History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 101

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666

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When the next Fourth of July came around (1824) the circus of Pepin & Barnes was in town, a "grand, pan- regal" affair, with musical instruments twenty-four long, and an exhibition of thirteen life-sized figures performing on trumpets.

In 1829 the amusements of the city are noted in the Directory as being the theatre on Second street; Let- ton's and the Western Museums; the Gallery of paint- ings, at the corner of Main and Upper Market; the Apol- lonian Garden, on Congress street, near Deer creek; and the Atheneum and Reading-room on Fourth street, ad- joining the city council chamber. The last named was open from 8 A. M. to 9:30 P. M., and was supplied with newspapers and periodicals to the value of four hundred dollars per annum. Five dollars a year entitled a sub- scriber to its privileges. There was still another read- ing-room in town.

On the fifth of July, 1830, the peripatetic show of Ma- comber & Company was exhibited at the corner of Sixth and Walnut streets. It included in its attractions a white bear, a leopard and a tiger.

On the evening of the same day -- which seems to have been observed as Independence Day this year-one Herr Cline wheeled a barrow up a rope or wire from the stage to the gallery.

MRS. TROLLOPE'S VIEW

of theatricals in Cincinnati about this time is expressed in the following extract from her book:

The theatre at Cincinnati is small, and not very brilliant in decora- tion; but in the absence of any other amusement our young men fre- quently attended it, and in the bright, clear nights of autumn and win- ter the mile and a half of distance was not enough to prevent the less

enterprising members of the family from sometimes accompanying them. The great inducement to this was the excellent acting of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Drake, the managers. Nothing could be more distinct than their line of acting, but the great versatility of their pow- ers enabled them often to appear together. Her cast was the highest walk of tragedy, and his the broadest comedy; but yet, as Goldsmith says of his sister heroines, I have known them change characters for a whole evening together, and have wept with him and laughed with her, as it was their will and pleasure to ordain. His comic songs might have set the gravity of the judges and bishops together at defiance. Liston is great, but Alexander Drake was greater. .

Her talent is decidedly first-rate. Deep and genuine feeling, cor- rect judgment, and the most perfect good taste, distinguish her play in every character. Her last act of Belvidera is superior in tragic effect to anything I ever saw on the stage, the one great exception to all com- parison, Mrs. Siddons, being set aside.

It was painful to see these excellent performers playing to a miser- able house, not a third full, and the audience probably not including half a dozen persons who would prefer their playing to that of the vilest strollers[!]. In proof of this, I saw them as managers, give place to paltry third-rate actors from London, who would immediately draw crowded houses, and be overwhelmed with applause [!].

The theatre was really not a bad one, though the very poor receipts rendered it impossible to keep it in high order.

Some further remarks of Mrs. Trollope upon the theatre of that time may be found in the chapter relating to her residence in and near Cincinnati. Not less enter- taining than the Trollopean diatribes, but in a different way, are the following, now printed, we believe, for the first time :

RULES AND REGULATIONS.

The following code of "Rules and Regulations of the Cincinnati Theatre, on Columbia street," promulgated May 1, 1830, and printed as a poster for the informa- tion of all frequenting the establishment, will be read half a century later with interest. We give the italics as we find them:

I. Gentlemen will be particular in not disturbing the audience by loud talking in the Bar-Room, nor by personal altercations in any part of the house.

II. Gentlemen in the boxes and in the pit are expected not to wear their hats nor to stand nor sit on the railing, during the performance; as they will thereby prevent the company behind, and in the lobby, from seeing the stage. Those in the side boxes will endeavor to avoid leaning forward as, from the construction of the house, the projection of one person's head must interrupt the view of several others on the same line of seats.

III. The practice of cracking nuts (now abandoned in all well regu- lated Theatres) should be entirely avoided during the time the curtain is up; as it must necessarily interfere with the pleasure of those who feel disposed to attend to the performance.

IV. Persons in the upper Boxes and Gallery will be careful to avoid the uncourteous habit of throwing nut-shells, apples, etc., into the Pit; and those in the Pit are cautioncd against clambering over the balus- trade into the Boxcs, either during or at the end of the Performance.

