1897 York Opera House program, Part 2

Here is a rundown of more great stuff from a June 19, 1897, York Opera House program called "The Play." (Read Part 1.)

York Opera House staff and rules

The entire staff of the York Opera House is credited in the program, and that listing is displayed at right. (Click on the image to read the entire text.)

The manager, B.C. Pentz, was quite active around York County during his lifetime. I have found evidence that he was a photographer; chairman of the building committee for Union Steam Fire Co. No. 3; an officer with the Spring Garden Band; and, through a legacy, one of the key financial contributors to the construction of a new York Hospital main building in 1929.

Part of Pentz's role is described as follows: "Manager Pentz will esteem it a special confidential favor for a report of any inattention or want of courtesy on the part of the attaches, and will not feel offended for any suggestions that will make the house and its management and entertainments more attractive. Patrons may rely upon the utmost efforts of the manager to please and satisfy them."

Food, restaurants and lots of frogs

There are a number of food and restaurant advertisements within the program, including:

• James M. Geltz, 447 South George Street, which had a wide-ranging menu that included live crabs (25 cents per dozen), clam soup (20 cents per quart), turtle soup (40 cents per quart), spiced oysters (40 cents per quart), frogs (25 cents apiece), Sweitzer Sandwiches (5 cents and 10 cents), tongue (10 cents per plate), and tripe (5 cents and 10 cents per plate). The restaurant also advertised "soft drinks of all kinds."
• Harlacker & Lerew, manufacturers of and dealers in confections, wholesale and retail.
• H.L. Neuman, a steam ice cream manufacturer at 15 South Newberry Street, offered "ice cream put up in Fancy Molds and Pyramids for wedding parties."

• Stover's Restaurant and Ice Cream Parlors, 133 West Market Street, which offered the "best of everything in season."
• The Green Turtle Restaurant, Gruver & Zartman, proprietors, 116 South George Street, which offered oysters, clams, chicken soup, turtle soup and ice cream.
• John N. Brickner, 14 East Maple Street, had a bill of fare that included ice cream, fried clams, clam soup, soft crabs, deviled crabs, steamed crabs, frogs and chicken.

Other advertisers

• The advertisement for Weaver Organ & Piano Co., Broad and Walnut streets, features a nice illustration of the factory. For more on the storied history of Weaver Organ & Piano, check out my wife's recent Only in York County blog entry, and these York Town Square blog entries by Jim McClure:
  
  • York, Pa.’s Weaver Organ and Piano Co.: ‘Guaranteed to give permanent satisfaction’
  • York, Pa.-made Weaver Organs &; Pianos: ‘You have a wife, do not deceive her, but grace your parlor with a Weaver’
  • What’s the value of this York, Pa.,-made Weaver Piano?
• Hoffhein's Furniture Co., 119 West Philadelphia Street, states in its advertisement: "To Create a Parlor ... which will delight the eye, be a dream of repose, a medley of artistic effect and an inexhaustible source of pleasing impressions, it is only necessary to visit our ... Furniture Emporium."
• The City Bank of York, Pa., states that is has a capital of $100,000 and a surplus and undivided profits of $50,000. The bank's president was Chas. H. Stallman.

• Sprenkle's, 202 South George Street, called upon customers to examine its Stodder's Punctureless Tire for bicycles. The business also handled "all kinds of bicycle sundries and Repair Wheels of all makes."
• P.S. Bates, 109 South George Street, dealt in watches, clocks and jewelry "of every description."

• Warden's Cut Rate Store, 227 West Market Street, sold medicines.
• Frank Rosenbaum, 327 West Market Street, sold shoes.
• E.K. Horner, York City Bottling Works, on West Maple Street, supplied families with the "finest grades Porter, Ale and Export Beers."
• Throne & Deardorff, 222 West Market Street, sold lawn mowers, lawn rakes, lawn grass seeds, rubber hose, step ladders, paint and brushes.
• New York National Merchant Tailoring Co., 304 West Market Street, offered an all-wool, made-to-order suit for $10 and promised "first-class Trimming, Workmanship and Fit."

• H. Lanius' Sons, Hartley Street and P.R.R., stated the following in its illustrated advertisement: "A Scuttle Full of our coal will do as much towards heating your home as two scuttles of any other coal. That is because our coal is all coal -- it is not slate -- it is not dirt -- it is pure, clean coal of the very best quality." (More about H. Lanius' Sons can be found in "Prominent and Progressive Pennsylvanians of the Nineteenth Century," by Leland M. Williamson, which was published in 1898.
• Henry Sterner, Painter & Paper Hanger, 213½ West Market Street, offered the finest wall paper and stated: "None but the most competent hangers employed by us."
• Alfred T.G. Hodnett, with locations at 117 South George Street and the corner of Duke and South streets, stated that rheumatism was "positively cured by using Hodnett's Guaranteed Rheumatism Cure. Guaranteed to cure or money refunded. It is without an equal." Hodnett ran into some trouble a few years later, as documented in this excerpt from 1912's "Nostrums and Quackery: Articles on the nostrum evil and quackery reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association, Volume 1."