Dear Readers:
Some of you asked me to provide a few thoughts last year for your 140th Anniversary of the Grand Opening of the Millett’s Opera House last October. I really enjoyed that anniversary party. So sorry I could not appear in person. I am sure you understand my current limitations.
At your request, I have agreed to share each month- at least until you tell me to stop! – one or more amazing events that happened in or around Millett’s Opera House 140 years ago. This is a lot of fun for me. The only hard part is trying to choose among the many spectacular events. The first Austin appearance by acclaimed Shakespearean actors Frederick Warde, Edward Booth and Helen Modjeska ,the first appearance of Buffalo Bill and his Band of Genuine Indian Chiefs, who shot a pear off a lady’s head on the stage—frankly that one worried me a little-to the first ever graduation ceremonies of the University of Texas, when thirteen (13) young men received a baccalaureate of law while the entire University of Texas student body of two hundred (200) applauded.
If you know of anything that happened at Millett’s Opera House, share it with us at our brand-new website. In your every adventure at Millett’s Opera House I wish you every success.
Many of you reading this have attended live theatre in Austin. Austin now has an abundance of beautiful performing arts venues all over our very large city. But in 1878 when Millett’s Opera House opened its doors, it was the only one respectable and large enough to attract top artists.
Have you ever thought about how difficult it is to organize a performance, arrange for the artists, advertise repeatedly, schedule the performing arts venue and make it ready for the unique needs of the artists? That’s a lot of work even today.
Think about what I had to do to arrange for performers. From the very beginning, I did succeed in inviting some of the most famous stars of the stage, many of them internationally acclaimed. Shakespeare, Grand Opera, Comic Opera, Vaudeville, even Burlesque, when the Austin Daily Statesmen reporters let me get away with it. We often packed the house. Millett’s was supposed to only sell tickets to 800 patrons on the main floor and another 400 in the balconies and galleries, but I confess, attendance often was many more than 1,200, due to the enormous popularity of some performers or the significance of the event.
My only means to communicate with all these performers was by telegraph, private correspondence or postal mail. I didn’t even have a telephone and these other methods were not reliable all of the time. Mostly we booked touring companies, usually suggesting they add Millett’s Opera House to a tour that included performances in New Orleans, Galveston and San Antonio or Dallas. Those ten (10) hour train rides from Galveston left them pretty weary when they arrived in Austin, even if they had their own private railway cars, which many of them did.
I would arrange for horse drawn wagons and carriages to meet the performing troupes at the brand new International & Great Northern Railroad Depot at the southwest corner of Congress Avenue and Cypress (West 3rd) Street.
My teams and I would help unload all the artists, supporting company members who frequently were a hundred or more, large pieces of unique portable stage scenery and props and musical instruments which were taken off the train and reloaded onto wagons and carriages. Then we drove everyone and everything up Congress Avenue to Millett’s Opera House and the various hotels where they were to stay. We would unload all their things again. This took many hours when they arrived, and hours when they departed.
To attract celebrated performers to Austin and to the Millett’s Opera House, we had to give them an opportunity to perform multiple times so they could make justify the trip. Railway travel was prohibitively expensive for many. Our programs were ambitious.
The evenings of February 13, 14th and 15th, ,1879, plus a Saturday Matinee, Millett’s Opera House featured the dramatic actress Louise Pomeroy plus her company, in those days called a combination, who performed Adirondacks, Camille, and Shakespeare’s As You Like It. Miss Pomeroy and her friends left and by Monday next, Jennie Hughes, and her Vaudeville company had arrived for a two-night engagement of New French Spy. Anything with the word “French” in it sold well in those days, even if the very conservative reporters at the Austin Daily Statesman were not amused.
I always liked St. Valentine’s Day a lot. Attendance at our performances was excellent, all those young men bringing their sweethearts to see a romantic comedy or play. So, I share with you the following around St. Valentine’s Day in 1879, to give you an idea of what it was like, 140 Years Ago at Millett’s Opera House®.
Look what the Austin Daily Statesman said about these amazing women and their performances:
AUSTIN DAILY STATESMAN
February 11, 1879
Mrs. Louise Pomeroy, the actress to appear at the Opera House on the 13th, is a divorced wife of Brick Pomeroy. Brick Pomeroy lectured to a full house in this city a few years ago.
February 12, 1879
All levers of the Drama will be pleased to learn that Miss Pomeroy has recovered sufficiently from injuries sustained in the recent disastrous railroad accident to appear on the stage at Millett’s Opera House.
February 14, 1879
The Adirondack’s
Miss Louise Pomeroy supported by Jos. Edwards N.Y. Combination delighted the Austin people last night at the opera house…. Miss Pomeroy, now but twenty-eight years old of tall and commanding figure, and a woman of rare personal charm. She is a blonde and in her rich lavender suit she looked sweet enough to capture the heart of an editor or “any other man” ….
Well, even if that Austin Daily Statesman editor fell madly in love with Miss Pomeroy on St. Valentine’s Day, at the United States Post Office just down the block at Brazos and Bois d’Arc (E.7th) Street, things weren’t nearly as sweet:
February 15, 1879
A great many people went to the post office yesterday. Old ladies and young ladies, gray haired men and little girls and boys were in the procession that pranced into the post office and then solemnly marched out again. It was Valentine’s Day and the post office did an immense but not very profitable business. To hand out five cent valentines to five thousand people for five mortal hours is enough to sour the temper of the sweetest mortal living…It’s worse and more heating than working in a steam laundry in July or praying by the yard for a Texas legislature.
Even ever everyone in Austin did not get a valentine, a whole lot of them turned out the next two nights to see and hear the vaudeville performer Jennie Hughes:
February 18, 1879
At The Opera House
A fine house greeted the performance of Miss Jennie Hughes in The French Spy. The applause was constant and enthusiastic throughout. The second part of the programme was devoted to the production of “The French Spy” with Miss Jennie Hughes in the title role. The lady is not only blessed with a very prepossessing appearance, but is an excellent pantomimist. She plays with spirit and is an artist in picturesque posing. The combat scene between Hamet and Mohammed is the best scene of its kind ever witnessed in Austin……Tonight there will be a an entire change of programme, introducing Miss Hughes in a speaking part with her well known songs and dances including French, German and Spanish melodies.
See you next month.