Editor's note: This article is about the Pocatello Opera House and its patrons, from the point of view of a traveling show company manager in 1898. It was first printed in the Pocatello Tribune on April 16, 1898. It has been edited and adapted for use here by retired Idaho State University history professor Jo Ann Ruckman.
The San Francisco Music and Drama periodical contains a letter from R. Beers Loos, manager of the “What Happened to Jones” Co., dated Pocatello, Idaho, April 4, from which the following extracts are made:
“It’s a manageress here, and she can give some of the silk-hat boys cards and spades and win out without disturbing a curl. Her name is Mrs. H.B. Kinport and she is a theatrical encyclopedia. She knows all the shows that are working coastwards and their merits and the business they are doing. I have only one fault to find with her. She writes her complimentaries on scraps of paper and tonight two people saw ‘What Happened to Jones’ on a cake recipe which the manageress had given out by mistake, and I failed to detect until the count-up.
“She explained that the parties were entitled to admission anyway, and she thought so much of the recipe that I had no difficulty in selling it back to her for a dollar.
“This is a late town. You, no doubt, have heard of late towns. All the local managers tell you that their patrons come late, especially when it is time to ring up and there is no one in the house but 26 program boys and one usher. They say this is to cheer up the frowning man at the door; but it only has the effect of further corrugating his brow.
“Well, at 8:15 tonight there was only one person in the house — a boy who had stowed himself in the gallery two days before. It looked as though we would have to play to pure Idaho atmosphere, tempered by a furnace which is fed with chili-con-carne or some other fuel that emits a powerful heat.
“The humor of the situation struck Comedian Clarke. He appeared at one of the boxes and spoke as follows: ‘I am glad to see you all here tonight and I hope you will have a nice sociable time among yourselves while the orchestra is out getting a string. The audience will please keep as quiet as possible and also remove his feet from the front railing. Thanking you for turning out en masse, I remain yours for fun.’
“Then minutes late a first-class orchestra was spilling excellent music over the premises and hundreds of people were walking on my wish-bone and snowing me under with paid tickets. They were a little late but they got there with both feet. I will show you their footprints when I reach Frisco. Pocatello was only a ‘filler’ for us but it panned out all right.”
