Bikes in Theatre: Lady Slavey

Fannie Robertson, Bertha Weisbach, Ethel Dune and Haysel Coulter would have remained forever unknown to me were it not for a headline that caught my attention: "Casino Chorus Must Ride Bikes." In 1904 the four young girls were actresses playing the parts of "athletic daughters" of an English major in a theatrical production of Lady Slavey at the Casino, on Spring Street, in Los Angeles. More than that, though, was the way that the four entered the stage. The story has the four returning home from a long trip - there is nothing unique, or memorable, about entering through a door though so instead, they entered by riding in on bikes. It was not an easy accomplishment. At first, the four were a little apprehensive about riding circles on the confined, slanted stage "with nothing but a five-inch chain hurdle between them and the orchestra pit and a six-foot cliff to fall over."

Growing frustrated with the progress of learning the "trick," stage manager William R. Reynolds, took hold of one of the bikes in order to show the girls how their entry should be accomplished. "He mounted the bicycle and started for the circle, but a mistake was made when a wheel minus a coaster brake was furnished and the machine turned the corner and started for the lower end of the stage at an unpleasant rate of speed. The fall was six feet to the pit and the wheel went with the rider, both escaping injury. Apparently the girls did not think much of Reynolds' way of doing things and, according to one report, "changed the performance" by riding in a "circle several times instead of riding one circle and then hurdling the footlights. The performance is not so spectacular but is much more satisfactory to the chorus."

Historical note: During its half-century of existence, the Casino underwent multiple name changes. Opening in 1903 as Waldeck's Casino, it became known simply as "the Casino" in 1904 and 1905. In 1906 it was known as the Hotchkiss Theatre, and between 1907 and 1911 as the Los Angeles. At some point during 1911 the theatre changed names to the Empress, by which it was known until 1915. Before being demolished in 1930 it was also known as (on order) Loew's Empress, Quinn's Empress, Biola Hall, the Zendejas, the Novel, Gore's Capitol, the Capitol, Waxman's and, finally, Waxman's Capitol. 

same play, different location - but I wonder if they used the bicycles in the New York production as well