We would like to dedicate this television appearance to Birdie MacLennan, our Project Director and Principal Investigator, who passed away earlier this week. For this television episode, and as with all else she did, she dedicated a great deal of time, inspiration, and enthusiasm into making this program appearance be the success it is. As with the project itself, it would not have happened without her integral leadership and dedication to Vermont’s history and its historic newspapers. There is so much to be thankful for. We hope you enjoy the episode.
The Vermont Digital Newspaper Project traveled to Rutland, Vermont, a few weeks ago to be guest presenters on the Rutland Historical Society’s public access television show, Historically Speaking. Every month, the Rutland Historical Society produces a new program on their local public access television station, PEGTV, on various historical topics.
Director and Principal Investigator Birdie MacLennan, Project Librarian Erenst Anip, and Digital Support Specialist Karyn Norwood, met with the curator of the Rutland Historical Society and host of the show, Jim Davidson, to introduce the Vermont Digital Newspaper Project, Chronicling America, and highlight some intriguing local history stories, as well as offer some helpful search tips.
Photo by Erenst Anip of the PEGTV main office space.
The half-hour episode can be viewed on tv now until the end of the month on PEGTV, Rutland’s Community Access television channel Public 15, on Wednesdays at 4 pm, Thursdays at 1:30 pm, and Fridays at 7:30 pm.
Often marriages are printed in varying detail in historic newspapers. This notice appeared, among others, in the Bennington Banner and Reformer, October 15, 1903.
The search for ancestors, while generally rewarding, can be difficult and time-consuming; as an amateur genealogist I can attest to this. For genealogy research, certainly, historic newspapers contain a wealth of information about relatives, for newspapers can include local news, marriages and deaths, participant lists (military recruitment lists, organizations, meetings, parties), advertisements, social and political functions, local individual updates (e.g., “Mrs. William Johnson received her parents this past Wednesday”–these may or may not be helpful!), and legal notices (deeds, court happenings, divorces, estates). This is, if you can find it amid hundreds of thousands of pages. Generally, this has often meant hours of scanning newspaper microfilm or going through actual newspapers at a historical society or library.
Thankfully, Chronicling America provides an online platform for searching historic newspapers from across the United States. Chronicling America is an accessible and free search tool that greatly eases the search of newspapers for traces of the past. Currently, thirty-eight states, including Vermont, have over 6.6 million pages from 1,105 newspapers available for search on the website from the years of 1836-1922. Continue reading Genealogy Search Tips for Chronicling America→
On Nov. 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln presided over the dedication of a new National Cemetery at Gettysburg, PA, site of one of the most destructive battles of the Civil War (see the Chronicling America Topics Page on the Battle of Gettysburg – https://www.loc.gov/rr/news/topics/gettysburg.html – to explore further). The Caledonian (St. Johnsbury, VT) joined other newspapers across the country in describing the events of the day for its readers, including reprinting Lincoln’s now famous speech beginning with “Four score and seven years ago…” The speech was described as “a perfect gem,” “unexpected in its verbal perfection and beauty….” Read more about it!
“Burlington’s Ghost.” From the Vermont Watchman, November 28, 1900.
Happy Halloween, or as the historic newspapers have it, happy Hallowe’en, from VTDNP!
Halloween is today, and thus, it’s appropriate to share a ghostly tale that captivated Burlingtonians at the turn of the twentieth-century at the Queen City Cotton Mill on Burlington’s waterfront. Dozens of people attested to witnessing the apparition of a recently-deceased mill worker, Marie Blais, around the premise of the property.
Marie was hit by a train in June of 1900 at the Lakeside railroad crossing, and was killed immediately.
By that fall, stories of the female mill ghost became prevalent–the lights of the trains would flicker when passing over where Marie was killed, and people attested to seeing visions of the girl near the railroad tracks and of her working at her old loom in the mill at night. Some even attested to hearing screams near the track. Continue reading A Spectral Story: Queen City Cotton Mill Ghost→
When I first commenced my position here at VTDNP last May, I started working with The Bennington Evening Banner, a title published in Bennington, Vermont, from approximately 1903 to 1961. What initially piqued my interest while collating data about each issue of this newspaper were the advertisements for the Bennington Opera House. Diverse in topics, in gravity, and content, the variety of programs was intriguing, and viewed over the years, they paint a changing landscape in the entertainment industry in small-town Vermont, and certainly should be considered indicative of transitions in entertainment across America. My investigation has resulted thus far in a poster (viewable here), which was presented at the UVM Library Conference in August 2013, and this blog entry.
Like most towns in Vermont (and across America) in the 19th century, the fashionable must-have for entertainment was an opera house, where traveling vaudeville acts, musicians, opera, musicals, and plays could be shown. The opera house was built by Henry Putnam, a wealthy businessman, realtor, and inventor, who, frustrated by the lack of action in the town to construct an entertainment facility, set out to build it himself in 1892. Arguably the largest in Vermont when built, the opera house was equipped with the very latest in theater technology and could seat over 1,000 people:
Interior of the opera house with a garden scene on the stage, c. 1900. Courtesy of the Bennington Museum.
