Fred Runner speaks in Celebration of the Mt. Play’s Centennial on June 20, 2013

by Laurie Thompson

1916 Mt. Play cast: L-R: Effie Easton, Orville Caldwell, Kenneth Cook. Anne T. Kent California Room Collection.

Please join the California Room for a special presentation in celebration of the Mountain Play’s centennial by historian and author Fred Runner on June 20, 2013 at 12 noon in room 330 of the Marin County Civic Center, San Rafael.

Audience attending the 1916 Mt. Play, William Tell © Anne T. Kent California Room Collection.

Fred will discuss the history of this beloved Marin County tradition and also highlight the key role played by Mt. Tamalpais’ West Point Inn as the hiking audience came streaming up the mountain or stepped off of the Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway.

Fred is the author of the Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway and the official historian of the West Point Inn.

The Mountain Play, which debuted in 1913 with a performance of the morality play, Abraham & Isaac, quickly became a favorite spring-time destination for theater aficionados and hikers across the Bay-Area.

Scene from the 1916 Mt. Play, William Tell. Anne T. Kent California Room Collection.

In 1916, six thousand people came to see the fourth Mountain Play, William Tell. A Marin Journal article of June 1, 1916 reports:

In moving pictures, newspaper and magazine stories…Marin county’s famous mountain, Tamalpais, will be seen by millions of people all over the United States as a result of the performance on its green slopes last Sunday of the Swiss masterpiece, William Tell, by the Mountain Play Association.

In these pictures it will be possible to get glimpses of the great crowd of 6,000 people who journeyed to the mountain theatre to see the cast of eighty performers in the production of the picturesque opera.

The critics have pronounced the performance a remarkable one. All of the players, with the exception of three or four, were amateurs, many of them being students of the University of California. Orville Caldwell…portrayed the title role of Will Tell….

The day, like most summer days in Marin county, was perfect with bright sunshine tempered just enough with a thin wisp of fog high above the crest of the mountain….

William Tell play by Orville Cadwell and his son played by Kenneth Cook, 1916. Anne T. Kent California Room Collection.

Originally published at https://annetkent.kontribune.com.