Our Past Is Present March 27, 2018

March 27, 2018

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            If it is Tuesday, there must be a story about the Opera House.  Remember this is the 120^th anniversary of the Opera House located at the corner of Seventh and Jefferson Streets.  If you haven’t been in the Opera House for a while or haven’t seen a performance, please do.  Danny, Sheila or Joe are willing to give you a tour during days when there is not a performance and you would be impressed  when you attend one or many of  the shows that take place at the C.L. Hoover Opera House. 

            For many years the Opera House served as a place to watch minstrel shows, circus acts, silent movies and then eventually the “talkies.”  During the time when it was a movie theater called the Colonial Theater, there was a pet by the name of “Stinky” kept in the building.  Stinky was a bedraggled tiger kitten that wandered in one day out of the weather.

            According to Mildred Keeshan, who wrote in the Junction City Republic newspaper in March 1949, “plenty of milk with an occasional can of sardines and a lot of loving attention tamed and fattened the wild kitten so that he became an insolent, haughty, sleek cat who insisted on sleeping in the top letter basket on the manager’s desk. 

            The janitor accidentally locked Stinky in the office one night – hence his name.  Slow to make friends, Stinky was a snob and trusted only the folks he knew.  People were allowed to pet him only if he has seen you around for a while and sensed you are to be trusted. 

            Popcorn left on the floor following a movie was a temptation to mice and rats.  So, Stinky had his life’s work cut out for him and he did a good job.  In fact, occasionally he would take a half dead mouse upstairs to the office and lazily play with it until everyone noticed and praised him.

            One day in March of 1949, Stinky came into the office and found the crew petting a kitten.  He paced from one end of the room to the other yowling and growling in a jealous rage.  After all, this was his domain and he did not intend sharing it with just any alley cat.”

            We don’t know of any critters running around the C.L. Hoover Opera House, but there have been some great acts that have include animals.  Stop by the Opera House and see for yourself sometime – and watch the humans too.

            That’s today’s story on “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.