The Music Hall

brick building

The original building at the site where the current Music Hall stands was erected in 1880 by Belden and Emery for use as a stable for horses and mules. Altemus and Brother bought the building in 1881, changing the interior by converting the hayloft into a Music Hall. Other areas of the building were used for the manufacture of infants' and children's' shoes by Evans and Shuman, the overall department of W. H. Jones and for Altemus's marble works.

In 1890, the building burned and the town band lost its bandwagon valued at $225. A new building replaced the old one in 1891, and the Music Hall was placed on the ground floor. The 40'x85' two-story brick structure contained two large street-front offices, one for their monument business, the other to rent, and a 300-seat proscenium theatre to the rear. Hoffman and Duckworth grocers occupied a portion of the building until they moved to Main Street in 1892. For the next 16 years, Fred Johnson catered to the public in a "grocerly manner" out of the end room known as the Music Hall Grocery, then Nelson Pickel took over the grocery in 1908. In 1909, Morris W. Robinson bought the building, added a fourth floor, and moved his carriage business into it.

Traveling theatre companies found Clinton to be a convenient stop-over, and Clinton citizen's boasted that the Music Hall was the "best show stop in the state." The audience (men, women and children) of the 1880s wanted a combination of clean variety entertainment, which included a lot of music and dancing, a freak show, and a play - called an after-piece. Early productions in the 1880s included "Fun in a Grocery," representing an early form of vaudeville, or variety performance. Black minstrelsy was also popular. Another form of entertainment in the 1880s at the Clinton Music Hall was the Medicine Show, especially the Indian Medicine Show. These performances borrowed from every and any performance form. They used the performers and bits from Wild West shows, burlesque, minstrels and vaudeville, and were sponsored entertainment, which meant that the audience did not pay admission. The show consisted of variety acts with "commercial breaks" when patent medicines and other materials were sold, usually the cheapest items early in the show, the more expensive fare later on.

From about 1890 to 1904, live touring attractions dominated the bookings. Every form of popular theatrical entertainment was represented: stock companies, one-night stands, medicine shows, minstrels, "Tom" shows (Uncle Tom's Cabin) and vaudeville. There were also elocutionary, literary, and musical recitals, and early cinema attractions.

In 1904, Hermin Altemus died, and his brother declared bankruptcy. Ownership of the Music Hall passed to the First National Bank of Clinton, which ran it successfully for five years. Morris Robinson, a wheelwright and carriage salesman by trade, purchased it in 1910 and added a 30'x40' four-story extension to the rear of the Hall for his shop and carriage house. He included an elevator for carrying his buggies from the ground floor to either of two floors above.

Charles Bonnell, an automobile dealer from Pattenburg, bought The Clinton Music Hall in 1915. He added a 16' brick extension to the east front office allowing space in his auto showroom for his new Willeys and Overland display models.

During the years 1912 to 1920, film surpassed live touring attractions. The Clinton Music Hall, except for an occasional one-night stand, was no longer in the professional touring circuit.