This collection consists of a consecutive run of approximately 175 playbills from 1912 through 1918 for dramatic and musical performances held at the Mason Opera House in Los Angeles. During these six years, a number of Broadway musicals were performed at the Mason, featuring noted international figures such as Maude Adams, Isadora Duncan, Minnie Maddern Fiske, Anna Held, Helena Modjeska, and Anna Pavlova. The full-page playbills, which include some folding playbills, are mounted on 171 leaves of a contemporary ledger. The playbills were published for the Mason by the Program Publishing Company of Los Angeles through 1916 and later by the Mason Program Company. They were apparently distributed by the Peters Bill Posting Company of Santa Ana, California. Throughout the ledger are holograph notes in different hands recording accounting information, personal names, and the names of bill posting companies in the Los Angeles area.

The Mason Opera House, located on the 100 block of South Broadway in Los Angeles, was a popular venue for internationally known drama and opera performers from the 1900s through the 1920s under the management of W.T. Wyatt. It was centered in one of Los Angeles's major entertainment districts on Broadway. The Mason was established some time before or at the turn of the century, along with the Regal, the Belasco, the Princess, the Hippodrome, and other theaters.

0.1 Linear Feet (1 oversize folder)

Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or to publish, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

Collection is open for research.