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Phantasmagorical Wonders: The Magic Lantern Ghost Show in Nineteenth-Century AmericaAuthor(s): X. Theodore BarberSource: Film History, Vol. 3, No. 2 (1989), pp. 73-86Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3814933

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Film History,Volume 3, pp. 73-86, 1989Printed in the USA. All rights reserved0892-2160/89$3.00 + 0Copyright 1989Taylor&Francis

Phantasmagoricalonders: T h eMag i c Lantern Ghost h o w nNneteenth Centumerica

by X. Theodore Barber

Abstract Etienne Gaspard Robertson'sPhantasmagoriawas the most influential magiclanternghost show of the earlynineteenth cen-tury. The article describes Robertson'sexhibi-tions and the manner in which his effects wereproduced, includinghis use of projectormove-ment to alterapparentscreen size. The work ofother ghost show lanternists in the UnitedStates over the years 1803 to 1839 is seen asclearlyderivativeof Robertson'sexhibitions.

urrent scholarship credits the Dutch scientistChristiaen Huygens with the invention of themagic lantern in the mid-seventeenthcentury. Thepredecessor to today'sslide projector,the magic lan-tern used transparenciesmade of glass onto whichthe imagesto be projectedwere hand painted, photo-graphic slides not being employed until the mid-nineteenth century. In addition, the magic lanternwas the forerunner of the motion picture projectorbecause it could screen moving images by means ofspecialslides or adaptationsof the lantern itself. Me-chanicalslides,whichwere in existenceby 1713,werethe most common way to convey a scene in motion.These mechanicalsusuallyconsistedof two pieces ofglass,one placed over the other. Thus, for example,a windmillwithout its sails might be painted on thebottom, stationarypiece of glass,and the sails them-selves might appear on a movable glass disk placedon top of it. A hand-operatedpulley wheel causedthe disk, and hence the sails,to revolve.Amusing and quaint images such as the windmillscene were commonly projectedby the first part ofthe eighteenth century, when popular itinerantshowmenbegan touringwith the lanternthroughout

Europe, giving public exhibitions in homes, halls,and taverns. The original developers of the lanternhad apparently already exploited its "magical"poten-tial, however, and slides of phantoms, devils, andother macabre subjects had been screened in front ofthe first private audiences, who were often membersof the elite or royal classes. In fact, Huygens' devicewas referred to as "the lantern of fright,"' and Ath-anasius Kircher's description of the lantern in his Arsmagna lucis et umbraeof 1671 was accompanied by il-lustrations showing projections of a soul in purgatoryand a skeleton holding an hourglass and scythe.In the last three decades of the eighteenth cen-tury, however, frightful and supernatural subjectmatter again became the style. This was the age ofRomanticism, a movement that had an element ofthe bizarre and irrational, and the Gothic novel, withits atmosphere of mystery, madness, and darkness,was having its heyday. The time was ripe for the de-velopment of a type of magic lantern horror or ghostshow. Thus audiences expecting to be frightened bythe sight of apparitions attended the magic lantern"seances" held by Georg Schropfer at his coffeehouse in Leipzig around 1770 as well as the spectershows of such magicians as Philidore and the Amer-ican-born Jacob Philadelphia, who performed invarious capitals of Europe in the latter part of theeighteenth century.2 It was Etienne Gaspard Robert-son, though, who refined the magic lantern ghostX. Theodore Barber has studied film and theater history at Har-vard University and New York University. He has a special interestin the precursors of the cinema and is currently preparing a full-length history of the magic lantern show in America. Please ad-dress correspondence to 40 Waterside Plaza, apartment 21H, NewYork, New York 10010.

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show into an elaborate, orchestrated event so suc-cessful that it spawned many imitations.Born in Liege in 1763, Robertson established hisexhibition in Paris by 1799, presenting it first at thePavilion de l'Echiquier and then moving it to anabandoned chapel, which formerly held the skeletalremains of monks, at the Couvent des Capucines.3Termed the Fantasmagorie (derived from the Greekfor "phantasm assembly"), his show played for sixyears, and because it dealt with the mysterious andunknown it appealed to Parisians, who were them-selves in an uncertain, transitional period, having ex-perienced the upheavals of the French Revolution.Robertson provided some details of the typicalFantasmagorie show in his memoirs.4 The audienceentered a somber room painted or draped withblack, decorated with gloomy images, and illumin-ated by a weak lamp. In this environment they be-came grave and spoke in whispers. When the showwas ready to begin, Robertson stepped forward anddelivered a speech that warned against superstitionand impostors who have deceived the credulous, but

