Treading the Boards With a Program from the Unique Theatre, Los Angeles, the Week of 6 August 1906

by Paul R. Spitzzeri

As Los Angeles grew by leaps and bounds in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, one of the many elements of life in the Angel City that accompanied that massive expansion was live entertainment, including at a burgeoning number of theaters that offered motion pictures, music and vaudeville to entertain growing numbers of residents who had increasing leisure time and disposable income for popular entertainment.

The “Treading the Boards” series of posts on this blog mainly features programs from venues and many are widely known today, including the Orpheum and the Pantages, while others are much more obscure, as is the case with the theater featured in this entry. The Unique opened on 21 August 1901 at 456 S. Spring Street, on the east side of that main commercial thoroughfare north of 5th Street.

While there wasn’t anything particular unique about its mix of offerings, the venue was different in that it had a female co-owner, Flora E. Hentz, who ran the enterprise was John U. Zallee for most of its relatively short history. While news accounts mentioning the partners did not identify their relationship, censuses indicate that that Zallee was Hents’ brother-in-law, though how specifically has not been located.

Zallee hailed from St. Louis where was born about 1857 to a merchant tailor born in Russia and a housewife from Canada and was a store clerk and traveling salesperson as a young adult in his hometown before becoming a druggist in Richmond, Virginia. He was an occasional visitor to San Francisco from at least 1887 and was a resident by about a decade later, where his address was that of his future partner in the theater.

Hentz was born about 1850 to natives of the Alsace-Lorraine region often contested between France and Germany and migrants to Gold Rush-era California, with her father John Rohr being a cabinet and furniture maker. She was raised in Marysville, north of Sacramento, and in San Francisco. About 1887, she married Augustus C. Hentz, who owned saloons, but also appears to have run a theater in the 1860s and it was in their home that Zallee resided when he made his home in the city.

Augustus Hentz died in 1900 and whether he left a sizable estate to his widow and/or Zallee had some savings, Flora Hentz and Zallee (it may be possible that the census references to their in-law status might have been a cover for a romantic relationship) soon made the move south to Los Angeles to open the Unique. The venue was not tied to a major vaudeville circuit or producers and, from the outset, offered Thursday nights for local amateurs to demonstrate their theatrical talents on the stage.

The 24 August 1901 edition of the Los Angeles Express commented that,

The Unique theater, which opened last Wednesday evening evening . . . has apparently filled a long felt want. The hourly performances . . . has [sic] served to fill in many an hour for shoppers. The class of entertainment is so diversified as to please all, and the management lay great stress upon the fact that no suggestions of vulgarity [this a common concern of moralist reformers] will be allowed to enter into any of the acts.

An early advertisement for the Unique noted that admission was just 10 cents, a ticket price that other Angel City theaters would charge for children, but, then again, major stars were not generally to be found treading its boards. Moreover, there were hourly performances at 2, 3 and 3 o’clock in the afternoons and 8, 9, and 10 o’clock in the evenings. Content was “clean and free from vulgarity” and included film of the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo (where President William McKinley was assassinated just a little over two weeks after the theater opened), as well as “a large number of new and interesting pictures on the BIOSCOPE,” this being an early film projection device.

A brief review from the Express of 10 September gives a general idea of the kinds of offerings at the venue:

Excellent club swingers and jugglers furnish the principal attraction at the Unique theater . . . The place is a continuous amusement house and is conducted at popular prices.

Dante’s allegory of the Inferno is presented by life-size views in color shown by stereopticon [a projector showing a pair of images fused to give a perception of a 3-D view]. The reproductions are made from the paintings of Gustave Dore, and are excellent, being well appreciated by any who have read the poet’s work. The allegory represents the tortures of hell and purgatory, with the punishments supposedly inflicted there on the various classes of sinners.

Gillen Brothers and Fonda, the club manipulators, are extremely clever, their motions being so rapid as to defy the eye. They perform a variety of interesting and amusing feats.

The biograph views presented are not above the average. Otherwise the performance is worth more than the price of admission.

A new home for the Unique was soon needed, as the Record of 11 May 1903 informed readers that “for two years past crowds have thronged to gain admission,” so the theater moved to “new quarters in a new building erected for [its owners] by Perry Whiting,” who owned a building materials company in the Angel City, at 629 S. Broadway. It was added that “there will be no crowding . . . as its floor space is four times larger than the ‘old stand,'” while the venue “will be a credit to the city, as well as a place of recreation to its patrons.”

