James Warwick Vaudeville Collection
The James Warwick Vaudeville Collection consists of 773 black and white images of vaudeville performers from across the nation who performed at Beck's and Grand Theaters in Bellingham, WA. The images were collected by Jim Warwick (1879-1967), and donated to the Whatcom Museum by his daughter, Mary Simmons.
Jim Warwick & The Beck Theater
Warwick was born in England in 1879, and moved to Bellingham Bay with his family in 1887. He worked in Bellingham theaters for more than 50 years; starting out in 1897 as a stage hand at the Lighthouse Theatre, and also working for a time at the Bellingham Theater in John Stenger's Bellingham Hotel. In 1902, Warwick was hired as stage manager of Jacob Beck's new opera house on Dock Street (now Cornwall Avenue).
Beck's attracted the original companies of many of the finest Broadway productions and many famous names of the time graced the stage. The Barrymores, Enrico Caruso, John Philip Sousa, and Helen Keller were among those who entertained Bellingham audiences. In 1909, "Ben Hur" was performed, and four huge horses raced abreast across the stage in the dramatic chariot race scene.
In 1913, Beck's became the Metropolitan Theatre and vaudeville acts replaced the theatrical road shows. It was renamed the American Theater in 1915 and continued to host vaudeville entertainers until 1922 when the upper balcony was removed and the theater converted into a movie palace. Warwick continued working at the theater throughout the changes, becoming a film projectionist after the introduction of motion pictures -- a job he held until the 1950s. Warwick passed away in 1967, at the age of 87.
The Grand Theater
The first Grand Theater opened on March 27, 1905, at 127 West Holly Street. It would be one of Bellingham's most popular vaudeville houses. (The city had as many as seven over time.) In 1912, the theater was torn down to make way for the new J.J. Donovan Building that was built on the site. A new Grand Theater was erected simultaneously, behind the Donovan Building, at 1224 Commercial Street, though it maintained a second entrance on Holly Street at the location of the original Grand. The new Grand originally hosted both moving pictures and vaudeville shows, until vaudeville eventually went out of vogue.
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a uniquely American popular entertainment phenomenon, where travelling entertainers performed live on stage in a variety show format. Lasting roughly from the 1880s until the 1930s, vaudeville counted more than 25,000 performers among its ranks. Multiple acts, including perhaps comedians, jugglers, dancers, singers, acrobats, animal acts, magicians, impersonators, and other talent, performed back-to-back shows that treated audiences to hours of lighthearted fun. Though many of their names have been lost to time, the photographs collected by Warwick over the course of his career serve as a reminder of this by-gone era and entertainment style.
Sources:
Duff, Nellie Brown. "Jim Warwick Has Been With Theaters for 54 Years" Bellingham Herald, January 1, 1952: 6.
Koert, Dorothy. A History of Whatcom County Theater (Lynden, WA: Lynden Tribune, 1979)
