Carlton Miles, a former drama editor of the Minneapolis Journal who, a few seasons earlier, had served as a press agent at Elitch Gardens, wrote a tribute for the then current issue of Equity in commemoration of Elitch’s fortieth birthday. The following are among his comments:
In the center of a Denver amusement park, a low, gray-painted wooden building preserves the atmosphere that we like to term tradition or feeling of theater as strongly as any playhouse I have seen. About it clings that indefinable association you sense in only a few theaters. The Empire in New York is one, the Walnut Street in Philadelphia is another, Ford’s in Baltimore, a third. Yet nowhere is the tradition more strongly marked than in the Theatre of the Elitch Gardens, where theatrical performances have been a summer event for the last forty years.
Some time ago in the early morning I stood looking for the first time at the building that now perhaps houses the oldest stock company in the United States. Arriving in the city almost at dawn, no time was lost in reaching the playhouse. The park was deserted. At the end of a short walk I came suddenly to the building, fronted by a lobby in which there were rows of framed photographs of former stage celebrities…a heterogeneous collection of pictures of various decades.
Since the passing of the A. M. Palmer Union Square company, the Daly and Frohman organizations and the Boston Museum, there has been nothing to parallel this institution. It is doubtful if any company has had more notable names connected with it.
[Borrillo, T. A. (2012). Denver’s historic Elitch Theatre: A nostalgic journey (a history of its times). Colorado. p. 165]
Theatre Staff:
- Arnold B. Gurtler, President
- George L. Roberts, Treasurer
- John Hayden, Director
- Wesley Givens, Assistant Director
- G. Bradford Ashworth, Scenic Director
Resident Company:
- Katharine Alexander
- Flobelle Fairbanks
- Jean Adair
- Louise Prussing
- Alice MacKenzie
- Harvey Stephens
- Arthur Pierson
- Jonathan Hole
- J. Arthur Young
- Joseph Crehan
- Charles Laite
Productions:
- Week of June 6: Death Take s a Holiday, by Walter Ferris.
- Week of June 14: It’s a Wise Child, by Laurence E. Johnson.
- Week of June 21: Petticoat Influence, by Neil Grant.
- Week of June 28: The Plutocrat, by Arthur Goodrich.
- Week of July 5: Paris, by Martin Brown.
- Week of July 12: Berkeley Square, by John L. Balderston.
- Week of July 19: Ladies of the Jury, by Fred Ballard.
- Week of July 26: Whistler, by Pauline Hopkins and Sarah J. Curry (world premiere). Production was in association with Laurence Rivers, Inc., featuring Richard Hale as guest star.
- Week of Aug. 2: On the Spot, by Edgar Wallace.
- Week of Aug. 9: Mrs. Moonlight, by Benn W. Levy.
- Week of Aug. 16: Skidding, by Aurania Rouverol.
- Week of Aug. 23: Gambling, by George M. Cohan.
- Week of Aug. 30: In Love with Love, by Vincent Lawrence.
