St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-13
GOING TO THE GRAND.
The Harris Theater Is to Be Sold,
1t Is Said.

At last the Hennepin Avenue is to
pass into hands that will not only make
it successful, but a credit to the city.
The GLOBE has obtained reliable infor-
nation from a certain Flour City capt.
talist that there is deal now pending
that will be closed and completed by
next Saturday, whereby the public
spirited citizens who own the Grand
opera house will buy the Hennepin Tor
Harris) theater. The price to be paid
the Loan and Trust company has rot
been determined, but it is rumOred
that the consideration for ground, which
Is seventy feet wide on Hennepin ave-
nue., and the building was s155,00e,
which is only fair price. The ground
is certainly worth $4,000 Or 200, or
$1,000 or $1,000 per foot. This would
make the entire building, theater part
and all, only valued at about 100000.
Although several calls were made at the
Grand last evening, Manager Conklin
was always busy, and could not be seen
to get at the exact
Details of the Transaction.
or why the theater was purchased, but
it has been understood for some time
that the stranding there of the Pretty
PerSianS," the Baker Opera company,
the numerous suits the theater had been
plunged into during its career under the
different arrangements, and the terribly
bad business it has done since it first
opene d. have given Minneapolis the
name of being very bad show town
about the theatrical exchanges in New
York to such an extent that managers
were yearly becoming worry skeptical in
paying this city visit. AS the Grand
had to depend almost entirely upon the
best and most expensive attractions, the
bad reports that had gone abroad greatly
hindered Manager Conklin from keeping
his list up to the usual high standard.
Instances of this kind have been cited
some months ago. when such attractions
as BOoth-MOdjeSka, JefferSOn-FlOrence
and shenandoah" would not come here
fearing bad business; and as the NAH
| ayers of these attractions had to pay
their stars big money they couldn't af-
| ford to risk it. This. of course, not only
| grated on Manager Conklin's pride and
made it neceSsar to book such attrac-
| lions as ''Fat Mems Club" MAMA"
| and 'Zig-Zag" to fill in all his nights,
| such entertainments.
| The Only Remedy
to cure the low standard was to get at
the seat of the cause and make an eff
| fort to regain the good name that Min
neapolis had lost as being an A No. 1
show town. 1t has been very notice
able that the past season Minneapolis
has had more tough shows than ever
before for the past ten years in the
same length of time. In fact, they
have been getting tougher and tougher
ever since Booth and Barrett had to get
| out of town with the management of
| the Hennepin owing them some 81, 500,
which was the first attraction that
opened the theater. According to Man.
| ager Broadhurst's own statement, the
| Harris has played an entire week
| of seven performances to little
| over S4OO. One can readily i'm
| agine what reports company
doing such business would have to
make about Minneapolis as show town
when they arrived in other cities. Man
ager COnklin stated last spring that his
| good attractions had done good bust
| ness and he was generally satisfied with
| the years receipts as whole, but even
| then lamented upon the fact that sin
| order to keep his time all filled he was
obliged to run in rather light attrac-
| tion." OF course the best of theaters
| have to do this same thing, even iii Chi
cago and New York, but not, perhaps,