Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-28

ing probably to $500. Their washing cost
alone S12 per dozen pieces. The nightly ex-
peuses of the theater were $500. On Front
street, between and J, was the celebrated
gambling establishment known as
THE ROUND TENT.
At the back and joining it the Eagle"
was built. There were no dressing rooms in
this theater for the people" we have named.
Auditors to get into the dress circle had to
go up fight of stairs on the outside Of the
house, and those for the parquet were COM
pelled to pass through the round tent"
and pick their way through the gamblers at
the faro and monte tables. The shifts the
Eagle" company was put to were ludicrous.
Every play had to be altered, SO as to require
but
ONE LADY.
Many of the pieces were reproduced and re-
written from memory, for books" were
few. Wardrobe stock was still scarcer.
Sacramento had no levee then, and when the
rainy season commenced and the water began
to rise in the theater the orchestra was re-
moved to the rear of the parquette, and the
miners would wade around in the muddy
pool in the parquette in their top-boots and
sit on the railing of the orchestra. Says Nc
Cabe: On several occasions when the COM
pany were piling on the agony on the stage,
one of these miners would appear to be reused
to enthusiasm. and while shouting his appro-
baton, would throw his arms open, striking
his neighbors on each side, and precipitating
them Backwards into the water" This
practical joke, it is recorded, sometimes
caused laugh. sometimes a fight, aud always
interrupted the performance for a time. Very
often when the curtain was down some Of the
auditors would produce
A DICK OF MONTE CARDS
And give their neighbors "lay out" and
considerable sums sometimes changed hands
by this operation. Not infrequently this
side bar performance ended in fight and re-
volvers and knives would be drawn, but no
fatal ARRAYS are recorded.
In our first paper we referred also to the
Tehama Theater Of this city. 1t cost S30, 900.
Connected with it was saloon that rented
for 81, 600 month. Atwater and Mrs. j.
Hudson Kirby were the managers. Mrs.
Kirby became Mrs. James Stark and is fire.
quently mentioned in this theatric history.
AT the Tehama appeared G. E. Smith and
his little step-daughter, aged 13, and
whose name was Anderson, who subse-
quently became Mrs William Stevenson (her
husband being theatrical treasurer), and
who won her laurels on the California stage
as Sophie Edwin. Smith and his daughter
drew 500 week salary, 7. s. Boyes, light
comedy and scene painter, S175, an orchestra
of five pieces S66 day. and the printing bill
per diem was S42. The tallow candles (very
poor) cost S26 65 per night, and slS day
was paid to a crier for riding on horseback in
uniform and crying the show. We have al.
ready referred to
THE PACIFIC THEATER.
1t stood in 1850 on NJ street. rs feet from the
corner of Front. It was completed April.
1850, and cost over s36. 900. 1t was
Ii b-, an,
Amphitheater, tickets SO and 50. The circus
was followed in it by Model Artists" pre-
sented by d.. Collyer "to crowded and en-
tbusiastic houses" at S5 and SO admission.
Human nature was very much then, it will
be seen, as it is now, and the leg drama had
just rs much attractive power with "our pi.
oneers" as it has with this later generation.
July 90, 1850, MIR. and Mrs. G. R. Thorne
(Sr.) and James Stark made their first ap-
pearance in California at this house. and
played there for several months, with tickets
at SO and 81.
THE CHAPMAN FAMILY
Followed, and remained there until the
house was burned by the grea. FIRE of 1852
This theater rented to Rowe and the Thornes
for 81, 500 month, and the two saloons in it
rented for $500 month. Il should be re-
| membered here that Harry Cead, an old-time
California actor, was one of the Tehama com
pany in 1851, as also Mrs. Burrill, Miss Car
penter, Nesbit, McCron, Mrs. Mansfield,
| Miss Montague and Barry. While Mrs.
Kirby ran the the theater early in that year.
| Mr.. Stark gave dramatic readings for the ben
| eft Of the Mercantile Library Association.
| In April, 1851, the first effort to insugurate
an opera season was made. Sig. Pelligrinpi
put an advertisement in this paper snnounc-
ing that he would open the Pacific Theater
with his
ITALIAN OPERA
Company April 9Th, provided fifty citizens
| would subscribe S25 each for the proposed
| eight performance Evidently the " pio-
| neers" did not care for Italian opera, for
after extending the offer to the 18th the com.
pany appeared at the Union Theatrical
Saloon, on J street. giving sets from Nor
grimm and V. Acquaroni being the people"
of the company.
While Stark aud Mira. Kirby were run
ming the Tehama, their managing director,
L. G. Campbell, left them and
took the Pacific MAY 14thl, which
Yves remodeled and reftted. But it
must have been an amicable arrangement, for
Mrs. Kirby herself appeared at the house on
the opening night, in "Gustavus Ill, as
Amelia. and McCron. who was playing, at
her own house the same night, managed TO
appear also at the Pacific. The Pacific was
not operated long, however, in this way. On
the first night Campbell wound up the per-
formance with o masked ball in the thester.
but that usually attractive feature failed on
that occasion to draw. Il. A. Lubey, an
Irish comedian, was an attraction at the Te-
hama in 1851. The Pacific, after Campbell
left it, was in several managerial hands, be.
fore it fell to the Thornes and the Chapmans
in June Of that year.
THE SENIOR BOOTH.
Questions having been raifed concerning
the statement that Booth the elder played in
Sacramento in 1852, these citations are made.
The elder Booth and his son Edwin left New
York in June, 1852, for California On the
18th Of August, 1852, the Alleghsnians relin.
quished the American Theater, and J. B.
Booth assumed the management August
18th, and that night his father and brother,
with himself, appeared in The Iron
Chest" Booth, Sr., played there until Sep
tember 9th. on that night appearing for his
sons benefit a. Richard III. and Jerry
Sneak. No later record ia found Of his sp-
| pearance here. The season referred to was a
pecuniary disaster to J. 3. Booth, Jr. One
other name should find its place here Mary
Anderson, the actress now go prominent upon
the American stage, was born in Sacramento.
At least such is the tradition, but we have no
record to vouch for the authenticity Of the
| story that Mary here frat saw the liohk