Before Cinema: Plenty of Amusements to Be Had
Bradburn’s Opera House (or Town Hall), George Street, on the east side north of Charlotte, c.1870s. The opera house itself was on the third floor of this building. The space, later called Victoria Hall, was little used after the Grand Opera House opened in 1905; but it was still there, at least in tatters, when the building was demolished in the mid-1970s to make way for Peterborough Square. In 1890 the clock and bell on this structure were moved next door, to the top of the new Market Hall. Image courtesy of Peterborough Museum and Archives (PMA).
Advertising “amusements” — in the days before cinema . . .
Early Days
“Peterborough Always Had Plenty of Amusements” — headline, Peterborough Examiner, July 3, 1929, p.12.
Most years, from very early on in the city’s history, the circus came to town. Here’s an example from 1889.
Even this early, in 1889, the circus had a “black tent” with a “Monster Gallery of 40 Weird and Beautiful Living Illusions” — a forecast of things to come. Later on, circuses would show motion pictures — sometimes called “living pictures” — in a black tent.
Above: Evening Examiner, Aug. 31, 1889, np. The “Greatest Show on Earth” arrives, a “truly mighty and magnificent exhibition” setting up for one day only. The full ad is on the left, with enlargements to the right.
Examiner, July 6, 1871. The Bailey & Co Circus.
Examiner, July 24, 1874. And the Barnum Circus. “1000 Men and Horses!” Eventually they joined forces. Thanks to Ken Brown for these.
Joe Pentland’s big circus (below) came along even earlier (but only 150 Men and Horses) . . . but there were always other attractions too.
Peterborough Review, Sept. 12, 1856.
Peterborough Examiner, July 15, 1858.
Examiner, Aug. 11, 1859.
Early days in a lumbering and mill town — and prospering inland commercial centre — numbering about 3,500 white settlers (many of Irish origin), plus more in the surrounding countryside, and many of them always with a seemingly immense appetite for new and old forms of amusement ranging through the local and routine to the spectacular and exotic.
Peterborough Weekly Despatch, July 11, 1850. When some building was needed, not just for amusement.
Weekly Despatch, July 25, 1850.
Examiner, Nov. 27, 1862, np. The attraction of the exotic: encountering (to some strange degree) “the other.”
Examiner, Nov. 2, 1876. Gen. Tom Thumb and his wife also came to town, to yet another short-lived venue. The “Old Methodist Church” was on George Street, across from what became the site of the George St. Methodist/United Church (now Emmanuel). After it was left unoccupied with the planned move of the church to its new location across the street, businessman T.E. Bradburn took over the church and presented “attractions” there for a while.
Examiner, June 7, 1860. The “Ethiopian minstrels” returned on Feb. 7, 1861.
Examiner, Dec. 4, 1862, np. This performance was notable because of “the perfect order” at the event. “There was none of that whistling, hooting or stamping, generally carried on at public gatherings.”
Examiner, Jan. 30, 1862, np. Large audiences turn out for the Royal Adelphi Dramatic Troupe at the Town Hall.
Examiner, Nov. 16, 1876, np.
The building that was once the old Methodist Church remained for years on George Street. What is left of it — basically the framework — now resides as a picnic shelter behind the Peterborough Museum and Archives on Armour Hill.
Examiner, Jan. 3, 1861.
Examiner, Dec. 3, 1863.
Examiner, Jan. 8, 1863, np. A precursor of cinema: the panorama.
Examiner, Oct. 16, 1864. By the 1860s many local organizations were holding grand “balls” at Victoria Hall and (later) Hill’s Music Hall.
Examiner, Feb. 16, 1871. The return of the Zographicon. This time it was in Hill’s Music Hall. “The scenes are beautiful, and the painting, we understand, well and good; Scotch and American scenes principally, except ‘Ten Nights in a Bar-room’ which are the same everywhere.”
Early “amusements” — “chaste and instructive” — and not surprisingly raising issues of representation — though in the white settler culture they were pretty much non-issues and the norm. Panoramas and attractions such as the Zographicon, which came at least twice, were precursors of moving pictures. The Zographicon was an elaborate panoramic series of illustrations, not just of the immensely popular “Pilgrim’s Progress” but also of features such as the temperance-supporting “T.S. Arthur's Ten nights in a bar-room!” and “other attractive scenes from life, character, nature and art!”
Examiner, Feb. 29, 1872, np.
Examiner, May 22, 1873.
A look back at Peterborough’s early history in the Daily Review in 1905 recalled: “Such accommodation as one or two large rooms afforded was the best to be had up to the year 1850. Then public spirited citizens got together and decided that the public needs would be met by the erection of a town hall that should contain a room available for public purposes, amusements, etc.” The original brick Town Hall, Music Hall, and Market House were built on the market block in 1850—51 at a cost of some $6,000, but taken down in 1869.
The original Victoria Hall, on George Street (not to be confused with the later Victoria Hall that was in the Bradburn building), may have been on the second floor of the Market House, a space that later became known as Hill’s Music Hall — established around 1868 by Edmond C. “Penny” Hill, known around town as a lecturer, musician, bill poster, carriage maker, and organ builder (and in charge of the skating rink as well) — even, early on, a grocer. His lease on the building was cancelled in 1877.
Bradburn’s Opera House
Examiner, Dec. 14, 1876. A month after the Bradburn opened.
Supplement to the Review, Oct. 8, 1880. Courtesy of Ken Brown.
Examiner, Sept. 8, 1887. “White and Colored. The Only Double Company in Existence.” Of particular interest: “Edison’s Electric Parlor Light” — an eventual replacement for the flickering and hazardous gas lamps of the time.
Bradburn’s Hall (also known as Bradburn’s Opera House) opened on Nov. 13, 1876. The perennial favourite Uncle Tom’s Cabin appeared countless times in the city, both on stage and, later, on the screen. Harriet Beecher Stowe’s best-selling 1853 anti-slavery novel was watered down for the stage, understating the violence inherent in slavery (and depicted in the book) and representing slaves “as ‘happy darkies’ living under a benevolent, paternalistic system.” Little Eva, not Uncle Tom, was now the main character.
Source: David Pilgrim, Understanding Jim Crow: Using Racist Memorabilia to Teach Tolerance and Promote Social Justice (Oakland, Cal. and Toronto: PM Press and Between the Lines, 2015), pp.74—77.
Examiner, Feb. 4, 1881. That was to laugh! — especially with the “celebreties.” For over three decades, c.1865—1900, Charles Davis traveled far and wide across the continent (he was spotted in Nanaimo, B.C., in 1893, for instance), making a small fortune with his vaudeville act, enough eventually to buy a theatre in Pittsburgh.
Examiner, March 26, 1886, np.
Examiner, July 6, 1893, np.
Examiner, May 13,1893, np. Thanks to Ken Brown.
Examiner, Feb. 5, 1895, np.
Thrills galore! These and other lavish acts all came to Peterborough, whether “the banner attraction of the season” or “the greatest in the world.” Indeed, a young Winston Churchill appeared in 1901 on the stage of Bradburn’s Opera House, and so too did indigenous poet Pauline Johnson and the famous John Philip Sousa Band.
Before the advent of motion pictures, audiences could experience Lincoln J. Carter’s sensational live staging not just of tornados but of train wrecks and ship wrecks; and the romanticizing of the west (and white settlement) in huge travelling shows delivered to town by train. The Cleopatra burlesque act of Turner’s English Girls often included the beguiling “serpentine dance,” a craze of the 1890s and featured in many of the earliest motion pictures — which were soon to arrive.