By Parker Anderson 

Those familiar with the history of comedy in entertainment have heard legions of stories about the vaudeville circuit, which began in approximately the late 19th century and started to fade in the 1920s as motion pictures became more sophisticated. 

Vaudeville performers were primarily singers and comedians, but also included animal acts, circus acts, psychic acts and the like. Many famous comedians of the 1920s and 1930s had gotten their start in vaudeville.

Vaudeville performers were pretty small-time as far as entertainment went even then, but were still very popular with the public. Most larger cities (and even small towns) had theaters that regularly booked vaudeville acts. 

In Prescott, a few scattered vaudeville acts passed through in the early 20th century, but it did not have a regular vaudeville house until 1908, when an enterprising businessman named Charles Howard opened the Electric Theater on Cortez Street and proceeded to book acts from the vaudeville circuit a well as motion picture shorts seven nights a week. The Electric Theater was very popular with Prescott residents, and gave major competition for the city's entertainment dollars to the more refined Elks Opera House, which had opened in 1905. 

However, the Elks had problems of their own. In 1910, their opera house was 5 ears old, and had not been the financial boon to the lodge or to Prescott that it was expected to be. Senior Elks decided that the best course of action was to stop running the theater themselves and start leasing it to an independent manager. They took offers, and ultimately awarded the Elks Opera House lease to Charles Howard, who promptly closed his Electric Theater and moved his vaudeville acts and motion pictures up the hill to the Elks. 

The Elks Opera House opened as a seven-night-per-week vaudeville house on May 24, 1910, and during the first week, rotated such acts as comedians Hall and Thaw, an acrobatic act known as The Twins, a tenor named Karl Raymond, a Spanish dancer named May Reed and an unidentified act called the Rehbols. 

By today's definitions, vaudeville was hardly sophisticated, but there were some standards. A contortionist act called the McDaniels played the Elks on June 14, 1910, and manager Howard cancelled the remainder of their run because they did not meet his entertainment standards. 

Other vaudeville acts to visit Prescott during the Elks theater's tenure as a vaudeville house included Seymour's Dogs, a trained dog act promoted as "musical dogs, dramatic dogs, electrical dogs, and singing dogs, and the only dogs in the world playing a musical selection on chimes and singing the chorus." 

Then there was Effie, the Mental Marvel, a psychic who performed for ladies only ("no horrid men admitted," hissed the Elks ads). Part of her act was to have an associate hide an inanimate object somewhere in Prescott, and then, blindfolded, she would tell the driver of her car where to go find it. 

And, of course, vaudeville was overrun with comedians, and in the days before political correctness, many of them got laughs through ethnic impersonations: there were Chinese impersonators, Jewish impersonators, Greek impersonators, and, of course, blackface comedians. 

By December 1912, William Mays had taken over management of the Elks Opera House, and he didn't like the kind of acts he was seeing on his stage. So, he made a decision to stop booking vaudeville and start showing motion pictures exclusively. Elks ads in December 1912 joyfully proclaimed, "No more bum vaudeville!" 

But it is a testament to the public's enjoyment of this kind of entertainment that Prescott audiences complained loudly. By March 1913, Mays was forced to relent and start booking vaudeville again, beginning with Dolly Dimples (a horse act) and Corrigan and His Five (a trained goat act). 

But the die had not been cast. Nationwide, vaudeville was slowly starting to fade, and by the mid-teens, the Elks Opera House was believed to be the only genuine vaudeville house left in Arizona. The period between 1916 and 1918 is the only term where full history of the Elks Opera House has not survived, and it was somewhere during this time that the theater scrapped vaudeville for good and became a full-time movie house with occasional quality live acts booked. A few scattered vaudeville performers would be booked as late as the 1920s, but these were not regular. 

NOTE: Sharlot Hall Museum's own Blue Rose Theater Company presents the "History of Comedy," written by Jody Drake at 7:30 p.m. April 20-21, and 26-28, 2007, as well as three special performances: 2 p.m. April 21 and 28; and 6 p.m. April 26. Tickets can be purchased in the Museum Store in the historic Bashford House on the museum campus, or call 445-3122 for more information. 

(Parker Anderson is our own Elks Opera House historian and is a volunteer for the Blue Rose Theater.) 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bub8024pa)
Reuse only by permission.
The New State Theater seen here around 1910 and formerly known as The Electric Theater, opened as a vaudeville show house in 1908. 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bub8021pa)
Reuse only by permission.
Photo postcard of the Elks Opera House in 1910, the year that Charles Howard closed his Electric Theater and took over operations at the Elks.