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The Grand Theatre was opened on July 23, 1894, by Thomas Sergenson, Blackpools first successful theatrical manager. Sergenson immediately dubbed the theatre Matcham's Masterpiece, a title that is even more merited now that there are few surviving examples of the work of Frank Matcham, the leading Victorian theatre architect. The theatre took just nine months to build and cost Sergenson £20,000, part of which he had earned by operating two small rented theatres and from a circus that he staged for five summer seasons on the site of the Grand. With his imposing new theatre, Sergenson surprised the resort with the quality of his stars and shows. The theatre opened with a performance of Hamlet with Wilson Barrett, a leading actor-manager who had often appeared in Blackpool. But a few weeks later, Sergenson brought a much bigger star to the Grand, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, who also gave Hamlet as part of a repertoire of plays. In the first few weeks of the theatres existence, the owner-manager also presented the biggest musical hit of the London season, A Gaiety Girl; the comedy hit Charley's Aunt; and a visit by the Carl Rosa Opera Company. Sergenson made a valued arrangement with George Edwardes, the king of musical comedy production, to have the first choice in Blackpool of those famous musicals from the Gaiety Theatre and Dalyâs Theatre, London. During his fifteen years at The Grand, Sergenson presented great stars like Ellen Terry, Madge Kendal, Sarah Bernhardt, Lillie Langtry, F R Benson and Dan Leno. In 1909 he sold the theatre for a handsome £47,500 to the Blackpool Tower Company, who ran the Grand for the next sixty-two years. The Grand was the first Blackpool theatre to present the two big musical hits of World War One - The Maid of The Mountains and Chu Chin Chow - and in the 1920s become noted for staging big American musicals like Rose Marie, The Desert Song and No No Nanette. Great stars like Evelyn Laye, Carl Brisson, Tallulah Bankhead, Olga Lindo, Matheson Long and the husband and wife team of Cicely Courtneidge and Jack Hulbert appeared at The Grand in the 1920s. The theatre began to be used by top West End producers for British premieres and for forty years many plays and musicals were seen at the Grand âprior to Londonâ. After the success of talking pictures, the Grand in the 1930s was a cinema in the winter and staged âliveâ shows during the holiday season. Stars included Sybil Thorndike, Marie Tempest, Jack Buchanan and Leslie Henson. Most famous of the 1930s' attractions was Gracie Fields, who made all her Blackpool Variety appearances from 1932 to 1938 at the Grand Theatre. When the Tower Company began to build the new Blackpool Opera House in 1938, The Grand was returned to its role as an all-year playhouse. In 1939 the theatre's list of stars included Sir John Gielgud, Edith Evans and Peggy Ashcroft in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest; Rex Harrison, Diana Wynyard and Anton Wallbrook in Noel Coward's Design For Living; and Donald Wolfit in a Shakespeare week. The first summer season show was held in 1940. It was a variety revue starring local comedian Harry Korris, who returned the following summer with a stage version of his famous Happidrome radio show. During World War Two, Blackpool was a safe haven from German bombing and many great stars and shows came to the Grand. There were visits by Gielgud, Evans, Ashcroft, Harrison, Vivien Leigh, Flora Robson, Robert Donat, John Mills and Emlyn Williams. In October, 1942, Noel Coward premiered and appeared in two of his plays - Present Laughter and This Happy Breed - and threw in Blithe Spirit for good measure! The prestige of the Grand continued through the 1950s, which was a glittering decade in spite of the growing impact of television. Ralph Richardson, Michael Redgrave, Alistair Sim, George Cole, Evelyn Laye and Margaret Lockwood could be seen there, while the most frequent visitors were the husband and wife teams of Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge and Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray. Holiday-makers of the 1950s and 1960s best remember the Grand for the highly successful summer season farces, starring comedy favourites like Arthur Askey, Thora Hird, Glenn Melvyn, Danny Ross, Hylda Baker, Freddie Frinton, Sid James and Jack Douglas. By the early 1960s theatres across Britain were closing due to loss of audience to television. The Grand survived longer than most, thanks to the backing of the Tower Company. But the shortage of good shows, coupled with declining ticket sales, forced a policy of winter closure from 1963. Fewer big names came to the theatre, although the summer season farces continued to make money. In the mid 1960s, the theatre was included in a town centre redevelopment plan. The result of this was that in July 1972 the Tower Company applied for permission to demolish it. In its place they proposed a department store. By then, however, following an application to the Department of the Environment, the theatre had been listed as a Grade II building. Because of that, there had to be a full public enquiry. Meanwhile, World War Two veteran A Burt Briggs, barrister John Hodgson and other local theatre lovers banded together to resist the application. Early in 1973 there was a meeting at a local hotel where the Friends of the Grand was formed specifically to resist the application, which