Denver's Red Rocks

From a bare, rocky hillside near Denver one night last week came such sounds as the great U.S. outdoors had seldom heard. They emanated from Soprano Helen Jepson, a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-voice chorus. Denver's Theater of the Red Rocks has acoustics so good that the 20,000 people who can sit on its slopes can hear perfectly without amplifiers.

The same forces that spewed up the Rocky Mountains, millions of years ago, turned edgewise a huge ledge of red sandstone, 15 miles from Denver. At right angles to the rock, on the rising hillside, up-jut two crags, Creation Rock and Ship Rock. In this enclosure a whisper sounds clearly, and anything from one fiddle to a full band sends lush tones rolling upward.

Years ago a rich Denverite, George Ernest Cranmer, conceived the idea of making a theater of the red rocks. White-haired, eagle-eyed little Mr. Cranmer, retired broker, skier, skater, mountain-climber, became Denver's Manager of Improvements and Parks. Four years ago CCC, the National Park Service and the city began the $750,000 job of building the theater.

No regular concerts are yet scheduled for the Theater of the Red Rocks. Next beneficiary of its pin-drop acoustics will be a conference of Methodists.

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