Village Squire, 1977-02, Page 30TRAVEL
1
Northern summer vacation
brings back gold rush days
The Palace Grand Theatre in downtown
Dawson in Canada's Yukon Territory is a
perfect replica of the original building
opened by Arizona Charlie Meadows on a
memorable July night back in 1898.
Charlie packed 2,000 patrons into the
Grand that night and left 500 more
clamoring to get in.
For the next 60 years, the Grand was
many things, including a community center
a religious meeting hall, but to a steadily
diminishing audience. In 1961, it was
evaluated, sketched. photographed and
structurally memorized by National Histor-•
is Sites, torn down before it fell down and
totally rebuilt right down to the kitchen
chairs that served as seats in the days of
Arizona Charlie.
In 1962, the Palace re -opened in
renewed grandeur with the Broadway
musical "Foxy" starring the late Bert
32, VILLAGE SQUIRE/FEBRUARY 1977
Lahr. The Dawson opening was the most
distant "off Broadway" opening of any
show in New York's theatrical history.
For a city that was born on golden
dreams, Dawson now lives on the
memories of those dreams that were
actually realized. The Klondike gold rush
was the international news story of the 19th
century and now, 75 years later, it's still a
heady wine.
In Dawson, the gold fever has never
cooled; the ghosts of sourdoughs past are
resurrected with every story, and
vaudeville still lives at the Palace Grand.
A box seat is a tribute to the players and
the play, lends dignity to the viewer and in
the true theatrical traditions set in the days
of the immortal bard, allows the box patron
to quiver a disdainful nostril at the motley
assortment of affluent tourists and
penniless hippies seething below.
Sitting high in the third tier, rear and
comfortable ensconced on a traditional
hard -backed kitchen chair, (Historic Sites
give no quarter in their pursuit of authentic
detail), the curtain rose and the play was
on --"The Fate of a Poor Miner's
Daughter" or "Shame on the Man Who
Pursued Her", produced by Yukon -born
writer Meg Sutherland McCall.
The old-fashioned "meller dramer" was
ably presented by a talented cast and hip
audience. Right eventually triumphed over
evil but the respective cheering sections
kept the issue in doubt until the last claim
was staked.
When the slinking, sneering villain,
Dash Grimwood appeared, dressed in
traditional morning coat and striped
trousers, he soundly and quite rightfully,
booed by the "Straights" in the
house --people over 40 years.
When Corporal Hawkeye of the
R.C.N.W.M.P. came forth and saluted
smartly, he prompted lusty guffaws from
the grasshopper set --30 years and under.
This same segment smelled suspiciously
and pungently of burning leather during
intermission outside in the street. Historic
Sites are understandably adamant about no
smoking withip their painstakingly
constructed all -wood replica of the Palace
Grand.
The middle group, 30 to 40 years,
seemed content to follow the wisdom of
their elders in their condemnation of the
evil Dash, but reacted with uncertain
laughter when the pillar of law, order and
social stability, the fabled 'fuzz' of the
North was greeted with a raspberry -type
hoot from the irreverent hair and leather
brigade.
The following night the New Dawson
City Gaslight Follies featured an accept-
able version of the French Cancan,
traditionally awful jokes and excellent
singing with piano, banjo and violin. The
"old" theater again swayed to the strains
of "Sweet Rosie O'Grady", "Sidewalks of
New York" and you could hear the drop of
a poke during the violin solo and recitation
of "The Touch of a Master's Hand".
The curtain falls and the applause fades
to a scraping and shifting of old-style
straight-backed chairs as the patrons'of the
Palace Grand rise to leave. Most, if not all,
will repair directly to Diamond Tooth
Gertie's, Dawson's and Canada's only
legal gambling casino.
They stand three deep at the blackjack
tables, portly cigar -puffing outsiders on a
summer tour of the north stand shoulder to
shoulder with the leathery and leaner
native northerners. Together they pursue
the time-honored search, that even today
makes Dawson City, Yukon a fascinating
and wonderful place to continue --the
endless quest for gold and scintillating
entertainment. The theatrical season at
the Palace is from early June to
mid-September.
Details and further information can be
obtained from the Yukon Department of
Travel and Information, P.O. Box 2703,
Whitehorse, Yukon Territory or the
Canadian Government Office of Tourism,
150 Kent Street, Ottawa, Canada K1A
OH6.