“The opera house proper is built of brick, is 108 feet long, 64 feet wide…The parquet and dress circle have a capacity of 600. Over the dress circle is the balcony circle. In the rear of this is the gallery. The two have seating capacity of 400…From the center hangs a large electric light chandelier. There will be 200 electric lights in the auditorium, of which 36 will be foot-lights. The total cost of the house when completed and furnished will be about $35,000…” – from “Bennington’s New Opera House,” an article published in the Burlington Weekly Free Press, Nov. 11, 1892
After the first performance of MacBeth on December 10, 1892, one individual wrote, in an accurate appraisal of the opera house:
“It is well understood that an Opera House here cannot be a paying investment. It is built for public pleasure…Bennington owes Mr. H.W. Putman a debt of gratitude…for giving to a country town a metropolitan Opera House.” –“A.P.V.,” in an article days after the opening of the Opera House in the Bennington Banner, Dec. 16, 1892
Indeed, the opera house often was financially strapped throughout its existence; however, it proved to be lasting entertainment institution in Bennington, for until it burned down in February of 1959, it hosted a plethora of musicals, bands, plays, operas, movies, and more, often to a full house. As one Bennington citizen recalled decades later:
Mildred Holland in an image published in the September 17, 1904 issue of the Bennington Evening Banner.
“People came from Hoosick Falls, N.Y., North Adams, Mass., Manchester and other places to see the plays. There were few nights when the “Standing Room Only” sign was not over the box office window. The reason for this popularity was the fact that the great stars and plays of Broadway came to Bennington for one-night stands, bringing their scenery and casts of sixty and more people.” (Walter C. Wood in Green Mountain Whittlins, Vol. IV, 1951)
Thought not as many as its name might indicate, the opera house did have opera performances.
The cast of “The Old Homestead,” a play about a rural farmer who leaves to go in search of his son who has left for the city. Printed in the Bennington Evening Banner, August 11, 1921.
Many performances were favorites at the theater, and they came back year after year for repeat shows, like Jason O’Neill as Monte Cristo, and Denman Thompson’s rural play Old Homestead. Mildred Holland, one of the premier actresses of the time, performed in 1904 in the Triumph of an Empress.
The film industry took off at the turn of the century. Like many local theaters, the opera house had to adapt to keep up with demand and local competition. In May of 1915, the opera house was equipped with a projector booth in the upper gallery and a screen. Opening day was May 31, 1915.
Opening day of “moving pictures” at the opera house. From the Bennington Evening Banner, May 28, 1915.An advertisement for a play about how movies are made from September 11, 1917 in the Bennington Evening Banner.
With the possibility of moving pictures, Americans across the country could see the world for the first time. Lyman Howe’s short films, such as the one shown below, transported Vermonters to Yosemite and beyond.
Advertisement from March 3, 1917, in the Bennington Evening Banner.Advertisement for Daddy Long Legs from December of 1919 in the Bennington Evening Banner.
Famous “photoplay” actress Mary Pickford was America’s first movie darling. The opera house showed her silent film Daddy Long Legs in 1919. The film was silent, but as with many silent movies, a live orchestra performed alongside the film.
Unlike today, the opera house was a main vessel through which filmed public service announcements or news could be shared with the community. Open Your Eyes, a film shown in 1919, warned the public about the dangers of STDs (see below ad).
Advertisement for Open Your Eyes, a film created by the US Public Health Service, from September 2, 1919, in the Bennington Evening Banner.
Throughout the progression of WWI, the opera house provided entertainment for the Bennington area, and also, it served on several occasions as a meeting hall for the community’s war efforts. Bernard Shaw’s romantic-comedy, Arms and the Man, was a popular war-time play about a romance between a Swiss soldier and girl from the Balkans. As many of the live performances at the opera house in the later 1910’s and beyond, they advertise this clearly as “Not a Moving Picture.”
Advertisement for Arms and the Man from November 1, 1917, in the Bennington Evening Banner.
Finally, through this research project, I was able to see a fascinating transition in newspaper advertising. At the turn of the century, newspapers were dense with text; images were infrequent. Opera house advertisements in its first decade were also mostly text, often incorporated in the body of the paper as an article. By the late 1910’s, advertising was more sophisticated: ads were in blocks with pictures (sometimes full-page), and often included cast numbers, expenses, and reviews to entice patrons. Below, view an example of an early advertisement from 1893 and another from 1918.
An advertisement for Follow Me, an extremely popular musical with Anna Held, one of the biggest performers of the time. In the small text box to the right, the manager notes Anna will likely not be performing in Bennington due to illness. Held succumbed to a rare form of cancer a few months later in 1918. Ad from the Bennington Evening Banner, March ! 22, 1918.Opera house announcement of upcoming shows from March 10, 1893 in the Bennington Banner.
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For more advertisements and articles concerning the opera house, visit our Facebook album here. For additional information on the Bennington Opera House’s history, I highly recommend Ted Bird’s article, “The Bennington Opera House and General Stark Theater, 1892-1959: Victorian elegance, while it lasted,” published in the Walloomsack Review, Bennington, Vt., 2012.
Written by Karyn Norwood, Digital Support Specialist, Vermont Digital Newspaper Project
Thanks to:
Bennington Museum, particularly Callie Stewart and Tyler Resch, for additional research materials and photographs.
UVM Catalog/Metadata Specialists Michael Breiner, Mary VanBuren-Swasey, and Jake Barickman for additional microfilm research.
Erenst Anip, Birdie MacLennan, and Prue Doherty for editing assistance.
Photo by Erenst Anip of the PEGTV main office space.
