From the 1870s through the 1930s, vaudeville swept the nation as the newest trend in variety entertainment. Bellingham became another stop on the road as traveling acts performed at dedicated theaters and rivaled Chautauqua for curious audiences.
Whatcom Museum features the “Vintage Vaudevillians” collection of over 750 photos by James Warwick, the stage manager of Bellingham’s downtown theaters. He started at Lighthouse Theater in 1897 and later became a film projectionist at the American Theater – reflecting the cultural shift from vaudeville to motion pictures, as Kolby LaBree of the Good Time Girls explains.
“As motion picture technology started happening, they incorporated that into the vaudeville shows as another act or feature,” says LaBree. “Eventually, though, that becomes more and more the main attraction, and motion picture theaters started taking over gradually.”
Mount Baker Theatre became a landmark for this entertainment era in 1927, whereas other historic theaters in wood frame buildings vanished without a trace.
“I always think that the Mount Baker Theatre, built in the late 20s, if it had been conceptualized and built just a couple of years later, it probably would not have been built the way that it was with the stage and the organ and everything,” says LaBree. “Because vaudeville was definitely on the way out by that time and movie theaters were the thing, and talkies, plus the Depression.”
Nationally and locally, though, vaudeville’s influence survives in the variety of entertainment we enjoy today.
Variety Acts of Subdued Excitement
The James Warwick photos of vaudeville in Bellingham show acts including big cat tamers, acrobats, illusionists, weightlifters, and dancers.
“Vaudeville is such a transient world that there were people moving around a lot,” says LaBree. “There were some Bellingham performers who were from here that then would sort of set out on the road. When they’d come back home to town, they would often perform and get a more interesting write-up because everybody knew them.”
One such Bellingham performer to appear in the newspapers was Myrtle Fischer, who started at 17 after attending Fairhaven High School.
“She had performed at the Grand in 1905, and her act was an electric dancer, which was a very common vaudeville act because electricity, being kind of a newfangled thing, people were incorporating that into the vaudeville acts,” says LaBree. “They would have wired-up skirts and like big flowing skirts. Then somehow, it would light up so that as they’re dancing and twirling, it would look really neat to people who haven’t seen much in terms of electricity.”
The Good Times Girls blog documents the local history of drag performers in vaudeville, which papers called “female impersonators” or “boy impersonators” by gender. Recurring names include “The Great Richards,” known by his stage name and “diamond dress,” and the famous Julian Eltinge as “The Fascinating Widow”.
“A lot of the impersonators, part of the act was that they looked so much like a woman, and then they would whip off their wigs into the act and do a reveal,” says LaBree. “Or you would come back on stage dressed as a man, and then everyone would be like, oh, I can’t believe it.”
Bellingham’s Forgotten Theaters
In addition to Mount Baker Theater, Bellingham held shows at the 1906 Pantages Theater and 1905 The Grand, named for vaudeville promoters Alexander Pantages and John Considine. The Grand was demolished in 1912 and rebuilt in 1916 to become part of Wahl’s Department Store.
“The Grand was a Considine Theater, and Considine and Pantages are both really interesting guys in the Pacific Northwest, kind of Seattle more, but they were the theater owners,” says LaBree. “They kind of controlled and were competitors, and their kids ended up marrying each other, which is funny. But those two are gone.”
Both theaters shifted to showing movies. As LaBree describes, show business was not all glamor: many vaudeville performers died young or struggled with harsh living conditions comparable to the “Hollywood lifestyle.”
“Also, just being a non-white performer, for instance, you would have a different experience depending on where you’re at, like not being allowed to stay in a lot of the same lodging houses and things like that off the stage,” says LaBree. “It’s interesting because a lot of things that were celebrated on stage, like cross-dressing for instance, they would be arrested for walking down the street in women’s clothing.”
Keeping Vaudeville Alive in Bellingham
Today, Vaudevillingham at the Bellingham Circus Guild spotlights local performers in homage to the historic tradition. Acts have included juggling, magic, comedy, dance, acrobatics, and more.
The Good Time Girls have plans to release recordings of their live presentations on vaudeville, celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Mount Baker Theater.
“We did performances at the Mount Baker Theater, which was very fun, in the Walton Room, the smaller theater,” says LaBree. “It was kind of a live version of our podcast where we just sat up on stage. We did a slideshow with pictures accompanying it and talked about some of our favorite topics, one of which was vaudeville and early theaters. Then the second act was just specifically about the Mount Baker Theater.”
For this celebrated form of American entertainment, the road keeps running on.
