By Martha Glauthier - Curator/Past President
San Dimas Historical Society
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Imagine yourself back in 1929. The depression has not really been felt in San Dimas, which has a thriving little business district, eleven miles of newly paved streets, complete with curbs, sidewalks, and street lights. We have probably 2,000 residents, four or five churches, several fraternal organizations and social groups. Some families have the new-fangled radios, but there are few cultural opportunities. Enter Edward Ewald, called home to San Dimas by the illness of his widowed mother. He had been presenting Miniature Operas in La Jolla for the last four seasons, 14 weeks each. After talking to his friends and finding considerable interest in opera among them, Edward decided to stay with his mother for a year, and build a miniature opera house at his family home and orange grove, at 115 W. 5th St. Mr. Ewald built an exact replica of the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, but in miniature - a scale of four inches to six feet. The ornate proscenium arch was also built to scale, and the stage was hung with crimson velvet, with an asbestos curtain with a scene from “Othello.” There were even two dimunitive opera-boxes hung with crimson and gold at the sides. There was a wide bench around three of the walls, and with chairs in the middle, the seating capacity was fifty. All in the audience were invited guests, for Mr. Ewald did not charge admission. His purpose in presenting the fifty-two operas in his repertoire was to encourage school children and his friends to love opera as he did. Edward said that he got his “kick and tonic” in the effect on the audience, and planned to return to the stage when the year was up. |
At eight o’clock, Edward appeared before his three-foot high curtain and gave a resume of the opera to be presented. His purpose was to interpret the piece with all the drama possible - without the characters making an actual appearance. He had the best recordings available, installed a complicated lighting system, painted his sets, and collected the props needed. He substituted the spoken word and the music for the actors. If there was a storm scene, the trees bent, rain poured, lightning flashed. In “Aida,” the royal barge came floating down the palm- fringed Nile. In “La Boheme” the tiny shops were stocked with wares, as the windows lighted up, one by one, as the evening darkened. It was said that the scenery and the vivid lighting effects made the audience visualize the actors more clearly than if they were really there. Mr. Ewald was his own stage-hand, managing the curtains, changing the scenes and the lights, and telling the entire story from his position back-stage. He built the floor of the stage in sections which could be raised or lowered for quick changes of scene. His lights were effectively dimmed by using his hands instead of rheostats. His audience were spellbound and deeply touched by these performances. It was truly the “theater of the mind.” |