The Short, Bright Life of the Empire Theatre
What is “Vaudeville?” According to this documentary, the Muppet Show is vaudeville.
Just like a weekly television show, every week the local vaudeville theater provided a variety of acts appearing one after another: a comic telling jokes, pretty girls dancing, two or three actors in a skit, a song duet, and even animals playing music. The show cost a dime.
Where the Catalyst’s Atrium is now was once another building that was a vaudeville theatre. It was open for six weeks. The story of The Empire Theatre is one that will be familiar to Santa Cruzans, as it is a story of artists trying to be successful in Santa Cruz, because they love it here, but not being able to make it. I’m sure there are descendants of some of the people involved still living in Santa Cruz, and I would love to learn more about what happened.
Summer of 1904
The story starts up the street, in a little theatre that opened in an old livery stable next to the Farmers’ Exchange, on Pacific at the end of Lincoln street. One of the theatre people was Miss Mary Neary, and a silent partner was F. S. Granger, the man behind the electric street-car company. But it was his wife, Jennie Granger, who managed it.
The Bill the week of the hundred’s show at the Unique. Sept 13, 1904
When the Unique opened, Jennie Granger added a operating partner, actor Allyn Roberts. Roberts had come to town with his family on a Vaudeville curcuit, performing as “The Roberts Four.”
An act they were best known for was “The Doll Maker’s Dilemma.” Here it is described as they performed it in New York a few years later.
Doll Maker’s Dilemma
A Neat Little Sketch
The Roberts Four headed the bill at Pastors in a simple but effective little sketch called The Dollmaker’s Dilemma. The scene is laid in a toy shop kept by a good-natured German. Two little girls who live next door are always playing tricks on the old man, one of them dresses herself in the clothes that the dollmaker has had made for a large mechanical doll and goes through some of the doll-like motions, much to the inventors surprise. There are several songs and some dancing, and the act is one that will please women and children greatly. Pearl Roberts is a diminutive comedienne who is pretty and shows much promise. As the doll she is as "cute" a picture as one could wish to see. Allyn Roberts as the German, Nellie A Roberts as an old Maid, and Charlotte Tompkins as the other mischievous child did very well. A special setting is used.
By the time they played in New York in 1907, the older daughter, Leonora, had left the family act.
The hundredth performance at the Unique was covered in the paper in September, and the younger Miss Roberts was especially popular.
Santa Cruz theatre goers are certainly not tiring of Miss Pearl Roberts. As her pictures was thrown on the screen Monday night it was greated with a round of applause. The little singer was thoroughly equal to the occasion for her rendering "The Frost on the Flower," brought down the house. The song is particularly suited to her voice.
The Granger and Roberts partnership at the Empire only lasted until November of 1904. The Roberts Four left town to play the Empire Circuit, and Jennie Granger became the only proprietor.
New Manager for the Unique
Mrs. Jennie M. Granger, Owner of the House, Assumes Control.
We understand that on Monday Oct 31, Allyn Roberts, who has been manager of the Unique Theatre for the past three months, severs his connection with the house, and will play the Empire Circuit (which is the largest circuit in the world), commencing with Santa Cruz.
Mrs. Granger, who is the owner of the Unique Theatre, assumes the management, and will cater to the wants of the people and will continue to give the best in vaudeville the country can produce, her aim being to put on at the house only the best refined acts; acts that any mother may approve of for herself and her daughter.
"What we want," says Mrs. Granger, "is to please the people; help them to while away a pleasant hour and also help our little city, which I am sure is bound to grow and progress." …
Tomorrow (Monday) the house will open with an entirely new bill, consisting of the Roberts Four (with whom you are all familiar,) Stanley and Carlisle, a very clever team, giving "Mrs. O'Grady's Washday," and jackson, the renowned contortionist. The illustrated song will be rendered by L. L. Sanford, who possesses a very pleasing voice, pitches between a tenor and a baritone. Last but not least, new moving pictures.
The next summer when they returned to Santa Cruz “on vacation” they performed again, but not at the Unique.
Autumn of 1905
The Roberts Four returned to Santa Cruz in October of the next year, performing their Doll Maker’s Dilemma at the Knight’s Opera House.
Roberts Four at the Opera House
Talented Family Return to this City After Over a Year's Absence
Mr and Mrs. Allyn Roberts and their daughters, professionally known as the Roberts Four, are spending a few weeks' vacation in Santa Cruz, and at the solicitation of their friends they have made arrangements to play at Knights Opera house this week for three nights and a Saturday matinee. They will commence on Thursday night, October 19th, and will doubtless draw a large crowd of those who have enjoyed their artistic work in days gone by.
