From 1955 – 1970, there were 10 Miss Santa Barbara contests held at the Lobero.

Being crowned Miss Santa Barbara meant the winner could compete in the Miss California and Miss America contests.

While the contest ran for several years at the Lobero Theatre, sadly, records don’t show any of the Miss Santa Barbara county titleholders making it on to Miss America until 2006 with Moorpark’s Jacquelynne Noelle Fontaine. Ms. Fontaine went on to recognition as a prominent American opera singer.

Rules stated that entrants must be a high school graduate age 18-28, a resident of Santa Barbara County for at least six months, and, possess “poise, personality, intelligence, charm and beauty of face and figure.”

Some suggestions for the talent presentation may include giving a talk on the career she wishes to pursue, including teaching, nursing, law, medicine, business.

The Miss Santa Barbara contest was apparently somewhat controversial from the beginning, with newspaper articles mentioning that UCSB sorority events parodied the contest as early as 1958.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_California
• https://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/downloads/rv042v201
• https://www.alexandria.ucsb.edu/downloads/wh246t07m
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacquelynne_Fontaine

On May 17, 1873–Just three months after the Lobero opened its doors–the Wilton Dramatic Troupe staged a production of the Broadway play “Under the Gaslight.”

This production featured high-quality special effects, including the first railroad train ever seen in Santa Barbara, and a reversal of the classic damsel-in-distress trope, as the heroine saves the hero from certain death tied to the railroad track.

“Under the Gaslight” has been called the classic melodrama, and is best known for its suspense scene where the hero is tied to railroad tracks as a train approaches, only to be saved from death at the last possible moment. Interestingly, in “Under the Gaslight”, it is the heroine who saves the hero from certain death on the railway tracks – and the genders are only swapped in later versions of the melodrama.

“The first railroad train ever seen in Santa Barbara made a trip across the stage of Lobero’s Theatre in “Under the Gaslight. It looks as natural as does Denny’s drop curtain representing the Golden Gate.” – San Francisco newspaper, the Weekly Alta California

The first real train to arrive in Santa Barbara would come in 1887, 14 years after the play.

Sources:

• https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803110621190
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_Gaslight

In the spring and summer of 1885, Prof. Hinton’s Dancing School booked the theatre three days a week to offer group and private lessons.

The original Lobero Theatre did not have permanent seating, and some of the most popular events in the late nineteenth century were ballroom dances.

Some popular dances of the time included: American Gavotte, Ashland Polka, Bamboula, Buzzard Lope, Cadet Waltz, The Carlton, The Celtic, The Columbia, The Combination Polka, Counjaille, Coquette, Esmerelda Waltz, Eugenie Waltz, Hesitation Waltz (or Valse Boston), Five Step Waltz, Xylophone Polka, Collegiate Polka.

It’s fun to think about the Lobero Theatre emptied of seats and filled with dancers decked out in hoop skirts and tuxedos.

By the 1850’s, waltzing couples were making changes to the original format, much to the chagrin of authors including Allen Dodworth in his manual, 1885 Dancing and its relations to education and social life, who complained about the kicks, slides, and swayings that had become part of waltzing. One of these popular waltzes was known as the Boston Waltz, variations of which can still be seen today.

Another fun fact about these social dances are that both ladies and gentlemen wore gloves, and were expected to carry a second pair in the event that the first became soiled. (Being seen with dirty gloves was a ballroom blunder.) Men might also wear a top hat, while ladies carried parasols, handkerchiefs or a fan.

Sources:

• https://www.loc.gov/collections/dance-instruction-manuals-from-1490-to-1920/articles-and-essays/western-social-dance-an-overview-of-the-collection/nineteenth-century-social-dance/
• https://www.streetswing.com/histmain/d5timlne.htm
• https://www.americanantiquarian.org/Exhibitions/Dance/fashion.htm

On May 11, 1953, The Trapp Family Singers performed at the Lobero in 1952 and 1953–before the Broadway musical of 1959, or the iconic, “The Sound of Music” told their story.

Did you know there was a real singing family, just like the film? The Trapp Family Singers performed in the United States often before emigrating permanently during World War II to escape the deteriorating situation in Austria. In their day they were a famous household name within the United State and Europe.

The Trapp Family (also known as the von Trapp Family) was a real singing family of the former Austrian naval commander Georg von Trapp. The family achieved fame in their native Austria during the interwar period. Maria wrote an account of the singing family, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, which was published in 1949 and became the inspiration for the 1956 West German film The Trapp Family, which in turn inspired the Broadway musical The Sound of Music.

From 1934-1956 the von Trapp family sang in over 2,000 performances, in venues ranging from high school auditoriums to iconic concert halls, bringing joy and comfort to over 3 million people throughout 30 countries.