by then was supported by the Local Authority. The public hearing followed later that year. With the support of national theatre celebrities, the Friends put forward a case which persuaded the Inspector that it would be wrong to allow the demolition of the theatre. However, the Friends battle was not yet won. In 1975, after years of disuse, it became obvious that the Tower Company were planning to turn the Grand into a bingo hall. The Friends agreed not to oppose its use as a bingo hall, on the understanding that EMI repaired and decorated the theatre. It staged bingo for three years. After another round of negotiation, the Friends of the Grand together with EMI and the Blackpool Borough Council put together a deal involving leasing the theatre for £10,000 per annum and final purchase for £250,000. After the eventual purchase of the theatre by Blackpool Grand Theatre Trust Limited, in September, 1980, dozens of Friends helped to refurbish the dressing rooms and backstage areas in readiness for reopening in the week of Monday March 23, 1981, by Timothy West and Prunella Scales in the Old Vic production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. In May 1981, the theatre had a prestigious two-week visit by the DâOyly Carte Opera Company with their Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire, and on May 29 the ultimate theatrical honour of a Royal Variety Performance in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales. The audience for weekly theatre, which had dissolved during the nine-year closure, was slowly won back and developed during the 1980s. The Grand brought Northern Ballet Theatre and London City Ballet to Blackpool on regular visits. Annual concerts by The Hall Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra became a feature and opera appeared on the theatres programme of events, first by Opera 80 and now from international travelling opera companies. Since reopening, the Board of Directors of Blackpool Grand Theatre Trust Limited, theatre proprietors, has been led by Chairmen John Hodgson (to 1981), W Geoffrey Thompson OBE (1982-1993), Samuel G Lee (1993-2003) and David Coupe (2003- ). The Grand has been managed and programmed by a succession of theatre managers: Brendan Sweeney (1981), John Shedwick (1982-1988), Paul Iles (1988-1992; 2005-2007), Will Queket (1993-1994), Danny Moar (1995-1996), Stephanie Sirr (1997-2001), Peter Cutchie (2002-2005), Paul Iles (2005-2007), Neil Thomson (2007-present)
August 22
First of all, thanks to Bri for driving us around all day today. Iâm so glad I got to see and hang with her all day! This morning Bri picked us up for a day of adventure. First, we needed nourishment, so we went to a nearby restaurant that Foursquare told me we needed to visit called Zacharyâs Restaurant. The wait was a little long, but the food was great! I even bought a loaf of oatmeal molasses bread to take home.Yum!
We hopped straight onto the highway for an hour, headed towards the Monterey Bay Aquarium on the recommendation of Jack Batson at the service center. We were all skeptical at first, but the place ended up being pretty cool! A little pricey, but cool! Apparently itâs a thing now that whenever we go on a trip there has to be some production going on nearby. We happened to be here while they were shooting a âliveâ three-part series for the BBC called Big Blue Live. The aquarium had a really cool jellyfish exhibit and a MASSIVE tank with hundreds or thousands of sardines swimming with hammerheads and a few other larger fish. We even stumbled upon a live feeding in one of the giant tanks they called the Kelp Forest. A woman diver swam to the bottom with a bucket of fish food and was able to talk to us while she fed various fish a variety of types of food. It was really cool!
When we were finished at the aquarium, we grabbed lunch at Gianniâs Pizza and headed back to Santa Cruz. We ended up getting ice cream at the Penny Ice Creamery and then walking around downtown. It was a great day around town!
What You Don't Know About Jack DuCoeur?
Jack DuCoeur is the mysterious “Jack” who got 10 phone calls from two of the University of Idaho stabbing victims before they were killed was the longtime boyfriend of one of those victims, Kaylee Goncalves.
The longtime lover of one of the victims, Kaylee Goncalves, was the mysterious "Jack" who received 10 phone calls from two of the University of Idaho stabbing victims before they were slain.
Alivea Goncalves, Goncalves' sister, informed The New York Times that Jack is Jack DuCoeur. She said that DuCoeur, who is also a student at the university, and her sister were childhood friends who dated for many years before deciding to terminate things amicably.
Alivea Goncalves added that her sister frequently calls individuals late at night and keeps calling them until they pick up. She added that she and the rest of the family "stand behind Jack 100 percent and know he absolutely had nothing to do with this at all," adding that DuCoeur didn't hear the calls because he was sleeping.
The number was called six times between 2:26 and 2:44 on Sunday by Kaylee Goncalves. Madison Mogen, her roommate and childhood friend, contacted the same number three times between 2:44 and 2:52 a.m., and Goncalves called back at that time.
A few hours later, Goncalves, Mogen, their roommate Xana Kerdodle, and Kerdodle's boyfriend Ethan Chapin were discovered dead by police who had been called about an unconscious person at the residence.