The Gold Rush, Railroads, and the Theater Boom
Mechanical for advertisement in a theatrical trade newspaper, ca. 1878
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Billy Rose Theatre Collection
The construction of Theater Musees, large buildings containing one
or more proscenium spaces and sideshow exhibits, followed quickly
on the building of opera houses in the new urban centers of the
West.
"[In the 1860s, Virginia City] was growing with
remarkable strides and John Piper had built a large comfortable
Opera House. The known prodigality of this great mining town, with
its easy money, was a lode stone which drew theatrical companies
great and small… As the boom days of Virginia City went by,
and the old town was greatly depopulated, theatrical troupes [in
the 1880s] did not find it paid to show here, so Carson suffered
in consequence, and Reno became the show town of the State."
— Mrs. Sam P. Davis, "Early Theatrical Attractions in
Carson," Nevada State Historical Society Papers 4 (1924)