V. Persons in the Gallery are requested not to disturb the harmony of the House by boisterous conduct, either in language or by striking with sticks on the sents or bannisters, etc. The same decorum will be expected (and enforced) from that part of the audience as from any other.

VI. As both manager and performers are disconcerted by the pres- ence of spectators during the hours of Rehearsal (from 10 to 2), it is found necessary to prohibit the entrance of visitors, on such occasions, further than the outer lobby or Box-office. Intrusions behind the scenes, on nights of performance, are also prohibited-except in urgent cases. Messages from the audience to the manager can be conveyed, either by direct calls or through the agency of the Door-keeper.

VHI. The Box-Office (on the left side of the vestibule) will be open from 10 to 1, and from 3 to 6, every day, where seats may be taken and secured in either tier, until the opening of the 2d Act. Gentlemen will, of course, leave unoccupied those seats which are marked as en- guged by others, until the stipulated time; as the interruption, on the arrival of the proper owners, must be unpleasant to all parties.

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VIII. The prices of admission will continue as usual, viz: Ist Tier of Boxes, and Pit, 75 cents :- 2d Tier, 50 cents :- Gallery, 25 cents. Colored persons will occupy the Gallery Slips on the East side. On occasions of great attraction, it may be found expedient to unite the upper and lower Boxes, according to the original plan.

IX. When side Benches are placed in the lobbies, it is proper to re- member that they are intended to enable the second row of standing spectators to overlook the first ;- an object which is entirely frustrated by dragging them out from the wall and impeding the passage to the boxes.

X. For the purpose of accommodating those who may be prevented from an earlier attendance, the Manager will, on ordinary occasions, allow a deduction in the price of admission after the Fourth act -- or first half of the performance.

XI. Checks are only receivable the same evening they are issued, and from the persons who originally obtained them.

XII. Smoking is altogether prohibited, as a practice at once danger- ous and offensive.

4₺ The Manager being resolved to render the theatre worthy of the patronage of an enlightened and refined community, respectfully sub- mits to the friends of the drama the foregoing rules adopted for their protection; and has only to hope that he may rarely have occasion to call to his aid the authority employed for enforcing them.

THE MUSEUMS.

In the summer of 1818 Mr. William Steele, a citizen of Cincinnati, proposed to Dr. Drake and two other gen- tlemen that they should found a public museum. The prudent doctor preferred the organization of a larger as- sociation, and a meeting of citizens was accordingly held, at which a constitution was adopted. Some local collec- tions of curiosities were got together, some purchases made, and the institution was formally opened on the tenth of June, 1820, with an address on the objects and advantages of the institution by Dr. Drake, from which a suggestive extract was made in a previous chapter. For several years it was managed by a board of directors, with Dr. Robert Best, afterwards professor of chemistry in the Transylvania university, a man of taste and talents, for curator. The celebrated Audubon was curator for a time in 1820, but did not stay long. He was succeeded by Dr. Best, who also went out when the museum was transferred by the society to Mr. Joseph Dorfeuille, who had brought a large collection of foreign curiosities to Cincinnati for exhibition. This transfer was made in 1823, and seems to have been gratuitous, the members of the museum society only reserving to themselves the priv- ilege of visiting the collections with their families. The donations to it had been very liberal. Dr. Drake gave it his cabinet of minerals, organic remains, fossils, and west- ern antiquities. The managers made special explorations in its interest at the Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, which yielded many fossils and skeletons, and bones of the larger mammalia. The several curators, of whom James Griffiths was one, made interesting and important collections of western quadrupeds, birds and fishes. Con- ly Roquet, esq., the consul general of the United States at Rio Janeiro, and other Americans in Brazil, sent the museum several hundred fine specimens of natural his- tory. Mr. Dorfeuille added his large collection of orien- tal antiquities, foreign and domestic birds, and western amphibia. A valuable collection was also bought from Colonel John D. Clifford, at Lexington, Kentucky, com- prising many choice specimens of American antiquities, fossils, and other curiosities. In 1826 the museum con- tained one hundred mammalia and bones, and the skele-

