THE ALBEMARLE OPERA HOUSE, Et Cetera, Et Cetera

The dictionary definition of an opera is a drama wholly or mostly sung consisting of recitative, arias, choruses, duets, et cetera, with orchestral accompaniment and appropriate costumes, scenery and action. Today, Albemarle has no building equipped specifically for presenting such entertainment. Our various school auditoriums, temporarily adapted, must serve as substitutes. In 1908 however, when the town had as yet no electric lights, no water system, and a total county population of less than 20,000, there was such.

‘Twas the year before Miss Sue McCain was married to Mr. E. E. Snuggs, and Miss Carrie Wolfe was married to Mr. Walter Milton, incidentally. This aside, with a bow to the house in which we sit, is a titular et. cetera.

The Stanly Enterprise for Thursday, Sept. 10, 1908, announced "The new opera house will give its initial performance on Monday night September 14th. Polk Miller, the famous storyteller from Virginia, is already well known to many of our people, and the mere announcement that he and his Old South Quartette of genuine plantation negroes are to appear should be sufficient. It is to be a veritable evening of song and story, and no one in reach of Albemarle should miss the performance. Buy your seats at once and have them reserved."

On the night of October 6, "the Clansman" by Thomas Dixon will be given by the original company. It was stated editorially in the same issue that "Polk Miller” and "The Clansman" will play to crowded houses… It is not often that a town of this size can secure a play of this proportion, but Messr. F. E. Starnes and Mike Peeler are determined to make this season an interesting and profitable one to play lovers, and the beautiful opera house will prove equal to all demands." I suspect several of you here present can attest to the beauty of its appointments.

Few, if any people passing Starnes Jewelry Store today or the stairway beside it next door consciously remember or realize that they are also passing the Albemarle Opera House. From across the street, there was a time when you could view the five interesting circular glass-paneled pivot windows at the balcony level of the theatre, and the tall, arched windows immediately below them at the brick building's second floor level. (It seems unfortunate to a good many of us in 1977 that this picturesque front was camouflaged with an open work cement block covering, even though the modern front is not unattractive, in 1972. The original builders were Messrs. F. E. Starnes, Doc Frank Parker and J.C. Parker. The street in front of it was an unpaved mess (excuse the expression) but there was elegance within. There was a handsomely decorated proscenium arch and decorated tin ceiling. There were satin curtains and footlights for the stage. There were mahogany chairs for an audience of upwards of 800. A piano was furnished by the management. Gas lamps supplied light for auditorium and dressing rooms. A large cast iron stove on each side gave sufficient warmth. Many of you may have enjoyed envisoning the scene in articles written by Fred T. Morgan, first for The Stanly News And Press issue of April 18, 1952, and for the Fall 1976 issue of PROGRESS, the Concord Telephone Company’s excellent house journal.

A row of supporting posts down the center obstructed the view of some patrons, but, I think, not so many as did those in New York City’s historic and marvelous Metropolitan Opera House. I can imagine a spirit of excitement, such as I felt each time I had the happy privilege of seeing its great gold curtains open, pervading audiences here in 1908 and a few years thereafter .

The spring season for 1909 offered on January 9th “The Barnards", an orchestra concert company; instruments to be heard included two violins, clarinet, coronet, trombone, piano, drums, belle and xylophone. There followed on January 20, Luther Manship, lecturer and actor, and on March 1 a company named “The College Girls".

A second play written by Thomas Dixon, "The Sins of' the Father" was presented on Saturday evening, January 21, 1911, at a curtain time of 9 p.m. The paper said this hour was set at the request of many merchants and clerks in the downtown area. In the same year, on October 10, came "St. E1mo” and on October 26, "The Thief".

Toward the close of the theatre's active life as a live playhouse, we find announced in the newspapers of 1913, the coming of "The Servant in the House" by Charles Rann Kennedy. An advertisement for it stated: "With Victor Lambert and a cast of Musical excellence -complete equipment and special scenery” Box seats sold for $1.50, lower floor seats for 75 cents and $l.00, balcony 25 cents and 50cents.

Possibly the last live commercial attraction was the 'Williams Vaudeville Company and Big Indoor Circus", which played for three days beginning December 4, 1913 and was advertised in The Enterprise of that date. The house ushered in a new form of entertainment for the town when it was leased to Messrs. Ode Parker and J. C. Bost, who operated a motion picture theatre there for approximately two years, opening May 20^th, 1914. This event was advertised in The Albemarle Enterprise for May 14, 1914. 'From all of this you may have surmised that the real reason for the et ceteras in the title to this piece 1ies in the fact that I have found no indication of an actual opera ever being staged!

Nevertheless, the passing of this era of music and drama in whatever form as it affects the cultural life of the community, brings a feeling of pleasurable nostalgia whenever its spirit is evoked. It is good and healthy and entertaining for us to learn this part of the chapter on early 20th century Stanly County history through recollections of members of the audiences, the newspapers of the day, and, we greatly wish through looking at pictures and programs of the events. Those newspaper issues from which I have quoted have been given to and are available for research in the Public Library and Museum collections. Of them we have a few.

Of pictures, programs or other memorabilia, of chairs. properties or other furnishings we have none so far. If this presentation evokes a spirit of search and gift through you, who have listened so graciously, to those who have attics and trunks, bookcases and barns, or who have a willingness to reminisce on paper or on record, it will have lasting value. Isn't it a fine thing to be able to conclude by applauding the fact that live theatre -even opera- is very much with us again in our two-year-old Piedmont Players, in the Community Concert Association, and in Pfeiffer College's excellent cultural program?

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