[Rarebooks] For Sale: HANDWRITTEN BOOKING RECORD: SALEM, OREGON HISTORIC GRAND THEATRE 1908-1910

[Ezra Tishman]

Ezra from Aardvark offers a fascinating handwritten record of vaudeville, musical theatre, films, comedians, musicians, boxers, and political parties
etc., and the costs associated with booking each, from Spring 1908 to Spring 1910.


Grand Theatre. SALEM, OREGON HISTORIC GRAND OPERA HOUSE THEATRICAL BOOKING & CASH BOOK
1908-1910. (MANUSCRIPT). Salem, Oregon: Self-Published, 1908. Hardcover, lined blank book, so-labeled "Day Book", of
heavy field-quality gray cloth with rounded corners. measuring 12 1/4" x 7 1/2". Front board shows a large, black-stamped
medallion design, bordered with an attractive, black geometric border. Off the 200 publisher-numbered, 7-column-pages, ruled
in blue and red, 68 of them hold entries. Entries span just about two full years of expenses associated with various theatre
engagements, keeping careful track of cash outlays for booking fees, advertising, lithographs and other printing expenses, prop
rental, lighting, musical accompaniment, stage help, telephone and telegraph, extra chair rentals, streamers, doorkeepers,
janitorial costs, etc. The theatre booked everything from operas, silent movies, plays, soloists, comedic solo and duo acts,
vaudeville, live musicals, minstrel shows, political meetings, and even boxing and wrestling shows.

Provides a clear and fascinating historical picture of the varieties of popular entertainment in the first decade of the
twentieth-century, and the costs associated with attracting and booking these acts. After looking up a number of the acts, I
realized that some of them were top-shelf entertainment and may not have come to a town -- the size of Salem, were it not for
its strategic placement along the direct route between Seattle and San Francisco. A number of the acts were road shows
following the closing of very successful New York runs. 

Some of the acts or films and entertainment which were booked at "Salem's Historic Grand" included: The Cameron Opera Company; 
The Little Prospector starring Charlie Chaplin; The Missouri Girl; Kolb and Dill; The Boston Minstrel Maids; The Royal Chef, or The Mythical Island of Oolong; Man of The
Hour (Play by George Broadhurst); Isle of Spice (Musical); Knight for a Day (Musical Play by Raymond Hubbel); The Rocky
Mountain Express; Checkers (Stage Play); The Maud Powell Trio; and Boxer/Comedian James J. Corbett (aka "Gentleman
Jim" Corbett)-- (Father of Modern Boxing, Scientific Training Method, etc.); Hip Hop Hooray; Miss Miss Dean Taylor, in
"The Flaming Arrow," Richard Brinsley Sheridan's "The Rivals" with Mrs. Malaprop and Sir Lucius O. Triggor; When Girls
Leave Home; The Great Divide; Florence Roberts; Dreamland; Lee Willard; The Sunny Side of Broadway; The Girl Question,
and many, many others. Very Good. Hardcover. 

The Grand Opera House (later Grand Theatre is located in downtown Salem, Oregon at 187 High Street, NE. Designed and
and built as a lodge hall in 1900, "Salem's Historic Grand" was originally owned by the fraternal organization, the I.O.O.F
(International Order of Odd Fellows) and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as the Chemeketa
Lodge No. 1. With Main floor and balcony seating, the historic Grand Theatre once had 744 seats, but over the years, this
number has been reduced to 380. 														$650


Cool, one-of-a-kind “back-room” record of diversion and entertainment stopping through Oregon’s capitol during the first decade of the Twentieth-century.



Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tf21fezvs5jkj1g/AAB0SV-CwyDFDBMhaBMXZqoSa?dl=0

Note: One or two commercially-available photos of The Grand included (umm, to aid in imagining the venue) in grouping below; none present this handwritten record book.








Ezra The Bookfinder
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& Ezra Tishman Book Appraisals, LLC
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Eugene, OR  97405-1917
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