ton of an elephant, fifty bones of the megalonyx, thirty- three quadrupeds, five hundred birds, two hundred fish, five thousand invertebrate animals, one thousand fossils, three thousand five hundred minerals, arranged according to Cleaveland's system of mineralogy, three hundred and twenty-five specimens in botany, three thousand one hundred and twenty-five medals, coins, and tokens, one hundred and fifty specimens of Egyptian antiquities and two hundred and fifty of American, one hundred and twelve colored microscopic designs; cosmoramic, optical, and prismoramic views of American scenery and build- ings; the tatooed head of a New Zealand chief; five hundred miscellaneous curiosities, with several represen- tatives of the fine arts, including a fine transparency de- picting the battle of New Orleans, "by a lady of Cincin- nati," and an "elegant organ." From time to time lectures were delivered by scholarly gentlemen of the city, illustrative of articles in the museum-a plan which was somewhat prominent in the scheme of the founders.

Among the attractions of the museum in 1834 were also "McCarty's invention," a curious machine "upon a new principle," a saw-mill operated by two bears, and glass-spinning. The wax figures made by Hiram Powers were among its most renowned features, in those days. The "infernal regions," whose construction has been gen- erally but wrongfully attributed to Powers, were long one of the wierd fascinations of the musuem. Mrs. Trollope of course had to have her words to say about this fea- ture of the display. She writes in her book :

He [Mr. Dorfeuille] has constructed a pandemonium in an upper story of his museum, in which he has congregated all the images of horror that his fertile fancy could devise; dwarfs, that by machinery grew into giants before the eyes of the spectator; imps of ebony with eyes of flame; monstrous reptiles devouring youth and beauty; lakes of fire and mountains of ice; in short, wax, paint, and springs have done wonders. "To give the scheme some more effect," he makes it visible only through a grate of massive iron bars, among which are arranged wires connected with an electrical machine in a neighboring chamber; should any daring hand or foot obtrude itself within the bars, it receives a smart shock, that often passes through many of the crowd, and, the cause being unknown, the effect is exceedingly comic; terror, astonish- ment, curiosity, are all set in action, and all contribute to make Dor- feuille's Hell one of the most amusing exhibitions imaginable.

Some years afterward the museum was visited by Har- riet Martineau, who thus recorded her impressions of it in her Retrospect of Western Travel:

We visited the museum, where we found, as in all new museums whose rooms want filling up, some trumpery among which much is worthy to mention. There was a mermaid not very cleverly con- structed, and some bad wax figures, posted like sentinels among the cases of geological and entomological specimens; but, on the whole, the museum is highly creditable to the zeal of its contributors. There is, among other good things, a pretty complete collection of the cur- rency of the country, from the earliest colonial days, and some of other countries with it. I hope this will be persevered in, and that the Cin- cinnati merchants will make use of the opportunities afforded by their commerce of collecting specimens of every kind of currency used in the world, from the gilt and stamped leather of the Chinese and Siberians to the last of Mr. Biddle's twenty dollar notes. There is a reasonable notion abroad that the Americans are the people who will bring the philosophy and practice of exchanges to perfection; and theirs are the museums in which should be found a full history of currency, in the shape of a complete set of specimens.

Michael Chevalier's Travels also speaks of the infernal regions, "to which," he says, "the young Cincinnati girls resort in quest of excitement which a comfortable and

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peaceful, but cold and monotonous manner of life de- nies them. This strange spectacle seems to afford a delicate agitation to their nerves, and is the principal source of revenue to the museum." The Directory of 1834 characterizes the exhibition as "a very splendid representation of hell."

After the death of Dorfeuille, Mr. Frederick Franks, the artist, became proprietor and director of the museum, and removed it to the corner of Third and Sycamore streets, where its front was ornamented with the wooden statue of Minerva, before referred to. Here he added a stage to his equipment, upon which domestic perform- ances were frequently given. He was also the proprie- tor of a gallery of paintings, which was open to the public for a consideration. More of this and other art galleries is related in our chapter on art.

The premises he occupied were burned down, with all their contents, late in the night of March 31, 1840, and that was the last of the Western, the Dorfeuille, and the Franks museum, infernal regions and all.

Ralph Latten's famous museum was started in 1818, while the project for the other was only being mooted, and was at first the property of himself and a man named White. It occupied spacious halls in the second and third sto- ries of a brick building at the corner of Main and Fourth streets. The upper story was mainly devoted to the ex- hibition of wax-works. A local publication of 1819 says: "It is understood that the proprietor intends mak- ing the establishment one of permanency." It was at this time at the corner of Main street and the Upper market.

