Historic Elitch Theatre

John Mulvihill came to Denver from Pennsylvania in 1902 as one of the thousands who flocked to the high, pure air of the Rockies as a cure for lung troubles.  He found employment as a clerk at Denver Gas and Electric, a position he maintained for the first years of his ownership of Elitch’s Gardens as he learned the business. 

The theatre was dark in 1916, 1918 and 1919 as Mulvihill considered his options and avoided the significant cost in mounting summer stock theater.  It reopened for the 1920 summer season as a summer stock operation, with a resident cast taking on a new play each week.  Mulvihill expanded the Children’s Day activities to include the Elitch School of the Theatre in 1926 and 1927.  He was also responsible for extending the Gardens attractions to include free dance classes for children at the Trocadero, construction of the Skyrocket rollercoaster (later refurbished as the Wildcat), replacement of the Carousel, and construction of the Old Mill venue.  The Old Mill burned on July 16, 1944, killing six patrons and becoming the most deadly fire in Denver in a generation.

John Mulvihill was an old-fashioned man, who thought that theatre patrons would not pay to watch a man “make love” to his real life wife on stage.  He therefore prohibited that married couples be hired for his theater.  So, when Leading Man Fredric March and Leading Lady Florence Eldridge fell in love and eloped to Colorado Springs one Thursday, Mulvihill promptly fired Florence and hired a new leading lady for the rest of the season.

He was also a hawk in monitoring dancing at the Trocadero, and would separate couples he thought were dancing too close together.  Mamie Doud Eisenhower was dancing with her uncle when a tap on the shoulder from Mulvihill alerted them to his presence.

Mulvihill ran Elitch’s until his sudden death in 1930, when his son-in-law, Arnold Gurtler, took over.  Gurtler sons Jack and Budd later joined the operation.  It is important to remember that with the exception of 1891 to 1894, Elitch’s was a family-owned and operated business, with deep ties to the Denver community. 

During the Great Depression summer stock theater grew at a phenomenal rate, from fifteen companies in 1930 to 105 companies in 1934.  What became known as “the straw hat season” provided employment for actors and gave audiences a show at bargain prices as compared to Broadway ticket prices.  The northeast and central Atlantic states had the majority of the summer stock companies, being close to New York City.  Denver was very remote from the center of American theater, yet Elitch’s reputation was recognized by Time magazine, who called it “the great-grand-father of all U.S. summer stock companies.” 

In 1934 a local actress, Miss Barton, auditioned for the summer stock company.  This was a thinly-veiled attempt by Miss Helen Bonfils, Denver Post heiress and one of Denver’s wealthiest women, to fulfill her dream of being on stage by virtue of her own abilities.  For thirteen years she was a character actress, specializing in world-wise, cynical, grande dames.  She met the new Elitch director George Somnes in 1936, and they wed at the end of that summer. 

Miss Helen, as she was affectionately known, had a financial stake in the Theatre as early as 1938 with options on stock shares.  Somnes and Bonfils played in ‘The Man Who Came to Dinner,’ and Somnes quipped that “What husband wouldn’t jump at the chance to insult his wife for 2 solid hours… and get away with it.”  Especially when the wife, one of Denver’s wealthiest and most influential women, was called “Miss Bedpan.”

So, what was it like to run a summer stock theater?  During the winter John Mulvihill, and later the Gurtlers would travel to New York, see the plays and interview actors.  History Colorado has the Gurtler notes from these interviews. Some of the comments on those who did not make it on the Elitch stage:

            Charlton Heston:  “Needs a haircut badly.  May be good, but typed.”

            Clark Gable:  “Very dark — wears mustache.”

Other actors interviewed and who did not make the cut included Anne Meara, Larry Hagman, Celeste Holm, Leslie Nielsen, Tony Randall, and Ray Walston.

In general about 11 members were cast in New York, with supplemental actors drawn from Denver theaters, universities, friends, and staff.  One such local was Robert Redford, who attended the University of Colorado Boulder.  He had the briefest of non-credited walk-on parts, the so-called “spear-carrier” type role, in 1955.  In fact, his name does not show up on any program or newspaper review, and we only know of his involvement because he remembered having such a role at Elitch’s.

As for the New York summer stock cast, they arrived a few weeks before opening night.  The supporting members often lived with nearby families who rented out rooms while the Leading Man and Leading Lady had rooms at downtown hotels.  A new play was mounted each week, requiring the cast to be performing in one play in the evening while rehearsing for the next play during the day.  They had only Thursday daytimes off, the only day without a formal rehearsal.  As for the backstage crew, they often went for two days without sleep, between Saturday night after the final curtain and Sunday night when the new production opened.  They generally mounted 10 to 12 plays per season, with shows 7 days per week until 1960, when Sunday became a full day off.

Edward G. Robinson, Jane Wyatt, and Patricia Neal are some of the well-known names from the summer stock years.  Raymond Burr was the Leading Man in 1944.  He returned to Denver in 1986 to film television movies of the Perry Mason series.  He wanted to make the Elitch Theater a magnet school for the performing arts, a plan that eventually fell through.

One of the often told stories is that of Grace Kelly, who was the ingenue for the 1951 season.  She was simply a member of the cast, living quietly in a nearby furnished room.   On August 10 she received a telegram from film producer Stanley Kramer, asking her to report for a new film with Gary Cooper.  The film, ‘High Noon.’  The rest, as they say, is history.

After the end of the 1954 season major renovations were made.  The old backstage was demolished, from the proscenium on back.  In its place a massive, modern cinderblock stage house was built.  The new dressing rooms features hot and cold running water and the stars’ dressing rooms were described as being especially luxurious.  Three complete individual sets on rollers could be keep ready, and a 100-foot high fly house towered over the stage, reputedly the only stage in the country with such a structure.  It was around the time of this renovation that the Old Stage Door, with the autographs of many luminaries of the stage, was obliterated by a painter.  We do, have, however, autographs in the old dressing rooms from later years.

In 1957 Arnold Gurtler passed the Theatre management off to his sons, Budd and Jack, who alternated years as manager.  They organized an unusually long season, with eleven productions over thirteen weeks.  By this time traditional summer stock theater was in decline, and the Gurtlers were trying to keep their operation afloat.