Category: Pyrotechnics

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 391 – The Danson Family of Scenic Artists

 

Part 391: The Danson Family of Scenic Artists

In 1889 W. J. Lawrence listed some prominent English scene painting families – the Greenwoods, Grieves, Stanfields, Callcotts, Dansons, Fentons, Gordons, and Telbins. This installment looks at the Dansons (The Theatre Magazine, July 13, 1889).

George Danson, scenic artist

George Danson Jr. (1799-1881) was the son of George Danson Sr., and Mary Ianson. His father was a prominent Liverpool maritime merchant and ship owner who died bankrupt. One of five children, George Jr. became apprenticed to T. & J. Shrigley, after his father’s death. The Shrigleys worked as decorative painters, wood grainers, and japanners. On the completion of his apprenticeship, he went to London. By the age of 24, the Royal Academy exhibited two of his paintings. Danson also exhibited occasionally for the British Institution and the Society for British Artists. In 1824, he married Ann Ireland and the couple had seven children. The two sons that survived to adulthood followed their father’s profession and also became scenic artists. By the late 1840s, the scenic art firm of Danson & Sons. Messrs appears in playbills and directories.

Danson created the Cyclorama of Lisbon with designs from Bradwell (Builder, v. 6, Dec. 30, 1848, pg. 627). He was also a popular scenic artist for Astley’s, where he worked with the famous showman, Andrew Ducrow. He was employed to paint for a variety of venues, including Covent Garden, Coburg Theater, Vauxhall Gardens, the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens, the Surrey Gardens, the Coliseum at Regent’s Park and Drury Lane.

His obituary reported, “Early in his career, Mr. Danson was engaged with David Roberts. R.A., as a scene painter at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh. Subsequently he assisted in carrying out the constructive decoration of Vauxhall Gardens, and was employed under Macready, and with Clarkston Stanfield in the production of the scenery of the great master’s Shakespearean revivals. At the request of Mr. Braham he produced at the Coliseum in Regents’s Park the dioramas of “London” and “Paris by Moonlight,” and designed and erected various grottoes, Swiss chalets, and other scenic illusions which delighted a former generation. At the Surrey, the Adelphi, and other metropolitan theatres, he devised and produced the scenery of the Christmas pantomimes for m any years. All this long and varied experience Mr. Danson brought to bear in his vast outdoor pictures at Belle Vue, Manchester. But beyond his recognized power as a scenic artist, Mr. Danson possessed a singularly inventive capability for adapting all kinds of materials to his necessities. He was an admirable carpenter and joiner” (The Furniture Gazette, 5 February 1881, page 97).

Vaux Hall

Vauxhall was frequented by all classes and had remained one of London’s favorite pleasure gardens since the late seventeenth century. The 1823 Vauxhall Gardens in London incorporated an eighty-foot high picture of Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples used as the background to a nightly outdoor fireworks show. However, by the 1820s, Vauxhall had become somewhat rundown and other pleasure gardens began to compete with it. , such as the Belle Vue Zoological Gardens that opened in 1831. This amusement center was the idea of John Jefferson (1793-1869). The main attractions at the zoo, botanical gardens and the amusements included mazes, grottoes, an Italian garden and exotic plant house. Danson was employed to paint 30,000 square feet of canvas to create the background where performers were employed to act out a scenario of a major historic event, usually incorporating a battle. Fireworks were incorporated into this spectacle that catered to the public on an industrial scale.

One of the guides for Belle Vue Gardens

In 1851, he was asked by John Jennison to be the scenic artist at Belle Vue Gardens in Manchester, a position he held until his death in 1881. Charles Dickens was among Danson’s many friends. Danson’s sons, Thomas (1829-1917) and Robert (1836-1917), each continued careers I scenic art. Thomas Danson later held an art appointment at Belle Vue Gardens. Thomas passed away in 1893. His obituary reported, “The death has occurred in London, in his sixty-fourth year, of Thomas Danson, one of the best known of contemporary scene-painters. He and his brother were well known in the North for the huge scenic “effects” produced by them at the Belle Vue Gardens, Manchester” (Birmingham Daily Post 22 December 1893).

Aerial view of Belle Vue during the 1930s

The Belle Vue zoo closed September 11, 1977; the Belle Vue amusement park closed October 26, 1980; and the Belle Vue gardens closed during February 1982.

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 324 – “The Storming of Vicksburg” Spectacle in the Jackson Park Amphitheater

Part 324: “Pain’s Storming of Vicksburg” Pyro-Spectacle and the Jackson Park Amphitheater

In 1895 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “The year opened good. So much so that I was obliged to get more room so I rented the old “Waverly” and put new frames back where the old ones were. They had all been torn out when Sosman & Landis gave up the lease, as it was only month to month, and that was the best I could get, as the building was owned by a Cincinnati man, and it was in the courts and had been for several years.” Moses was already using the paint frames at the Schiller theatre, so this was his second painting space. The Waverly space was the same one that Sosman & Landis rented for Moses and his crew in 1892 for all of their subcontracted work. It measured 93 feet wide by 210 feet long and 40 feet high with four paint frames and plenty of floor space (for more information about the Waverly, see installment #244).

Moses’ recorded that the first project in the Waverly studio was scenery for an outdoor show called the “Siege of Vicksburg.” He wrote, “it proved to be an artistic success only.” I believe that the show Moses referred to was actually Pain’s “Storming of Vicksburg” that was performed in the amphitheater at Jackson Park.

Advertisement for Pain’s Storming of Vicksburg in Jackson Park, from the Chicago Tribune (23 June 1895, page 36). Thomas G. Moses created scenery for this production.

