The Barter Theatre

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Hailey. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Welcome back. Hello.

Oh, that was sexy. Thanks. Are you, do you have a new psychic that I don't know about? No, yeah, no.

Only fans. I mean, I'm about to not get paid for two months. You can take pictures of your feet sometimes. Yeah, we do.

We have to. Oh, okay. I was thinking, you know, like, Poshmark. Oh, maybe.

Yeah. Yeah. We need to have fans. Yeah.

That's a lot more money. A lot more money. I just don't, you know, I don't really know how to about that. Only fans.

Yeah. I would think you would go to, I'm not only fan of the top, and you know, you're just like making an account. Yeah. I'm doing a paperwork.

I don't know. That's good. Oh, my Lord. Search them on your internet.

So, your search is right. That works. I don't know. I would say your Wi-Fi.

I would think you would make and only fans. Wow, there's so many suggested. How to make an only fans for feet. But I feel like the feet is a saturated market.

Become a creator. Create an account. Set your subscription rate. Create content and promote.

How do you promote feet? You just start walking? I guess. I don't know.

Like, oh, sexy. Put your account behind a pay wall. AKA make it pay per view. What are the requirements for?

Oh, since a lot of content is explicit. What if I just got one and just like talked to people? Not like interactive, but like just did this. What if we did our podcast?

Well, it's true. We get, you know, like things that show me your nups. Like I'm sorry. I know that's not about this.

Those are my knees. But you know, like if you did feet pics, would you like, you know, based on your age, would you start advertising like your planner, fasciitis? You're like that's hot. Maybe you drop foot sexy.

You do have to have a valid ID. Uh oh. Can I be anonymous? As long as you have a VPN, a different email address and a pseudonym.

You can read me the anonymous. Nice. Wow. Oh, okay.

So we have to be feet pics because sexually explicit content will be banned from the social media platform beginning in October of this year. Sorry. I was going to go for feet anyway. Yeah.

We're still fine. We're good. I feel like I want to do something other. I feel like feet is predictable.

But knees sexy. No, I was thinking elbows. Oh, yeah. Nothing is better.

But elbows. You know, one that needs lotion. Sexy. Aging currently aging.

Oh, all right. Oh, that could be part of it. Like, look at that. Like, you know, touching your elbow.

Now they're little dry hand pics. Hands. I don't know. Yeah.

Cause I've broken a lot of toes and I have, um, like a lot of really bad calluses. So I don't know what is that. But does the grosser the feet, the more appealing it is? I don't know because I hate feet.

I see. But the, the, there's the show. The toe bro. Have you seen it?

No. So it's where they dig out like, um, in grandonials. Ew. And stuff like that.

It's like, um, like pimple popping, but for feet. See, I enjoy the pimple popping. I would not do well at the toe guy. I've talked about this before.

Like, I can't do the toes. I can't do the pimple popping, but you know, where my heart lies, earwax. That's like so soothing to me to watch them like dig out a good, gunky ear, you know, whatever gets it for you. Yeah.

That's pretty relaxing. It's her foreplay. You know, just so you know out there, if you're interested, get yourself some lapsi ears. Rose.

I mean, like I don't want to see like in real life. Maybe I do. I think you do. Let's be honest.

But like, you do. I don't know. That's just like people like to watch the pimple popping videos. I like to watch the earwax and chiropractor videos.

People get cracked. Yeah. Love that. Yeah.

Bet you do. Love that. Just cracking bones. Whew.

It's great. I, I would like the earwax because I'm one of those people that I like to see the finished part. Like I like to see things go from, like I thought it would feel so satisfying. Like you know that like that person has dealt with like clogged up ears and not being able to hear their own well.

Hey, let's get that just popped out of there. That'd be great. Amazing. What the hell are we talking about?

All right. Tell me your story, Anne. That's all right. That's why we're here.

All right. Two day. We are headed to Abingdon, Virginia. I love Abingdon.

Me too. Beautiful. We are going to be talking about the barter theater. So love the barter theater.

