Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: Reflections on the Tabor Opera House and Royal Gorge, June 20

We left Leadville, Colorado, and headed to Taos, New Mexico, on the morning on June 20. My plan was to stop by the Salida Opera House on our way down. By the sixth day of our trip, I was just about burned out on historic scenery. Over the course of five days, I had documented over 200 backdrops, 18 painted borders, 60 set pieces and a dozen wings. I needed a day off before arriving at the Santa Fe Scottish Rite theatre.

Instead of the Salida Opera House, we opted to go to Royal Gorge. My incentive was not only the inspirational vista, but also Eveleyn E. Livingston Furman’s mention of Royal Gorge as a subject for one of the 1879 opera house settings. In “The Tabor Opera House: A Captivating History,” Livingston mentioned that one of the original settings for the Tabor Opera House depicted Royal Gorge; the expense for this sole scene was $1000.

The last time I visited Royal Gorge was on my way to USITT for the “Theatre of the Fraternity” touring exhibit and conference at Long Beach during 1998. I traveled part of the way with my father and my daughter Isabelle, who was less than a year old at the time. In Arizona, I picked up my husband from the Phoenix airport. This was the last time we were able to wind our way through the western United States. At the time, we only gazed at the gorge from the parking lot as I held my daughter in her baby carrier. This was my last glimpse of the old park, as it was destroyed during a fire in 2013. Since then, the entire site has been rebuilt; it is stunning and well laid out. It was well worth the side trip yesterday!

Now back to the scenery at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville. According to Furman, the original scenery for the 1879 Tabor Opera House was credited to J. B. Lamphere. Furman recorded that Lamphere provided ten sets of scenery, including a drop curtain, a forest scene, a mountain waterfall, a view of the Royal Gorge, a street scene, a formal garden scene, a Palace scene, a “Light Fancy,” a plain chamber scene, a new England kitchen scene and a Baronial Hall. She also noted that each scenes had three sets of wings.

I decided to track down this scenic artist and the technical specifications for the original 1879 venue. My first historical source was Harry Miner’s American Dramatic Directory for the season of 1884-1885. Miner’s provided a variety of details about the 1879 stage in Leadville. At this time, the town was listed as having 20,000 residents. The seating capacity for the theater was listed as 800. The stage measured 34×60; the size of the proscenium opening, 17×23; height from the stage to grooves, 16; the height from the stage to rigging loft, 19. The depth under the stage 4 1/2, traps, 3; number of scenery sets, 12. The space was illuminated with gas. In 1896-1899, however, Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide noted that the Tabor Opera House had five grooves.

Harry Miner’s American Dramatic Directory listed the scenic artist for the painted settings at the Tabor Opera House in Leadville as “Burkey, of Tabor Grand, Denver.” To clarify, these dramatic directories did not always list the scenic artists for a particular year, just those responsible for the painted settings at the venue. I noticed this aspect of the touring guides as I traced the venues that listed Thomas G. Moses, as well as Sosman & Landis, scenery and their names as the “scenic artist” for the venue. Dozens of theatres would list Moses as their scenic artist while he was working elsewhere in the country and years after he had painted the scenery. The designation of “scenic artist” in this context was to advertise who painted the stage scenery, not necessarily who was on staff.

So for the Tabor Opera House in Leadville Colorado, “Burckey” was credited as the creator of the painted scenery. Burckey is also noted in Harry Miner’s Directory as the scenic artist of the Tabor Grand in Denver. This credits Burckey with the scenery for both Tabor theatres, constructed within the space of a year.

I was curious to discover more about the scenic artist named Burckey. First of all, Burckey is also published as “Berkey” and “Burcky.” I have encountered this in the past with “Sosman & Landis” as “Sausman & Landes,”among many other variations. I believe that the scenic artist who created the scenery for the 1879 Tabor Opera House was Henry E. Burcky, also known as H. E. Burcky. Interestingly, the 1890 Ballenger & Richards annual of the Denver City Directory still listed Harry E. Burcky as the scenic artist for the Tabor Opera House. Again, they would still be using the stock scenery painted by Burcky.

More on Henry E. Burcky tomorrow!

To be continued…