The Inter Ocean reported that the “Grand Historical Spectacle Arranged by Pain,” was selected to mark the Pain’s return to Chicago (Inter Ocean 23 June 1895, page 9). His company was the Pain Pyro-Spectacle Company of London and New York.

A photograph of another production created by the Pain Pyro-Spectacle Company – Last Days of Pompeii. Published in the Street Railway Journal (May 1896, page 317).
A photograph of another production created by the Pain Pyro-Spectacle Company – Carnival of Venice. Published in the Street Railway Journal (May 1896, page 317).

The Jackson Park amphitheater was massive and sat 12,000 people; reserved chairs were seventy-five cents and box seats a dollar for the “Storming of Vicksburg.” 100 arc lights illuminated the space every evening for the show that started at 8PM. Advertisements promised “Gigantic, thrilling, and beautifully pyro-spectacular military production.” The show was listed in the Chicago Tribune as a “Grand Revival of the Glorious World’s Fair Midsummer Night Fete” and included “600 people on the monster stage” with “12 acres of massive scenery” (23 June 1895, page 36). Other newspapers reported that 800 people were involved in the production.

Advertisement from the Chicago Tribune (23 June 1895, page 36). Thomas G. Moses recorded that he painted the scenery for this production.

The spectacle depicted the siege and final surrender of the Southern stronghold on the Mississippi. It opened with “a presentation of Southern life in slavery days” that included the performance of songs and dances by a “colored chorus of 100 jubilee singers” (Inter Ocean, 23 June 1895, page 9). After this musical opening, the battle began along the banks of a constructed river, measuring 350 feet long and 100 feet wide. A gun was fired, followed by the capture and execution of a Union spy. Then there is the arrival of war vessel, that include Farragut’s gunboats, Porter’s fleet of mortars, and the rebel ram “Arkansas.” Grant’s land forces enter the scene and the batteries open up for fire. After twenty minutes of intense battle, Vicksburg bursts into flames and Pemberton surrenders.

At the close of every performance, there was a display of fireworks. This was common a common finale by every spectacle created by Pain Pyro-Spectacle Company. Newspapers reported that $1,000 was spent on the fireworks display nightly.

On July 4, 1895, an Inter Ocean article provided a little more information about the fireworks display, commenting that the day marked the thirty-second anniversary of the fall of Vicksburg (page 6).

Below is a section of the article that described the fireworks display in great detail. I was astounded at the numerous descriptions and names.

“The pyrotechnical programme arranged for this performance will rival many of the grand displays seen by Chicagoans at the World’s Fair, some of the features of which are as follows: Salute of maroon or aerial cannons, fired from iron mortars and exploding at a great altitude with a tremendous report. Magical prismatic illumination with lights of intense brilliancy, which change color repeatedly and finally blend with pleasing effect. Flight of monster balloons, carrying the most powerful magnesium lights and tri-colored fires, discharging, when at a great height, batteries of Roman candles, showers of golden rain, and superb jewel showers. Sunflower wheel, thirty feet in circumference. Flight of rayonet tourbillions, revolving oriental wheels. Flight of large shells, forming jeweled clouds, studded with gems of every hue. Celestial stars – rayonet fires marooned. The aerial acre of variegated gems. Nests of writhing silver snakes. Flight of twenty-three-ball concrete rockets, exhibiting the rarest tints, peacock plumes, silver streamers, triple parachutes, etc., etc. Twin fiery dragons, flying to and fro and performing most amusing evolutions. Salvos of gigantic bombs, forming a golden cloud, studded with jewels. Great silver fire wheels, with intersecting centers, forming a chromothrope. Display of mammoth shells, twenty-four inches in circumference, displaying at an immense altitude showers of rubies, sapphires, laburnum blossoms. Flight of rockets with peacock plumes. Aladdin’s jeweled tree, with blossoms of every hue, terminating in a fairy fountain. Swarms of wild snakes. Fireworks portrait of George Washington. Flight of infant parachutes. The monkey gymnast, an amusing piece of pyrotechnic mechanism. Aerial bouquet, produced by the flight of asteroid rockets. Salvo of aerial saucissions, filling a space in the air with wonderfully brilliant fires of grotesque form. The Kalediescope, with intersecting centers, cutting a silver spray with colored fires, the whole concluding with a revolving sun, 150 feet in circumference. Discharge of monster aerial wagglers. Parisian novelties – rockets with silver threads. Salvo of thirty-inch bombs – prismatic torrent and silver clouds. Groves of jeweled palms. Finale, grand flight of 1,000 larger colored rockets fired simultaneously, producing a grand and magnificent aerial bouquet.”

For the July 4, 1895, performance, the Jackson Park amphitheater was packed with 12,000 people. An additional 5,000 people were turned away from the packed venue. Wow! I could not get over the fireworks descriptions and marveled at the complexity of the pyrotechnics program. Who could afford to fund this endeavor?

“The Storming of Vicksburg” was produced by the Coliseum Gardens Amusement Company, in conjunction with the Pain Pyro-Spectacle Company, or London and New York. The local company was composed of the principal stockholders in the Chicago Exhibition Company, which built the big coliseum on the old Buffalo Bill “Wild West” lot on Sixty-Third Street. Past productions by Pain included “Last Days of Pompeii,” “A Night in Pekin,” “The Siege of Sebastopol,” “Capture of Vera Cruz,” “Carnival of Venice,” “Paris from Empire to Republic,” and “Japan and China.”

To be continued…