Left: Partial cast of the 1914 production of H. M. S. Pinafore. Right: Back cover of the playbill for H. M. S. Pinafore
declared a disappointing fizzle by the August 31 Delaware County Dairyman that year. Governor Theodore Roosevelt spoke at the opera house on October 23. In November, people gathered to hear election results received at the railroad station by telegraph and then telephoned to the opera house. In 1901 there was a vote to authorize the village to buy the opera house. It had cost $11,000 to build but would be offered to the municipality for $3,500; the vote was 46 for the plan, 69 against. A stone walk was added to the property in 1902. The village eventually did buy it. For New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, 1903/1904, local talent presented the comic opera The Chimes of Normandy, a translation of the French Les cloches de Corneville, directed by Prof. Thomas Peaslee. Touring acting companies and musicians played at the Stamford Opera House, but many of the productions continued to feature the talents of local people. The list of local entertainments was varied. In addition to dances, concerts, lectures, and large meetings, they also used the space for basketball games. Two games, as reported by the Oneonta Daily Star on January 28, 1921, saw the girls’ team from the State Normal School playing against the girls from Stamford Seminary and the Delhi Aggies playing the “regular” Stamford team—presumably by regular, the newspaper article was referring to boys. July 1919 saw the opera house leased to William Smalley of Cooperstown. Smalley used the space to show films on every weeknight that it wasn’t in use for local entertainments. Shows were at 7:30 and 9:15, with the ticket prices of 11 and 17 cents, both prices including war tax. The following spring he contracted for another two-year lease. Smalley ran 17 theaters and several dance pavilions in Central New York. An operation of that size required multiple 20 • issuu.com/catskillmtnregionguide
managers and Smalley sometimes shuffled staff around the region. The Oneonta Daily Star reported on June 26, 1923, that “Smith McGregor has assumed the management of Stamford Opera House for Mr. Smalley, being transferred here from St. Johnsville.” In 1924, Smalley purchased a lot to build another theater in Stamford. At that time he also leased the Rip Van Winkle theater at the west end of the village. Crime crept in here and there. In 1914, during a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s H. M. S. Pinafore, thieves lifted $15.20 from the pockets of coats left in the opera house cloak room. In 1927, William Joseph Duffy of Kingston, under the assumed name Jean LaMar, contracted with Jack Goodwin, the manager then of the Smalley organization in Stamford, to put on a dance at the opera house featuring LaMar’s French Society Orchestra of Twelve. Duffy/LaMar never actually had an orchestra of his own, but hired musicians as needed for events, musicians who often then had to pursue Duffy/LaMar to get paid. He printed and sold tickets for the dance, appropriating the money for himself. The theater honored the fraudulent tickets and Goodwin had Duffy/LaMar arrested on a charge of larceny. According to an item from the Glimmerglass Daily, Duffy/LaMar was sentenced to 30 days during which time his mental state was to be assessed; his family had pleaded on his behalf that he had mental issues that compelled his behavior. The Stamford Opera House was razed in 1954. Information not attributed to a specific newspaper is from copious notes kept by Daisy DeSilva in her index of Stamford’s people, places, and businesses. The Daisy DeSilva/Anne Willis Collection is now housed at the Stamford Library. T. M. Bradshaw shares other thoughts on history at tmbradshawbooks.com.