The Golden Age of Indianapolis Theaters

4. Theater Count Briefly Jumps to Three

4 TheaterCountBriefly JumpstoThree The Grand Opera House came on strong. One week before its grand opening, it announced in the local newspapers that it needed 100 youngladiestoappearonstageinGrandMarchscenesina“spectacular drama.” This was an excellent way to remind the city that a new theater was about to open. All who were interested were asked to apply at the theater’s box office. Response was impressive. The spectacular drama, Around the World in Eighty Days, was based on Jules Verne’s novel, which had only recently been published. (A widescreen film version of this story would appear at the Lyric in downtown Indianapolis eighty-seven years later.) Ads in 1875 described it as a show with “gorgeous costumes and surprising mechanical effects.” The production ran for six evenings and a Saturday matinee during the week of September 20. The theater had opened one week earlier with a melodrama, a story style that had become quite popular with nineteenth-century audiences, emphasizing physical action in its stories. Annie Waite was “supported by an admirable cast” in Love’s Sacrifice (the play that opened the Metropolitan), followed the next night by a “romantic emotional drama,” Madame Rose. Miss Waite was the star each evening. Audiences at the new Grand found a difference in the theater’s floor plan. It was located on the east side of North Pennsylvania between Ohio and Market, and it is believed the main auditorium floor was only slightly above street level. With boxes and the gallery, seating totaled about 1,500, as big as the Metropolitan. Chances are the people in charge valued a more accessible audience arrangement. They were brothers James and George Dickson and George’s son, Fred. In 1932, Facing. The Grand offered a wide variety of entertainment on its screen and stage for ninety-nine years. Bass Photo Company Collection, Indiana Historical Society. 23 Fred told Darrell Gooch that the Dicksons had been involved in professional theaters all their lives and that they had created an early version of a theater chain in Indiana and Ohio. All this experience added up to some attractive bookings. During the first months there were performances by Julia Matthews’s English Opera and Burlesque Company, Mrs. James Oates and her Comic Opera, and Adelaide Phillips’s Grand Italian Opera. There was musical comedy. “Charming little favorite co- 24 medienne” Minnie Palmer headed up shows with new songs and dances. There were plays by Shakespeare with acknowledged lead players of the time like John McCullough and James Voorhees, as well as minstrel companies and even some weeks of classical music. The Mendelssohn Quintet Club of Boston was an example of that latter category. Melodramas were frequent, of course. They included more productions of Uncle Tom’s Cabin (one got a bad review). There were also some weeks that offered the unusual. The honorable William F. Cody (better known as “Buffalo Bill”) appeared in a play titled Life on the Border. Sex surfaced now and then. Equestrian actress Kate Fisher and “handsome” Jack and his horse Wonder appeared one week, and the reviewer noted that Jack’s leading lady “excels in semi-nude parts.” When Matt Morgan’s “animated art” living tableaux group paid a visit, the Indianapolis News reviewer observed that “females were clothed in seductive tights with gauzy scarves to represent apocryphal modesty.” The Grand, frequently listed in ads as Dickson’s Grand Opera House, was off to a strong start. Indianapolis was slowly growing into a city that would accept theaters. During the summer of 1875 when the Grand opened, the Academy of Music went into extensive remodeling. By January 1877, James Dickson held the lease on the theater along with a partner, Bob Losey. Late Saturday evening (January 27, 1877) after the Academy audience had departed , fire broke out between the ceiling and the roof over the stage. It spread quickly to stage scenery and up through the roof, dooming the building. Cause was attributed to a defective flue that extended from the cellar to the roof. Firefighters were delayed in their battle to control the flames because some of the fireplugs were frozen. Within two hours the structure was destroyed. Investors decided not to rebuild. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan had been providing audiences with limited bookings since the opening of the Grand. In April 1877, it was confronted with problems. On a Sunday (when...