Highbrow Critics vs. The Walla Walla Audience
A touring play panned in Seattle and Portland finds an enthusiastic audience in Walla Walla, sparking a debate about local cultural taste.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Judging from the comments in the coast papers, Walla Walla is the only town on the circuit where there were Reubens enough holding dollar tickets to be delighted with the farce comedy 'Reuben in New York,' which was presented at the opera house last night to a full house. The uproarious applause that greeted the horse play from start to finish shows what sort of productions are most popular in Walla Walla, and it is no wonder that a greater effort is not made to bring first-class attractions here. John Cort, manager of the Northwest Theatrical Circuit, who was here, witnessed with amazement the enthusiastic reception given by a Walla Walla audience to a play which was unmercifully roasted by the papers of Seattle and Portland. In fact, there has been nothing here quite so rank since the appearance of Alphonse and Gaston last year. The Seattle Times says that Reuben and his support should be in jail, and the Oregonian says that the people of Portland would be better off if Reuben had stayed in New York. But Walla Walla liked Reuben, and if that is the sort of play they enjoy they should have their taste gratified.
“But Walla Walla liked Reuben, and if that is the sort of play they enjoy they should have their taste gratified in the fullest measure.”
The divide between coastal 'sophisticated' opinion and the local appetite for populist entertainment is a cultural staple of the Pacific Northwest that persists in today's local arts scene. It captures the tension between regional cultural centers and smaller, burgeoning communities.
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