In its first years, there were some unusual references to controversies involving the Unique, including, in 1902, a 17-year old female performer who apparently staged a robbery at her home to solicit public attention. Three years later, James Dunn sued Hentz and Zallee seeking $164 in salary and expenses that the owners refused to pay, apparently thinking his performance did not merit it, and the Los Angeles Times of 2 September 1905 observed, with no small amount of amusement over the strange nature of the situation, that the Justice Court proceeding threatened to depart “from the usual harsh austerity of its precincts to the gay abandon of the vaudeville—but the step was not taken.” Dunn’s counsel offered to have his client perform his act and the justice, after giving it some thought, decided it not necessary, because the contract between the parties specified that a discharge was acceptable after the first show if Hentz and Zallee were dissatisfied.

More serious, however, was the arrest of Hentz and Zallee a short time before the period covered by the program, which is the featured artifact from the Museum’s collection for this post, as briefly noted by the Los Angeles Record of 19 July 1906,

F.E. Hentz and Mrs. J.A. Zallee [sic], proprietors Unique theater, were arraigned Thursday on a charge of employing Ethel Hoge, under 16 years of age, to do a song and dance act. They were released on a $50 bond and will appear next Tuesday for trial.

Progressive-era concerns about child performers included the Los Angeles Police Department having a “humane officer” arrest the owners, with the Express of 28 July noting, “the case was brought to test the validity of the city ordinance regarding the appearance of children upon the public stage,” though the new city law allowed the mayor to issue a permit when requested, which was not the case here.

Young Ethel, who was 12 or 13 years of age, appeared at the theater on the 5th, but the Record of the same day informed readers that she “tried and failed dismally because her strange situation frightened her” and “she will not be allowed to try again.” Relying again on an ironic sense of humor, the Times, in its number of the following day, retailed the incident thusly, as the budding singer attempted her rendition of the 1905 hit “In My Merry Oldsmobile“:

“Come [away] with me, Lucille, in my merry—” sang little Ethel Hogue [sic], aged 12, in a high treble that trembled on “amateurs’ night” at the theater. Then there was a pause. Something was wrong with the “Oldsmobile” that is supposed to follow the “merry” in the song and it refused to go. The little lass made a brave attempt to get the machine started, but it stuck in her throat.

Again she tried to sing “Oldsmobile,” but the auto balked, her voice broke into a sob, and she stood trembling before the footlights, too frightened to move in either direction. At last one of the actors regularly employed in the place led the child off the stage while the audience hooted wildly.

The justice handed down $50 fines to Hentz and Zallee and their attorney, Richard J. Dillon, announced his intention to appeal the case to the Superior Court, arguing that the ordinance was not constitutionally valid, but noting was found as to whether this was undertaken. It likel did not help the theater operators case when the Los Angeles Herald of the 29th recorded that “Mrs. Hentz when put on the stand tried to shift the responsibility by saying that she did not know when children went on the stage, but that their mothers put them on without her consent.”

Just two days after the arrest, the Record reported on a child custody case involving a 10-year old girl, Blythe Lovdal, whose stepfather Lewis Monroe prevailed over grandmother Catherine Shore, as it was stated that “the putting of Blythe on the stage at the Unique theater was one the grounds laid for taking Blythe from her grandmother.” Shore insisted that her daughter, Monroe’s wife, “passively consented to Blythe going on the stage,” but there was a happy ending as the child, her mother and grandmother hugged, kissed and cried.

In early April, a new manager was appointed for the Unique, this being Harry Earl, an actor, of whom the Times of the 8th remarked was “well fitted for the position, as he has for the past 20 years been connected with some of the best known attractions of the East and West.” A native of Indiana and raised in the Angel City, Earl worked for a decade under the prominent theater operator, Harry C. Wyatt before joining an opera company, with other experience including managing venues in Chicago and New York City and touring companies, one performing in Asia. Earl’s acting experience was also cited and the paper concluded that, “his connection with the Unique theater should assure the patrons of Hentz and Zallee’s successful play house the good clean, wholesome performances that have always made it one of the most popular places of amusement in the city.”

Getting with the program, the item included a “SPECIAL NOTICE” that, “this THEATER is provided with an ASBESTOS FIRE CURTAIN and AUTOMATIC SPRINKLERS, fire-proof scenery and ALL REQUIREMENTS OF THE LAW,” while performances were from 7:50 to 11 each evening and matinees offered at 2:45 Monday, Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday, with the middle two being a “Children’s Souvenir” and a “Ladies Surprise,” respectively. It was added that “it is the desire of the management to five the patrons of this Theatre a strictly moral performance” and that undesirable patrons and those considered to engage in “unworthy conduct” subject to ejection.

