Magical Places

There are some places in the world that are truly magical. These are the offbeat places, the giant balls of string, the Worlds Biggest … whatever. These places are often the single-minded dream of a visionary, who lives far off the beaten path, so they can build their dream away from the building codes and HOAs that would deny them their first amendment right to personal expression in the name of property values. Because of this, these places are hidden in far-away corners of the world. They need to be sought out and discovered. One of these places is Marta Becket’s Amargosa Opera House. 

Marta Beckett was a ballerina from New York City. She performed on Broadway and as part of the corps de ballet at Radio City Music Hall. In the early sixties, Becket started getting turned down for jobs, hearing she was too old, that ballerinas her age are retiring. Like so many visionary artists before her, in the face of opposition, she said, “I’ll do it myself.”

Marta’s husband booked a tour of one-woman shows across the nation. While driving from Las Vegas to Los Angeles their car suffered a flat tire in the former mining town of Death Valley Junction. Becket peered through the window of the abandoned theater and it spoke to her. 

The building she leased, former home of the Pacific Coast Borax Company, once contained an entire company town - housing, shops, a doctor and dentist, as well as a theater where the miners received church services and watched the latest silent films. It sat empty for forty years until Becket and her husband moved in. 

She re-christened the Building as the Amargosa Opera House and Hotel and performed three shows a week - for the next forty years. 

But, the building isn’t even close to the middle of nowhere. Often Marta went without an audience. That’s when the magic happened. To make sure she always had an audience, Becket would soak her clothes with cold water and work through the blistering desert night painting permanent spectators on the walls and ceiling. 

I leaned about the opera house some time in the early nineties. It was always on my bucket list to see a Marta Becket show, but I didn’t make it before her passing in 2017. Since then the foundation that runs the theater and hotel books bands into the theater and keeps the hotel running. 

Then Covid happened. I watched places I wanted to visit, like Lord Fletcher’s in Palm Springs, close for good. Many places on my list were gone, and all I had was a memory of a fantasy of a visit to a magical place that might just have well never existed. I sent money to the Marta Becket foundation, shared their go fund me link on Facebook, I did whatever I could to make sure the Amargosa Opera House didn’t die.  

As soon as I was able, I booked a room for Karalee and me and we went. My birthday weekend - a bucket of Original Recipe and bear claws from the Black Bear Diner. We spent the night in the parking lot, with our telescope trained on faraway objects, drinking my patented  pre-mix old fashioneds. 

We stay in a lot of supposedly haunted places, but this place gave me the heebie jeebies like no other. The creaky floors, the long, silent hallways, painted with portraits, done in the Marta Becket style, of foundation donors, and one empty frame. I joked with Karalee that the empty frame is where you appear when the hotel gets you. It was a joke, of course, but I had a weird feeling it might be true

The grand finale was the tour that covers the history of the hotel, borax mining in the region, Marta Becket, and ended in the Opera House. It was indeed a magical place 

The hundred year-old floorboards were worn into a washboard pattern, the footlights were made from Folger’s cans, Marta Becket’s favorite drink, and the audience, permanently gazing at the stage, watching a show that none of us could see. This was Marta Becket’s dream. For many years it was my dream - owning my own theater and putting on whatever show I wanted, with an audience every night. I felt the magic, I understood the magic. 

Magical places like The Amargosa Opera House and Hotel are disappearing from our landscape. Suburban sprawl, super highways and a general lack of interest may someday lead to its demise. But, for now it’s there, an inspiration to all of us.