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Published August 14, 2007
A Storied History From the first public performance of "Ten Days in a Barroom" in February 1872, Modesto and its residents have been seeking top entertainment and a proper place to stage it. That first venue was a loft above a stable across the street from the Gallo Center for the Arts. Author-historian Colleen Bare wrote of the occasion: "Modesto has always been a musical town … its musical history began with the first production of the newly formed Modesto Amateur Dramatic Club. Some 260 people were packed into the Theatre, which was the emptied loft of a livery stable on I Street between Ninth and 10th streets. When there were lulls in the sound, the audience could hear the crunching of the horses below and the clanking of their chains." Then as now, Modesto's arts history has been as much about people as it has been about place. Modesto's first music man was Professor Hermann Hintze, a popular piano teacher. Before the turn of the 20th century, he was giving music lessons to all of the area children so inclined. The Modesto Theatre, on the block next to Gallo on 10th, was the area's first theatrical palace. The 1912 theater and movie house was a three-story building. It featured a 34-foot stage, an Alaskan marble foyer and seating for 900. Its opening feature was "Pirates of Penzance." Fire destroyed the theater in 1913 and its rebuilt counterpart in 1933.
The one-time member of John Philip Souza's band would leave an indelible mark on the community. Among his achievements:
During two periods of his tenure in Modesto, his bands were so successful that they weren't welcome at regional competitions. In the 1920s, his national award-winning Stanislaus Boys Band would appear as an exhibition only because other bands refused to compete with it. That happened again in the early 1950s with the Modesto High School band. There was a remarkable contradiction in Mancini's abilities. "He never had the credentials to be a teacher," said Ed Taylor, a former Mancini student, in a 1991 Bee interview. "I don't think he ever went through high school. But he could teach anybody to play any instrument." In a eulogy at Mancini's memorial service, Dr. Roger Nixon, former Mancini pupil and later a professor at San Francisco State, said, "Proof's primary concerns were with human values, and artistic values were always considered in this perspective. Although he had the highest musical standards, he was more concerned with (his) impact on the lives of others. He cared what happened to his students; he was eager to know how our lives progressed, and we sensed this interest. He was especially happy to know that his efforts had made a difference in our lives." That first venue that Mancini played at, The Strand, had an edge on the modern Gallo Center. The Strand could seat 1,800. The Gallo, in two theaters, can seat 1,695. The Modesto, Covell and Strand theaters all had ties to Modesto's past on the vaudeville circuit. Some of the most famous acts of the day came through as part of the Pacific Vaudeville, Circuit C. At the Modesto, acts like Miller & Rainey performed their comic oddities while Valdo & Co. delivered a mystery novelty in 1916. Lloyd Courtney talked about later days in an interview in June 2000. "Every Saturday and Sunday, they'd (Covell and Strand) have combined movie-vaudeville shows. There would be a movie at 7 and then the live acts after, at 8:30 or 9. That show was always extra. It was 75 cents. I remember getting into the movies alone for just a quarter or 35 cents. That was in the '20s. The price (of movies) went down in the '30s." Courtney said the shows followed a standard format. The curtain would come down on the movie, then two opening or side acts (always short) would begin the show in front of the curtain. Then the curtain would open and a main act would use the full stage, with dancing, singing and full scenery. After finishing that act, the curtain would come down; during scenery changes, there would be two more side acts in front. And then the finale would take up the entire stage again. Each act was heralded by placards on easels or stands at the side of the stage. While notables like Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen and Al Jolson toured the West, Courtney didn't recall seeing them. "My favorite act, and I can't recall his name, was this guy who built this massive, high structure (with chairs, suitcases and whatever was on hand) on a small table. He'd get it 20 feet high or more. I used to wonder how he could keep it from falling. "When he got it as high as he could, he would sit on top and talk and sing. And then he would do something and the whole thing would teeter and fall while he was up there. But he never got hurt." Once in a great while, a full Broadway play would come through. Courtney said Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts" came to town starring Madame Alla Nazimova, a great Russian actress. "I went where tickets were cheaper then, $1.50 for the balcony. It was $2 for loge or floor