In 1826 it contained about two hundred birds, forty animals, fifty mammalian bones, twenty-three wax fig- ures, two thousand minerals, and a variety of Indian an- tiquities, marine shells, and miscellaneous curiosities. Besides transient visitors, it was supported by regular subscribers, of whom there were about three hundred. A course of lectures on ancient and modern history was at one time included in its attractions.

After Letton's museum expired, it was long before an- other was opened in Cincinnati. Finally Colonel Wood, who had been associated with Barnum, and had started in Chicago and other cities, opened a museum and thea- tre in the second and third stories of the Broadwell building, then standing on the northwest corner of Fifth and Walnut streets. This survived for five or six years; but went up in flame and smoke during the night of July 14, 1857. Since then, we believe, the Queen City has had no museum.

THE THIRD STREET THEATRE.

In 1831, three years before the burning of the pioneer Columbia street institution, Mr. James H. Caldwell, a prominent theatrical manager in that day, having thea- tres in Louisville, St. Louis, Natchez, New Orleans, and Mobile, determined to build an extensive temple of the muses in Cincinnati. It was situated on the south side of Third street, between Sycamore street and Broadway, and about equi-distant from them. Judge Carter gives the following description of it: .

This theatre was two stories high on Third street, and on account of the descent from Third to Lower Market street, was five stories high on the latter street, extending as it did from street to street. It was an imposing structure, built of brick, about seventy feet on Third and Lower Market, and one hundred and twenty feet from street to street. The front was adorned with a pediment supported by flattened col- umns, and a flight of steps extending across the whole front led up to the doors. The interior had a most large and commodious stage, with a grand proscenium and a most beautiful blue-colored cloth curtain, trimmed in gold, which opened in and drew up from the middle. The orchestra place was very large, and then there was a large pit and three tiers of boxes, the upper one being the gallery, where the "gods and goddesses" used to assemble on days, or rather nights of yore. The stage was adorned with the most beautifully-painted scenery of any theatre then in this country, the scenic artist being the then celebrated Italian painter Mondelli.

'This theatre was opened with a grand performance on the evening of the Fourth of July, 1832, when an ad- dress, written by Mrs. Caroline Lee Hentz, the novelist, then residing in Cincinnati, was delivered by Mr. Cald- well, and an essay in vindication of the drama, from the pen of Isaac A. Jewett, was read. Mr. Caldwell had given a prize of fifty dollars to the former, and another of one hundred dollars to the latter.

In the same month a benefit was given to Edwin For- rest, who appeared in the character of King Lear, with Mrs. Rowe as Cordelia.

Mrs. Knight, another celebrated actress of the time, also appeared soon in Perfection, and Invincible, or the Little Cup.

This theatre lasted but little more than two years, when, on the twenty-fifth day of October, 1836, it also was burned. Mr. John Martin, stage carpenter, who had lodgings in the building, lost his life in the flames-the only fatality ever attending the burning of a theatre in Cincinnati.

LIPPINCOTT'S AMPHITHEATRE.

This was a great brick building on the southwest corner of Second and Sycamore streets, intended mainly for exhibitions of the horse drama, or circus. It was erected in 1883 by Mr. Lippincott, a wealthy dealer in horses and livery-stable keeper in the city, who put it up specially for the use of Bancker & Nichols, who had been giving equestrian performances for several seasons in a large frame amphitheatre on the subsequent site of the National theatre, where also Mr. Caldwell had suc- cessfully produced the legitimate drama before building his theatre on Third street. Upon the ground floor of the new structure was a large circus arena, and there was also a stage for histrionic performances. The building was completed, and announcement made for the open- ing performance of Messrs. Bancker & Nichols' troupe on the evening of January 31, 1834, when, only two nights before, the structure took fire and burned to the ground. A large number of valuable horses, many of them carefully trained, were stabled in the building, and not one of them was saved.

Mr. Lippincott became insane by reason of this terri- ble calamity, and shortly afterwards hanged himself in an out-house.

SHIRES' THEATRE.

