Natick at Night: Music, Dance, and Silent Film in 1920s Natick
Selections from the Broadsides Collection
Curated by Laura Harms
A New Nightlife
As the last of the troops returned to the United States after WWI, exciting new forms of entertainment and nightlife swept across the country. Despite the adoption of prohibition in 1919, Americans everywhere, including in Natick, filled their evenings with dance, music, and film.
With increased financial freedom and loosened chaperone traditions, young adults flocked to jazz concerts and dance competitions. The foxtrot, waltz, and tango dominated the floor at venues like the Riverside Ballroom in Natick. While older generations frowned, young sweethearts danced for prizes. The Riverside offered cash, jewelry, and even live pigs to the evening’s best steppers and swayers.
When the crowds were not filling dance halls, they were filling theaters. In the 1920s, silent films advanced from twenty-minute “two-reelers” to feature-length shows–enough time to fill an evening. Between 1920 and 1930, an astonishing 800 silent films were released each year and film stars became celebrities. Everyone knew the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Harold Lloyd, Buster Keaton, Mary Pickford and Clara Bow.
Entertainment in Natick
In the 1920s, Natick was a small town dependent on farming and small-scale industry, but it boasted two modern entertainment venues: the Riverside Ballroom and the Natick Theatre. Residents from nearby Dover, Framingham, and Newton visited Natick to see popular musicians like the Remick Trio Singers and Bray & Savino’s Orchestra, and film stars like Tom Mix and Pola Negri.
Opening in the 1890s, the Riverside Ballroom thrilled dancers in Natick for nearly thirty years. The Riverside was located along the Charles River in South Natick and sustained considerable flood damage over the years. Shortly after it was expanded and modernized, the Riverside burned to the ground just after Christmas in 1924. It was never rebuilt.
Built in 1913, the Natick Theatre screened silent films and held live performances with musical accompaniment. The theater held a whopping 800 seats and was considered innovative and modern until the advent of synchronized sound. When talking pictures took off after 1927, the Natick Theatre fell behind the competition and closed its doors permanently in November 1929.
The demise of the Natick Theatre coincided with the stock market crash which ushered in the Great Depression. Fewer Americans–and fewer Natick residents–could afford to fill their evenings with music, dance, and movies. Memories of fox trots, music battles, and celebrities must have endured as a new era rolled in.
Exhibition Jazz Dancing,
August 9, 1920
The dancing duo known as the ‘Kanes of Natick’ were celebrated in Natick and beyond. Charlie Kane and Flo Kane shared the same last name, but were of no relation. Each had families with deep roots in the Natick community.
Growing up in town, Charlie and Flo both nurtured a love of dance and musical theater. In addition to his work with Flo, Charlie had been a dance instructor and starred in several plays at the Natick Theatre, while Flo ensured there were dance events held around town. As a duo, and as individuals, Charlie and Flo won many local Fox Trot competitions.
Dance with McEnelly’s Singing Orchestra,
May 18, 1922
Edwin J, or E.J. McEnelly (center) formed his singing orchestra in 1902 in Milford, Massachusetts. They frequently played dance halls in Springfield, Massachusetts and competed in the local “battle of music” competitions.
Known for their Jazz and Waltz styles, McEnelly’s Singing Orchestra went on to record music and broadcast on WBZ radio throughout the 1920s. The orchestra included Waino Kauppi (far left, holding cornet). Kauppi was a child prodigy who, at the age of 12, became one of the first triple-tongued cornetists. He was celebrated as "the boy wonder."
Listen to a 1925 recording of “Spanish Shawl” by McEnelly’s Singing Orchestra.
Battle of Music,
September 11, 1922
Dancing was not the only reason the Riverside Ballroom became so popular in the 1920s. Bands of all kinds–large and small, famous and newly established–came to town to compete for the favor of Riverside Ballroom audiences. These bands “battled” it out to win prestige and earn their reputation in Natick and beyond.
Ballroom goers were treated to seeing Mack & Mack, a cabaret singing duo all the way from New Orleans, Morey (or Maury) Pearl, who led a three piece trio, and Bray & Savino’s 10 piece orchestra. The live entertainment changed week after week to showcase other novelty singing groups and a variety of orchestras from local towns.
Hula featuring Clara Bow,
September 5, 1927
Known as “The It Girl” of silent film, Clara Bow was a Brooklyn-born star of the silver screen. Her prolific career transcended the transition from silent films to talkies; a feat that not many actors of her era could boast.
Bow’s first role was a small part in Down to the Sea in Ships (1922), which was filmed in New Bedford, Massachusetts and earned her notoriety. Bow's career advanced to include more prominent roles, including her starring role in Wings (1927), which won the very first Academy Award for Best Picture in 1929.
Watch complete versions of some of her surviving silent films, including Hula (1927) and It (1927).
The Bakery with Oliver Hardy,
September 23, 1921
You know him well as one half of the Laurel and Hardy team. But before that duo made moviegoers roar with laughter, Oliver “Babe” Hardy was a colossal star of silent film. Between 1914 and 1928, Babe Hardy made an astounding 300 silent films.
The Bakery (1921) is one of Hardy’s early films in which he plays a secondary character alongside Larry Semon. Still, his towering stature, vaudevillian style, and slap-stick humor made him unforgettable. Hardy’s early short films were screened often at the Natick Theatre, though not many survive today. In recent years, significant work has been done to preserve and restore his legacy on film.
Peck’s Bad Boy with Jackie Coogan,
July 4, 1921/26
After the release of Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid in 1921, Jackie Coogan became an instant silent film sensation. At the age of six, Coogan was already working with top actors and filmmakers. His emotional range, intensity, and acting ability moved audiences from the very beginning.
Coogan sustained a career as an actor well beyond the silent film era and into the 1980s. Though he is best known today for his television roles, such as Uncle Fester in The Addams Family, Coogan was always known as "The Kid." Due to his long and respected career as a film star, much of Coogan's silent film work still survives today.
Passion with Pola Negri and Ernst Lubitsch,
July 11, 1920
Originally released in 1919 to high praise in Europe under the title Madame DuBarry, this German-made film was renamed Passion for American audiences—and Americans loved it. The success of Passion launched a global demand for German films, which did not escape the attention of Hollywood.
Polish star Pola Negri and German director Ernst Lubitsch became the first international star-director duo to be given a Hollywood contract in 1922. Both had immense success throughout the silent film era with numerous box office hits, such as Forbidden Paradise (1924), which they made together. Lubitsch continued to have success even after the transition into talkies, but Negri’s career in the US faded as Americans struggled to follow her accent. Negri did continue acting in Europe and later returned to the United States during the Second World War.
