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Show Grantsville Old Opera House Oral History Project, Daughters of Utah Pioneers- Tom Callister GRANTSVILL E OLD OPERA HOUSE ORAL HISTORY PROJECT TRANSCRIPTION COVER SHEET Interviewee: Tom Callister Place of Interview: J. Reuben Clark Farm, DUP Museum, Grantsville, Utah Date of Interview: January 25, 2012 Interviewer: Patti Johnson Recordist: Ellen Yates Recording Equipment: Olympus Handheld Recorder Transcription Equipment: Express Scribe Pro with Infinity Foot Control Transcribed by: Nikki Scow Transcription Proofed by: Ellen Yates Brief Description of Contents: Tom Callister speaks about growing up in Grantsville and attending events at the Grantsville Old Opera House. Reference: PJ = Patti Johnson (Interviewer) TC = Tom Callister (Interviewee) NOTE: Interjections during pauses or transitions in dialogue; such as, "uh" and starts and stops in conversations are not included in transcription. All additions to transcript are noted with brackets. TAPE TRANSCRIPTION [00:01] PJ: My name is Patti Johnson and I'm, today is Friday, today is January 25, 2012 and we're at the Grantsville DUP Museum at the historic J. Reuben Clark Farm in Grantsville, Utah. And I'm with Tom Callister and he built this beautiful replica of the Opera House. And then, Tom we're going to ask you some prepared questions. 1 Grantsville Old Opera House Oral History Project, Daughters of Utah Pioneers-Tom Callister TC: Okay. PJ: And then, then I'd like you to tell us about building this and. TC: Oh, okay. PJ: And anything else that you would like to add, so. My first question is what's your full name? TC: Thomas Jefferies Callister. PJ: When and where were you born? TC: I was born June 28, 1943 in Tooele. PJ: And who were your parents? TC: Noel and Jenny Callister. PJ: Okay. And how long have you lived in Grantsville? TC: 68 years. I've been here my whole life. PJ: Describe your community. TC: Oh, Grantsville is a wonderful community. Like you said, I grew up here. The people are friendly, the streets are clean, we have awesome businesses and a super fire department- very professional. And whenever you go to the store you're always greeted with a smile. PJ: As a child, a teenager, or even as an adult, do you remember your family discussing local, state or world events? TC: Somewhat, yes. Mostly the Old Folks Sociable. My mom loved that. PJ: But any of the memories that they talked about, that referred to this Grand Opera House? TC: I think the main thing that they talked about was having the Old Folks Sociable programs were held on the stage in the Opera House for many years, I think. PJ: Okay, now, what are your impressions of the physical structure of the Opera House? 2 Grantsville Old Opera House Oral History Project, Daughters of Utah Pioneers-Tom Callister TC: As far as I can remember the Opera House was constructed of brick and my fondest memory is the steps on the front - huge, cement steps with metal handrails coming down. And the interior, the main floor was full of chairs and then the floor went down to a stage. And on the stage I think there was a piano. And then on the second level, on either side, were balconies. And as I remember they come out, half round balconies on both sides. And in the back was a full balcony. And of course I think it was constructed for putting on operas and there was a projection booth somewhere in the back that they showed movies. And the back of the stage was a, I think a pull down screen. [3:29] Recording stopped. [00:01] Recording started over. TC: And behind the stage, if I remember correctly, there was a big screen. I don't remember if it was a pull down screen or stationary, where they showed the movies. And as you walked through the front door there was stairs going up on one side to the balconies and stairs going up the other side to the balconies. And a stop on one side where the door was to the projection booth. But I have a lot of fond memories of the construction of the building. I don't know why it was condemned, I've never thought it should've been torn down because it was such a immaculate building. PJ: Okay. Did you ever go to, I mean, what did you go to when you went to the? TC: Okay, as I remember the Church road shows were held in the Opera house on the stage. And I attended a lot of those. And every year the Church would have a Gold and Green Ball, which was a formal dance, I think. And in the basement of the building was a beautiful dance floor. In fact, my mother told me it was the best dance floor in the County. And the Church Gold and Green Balls were held in the basement. And I remember going to those. In fact, at one time as a teenager I took tap dancing lessons in the basement of the Opera House. PJ: Okay, and what about the movies? What movies do you remember? TC: Oh, my favorites were a Superman Serial. They showed a Superman Serial, a different episode