Seattle’s Music Halls Went Silent Overnight
After the city council banned music halls and refunded their licenses, Seattle’s basement theaters shut down without a fight — at least for one night.
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.
Silence reigned in the music halls last night. Not a bar of music nor a snatch of a song echoed from the walls of the dingy basements in which they are located. This was the result of the passage by the city council on Monday night of an ordinance prohibiting all music halls from running and refunding the license money for the unexpired term.
License Inspector Taylor went around yesterday, saw each proprietor personally, and advised them to discontinue. Last night Sergt. Willard made the rounds and found the order had been observed. John Constantine, proprietor of the People’s Theater, said he did not intend to reopen until he had consulted his attorney. Clancy & Monroe and Pearson & Brand, of the New Zealand house, said they did not intend to reopen, as their places were not paying sufficiently to fight the case.
“Silence reigned in the music halls last night and not a bar of music nor a snatch of a song were echoed from the walls of the dingy basements in which they are located.”
Seattle has always regulated its nightlife through licensing, zoning and vice ordinances, and the music-hall shutdown shows how quickly City Hall could close a whole entertainment district. The council even refunded licenses, a practical move that made resistance pointless for proprietors already struggling to pay.
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