seats. She had been around in Broadway and the movies. That was one of the premiere events of the day." During the 1920s there came one of the first efforts to build a Modesto arts center. It was put to a popular vote to decide the fate of a supporting bond measure. Bette Belle Smith told The Bee in 2004 that she had looked forward to a local arts theater since she was 9 years old, back in the late 1920s. "I had a disability and they thought dancing would help, but there were no dance teachers in town then," Smith recalled of her Modesto childhood. "Mom took me to San Francisco once or twice a week. Then Mom talked a dance teacher, Darley Mae Lee, into relocating here. "When she came to town, she wanted to see the auditorium, but Modesto High was the only one. She couldn't book a date, so she got behind the drive to build a civic auditorium." Lee's drive fell just short. A sewer bond passed that election but the arts project was defeated. Dancing and big band music came to town in the 1930s and early 1940S. There was plenty for local folk to choose from. There was the California Ball Room that had guest bands. Fusco's advertised Dutch Mills and his big little band. Edith's Club had the Margaret Coughlin Orchestra. And then there was the Carlen or the Merry Gardens Ball Room or, if you had $3 and wanted to hear the name big bands, from across the country, you could drive north to the Stockton auditorium. The 1940s also brought war, and some of the sadness reached the local stage. In early June of 1944, Gertrude Cox put the finishing touches on her costume and makeup for opening night of "Craig's Wife" — a recent Broadway hit about a woman who liked to mind everyone else's business.
"I don't know how he did it," said Cox in a 1994 interview. "You just didn't get big bouquets like that very often. It was rare and so thoughtful." Before Cox could acknowledge and thank Baker for his act of chivalry, he had been shot down and killed in the European Theater. After the war, Robert H. "Bob" Wing came to Modesto and became a revered choral director who shared his gift of music with thousands of Modesto high school and college students. His career lasted 28 years at Modesto and Davis high schools and Modesto Junior College. At his funeral, Eleanor McKnight Haines, a long-time colleague who succeeded him at Modesto High, described Wing as the most influential and respected person ever to teach vocal music in the city. She also credited Wing with guiding many students to "much higher things." His protégés included:
The final pieces of Modesto's arts puzzle would begin falling into place in 1967. That was when Paul Tischer formed the Modesto Performing Arts company and began bringing timeless musicals to the Modesto stage. The Strand was the center of an arts center campaign in the mid-1970s that also tried to save the old theater. The $2 million drive died quietly and the theater went out with a bang, burning down in 1984. At the same time the Strand was falling into ruin, Gretchen Vogelzang and Juline Schmitz would make ballet part of the local scene. The Juline School of Dance paved the way in 1975 and Central West Ballet came into being in 1987. At Schmitz's death, community arts leader Marie Gallo remembered her friend: "My image of her is of her arm around her student, encouraging. Juline Schmitz was a lifelong friend who taught our daughters and granddaughters. But she taught them more than just to dance. She taught them to believe in themselves and to know how wonderful they were. Her legacy to our community is profound. She started something that nothing will stop."
Townsend returned home in 1982 and brought opera with him. Townsend has often believed his company's biggest impact may be felt far away. "One of our students was in a large music class at San Diego State," said Townsend. "It was one of those hands-up interviews by the professor. He asked how many students had ever seen an opera and most of the hands went up. He asked how many had seen more than one. Then he asked how many had been in an opera and only two hands were left. The first, from Los Angeles, had been in one. Our student was asked how many she had been in and she answered, ‘13.' " The year 2007 marks the beginning of the Gallo Center for the Arts. It is also the 40th anniversary for Modesto Performing Arts, the 25th anniversary of Townsend Opera Players and the 20th of Central West Ballet. It also marks the 125th anniversary of "Ten days in a Barroom," performed in a livery stable. |
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Modesto's second music man would be an icon who would drive the arts scene
for 40 years. Francesco (known as Frank or "Proof") Nicolo Mancini came to
Modesto in 1921 to play at the opening of The Strand theater.
Cox played the title role, and before curtain time she received a box of
flowers with a personal note: "Leave us do good." It was signed by Wyman
Baker, then a familiar figure in local drama circles who was overseas in the
Air Corps.
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Copyright © 2011, The Modesto Bee.
