Coliseum I
Life Span: 1896-1897
Location: Between Sixty-second and Sixty-third streets, and is bounded on the east by Grace avenue and on the west by the tracks of the Illinois Central railroad
Architect: S. S. Beman
The first Coliseum, built near the site of the World’s Fair, was impressive in size for its day, twice as large as the second Madison Square Garden; its interior was supported by 12 massive arches, 100 feet high with a span of 230 feet. There were seven acres of interior floor space.
Inter Ocean, August 5, 1895
On Monday, the second day of the coming September, by far the greatest amusement building of modern times will be inaugurated by the “Greatest Show on Earth,” in this city, the only place where such a vast structural triumph could be so magically erected and so magnificently dedicated.
“The White City,” with which Chicago enterprise amazed, delighted, instructed and elevated the world, is now mainly “the unsubstantial pageant of a vision faded,” but will, in impressive magnitude, elegance of design, perfection of purpose and steel and masonry’s most solid durability, be stupendously and splendidly commemorated by a Coliseum, challenging its palaces in noble and surpassing proportions and permanently beneficent results. The site selected will make it at once a gigantic World’s Fair reminder and a, most beautifully and breezily located Mecca for Chicago’s multitudes of amusement seekers; an ampitheater for the accommodation of expositions, horse and cattle shows, bieycle tournaments, spectacles, musical entertainments, national conventions and great gatherings of every character. No other auditorium on earth is, from either a local, State or national standpoint, so conveniently, rapidly, and cheaply accessible.
As arranged for the exhibitions of the great Barnum & Bailey show it will afford ample accommodations. and seats for 40,000 people daily, and this vast concourse can be brought and returned from all points in the city as expeditiously as an ordinary theater audience is handled.
Rival of Rome’s Coliseum.
The site of this rival of Vespasian’s imperial ambition to give Rome a Coliseum worthy of her position as mistress of the world is upon the ground occupled by the Buffalo Bill wild West show during the World’s Fair. It will cover an entire block, giving a total street frontage of 2,200 feet.
The Chicago Exhibition Company, which represents the characteristic broad-gange Chicago loyalty, local pride, enterprise and courage, to which the erection of this edifice is due, in a recent circular, addressed to the people of America, refers as follows to the Important and difficult question of securing an attraction anything like proportionate to its character for its fitting dedication:
- When first contemplating the project of the erection of the largest and handsomest permanent amusement edifice in the world, we were confronted with the difficulty of securing an attraction sufficiently grand and colossal with which to properly and suitably celebrate its in-auguration. After considering every world-wide attraction, and finally weighing all kinds of public entertainment offered in America, It was unanimously decided by the board of directors of the Chicago Exhibition Company that no institution in the world could so fittingly dedicate the magnificent and colossal building as the Barnum & Bailey greatest show on earth. Hence we now officially make public the fact, that the splendid edifice—the Chicago Coliseum—now in course of completion on the eight-acre site at Sixty-Third street and Illinois Central Railroad will be triumphantly thrown open to the people of the whole country on Monday, Sept. 3. 1895, with the only amusement institution in the world possessing the exalted and educational character absolutely and imperatively demanded by the occasion, or that could be found half stupendous enough to fill the area covered by the building.
JOHN T. DICKINSON
President.
JAMES O. HEYWORTH
Vice President and Treasurer.
For the reasons thus emphasized this unprecedented honor has been conferred, and is supplemental to the fact that the great Barnum & Balley show has been twice similarly indorsed, both at home and abroad, by being invited to formally open the hitherto two largest amusement places in the world-the Olympia, in London, and the Madison Square Garden, in New York. It may be here pertinently. remarked that it has not appeared in Chicago since 1892, solely from the fact that grounds equally convenient to the public and adapted to the exhibitive necessities of the “Greatest Show on Earth” were not to be bad, while there was no building big enough to hold its ethnological features, wild beasts, circus performances, etc., alone. The same difficulties were encountered when it exhibited in the Olympia, London, and the Madison Square Garden, New York–the largest amusement structures in the world, until Chicago’s Coliseum sprang into gigantic and all-overshadowing existence.
Description of the Coliseum.
And, although, the dimensions given elsewhere show this new Chicago wonder to be nearly, if not quite, capacious enough to swallow up both the others, still the growth of. the “Greatest Show on Earth” has been proportionately aggressive, and to the additonal acres of canopied space must be added yet other acres, to accommodate the World’s Horse Fair and myriad employes of this ever-expanding enterprise. Such authentic facts and figures speak for themselves.
The building is designed by Mr. S. S. Beman, the architect who created the World’s Fair building dedicated to Mines and Mining. It is in the Italian style, dependence being chiefly on the effect of massive simplicity and graceful proportions. It will be fire-proof, with brick walls, steel trusses, girders, and columns. The buff brick of the first- story walls will be pierced with a regular series of large-arched openings, fifteen feet wide, filled with glass, forming a continuous arcade around the building. From the sidewalk to the top of this cornice will be forty feet. A tower, or campanile of picturesque design will ornament the center of the eastern facade. It will be 240 feet high and 36 feet square, be provided with elevators, and be used for an observatory, and an amusement ball and cafe will be placed in the top story. A powerful electric light is to be a feature of the pinnacle. A roof garden some thirty; eight feet wide will run entirely around the building above. So. much for the exterior. Within the whole structure is embraced a ground floor area of 210,000 square feet, or about five and one-half acres. Together with the gallery on the roof and the mezzanine stories, this gives a total floor area of eight acres.
Wonders of Greatest Show on Earth.
Up to this time there has been no building in the world large enough to conveniently accommodate the monster shows-circus, menagerie, hippodrome, and ethnological congress- -given by Barnum & Bailey. The biggest tent ever manufactured contains but half of it. Under ordinary conditions and without an extra lower tier of movable seats and boxes, this circus auditorium will seat 12,000 people. Additions will bring the seating capacity up to 16,000.
One of the peculiarities of construction is the changeable character of the auditorium-which can be made larger or smaller at pleasure to suit a spectacular show, a political convention, a football game, bicycle tournament or anything else requiring accommodations for a large audience and plenty of room to operate in. The entire interior fittings are designed to be portable, interchangeable, and easily and quickly arranged for an emergency.
The Coliseum will present an admirable inducement for great gatherings of every character. Those who have attended national political conventions will understand the need for such a building. There has never yet been a public hall sufficiently large to accommodate a national convention and its attendant crowds. The State Fair will here find satisfactory quarters. It is proposed also to utilize the building for great intercollegiate football matches.
But this circus and hippodrome, although a grand spectacular exhibition twice as large and with more than twice as many acts and performers as any other circus that ever entertained the amusement-loving public, is but half of the Barnum & Bailey show.
Great Ethnologienl Congress.
It is necessary, therefore, to have additional room immediately contiguous to, but separate from, the great arena monopolized by the circus proper, for the big menagerie and wonderful collection of curious poole from every savage nation on earth. student and the man of letters the object lesson in the ethnological congress is of greater interest than any other part of the great show. He has here brought home to him the living pictures of that of which he has knowledge only through books. In these strange people of every clime he has not the greatest show on earth—it is the earth. The collection is inseparable from that of the savage inhabitants of the swamps and deserts and woods and jungles.of the unexplored recesses of the world.
To group this extraordinary collection so that it may be seen at once as a whole, and studied in detail without inconvenience, requires almost as much space as that demanded by the big three-ring circus. This space will be afforded for the first time under a roof by the stupendous Chicago Coliseum Building. The main entrance will lead directly into a division of the building thrown open its full width of 300 feet and 320 feet in length. The cages of wild animals will be disposed of on either side. Through the central portion will be grouped the strange people of savage and semi-civilized nations, leaving ample space between wild beast and wild man for the curious and the scholarly visitors. This single room will be larger than the entire aren!c space of Madison Square Garden.
Varied and Brilliant Attractions.
From the menagerie and ethnological congress the visiting public can pass directly, by two commodious entrances, into the circus proper. And when the show is over they will find beautiful gardens, shimmering lakes and cool restaurants that invite to rest and to refreshment.
The opening of the Coliseum will be formally conducted under the auspices of public-spirited citizens of Chicago, co-operating with Mr. James A. Bailey. Excursion trains will be run on all the railroads leading into the city, and these will be maintained during the Barnum & Bailey engagement. There will be a grand illumination at Jackson Park every night, and the wonderful creation of the architect and the builder will alone be worth coming many miles to see. Ordinarily. it would require at least six months to erect such a building as this Aladdin-like Coliseum, and yet its sponsors have unalterably wagered $50,000 that it will be completed within sixty days of the real beginning of work, and will be in readiness for the splendid festivities with which it will be inaugurated Sept. 2.
A fitting conclusion to this article is found in the words of that great manager, Mr.
James A. Bailey, who says:
- Fully appreciating the high compliment involved In selecting the Barnum & Bailey Greatest Show on Earth to inaugurate the superb, stupendous, and unparalleled Chicago Coliseum, as well as the unusual responsibilities associated with an event of such signal and general interest, I beg to publicly and earnestly assure the projectors of the grand and beneficent enterprise, and the people of Chicago, that no effort or expense will be spared on my part to present an entertainment full worthy in magnitude and merit, instruction and interest, novelty and variety, elegance and quality, learning and laughter, of the notable occasion, and of the great metropolis, to whose chaplet of enterprise it adds yet another victorious leaf, and of the confidence reposed in me.
- 1893 map of the location of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show just outside the Exposition grounds.The Coliseum was built at the same location in 1895, between 62nd and 63rd Streets on Grace Ave. The Coliseum opened on August 22, 1895 with Buffalo Bill’s West Show.
Chicago Tribune, August 22, 1895
The mammoth Coliseum, in course of construction on the old site of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, in Sixty-third street, near the World’s Fair grounds, is a wreck. At 11:10 o’clock last night ten of the eleven huge cantilever roof trusses swayed and fell to the ground, and were twisted into a mass of worthless iron. The only truss left standing was the last one put into place, at the south end of the partially completed building. The loss, it is believed, will reach $125,000.
Three men were inside the building at the time of the crash—Jake Crawley, a watchman who was at the north end; J. T. Recetto, another watchman over a boiler; and John A. Fischer, an engineer, who was going to work at 4 o’clock in the morning and who was at the east end of the eighth truss.
It is supposed one of the foundations settled and the trusses, which rested upon them and not upon the walls, gave way and precipitated the crash. The accident began at the south end ot the structure and spread towards the north. The three north trusses fell north. ward and outward and the other eight south-ward. The two watchmen and the engineer heard the crash at the south end of the building and barely had time to escape.
It was reported there were tramps in the building. The police discredited this theory, but calls for aid were sent to the Police and Fire Departments. Several hook and ladder companies were soon on the spot, as were also several details of police. AlL attempts to search in the débris, however, had to be given up because the many electric wires whien had been broken by the fall of the trusses had charged the steel beans with a powerful current and it was dangerous to handle them. Lieut. Thompson and several police officers started to enter the ruined building, but each received a slight shock, which warned him of the danger. Orders were then given that no one should enter the building.
Cause of the Collapse.
The wreck covered a space 350×530 feet.
On top of the roof were piled from 30,000 to 50,000 feet of green lumber, ready to be used for roofing. The falling of this lumber is thought to have played havoc with the contents of the building.
Over 600 men have been employed on the structure. They were working in three shifts. One shift of 400 men stopped at 9:30 o’clock last night and the second shift would have gone to work at 3 o’clock this morning.
The cause of the accident could only be conjectured last night. It was said the foundation being made of piles was defective and the builders were not careful enough in the construction of the roof. The placing of the roof boards was going on and large quantities of lumber had been loaded on the steel trusses which were already in place. It was asserted last night that this lumber was not evenly distributed about the structure and unequal pressure was thus exerted on the trusses causing them to fall.
The Coliseum Building was constructed similarly to the Machinery Hall at the World’s Fair in that the trusses rested on separate foundations, and the walls were built outside them.
The crash could be distinelly heard from the elevated railway at South Forty-seventh street and the passengers left the train to ascertain the cause of the noise.
The President of the Exposition company is John A. Dickinson, Vice President A. O. Heyworth. Secretary A. R. Oughton.
Two-hundred and fifty men will begin to unearth the ruins at 9:30 this morning, and President Dickinson says a meeting of the directors will be called at once and the work of reconstruction no doubt bordered immediately.
Design of the Building.
The Coliseum was designed by S. S. Beman in Italian Renaissance style. It was to be 770 feet in length by 300 feet wide. This great area of 240,000 square feet, or nearly five and one-half acres, was to be inclosed and covered with a great roof. The loss was estimated at $125,000.
The side walls were to be forty feet to the cornice line, of buff brick, pierced by fifteen-foot arched openings, filled with glass. In the center of one side was to rise a graceful campanile 240 feet high and thirty-six feet square provided with elevators and to be used as an observatory. In the topmost story there was to be a café and music hall. At the pinnacle a huge electric searchlight was to be installed. Around the roof a roof garden thirty-six feet wide was designed.
The mezzanine stories and roof garden spaces were to add two and one-half acres to the available area. The seating capacity was calculated at 40,000.
The construction, according to the plans, was to be entirely fireproof—steel, brick, and glass being the materials to be used. The great roof was to be supported by a series of great steel cantilever arches.
The interior plans provided for a clear central arena 225 feet wide and 602 feet long, surrounded by a thirty-eight foot promenade. Beyond and around this promenade the permanent seats and arena boxes were to be built. The promenade might might in case of need be fitted with and boxes also. The arena was to be divided so that a space of 400 feet by 225 feet could be devoted to the circus. In this arena three rings, two elevated platforms, and a carnival water pool were to be installed.
Twenty-four feet above the lower boxes was to run a thirty-eight foot wide gallery, giving a splendid view of the whole arena. A second ten-foot promenade was to run sixteen fieet higher up. The arches were eight feet in clear height.
The building was to have been opened Sept. 2 by the Barnum & Bailey circus and next Monday a large part of the should have been turned over to that company.
President Dickinson said last night he was certain the showmen would not cancel their dates, but provision would be made to give their exhibitions if not on the site of the coliseum at least near by.
The contractors for the building were the H. Probst Construction company. The contractors for the iron work were Bender & Seifert, No one connected with either company would hazard an explanation of the disaster.
One Man Probably Killed.
At 2:30 o’clock this morning Frederick Taylor. one of the workmen on the building, said that one of his fellow-workmen, whose name is unknown even to the foreman, announced to him his intention of sleeping on the roof. If he did so his body is now buried under many tons of rubbish. The electric light wires were cut early this morning and as soon as day breaks a force of police and workmen will begin a search for the missing workman.
Chicago Chronicle, September 26, 1895
COLISEUM WILL RISE AGAIN.
PLANS FOR THE STRUCTURE
The Coliseum will be rebuilt and work on the great structure is to begin at once The company announces that negotiations looking to the completion of the enterprise began immediately after the collapse of Aug 21 The contracts for the work have been let to the Probst Construction Company The Coliseum company yesterday issued the following statement:
- The structural iron and steel work comprising the greater part of the building is planned and will be furnished and erected by Carl Binder, civil engineer.
The said plans have been carefully examined by two other engineers of established reputation and their certified approval of same as to points of absolute safety secured before the ordering of the new iron and steel work.
In addition to the approval of these expert engineers the iron and steel work will be inspected and certified to as to its requisite quality by the well-known engineering and inspection firm G. W. G. Ferris & Co who will also inspect the work during its erection and will certify to its completeness as a whole. The mason carpenter and all other work will also be closely inspected during construction by competent superintendents.
In the reconstruction of the Coliseum the contractors will be given ample time in which to complete the building and when it is entirely finished another thorough inspection will be made by the same engineers and a satisfactory report received from them before a public entertainment of any character will be given in the building.
The Coliseum was intended originally to have been completed the early part of this month and had already been rented for various large annual public exhibitions and attractions. The demand constantly made upon the Exhibition Company emphasized the pressing need for a building of this character and magnitude in this city and the directors have therefore concluded to reconstruct the Coliseum. In the manner above described at the earliest practicable date and thus provide Chicago with one of the largest and best constructed exhibition buildings in the world.
The building will be completed early next year.
- Coliseum II
1896
ChicagoChronicle, March 16, 1896
The Chicago Coliseum, in which the democratic national convention will be called to order July 7, 1896, has assumed the outlines of a building. The ninth iron truss was placed last Thursday, and if the man in the Auditorium tower attends to his business the twelfth, and last, truss will be in place by the time The Sunday ChronicLe is before its readers. Fourteen feet, in height, of the brick walls are up, all around, and the material and laborers are waiting for the last iron truss. to be put in position and the filling in will follow, and without any unnecessary rush the structure will be finished by May 25. This will give a leeway of six weeks for convention purposes.
A Permanent Structure.
The Coliseum will differ from most places in which national conventions have been held, in this, that it is to be permanent. None of the temporary attachments or ugly and ungainly arrangements in most national convention halls will here be seen. Chicago being the unquestioned natural 10-cation for national conventions it remained to build here a structure that would meet any requirement in the way of conventions. This the Coliseum will be. If the democratic convention had not come to Chicago the Coliseum would have been built just the same.
A good deal has been written and published and spoken about the size of the Coliseum and its capacity. The average reader who has not made a study of such things is very apt to know nothing about the size of a building from printed figures or make an erroneous conclusion if they attempt to guess. It has been stated that the building will cover 285,000 square feet, the ground floor area being 213,000 square feet, the remainder being allotted to the gallery. This does not give the reader unaccustomed to figures any conception of the size of the structure. Those who have seen the Madison Square garden building of New York will know something of the size of the Coliseum when it is stated that the latter is twice the size of the former.
The building now in course of construction in St. Louis, in which the republican national convention will hold its sessions, will be 180×260 feet. It will not require even a comMon school education to figure the comparative insignificance of the St. Louis building to the Chicago Coliseum. ‘The former when finished could be set inside of the latter and there would then be room enough for a race course, a football game, a bicycle tourney and a circus.
A Mammoth Auditorium.
Colonel John T. Dickinson, president of the Coliseum Company, and James O. Heyworth, vice president, and S. S. Beaman, architect of the Coliseum, have figured out these dimensions, and their credibility is not to be questioned. The enterprise is one which cannot depend upon uncertainties. It will be finished as planned and at the time specified and as described to the public, barring the high tower seen in the pictures and cuts of the building. The completion of that is not necessary for convention or for any other purpose.
The seating capacity of the hall for delegates is over 1,000. There will be 906 on the list. The capacity for the alternates is the same. The speaker’s stand will seat 300, more than has ever been on a speaker’s stand in any convention. The newspapers will be accorded for actual working men room for 250. Their desks will be in front of the speaker and not back of him as has been too often the case in former conventions. The total of these figures is 2,550. The gallery and the promenade will accommodate 15,000. This does not mean the push and overflow which come to every national convention and which usually gets in, regardless of the capacity of the structure. It does not include the force necessary to the handling of a convention. It does not, taking in all that have been classified, mean the capacity of the building. So far as that is concerned but half of the building will be used by the convention and the people who will be admitted. The temporary partition will be east and west from a point just south of the tower, which is the half way point. The unoccupied section of the building, the south end, will hold the entire convention and its visitors, if they should decide to adjourn for pleasure and did not wish to get from under the roof. It would be folly to fill the entire structure with seats. Those in the remote ends would never hear. People who stood in the extreme.sections of the manufactures building at the world’s fair at the time of the Initial dedication in the fall of 1892 will understand why it would be folly to fill the Coliseum with seats.
The arrangement of the seats will be in the form of an amphitheater. The section that will seat the delegates will be immediately in front of the speaker, and will be divided into seven blocks. The alternates’ seats will be irnmediately in the rear, and divided in the same manner. Flanking these sections, right and left, will be two sections of seats, divided into four blocks each, for distinguished guests. The gallery will be for that contingent known as the dear public, or as many of the contingent as will have enough influence to get in. It is this contingent which is sometimes mistaken by foreign visitors for the convention proper. It is the contingent that makes most of the noise, and is always read to resent any action of the delegates or ruling of the speaker which runs counter to the contingent’s idea. The chairs throughout will be the same. The man in the gallery who will do most of the yelling will have as good a chair as the senator who may be a delegate at large. The chairs will be on the campstool order, with backs, but not upholstered.
An Immense Gallery.
The gallery extending around the entire structure will be forty feet in the clear. The committee-rooms—the number is not limited—will be convenient to the floor of the delegation and will be furnished with every necessary convenience, well ventilated and lighted by incandescents if night sessions should become necessary. The toilet-rooms on the main floor and on the gallery floor will be permanently constructed from the completion of the building. These arrangements will be in keeping with the general finish of the building, and consequently modern and perfect.
In addition to the committee-rooms, Colonel Dickinson and his coadjutor, Heyworth. will have a number of rooms furnished for the benefit of the great daily newspaper representatives. Each metropolitan daily will have its own office in the building, if it wishes to, and each one of these offices will be furnished with every facility required for the quick transmission of reports. No other convention hall in this country has ever had any such arrangements.
For the benefit of the man who is never satisfied until he knows everything, it is necessary to add that restaurants, cafes and stands with refreshments, except intoxicants, will be scattered about the structure and in the hands of people who will be required to satisfy the management that the concessionaires understand their business. Colonel Dickinson is now prepared to receive bids from those who want concessions.
Light and Ventilation.
The exits to a building like the Coliseum would under any circumstances be numerous and properly located. The arrangement for light and ventilation is about as perfect as could be made. The location of the building insures a delightful breeze. The structure is isolated; there is no other building within 100 feet. To the east are the green and restful swards of Jackson park, which made the white city such a vision, and within sound of the delegations are the swish-iIng waters of Lake Michigan. The openings in the building on all sides are numerous, giving an uninterrupted supply o that breeze so famous in Chicago in summer.
The roof is also constructed with a view of increasing the ventilation, if that were necessary. It would really seem proper, in view of all this, in connection with Chicago’s summer climate. to advise delegates to bring their overcoats and their heavy underwear.
The grand entrance of the Coliseum will be in the Sixty-third street end. The speaker’s stand will be on the east side. Thus, while the speaker will confront the west in his rulings, the convention will look to the east for its rulings.
Telegraphic Facilities.
The operating-rooms of the Western Union and Postal Telegraph companies will be underneath the press platform and a tube from each writer’s desk will carry his report to the telegraphic operators below, and this transmission will be the work of a moment. When Colonel Dickinson was secretary of the world’s fair he had constant occasion to come in contact with the press of the country. He understands its wants and what is necessary to accommodate it and he is making personal exertions looking toward the interests of working newspaper men in the coming convention. He promises that his plans will be so well carried out that every newspaper man in the convention will be in favor of having all conventions held in this city.
Transportation Facilities.
The means for reaching the Coliseum and for leaving it are known and understood by Chicago people. For the benefit of those without the city something about this is necessary.
The Illinois Central railroad is obligated to furnish the same sort of service during the convention that it furnished during the world’s fair and that was perfect. Extra trains will run every few minutes from Randolph street to Sixty-third street. The distance from the Sixty-third street station to the south entrance to the Coliseum is less than one block. If there should be night sessions extra night trains will be run up to the hour of adjournment. The time between the city and the Coliseum by these trains will be less than fifteen minutes.
The trains on the Alley “L’ run to a station almost at the very entrance of the building. In this connection it is added that the Alley “L’ people promise that before thebconvention meets its loop on the Wabash avenue side as far as Randolph street will be in operation, thus giving through and quick transportation from the business center to the Coliseum.
Electric lines, with through cars—no transfers from train to train—will run on Sixty-third street west, connecting with the Cottage Grove and State street cable lines. The electric lines to Pullman, Kensington, South Chicago and other suburban places south run within a few feet of the building.
Other Coliseum Attractions.
There are people who are under the impression that the Coliseum will be christened by the democratic national convention. Unfortunately the Coliseum will not have this distinguished consideration. Buffalo Bill opens the building June 1, and occupies it until the 15th, with his wild west show. From June 18 to 20 the cycle tourney, on a quarter-mile track, has the building.
July 4 will occur the patriotic musical festival under the auspices of the business men of Chicago.
The convention comes next. July 21-23 sees another cycle tourney. Aug. 10 the southern states exposition will open there. From Oct. 19 to Nov. 1 the Barnum and Bailey “Only Only’ will begin a session of two weeks. From Nov. 4 to 7 the horse show will be inaugurated, and will be followed by the fat stock show. The week before Thanksgiving will begin with a series of athletic sports, a national game of football taking place on Thanksgiving. This will be the first football game ever played in a roofed amphitheater.
The reader who may wonder how so many varied affairs can occur in one structure is informed that the blocks of seats in the Coliseum are partable and can be thrown in any desired position or into any part of the building. It is estimated, on what the managers say are good grounds, that between June 1 and Dec. 1 1,500,000 will visit the Col-Iseum. It is unnecessary to add that the Coliseum will become politically famous by reason of its first nominee becoming president the following year.
Chicago Tribune June 2, 1896
From the Coliseum Building last night came fierce whoops and yelps, followed by the rattle of rifles and revolvers.
“I knew the Dimmicrats were a-goin’ to hev a hot time,” said a startled farmer on a Big Four train, “but I didn’t think they’d begin shutin’ so quick.”
For it was not the partisans of either Grover Cleveland, William Russell, or Gov. Altgeld who made the sanguinary demonstrations. The convention does not come for a month. It may be divided up between three, four, or a dozen candidates, but the convention which opened the big building out Stony Island way yesterday was solid for one man. He was the biggest thing in the Thirty-fourth Ward, not expecting the Coliseum Building itself and the statue of the Republic down in the lagoon.
He was Buffalo Bill.
Russell may doubt the loyalty of some of his followers, and Altgeld may be in doubt for a considerable portion of the time as to just where “he is at.” But when Mr. Buffalo Cody, at the head of a couple of dozen reformed cow-punchers dashed out from two or three hand[painted mountains and shot 300 blank cartridges into the backs of the redskins chasing the Deadwood stage coach the excited audience simply stood up and holloed.
And when the cruel war was over, and the cowboys were borrowing tobacco from the slain Indians in the back room, and the hero of the World’s Fair and all Europe halted his panting charge down in front of the first row of boxes, there was a sense of enthusiasm for which future candiadtes in the Coliseum would be willing to pay.
On His Old Stamping Ground.
Buffalo Bill was back on his old stamping ground. Last night his Arabs and Indians were again fraternizing with the small boys of Woodlawn, and the cowboys were hunting up some of the old trails that led south to the wet corner of Hyde Park. It was appropriate for Buffalo Bill to receive first plaudits in the Coliseum, for the big convention hall stands exactly on the site of his World’s Fair camp.
There was a big crowd out to see him, both afternoon and evening, a crowd that came early and staid to the concert. It cheered everything from Buffalo Bill down to buffalo calf that was shot at ninety-five distinct and separate times without apparent injury.
It was the same show. The Cossacks charged down on the people in the end boxes with drawn swords, and the Irish lancers rode so stiffly it was feared one or two of them would tumble off and break. There was first of all the grand review, which was a sort of minstrel first part, “introducing all the members of the company.” There were half naked Indians with war paint on, at least the book said it was war paint, and there were cowboys, Arabs, Mexicans, and a detachment of cavalry from a half dozen different countries. And after they had all galloped to their stations the bugles blew a fanfare and Buffalo Bill dashed to the front and waved his hat and apparently said something which nobody understood, but which everybody cheered to the echo.
Then there was a horse race, in which a Cossack unfortunately badly defeated a cowboy. A pony post-rider then dashed about the ring, making lightning changes of horses and riding half the time with both feet dragging on the ground. After Buffalo Bill had obligingly driven away a band of marauding Indians and allowed the entertainment to proceed the Arabians took possession of the ring. While the rest of the troops were walking on swords and apparently trying to turn themselves inside out a dancing dervish mounted a barrel and turned around and around for ten minutes straight. He seemed able to keep it up for several months without stopping for meals, and unless an impatient audience shoots him will some day furnish a clew to perpetual motion.
Cossacks Do Trick Riding.
Then the Cossacks rode. They ride by hanging to a horse by their hands or their feet or teeth or their hair. It doesn’t seem to bother which. Sometimes they ride in their saddles, but more often they thump along the ground or stand straight up in their saddles or ride backwards, while the audience makes bets on how long it will be before they break their necks.
Vincente Oropeza is a Mexican who can do more with a rope than common people can with a wire. He puts a noose in the rope, and then revolves it so that it stands out as iff it were a wire. He jumps into the loop and out again, and ends up by lassoing all of his obliging friends in sight.
Buffalo Bill, who had already rescued an emigrant train and a stage coach, managed to arrive at the close of the performance just in time to keep the Indians, who had escaped from their dressing rooms again, from shooting the paint all off a property cabin in which the settlers were surreptitiously concealed. When the Indians saw Buffalo Bill they seemed to be struck by the fear that he was going to reduce their salaries, for they immediately retired. The settlers’ lives were saved, and Policeman Higgins of the Woodlawn Station, who contemplated sending in a riot call for the wagon, took his seat again.
- Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show Poster
Offers Bill a Governorship.
One thing was demonstrated by the performances in regard to the Coliseum. It is a mascot. Before the afternoon performance was ended Buffalo Bill received a telegram announcing he could receive the Republican nomination for Governor of Nebraska if he would accept the nomination. “I haven’t got enough money to run for Governor,” he said. Still, he didn’t know but he might change his mind after breathing the air of the Coliseum for two weeks.
Salt Lake City Herald, June 28, 1896
- “At the Opening of Democratic Convention Mt. Harrity Presents Temporary Chairman Daniel.”
Coliseum I
July 7-11, 1896
The most famous speech in American political history was delivered by William Jennings Bryan on July 9, 1896, at the Democratic National Convention in the Coliseum. The issue was whether to endorse the free coinage of silver at a ratio of silver to gold of 16 to 1. (This inflationary measure would have increased the amount of money in circulation and aided cash-poor and debt-burdened farmers.)
College football teams immediately saw the feasibility of playing indoor games in the Coliseum, and four big games took place:
- University of Michigan vs. University of Chicago, Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1896; won by Chicago, 7–6.
Carlisle Indian School vs. University of Wisconsin, December 19, 1896; won by Carlisle, 18–8.
Carlisle Indian School vs. University of Illinois, November 20, 1897; won by Carlisle, 23–6.
University of Michigan vs. University of Chicago, Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1897; won by Chicago, 21–12.
1896
Chicago Tribune, December 25, 1897
The Coliseum Building, in Sixty-third street, burned to the ground early last evening. Three hundred persons connected with the manufacturers’ carnival and winter fair were in the huge structure when the fire began. In attempting to save their personal effects many had narrow escapes from death. A large number were injured. A dozen persons were reported missing, but all who were known to be in the building at the time the fire started were accounted for by 10 o’clock except four. Those of whom nothing could be learned and who are believed to have perished are:
- Byrnes, Joseph, Hoboken, N. J.: employed by beauty exhibit; last seen by J. F. Berry
Geyser, Howard,Wilmington, Del.; employed by beauty exhibit as decorator: warned to leave the building by Manager Berry: has not since appeared at Coliseum Hotel, where he resided.
Huffian, Sholan, Armenian, employed in Streets of Cairo exhibition. Last seen in exhibit while running.
Malosoum, J. A. Turk, empioyed in Streets of Cairo exhibition. Last seen in exhibit attempting to escape.
It was thought that Pauline Dauphine, a dancer. 14 years old, and her mother, had also been lost, but they appeared late at night at their home, 14 West Randolph street.
The total loss on building and contents, the latter being property of exhibiters, is estimated at $617,000.
The winter fair had been closed at 5:30 o’clock for supper. The three or four hundred visitors had all left the building and the exhibiters and their people were eating supper or preparing to leave the building for an hour. The Streets of Cairo troupe, forty in number, had spread their table in their quarters in the north end of the building The fire spread with rapidity unexampled since the burning of the Manufactures Building at the World’s Fair. The structure almost in an instant was filled with the densest smoke. Most of the exhibiters would have been able to make their escape without difficulty or danger if they had not stopped and attempted to save their personal be-longings.
The Injured.
Following is the list of the injured:
- Allaby, William, driver of Engine Company 13, thrown from engine in a collision with a Lake Shore train at Cottage Grove avenue and Forty-first street while responding to the alarm; right wrist sprained and head eut and bruised; taken to his home, 3451 Rhodes avenue.
Ament, George W., face and hands blistered; escaped by crawling under a partition.
Baba, Ali, Streets of Cairo company, dervish; right arm cut and burned.
Conger. Miss Helen, manager of the Molin Rouge art exhibit; shocked by live wire and severely burned about right arm: taken to her home at Seventy-fifth street and South Chicago avenue.
Chamberiain, Al, with Hamilton & Potter, lectur-ers; face and hair scorched; escaped by crawling out beneath débris.
Dekreko, George, proprietor of the Streets of Cairo exhibit: jumped from upper window of burning building and severely bruised.
Duggan, Eugene, employ Streets of Cairo ex-hibit: burned about left side.
Dekreko, Eugene, Streets of Cairo company; hands scorched and clothing torn and burned
Foote, Peter, watchman; burned about face and hands.
Harley, Robert. Truck Company 15; severely bruised by debris during the collapse of a rear wall of the building: taken to engine-house.
Hamilton, Harry, employe of Beauty show; burned about face.
La Belle Saida, muscle dancer. Streets of Cairo company: hands scorched and hysterical from fright; carried out by George Dekreko.
Lyons, G. A., New York; employed in Luxemburg exhibit; burned while trying to save paintings; taken to the Columbian Apartments.
Lyons. Mme. Helene, right arm brurned; carried out by Thomas Murray; taken to her home, 7088 South Chieago avenue.
Maher. James, fireman, Truck Company 20; stunned by electric shock received in cutting a live wire; taken to his home, Sixty-ninth and Wright streets.
Morley, M. J., proprietor of the X-ray show; face, head, and arm badly burned; taken to his home in Norwood Flats.
Murphy. Frank, 16 years old, of St. Louis; severely burned on right arm; taken to the Coliseum Hotel.
Nalbandi, Jacob, musician, Streets of Cairo company; partly suffocated and dragged out by policemen.
Parker. Harry, 23 years old, New York City; employed in the Luxemburg exhibit; burned; taken to the Columbian Apartments
Robertson, Wiltiam, employed in the X-ray ex-hibit; face and hands burned; taken to the Coliseum Hotel.
Wheeler, M. J., watchman; hands burned while opening exits.
Weiss, Louis, janitor; burned about face and hands.
Wright, W. H., 3330 Prairle avenue: instructor in roller skating exhibit; burned about arms.
Heavy Loss All Around.
The loss due to the fire falls heavily on both Insurance companies and property-owners. The cost of the Coliseum was placed last evening by S. S. Beman, the architect, at $350,000. The interior furnishing cost
$100,000. Insurance on the building was $120,000. Exhibiters were without exception uninsured. They estimated their aggregate loss at $167,000.
The list of losses, as given by those affected, follows:
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