Episode 163: The Old Salt Lake Theatre

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (0:20)
Before we get into today's episode, I want you to imagine something.
It's 1862, Salt Lake City is a frontier outpost, and there are roughly 12,000 people living here. And remember, there's no transcontinental railroad, no electricity, the Salt Lake Temple, the building that would become the defining symbol of the entire civilization, is not even close to finished.

**Bryan Buchanan** (0:46)
And yet, in March of that year, more than 1,200 people crammed into the most elegant building in the entire Utah territory to watch a play. And the building they were sitting in was, by some accounts, finer than anything between St. Louis and San Francisco.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:01)
Today we're telling the full story of the Salt Lake Theatre, how it got built, what happened inside its walls for 66 years, who performed there, and what it meant to the people who loved it, and why in 1928 a wrecking crew showed up and spent weeks trying to tear it down, because it was so well built that it refused to fall. Hi, this is Lindsay Hansen Park.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:27)
And this is Bryan Buchanan.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (1:29)
Bringing you the story of Mormonism from the shadow of the Everlasting Hills, straight out of Zion, this isn't your grandpa's Mormon history.

**Bryan Buchanan** (1:56)
This is the tale of Mormon saints and sinners from our roots until present day. Saddle up.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:01)
Gird your loins, lock your hearts, and pay your tithing, because we're bringing you the story of Mormonism in all its paradisiacal glory.

**Bryan Buchanan** (2:09)
It's the Sunstone History Podcast.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (2:32)
Okay, nerds, there are the Mormon history nerds out there, but did you know that there's an entirely other group of Mormon nerds out there that exists? We should arm wrestle them. Probably, these nerds are probably, dare I say, more robust than our kind.
What kind of nerds could those be? Why, those are the Mormon theatre nerds. You've met them. They're the ones that break out of hymn at the family party, the ones that have to sit down and play the song on the piano for you. If you're one of those nerds, just know that all of us don't always enjoy that.
I think a lot of people don't fully appreciate how deeply imbedded theatre was in the early Mormon culture. Like, this was not a reluctant concession. This was a genuine love.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:18)
Right. And obviously, it doesn't start in Utah. It goes back further than that. Before the Exodus, in Nauvoo, the early 1840s, Joseph Smith himself organized a dramatic company. There's a cultural hall on Main Street. People are putting on plays. This is a community that is doing theatre while simultaneously building a temple and a city.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:36)
And Brigham Young was in it. He was actually on stage, not just a pulpit. He was in the theatre.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:43)
True or false? You told me that is your number one time machine desire. If you can go back in time, you want to see Brigham Young.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (3:49)
Honestly, I would do that. I don't know that that's number one, but I'd say top 10 for sure.

**Bryan Buchanan** (3:55)
You said it was number one. Don't try to lie to the people now. Yeah, no, Brigham Young on stage. It's April 1844, just two months before Joseph and Hiram Smith will be killed. Brigham Young played the High Priest in a production of Pizarro or The Death of Rolla. He was costumed in, and you have to love this detail, robes of scarlet and gold with white muslin in a non-speaking part. The show must go on, I guess.

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:19)
Which it feels exactly right for Brigham Young, honestly. I would go see that. Death of Pizarro, that sounds great. Would I want to see a sermon? No, no.
I'll just read the shorthand on that.

**Bryan Buchanan** (4:30)
Make theatre great again?

**Lindsay Hansen Park** (4:33)
Make theatre Brigham again. And no, I take that back. Don't make anything Brigham again. We're fine with the Brigham gone.
But he probably had an enormous presence, no lines required. And in the same production, there was a young man working as a stagehand named Hiram Claussen. Now remember that name because he's going to come back in a major way. So the Saints really carry this theatre tradition with them on the Trail West. They loved it in Nauvoo. They take it across. We hear stories of them doing it on the Trail. And during this exodus, they're doing all kinds of things. There are accounts of makeshift stages on the open ground, performances done on wagon beds. And one historian wrote that, quote, even in these, the darkest days of Mormon history, the innate love of the people for a clean and wholesome social enjoyment, lighten their cares and ease their burdens.