Clarence Handyside, a 1912 cast member, appearing for the second straight season, and who had long been a favorite in New York, expressed his sentiments about leaving.
There is always a touch of real sadness about this breaking up of the summer stock company. The relationships one forms at this time of the year are closer than those formed by the members of companies on tour in the winter. There the actors are traveling all the time and are stopping in different hotels, so that they seldom see each other except at the theater. Here we are just like one big family. This is particularly true here at Elitch Gardens.
Mrs. Mary Elitch Long looks after her family of summer players with such care – finding them delightful homes, promoting fine friendships, arranging many pleasures for them – that the work here doesn’t seem like work at all, but just one long, pleasant outing. The actors are thrown together so constantly that they get very fond of each other, and used to the little family circle.
When the last curtain shuts us from the audience, and we gather on the dimly-lit stage for the last time to say good-bye, there are lumps in every throat, and tears in every eye.
The summer here at the Gardens has been delightful during every moment. The players have been more than congenial, and Mrs. Long and the Denver public more than kind. None of us want to go away.
[Borrillo, p. 33-34]