Have you been there? Yeah, I've danced there. Oh, wonderful. They do a Christmas show every year there and I was on a dance team in college and we would dance there.

That's really show up here. So if you were call, we visited this area in episode 116 about the Martha Washington Inn and that story was of a college turned Civil War Hospital that currently operates as an Inn. We also learned about the ghost that hang out there. We briefly mentioned a tunnel that runs from the Martha Inn to the barter theater and I had mentioned and I've actually promised that I would cover the barter.

Well, guess what? We're here. Today is the day. I know that you all including you, Haley, have been waiting with Beta Breath saying to yourself, when?

When? Yes. When is she ever going to cover it? I'm ready.

I don't know why our age demographic got super old, but we're doing this today. Let's do it. All right. Let's go there.

So the barter theater is a well-known stage house where actors put on plays. It's actually one of the last repertory theaters that are year round. So if you're in between. Because many are seasonal.

Well, they're put on seasonal shows for the holidays in the summer or whatever, but yes, this is all year long. So it's pretty cool. Wanted to start with a little bit of history about the barter for you. So it's 1933 in the height of the Great Depression and the whole Abingdon Bristol area is filled with farmers who are struggling to sell crops and make ends meet and like many Americans, they're destitute and feeling pretty hopeless.

Most folks are just trying to survive. So going to the theaters pretty much been put on the back burner because life, the stuff, being your kids, things like that. So this was also true in New York City where Broadway shows were put on hold. So a Broadway actor by the name of Robert Porterfield who was born and raised in Abingdon decided to increase morale by bringing plays to this area.

So he came back home and he decided to use space at the Abingdon Opera House initially to put on these performances. And the actors stayed at the Martha Washington Inn and note here that these actors were unemployed Broadway performers. So we're talking high caliber. We're not talking about some dinky side show like professional actors.

There were 22 of them in all and they all came to Abingdon to help put on these shows and exactly. Porterfield and his fellow actors didn't just perform. They cleaned the opera house, they built stages, they ran lights, they pulled the curtains. So pretty much they did it all.

This was a huge collaborative effort in order to bring some joy to this area. I appreciate that. The first show cost 35 cents a ticket and was the equivalent to the cost of produce, it was said. Porterfield realized that many folks might not be able to afford a ticket.

So he provided a mission to anyone who could bring in some goods. He would barter their goods, which fed all the actors for a mission to the show. This is why soon to be established was the theater called barter. They did not know where the name came from.

Yeah, because it would barter. Barter interests. The same was, and this is what they advertised, with the vegetables and food you cannot sell you can buy a good laugh. Nice.

I like that. I like that. And it's actually smart because you're making sure that the actors are fed and cared for. So that's great.

I read that attendees who paid with food brought such delicious treats, so much so that the 22 actors, 23 including Porterfield, gained a collective 305 pounds during the first year. So I did them out for you, just in case you're curious. And that means that roughly everybody on that crew gained 13 pounds apiece. Nice.

That's a lot. I mean, it's a great depression. I'm sure. They were probably taking out costume left and right.

Just answer another panel of fabric there. Exactly. I mean, it sounds like a week with me. So the first night's performance of after tomorrow by John Golden played to a packed house.

I love that. The Associated Press reported that it was played to capacity that came laden with cakes, fruit, vegetables, poultry, and a live pig. Oh, yeah. Why not?

So they just brought the... Yeah. Then they're gonna make the actors kill a pig. Well, we'll touch on that a little later.

Yeah. So the first year was very successful and ended with the troop bringing in $4.30 in cash, along with all the lovely food. Nowadays, that's equivalent to about $93. So I mean, even by 1933 standards, this was small.

Mee-slee-mau. Very measly. But with the plethora of Jellies, Jams, and pickled goodies, at least they weren't starving. Right.

They could eat. Exactly. And ate well. Yes.

That's a good thing. Well, they're being housed and fed and they're gonna do something they love to do. It's depression era. You're not shopping or anything.

