It was the summer of 1941.
Pearl Harbor was still six months away, and the flying Red Horse atop the Magnolia Building dominated the Dallas skyline.
Music lovers, not dependent on air-conditioning, were excited about plans for music under the stars. Thousands flocked to the State Fair Casino, known by most as the Bandshell. They sat on hard oak seats that had no backs. During later years, the seats were upgraded, as shown in the photo.
The Starlight Operettas, organized that year, ran through 1951 in the Bandshell, when the comforts of air-conditioning moved music lovers to the State Fair Auditorium.
During that first season, operettas – such as “Blossom Time,” “Merry Widow,” “Chocolate Soldier” and “Student Prince” – were performed in the Bandshell under the direction of J.J. Shubert. Ticket prices ranged from $1.25 to $4, and there were a lot of June bugs.
In a 1966 edition of the Dallas Morning News, Tom Hughes told the story of an interesting event that happened on-stage in the Bandshell.
The star was Nanette Fabray, who had a terrible fear of insects because of an earlier incident in her childhood. Knowing this fear, a man was assigned to stand just outside her backstage dressing room to spray her with insecticide just before her stage appearance.
“In the middle of her solo, a bug followed the spotlight beam all the way down to the cleavage of her costume. It started to crawl. She panicked.
“She was going for a high note that turned into a scream. The confused sound man turned up the volume! A stage man came and literally carried her off stage,” said the late Tom Hughes.
They never saw the June bug.
In the summer of 1996, music lovers will go to the State Fair Music Hall to performances of the familiar “West Side Story” July 23-Aug. 4. A delightful sound for these years will be heard July 9-21 in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Music of the Night.”
There will be other performances, but none will compare with those Starlight Operettas. And hopefully, there won’t be any June bugs in the Music Hall!