Mr. Roberts has made arrangements with the Empire Circuit of California to furnish him with several of their good vaudeville novelties and with illustrated songs, sung by Miss Pearl Roberts. A film of pictures and the Roberts' pretty act of "The Doll Maker’s Dilemma" will be an inviting bill.
It seems odd to me that though they were on vacation, they just happened to be able to arrange a show with acts from San Francisco. In a newspaper interview, Roberts said that it was his daughters who wanted to stay here. Perhaps they didn’t like being actors as much as he did.
The Roberts are glad to get back to Santa Cruz, they say, and their children are already begging to stay here for good. Mr. Roberts is transferring his bank account from Rochester, N. Y, their former home, to the County Bank here, and it a good proposition comes his way, says he will buy a home here.
Asked as to the tendencies in vaudeville in the East, Mr. Roberts says that the higher class shows are the most popular there, as here, of course, but that life is easier for the vaudevillian in the east than in the Coast cities, where there are an where from 3 to 20 performances in some of the continuous houses. "Story acts," such as the Dollmaker's Dilemma, and the one LeWitt and Ashmore are putting on at the Unique this week, are more in demand and the old song and dance, rough and tumble, with the slap stick and other accessories of impolite vaudeville, are going to the rear, as they should go.
(Until I read that, I did not realize that “a slap stick” was a theatre accessory.)
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Two weeks later, Roberts announced he would be opening a competing vaudeville theatre at the other end of the Pacific, replacing the Castle Bowling Alley.
Now, what was going on here? Anyone with any experience in theatre knows there must have been some drama. Why start a new theatre, when he had just started one the previous year? Why not go back to work at the Unique? Was Allyn Roberts and his family, like so many of us, just trying to get back to Santa Cruz and make a living as artists?
Allyn Roberts to Open New Theatre
Popular Comedian to Join The Ranks of Santa Cruz Amusement Caterers.
Santa Cruz is to have another vaudeville theatre, to be owned and managed by Allyn roberts, the well-known comedian and a former manager of the Unique. Mr. Roberts bought the lease of the Castle Bowling alley near the corner of Pacific Ave and Elm St. from H. W. Swift. He intends to put in a pitch to the floor, with a stage 20 by 40 feet, as well as a ladies parlor and an enlarged gallery and expects to commence work this week.
The new house will be called the Empire and will be on the Empire circuit, which supplies the Jose theatre in San jose, and Empire, Fischer, and the Baldwin in San Francisco. The prices will be 10 and 20 cents, and Mr. Roberts has figured that he will be able to seat 790 people. He will have five exits so that the house can be emptied inside of one minute in case of a fire. Three of these will be in front and one on each side.
The improvements are to cost between $1,500 and $2,000. Mr Roberts says that he has come here to stay and has so much faith in the business future of Santa Cruz that he believes there is room for one more vaudeville house here. He has his own scenery and picture machine, which he will bring here from San Francisco, and promises to put on such acts as were seen during the Roberts Four's recent run at Knight's opera house.
And it was fortunate that the name “Empire” was well-fitted to the roof-top crenelations that remained from the building’s Castle Bowl incarnation.
Empire Opens Tonight
...The Misses Pearl and Leonora Roberts will be the ticket sellers, two box offices being provided, Mr. Roberts will be the doorkeeper, while Mrs. Roberts will devote herself to looking after the comfort of the patrons of the house. Milton D. Hall, late moving picture operator at the Unique will handle the picture machine, and Stephen D. Talbot, late of Keith's theatre in Philadelphia will be stage manager.
So, Roberts was able to hire the projectionist from the Unique.
Roberts Empire Opens Tonight
New vaudeville house to cater to amusement lovers opens with big bill this evening.
Another up-town attraction will open this Tuesday evening in the shape of Roberts' new Empire theatre which enters the local amusement field with a promise of high-class vaudeville at popular prices.
Mr Roberts, who has gotten this house into shape in the incredibly short space of two weeks, needs no introduction to Santa Cruz. He and his talented wife and daughters will have the active "front of the house" management of the place, which Mr. Rberts says he expects to build up on merit alone.
The opening night’s show included a ring act from Australia, a soprano, an eccentric dancer, a comedian of the rural type, and a barytone [sic]. The show ended with a movie: “the Edison Kinescope will close the bill with a film of comedy pictures.”
On the site of today’s Catalyst, next door to the Empire, stood the Bonner Stables. There will be more about the Bonner Stables in another post. It seems appearance of the theatre had a beneficial effect on the stables, which had been built more than twenty five years before, in 1887.
The Bonner stables are being painted, refloored in the stalls, and shingled anew. A change in the ownership of buildings often leads to improvement, and as the adjacent building is to be converted into a live playhouse, the Bonner had to be trotted to a place near the head of the procession.
