Clem Opera House

A VISIT TO CLEM’S OPERA HOUSE

(Editor’s note: The following article was sent to the Gresham Gazette by Leslie Clem, former Gresham resident. The article was written in response to a recent article in the paper about the search for information about the Clem Opera House in Gresham. Mr. Clem has sent the information to the Nebraska State Historical Society for their use in the research. We would like to share this interesting bit of history with all the Gazette readers.)

Clams Opera House occupied the upper floor of the two-story building erected in the village of Gresham Nebraska probably in the late 1880s. The lot on which the building was built, was sold in 1880 by the Burlington and Missouri Valley railroad to Mr. Fred Fuller, who later sold it to Dr. W.N. Hilton and a Noah Clem. Mr. Clem owned a department store, which occupied the ground floor of the building and Dr. Fulton had his office and electrical data diathermy rooms at the north end of the upper floor. The rest of the upper floor, an area about 25’ x 75’, was occupied by the Opera House, which contained about 100 wooden chairs, not secured to the floor; and usually arranged with an aisle down the center and facing the stage. The stage, at the south end of the room, was about 15 feet deep with open wings on either side, which served as the dressing rooms for the performers. Access to the Opera House, was by ascending a steep wooden stairs which lead from the sidewalk in which also served as access to the Lodge hall, located on the upper floor of the adjoining building.

In the early days, the facility was mainly used by traveling show troupes who presented musicals, vaudeville, magic shows, etc. Typical performance was that of Saturday evening January 14, 1899, which featured a soprano soloist, from Columbus; a base, a tenor, a string instrument virtuoso, and a stereopticon illustrator all from Chicago and a large chorus of local singers, accompanied on the piano by A. L. Clem. Admission was $.25 for adults, $.35 for reserve seats and $.10 for children. This was the grand closing concert of a musical convention, presumably held that week. Also local churches and schools use the Opera House for home talent shows and special events such as commencement exercises and graduation events. The Lyceum Curcuit Vaudeville Company, now extinct, use the facility for its presentations of lectures and musicians, who truth from town to town usually in the winter time. This was a nationwide organization which featured performers of the highest caliber.

About 1915, A. L. Clem, who then on the Opera House, purchased a hand crank movie picture projector which was installed in a sheet metal booth located in the north end of the room and which projected movies on a sheet hung in front of the stage on the south end of the hall. In those early days the average show consisted of a newsreel, two reels of comedy and ended with a cereal, which always left the star in a life-threatening situation with the outcome not revealed until the next episode shown a week later. At intervals during the show a local musician pounded the upright piano located next to the stage and of course played while the operator was changing reels. Later on, the second projector was added, that’s doing away with the interval between reels.

Nowadays, the Opera House would not pass modern fire code standards. If a fire should have occurred on the stairway leading to the hall, or in the north end of the hall, loss of life or injury might’ve been great, as the only other exit was on the south end of the stage which led to a sheer drop about 10 feet to the roof of the store below. Luckily, 30 or 40 years of its existence, nothing of the kind happened.

Due to the direction of a more modern theater in the town, the Opera House was closed in the early 1930s, and has not been used as an entertainment vehicle since that time. Anyone passing through Gresham these days, can easily recognized the Opera House because of the three windows looking out from the upper floor of the highest building on Main Street. It is sort of a monument to the entertainment world of a bygone day.