Anyway. You can't... That can't be your go-to. Right.

Is I need therapy shopping? Yeah. So you're doing all right. Yeah.

You're alive. You're living. You are living. And pretty well, because you're getting to do what you love and you're being taken care of.

It's not horrible. Yep. Housing food. You're set.

Well, the playwright who wrote the plays obviously didn't receive any money. But they would get lovely gifts. Like a Smith-filled ham. Nice.

Nothing is better than a good old Smith-filled ham. That's right. It became a tradition that on the first night of a new show, someone would bring a live pig for the playwrights. So these poor guys who are, you know, writing these plays just typing away.

These artists. These artists. These ten writers. These ten writers.

Yeah. So we're speaking from the heart are now in charge of killing this poor pig and making that good old ham. You want some biking for breakfast. I get the playwrights out right.

But you're that pig. That's right. I mean, we all have to learn skill sets in time of struggle. Nothing.

I'll be vegetarian. Sorry. Yeah, I wouldn't want to do that. No.

No. Hard task. Just don't tell me. It came from babe.

I don't be. Yeah. That's fine. After two years of overwhelming success, the barter theater moved from the Abingdon Opera House to the Stonewall Jackson College for Women, where the actors were able to work on stage and live in the dormitories.

So again, super helpful. Yeah. It was reported that none of the actors were paid, but they were all fed well, like we mentioned and didn't have to worry about a roof over their head. So by 1939, the college was renamed the barter theater.

Nice. Yeah. They even opened the cafeteria for all the actors to eat with the audience after the show. Very cool.

I like that. That's very intimate. Yeah. Share a piece of hand with the actor.

I used to do community theater when I was younger, and we would always... It's where all the... I was a child, but all the older actors in the show would smoke out there. And the little alley was out there.

Just puff it on the cigarette. No, no, no, no. No, no. We don't smoke.

You were drinking. The drinking. When I was eight years old, I'm in community theater. It was for your artist.

Yeah, it was for the art. But that little alley back there after the show, we would all stand in the alley and people would come around and like talk and hang out kind of back there in the back alley by the theater. You were like little girl, why are you drinking like that? And you said don't worry, I'm 32.

I don't know what they do now, but I can still say theater, but yeah, we cast me as a little girl. I'm 32. Yeah. I got kids at home, and I'm blessed to my tail to make ends meet.

Yeah. I never got paid for community theater. But it's just fun. It was really fun.

It was really fun. I really enjoyed it. Yeah. Stressful, anxiety producing, I remember all these.

I really excited. All the lines. Yeah. I always love theater.

I love it. I loved it. Yeah. Okay.

Nice. So we're eating together, not smoking together, but we're eating too. Well, I mean, maybe they probably were. It was the 30s.

Yeah. Everybody was probably everyone. Yes. We don't have money for a lot of things, but we can buy some.

We can get cigarettes. Yeah. Yeah. Barter became so popular that by the summer of 39, the troop decided to take it on the road and decided to do a 10 city tour and they hopped on an old bus that they named Bessie.

Bessie the bus. Bessie the bus. So they would go out and put on short plays for both locals and tourists. Just get on in Bessie and let's just do it.

Just roll. 8 year old Haley would have to. Yep. She brought her one.

Yep. She's probably trying to drive. Over time, the barter won national recognition as a training stage for performers. Yeah.

And that's pretty cool. I mean, to go from something that was started very humbly. Yeah. Just to bring joy and entertainment to the area has now turned into this nationally recognized training center.

Training center, exactly. And there were multiple famous actors who walked across the stage of barter. Those include Helen Hayes, Gregory Peck, Ernest Borgnine, Hume Cronin, and Patricia Neal. You probably have no idea who the first one.

The last one sounded familiar. Gregory Peck was a very handsome, famous actor. Borgnine, Patricia Neal is very famous. So, Robert Porterfield, the man who had created this whole theater, died in 1979.

But his legacy continues to live on as the barter theater remains open, functions, and you can go see plays anytime. Yeah. Yeah. So, this theater, if you'd like to know, is located in the Abington historic district.

