Chimney Sweep

Widespread Charlie’s high-class exhibits | Ross Eric Gibson, Native Historical past – Santa Cruz Sentinel

The Santa Cruz Unique Theater was converted from a hay and feed store. But Charlie Alisky saw it as the core of his own vaudeville circuit. (City of Santa Cruz Directory of 1904).

Famed theater impresario Sid Grauman began founding the Unique Vaudeville & Film Circuit for his Unique Theater chain in San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Cruz and Watsonville. He ended up converting a hay and forage store into the hugely successful Santa Cruz Unique Theater. But it was soon taken over by a Hollister man who misjudged local entertainment tastes, and attendance plummeted.

Then, in mid-April 1905, a baby-faced man in a suit asked if it was possible to buy the theater rent. The man with the boyish grin looked like a child despite his 39 years. But his card identified him as Charlie Alisky, company president of the California Amusement Co. He was on his way to sign artists from the Louis & Clark International Exposition in Portland, Oregon. He had stopped to see if Unique wanted to book its performances, but was so impressed with the possibilities of a theater in a tourist town that he persuaded the tenant to enter into negotiations with theater owner Miss Mary Neary. Alisky bought the lease after extending it to nine years, providing her with a reliable income, and Alisky did not raise the price until 1914.

Alisky saw Santa Cruz as ideal for his vaudeville circle’s flagship theater. Charlie and his artist wife, Charlotte, found an apartment a block away in the three-story Alta Building above Chesnutwood’s business college. Alisky’s California Amusement Co. was advertised as “High Class Vaudeville,” and the quality was immediately remarkable. He banned smoking, spitting, hats in the theater, tipping, and crying children. He lengthened the shows to 90 minutes at the same prices as before (10¢) and mixed vaudeville performances with scenes from opera, plays and Shakespeare.

background

Alisky’s sense of culture goes back to his grandfather Wilhelm, who studied composition in Paris with friends Richard Wagner and Karl von Weber and then became musical director of one of the largest theaters in Germany. But when his patron died, Wilhelm’s career ended, and in 1844 he lost his life trying to build a canal through Panama. Alisky’s father was a candy maker in San Francisco when Charlie was born in 1866. The big confectionery operation was moved to Portland, Oregon, where young Charlie served in all branches of theater from opera to vaudeville. In 1883, the 17-year-old went to college in Europe, eventually leading several large pantomime and vaudeville companies that toured the continent.

Charlie returned to the United States with his own booking agency in 1893 to exhibit artists at Chicago’s great “Columbian Exposition” and ran the Casino Opera Co. In San Francisco he ran the old Stockwell Theater on Powell Street, then produced two Adelina Patti in 1904 Concerts at Walter Morosco’s Grand Opera House and broke theater records at the time, taking in $25,000 for just two shows. He then took over the management of the Casino Theater in Los Angeles. By 1905, Alisky’s firm controlled bookings for the Lyceum and Chutes theaters in San Francisco, Fischer’s Theater in Los Angeles, and other state vaudeville houses.

When Charlie W. Alisky booked acts for vaudeville stages in 1905, he saw potential in a modest Santa Cruz theater. (Ross Eric Gibson Collection).

In Santa Cruz, Alisky knew he needed rewarding performances and publicity. The Royal Hawaiian Quartet had a bill with scenes from the operas “Il Trovatore” and “Faust”. Another night trapeze artist, Leora, did amazing stunts, such as walking across the ceiling. Between evening shows, he appeared to fly out of a window across the street and land in front of the theater. This was dubbed “Slide for Life” and performed on a cable, a performance emulated by locals for the next half century. Amateur Night was a hit with the locals, one number was Googoo the Great, a milk drinker champion. Now the theater’s problem was standing room only, so Alisky began selling advance tickets at Howe’s Music Store and Model Drug Store. How do I find the theatre? “Follow the crowds and go to the Unique.” His nickname became “Popular Charlie” Alisky.

Alisky gained a chain of vaudeville houses beginning in Santa Cruz and including San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento and Stockton, bringing down the cost of touring shows. When San Francisco singer Madame Addington performed at the Santa Cruz Unique, she was so impressed by the enthusiastic local audience that she suggested building a 2,000-seat opera house there. Alisky feared competition, so he looked for a way to push his boundaries to build an elegant 1,200-seat hall and host Klaw & Erlanger’s larger shows. Unable to purchase adjacent land, he hoped to build on the combined site of the Unique Theater and the Unique Hotel for Actors.

