Reflections on the Tabor Opera House, Henry Burcky and Henry C. Tryon, June 21
We left Taos before 8am and headed to the Rio Grand Gorge just west of the city.
We also briefly stopped by the colony of earth ships on our way to the Santa Fe Scottish Rite.
After a beautiful drive, we arrived at the Scottish Rite just in time for a quick meeting before I headed to the Albuquerque airport to pick up my folks. There is something wonderful about being greeted with a “Welcome Home” when I entered the building. The building and area are very near and dear to my heart.
On my drive to the airport in Albuquerque, I could not stop thinking about the Tabor Opera House in Leadville and the scenic artist for the 1879 roll drops, borders, wings and shutters. Harry Miner’s American Dramatic Directory for the season of 1884-1885 listed Burkey as the scenic artist for their stock sets. This was Henry E. Burcky of Chicago.
In 1876, Henry Burcky was listed as a scenic artist at 83 S. Halsted in Chicago’s Lakeside Directory. He was still listed as a scenic artist in Chicago directories by 1881. During his time as a scenic artist in Chicago, Burcky traveled west and painted the scenery for the Tabor Opera House in Leadville and the Tabor Grand in Denver. As with most scenic artists of the time, many of the stage settings were painted on site. By spring of 1881, Burcky also worked as a scenic artist at Hooley’s Theatre in Chicago, painting settings for “The Danites” (March 20, 1881) and the scenery for “Mulligan’s Silver Wedding” (June 13, 1881).
In 1881, “The Cincinnati Enquirer” reported that H. E. Burcky, the scenic artist at Hooley’s Theatre in Chicago, was working with Tryon, the scenic artist at McVicker’s theatre in Chicago. The article reported these “two young and talented scenic artists” came from Chicago to paint on the scenery for the Opera Festival in Cincinnati (15 Feb 1881, page 4). The Chicago Inter Ocean reported that H. E. Bercky, the scenic artist, provided “new sets of scenery showing the Lakes of Kiliarney, the cave by the sea, and other beautiful bits of scenery incidental to the play “The Colleen Bawn,” Dion Boucicault’s standard Irish Drama at the Olympic Theatre. (9 Aug. 1885, page 13). Messrs. Burcky & Tryon of Chicago were credited with the sixth scene of the production: “Beautifully painted scene – massive rocks in the foreground appear so real as almost to deceive the eye. Rich masses of dark foliage relieve their barrenness while their golden-yellow color is projected boldly from the deep blue sky. Two transformation tableaux occur in this scene, the first the ordeal, by fire, remarkable for its brilliancy and warmth of color; the second, the ordeal by water, for its cool and delicious coloring, complete contraries delightfully portrayed” (Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, 23 February 1881, page 4). The other scenic artists for the Opera Festival included Charles Fox of Her Majesty’s Theatre in London and Rettig & Waugh.
The partnership between Burcky and Tryon was a surprise to me. This was Henry C. Tryon (b. 1847), another Chicago artist who started at Sosman and Landis during 1884. Tryon was Lemuel L. Graham’s replacement at the studio, after he left to found Kansas City Scenic Co. In 1884, Tryon also accompanied Thomas G. Moses and John H. Young on a sketching trip to West Virginia.
He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Design and was a pupil of Thomas Moran and William Hart. Tryon worked with Lou Malmsha at Wood’s Theatre in Cincinnati and later at McVicker’s Theatre in Chicago with him. After Malmsha’s passing in 1882, Tryon wrote a tender tribute that rendered homage to his friend and colleague: “Louis Malmsha. A Tribute to the Great Scenic Artist” (“Salt Lake City Herald,” October 22, 1882). See past installment #124, #198, and #199 for more information about Tryon.
Of Tryon, Moses wrote, “he enthused Young and I more than anyone ever had…and was very clever, but awfully eccentric.” It may have been that eccentricity that caused Burcky and Tryon to part ways. Shortly thereafter, Tryon created the Scottish Rite scenery for the Indiana Consistory. Tryon’s theatrical projects during 1882 and 1883 drew him to the Salt Lake City area; his projects there included the Scottish Rite. Shortly thereafter he joined Sosman & Landis. Newspapers at the time acknowledged Tryon as a scenic artist and stage machinist with a “national reputation.”
Back to Burkey. A decade later in 1892, “The Springfield Leader and Press” mentioned “the well-known scenic artist, Berkey,” crediting him as one of the artists for Keene’s Shakespearean productions that included “Richard III,” “Hamlet,” and “Othello” (4 Dec. 1892. Page 4). “Artists in Ohio, 1787-1900: A Biographical Dictionary” list Henry E. Burcky as a scenic artist, employed at the Walnut Street Theatre in Cincinnati (Hamilton) in 1893-1894, while he was listed as a scenic artist and a resident of Newport Kentucky in the directory.
By 1901, Burcky was still listed as a scenic artist in Cincinnati at 716 Kenyon Avenue. This was the same year that the Kansas City Scenic Co. was contracted to produce the scenery for the new stage at the Tabor Opera House, now called the Elk’s Opera House in Leadville, Colorado.
To be continued…
