



Produced by the Mormon Texts Project,
http://bencrowder.net/books/mtp. Volunteers: Eric Heaps
with a little help from Benjamin Bytheway and Ben Crowder.








_The_ Mormons _and the_ Theatre

OR

_The History of Theatricals in Utah_

With Reminiscences and Comments
Humorous and Critical


_By_ JOHN S. LINDSAY


SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH
1905




CHAPTER I.


In rather sharp contrast to other Christian denominations, the Mormons
believe in and are fond of dancing and the theatre. So much is this
the case that Friday evening of each week during the amusement season
is set apart by them in all the settlements throughout Mormondom for
their dance night. Their dances are generally under the supervision of
the presiding bishop and are invariably opened with prayer or
invocation, and closed or dismissed in the same manner, with a brief
return of thanks to the Almighty for the good time they have enjoyed.

The theatre is so popular among the Mormon people, that in almost
every town and settlement throughout their domains there is an amateur
dramatic company.

It is scarcely to be wondered at that Salt Lake has the enviable
distinction of being the best show town of its population in the
United States, and when we say that, we may as well say in the whole
world. It is a well established fact that Salt Lake spends more money
per capita in the theatre than any city in our country.

Such a social condition among a strictly religious people is not
little peculiar, and is due, largely, to the fact that Brigham Young
was himself fond of the dance and also of the theatre. He could "shake
a leg" with the best of them, and loved to lead the fair matrons and
maidens of his flock forth into its giddy, bewildering mazes. Certain
round dances, the waltz and polka, were always barred at dances
Brigham Young attended, and only the old-fashioned quadrilles and
cotillions and an occasional reel like Sir Roger de Coverly or the
Money Musk were tolerated by the great Mormon leader.

That Brigham Young was fond of the theatre also, and gave great
encouragement to it, his building of the Salt Lake Theatre was a
striking proof. He recognized the natural desire for innocent
amusement, and the old axiom "All work and no play makes Jack a dull
boy," had its full weight of meaning to him. Keep the people in a
pleasurable mood, then they will not be apt to brood and ponder over
the weightier concerns of life.

There may have been a stroke of this policy in Brigham Young's
amusement scheme; but whether so or not he must be credited with both
wisdom and liberality, for the policy certainly lightened the cares
and made glad the hearts of the people.

Although Salt Lake City has been the chief nursery of these twin
sources of amusement for the Mormon people, to find the cradle in
which they were first nursed into life, we will have to go back to a
time and place anterior to the settlement of Salt Lake. Back in the
days of Nauvoo, before Brigham Young was chief of the Mormon church,
under the rule of its original prophet, Joseph Smith