his words were ambiguously phrased and even opento the interpretation that the ghosts about to be seenwere real. At the least, some people present were ap-parently so overwhelmed by the apparitions that theyforgot that the show was based solely on tricks. Thiswould account for the engravings showing audiencesreacting with utter terror to the Fantasmagorie (de-pictions which seem to go beyond mere iconographicformula; see Figure 1) and for the fact that the showwas temporarily halted by the police because it wasthought that Robertson could bring Louis XVI backto life.

Having completed his speech, Robertson quicklyextinguished the light so as to plunge the room intotal darkness for the next hour and a half. This initself was frightening, but to increase the terror heproceeded to lock the doors. The audience thenheard the noise of rain, thunder, and a funereal bellcalling forth phantoms from their tombs, andFranklin's Harmonica, a form of musical, water-filledglasses, provided a haunting sound which servedboth here and throughout the show to mask the noise

Figure 1. Frenchengraving depictingRobertson'showat the Couvent des Capucines.Note Robertsonprojecting rom behind the screen.

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PhantasmagoricalWonders

of the goings-on behind the scenes. During thesesound effects, Robertson was setting up his magiclantern behind the screen, rear projection being infact a key to his performance. The audience couldsee the slides on a cambric screen that had been madeslightly diaphanous by coating it with a varnish ofwhite starch and gum arabic, but the lanternist andthe actual workings of the show remained hidden.Another brilliant touch was that he sometimes rearprojected his slides onto smoke, creating an eerie ef-fect.Robertson called his ingeniously devised magiclantern a fantascope. This lantern was one of the firstto feature an Argand oil lamp, a significant improve-ment in artificial lighting that made use of a tubularwick (Figure 2). The projection power of earlier lan-terns had been severely limited by the weak illu-minants used in those devices-typically candles or

simple oil-burning lamps. The increased illuminationprovided by the Argand lamp allowed Robertson andthe later exhibitors who used it to give shows inlarger venues than had previously been possible. Thelantern was also equipped to present the illusion of aphantom appearing as a small figure at a distanceand then gradually approaching and growing to animmense size before suddenly disappearing. A tablewith casters at its feet held the lantern and could bemoved forward and back on two parallel woodenrails nailed to the floor directly behind the screen.Thus when the lantern was close to the cambric thetransparent image was small, but when the devicewas moved back the projection grew in size (seeFigure 3). While moving the lantern, Robertson notonly had to be careful to adjust the focus so that thepicture would always be clear but also had to manipu-late a special shutter mechanism over the lens that

Figure 2. Robertson'sFantascope,with its Argand lamp (G), adjustablefocus (F), and shutter mechanism SS), which attachesto the end of tube(D). From Etienne GaspardRobertson,Memoires recreatifs, scienti-fiques et anecdotiques d'un physicien-aeronaute, 2 vols. (Paris:Etienne GaspardRobertson,1831-33).

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Figure 3. Phantasmagoria lidesdepicting keletonon horse,attributed o Robertson.Afrontal view wasprojectedwhen thephantomappeared o beapproaching hespectators; rearview wasprojectedwhen itappearedto be receding.CollectionofJac Remise.Reproducedbypermission.

controlled the amount of light passing through theslide. Because the lantern had to be close to thescreen to create a small, seemingly distant figure, theimage produced was bright, contrary to the optic ex-pectation that a far object would be faint. Therefore,Robertson had to cut down the light in this instance,and as the picture grew he had to increase the illumi-nation. Closing the shutter altogether made the ap-parition disappear.Robertson also used mechanical slides to give asense of motion to his phantoms, and one of thesesurvives among a small collection of his transparen-cies at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiersin Paris. It is a two-piece slip slide, one glass showingthe face of a specter, the other glass, placed over it,showing the eyes. Moving the latter glass back andforth made the eyes roll.5In general, Robertson's slides were painted with

transparent oils, and careful attention was paid toshading and detail that would show up fairly wellwhen projected with the Argand lamp. An essentialelement to his slides was that each image was sur-rounded by blackness, so that, when screened, itseemed to float free in the air without any back-ground or unnecessary light around it. In somecases, though, Robertson wanted to provide an envi-ronment for his projected figure. This he did byusing a second lantern located in front of the screenbut hidden from the view of the spectators. For ex-ample, a front, stationary projector threw the imageof a cloister on the screen, while a rear, mobile lan-tern displayed the approaching phantom known asthe Bleeding Nun, an image derived from the Gothicnovel The Monk by Matthew Lewis. This set-up al-lowed for the successful superimposition of imagescoming from multiple lanterns.