The Sound of Music is a 1965 American musical drama film produced and directed by Robert Wise, and starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer, with Richard Haydn and Eleanor Parker. For those unfamiliar, the film is about a young Austrian postulant in Salzburg, Austria, in 1938 who is sent to the villa of a retired naval officer and widower to be governess to his seven children. After bringing love and music into the lives of the family, she marries the officer and, together with the children, finds a way to survive the loss of their homeland to the Nazis.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sound_of_Music_(film)
• https://www.vontrapp.org/2-000–concerts-timeline.html
• https://www.mmone.org/trapp-family-singers/
• https://www.biography.com/news/real-von-trapp-family-sound-of-music

On May 7, 1950, renowned anthropologist Margaret Mead led a lecture, presented by the University of California.

Mead was notable for her forays into topics from sexual attitudes in Southeast Asia to women’s rights, child-rearing, sexual morality, nuclear proliferation, race relations, environmental pollution, and world hunger.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead made her mark on the 20^th century through her fieldwork studying detailing the attitudes towards sex in South Pacific and Southeast Asian traditional cultures.

Mead’s fame owed as much to the force of her personality and her outspokenness as it did to the quality of her scientific work. Her research went on to influence the 1960’s sexual revolution as she became a proponent of broadening sexual conventions within the context of Western cultural traditions.

“[Margaret Mead] brought the central insight of cultural anthropology to millions: that varying cultural patterns express an underlying human unity. She mastered her discipline, but she also transcended it. Intrepid, independent, plain spoken, fearless, she remains a model for the young and a teacher from whom all may learn.” – Jimmy Carter

Mead’s contributions to science received special recognition when at the age of 72 she was elected to the presidency of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1979 she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian honor.

Sources:

• http://www.interculturalstudies.org/Mead/biography.html
• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Mead
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Mead

On May 5, 1988, Folk-rock icon Donovan played a concert at the Lobero Theatre.

Donovan was at the forefront of Britain’s swinging 60’s flower power movement and inspired a generation of songwriters.

Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch, 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, rock, blues, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music (notably calypso music).

He became a friend and mentor to top pop musicians including Rolling Stones founder, Brian Jones, and the Beatles. He taught John Lennon a finger-picking guitar style in 1968 that Lennon employed on “Dear Prudence”, “Julia,” “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” and other songs. Donovan has been compared to Bob Dylan in his early days thanks to his and Dylan’s shared inspiration Woody Guthrie in their first albums.

“Donovan singlehandedly initiated the Psychedelic Revolution with Sunshine Superman.” – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 2012

More than the creator of the first Psychedelic Album, “Sunshine Superman,” Donovan announced Flower Power for the first time and presented to the world the first popular fusions of Folk, Classical, Jazz, Indian, Gaelic, Arabic and Caribbean influences. He is also well-known for pioneering new production recording techniques in the studio, influencing many who followed in his musical footsteps.

Sources:

• https://donovan.ie/
• http://donovan.ie/biography/
• https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/497028/donovan-qa-catching-up-with-a-folk-rock-superman

On May 4, 1943, celebrated classical pianist Arthur Rubenstein played a concert at the Lobero Theatre.

He has been described as one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, celebrated for his interpretations of great composers and passionate playing style.

Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) was an internationally-acclaimed Polish American classical pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music written by a variety of composers and many regard him as the greatest Chopin interpreter of his time.

In 1937, Rubinstein returned to Carnegie Hall at the height of his powers. It had been more than thirty years, and this time he was hailed as a genius. In his performance of Chopin, critics saw not only the master musician but a revolutionary reinterpretation of the composer’s work. Rubinstein realized that the growing threat of Nazi occupation necessitated his family’s immediate relocation to America, where he found a home in Los Angeles among a number of other European refugees.

“[Rubestein’s] playing was not the controlled sedate playing of the traditional classical musician, but a wild unrestrained embrace of the piano. It was his charismatic and passionate playing, rather than his virtuosity which drew large audiences.” *

Sources:

• https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/arthur-rubinstein-about-arthur-rubinstein/693/
• https://www.steinway.com/artists/arthur-rubinstein
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rubinstein

On May 1, 1951, Andres Segovia performed at the Lobero for the third time.

Segovia is regarded as one of the world’s finest classical guitarists, granting respectability to the guitar as a serious concert instrument with a depth of interpretation.

Andrés Segovia Torres, known as Andrés Segovia, was a virtuoso Spanish classical guitarist from Linares, Spain. Many professional classical guitarists today were students of Segovia or students of his students. Segovia’s contribution to the modern-romantic repertoire not only included commissions but also his own transcriptions of classical or baroque works. He is remembered for his expressive performances: his wide palette of tone, and his distinctive musical personality, phrasing, and style.

“Lean your body forward slightly to support the guitar against your chest, for the poetry of the music should resound in your heart.” – Andres Segovia

He can be credited with dignifying the classical guitar as a legitimate concert instrument before the music public, which had viewed the guitar merely as a parlor instrument. He performed at the Lobero three times, in 1945, 1948, and 1951, and continued giving concert performances past the age of 90.

Sources:

• https://www.britannica.com/biography/Andres-Segovia
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9s_Segovia
• https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/andres-segovia-quotes