FernDale-Rep.org
Title
Ferndale Repertory Theatre - Live Theatre in Ferndale, CA
Description
About Ferndale Repertory Theatre
The new building wasn't even finished and it was already blocking out the daylight; Ferndale's postmaster Erickson declared that he could "...no longer do Uncle Sam's business at his present location." And a few months after his complaint (which was front page news in the Ferndale Enterprise in the fall of 1920) --postal inspectors agreed and the post office was moved out of the shadow of the new theatre being born.
The First World War was over and the soldiers had come home from France; the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918 was beginning to fade and the Hart Theatre was being built by the heirs of the Hart estate on the former site of Alford's Drug Store on Main Street.
It was one of the first theatres ever built specifically for the showing of motion pictures in the Eel River Valley of Northwestern California; leased by the P&B Motion Picture Circuit, the Hart Theatre opened on December 8, 1920 with a showing of "The Mollycoddle" a lavish silent adventure comedy with Douglas Fairbanks, accompanied by a pianist hired from the Minor Theatre in Arcata. There was also a live show with "The Musical Thoms" (musical novelties galore) consisting of violin imitations, and popular music played on ordinary bottles and soup bones. Admission: a quarter for adults, and 15 cents for children.
