A drop curtain by Henry E. Hoyt (1833-1906) for the Arch Street Theatre was described in the article “Well-known Drop Curtain in Philadelphia Theatres,” published in “The Philadelphia Inquirer” on Dec. 18, 1894. Hoyt was listed in a theatre playbill for Mrs. John Drew’s Arch Street Theatre on April 2, 1877. It noted, “Complete new scenery by H.E. Hoyt.”
Hoyt’s drop curtain for the Arch Street Theatre was described in detail:
“One of the most interesting curtains to the student of mythology is the drop which for seventeen years has occupied the place of honor in the historic old Arch Street Theatre. This curtain was painted by H. E, Hoyt, in 1877, a noted scenic artist, and represents a scene on “The Isle of Delos.” To thoroughly understand and appreciate the rare beauty of this masterpiece of idealism it is necessary to go back and refresh your memory from the mythological records of the ancient past. According to mythology, Delos, now known as Mikra Dill, was an Island in the Aegean Sea, sacred as the sanctuary of Diana, the virgin goddess of the chase, The curtain reveals Diana attended by Cretan companions and ocean nymphs, standing by the shore of the river Inopus. She is habilitated in hunting sandals, with her flowing garments tucked up for speed. One her back she bears a quiver and in her left hands grasps a bow. In her right hand she holds aloft a horn, while by her feet stands a magnificent stage hound with half open mouth and kindly expectant eyes, looking up into her face and awaiting her regal order. With a blast from her horn she calls to one of her ocean nymphs who has strayed to the shore of Lake Trochoeldes, and their bathed in the rosy blush of morn, is looking across its tranquil waters. The whole scene is one of half tropical beauty, but the crowning triumph of the artist’s brush is the rich glow of rosy light suffusing the entire picture, which is an effort to reproduce the “birth radiance” of Apollo and Diana, for it was here that both those twin deities were born.
The 1894 article also noted a slightly older curtain by Hoyt at Carncross’ Eleventh Street Opera House. The building was located on Eleventh Street near Chestnut, having begun its existence as a House of Worship. On March 19th, 1855, it became a theater that primarily featured minstrel performances.
Two decades later, Hoyt delivered his drop curtain to the venue. Here is what was included in the 1894 article:
“The unique drop curtain of the cozy little house of minstrelsy at Carncross’ Eleventh Street Opera House is a plain mass of gray satin drapery embroidered with a broad of gold lace, about the sides of which are looped crimson plush hangings. It was painted by Harry Hoyt in 1875.”
Hoyt’s drop curtains for the Arch Street Theatre and Carncross’ Eleventh Street Opera House were considerably old when the 1894 article described them. At a time when new scenerywas continuously purchased by theaters and older scenery repainted, it is remarkable that two of Hoyt’s curtains remained in place, one 17 years old and one 19 years old.
Hoyt was ranked among the top drop curtain painters in the country at the time. In 1884, he was mentioned in the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” article “Curtain and Scene Painting.” Hoyt was part of an elite group of scenic artists that included, Russell Smith, Phil Goatcher, Richard H. Halley, Thomas C Noxon, Patrick J. Toomey, and Ernest Albert. Of Hoyt.
The 1884 “St. Louis Post-Dispatch” article reported “Henry E. Hoyt of Colville’s, Fourteenth Street, New York City, has lately started a boom in the direction of drapery without either figures or landscape views. His last curtain, which was of this character, was painted for the Euclid Avenue Opera House, Cleveland. He finished it in three weeks, and got $600” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 21 Jan. 1884, page 8).
Hoyt was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1833. Of his early career “The Epoch” reported, “He was first brought prominently before the New York public by his work at Abbey’s Park Theatre in 1878; he was there but a short time, however, when he accepted the position of scenic artist at Booth’s Theatre in West 23rd St. His work at that house made him famous” (Aug. 30, 1889). His Metropolitan Opera House debut was on Dec. 2, 1885, when he created the scenery for “Die Königin von Saba.”
By1892 Hoyt was noted as one of the foremost scenic artists in the United States and mentioned in “Paint Mimic Scenes, Men Who Have Found Fame in the Wing and Drop Curtains” (Chicago Sunday Tribune, Dec, 18, 1892, page 41). The article noted:
“One of the foremost figures in the scenic world today is Henry Hoyt, an artist
of remarkable power and versatility. In
architecture he is a trifle irregular but always interesting, has a taste for
the rococo, and in the duplication of plushes and velvet textures he is
unequaled. That he is facile in clever
conceits and delicate color is testified in his output of pink and green
ball-rooms for the New York Casino. “The
Isle of Champagne” produced here [Chicago] last summer was one of his hasty but
brilliant ideas.
The same year that the Chicago Sunday Tribune noted Hoyt as an artist of “remarkable power and versatility,” he helped establish the American Society of Scene Painters. On June 26, 1892, the “Pittsburg Press” noted that its membership included some thirty of the most prominent and representative men in the profession, reporting, “The objects of the society are to promote the artistic and practical efficiency of the profession, and consolidate as a whole the dignity of the profession hitherto maintained by the individual artist. Practical reforms in the conduct of the professional business are anticipated.” Organized in Albany, New York, the executive staff included Richard Marston (Palmer’s Theatre), Henry E, Hoyt (Metropolitan Opera House), Homer F. Emens (Fourteenth Street Theatre), Sydney Chidley (Union Square Theatre), Harley Merry (Brooklyn Studio) Brooklyn and Ernest Albert (Albert, Grover & Burridge).
By July 2, 1892, the “Chicago Tribune” published, “The members of the organization,
particularly those who work by the job, as is the case with the best of them,
claim that the stage manager is their worst enemy. They say that scenes are set
nowadays not with painters direct, but in accordance with the off-hand wishes
of the managers, and accordingly much of the most artistic effects of the
scenes are lost by the failure to properly display them” (page 4). The plan of
the new organization was for its members to accept no work from the theaters
except on an agreement that the scenes are to be set exactly as they dictate.
Harley Merry planned the organization, and among its first officers were
Richard Marston, President; Henry E. Hoyt, Harley Merry, and Ernest Albert,
Vice-Presidents; Homer F. Emens, Treasurer, and Sydney Chidley, Secretary.
Hoyt’s Broadway credits included “Erminie” (1886-1888), “Tabasco” (1894), “The Geisha” (1896-1897), “A Runaway Girl” (1898-1899), “The Man in the Moon” (1899), “Three Little Lambs” (1899-1900), “Broadway to Tokyo” (1900), “The Monks of Malabar,” (1900), “The Merchant of Venice” (1901), and “A Country Girl” (1902).
To be continued…
