| This dissertation examines theories concerning staging, set design, lighting, and stage machinery employed in the production of indoor spectacle on a scale never before achieved in America. First conceived and managed by the creators of Coney Island's Luna Park, Fred Thompson and Elmer Dundy, the New York Hippodrome seated 5,200 people and was equipped with a giant stage accommodating casts of 1,000 or more. The proscenium opening, 98 by 37 feet, exposed a main stage 50 feet from arch to back wall. There was also a 98-foot-wide eliptical stage apron, 60 feet deep from footlights to proscenium arch, which could be transformed into a 14-foot-deep water tank into which horses, elephants, and chorus plunged.; From 1905 to 1923, under the managements of Thompson and Dundy, Lee Shubert and Max Anderson, and Charles Dillingham, the Hippodrome offered spectacular historical melodramas, aquatic and ice-skating extravaganzas, wild west shows, two-ring circuses, classical ballet, and elaborate musical revues. On Sundays, the auditorium was employed for public celebrations, meetings, political rallies, benefits, concerts, and motion pictures.; In 1923, the B. F. Keith Circuit, under Edward Albee, first offered super vaudeville at the Hippodrome, after which the format was changed to a combination of movies and stage shows. Morris Gest produced the Frieberg Passion Play there in 1929, and Alfredo Salmaggi introduced popular-priced opera in 1933. Billy Rose's Jumbo, starring Jimmy Durante, in 1935, was the last book show offered. During the early 1930s the Hippodrome also served as a site for live radio broadcasts. In 1936, Michael Jacobs, president of the Twentieth Century Sporting Club, turned the house into a sports arena, presenting prize-fighting, wrestling and basketball. The Hippodrome was converted to a jai-alai arena in 1938, but it briefly returned to a mix of opera, concerts, religious services, children's shows, celebratory pageants, conventions, and public meetings until it was torn down in 1939. |
