| 1885/00/00 |
Jerome Bibb Legg |
Architect |
The Finke Opera House is built in the Late Victorian - Eclectic style. Gaslights and chandeliers provide illumination. The basement houses a billiard hall, its main floor and balcony the opera house and its second floor meeting rooms for fraternal orders. |
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Invention of Gas Lighting |
| 1885/08/18 |
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The grand opening of the Finke Opera House includes of a grand musical concert directed by Professor Lenzen. The imposing stage scenery and array of musical talent enhances the performance of a line of classical music that are excellently rendered. |
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| 1885/08/26 |
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The comedy 'A Hot Time' is presented as a musical farce comedy, a play without a plot, constructed for fun and music. Louise Sylvester plays the lead, showing great versatility as an actress in personating several different characters, excelling in each. |
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| 1888/00/00 |
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Dr J H P Gray buys the Finke Opera House with its scenery, gas fixtures and seats at the courthouse under a deed of trust for 54,600. |
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| 1907/02/08 |
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The Black Crook Jr Burlesque Co with Gay Girls Galore and a Host of Famous Funny Fellows appear at the Finke Opera House. Patrons in Joliet and Aurora, Illinois, had called the show indecent, immoral and obscene, and not fit to be presented on any stage. |
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| 1907/04/00 |
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The Belcher Co produces 'Circumstantial Evidence' with complete equipment of special scenery, mechanical and electrical effects. The comedy drama presents a realistic prison scene designed to impress upon the audience the importance of following the law. |
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| 1909/09/27 |
Cole Younger |
Lecturer |
Cole Younger, former outlaw and companion of the James Gang, lectures, relating the "pathetic incidents of life," explaining why he lived the life of an outlaw, and details experiences during his twenty-five years in prison. |
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| 1909/12/07 |
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California Democrat advertises that a troupe with a band and orchestra traveling in two Pullman cars will present King of the Cattle Ring, a western melodrama that "thrills the audience and plays upon the heartstrings with a master touch." |
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| 1910/12/16 |
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The Ladies Aid Society of the First Christian Church host an inspirational program of music, 200 slides projected on a screen and lecture. The slides illustrate the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son, the novel Ben-Hur and the Ram's Horn cartoons. |
Ben-Hur (book) |
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| 1913/00/00 |
Gen John Henry Parker |
Lecturer |
Naidene Parker, soprano, presents a concert featuring arias from La Boehme. Mr Phillips plays Chopin Nocturnes and bass. Mr Pfeffelburger sings The Storm King. Miss Parker's father, Col John Parker, lectures on the Philippines. |
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| 1922/10/12 |
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The six-reel film with "Nazimore" in 'Stranger than Death' appears along with a "veritable human dynamo" named Annie Alboth, "the Little Georgia Magnet," who demonstrates her ability to lift ten men. |
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| 1937/00/00 |
Oliver W Stiegemeyer |
Architect |
Finke Opera House is renamed the Ritz Theater and is remodeled: given an Art Deco facade, street level entrance on the east and a ten-foot addition to the first story and basement of the west facade. |
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