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Battle of Gettysburg in the round
The structure had been built to house panoramic
exhibitions, beginning with father and son
Henri and Paul Philippoteaux's painting of the battle of
Gettysburg. According to panorama scholar Gene
Meier, Philippoteaux's painting was produced in
Belgium and installed in October 1883. It was
refurbished a decade later for the 1893 Columbian
Exposition when owned by the Chicago Fire Cyclorama
company, H. H. Gross president & mgr. Much
appreciation to panorama scholar Gene Meier for
helping me with this information. There were two
cycloramas at the corner of Wabash and Hubbard (Balbo).
One became a transfer company to house horses, the
other a theater.
Graft investigation
Remodeling at Cleveland's Theater was interrupted in
mid-October 1903 when the
City Council's graft investigation revealed that
building commissioner
Timothy O'Shea accepted a bribe. The proscenium
wall construction employed a process patented by
O'Shea rather than following city code as to
thickness and materials. Chicago contractor Milton
B. Bushnell testified before the city council graft
committee. He reported the theater's owner and
architect, Billy Cleveland and Oscar Cobb, said the
only way the theater would be allowed to open was if
they purchased O'Shea's construction method and
hired alderman William Mavor's construction company.
Mavor and soon-to-be-former municipal deputy
commissioner O'Shea hotly denied the accusation.
Mavor's denial was more persuasive. O'Shea claimed
contractor Bushnell was violating O'Shea's patents
and employing dishonest and shoddy methods.
At least one Chicago contractor testified that
Chicago building permits were available for $5 - 10
each. O'Shea resigned to form the O'Shea
Fireproofing Construction Company.
Mayor: fix it or close it. Again.
Mayor Harrison ordered the Cleveland to re-do
its proscenium wall to bring it into compliance. The
Cleveland's remodeling was completed and the theater
reopened at the end of October 1903. On December 30,
1903 while Mr. Bluebeard was playing at the
Iroquois, Winchester was at Cleveland's.
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Five days after the Iroquois fire, on January 4,
1904,
the Cleveland was closed by the mayor along with
thirty-four other Chicago theaters found non
compliant with the city's old theater ordinance.
The proscenium wall was only one of the Cleveland's
problems.
Billy Cleveland: I'm outta here.
In subsequent years John Barrymore would make his debut in a small role
at the Cleveland, and Will Rogers would debut there
as well, but Billy Cleveland would not be around to
enjoy the theater's good years. Perhaps feeling
battered by Chicago politics, his theater having
been kept shuttered for five weeks while the
ordinance was rewritten, Cleveland left Chicago at
the end of 1904 to set up a talent agency in NYC.
Cleveland had begun his career in 1882 as a lithographer for a minstrel
company. By 1887 he became a manager for Haverly's
Minstrels (as had Iroquois Theater manager
Will J. Davis) and soon operated his own minstrel
companies.
According to a September 1895 issue of
the Cincinnati Enquirer, Billy's fortunes for the
prior decade had been up and down. In 1890 his three
minstrel companies were on tour and his net worth
was nearly a quarter-million dollars. He contracted
typhoid fever and was ill off and on for over a
year, deeply in debt. By 1893 he was again
profitable, campaigning two troupes, the Quadruple
New and Great Massive Minstrels, but struggled to
repay his outstanding debts. He was said to be near
bankruptcy in 1901, so he may not have exaggerated
when he told the Chicago ordinance committee that
closing the theater was ruining him. (I felt sorrier
for him before reading quotes of his remarks in
conjunction with his dealings with the city that
revealed a fellow who may have brought problems upon
himself.)
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