The purpose of this site is to introduce you our book, The Opera Houses of Iowa by George D. Glenn and Richard L. Poole (Iowa State University Press, Ames, Iowa, 1993). OK. The real purpose is to pique your interest in the up-dating, revising, and improving of our book and to keep you up-to-date on our progress. After 35 years Richard and I decided that an up-date was definitely in the cards, and improvements in technology will allow us to use many more photographs, and in color, too, when it is published.
Now for the "bad news - good news." As of 1 February we have have not been able to find a publisher who will produce the book we envision, s0, albeit it reluctantly, we have decided to self-publish. This means that I will have to suspend the "Opera House of the Week" page for now. But we'll try to keep the "Progress Report" page up t0 date. So why not check it now?
Now for the "bad news - good news." As of 1 February we have have not been able to find a publisher who will produce the book we envision, s0, albeit it reluctantly, we have decided to self-publish. This means that I will have to suspend the "Opera House of the Week" page for now. But we'll try to keep the "Progress Report" page up t0 date. So why not check it now?
As a "teaser," here's an example of an Iowa opera house advertising front scene drop. Can you estimate about when it was painted? What don't you see advertised? What means of contacting advertisers is not there? One of my great-grandfathers was in the same business as G. G. Hazlett.
In case you don't know us, Richard is an Emeritus Professor of Theatre at Briar Cliff College in Sioux City, Iowa, while I (George) am an emeritus Professor of Theatre History at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa. We met through our membership in the Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC) back in the 1970s, and collaborated on preparing the "Iowa" chapter in MATC's 1988 monograph, Opera Houses of the Midwest. We did a pretty good job on that, which inspired us to expand that chapter into our book.
As we said, this web site is intended to keep you up-to-date on our progress and, hopefully, to keep you interested by feeding you snippets of our work.
In the meantime, let us introduce you to an organization that has been an unending source of inspiration and information for us and many others. If you have any interest in what was going on in the popular theatre in the United States, and particularly in the Midwest -- the kind of theatre you'd be likely to see in the opera houses and tent shows, you must become familiar with the Society for the Preservation of Folk, Tent and Repertoire (that's pronounced "repertory") Theatre, which is housed in the Museum of Repertoire Americana. The Museum -- usually referred to simply as "the Theatre Museum" -- resides on the Old Thresher's grounds off Thresher's Road in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. I doubt we could have finished our first book without their help and expertise -- and we know they're helping out on our revision.
To quote from their web site: the Museum is "dedicated to the preservation of memorabilia and artifacts of early repertoire theatre. The collection includes numerous painted curtains and scenic pieces; costumes and equipment used by individual performers and technicians; playbills, show cards, advertising sheets, etc.; and an extensive research library of rare scripts, correspondence, tour schedules, production photos and other original source materials. Of special interest is the large collection of videotaped interviews with actual “troupers” describing their professional and personal experiences." In other words, there's a lot of neat stuff, including a great collection of scenery curtains, posters and playbills, and on and on. You can check the Museum out at: http://thetheatremuseum.com. Tell 'em we sent you. Just ask "Do you recognize the profession?" (Do you know the purpose of the question?)
Do I need to mention that all this stuff is copyrighted? I didn't think so.
To quote from their web site: the Museum is "dedicated to the preservation of memorabilia and artifacts of early repertoire theatre. The collection includes numerous painted curtains and scenic pieces; costumes and equipment used by individual performers and technicians; playbills, show cards, advertising sheets, etc.; and an extensive research library of rare scripts, correspondence, tour schedules, production photos and other original source materials. Of special interest is the large collection of videotaped interviews with actual “troupers” describing their professional and personal experiences." In other words, there's a lot of neat stuff, including a great collection of scenery curtains, posters and playbills, and on and on. You can check the Museum out at: http://thetheatremuseum.com. Tell 'em we sent you. Just ask "Do you recognize the profession?" (Do you know the purpose of the question?)
Do I need to mention that all this stuff is copyrighted? I didn't think so.