MANNERS ST. SITE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 281, 26 August 1942, Page 4

MANNERS ST. SITE

Where Three Theatres Have Stood Some sections of the Regent Theatre, Manners Street, Wellington, now undergoing reconstruction after the earthquake, are what is left of the third theatre erected on that site. “Once a theatre site, always a theatre site,” is a London saying, which applies particularly to this house of entertainment. The first theatre erected on the site f was the Imperial, built in 1877 and burnt down two years later. This was the fire which consumed the Wesleyan Methodist Church, which stood on tho . opposite side of Manners Street. The old’theatre became aflare just as the people were leaving the church after service. The Hames soon spread to the Working Men’s Club, and leapt across the street to the church—an architectural feature of early Wellington. The fire travelled on to Cuba Street, destroyed the Nag’s Head Hotel there, and jumped across the street to destroy the Royal Oak Hotel and the old Market Hall. In all an area, of ten acres was devastated by that fire, which did damage to the amount of £lOO,OOO. The second theatre on the site was the Te Aro Opera House, opened on November 17, 18S6, with a performance of “The Silver King,” played by the Leitch and MacMahon Company. This theatre also was totally destroyed by fire on March 29, ISBS. “I remember that theatre well,” said Mr. Robert Mclntyre, Wellington, “ae I was present at the last performance given there. It was- given by the D’Orsay Ogden Company, headed by Ogden, an American actor, and his wife, Helen Fergus, said to have been a niece or some relation to Sir James Fergusson, who was Governor of New Zealand away back in the ’7o’s. ‘Baby’ Ogden, who later starred throughout New Zealand, was their daughter. The play on that last night was ‘Ten Nights in a Bar-room.’ 1 was but a lad in the pit. The house was so bad that we hopped, over the rail of the old pit (ou the ground floor) into the stalls, and none said anything to us. From what I can remember, I think they blamed' the fire on to overheating caused by leaving a gas chandelier alight all night and the next day. It set fire to the borders, and the whole stage was aflame before anyone knew anything about it.” in its place another theatre was erected by the Wellington Opera House Company. This was opened ou December 6, ISSS, by the old Wellington Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society with “The Mikado,” with W. D. Lyon as Ko-Ko find Nellie Parkes as Yum-Yum. This theatre bad a second gallery, called the family circle, which was removed when the whole place was remodelled inside in 1920, when it was known as the Tivoli Theatre. After that it became a picture theatre outright, the “legitimate” having changed over to the Grand Opera House.