The aisles, it went on, were to be kept clear, with guests to remain in their seats and asked “do not exist during the moving pictures; your doing so obstructs the view and annoys others.” With respect to applause, it was requested, “kindly use the hands only. No stamping or boisterousness permitted.” Women were to doff their hats, while adults were encouraged “send your children to the matinees; they will be taken care of as well as it they were at home”—a concern among the anti-theater element was that children were corrupted by theater content. Lastly, it was advised that “peanuts and popcorn eating [are] not permitted in this Theatre.”

The program included the Boston Symphony Trio, comprised of women, in a one-act comedy called “The Rehearsal;” Alicia O’Dette and her illustrated songs; the comedy musical duo of Clark and Franklin; Lillie Sutherland and Jack Curtis, a new team of comedy sketch artists; dancer and singer Arthur Eddy; the Unique Comedy Company and its production of “Mrs. Brown from Redondo,” set in Bakersfield in the present day and written by the company’s Richard Cummings and Katherine Merley; the Unique-O-Scope motion picture presentation; and music led by E.M. Estes and including four pieces.

For the main piece, Cummings penned a tune called “Come, Let’s Go Roller Skating” and patrons were encouraged to join the singing of the chorus:

Come, let us go Roller Skating,

The sport is simply grand,

My Wife will say to our Daughter,

As she takes her by the hand.

Papa can stay home and mind Baby

Whlist we cut the figure eight.

The carpet’s worn off of the parlor

Since my Wife first learned how to skate.

In its number of the 8th, the Record offered a brief review for its readership:

The audience at the Unique Monday night was unusually liberal with applause, and the show was well deserving of it. The Boston Symphony trio gave the musically inclined a treat. Clark and Franklin, comedy musical artist[s], kept the house in an uproar, and the Unique Comedy Co. continued the fun . . .

A little than two months later, another strange incident was reported on regarding the Unique as the Times of 30 October remarked that “pretty soubrettes [performers] . . . wish to keep the secrets of their stage toilettes to themselves,” but “when they learned last night that half a dozen young men had been climbing up a tall ladder and crawling over a soot-covered roof to see them every night for the past few weeks,” the actors sought out a police officer who arrested a quartet of the “peeping toms.” The miscreants were released on $10 bail each and nothing was located as to the adjudication of the matter.

Later in November, it was announced that the theater building was sold and that a new commercial edifice was to be constructed as soon as the Unique lease ended in March 1908. There was an extension for a half-year, however, followed by further delays and Hentz and Zallee continued operating the venue until late summer 1909. The new Broadway edifice, originally to be 10 stories, was built with four (though the foundation was solid enough for a later expansion, which never took place.) The Orpheum Theatre, now the Palace, is across the street, and the Los Angeles Theatre, from 1931, is a few doors down.

In early October, Hentz and Zallee reopened the Unique on First Street between Main and Los Angeles, taking on what the Times called a temporary lease of the former Empire Theatre, with the debut on the 4th including a once-act piece called “The Derby” in which white writer/actor Al Franks played a Black servant of a racehorse owner who refused a villain’s bribe to cripple the horse, but, when the antagonist drugs the jockey, the servant rides the horse to victory.

Hentz and Zallee, however, soon ended their operation of the Unique, with the last located ad from late January 1910 and which showed that Harry Earl and his wife and co-star Grace Rauworth operating the house troupe. Not much over a month later, however, it was reported that Earl “folded his tent like an Arab and silently stole away” with it rumored that the theater was about $1,500 in debt.

While it was added that the performers planned to establish a cooperative and keep the Unique in operation, it looks to have closed its doors by April. Earl and Rauworth were locked in a divorce fight when he died in 1913 and his doting mother, who had him when she was a teen, took every photo of her daughter-in-law and set them ablaze in a funeral pyre in the backyard of the actor’s bungalow in the Vermont Square neighborhood of the Angel City.

Later, in 1910, an ad was taken out offering “scenery of every description . . . one asbestos drop curtain” and “Cinderella painting, [which] can be cut to any size,” as well as a roof sign, with the address being the residence of Hentz, her theater painter brother, John B. Rohr, Zallee and a boarder on Vermont Avenue, just northwest of the University of Southern California. That year’s federal census showed the household with the former Unique owners giving no occupations. Two years later, Hentz and her brother lived in Venice, then an independent city, where she kept a boarding house.

On 24 July 1914, a death notice was published for “Flora E. Hentz, formerly proprietor of the Unique theater” and which added that “her late father was a pioneer of ’49.” Not quite a month later, Zallee died, but there was no information given other that a funeral was to be presided over by fellow members of the Elks fraternal society. While the Unique Theatre was not a prominent venue and is long forgotten, this program is a notable artifact of it and the theater scene in Los Angeles during the first decade of the 20th century, including its rareness in having a woman owner.