Page 35 - Summer 2022 inLEAGUE with 46th National Conference Program

of offering live entertainment. It appears that 74 (29%) of America’s pre-1900 per-
forming arts venues primarily present community /
I found that of America’s 259 pre-1900 theaters, 110 amateur acts.
(42%) have been movie theaters for 10 or more years.
The average length of time these venues have existed Number of calendar years performing arts-dark
as movie theaters is 51 years.
The data in this column is critical to building meaning-
Currently in operation as performing arts? ful Top 10 “oldest” lists, but it is also difficult to com-
pile. The challenge is that only a few historic theaters
This column listed whether the venue has presented seem to have built comprehensive archives listing all
performing arts in the last 3 years. I found that 187 of their performances. In fact, the only publicly avail-
(72%) of our pre-1900 theaters are currently in opera- able archives I could find are for Carnegie Hall and
tion. the Metropolitan Opera House. Other historic theaters
such as the Pabst Theater, and the Lobero Theatre
Primarily professional performing arts? maintain professional library collections, but do not
seem to have publicly accessible databases of all of
I thought it would be interesting to distinguish profes- their performances.
sional from amateur / community performing arts. As
far as I can see, 185 (71%) of America’s pre-1900 per- Still, by perusing theater websites, books, and newspa-
forming arts venues primarily present professional acts. per clippings, it’s generally possible to estimate of the

Primarily amateur /community performing arts? number of calendar years a theater has not primarily
presented performing arts, either due to the theater
I’ve defined amateur / community performing arts being closed or because it was used for some other
theaters as venues which present productions by primary purpose. Unfortunately, at present, “estimate”
unpaid performers. Amateur / community performing is as good as it gets. Sources are often helpful in listing
arts theaters include Gates Hall in Pultneyville, New the years a theater underwent restoration or rebuild-
York (1867) and the Footlight Club in Jamaica Plain, ing. What they don’t tend to detail however are years
MA (1878). Amateur / community performing arts can performing arts-dark because of changes in manage-
also been found at university theater clubs such as ment, economic downfalls, or transitions from
Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Club (1849). (story continues next page)