Village Squire, 1976-09, Page 10Big and boxy, the Lucknow Town Hall is still a busy place though the old auditorium is seldom used now.
THE OLD HALLS
These two
town halls
are still
in good shape
RY KFITH ROULSTON
CF CMIIAr" Il
They're so much a part of growing up in a
small town. or were few years ago before
the magic box in the livingroom made people
stay at home for their entertainment. Some
communities called them high falutin' names
like opera house.or opry house but most just
called them the town hall or some equally
ordinary name.
At one time, they were the centre of
activity. Most were built in the years after the
tough pioneering was over and communities
were beginning to•look for something more in
life a little spice, call it culture or
entertainment or what you will. So the halls
were built and the local amateur groups
performed there and the touring Chautauqua
and vaudeville shows visited there and the
first movies may have been shown there.
They prospered and no towr wanted to be
without them.
Then came radio and movies and finally
television and one by one they fell into
disfavour and often neglect and decay. In
earlier issues we looked at Cardno's Hall in
Seaforth and the old Ball Room in Clinton's
town hall, both of which haven't been. used in
years and may never be again. This month we
look at the halls in Wingham and Lucknow,
both of which are in use though not as often
as they once were.
LUCKNOW TOWN HALL
My earliest memories of a theatre building
were the upstairs auditorium of the town hall
in Lucknow. I made my stage debut there in a
public school concert and after staying
couped up in a cardboard box for five minutes
during a skit in which I ' played a
jack-in-the-box, vowed I'd never go on stage
again. .
Ah but it was grand. Real velvet curtains
hung on the stage. It was sometimes called
Carnegie Hall because of the money donated
by Andrew Carnegie when it was built and to
a youngster in a school concert. it was every
bit as impressive as the real Carnegie Hall so
f ar away.
Our concerts were held therebecause it was
before the days when modern schools all had
their own auditoriums. Our dressing rooms
were downstairs and we reached the stage by
a staircase that began near the heavy iron
doors of the town lockup, something that was
almost as impressive to a young boy as the
hall upstairs.
We tramped from school down to the town
hall daily for the last few days before the big
show went on each Christmas. How the
teachers didn't go mad trying to control a few
dozen youngsters with as many stairs and
. little rooms and nooks and crannies as the old