The famous screen comedian, Harold Lloyd, paid an unexpected visit to the Elitch Theatre. In a letter to friends of the Theatre, Arnold B. Gurtler wrote:
Mr. Lloyd was simply keeping a date with his childhood dreams, with an unforgettable experience in an unforgettable Theatre. He just wanted once again to walk on the stage where he had played as a boy.
Like the young actors who come to Elitch for the first time, Harold went on a sightseeing tour of the Theatre. He was filled with awe and reverence, and then, like Cecil De Mille and others who have returned to this beloved playhouse to catch up with old memories, was inspired to express his deep feeling for the tradition and historical significance of “the Theatre in a garden.”
Harold Lloyd was born in Burchard, Nebraska, on April 20,1893. During Harold’s early years, the Lloyd family lived at various times in Nebraska (Pawnee City, Humbolt, Beatrice and Omaha) and Colorado (Denver, Fort Collins and Durango) because of Lloyd senior’s difficulty in keeping a job.3 Two addresses identified as boyhood homes of Harold Lloyd in Denver are 1134 W. 13th Avenue and 64 S. Lincoln Street.4 In 1909, Harold’s father was forced to leave the family in Denver as he took a temporary job in Omaha. During this stay, Harold attended East High School.* In 1910, tired of this nomadic existence, Harold’s mother obtained a divorce. In 1912, Harold’s father received a monetary settlement arising out of an accident while working for the Singer Sewing Company in Omaha, after which he decided to move to San Diego, California. That year, Harold and his older brother Gaylord went to live with their father in San Diego. Harold completed his last year of high school in San Diego, as he had promised his mother he would.
Harold Lloyd’s interest in theater was spawned by his mother’s passion for the theater. As a young lady she wanted to be an actress and thought of leaving her home in Toulon, Illinois, for the stage, a daring feat in the 1880s. On a trip to visit relatives in Nebraska, she met James Darsie Lloyd. Upon marrying him, she remained in Nebraska and they had two children. However, she never abandoned her love for the theater.
She … kept in touch with everything theatrical she could. She read all the plays she could get her hands on and even took a New York paper for a while for the reviews it gave. She would drive for miles through a snowstorm to see a ham troop in some barn opera house, and she read Shakespeare for amusement…
She also read Shakespeare to young Harold, who later recalled falling asleep in her lap, listening drowsily to a speech of Juliet’s. At four or five, he began to put on his own solitary shows at home. He would collect old Halloween masks, cover them with sundry caps and hats and place the results in position all over the living room Harold would begin to act out the plays he had made up himself.
[Borrillo, Theodore A. Denver’s Historic Elitch Theatre: A nostalgic journey, 2012. Pp. 219-221]
East High School was the first high school in Denver, opened in 1875 with a total enrollment of 108 students. The first graduating class was in 1877. Other notable attendees included Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Antoinette Perry, Paul Whiteman and Hattie McDaniel. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_High_School_(Denver,_Colorado)]
Seasons at the Theatre
- 1914
Productions/Roles:
Notable Roles, Awards, and Other Work:
- Lloyd hanging from the hands of a clock high above the street in Safety Last! is considered one of the most enduring images in cinema.
- In 1953, Lloyd received an Academy Honorary Award for being a “master comedian and good citizen”.
Elitch Theatre Connections:
- Lloyd and Douglas Fairbanks were two of the original actors in the fledgling film industry known as Hollywood. Fairbanks was a Denver boy who connected to the Elitch’s Theatre before he even started acting.
Wikipedia Link:
