Popular Culture Review Vol. 4, No. 1, January 1993 | Page 52

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Popular Culture Review

were also utilized to create a picture of "reality." Perhaps the most
extensive preparation for any of the Wild West Exhibitions was the
planning and execution of effects for Steel Mackaye’s "Drama of
Qvilization." Opening in New York's old Madison Square Garden on
November 25,1886, the drama was divided into four "epoches," each
one introduced by an orator who would explain what was about to be
seen. Matt Morgan painted four semi-circular panoramic drops, each
measuring 40 feet high by 150 feet long. A special grid and winch
system was installed to maneuver these backgrounds easily, and the
realism of the panoramas was viewed with amazement:
. . . Mr. Morgan puts in mountains whole, and the chief
criticism made by the finical art critics is, that his
valleys are larger than the original.—The artist is
swung in a chair scaffold, yesterday, away up in the
roof of the Garden. At this dizzy height, he was
painting the top of a California r^ w ood tree. He
linmed a crow on one of the topmost boughs at such an
airy pinnacle that the bird took fright, and almost
fell into the middle distance.^
A steam line was installed in a special trench dug under TwentySeventh Street so that truckloads of dried leaves could be blown
across the arena during the prairie cyclone scene. According to at
least one repx)rt, over $60,000 was sf>ent in creating the effects for the
production, at a time when the average yearly income for an office
worker was approximately $450. In short, it is hardly surprising that
the thousands of people who saw the "Drama of Civilization" were
convinced that they were seeing a "true" picture of American progress.
Because the characters, the action and the scenery were so vividly
created with such verisimilitude, it is little wonder that the
subliminal "message" of the drama itself was never questioned.
"The Drama of Civilization" consisted of four "epoches," each
showing America’s progress in civilizing the untamed wilderness.
"The Primeval Forest," the first scenario, showed Indian and other
forms of natural life before the discovery of the continen t by
Columbus. After showing the Indian's attack on a group of grazing
elks, the scene shifted to a pow-wow and war dance in the Indian
camp, which was interrupted by a wild band of Pawnees, and ended in