April 9, 1905 - Florodora in San Francisco

Correction: I had previously written that Florodora found its way to the San Francisco area in 1907. Previously, I had only found early references to a production of Florodora at Idora Park in Oakland, staged there because of the damage to S.F. theaters due to the 1906 quake.

Now I've come across a reference and an advert for Florodora production at the Tivoli Opera House in San Francisco - the major performing arts house at the time - in April 1905. First I found a short reference in Week's Offerings at the Theaters in the San Francisco Call newspaper dated April 23, 1905 in the With the Players and Music Folk section on page 19. The paragraph reads:

The Tivoli is enjoying success with its good production of "Florodora" that, it should be remembered, may now be seen for the first time at popular prices.

You can see the whole newspaper page here, though you have to zoom in the the second column from the right, three paragraphs above the lower right photo to find the text quoted above.Later in the newspaper on page 35, there is the ad, shown above. From this I was able to determine that the show opened in San Francisco on April 9, 1905. But, it also says "Better Than The Original", and I don't know whether that means the original N.Y. or London productions or if it is a reference to an even earlier San Francisco opening of Florodora. The paucity of the review suggests there is an even earlier S.F. production to find.

Top ticket price of 75 cents and the California Beauty Sextet! The review from April 10, 1905 is below.

The Mountain View California-Florodora Connection

There had to be a Mountain View-Florodora connection, and there is: Delphin Michael Delmas (right).

Who you may ask was Delphin Michael Delmas? He was a farmer, dam builder, district attorney, defense attorney, Regent of the University of California, presidential nominator, who was born in France in 1844 but moved to Santa Clara in 1854. A graduate of Santa Clara, and Yale, he came to own 600 acres in Mountain View near El Camino and Bernardo (before it was Sunnyvale).

The Florodora connection? One of the most prominent attorney's of his day, he was the defense attorney in the "crime of the century" defending Harry K Thaw in the murder of Stanford White in New York. The case was the notorious Florodora Girl Evelyn Nesbit love triangle made famous in the movie and musical Ragtime. (Delphin got Harry acquitted by reason of insanity!)

You can read all about Delphin M, Delmas at the Rengstoff House website.

Oh, well there is another Mountain View connection, though more tenuous: San Francisco native Edna May Wallace who played Lady Holyrood in the original New York production of Florodora is one of the notables buried in the Mountain View Cemetery - in Oakland.