After the transfer of the Burnet property on Third and Vine streets to the branch bank of the United

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States, and the judge's removal to his new building at the corner of Seventh and Elm streets, the old dwelling was taken by Mr. William Shires, and converted into a restaurant and hotel. In process of time he utilized a part of the spacious grounds still remaining unoccupied west of the house, near Baker street, for the building of a theatre-a plain, frame building, about fifty by one hundred feet. It had a commodious stage, a spacious pit, one tier of boxes for a dress-circle, and an uncom- monly large balcony, or second tier. Judge Carter says:

This theatre, under the energetic management of fellow-citizen Shires, proved for several years of the forties a great success, and it my be said that perhaps Cincinnati never saw better playing and act- ing than on the boards of Shires' theatre. I could mention from memory a great number of the greatest legitimate stars of the country who from time to time performed there, and a still greater number of the best legitimate plays performed there. London Assurance was en- acted there with better arrangements and stronger cast than ever else- where in our city, and a thousand other good plays.

This theatre, too, was burned January 8, 1848, in the evening, during a great snow fall, whose flakes were most brilliantly and beautifully illuminated by the surging flames. This fire, thus clearing the ground, although the Burnet mansion was saved, was one of the elements in the projecting and building of the magnificent Burnet house soon afterwards.

THE NATIONAL THEATRE.

In 1837 an effort was made to erect a yet more spa- cious and creditable theatre- one worthy of the develop- ment and demand of the city. A stock company was organized and a considerable block of subscriptions made. The times were perilous, however, and presently the stockholders faltered and fluctuated in the enterprise. .Then came to the front Mr. John Bates, a banker who had changed to banking from the wholesale grocery bus- iness only the year before, and single-handed built the famous "Old Drury," on the east side of Sycamore street, between Third and Fourth. It was commenced May 10, 1837, and pushed so rapidly that, although a large and elegant building for that time, it was opened for entertainments on the ensuing third of July. It had been leased to Messrs. Scott & Thorne, the latter then a famous actor; and the opening pieces were "The Honey- moon," and "Raising the Wind," in both of which Thorne appeared. A prize address, by F. W. Thomas, was also recited by Miss Mason.

The National was built upon a lot of one hundred feet front and two hundred and six feet deep, and had an uncommonly spacious stage, exceeding in size that of Drury Lane, London, from which it finally received the affectionate title of "Old Drury" from the venerable theatre goers of Cincinnati. It is said to have been one of the most convenient and excellently arranged theatres in the country.

Mr. Bates was so much encouraged by the success of his experiment at theatre-building in Cincinnati that he afterwards built one in Louisville and another in St. Louis. He managed the three houses of entertainment himself for a time, but ultimately found it advisable to part with all except the National. This was remodelled in 1856,

and a handsome stone front added. It had a long sea- son of prosperity, until the opening of Pike'e Opera house, when its star waned, but waxed again when Pike's burned in 1866. It experienced many vicissitudes thereafter, being occupied sometimes by the variety, sometimes by the legitimate drama, until the last star performance was given there under Macauley's management in 1871, when Edwin Booth appeared in Shakespearian plays. After a long period of comparative abandonment, the "Old Drury" was finally sold in June, 1880, for seventeen thousand five hundred dollars, to be converted into a tobacco warehouse.

OTHER EXTINCT THEATRES.

The People's theatre was built some time in the '40's, on the southeast corner of Sixth and Vine streets, and was burned June 13, 1856.

Upon the same site afterwards rose Wood's theatre (not the museum and theatre), where the last perform- ance was given March 23, 1878, after which it was de- molished to make way for the new Gazette building.

The Trivoli theatre is thought by Judge Carter to have been the first German institution of the kind in Cincin- nati. It occupied, he says, the third story of the large brick building now standing on the corner of Sycamore and Canal streets, and was well fitted up in German order and style for lager beer and dramatic performances, and had quite a career for the entertainment of our Ger- man fellow citizens and their American friends. The theatre-that is, the upper stories of this building-was burnt out August 13, 1860.

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History of Cincinnati, Ohio, with illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 101

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co. Number of Pages: 666

Author: Ford, Henry A., comp; Ford, Kate B., joint comp
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Cleveland, O., L.A. Williams & co.
Number of Pages: 666