It is put into multiple different theaters within the theater house, but one of them is the Gilliam stage that seats the most with 505 seats. And there's 216 that can sit in the balcony, which I think the balcony is a great place to be. Oh, I love front row balcony is my go-to seat when I'm watching live theater. Yes.

Front row balcony. That's where I want to sit. You can see the whole stage and see everything move. I just enjoy it.

I love it. Yeah. You know, during the coronavirus, they started on putting on plays that were called the Moonlight Theater. And this is where performances could be simultaneously projected onto a big screen, so that individuals wouldn't have to go into the theater risk getting ill, but they could still see the plays.

That's really pretty neat. And audio came through their car radio. So, it's taken it back a little bit. Yeah.

I really kind of like this. But once individuals were able to go back into the barter, they made sure that they had masks and all the things that they wanted to keep everybody safe. But I just thought that was so cool. So, now that you've been given a thorough history lesson of the barter, it's time to talk about something a little bit more sinister.

The whole thing. Yes. You're sure. It is said that many an actor has seen the ghost of Robert Porter in a short time.

Oh, yeah. I mean, who wouldn't? He was sitting in his favorite box seat watching the show. Cool.

Here's the thing. Can you imagine you're already nervous as a performer getting up there in front of the audience. Maybe this is the first time you're performing this. There's a porter field.

There he is. Just watching you. You can see through him. A little creepy.

That's fine. Yeah. Let it go. Let it go.

It's cool. Okay. Sure. It is said that Mr.

Porter field is always smiling and appears to be very proud. See, that's nice. I feel like you would be an encouraging spirit. Yeah.

Go get him tiger. He would be the one who would like get gender of the chin, like go get him tiger. Oh, anybody touching me? The chin like that?

I'm kind of freezing. Even a ghost? No. Who does that?

What is that? Never seen somebody go get him tiger. Punch me the jaw. No.

Punch you. Just a little you got this. No. Really?

I've had like a head to pet or a covered in 12 years. Yeah. No. Really?

In the face? Like nudging you in the face. But like just just a little like I mean I don't like no. For those of you who are out there and know what the hell I'm talking about, please email us and current daily.

It's not punching you. No, but like caress. Like caress. What?

Like a little like a little like a go get him kind of like a festival to the face sort of essentially but not hurting you kind of like a you know, also like a better luck next time or go get him sliver or something to that. Other people do this to other people like it's not like an all bummer like a that is great. No. No.

Okay. That's hard. I didn't say it was magical. I didn't say that you know it's my life goal to do that.

I know you don't like. No. Okay. I'm a good therapist.

I don't touch anybody. That's fantastic. I don't. That's good.

I won't. No. Yeah. I know like it's one of those I'm a big fist bump like a school.

Do a lot of fist bumps. Do a lot of side hugs. Yeah. That kind of thing.

Yeah. You know. Standing in a box and they have to talk to you through glass. Through glass.

Yeah. Sometimes sometimes. But the weird touching of the chin though. Well, it is weird.

It makes me self conscious and think, Oh, do I have hair growing through that mole? Which probably the is a thing like if I saw a movie, what time period is this from? I'm an old soul. So I can't tell you.

At any point. I just I'm yeah. Okay. All right.

Sorry. I don't really hung up on that. Sorry. Well, you guys now I'm thinking about the hair going through my mole and how I need to get in the car and get my tweezers.

Why do you do it in the car? Oh, you can see it the best. It's the lighting. Yes.

Have you had chin mole? Your mole. Do you have any hair coming out of pieces or body? Like this?

Of your hair? Out of your face. I should say hair coming out of your face. No.

Really? Really? I mean, I get like a sash. Yeah.

You have a thyroid issue at all. Well, I don't have a functional thyroid. And sometimes that causes like, you know, hair growth, you should get older and things. So anyway, but can I just plug it?

Yeah. I mean, I'm just in the car. Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Don't you think Mr. Porterfield would just be so thrilled at our conversations? Yes.

