Mountain Play Scrapbooks

The Mountain Play is a Marin tradition. Since 1913, the play has been performed annually in a natural outdoor amphitheater on Mount Tamalpais. Running for several weekends starting in May, the play provides an afternoon of theatrical entertainment, enhanced by the beauty of its outdoor setting. Over the years, the plays have gained popularity and now draw audiences from all over the Bay Area and beyond. The first six decades of the Mountain Plays are well documented in the scrapbooks which former Mountain Play Association Director, Marilyn Hayes Cain, deposited with the California Room in 1975. These scrapbooks are full of photographs, play programs, clippings and ephemera, which chronicle play performances from 1913-1958 and 1961-1972. There were just two periods when play performances had to be stopped: in 1924, due to an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease, and again from 1942-1945, when the theater was closed due to World War II.

Three men are generally credited with the inspiration for the Mountain Play: lawyer and hiker, John C. Catlin; producer and director, Garnet Holme; and inveterate hiker, Dad O’Rourke. One day as the three of them hiked in the Rock Springs area of Mount Tamalpais, Mr. Holme paused to look at the view and saw a perfect setting for play performances: a natural outdoor amphitheater. Until the late 1930s, when the Civilian Conservation Corp built what we now recognize as the Mountain Theater, performances took place in this natural amphitheater and audiences watched from the surrounding hillside.

The first Mountain Play debuted on May 4, 1913, with the morality play, Abraham and Isaac, and scenes from Twelfth Night. The performance was deemed a resounding success, with approximately 1200 hikers climbing the mountain to attend the premiere. It was so successful, in fact, that in 1914 the Mountain Play Association was formed with the mission of making the play an annual event. During these early years, John Catlin and Dad O’Rourke were president and vice-president, respectively, and Congressman, William Kent, was second vice president. Garnet Holme directed the Mountain Plays until 1926.

In the digital albums presented here, we will be documenting the history of the Mountain Play based on photographs and ephemera in the Mountain Play scrapbooks. These photographs not only show scenes from the plays, but also depict the many participants, including actors and directors whose fame often transcended their Marin County performances. They also portray Mountain Play staff members (Garnet Holme, Dad O’Rourke, Marilyn Hayes Cain, Effie Easton, Al Pinther, etc.) and even include a few shots of the construction of the Mountain Theater by the Civilian Conservation Corp. Though the digital albums presented below cover the period from 1913-1972, photographs were most abundant from 1913-1949, and hence that timeframe is emphasized. Each digital album covers a chronological period or a specific theme. Click on the “View Albums” button above, for a link to each album.

For more on the history of the Mountain Play and the Mountain Play Association, click here to go to the organization’s website: http://www.mountainplay.org/history.php.

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON THE MOUNTAIN PLAY

1. Ashley, Beth. The Mountain Play: The First Seventy-Five Years. [San Rafael: Mountain Play Association, 1988].
2. Totheroh, Dan. The Mountain Play. N.p.: c.1970.
3. Oral History: Marion Hayes Cain. Interviewed by Carla Ehat, 1975. San Rafael: Anne T. Kent California Room Oral History Project, 1975.
4. Fairley, Lincoln. Mount Tamalpais: A History. San Francisco: 1987. (See chapter 8).
5. Kahn, Edgar. Tamalpais: Enchanted Mountain. San Francisco: 1946.

CONTACT: Laurie Thompson at ljthompson@co.marin.ca.us
COPYRIGHT 2003, Anne T. Kent California Room, Marin County Free Library