The Famous Bird Cage Theatre

Bird Cage Theatre Past...
This is a picture of the famous Bird Cage Theatre, as it looked after it closed in 1889. The Bird Cage was literally boarded up for about fifty years, before it was reopened as a tourist attraction. Besides remodeling the outside to prevent it from being destroyed by weather, the Bird Cage is an original Tombstone building. Most of Tombstones original buildings were completely destroyed by one of two fires that took place during the 1880's.


An old photograph of the inside of the Bird Cage Theatre.
 


The Bird Cage as it appears today

Bird Cage Theatre Present...
This is the famous Bird Cage Theatre as it looks today. It opened in December of 1881 and closed it’s doors in 1889. During it’s short business life, the Bird Cage was the wildest place in the west! The Bird Cage is named after it’s thirteen little cribs that hang from the ceiling where ladies of the night plied their trades. Twenty dollars a night, would buy a gentlemen a bottle of whiskey and a lady for the night. Different from the way Hollywood has portrayed it, no respectable lady would have ever entered the Bird Cage. The longest single poker game in history was played in the basement gaming area. Eight years and four months of one continuous poker game!
 
 


The Bird Cage Theatre just before sunrise November 16, 2001

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