With Halloween coming up on Saturday, this week’s Trail Blazers features the most Halloween-esque photo that collections coordinator Jesslyn Jarvis could dig up from the Trail Historical Society archives.
The image was actually taken on the 30th of April 1926 in the Liberty Theatre, during the grand finale of a musical play called A Country Girl.
Musicians sat at the base of the stage where they played scores-of-yore for the thespians on stage.
Most entertainment in the City of Trail was held in the Liberty Theatre back then. The impressive looking frontage was built in style moderne - or art deco - and stood on the 1300 block of Cedar Avenue, between Spokane and Eldorado Streets.
The Liberty Theatre was built in 1917 as a home base for live concerts or theatre performances as well as motion picture showings.
The theater was built by the Trail Opera House Company and designed by C.A Broderick, a Trail architect.
The structure was later refurbished and renamed The Strand in 1936.
Twenty years later, in December 1956, the building was destroyed by fire.
Regarding A Country Girl, this early 1900’s play was written in two acts by James T. Tanner, with lyrics by Adrian Ross.
The musical opened at Daly’s Theatre in London on 18 January 1902 and ran for 729 performances, which was the fourth longest run for any piece of musical theatre up to that time. The piece was popular with amateur theatre groups, particularly in Britain, from World War I until about 1960.
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