviden i GLUYAS as WilLAMs 50 open- ter on H 1- time in Gen-} Vil pany, c house Girl Mons. mbe ts time. found in the of the Mount Pitt Circus on street, opposite Har where one could see eac great variety of eque amusements' aster B sa Me Turner, Sti and rope by s and fancy Cecialla; the Napoleon perform the part of | There was also a mem- | r of this group who performed a | urkish dance” and a “Scotch | " to say nothing of the fact | that the company boasted “Tippo | Sultan,” an elephant, and “a whole | stud of horses.” | The Mount Pitt Circus closed for repairs and renovation and its com- pany moved intact to the T ayette theater on January ‘15, 18 On I'ebruary 14 of ths year a news- | paper nt of the New York Theater — Bowery (now | the Chinese theater) appeared as fol- | lows: [ “The manager respectfully informs the public that he has effected an | arrangement with Mr. Sanford, Pm-,i.) Whittake: LaForest; Master dances | MORE AND MORE EMBARRASSED AT BEING CENTER. OF ATTENTION ¢ GWT GET KNOT UNDONE EVERYBODY WAITING| ROUND TOR HIM TO OPEN POSED D DO = HE'S NEV- 1T, PICKS AT KNOT ER WON A PRIZE BEFORE RECEIVES PRIZE. WON - DERS WHAT HE'S SUP~- ,\T\LZS THAT SEVERAL mrg T'E’\W A LMTLE SEES UNWRAPS PRCKAGE AT LAST AND HOLDS UP QUEER CHINA OBJECT. WONDERS wl‘w IN THE WORLD IT S REALIZES HE OUGHT STUPFS T INTO POCKET | T SRY SOMETHING NICE REALIZING THATTHE | ABOUT IT. AFTER SERIOUS OTHERS ARE CONGRAT- MENTAL EFFORT MUTTERS ULATING THEMSELVES THAT IT'S JUST DANDY THAY THEY DIDNT