History Happenings: Daniels Opera House in Marion flourished during late 1800s

When a theater is dark, a lone light is set on a stand downstage and left shining. Known as the “ghost light,” the light is said to ward off mischievous spirits or illuminate the way for the theater’s friendly spirits.

We don’t know if a ghost light illuminated the stage of Daniels Opera House in Marion. But for several decades, it was a spirited place on what is now the 1100 block of Seventh Avenue, right in the heart of the city.

The Daniels Building, built in 1881, originally housed a dry goods store, a grocery store and a small private bank on its first floor. The second floor had a large meeting room for the Knights Templar, according to a Historic American Building Survey document completed in the 1980s.

In 1886, the top floor was transformed into the Daniels Opera House, with seating for 450 people. It flourished, offering “a variety of entertainments to Marion’s citizens” until after the turn of the century, the survey stated.

Tough acts to follow

We would be remiss if we didn’t mention that the Daniels Opera House offered up the notorious Cherry Sisters, a hometown family singing group that may well have been one the worst vaudeville acts of the period.

But many other intriguing acts also took to the stage.

Take, for example, Professor Boone, a hypnotist, who appeared Feb. 27-28, 1899:

“The professor’s assistant was put in a hypnotic trance in Carl Owen’s store window, and a needle was run through his lip. He remained there for fifty hours. The professor also drove madly through our streets, successfully hunting a concealed article,” according to the “History of Marion, Iowa: 1838-1927.”

The book also provides a troubling description of a Marion Ladies Minstrels show on April 29, 1897.

“Katherine Page had come to Marion to put on an entertainment of classical groupings, scarf drills, etc." Unfortunately, that wasn't what "performers and audience preferred" so the show became the sort of racially insensitive minstrels show that was common to the period. In that form, the book reported, "the show was the hit of the year.”

Also of note, as detailed in the Historic American Building Survey, was a demonstration of inventor Thomas Edison’s kinetoscope, a forerunner of the motion picture film projector.

It was demonstrated at the opera house in February 1893, a full year before the first kinetoscope parlor opened in New York City, the book noted, thereby showcasing the new technology that would eventually replace the venue’s “theatrical fare.”

Rowdy patrons, roaring fire

On Friday, Dec. 24, 1897, the Cedar Rapids Evening Gazette reported a “few young people” the previous evening had “sought to amuse themselves in a manner that was annoying to those who desired to give attention to the entertainment.”

The opera house management told the paper “it intends to have order preserved … and people who are otherwise inclined will have to suffer the consequences.”

The article made mention of one arrest but pointed out that “several others who need attention were missed.”

Then on Aug. 11, 1903, the Cedar Rapids Republican newspaper reported a “disastrous fire” that “started, it is said, in the middle of the stage at the opera house, how is unknown.” (We can’t help but wonder if a ghost light — perhaps a gas light that was common during the period — was to blame.)

We were unable to determine whether the fire marked the end of performances at Daniels Opera House, but it seems likely that it would have.

New building, old ghosts?

New, mixed-use buildings are now going up on the block that once housed the Daniels Opera House. They will feature commercial retail spaces on the first floor and residential units on the upper two floors.

That means that some people will be living in spaces that correspond with the space the opera house occupied more than 100 years ago. We’re not saying these brand-new spaces will be haunted. But we are suggesting a ghost light shining through the night in the living room might not be a terrible idea.

High school senior Jessica Cline wins awards for historical research and presentation. Her dad, writer Rob Cline, does not. They write this monthly column for The History Center. Comments: HistoricalClines@gmail.com.