Looking for Mabel Normand

 

THE MASON OPERA HOUSE at 127 South Broadway was the first playhouse built in Los Angeles in the 20th century and the first constructed on Broadway.  It opened June 18, 1903 and was torn down in March 1955 to make way for the state office building. John Mason founded of the Mason Opera House, he was only 39 when he passed away from diabetes.  His father was Charles Mason was one of the four owners of “The Silver King Mine” one of the worlds largest silver mine. Charles Mason moved his family to a huge home constructed near Adams and Figueroa, (3134 S. Figueroa) and his son, John used his father’s money to build the Mason.

 

In a newspaper article from 1903 the report on opening night, the story read that the Mason opera house was a blaze of lights and a burst of enthusiasm. Long before the curtain rose, the foyer was filled with an eager crowd of people who came early in order to get a good view of the new theater. . . . eager, excited groups gathered to exclaim over the newness of it all. . . .

Filled with graceful, laughing groups of people in evening clothes, the picture presented was not unlike that nightly scene of splendor in the greatest of French theaters. . . .

 

But inside the scene was as delightful as in the foyer. . . . The curtain’s delightfully painted picture came in for a large share of notice. Over the odd new orchestra place many exclamations were heard.

 

One young girl . . . [remarked]: “What cute shells they’ve got for boxes!” . . .

The sound of music brought the people in from the foyer and the house was soon filled.

At the end of the first act, . . . the request to remain seated in order to be photographed detained a large part of the audience, even after the photographer had finished his work.

The end of the second act wrought a complete change. . . . The foyer was soon thronged with women in exquisite toilettes and men in conventional evening dress.

Rarely has a more brilliant gathering appeared in Los Angeles. Many ladies appeared in low-necked frocks, and more jewels were displayed than ever before at the theater in Los Angeles. Those who were not so gowned were wearing light-colored costumes, which gave a distinctly chic appearance to the entire house. . . .

After the third act, the audience remained seated to applaud. . . . When Mr. Sothern had responded to repeated curtain calls and . . . made a little speech, the call for Wyatt went up all over the house . . . he diffidently refused to respond to the enthusiastic applause, further than to bow his head in grateful acknowledgment.

. . . And then the social pleasure of the evening, which had been interrupted by the progress of the play, was renewed. Groups stopped to chat over the settees in the passageway and in the foyer, careless of tired cabmen and intermittent [street] car service.

The ladies visited before the long mirror in the retiring room; the men lighted cigars in the smoking room and lingered . . . .

But finally the last cabby climbed into his perch and was off with a jerk of the whip. . . . The first night of the Mason opera house was over and the memorable engagement of E.H. Sothern in “If I Were King” had begun. . . .

After attending Mason opera house, the fashionably attired throng that filled boxes and parquet the next stop was Levy’s Cafe 111-117 W. 3^rd Street. 

It was at the Mason opera house that Martha Graham saw Ruth St. Denis dance there and determined to become a dancer herself.  It was here that the first presentation of Ramona was done on its stage.

So here, it was in 1915, that Roscoe (Fatty) Arbuckle and Mabel Normand filmed the scene in That Little Band of Gold.