The Olympic Airdome
An "airdome" was an open-air theater. Muskogee once had a number of airdomes around town. They operated from late spring to late fall each year. This is the story of the Olympic Airdome.
The Olympic rose from the ground on South Third Street next to the Columbia Alley. Carpenters finished the theater in May of 1907. Maybe the wood for the theater came from the lumberyard located behind the Olympic. The location of the airdome in the 200 block retained a bit of old Muskogee town flavor. There were a couple of residences located across the street that were destined to be replaced by stores in just a few years.
The eighteen-foot high stage faced west. It was about twenty feet deep and had a performance area that covered thirty of the stage's fifty-foot width. The bleachers backed up against Third Street to a height of fifteen feet. Tickets sold for ten cents and a quarter each.
Most theaters of this period accommodated vaudevillian performances. Thus, it is no surprise that a troupe of performers opened the theater. "Ferris' Comedians" was one of Dick Ferris' four companies entertaining audiences in America. This troupe of performers remained in town for over a week.
Their first play entitled "Friends" headlined the Olympic Airdome's first season. The "Ku Klux Klan" followed, but was immediately cancelled after its first night. Thirty citizens petitioned the city in opposition to its performance and the acting mayor, J. B. Campbell, ordered it shut down. The actors performed the same play two days later at Hyde Park outside of city limits.
Being versatile, the sixteen-member troupe performed "Her First False Step" at the Olympic in place of the cancelled show. This five-act melodrama was one of several performances that greatly amused the viewers for the rest of the troupe's stay in town.
The Olympic opened with electric lights strung from the stage to the stands. Before the season was over, electricity also ran a movie projector showing black and white silent films. The audience waited at the end of each reel for the loading of the next one because the theater owned only a single projector.
Many casts of performers would be coming to the Olympic one after another during the next eight years. One comedy making the rounds of many theater circuits had a serious message. "Ten Nights in a Bar Room" drove home the value of temperance. The Sherman Stock Company performed it and the Russian drama named "Michael Strogoff." The last play was based on an original story by Jules Verne.
The "Ferris' Comedians" stayed long enough to put on one last show. It was entitled "The Cattle King," a western melodrama that was based on the dime novel of Frank Dumont by the same name. The first few lines from the actors ceased momentarily when a fistfight broke out in the back bleachers. A young man named J. G. Blalock was blocking some "ten cent" seats when instructed to sit down. The altercation lasted but a minute before the restoration of order.
Yet, this 1907 incident represented the nature of rowdiness common in general theaters of the day. Rowdiness did not doom open-air theaters. Their demise came about by the desire for more control over the elements.
Brick and mortar buildings paid investors with a steady, year-round income from ticket sales. As motion pictures became the most common form of entertainment, audiences were grateful they no longer had to suffer from an interruption in a performance when a train passed through Muskogee.
By 1916, the proprietors had abandoned the Olympic Airdome. The lumber company behind the theater asked the city to have the old theater condemned. The city fire marshal and building inspector both examined the theater. In their joint report to the city council, they stated that both the theater and the lumberyard were firetraps. In the end, the city took no immediate action against the old airdome, but it already had seen the last stage full of actors.
The Olympic rose from the ground on South Third Street next to the Columbia Alley. Carpenters finished the theater in May of 1907. Maybe the wood for the theater came from the lumberyard located behind the Olympic. The location of the airdome in the 200 block retained a bit of old Muskogee town flavor. There were a couple of residences located across the street that were destined to be replaced by stores in just a few years.
The eighteen-foot high stage faced west. It was about twenty feet deep and had a performance area that covered thirty of the stage's fifty-foot width. The bleachers backed up against Third Street to a height of fifteen feet. Tickets sold for ten cents and a quarter each.
Most theaters of this period accommodated vaudevillian performances. Thus, it is no surprise that a troupe of performers opened the theater. "Ferris' Comedians" was one of Dick Ferris' four companies entertaining audiences in America. This troupe of performers remained in town for over a week.
Their first play entitled "Friends" headlined the Olympic Airdome's first season. The "Ku Klux Klan" followed, but was immediately cancelled after its first night. Thirty citizens petitioned the city in opposition to its performance and the acting mayor, J. B. Campbell, ordered it shut down. The actors performed the same play two days later at Hyde Park outside of city limits.
Being versatile, the sixteen-member troupe performed "Her First False Step" at the Olympic in place of the cancelled show. This five-act melodrama was one of several performances that greatly amused the viewers for the rest of the troupe's stay in town.
The Olympic opened with electric lights strung from the stage to the stands. Before the season was over, electricity also ran a movie projector showing black and white silent films. The audience waited at the end of each reel for the loading of the next one because the theater owned only a single projector.
Many casts of performers would be coming to the Olympic one after another during the next eight years. One comedy making the rounds of many theater circuits had a serious message. "Ten Nights in a Bar Room" drove home the value of temperance. The Sherman Stock Company performed it and the Russian drama named "Michael Strogoff." The last play was based on an original story by Jules Verne.
The "Ferris' Comedians" stayed long enough to put on one last show. It was entitled "The Cattle King," a western melodrama that was based on the dime novel of Frank Dumont by the same name. The first few lines from the actors ceased momentarily when a fistfight broke out in the back bleachers. A young man named J. G. Blalock was blocking some "ten cent" seats when instructed to sit down. The altercation lasted but a minute before the restoration of order.
Yet, this 1907 incident represented the nature of rowdiness common in general theaters of the day. Rowdiness did not doom open-air theaters. Their demise came about by the desire for more control over the elements.
Brick and mortar buildings paid investors with a steady, year-round income from ticket sales. As motion pictures became the most common form of entertainment, audiences were grateful they no longer had to suffer from an interruption in a performance when a train passed through Muskogee.
By 1916, the proprietors had abandoned the Olympic Airdome. The lumber company behind the theater asked the city to have the old theater condemned. The city fire marshal and building inspector both examined the theater. In their joint report to the city council, they stated that both the theater and the lumberyard were firetraps. In the end, the city took no immediate action against the old airdome, but it already had seen the last stage full of actors.
Labels: Columbia Alley, Dick Ferris, Ferris' Comedians, J. B. Campbell, J. G. Blalock, Olympic Airdome, South 3rd Street
posted by Wally Waits at
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