The next week had acrobats, advertised with a beautiful ad in the papers.
The week after that the bill included new acts by some of the same dancers. The paper reported both the Unique and the Empire were “well patronized.”
Ticket sales may not have been what he had been expecting because on Sunday the 17th, there was what seems to me to be a dull lecture about Japan, delivered by Mr. Roberts himself. By December 18th, he had lowered prices—all seats 10c—and his own family was back on the stage with a new act. The next Wednesday, December the 20th, he added a Wednesday matinee with just that new act by the Roberts Four.
Adv. Santa Cruz Sentinel, Dec 14, 1905. By this time, Mrs. Granger had found a new manager.
On December 22, Roberts added extra acts in addition to the regular bill: songs by his daughter Pearl, and “a clever dog act,” plus Cardita, the mysterious man of magic; Signor Fernando Cordova (of Boulder Creek) trick violinist and regular comedian, A Big Shoe Tying Contest between six boys from the audience, and a boxing match. On December 23, Roberts announced kids were now half price and those under 6 were free. The Empire was sold out on Christmas and the following night. A hypnotism display and “amature night” was featured on Dec 30. The show on Jan 3 Included Allyn and Pearl again.
And then on Friday, January 5, 1906 the papers said that Roberts had run out of money.
Owing to a little difficulty with one of his largest creditors for work done on the new Empire theatre, and a slight stringency of money at the present time, Manager Allyn Roberts has decided to go through insolvency and called a meeting of creditors on Thursday afternoon in Attorney W. P. Netherton's office.
His creditors were Loma Prieta Lumber and Whiting and Mudgett, general contractors.
Mr. Roberts says that this action protects him from the danger of having to suspend and if the people of this city will continue to give him the patronage which his shows warrant, he will pull through the dull season all right and be able to assist in the entertainment of our summer visitors during the coming season. … Mr Roberts says that the patronage of the Empire during the next week or ten days will decided how long he will continue. The Roberts Four have many friends in this city who would regret very much seeing them take to "the road" again and who hope that they will remain with us.
And then, in a tragic event that was not related to Allyn Robert’s bankruptcy: an actor who could not find work, not even at the Empire, killed himself on that same Friday.
Actor in Hard Luck Takes Life at Beach
Suicines Name was Moore
Leaves Note Saying His Only Regret Was That He Could Not See His Own Finish
The dead body of an unknown young man, who was apparently an actor in hard luck, was found on the beach near the Casino by Geo Strong about 7 o'clock Friday morning, with a pistol shot through the right temple. In his pocket was a magazine and a copy of the S. F. Examiner of Thursday, on the bottom of which was written in indelible pencil in a very fine hand:
"The only regret that I have in doing this rash act is that I will miss the culmination of seeing a well-bred and well-manicured hand which has been turned on myself."
His hands were very white and soft and showed that he had never been used to hard work.
Besides the pencil, a fine manicuring knife was found in his pockets but no money.
...
The body has been recognized by a number of saloon keepers as that of a man who has frequented the saloons here for several days and Manager Roberts of the Empire theatre says that the suicide applied to him for a job as stage manager a few days ago. None of the theatrical people in town know the man... . He ate supper at the Saddle Rock restaurant on Thursday night and it is likely that he paid for it with his last cash.
Appearances point to his having been a gambler and possibly a victim of drugs.
A coroner's jury rendered a verdict of death from a gunshot was inflicted with suicidal intent. The bullet, which was a 38 calibre, soft nose, plowed its way through the brain and fractured the skull. It was extracted by Dr. Morgan. ...
On Monday, the family left town, and the Empire closed. It had been opened 39 days. The Sentinel printed a note Roberts left behind, which reads best in if you imagined the voice of Mr. McCawber.
Empire's Manager Departs
Allyn roberts Abandons Local Playhouse to His Creditors
Takes His Departure in a Quiet and Unostentatious Manner, leaving Farewell note
Allyn Roberts, wife, and family, professionally styled The Roberts Four, who recently opened a new vaudeville theatre in this city, reluctantly came to the conclusions that the town could not support two vaudeville playhouses, and seeing no gleam of prosperity in the near future, took a quiet departure from the city on Monday morning, leaving some creditors poorer in pocket but richer in experience.
Before leaving, Mr. Roberts penned the following note:
To My Creditors and Friends in Santa Cruz,
You are all aware of the different things that have happened to the Empire and myself in the last week in Santa Cruz.