He would love it. He would be like, please put the focus back on me. Make it to about yours truly and not the hairs growing through your mole. He wasn't English by the way, but whatever.

I feel like he would be traumatic. I'm welcome. And I said that Mr. Porterfield is always smiling, like I said, and he's actually described as a malevolent presence who is not scary.

In fact, he's comforting. Lots of nice. Yeah. Yeah.

That's good. Porterfield has also been seen lurking on the wings of the stage. Lurking is a weird way to describe it. That sounds creepy.

Just hang it out. I think so. Yeah. He's just trying, however, as transparent.

Let's do it. It's obvious that it isn't the deceased Porterfield. That's probably where the lurking... Yeah.

Yeah. Your lurking. Stage manager? No.

I can see through the men. No. That's Porterfield. He doesn't have any moles.

All right. Pro it up. On a fun note, when an announcement was made to the audience back in 2016, the speaker stated and I quote, Mr. Porterfield would be so proud.

And on cue, all the lights in the theater went off. Yeah. And less than a minute later, they suddenly came back on. It was later discovered that that particular day was the 45th anniversary of Porterfield's death.

Interesting. So he just wanted to let them know. Just playing around. Yeah.

Okay, guys. I mean, what an actor, right? To do something dramatic. It was poor light text.

We're like, oh, get on. Get on. Get on. What's happening with that?

And the whole theater. So even somebody who's selling refreshments, it's like, what happened? Yeah. Yeah.

Porterfield. So other ghosts have been seen lurking backstage. Actors report hearing footsteps and even screams. Oh.

I don't want to say something right. So some have reported seeing a raven-haired woman lounging on a chair. And here's my question, Haley. What are you doing?

Lown-chan on a chair at the barter? I don't know. Just lounging. Just hanging out.

Just hanging out. Yeah. I wonder who that woman could be. Oh, no.

So let's talk about the ghost who haunt the tunnels. Okay. I like these. Remember how I mentioned there are tunnels that run from the Martha to the barter theater?

Well, this tunnel was known by locals as the barter tunnel and was carved out during the Civil War. This tunnel was used to bring soldiers into the Martha Washington. It was actually used as a hospital at that point during the war. This was also used to remove corpses from the hospital.

Nice. Nothing like good times. Yeah. It's like the bodyshoot.

Yeah. Whatever that place was. Yeah. Back in West Virginia.

Yeah. Yeah. I love that. The entrance on the inside has been closed off for several years, but the section below the theater is still used to run electrical wires.

Actors who use the tunnels to walk in between the inn and the theater in the 30s and 40s reported encountering a malevolent spirit. The specter was seemed to be really kind and not evil and the spirit is to leave to be a man who was killed when the tunnel collapsed in 1890. Yeah. Yeah.

That would go off. Isn't it like tunnels? I don't either. I don't like underground in general.

Nope. Neither. Although would I like to see it? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Also, the tunnel on the inside as I mentioned collapsed in 1890, so it's no longer passable on the inside.

So you can get in on the border side, but you can't get in on the inside. Right. And it is also a cool story about Confederate soldiers who were caught trying to smuggle ammunition into the Martha Inn and they were caught by union soldiers and killed in that tunnel. Yeah.

Okay. Are you ready for more? Yes. All right.

So it says that the spirits of Hanthotunnel are forever trapped and apparently scare the crap out of maintenance workers who have worked in the tunnel. Always the maintenance guys. I can't get the worst. Story goes that one night carpenters were working in the tunnel and the presence of an evil spirit drove them out of the tunnel.

It was said that the men were so scared they abandoned their equipment, their lunch bags and everything that they had with them just to get the hell out of there. Nice. The men called the stage manager and number one asked to be paid. And number two said, yes, someone's else is going to have to go in that tunnel and grab our tools and and lunch bags.

Yeah. We're not going to be. We won't be caught dead in that tunnel. No, thanks.

