Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Hotelier August Fritsch - Harrowgate Hotel - approx. 3500 Kensington Ave - SW Kensington and Tioga - Testamony before Liquor License Court - Inquirer 4 May 1888

Inquirer 15 Nov 1883

Inquirer 16 1916

Monday, July 29, 2019

Philadelphia's Eleven Leading Racing Men - Inquirer 4 Feb 1894

Wunder Mead Gracey R.Rich
Diver Taxis Lagan Geyler Marriott
Measure Donnelly

.

Eakins' Boxing Scenes - The Comedy of War ? 1898

I started out looking for the place that Eakins used as background in some of his boxing scenes and dated to around 1898.

I was thinking that the Winter Circus Building was the setting as there were some boxing bouts there in the early 1890s but could find no references to it at there in 1898 - using Winter Circus and Boxing as search words on some of my regular Internet search sites. I saw the theatre posters for the comedic plays The Telephone Girl at the Walnut Theatre and The Ballet Girl at the Chestnut Street Theatre and thought maybe if they are being displayed, the boxing ring in both Eakins Taking the Count and Between Rounds may have been staged at another theatre owned by Nixon and Zimmerman. I had read that someone had staged a boxing match at the Academy of Music, so I thought that regular theatres could be adapted for one of a kind big boxing events.

I did some tedious research there and gave up until this morning. This morning I used Arena and Boxing in the search engines I use and came up with the fact that The Arena, usually attributed to as the place of Eakins' paintings on this subject did exist but where. All the newspaper clippings use the phrase that the fight is to be or was at the Arena. Where was the Arena?

I did find one clipping at gave Broad and Cherry as the location of The Arena. So I changed the search words to Arena and Broad and Cherry. And apparently the multi-purpose building aka The Cyclorama Building 1885-1892 and Winter Circus 1892-? was also called The Arena for at least 1898.

While The Telephone Girl was still playing in February 1899 per the above Inquirer advertisement, the time when both the Telephone Girl and the Ballet Girl were simultaneously playing, it was early April and the above advertisement is dated a few days prior to the United States declaring war on Spain for the sinking of the battleship Maine in Havana harbor in Cuba, the so called immediate cause of that war.

I cannot help but seeing the symbolism of two female figures, the plays, Telephone Girl and Ballet Girl in an arena of male macho endeavor in boxing.

That the Arena was used to recruit soldiers in April before the declaration of war, these two boxing scenes are not in active fists on fists in sporting combat. And in down time - not active - but hurry up and wait? time - military time?

That the whole lead up to that war was a comedy errors for a U.S. government that sent soldiers to the tropics in wool uniforms and shipping beef for the troops in boats without ice, arriving in Cuba already putrid and rotting and the Rough Riders did not charge up San Juan Hill on horses as those horses had not yet been shipped to Cuba. And the Battle of Manila was a few shots across the boughs of Spanish ships that sent up the white flag rather than do heavy battle with the new and impressive high tech paper tiger fleet of the U.S.Navy.

I do not know Eakins mind but I see some symbolism in these anatomy studies posing as boxing bout paintings and his use of background materials in them.

The Arena - NE Corner Broad and Cherry - 1898 - Boxing

The Arena, 1897 - Wallach Collection NYPL

1895 Bromley Map

Another name for the building at NE Corner of Broad and Cherry in 1898 was The Arena - Following titles of Cyclorama Building 1885-1892, Winter Circus 1892-?.

Many names, many usages and many memories to confuse minor research into the oddly shaped rent a hall, rent a stage building pictured above.

The name Arena by association with the Arena Athletic Club that staged boxing bouts there. I am not certain if this club was amateur and or professional for cash prize boxing events.

Recruiting for the Spanish American War - Inquirer 23 Apr 1898

Inquirer 24 June 1898

Seating for the Peace Jubilee Parades October 1898 - Declaring peace and victory over Spain before the Peace Treaty was signed. -- Inquirer 25 Oct 1898

Tornado hits Northeast and Tacony Hard - State Road and Unruh Street - Inquirer 29 Mar 1911

Photo: Supplied through J.Rowe
Kolbs Pan Dandy Bread Factory
After the cyclone disaster on March 27th, 1911.
Location: State Road and Unrun Street in Tacony.
Publisher: W H. Sliker, Art Studio

No doubt boards from Disston Athletic Field fence uprooted as reported and littering the photo above. This particular bakery also no doubt source of bread to local Disston employees.

.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Battle of Gettysburg - Cyclorama - Paul Philippoteaux

National Endowment of the Humanities Magazine

Gettysburg Cyclorama - Original from Boston Cyclorama

Inquirer 22 Dec 1887

Paul Philippoteaux

Cyclorama of Jerusalem

Cyclorama / Winter Garden Building - NE Broad and Cherry Sts. - Battle of Manila - 1899

Inquirer 11 June 1899

Inquirer 10 Sept 1899

Inquirer 11 Nov 1899

.

Philly's Answer to ImaX Theatres in late 19th Century - The Three Cyclorama Buildings - Winter Circus Building

1895 Bromley Phila. City Map

Philly had its high tech entertainment moments in its day from the Centennial to the end of that Century with Cyclorama paintings too big to be housed in regular museums but having to be put into locally built round house like barn structures for that purpose. Philly had three over that short time of a high tech mechanical entertainment curve.

The Three Cyclorama Buildings in Philly were:

1876 - The Parisian Cyclorama, showing the Siege of Paris, at Elm Avenue and 40th Street, east of the Exhibition's main hall. It was no doubt a temporary structure make of corrugated iron sheets that got hauled off for recycling at the close of that World's Fair in the Fall of 1876.

Parisian Cyclorama - Centennial Exhibition

(1873 starting in NYC) and 1876 SE Broad and Locust Streets, reassembled in Philly after being disassembled in NYC, finding life as the Colosseum / Cyclorama to house showman Fred Zimmerman's imitation of the Siege of Paris at the Fair grounds with his Paris at Night show at the Colosseum.

Colosseum / Cyclorama - Broad and Locust

1885 - The Cyclorama Building at NE Broad and Cherry Streets to house the new Cyclorama Painting 300 feet long called the Battle of Gettysburg. Following in 1888 by the Jerusalem Cyclorama and then when the fad had died out, a new name and function.

Paul Philippoteaux - Cyclorama Painter

1892 - Winter Circus, they refitted the Cyclorama on North Broad street to do entertainments in the form of one ring circuses, boxing matches, ballet and other stuff under the management of S. Henry Pincus for half a dozen or so years.

Inquirer 28 Aug 1892

Inquirer 30 Oct 1893

Inquirer 5 Nov 1893

Winter Circus Inquirer 1 Jan 1893

A bunch of gentlemen pooled resources to make the Winter Circus a boxing Mecca to rival Madison Square Garden, newly minted in 1890 in NYC. This arrangement worked out for a year or two but then Mayor Stuart revoked the license, not big enough kickbacks to city hall I would guess, all things considered in Boxing, the main gate proceeds and the profits from on and off site "illegal" betting on these bouts. The occasional private club showings of a fight and rent a hall and rent a stage here and there after that with no specific agendas in entertainment to take advantage of the unique design of the building.

Winter Circus - 1897

1899 - Cyclorama Building duty again with the Battle of Manila Bay. Then they knocked the place down around 1904 to make way for the Lyric Theatre.

Cyclorama - Battle of Manila - 1899