A black and white photo postcard of the interior of the Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone, Arizona. An unidentified man is sitting at a table in the balcony. The front caption in white at the bottom reads: "The Old Bird Cage erected A.D 1881 in Tombstone, Ariz. Cal Osbon. It's where the cowboys danced with their spurs on, pistols on side, and lights out for fun." A sign reads, "Theater stage." The postcard is unused and was published by Cal Osbon. Glenn Ranch Collection.

The Bird Cage Theater opened on December 23, 1881 and was Tombstone’s main hot spot at night. The bar was open twenty-four hours a day and the guests were a very mixed bag of cowboys, miners, doctors, lawyers and politicians. it was owned by Lottie and William “Billy” Hutchinson. William was a performer himself and wanted to bring family friendly entertainment to Tombstone. They held a ladies night where respectable women of the town could get in for free. Despite their good intentions, the visitors weren’t interested and wanted rowdier entertainment. Among the early performers was Mademoiselle De Granville aka Alma Hays known as “the Female Hercules” and “the Woman with the Iron Jaw”, as her feats of strength mostly involved picking up heavy objects with her teeth. The bellydancer Fatima entranced with her topless act. Other entertainers included the singers Irene Baker, Carrie Delmar, Lotta Crabtree and Caruso and the comedians Nola Forest, David Waters, and Will Curlew. The Bird Cage Theater hosted masquerade balls and Cornish wrestling competitions, the results of the later often published in UK newspapers. The longest poker game in history took place in the theaters basement: twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for eight years with players continuously being swapped out. Among the participants were Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp, and George Hearst. Over those eight years $10,000,000 was exchanged with the theater claiming a 10 percent fee. The game only ended when the silver mines of Tombstone were flooded out. The Hutchinsons sold the Birdcage Theater to Hugh McCrum and John Stroufe, who in turn sold it to Joe Bignon and his wife Maulda Brascombe in January 1886. Maulda, nicknamed Big Minnie, was a trained ballerina but due to her six-foot height often worked as a bouncer. The Bird Cage Theater was closed in 1889. Between 1900 and 1928, the theater was used to store old furniture. In 1929, it was reopened as a theater for the first Helldorado celebration. It served as a coffee shop in the 1930s and then was later remodeled as a souvenir shop. The Bird Cage Theater became a historic landmark of the American West in 1934.

1981.194.21