The Socialite Businesswoman

Kansas was one of the early states that passed the Women’s Property & Earnings Acts.  In 1858, this law enabled married women in Kansas the ability to own property without it being considered their husbands.  Property records show that Melinda Falk’s mother Mary Fix owned property in Volland, Kansas next to her husband Michael and son Robert so it was not unusual to note Melinda would own property herself.   She owned land in the town of Alma as well as rooms to rent.  

February 1902, at the age of 50 Melinda purchased the local skating rink and had it moved to the lots she owned in town on 3rd Street between Kansas & Missouri Street.  She had recognized the need to create a venue for the community to come together and socialize.  Work soon began to cover the rink that would become the ‘Falk Opera House & Hall’. One could argue the Opera House & Hall was the first in the area of what we might consider a Community Center today.  

The venue was a mainstay for fifteen years growing in it’s importance over time.  In the early years, the Opera House hosted school & amateur plays to full productions like the ‘Royal Neighbor Lady’s Play’.  Various church groups would organize annual bazaars and provide dinner for the community and masquerade balls at the “Falks’s Hall” on thanksgiving was advertised in the Alma Signal and to not miss it.   As time progressed, a focus on bringing good cheer to the community was important where good clean comedies like “Old Sport Benson” that noted, ‘for laughing purposes only’, “A Breezy Time”, “Mrs. Briggs of the Poultry Yard, “The Girl and the Tramp” were a few of the productions that entertained.  The Hall also served as a locale for different interests of the community such as boxing matches or german entertainment.  

In the later years the Alma community was treated to traveling acts that blessed their talents to the audience.  Entertainers such as Blind Boone, a black musician who had developed a uniquely American sound by combining his classical piano training with his understanding of popular music. Boone was the first performer to unite these musical forms on the concert stage and is referenced as what is considered ‘ragtime’ today.  It was said that after each performance the actor and actresses would sign the walls, one could imagine how many signatures could have been found over its many years as the opera house. 

Entertainment was rapidly progressing in the early 1900’s.  Continuing to be invested in tending to the community's social interests, September 1913 Melinda rented out the opera house for motion pictures to the community.   The Falk Opera House & Hall soon changed hands after Melinda’s death in 1916 but the joy, culture, entertainment and opportunity Melinda contributed to her beloved home of Alma is immeasurable.