Friday, March 18, 2011

Andrew King and the Orpheus Theater


My great-uncle Andrew King was a major stockholder in the Orpheus Theater
in Vernal, Utah. (Shown above) The floor moved as people danced because
it was built in parts on these huge springs. People sat on chairs put on
solid flooring around the outside of the dance floor, but the floor itself
moved and danced with the people. Dancers came from all over to
try out the spring floor. They said women had to watch it because
gusts of air coming up cold lift their skirts. I guess the old
dancehall still exists as a historical monument in Vernal.
I was fascinated. I would like to dance on the 'spring' floor.
I wnder if Uncle Andrew loved to dance. His sister was in a theater
group that sometimes traveled to Salt Lake City to put on productions.
My grandfather, his brother, loved to recite poetry.
This is one of his favorites.

It was late in last November
I was walking down the stree
My heart was all aflutter
and I fell into a gutter.
A pig came up and lay down by my side.
As I lay there in the gutter
my heart still a-flutter
a lady passing by chanched to say:
You can tell the man that boozes
by the company that he chooses...
and the pig got up and slowly
walked away.

Why this one came to mind I cannot say!

3 comments:

  1. A very interesting entry. I would have loved to dance on a spring floor in my day. Like the poem too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I get so annoyed when my comments won't post and I have to write them all over again that I often don't do it and don't post at all. It happens so much. Does anyone know how to get them to post the first time?
    As I said, I am happy that your are a historian so that we can find our lost relatives. If we had been good Mormon girls we would have found them a long time ago or we wouldn't have been able to do our charts.
    If we had only known about this dancehall, we would have,for sure, gone there. It was nothing for us to travel 200 miles to a dance, especially if Vallen Veater was playing.
    I thought there was only grey hill, dust and people going into the mines out there, not dancing. I guess Pole worked in the mines for while around Vernal.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am a grandson of Andrew and Viola King.

    My mother was Thora King Gary.

    I was born in Chicago and grew up on a Montana ranch. I have spent most of my life in California -- since 1974 in San Francisco.

    So it was delightful to make this discovery. I visited Vernal for about a week shortly after World War II.

    Dennis Gary

    ReplyDelete