Logan, the Dansante and Grandma Law

As part of a visit to the Utah Festival Opera, we attended a backstage tour of the Ellen Eccles Theatre on 43 South Main Street (where we would later see the two operas). About half way through the tour, I heard a word that I had heard Mom mention whenever she talked about the beaus who courted her in college--in fact, it might be where she met my dad. The word sounded like "dansant."

As we finished up at the Ellen Eccles Theatre, the guide said, "Now let's walk across the street to the dansant." As we walked across the street we saw this building at 59 South 100 West, which now houses the offices, scenery shop, costume studio, practice rooms and other offices of the Utah Festival Opera:

Inside the Dansante, they told us a brief history of the Dansante:

It started out as a rollerskating rink then as a miniature golf course. By the late 1930's it was a dance hall (hence the name "Dansante," French for "dancing"). (It was here that Mom went to weekly dances leading up to her marriage to Dad.) Also during that time, it was used to race miniature cars and to hold boxing/wrestling matches. The tour guide mentioned that notables like "Gorgeous George" and "The Swedish Angel" boxed or wrestled there.

After World War II the building fell into disuse until 1993, when Michael Ballam purchased it from an M.D. in California, restored and expanded it into the offices of the Utah Festival Opera.

Following the 1:00 Mikado performance, it occurred to me to wonder where Erline had lived as a single college girl. I recalled that she had lived at her Grandma Law's house. I checked out the 1920 Census (on the Internet) and found that she had lived at 79 West 400 South--about 4 blocks away from the Dansante. We drove there and took this photo:

I'm not certain if this is Grandma Law's actual house, but it is definitely at the same address. It could be that vintage.

After taking the photo of Grandma Law's house, we went to look for a restaurant. On the way we noticed a Bluebird Candy Factory, located on the same block as the Bluebird Restaurant (where we had dinner yesterday evening), but physically separated by at least half a block. Curious, we walked into the factory, where we learned that the factory and restaurant separated in the not-too-distant past. The chocolates we purchased at the restaurant yesterday weren't really Bluebird Chocolates, but were purchased from other "generic" manufacturers. We each went away with one authentic Bluebird Chocolate.