Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1901 — Ben Hur at the Illinois. [ARTICLE]

Ben Hur at the Illinois.

Klaw & Erlanger’s stupendous production of Gen. Lew Waliace’a “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 2nd. In all features this great production in its powerfully impressive story, in its beautiful music, and in its massive and magnificent 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 iirto more brilliant pictures of the granduer ‘of Rome. Spectacles of martial pomp are sue needed by pictures full of poetry rnd infinite daintiness. The Klaw and Erlanger “Ben Hui” production will come to Chicago from New York direct Several trains will be req ired to transport the organization, its scenic equipment, i.s vast machinery used in the representat on of the chariot race, its sixteen horses and its three camels. A corps of stage carpenters have 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 requires more than forty tons of ma chinery a panorama of 2006 feet of painted canvas thirty-five feet high which is whirled across the stage in

the space of one minute and 16 sec onds, it can be easily comprehended that none but the most modern theatres can present this great play. There.will be twelve horses racing in full view of the audience during the famous chariot race. The incident of smashing of Messala’s wheel by Ben Her’s superior horsemanship, the clouds of dust, clatter of hoofs, the roar of the multitude, the cries of the excited contesting drivers makes a stage spectacle such as has never before been witnessed. There will 1 e 350 people on the stage in the princi pal scenes of “Ben Hur,” including fifty children.

The drama holds to the original story as closely as stage requirements 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.