During this era, Fowlerville had three opera houses where plays, presentations, oratories, and meetings would take place. But this village wasn't the only town with an opera house. The following blurb was found in The Fowlerville Review, regarding an incident in Jackson:
A gentleman at the opera at Jackson the other evening, reached under the chair for his rubbers, preparatory to leaving, but it seemed to be glued to the floor. He pulled and pulled, til a lady behind leaned forward and said, when he got through with her foot, she would go home.
My husband and I have had various discussions of why these were called "opera houses" because, and especially now that I have been researching further articles published in the local section of the newspaper, there never seemed to be an opera that would come to town. There were a ton of other types of performances such as lectures, song-and-dance men, comedy plays, and what we know of as "stand-up comedians" but as far as I have found, an opera such as "Madame Butterfly" never showed up in Fowlerville!
1 comment:
Hi, Kevin Peshick here. I'm an opera house researcher and I came across your posting. The term opera house was used for a couple different reasons, with a major reason being to avoid using the theatre as many of the conservative religious groups didn't think to highly of theatre. I have an article discussing that in more depth on my website: MichiganOperaHouses.com. I would be very interested in any information on Wade Henderson and his family. My primary research has been on Richard Henderson and his theatre company. Best Wishes on your research. Kevin Peshick Kevin.Peshick@gmail.com
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