every week. And of course I'd have to go every week to keep up on the Superman Serial. And that's the ones I remember the most, is the Serials, they were fun. PJ: Do you remember the Opera House being torn down? TC: Yes. 3 Grantsville Old Opera House Oral History Project, Daughters of Utah Pioneers-Tom Callister PJ: Okay, what do you remember about that? TC: Okay, I think I mentioned that the building was condemned. They said it was falling down. And my greatest memory of that is they brought a big crane, from, I guess from Salt Lake. And they started on the front steps with this big wrecking ball. And, of course, across the street was the high school and we were sitting in class watching this. They started dropping this big wrecking ball, couldn't even crack the front steps. And I think they had to send in for a larger one so they could start breaking up the steps. So, I think they had a hard time tearing that building down. And it gradually came down, I think, from the top. Now, I'm not sure but I think that the majority of the building was pushed into the basement. I don't remember them ever digging that out. My thinking is that the old dance floor is probably still down there some place but I'm not sure, they may have. But I don't remember them ever digging that out. I think that most of the debris was hauled off and then it was just leveled. PJ: Okay, now, anything else you'd like to add there before we start on telling about the replica? TC: Well, I don't know if I can tell ya a story about the front steps of that Opera House. I won't mention names. But there was a school teacher that the kids used to tease. You probably know who I'm talking about. And the football team, he had a little Volkswagen Beetle. They got his car and they took it halfway up these steps and set it sideways on those steps. (Laughter) And he couldn't go forward, he couldn't go backwards to get his car down those steps. And I'm sure that eventually he talked 'em into haulin' it down but that was one of the funniest things I remember of the old Opera House steps. (Laughter) But we had a lot of fun going to the movies. And another thing I remember, you might remember this too, soda pop was sold in bottles and everybody would buy a bottle of pop and bring to the movie. And almost every time, about halfway through the movie, kids would set these bottles down and because the floor was tapered these bottles would start rolling. They'd roll, they'd hit a leg, turn, roll some more and roll. And they would eventually end up right in front of the stage. (Laughter) But that's one of my fond memories, the old soda pop bottles. Course, my father was one of the two gentlemen that run the projectors, him and a man by the name of Charles Anderson. And, of course, kids in town knew my dad was running the projector and it wasn't uncommon for a film to break. And who did they holler at- "Tom, go tell your dad to get the movie going" - embarrassing . But it was a lot of fun and we'd go every week to watch the movies. Never showed any on Sunday that I know of though, never on Sunday. A lot of fun. PJ: Okay. Tell us about this. TC: Oh, me building the model? 4 Grantsville Old Opera House Oral History Project, Daughters of Utah Pioneers-Tom Callister PJ: Yes. TC: Oh, just before I retired, I enjoy working with wood, and I retired as a machinist so I did a lot of work with metal too. But I enjoy working with wood and I always thought I've never seen a model of the Old Opera House and I thought someday I'm going to build a model of that Opera House. So after I retired I started searching and I found some photographs of the building on the Internet. I couldn't find any real good detailed photos so I took what I had and just from scratch, it's not built to scale or anything. But I started working on it and I do a lot of work with a scroll saw, lot of handwork. And the detail was done with a wood burner. That's how I did the detail on the trim. And I think it took me a little over a hundred hours to finish the model. But it was a lot of fun and it took up a lot of room in my house. I've thought about selling it and. In fact, I did sell, I built two models. The first one I did sell and then I thought, "Heck, I'd better build one for myself'. So this is the second one that I've built. And it took up too much room in my living room and I thought "Oh, maybe I should sell it". And then I got a call from the Pioneer Museum asking if I would be willing to donate it and I decided I'd better do that. More people would see it maybe and appreciate it. But it was a lot of fun to build. I enjoyed it. PJ: Wonderful. We're certainly glad you did and we're glad you donated it. TC: Well, thank you. PJ: Okay, and we thank you very much and then we'll ask you if you'll sign the release form. TC: Okay, no problem. PJ: Sign that and then you'll receive a copy of the interview tape. TC: Oh, thank you . [7:51] 5 |
