Stars of the Stage in Early Ladysmith

Between 1902 and 1912, Ladysmith was ‘on the circuit’ and saw more live international musical events than it does today! Many famous musicians and singers from Norway, Scotland, Ireland, England, Hungary and various parts of the U.S. stopped in Ladysmith as part of ‘world tours’ which saw them performing across North America, Europe and Australia.

Black and white photograph of a wooden two-storied building viewed across a steeply sloping unpaved street. Numerous billboards with advertisements adorn the walls at street level.

The Opera House on Roberts Street, circa 1905.

Black and white printed newspaper advertisement.

Advertisement offering the Ladysmith Opera House for rental for various types of events, December 13th, 1904.

The Ladysmith Opera House opened in 1902. It hosted concerts, plays, formal dances, movies and – to keep the venue occupied – basketball games and boxing matches!

Some performances were superb. The very famous soprano Madame Freed-Griselda gave a concert in the Opera House in 1905. According to the local paper, “those present enjoyed a vocal entertainment superior by far to any previously given in the smelter city [Ladysmith]. Criticism was impossible, and applause but insufficient evidence of appreciation…”

Black and white portrait photograph of a woman in a short-sleeved early 20th-century opera gown.

Olivia Dahl, the Norwegian mezzo-soprano who sang in Ladysmith in 1906, circa 1906.

Miss Olivia Dahl, a stunning Norwegian mezzo-soprano opera singer who performed at the Opera House on June 21^st, 1906, was, according to the Ladysmith Daily Ledger, “…one of the greatest singers who has ever visited Vancouver Island.” She had come up from San Francisco, having just experienced the great earthquake there.

On the other hand, some performances were awful. The Ladysmith Chronicle, after a performance of George M. Cohen’s “Forty-Five Minutes to Broadway” in 1911, stated, “The performance at the Opera House on Thursday evening could not have been worse.”

Of course, not everyone in early Ladysmith liked Opera.

For them, there was a wide variety of less highbrow entertainment. Performances included operetta, vaudeville, minstrel shows and choral concerts featuring popular songs. One peculiar show, by The Musical Eckardts, featured somewhat unusual instruments – the marimbaphone, musical rattles with patent resonators and an aluminum harp.

Venues

Black and white photograph of a two-storey wooden building on a sloping unpaved street. A large open foyer lined with billboards occupies the uphill two-thirds of the building at ground level. A storefront, apparently empty, occupies the downhill third. Two men stand looking at the photographer.

The Lyceum Theatre, later called the Rialto, circa 1923.

In addition to the Opera House, performances were held in a variety of venues in the town, which included Gould’s Hall on the Esplanade, various association halls and the Novelty, Gem and Lyceum theatres. The Gem had a seating capacity of six hundred and a large stage which could accommodate any travelling company. Performances by local musicians accompanied silent movies of the era and were played between shows and during the movies themselves.

Advertisement for performance by Miss Verna Felton and the Allen Players in the Ladysmith Opera House, June 10th, 1912.

Advertisement for performance by Musical Eckardts in the Ladysmith Opera House, June 14, 1909.

How Our Town Was Named Home Town Entertainers In Early Ladysmith