Performances

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Circus acrobats, circa 1915-1925.

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Color postcard of the interior of Saltair's coliseum, noting that the building could seat 50,000 spectators, 1893-1925.

Saltair’s stages featured popular vaudeville performances, including minstrel acts starring white actors in blackface playing out racist stereotypes for laughs. Saltair ended its opening season with a masquerade ball, offering prizes for costumes that included a $5 prize for the “Best Specimen of the Plantation Negro.” C. G. Watson won this prize, though his wasn’t the only racial costume--others included “Esquimeaux,” Mexican, and Turkish. Saltair guests were not unique in these racial characterizations, but they paid the same finely tuned attention to color lines as other Americans. In fact, an African American man was kicked out of the resort because of his race in 1910.

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Agreement and Contract stipulating that Saltair Beach Company will lease the Saltair Hippodrome to John Y. Rich and M. K. Parsons for a "Wild West" performance on August 5, 1911.