Former Stanley Theater Dancer recalls depression-era of the Stanley's history
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By KRISTEN COPELAND
Story Created:
Apr 3, 2008 at 2:11 PM EST
Story Updated:
Apr 4, 2008 at 6:22 PM EST
UTICA - Everyone has memories of the Stanley, but here's something you may not know. During the depression, the theater hired a local dance troupe to perform on the weekends.
The Stanley Theater dancers were the local Rockettes. We caught up with one member who is 90 years old. It was in the late 1920's, but Jeannette Pezdek remembers performing like it was yesterday. She said the troop was formed at a time Utica really needed it.
"And I really think it lifted people's spirits, because people weren't working then, and they hung on to the money...what they had," Pezdek said. "But they had a pretty good crowd come in just the same."
It all started with the Sweeney School of dancing back in 1929. Eight girls made the team, including Jeanette Pezdek and her sister. For two years, the ladies perfected ballet and tap dancing on the grand stage.
"We had gorgeous costumes, like old fashioned time...and the dances they did then," she said. "And then we had shorts and tops to match for the tap dancing...that was my favorite was the tap dancing...we thought we were very big stuff, I'll tell ya."
Theater officials thought the same. The girls were paid $25 dollars for three performances - and during the depression, that was huge!
Jeanette was allowed to keep $5 - the rest went to her family, because her father was out of work.
In fact, the Stanley Theater was an outlet for a lot of people just trying to get by.
"It was elaborate looking," she said. "All new. And things were down so bad in that time, that everything needed to be perked-up or refinished or something...repainted. But it was the most beautiful any of us had been in."
