Permanent Exhibits
at
Black River Academy Museum
Old Theatre Curtain (2nd Floor)
It has endured a very long history of
disuse and absence but a theatre curtain originally designed to hang in
Ludlow, VT finally found its way home. Through the help of the Vermont
Painted Theater Curtains Project, the curtain was brought to Black River
Academy Museum for needed restoration work
prior
to being hung in BRAM's auditorium.
According to Chris Hadsel, Curtain Project Director, the curtain was painted
by William Stuart in Brattleboro in 1918, more than ninety years ago. It
depicted the Odd Fellows Home on Gill Terrace in Ludlow, the painted curtain
measuring about 10 by 20 feet. The curtain was believed to have been hung in
a Ludlow location, possibly either the Odd Fellow building on Main Street or
the Gill Terrace home. Hadsel, whose group has been recovering and restoring
painted theater curtains throughout the state, estimates that the curtain
probably has been in various forms of storage for up to fifty years before
her group recovered it in Brattleboro.
During the course of restoring a 91 year
old theatre curtain originally commissioned for Ludlow, the Black River
Academy Museum discovered an unexpected piece of entertainment history, a
newspaper ad for the 1931 movie, "Dirigible". The ad was apparently used as
backing for the 20 ft by 12 ft curtain that BRAM is in the processing of
restoring. Even more interesting is the fact that Dirigible starred Fay
Wray, the actress famous for her role in the original "King Kong" movie of
1933.