Thursday, October 05, 2017

#2 On Stage!


Posted by Buckles at 10/05/2017 07:04:00 AM

2 comments:

Eric said...

The Hippodrome Theater’s original owners were Elmer S. Dundy and Frederic Thompson, who also owned Coney Island’s Luna Park. According to legend, when Luna Park was being built, Thompson found a leg from the Elephant Hotel, which had stood on that site in the 1880’s. Because of that find, he had a great devotion to elephants. Luna Park had its own herd of performing elephants. (The park’s boss elephant man was Pete Barlow.) An elephant motif was also worked into the Hippodrome Theater’s decor: the walls of the promenades and auditorium were lined with marble elephant heads with light bulbs at the ends of their golden tusks. When the Hippodrome Theater first opened in 1905, its very first production had a circus theme. Among the acts featured in that production were the Luna Park elephants. Norman Clarke’s book THE MIGHTY HIPPODROME includes a fascination account of what all happened on the day that the elephants and other animals from Luna Park were transported from Coney Island to the theater.

05 October, 2017 15:58
Eric said...

The artwork for this particular cover appears to have been done by cartoonist Winsor McCay, who drew LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND in the early 1900s.

05 October, 2017 17:43

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