Part 344: Forest Seabury, Scenic Artist
There were a few newspaper articles from 1895 that caught my attention, as they concerned scenic artists. The scenic artist S. Forest Seabury (Sr.) died at the Grand Opera House on July 17, 1895, in Oakland, California. Newspapers reported that the celebrated artist fell dead after expressing to the stage manager, “You drop is finished, and it’s a wonder” (The San Francisco Call, 18 July, 1895, page 4). Seabury had just placed his brush in a pot of water before he uttered his final words, having just completed the drop curtain for Morosco’s Opera house. He then turned to speak to the manager, Tom Andrews. It was 4:35 PM when Seabury took a few steps toward the washstand, staggered and fell, before taking his last breath. Only a few minutes earlier, Seabury’s son had shouted up from the stage floor, inquiring about his father’s health. After hearing a positive response from the flies, his son left.
Seabury was a busy man and had completed another drop curtain for the Grand Opera House the previous week. For the opera, his 38’-0” x 40’-0” painting depicted a colossal American flag against a cloudy sky; it was received with applause (San Francisco Call, 5 July 1895, page 7). Dr. Barrett conducted an autopsy on the body and determined that the cause of death was heart disease. Seabury was only forty-four years old. His young age reminded of another scenic artist from Chicago – Lou Malmsha. Malmsha has passed away at the age of 35. A talented scenic artist, he was at the top of his career when he suffered a similar fate after work.
Seabury’s obituary reported that his funeral was attended by many members from both the Actor’s Association of America and the Theatrical Mechanic’s Association of Oakland. Like many other scenic artists, Seabury was also a stage mechanic, having the ability to engineer and create all of the scenic effects for a production. At Seabury’s funeral, floral arrangements sent from his fellow artists included banners stating, “The Drop is Done,” “The Gates Ajar,” and “The Last Scene of All.”
Seabury was a Pacific Coast artist and decorator whose work was known throughout the region. He had painted drop curtains and decorated prosceniums in all of the principal playhouses in California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. However he primarily worked in the Oakland area. In 1892 he created a drop curtain, “The Dawn of Spring” for Stockwell’s Theatre in Oakland that the newspaper reported was “a beautiful work of art” (Oakland Tribune 2 July 1892, page 7). During the 1880s, he had been the scenic artist for the Baldwin Theatre in San Francisco. However, he also painted scenery for other venues, such as the Pasadena Opera House (Los Angeles Herald, 28, Oct, 1887, page 12). His obituary commented that one of his best works was a scene of the Golden Gate on a drop curtain in the opera-house in Sonora, Tuolumne country.
Seabury was also a member of the Republican Alliance and presented a decorative banner (12×12) of Harrison and Morton and an artisan at work. “Around the boarder are pictures of flags and other ornamentations. A shield bears the name of the club” (Oakland Tribune, 2 Oct 1888, page 1).
One of Seabury’s major accomplishments was his work for the Kiralfy Bros. He was listed as one of the scenic artists for the 1887 production of “The Black Crook” (Chicago Tribune, 13 March 1887, page 6). The others were Harley Merry, Geo. Bell, Porter Robecchi of Paris, and Magnani. This interesting group of artists was credited with creating “all new scenery” for a production that was “exactly as reproduced in January at Niblo’s Garden.” The show opened at McVicker’s Theatre in Chicago. The scenery for the production was estimated at $15,000. (The Times, Philadelphia, 19 Nov 1887, page 3). Advertisements reported that there were two entire carloads of scenery for the production “with all its glittering grandeur” (The Ottawa Journal, 21 May 1887, page 1).
Not everything was perfect in Seabury’s world. Two months before his death, Seabury’s second wife committed suicide by taking carbolic acid. The San Francisco Chronicle reported, “She was found dead in her room by her husband. A photograph of him was clasped to her breast” (18 July 1895, page 8). There had been trouble in the Seabury family and for some time the wife and husband had been separated. Mrs. Mary Jane Seabury of Massachusetts (second wife) was found dead in her bed at 917 Larkin Street. The autopsy by Dr. J. S. Barrett showed that her death resulted from carbolic-acid poisoning. The article noted that a dose of carbolic acid causes great pain and those who swallow it involuntarily will groan in their agony or scream, but no sound was heard from her room; her husband did not occupy the same apartment, yet he was the one first one on the scene.
When discovered, she was clutching a photograph of her husband, a letter written to him from another woman (from 1891) and a suicide note. Her written request stated, “Make sure that I am dead before burying me, as I do not want to be buried alive.” She was 24 years old and had only been married to Seabury for three years.
Seabury had two sons, Arthur and Forest Jr., from his first marriage. Both sons also worked at Morosco’s Grand Opera House as scenic artists and actors at the time of his death. There is more to the Seabury story as newspapers covered the continued troubles of the Seabury family. His second son Arthur was found in a mentally unhealthy state and returned to his mother in 1907. His mother’s concern increased as she observed Arthur did not sleep well. Then he started to explain that he had visited hell, frequently accosting people and stating, “How do you do. I’ve seen you in hell.” His mother eventually bought her son brought before Judge Hall to determine his sanity. The physicians decided he was on the verge of insanity and he was sent to the Stockton.
Of Arthur the paper reported ,“Young Seabury was with his father most of the time and was considerable as an artist himself. He worked on the paint-frames and filled in many a fine piece of artistic work from his father’s brush” (Oakland Tribune 19 April 1897, page 2). But the story is a little more complicated as some articles suggested that Seabury never remarried and only had one wife.
Throughout all, his second son and namesake, Forest Jr., continued to paint and act, doing fairly well in the theatre profession.
To be continued…
