Dear Rosalyn,
It is so great to hear that the community theatre group has acquired the old Doric Theatre and are planning to restore it. When the old building was sold and made into apartments, offices or whatever, I’m sure they tore everything out to the bare walls.  I’m sorry I have no pictures to share with them but I remember a lot about it because my parents, Bill & Irene Coop were associated with the Doric even before I was born in 1925.  My dad & Walter Baker ran the old projection equipment during the silent days when my mother, then Irene Sween, came to Elkhart in 1923.  She played the piano for the silent movies.  My folks ran the show on three different occasions and had it in 1953 when my dad died.

Some of the Doric’s history includes being owned by John Rowland and his family and then John and his wife Ruth Crawley operated it for several years.  Ruth was my fourth grade teacher and on Oct 12, 1937 when I turned 12 years old she knew how old I was and I had to buy my first adult ticket, a whole 25 cents.  I suppose about this time Carl McClung must have bought it from them because my folks leased the building from him and they owned the sound and projection equipment.

The things I think the theatre group would be interested in is the fact that live performances, stage shows, were held there during the silent movie days.  During those early days they had touring companies come to town and they put on plays along with the movies which were usually only two reels long.  The touring company I remember most was the Hazel Hurd players, starring of course Hazel and her husband Fred Twyman.  They lived in Kingman, KS between tours and were on the road for years, even coming back to Elkhart in later years with a tent show.  Fred played all the male lead parts and also sold candy during intermission.

But when they played on the stage at the Doric in those days there were fly-screens behind the picture show screen and they rolled up and down (by hand) when the scene needed to be changed.  The old fly-stage and the screens were still there in the early forties I know but they were probably removed when the building was sold.  I was fascinated by those painted backdrops that were used to fir various scenes.  People weren’t so critical in those days and if the actors did their parts well then everyone believed the scenery fit right in.  The ones I recall were a countryside scene with a waterfall, and elegant drawing room (or bedroom) and a street scene.  With different stage props and furniture the backdrops could be used for a lot of different plays.

There were at least three dressing rooms under the stage and in front of the stage there was an orchestra pit where the piano sat.  At one time there were balcony seats upstairs in front of the projection room but it was hot and noisy up there and they stopped using those seats when I was about seven or eight years old.

Some of the people that I remember that worked for my dad at different times were Jack Emberton, Roland Smith and Clifford Higgins.  Cokie Walsh (Mohs), Nadine Whisennand, and Glenda Vandervort (King) also worked for him and sold popcorn.  June Powell (Hurn) and Betty Riley sold tickets at different times when Irene would be gone out of town and I think Gilbert Rodriguez also used to work for them.  Maybe the Theatre Group can check with some of these people about what they remember about the old Doric.  I know some of them are gone too but there are still some of them around.

I have lots of stories about things that happened when I was growing up around that old show but they aren’t really about its history, more about my family history.

Here’s just one and then I’ll quit.  When I was about seven, I had the chicken pox and was quarantined at home and not allowed to go to the show and give them to all of Morton County.  Daddy was showing a Shirley Temple movie at this time and of course being a spoiled only child (brat) I threw a series of fits because I was going to miss this movie.  So, in the afternoon before the show started Daddy smuggled me into the show, put me up in the balcony and ran the Shirley Temple movie for me alone.

All right, I sneaked that one in on you, but there are lots more where that came from and they have nothing to do with what the Theatre Group needs to know about the Doric and how it looked.  It seems to me that the front of the old building is so different from what it once was that the only feature still remaining is maybe the old round window upstairs.  Is that still there?

I’m sure they gutted the whole thing but I could make a sort of sketch of how it was laid out, as to the ticket booth, the lobby where the popcorn machine was, the doorways with the old blue velvet curtains and where the balcony stairs and the stairs going up behind the stage and details like that if they would be interested.  Let me know if I can be of any help in any way.

Letter written by Virginia O’Brien upon receiving word that Morton County Theatre Group was planning to purchase the Doric Theater building.

Movie House History - Classic Theaters Of Kansas © 2007
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