So I wonder what the evil spirit is. Like what happened? Yeah. Yeah.

And I feel like there's more that probably happened down there that we even know about. Oh yeah. So there seems to be your trapped essentially, right? So they're sort of trapped in this tunnel.

They can't really get out. And I saw a little clip about inside the tunnel and what it looks like. And again, you know, it's a rough old tunnel with wires coming through it for the theater, but it also is just so creepy. You have to go through the wardrobe room and then there's the steel door and you open up the door and then you know, you can only go so far because then it's just covered in essentially a wall of dirt where it had collapsed in 1890.

So then I also think like, did they remove that guy or is he just in there? In there. Yeah. Because I mean, if you can't get through on the Martha side and you can't go any further on the inside.

Other dead bodies in there. Yeah. So maybe these souls trapped who maybe you know, just waiting to insulate. So we might need to clean that out.

Just get those bones out there. Yeah. Maybe that's a job for you. I like tunnels.

You like some weird stuff, but you like them? No, you're wax. Sure. You're wack.

No, I got it. No, I got it. I got it. I got it.

Well, that's my story. Really. Well, that was a good one. Thanks.

I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Yes. I've been to theater dozens of times and it feels creepy. Yeah.

Has a spooky vibe. And the rooms that I remember like, because we were only one piece of the show, like we would go for like a like a tech rehearsal before the show. We would all do it on the same day. So we would come in and do like a sound check tech situation.

And then we would have to hang underneath the stage in like the little dressing rooms and green rooms. And I remember them just being really tight. Yeah. Like they're just small and just like claustrophobic.

Yeah, claustrophobic, uncomfortable. It's it's an old building. So it's just it. And I did not like being down below at all, but stage itself is gorgeous and the theater is gorgeous.

But just underneath it's a little spooky. When I was in high school, I was in theater. Imagine that. And we were in the school auditorium and my school was old.

And to go to the dressing room, you had to go up the stairs and into these. It's just so creepy. Like, I don't understand why it was so dark. It was just so dark and creepy.

And then if you went underneath the stage, it was actually a bomb shelter that they had built for, you know, in case the atom bomb went off, you know. And so we went down there and explored and they had cages down there. But it was cages where they kept like school, um, materials like, you know, they would keep chairs and desks and all these things. But they kept them on like cages.

Yeah. And they were locked. And it was so creepy. And like, why?

What is this? Anyway, it gave a real creepy vibe. Turned out my high schools haunted. Anyway, that's a story for another time.

Well, the auditorium where we went to college. That one has a really creepy, um, was all of the arts classes are down there. A lot of them are in that auditorium. So like, I took pottery in the basement of that building.

When I was in college and all the music rooms are down there. Yeah. It's just really spooky. And if you're cutting under, like, if you have to go from the balcony or the front of the theater and get back to the back of the stage, um, you have to cut underneath.

So like, I had to run that several times for shows that I've done there. Um, and that's just really a pain. So creepy. It's very creepy.

It's awful. That entire building actually, um, just even going to the bathroom there is like, yeah, yeah, I like it. That's really spooky. Yeah.

Yeah. That whole campus. Yeah. Spooky.

Spooky. Spooky. P Do that. You share with Haley.

You should. Um, you can do that by emailing us at mountmiseries.applelatchingmail.com. Find us on our Facebook at Mount Mysteries, Tales from Appalachia. Find us on Instagram at mountmiseries.applelatchin.com.

And check out our patreon. It is patreon.com slash mountmiseries. Good jump. It's a fun time there.

Really is. Good jump. Yeah. Thank you.

Holly and Haley at the dark. Always safe. Oh, yeah. All right.

So I'm going to give a shout out to Abingdon Virginia and Southwest Virginia in general because we're right there with Bristol and Kingsport and, you know, Kingsport is in Tennessee and there's a, there's a Bristol Tennessee and Bristol, Virginia. So we're kind of encompassing all of that East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. So anyway, good times. Well, thank you all for listening and we will catch you next time.

Have a good week. Bye. Bye.