Next week, the local historian Hugh King will give a history of East Hampton’s first performing arts venue, Clinton Academy, or Clinton Hall, as it was later known.
The talk will begin with graduation speeches and public addresses at Clinton Academy and take us through 1921, after the building expanded into Clinton Hall, which regularly hosted a wide variety of events for the community, including dances, concerts, and regular Edison Projectoscope showings.
One of the many theatrical productions that took place there was the play featured in this broadside from 1915, titled “The Image of Bam Bi,” organized as a benefit for the Ladies Village Improvement Society. The play had nothing to do with a similarly named 1942 Disney movie or its deer, but focused on the “love charm” a man used to win the love or hatred of women on an island called Bam Bi depending on which hand he held it in. A large summer hotel served as the backdrop.
According to The East Hampton Star, the “two-act musical comedy” featured a “large home talent cast directed by Miss Ethel Ault,” with 17 actors and 22 chorus members, all costumed. Ault hailed from the Beck Entertainment Bureau of Boston and previously directed and produced several plays for the L.V.I.S. at Clinton Hall.
The society’s treasurer reported that the showing led to a net profit of $52.48 (roughly $1,683 today). Clinton Hall would host benefits in the late 19th and early 20th centuries for everything from Sunday schools here to clubs like the Cycle Club and even the East Hampton Library.
To learn more about how Clinton Hall served as the educational, social, and entertainment center of East Hampton between 1821 and 1921, please join the East Hampton Historical Society and the Long Island Collection for Hugh King’s free Tom Twomey Series talk on Friday, March 27, at 7 p.m. at the library.
—
Andrea Meyer, a librarian and archivist, is head of collection for the Long Island Collection.
