Program for Miss Flora Batson Performing at Spurgeon’s Opera House
ClassificationsPrinted Materials-programs & playbills
DateNovember 21, 1889
MediumInk on paper
Dimensions6 × 10 1/4 in. (15.2 × 26 cm)
Object number37521
DescriptionThis is a program from 1889 when the opera singer Flora Batson performed at the Spurgeon’s Opera House in Santa Ana. At the time, it would have been practically unheard of for a woman of color to take the stage, an ugly truth which makes it even more impressive that Flora Batson performed in Santa Ana on the evening of Thursday, November 21, 1889. She was a Black woman; a mezzo-soprano who earned accolades like “the Queen of Song,” “probably the greatest ballad singer,” and “worth going 1,000 miles to hear.” Flora Batson was born in Washington, D.C. in 1864 to a Civil War widow. At the age of three she and her family moved to Providence, Rhode Island and it was there that she discovered and honed her natural talent for song by performing in her church choir. By the time she turned 21, she had already left her hometown and during a 90-day performance in New York City drew the eye of James G. Bergen, manager of the Bergen Star Company. With his help, she was able to continually book venues which would normally have been exclusively reserved for white audiences and performers. Batson also fell in love with and married Bergen. At the height of her fame in 1889, whoever was then responsible for the bookings at Santa Ana’s Spurgeon Opera House managed to book Flora Batson for a one evening performance. The opera house that she performed in that night was demolished in 1913 to make way for what is now the Spurgeon Building in downtown Santa Ana. It just so happens that this theater was also the site of the first film screening in the county. Unfortunately, there is no record of Batson’s Santa Ana performance. Bergen passed away in 1896 and left Batson without any money or inroads into the major venues she had once performed in. Practically overnight she went from singing for Pope Leo XIII and Queen Victoria, to working in vaudeville.On View
Not on viewCollections
Late 19th to Early 20th Century
c. 1927
Early 20th Century
Early 20th Century
Early 20th Century
April 1961
1870-1949
