The Golden Age of Indianapolis Theaters

12. The Silent Film Era’s Finale

12 TheSilentFilmEra’sFinale Although the city’s oldest theater claimed in the summer of 1917 that it had enjoyed one of its most successful seasons, within two years it would make a drastic entertainment policy change. It came in August 1919, after the Park had been closed for two months. The opening stage attraction was called a “musical extravaganza and a chorus of 20 charming beauties.” Whether the theater wanted to admit it or not, it had become a burlesque house. Other Park show titles displayed in daily newspaper advertisements included The Mischief Makers; Grown Up Babies; The Tempters; Girls, Girls, Girls; and Naughty Naughty with a Big Chorus of Lovely Michigan Peaches. Finally, in late November 1922, when the theater changed management, it admitted it was the “home of Columbia shows with brilliant musical burlesk,” as the ad spelled the latter term. Months later, it shed its historic name and became the Capitol. By 1925, the theater, under new management again, struggled with films and vaudeville, closed its doors for a while, and finished its life with second-run double sound features. Central Amusement Company, headed by Carl Niesse, attempted to save it in 1934, but by midyear its life was over. Theater survival was not easy for most of the downtown outlets in the 1920s. EventheprestigiousEnglish’sandMurat had new challenges. Traveling Broadway shows, especially musicals, required ticket prices as high as $2.50. Film theaters, even the Circle, rarely exceeded 50 a ticket. Toward the end of the decade, when 113 sound films entered the scene along with a major economic depression, the matter became more complex. In 1920 and 1921, English’s and the Murat provided their audiences with sixty-six musical shows. Highlights at the Murat were two bookings of Al Jolson in Sinbad, two appearances of what was billed as “the hit of the century,” Irene, and annual appearances of the New York Winter Garden Revue with casts that numbered as many as 150. English’s matched this with annual visits by the Ziegfeld Follies, two musicals with Fred Stone, Jack O’Lantern and Tip Top, the latter with a cast of 100, and Apple Blossoms, with singer John Charles Thomas and dancers Fred and Adele Astaire. In 1922 the numbers dropped dramatically. Each theater provided ten musical offerings, and English’s closed its doors for six months (late March to late September). In August it was reported that the two syndicates operating the theaters had pooled their interests and would no longer compete for bookings. Those syndicates were the Shuberts at the Murat and Erlanger at English’s. Speculation arose as to whether English’s would remain closed or at the most would play the comedies and dramas, while the Murat would offer the larger shows—larger meaning shows with sizable casts and more technically sophisticated requirements. One thing had appeared certain: the Murat would continue to book the popular Stuart Walker Stock Company players during the summer. That arrangement had begun in 1917, but even Walker was gone after the summer of ’23. The following summer, the theater hired the Indianapolis Stock Company. It provided such prominent local names as Walter Vonnegut, the director, and Marjorie Vonnegut, one of the company’s leading actresses . The Walker group returned in 1926 for three more summers, but this time at Keith’s. The no-compete plan involving Erlanger and Shubert in the winter seasons lasted three years, with both theaters offering fewer bookings due to the competitive uncertainty of the time. Entertainment policy changes occurred frequently at most of the mainline theaters. In Just a year prior to the joining of the two syndicates, English’s had challenged the Murat by booking (in 1921) a rival company headed by a former leading man of the Stuart Walker group. The Gregory Kelly Players opened with Booth Tarkington’s highly successful Clarence. Kelly and his wife, Ruth Gordon, would play all the prominent roles in a thirteen-week summer season. Walker no doubt was not pleased, but it lasted just one season. Meanwhile, English’s still competed with the Murat in the summer with the Charles Berkell Players, regular visitors for the rest of the decade. 114 August 1925, the Valentine Company of Ohio, which had previously managed English’s, was back and added the Murat to its responsibilities. Economic conditions now required...