Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 August 1901 — "Ben-Hur" at Chicago. [ARTICLE]

"Ben-Hur" at Chicago.

Klaw & Erlanger’s stupendous production of Gen. Lew Wallace’s “Ben Hur” will receive its first Western representation at the opening of the second season of the new Illinois Theatre, Chicago, on Monday evening, September 2d. In all features this great production in its powerfully impressive story, in its beautiful music, and in its massive and magnifeent scenic equipment, is the greatest stage spectacle that has ever been witnessed either in this country or abroad. The audiences are transported back two thousand years into the realms of beauty and glory. Wonderful scenes of Palestine in the days of the child Christ, stern and severe, fade away into more brilliant pictures full of poetry and infinite daintiness. The Klaw & Erlanger “Ben Hur” production will come to Chicago from New York direct. Several trains will be required to transport the organization, its scenic equipment, its vast machinery used in the representation of the chariot race, its sixteen horses, and its three camels. A corps of stage carpenters has been at work for several weeks making the necessary and extensive alterations behind the footlights for the presentation of this vast performance. When it is considered that the chariot race alone require more than forty tons of moving machinery’ and a panorama of 2006 feet of painted canvas thirtyfive feet high, which is whirled across the stage in the space of one minute and fifteen seconds, it can be easily comprehended that none but the most modern theatre can present thisgreat play. There will be twelve horse racing in full view of the audience during the famous chariot race. The incident of smashing of Messala’s wheel by Ben Hur’s superior horsemanship, the clouds of dust, clatter of hoof, the roar of the multitude, the cries of excited contesting drivers, make a stage spectacale such as has never before been witnessed. There will be 350 people on the stage in the principal scenes of “Ben Hur,” including fifty children. The drama holds to the original story as closely as stage requirement will permit. The book reader will experience the delight of seeing all the characters followed with untiring interest in the story, translated to the more realistic atmosphere of dramatic portrayal, presented in an environment which most truthfully mirrors the period and locale of which it treats. The sale of seats for the first three weeks of'this limited engagement will open at the Illinois Theatre, Chicago, Thursday, August 29, and the management announce that out-of-town patrons may secure admission and coupons by mail, if orders are accompanied by money order or check. If you need Life Insurance, call on Bruner & Randle. Forsythe Block, Room 7.