These things are unfortunate to you and to me, and had I had the power they would never have happened. To those creditors who appear on my petition in bankruptcy I will say: You have not heard the last of me, and I am now going to work on a salary to endeavor to regain what we have all lost. If you will each render me an exact statement of my account with you, it will be appreciated and filed for future reference. I hve endeavored to settle all bills incurred since my petition was filed on last Thursday, Jan 4, 1906, at 12 o'clock noon. have I not done so? If you will make me an account these matters will receive immediate attention. In parting with you, once again I want to say, this is the hardest parting we have had, for we were pleasantly situated here and we have been at home for the first time in our lives. We may get back again to Santa Cruz.
We hope so and will try and arrange it. But if our path lies in other directions we can but follow it and go where it leads.
Our address for this week will be care of the Empire Theatre, , San Francisco
Yours,
THE ROBERTS FOUR
per Allyn Roberts
The stage manager from Philadelphia hung around for a while, and then joined the circus when it came through town.
At the end of that same January, the Grangers sold the Unique to J. T. Rice who moved here from Hollister. In May, Rice sold it to C. W. Alisky “of Los Angeles” who promised to operate it in a fashion that the Sentinel approved of.
Mr Alisky promises to deserve the reputation which the former management has established for clean artistic vaudeville. It has been made evident, especially under Mr. Rice's management that Santa Cruz can and will support a vaudeville house which caters to the best and not the worst in human nature, and Mr. Alisky is to be congratulated upon securing the Unique at a time when it is at the height of its popularity and at a season when its prospects are of the brightest.
So with this, I wonder if the Vaudeville of Mrs. Granger and Mr. Roberts catered to some of the lower impulses of human nature?
We don’t know what happened to the Roberts immediately after they left Santa Cruz. In March of 1907, notices in Variety show that the Roberts Four was still performing The Doll Makers Dilemma, but Leonora was not. Later that summer the Sentinel reported on a scandal in Denver.
Leona Roberts married. Husband Alleged Bigamist.
Result of putting precocious youngsters on the stage disastrous to the Roberts Family.
The Denver News of recent date tells the story of the marriage of Leona Roberts, the eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Allyn Roberts, of Unique and Empire theatre fame in this city, to harry Webb, a member of the Roberts' Mexican medicine show which is traveling through Colorado.
The course of true love did not run smooth in Leona's [sic] case, for Roberts objected most strenuously and had his son-in-law arrested on a charge of bigamy, alleging that he has ample proof that Webb has another wife. And the worst is yet to come.
(The daughter’s name was Leonora, not Leona.) So here we have the Sentinel clucking over the family’s misfortune, blaming the parents for the scandal, when just a few month’s earlier the performances of the girls were lauded. But the bankruptcy tainted his character.
After that summer, there are two local sources which tell a little bit about what happened next.
In Mrs. Robert’s obituary in 1956, the adventure with the Empire isn’t mentioned. Only that Allyn Roberts built the Unique with Mrs. Granger, and then returned to the vaudeville circuit. A birthday tribute in 1937 says that the family returned to Santa Cruz in May of 1906 which is probably an error, given the Variety story in 1907. It goes on to say that Allyn Roberts died soon after they arrived, and Nellie married a Mr. Baker who died in 1936. For the rest of her life in Santa Cruz she was known as Nettie Baker. Nellie worked as a housekeeper at the St. George, and at the Brookdale Lodge when it first opened. "She is a most refined little woman who loves her home and sewing, etc, much better than the stage. We hope she may live to enjoy many happy birthdays."
Nellie Baker died in 1956. Her daughter Pearl became Mrs. Methe for a while, and then Mrs. William Thompson. Leonora married Gerald Sevario in 1913, a man who was so well known in Santa Cruz that the wedding announcement didn’t say anything about him. (His father was an early city leader.)
But that was the end of the Roberts and Vaudeville. What stories they must have had for their grandchildren.
Santa Cruz is attractive to artistic families, who work so hard to make their dreams come true. But those ventures don’t often make sense financially, so they leave—but then they do sometimes come back and succeed here in some other way, perhaps it wasn’t how they thought it would. I wonder if there are family members still living here who know more of this particular version of that fairly common story.
The Unique theatre continued as a vaudeville theatre as long as that genre lasted, and then became a movie theatre, closing when Del Mar opened in 1938. The old Empire Theatre building went on to serve as the location of many other successful and unsuccessful business ventures: mostly cafes and pool halls.
Here is a photo taken in 1933, where you can see the old Castle Bowl and Empire Theatre as the last building in the block and an empty lot next door. The point of this photograph, of course, is not the cute crenulations on the Castle Bowl, but the spectacular fire that is consuming the Moose Hall. The Moose rebuilt their hall, and it remains on Pacific today, where the Blue Lagoon has made its home since 1981, and Surf City Billiards continues the tradition of beer and billiards in the neighborhood.
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