Our Past Is Present September 4, 2018

September 4, 2018

            You are reading “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society. 

            Last week we began sharing with you some of the performances in the early days of the Opera House. Today we will continue with events that took place in December of 1896.  There was a play presented on Friday evening, December 11, 1896 titled “A Great Wrong Righted”.  There are several synopses about this title and your host is not comfortable with being sure that the plot is correctly described.  In two versions of the same title there seemed to be a life changed or saved at the end after having gone through some difficult times.  So, we will leave it at that. Listeners and readers of our blog will be interested to note that the cost to see this play ranged from 10 to 30 cents. 

            On Saturday, afternoon, December 12, 1896, the Opera House was host to “The Paiges” spelled P-a-i-g-e-s.  This was a matinee for ladies and children and there was to be a drawing for a five dollar gold piece given to the person holding the lucky ticket number.  At the evening performance “The Paiges” gave away six beautiful rocking chairs.  Three numbers were drawn from those who purchased a 30 cent ticket, two if a 20 cent ticket was purchased and one from a 10 cent ticket purchased.  The winners had to be present to claim their prize.  This was a marketing tool to increase attendance and from what has been found so far in research, it was not done at every performance. 

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