A General History of the Opera House in the Midwest

July 8, 1976

                The frontier was gone, the wilderness that had been the Midwest was tamed, and the Civil War was over.  Towns and villages were prospering and becoming “civilized.”  With the onslaught of refined behavior, inhabitants of Midwestern towns began to seek ways to demonstrate their new affluence.  A popular way to display the cultural and social quality of the community was the building of an opera house.

                Theaters were begun being built in the Midwest during the late 1860s and early 1870s, and before long every progressive town wanted one.  Many were called opera houses although this was a misnomer.  There was very little knowledge of opera and apparently little inclination to learn in those early days.  The term opera house was used it seems, as one historian has suggested, because the theater and actors were in bad repute.  An occasional town used the term Academy of Music , but Opera House seemed to be a more satisfactory choice.

                Prejudice did arise in some parts of the country against actors.  IN fact, actors did sometimes ignore local customs or standards.  Though citizens hated to support such wayward people as actors, they nonetheless thrilled to plays like “East Lynne” and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” 

                There are numerous stories of the undignified behavior of the show folk in American Theater history.  An Ohio story shows the displeasure of the local residents when theatergoers attended a performance of “Salome” under the impression that it was a religious mystery as had been advertised.  Instead, the audience was shocked by a female performer clad in a pink union suit dancing the “Dance of the Seven Veils.”  An actor playing Lawyer Marks in a touring company of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was arrested and jailed for drunkenness in New Castle , Indiana in May 1905.  The show left town without him.

                A popular recollection of the Guyer Opera House in Lewisville , Indiana , deals with a sensational performance of “Fanny Hill” or “The Daughters of Fanny Hill.”  Versions of the story differ, but according to one citizen, the story goes like this:  To bolster rather poor attendance in a particular season, the manager booked the show and displayed a poster with a row of dancing girls in pink tights on the billboard in front of the theater.  The townsfolk were shocked but nevertheless poured in to see the show.  The actresses, according to the eye-witness, were “Dressed sparingly.”  Ladies in the audience hid behind their fans, but few left.  Finally, the show was closed, and the curtain rung down.  The actors supposedly then went across the street to stay in the local hotel.  When the owner of the hotel was not home at his appointed hour, his wife went looking for him and found one of the actresses sitting on his lap.  She, the owner’s wife, kicked the actors out of the hotel.  No one knows what happened to that unsavory troupe after that. 

                In spite of the difficulties encountered by early theaters, most of them managed to survive and thrive.  The glamour of the gaslight was welcomed by an entertainment-starved populace.

                The arrival of the motion picture did more to destroy the opera house era than any other single cause.  Legitimate theater simply couldn’t compete.  Many of the opera houses were converted to movie theaters, the rest were changed into other types of buildings or simply fell into disrepair.  Many were, of course, destroyed by fire caused by the open fire of the gaslights.