Category: Birdcage theatre

Tombstone Diary: Saturday, April 11, 2015:

Gunfight at OK Corral (1957) / Frankie Laine

I came to Tombstone with the attitude that “whatever’s there, I’m going to enjoy it”. I surely expected a degree of tackiness –  but I also looked forward to a degree of the Historic Tombstone …

We’ll see …

Saturday, April 11, 2015: A beautiful day. Going to be about 80 F. With clear blue skies. Shouldn’t burn my delicate Alberta skin.

But first, of course, we get lost. Took a wrong turn in the desert.
No sweat. I’m enjoying the scenery.

Then ! a sign …

We ride into Tombstone at about 10 a.m.

Wow! … lots of people in town. Something is going on. ? I see some costumed kids dancing in the street …

Seems we’ve arrived on the Tombstone Rose Festival !

Tombstone Rose Festival:

“Celebrating the 130th Blooming of the “World’s Largest Rose Tree”.
Events included the Rose Tree Parade, Rose Queen Coronation, Pet Parade,
Folklorico Dancers and the Nogales Arizona Mariachi Apache Band
and much more.”

Amazing !

There’s also a Corvette Stingray rally as part of the festival.

I coulda taken a dozen pics of these beautiful Rays’.

But that’s not why we came.

We find a parking spot … jump out …

First thing we see is a bunch of wagon wheels behind a building.

We think this is interesting. ? *click click*

Walking around the corner and Rose gets right into it …
Snaps a nice shot of some folks in Western attire.

Sign on the wall says:

 We find we’re standing right in front of the famous Bird Cage Theatre !
–  blog buddy Rick (Surrounded by Imbeciles: https://surroundedbyimbeciles.wordpress.com/)
had recommended this to us! 

Sign outside of the Bird Cage:

 Next up:

Inside the Bird Cage 

Lindsey Stirling – Transcendence

Tomestone: a brief history

Wikipedia: Tombstone is a historic western city in Cochise County, Arizona, United States, founded in 1879 by Ed Schieffelin in what was then Pima County, Arizona Territory. It was one of the last wide-open frontier boomtowns in the American Old West. The town prospered from about 1877 to 1890, during which time the town’s mines produced US$40 to $85 million in silver bullion, the largest productive silver district in Arizona. Its population grew from 100 to around 14,000 in less than seven years. It is best known as the site of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and draws most of its revenue from tourism.

The town was established on a mesa above the Tough Nut Mine. Within two years of its founding, although far distant from any other metropolitan city, Tombstone boasted a bowling alley, four churches, an ice house, a school, two banks, three newspapers, and an ice cream parlor, alongside 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, and numerous dancing halls and brothels. All of these were situated among and on top of a large number of dirty, hardscrabble mines. The gentlemen and ladies of Tombstone attended operas presented by visiting acting troupes at the Schieffelin Hall opera house, while the miners and cowboys saw shows at the Bird Cage Theatre, “the wildest, wickedest night spot between Basin Street and the Barbary Coast”.

Under the surface were tensions that grew into deadly conflict. The mining capitalists and townspeople were largely Republicans from the Northern states. Many of the ranchers in the area were Confederate sympathizers and Democrats. The booming city was only 30 miles (48 km) from the U.S.–Mexico border and was an open market for beef stolen from ranches in Sonora, Mexico, by a loosely organized band of outlaws known as The Cowboys. The Earp brothers—Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan and Warren—arrived in December 1879 and summer 1880. They had ongoing conflicts with Ike and Billy Clanton, Frank and Tom McLaury, and other Cowboys members. The Cowboys repeatedly threatened the Earps over many months until the conflict escalated into a confrontation that turned into a shootout, the now-famous Hollywood-ized Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The actual gun fight was on Fremont Street a block or 2 away from the O.K. Corral.