A Piece of Dixon History: Famous people visited Dixon’s Opera House through the years

Ever since Dixon’s early days in the 1800s, the town has been a notable stop for major speakers, celebrities and entertainers as they traveled through northern Illinois. Perhaps the best known visitor from the 1800s is Abraham Lincoln, who came to deliver a speech on the courthouse lawn in July 1856, when he also stayed at the Nachusa House.

This column is the first of two that will identify some of the more famous people who came to Dixon between 1875 and 1925. In that half-century span, Dixon had two significant venues that could accommodate the crowds: the Dixon Opera House and Assembly Park.

The Opera House

Before 1876, the third floor of Union Hall was the primary site for such events, but its seating was not adequate for large crowds. The building, which still stands today, housing Salamandra’s Restaurant, was built in 1855, the same year that the railroad came to town.

The railroad would be a significant factor that enabled celebrity travel to Dixon.

On Nov. 30, 1876, four community-minded citizens – Judge J.D. Crabtree and local businessmen Frederick Truman, H.J. Stevens and W.G. Stevens – erected the Dixon Opera House.

The landmark building featured more seating and more luxury, and it quickly became “the cultural and entertainment center of the city, offering a wide variety of lectures, minstrels, concerts and ‘heavy’ dramas.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony

In December 1869, women’s rights activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton spoke at Union Hall on behalf of women’s right to vote, but as the Telegraph editor reported, “few … were convinced by her argument.”

Two years later, her renowned activist associate Susan B. Anthony came to Dixon, but she also gained few converts.

Eight years later, on March 26, 1877, Susan B. Anthony returned to Dixon and spoke at the new Opera House on behalf of women’s rights. The Telegraph editor found her to be “a wrinkled up old maid.”

But he said, “We left [the lecture] a women’s rights man and will probably remain so until we hear the other side of the question.”

John Philip Sousa

Many entertainers also visited Dixon, but none may have been more popular than John Philip Sousa’s Band of 60 musicians, which came to the Opera House on Sept. 26, 1905.

The Telegraph described Sousa as “peerless among bandmasters,” adding that his band was “beyond any doubt the world’s greatest musical organization.”

The band arrived in Dixon on a special train at 11:35 a.m., performed its concert at 2 p.m. and then left at 4 p.m. for Sterling, where the band played that same evening.

The Great Svingali

Not to be confused with the fictional Svengali (with an “e”), the Great Svingali appeared at the Opera House on three successive nights in December 1908.

“Conceded by press and public to be the world’s greatest hypnotist and telepathist,” he fascinated the Dixon audience with a variety of demonstrations.

On the first night, he put a man to sleep onstage, carried him to a clothing store downtown and placed him in the store window for 24 hours. The next night, Svingali returned the sleeping man to the stage and awakened him.

The entertainer also hypnotized nine people onstage and had them dance, pick cherries and perform other amusing stunts, “which kept the house in an uproar of laughter.”

Clarence Darrow

Famed criminal lawyer and orator for the Anti-Prohibition League, Clarence Darrow spoke at least twice at the Dixon Opera House.

His speech April 4, 1908, argued against a nationwide ban of alcohol, and his March 22, 1918, address railed against “The Kaiser” and the hostile aggressions of Germany in World War I, which was raging at the time.

The Telegraph described him as “an attorney of worldwide reputation … an eloquent speaker, a noted lawyer and a man of exceptional ability,” adding that “no greater friend of the laboring class ever lived than Clarence Darrow.”

William Jennings Bryan

In July 1925, Darrow and William Jennings Bryan were the opposing attorneys in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial in Dayton, Tennessee. Both men also spoke twice in Dixon.

Bryan, a former U.S. secretary of state and three-time presidential candidate, delivered an address on temperance to a packed crowd at the Opera House on March 28, 1918.

Former Dixon Mayor William Brinton introduced him after Bryan stayed the previous night in Brinton’s home, later known as the Masonic Temple.

While promoting the prohibition of alcohol (opposing Darrow’s position), Bryan said that he could “count on every mother in Dixon to vote against allowing the saloons to come back and curse and disgrace this city.”

But, he added, “men are not yet up to the level of the women on this subject.”

The Dixon Opera House was destroyed by fire in 1903, and in 1920, L.G. Rorer purchased the property, replacing it with the Dixon Theatre in 1921 and expanding its seating to 1,200.

Movies then became the primary entertainment there.

In part two, which will be published in the March 22 edition, we will survey the “A” list of notables who appeared at Dixon’s Assembly Park during this era.

Dixon native Tom Wadsworth is a writer, speaker and occasional historian. He holds a Ph.D. in New Testament.