Saturday, August 15, 2015

The Colonial Opera Company at Cedar Point


In 1903 George A. Boeckling opened a 1200 seat opera house at Cedar Point. The Opera House was located between the Grand Pavilion and the Hotel Breakers, not far from the Cedar Point Beach. The Colonial Opera Company performed there during the summers of 1907, 1908, and 1909. The program above was from a performance of Girofle-Girofla, under the direction of Bradford Mills, of Toledo. The play was about identical twin daughters of the governor of a Spanish province during the time of Moorish domination. It was a comic opera that had been popular in Europe since the 1870s.  

  
You can see this vintage map of Cedar Point at the Follett House Museum. The 1907 post card below shows the entrance to the Opera House at Cedar Point, with the Hotel Breakers in the background.


                   

A 1908 issue of the Grain Dealers Journal reported that while the grain dealers were in daytime meetings at their annual convention at Cedar Point, they took their wives to the comic opera during the evening hours.

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