Not ready

However, demolition began before it was finished. On April 18, 1906, the San Francisco earthquake struck the Central Coast at 5:07 am. Unreinforced brick structures suffered the most, destroying many chimneys, while flexible timber-frame buildings tended to survive the tremors. But standing next to you was just as bad as being in an unreinforced masonry building. The Farmer’s Union building at the corner of Pacific and Soquel Avenues dropped portions of the brick wall through the Unique Theater’s roof, and portions of the parapet for the trolley offices were dropped through the stage’s roof. It was a blessing that the theater was empty.

While the Unique Hotel was thrown out of whack, it was quickly repaired to accommodate the now-stranded artists without putting on shows. While some had to find friends and family, most realized they were better off where they were as refugees poured into Santa Cruz’s summer homes and campgrounds.

Not a single theater in San Francisco escaped destruction, and only the Bell Theater was scheduled to reopen in less than six months. San Jose theaters were badly damaged or, like the San Jose Unique, a total loss. But Alisky’s Sacramento Unique was still open, and to keep it operational as long as possible, the steel frame of the new building rose around the old. The first San Francisco theater to open after the quake was David Grauman’s Unique Theater on May 5 at King Solomon’s Hall in Filmore. With tight money, Grauman ran his Unique as a 10¢ Vaudeville. Fifteen days later, the Orphium reopened in temporary quarters at the Chutes Theatre. Other city theaters opened in tents with elaborately painted stage set facades.

Rare footage of a San Francisco variety and movie theater following a disaster. (Ross Eric Gibson Collection)

On May 6, the Farmer’s Union building, which sent bricks through the roof of the Unique theater, reopened its second-floor ballroom. And the business school was back in business 12 days after the quake. The Santa Cruz Opera House reopened May 9 with a slide and film presentation entitled “The Ruins of San Francisco.” It was narrated by a former deputy editor of the Chronicle who was brought to Santa Cruz by local journalist John P. Cooper.

Since all were rebuilt at the same time, labor was scarce. So Alisky hired his lazy actors, like comedy team Douthitt & Jones, to help rebuild the Santa Cruz Unique, adding a promise to feature them at the grand reopening. Alisky felt there were so many once-exclusive acts rarely seen outside of San Francisco that he had to open his theater quickly. But even with round-the-clock operation, he had to postpone the opening to June 18th, then to June 25th. He had raised the roof of the Unique on a steel frame clad in corrugated iron.

Santa Cruz booked a fraternal order downtown as well as the State Republican Convention at Boardwalk’s Casino. But then, three days before Unique reopened, the Boardwalk Casino burned down from a grease fire in the restaurant. A circus tent was put up for the Republicans, and Fred Swanton said he would rebuild his beach palace, but Santa Cruz residents feared the funds weren’t there to bring something so beautiful back.

The Unique finally reopened and mobs rushed in, smashing a ticket office window in the crowd. It was so packed that nobody noticed that the capacity had been expanded to 900 seats. White-clad ushers looked like angels, while set designer William Lemos redesigned the auditorium in a sea-green neoclassical sky and added a horseshoe-shaped balcony with boxes at either end. But there was breathing space as people saw the art on the asbestos curtain, which showed the Santa Cruz Mountains and coastline, including the recently destroyed Boardwalk Casino.

The program included a female impersonator, Steamboat Stewart the ventriloquist, a trapeze act, comedians Douthitt & Jones, singer Gene King and moving images of the San Francisco earthquake and fire with flickering red and yellow flame effects.

By December, thanks to funding from PG&E founder John Martin, the walls of a larger Boardwalk casino had been built on the beach. That month, Al Watson stopped writing 10-minute comedy skits, split a story into two 15-minute sections with an interlude (today’s sitcom format), and ended up with a film. Alisky opened his magnificent new theater in Sacramento and intended to build more in Oakland and Santa Cruz. He changed the name of the Santa Cruz Unique to the Alisky Theater. Ironically, however, this marked the beginning of Alisky making his Santa Cruz Theater famous for someone else entirely.

The 1906 disaster turned from a traumatic experience into an educational spectacle. (Ross Eric Gibson Collection)

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