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The first projection that the audience saw at theFantasmagorie was a lightning-filled sky; this projec-tion probably made use of the two-lantern technique,one lantern displaying the sky and the other the boltsof lightning. Then ghosts and skeletons were seen toapproach and recede. Transformations occurredwhen a figure dwindled in size and disappeared butthen gradually reappeared in another form. In thisway the Three Graces, for example, were changedinto skeletons. Sometimes the phantoms emergedfrom a tomb, and other times they could be seencrowding around a boat waiting to pass over the riverStyx. On occasion they spoke, Robertson or one ofhis assistants providing the voice. Additional terri-fying scenes included the Preparation for theWitches' Sabbath, Medusa's Head (Figure 4), and theGhost of Samuel Appearing to Saul. Usually theslides concerned either death or the satanic (seeFigure 5), but Robertson also presented a few alle-gories, myths, and legends, such as the popular His-tory of Cupid, which did not deal with these topics;

like many other early lanternists he made no effort tobe fully consistent in his subject matter.Robertson was actually more than a lanternist,and the Fantasmagorie could be called a true multi-media event. Besides the fantascope with its transpar-encies, an opaque projector called a "megascope" wasemployed to project the images of solid objects, in-cluding live actors costumed as apparitions. Shadowprojection also played a role in the display. The sceneknown as the Dance of the Witches was an elaborateform of shadow show that made use of multiple,moving light sources to create a crowd of dancingfigures. "Ambulant phantoms" that roamed throughthe audience were masks fixed to a plank and appro-priately draped and lit. Finally, Robertson usedthree-dimensional statues, such as one depicting askeleton on a pedestal that frequently closed theshow.Robertson's imitators usually did not stage suchelaborate ghost shows and tended to rely more exclu-sively on slide projection. One of the first of these

Figure 4. Phantasmagoriaslide depictingMedusa'sHead, attributed oRobertson.CollectionofJac Remise.Reproducedbypermission.77


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PHANTASMAGOATHIS and every EVENING,AT TllE.LYCEUM, STRAND.. ) 1a: P 111 I 1 . 7'r 1I ,I \r., e ta s';t5 Opportunitvf inform;ithis PaJtr


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X. TheodoreBarber

magoriashows in the years to come, although somecould be seen for as littleas the twenty-fivecents thatwas sometimescharged for rearor galleryseats. Bo-logna must have been Jack Bologna, a member of afamed Europeanfamilyof clowns and acrobatsand astar of pantomimewho gave ghost shows in Europe.According to an 1805 bill for his Phantasmagoriapresented in London, his apparatushad been con-structedby "M.DUMUTIER, under the directionofProfessorROBERTSON,of Paris."1'In addition tohis ties to Robertson,he was also clearlyinfluencedby Philipsthalbecause his American newspaperad-vertisementsreproducedthat showman'splaybillde-scriptionof the Phantasmagoria, ncludingthe refer-ences to "Apparitionsof the Dead or Absent" and"Spectrology."Bologna's premiere in New York suffered from"inaccuracies in consequence of part of the Ma-chinery having been badly constructed,through thehurryof a first representation,"as the managersex-plained in the New YorkPostof November 9, 1803.The second show was more successful,though, andthe New YorkDaily Advertiserof November 11 notedthat it attracted "a very respectablecompany, all ofwhom appearedperfectlysatisfiedwith the represen-tation, which was executed with the utmost neatnessand attention.... The astonishmentproducedin thescenes of the ghosts and apparitionswasvery great."The entertainment continued into December butmoved to the Union Hotel, where it was given everyevening except Sunday.12In early January, 1804 itwas being presented in New Brunswick, NewJersey.'3 Whether or not Bologna made further ap-pearancesin Americain lateryearsis not known,buthe did sell equipment or the rights to perform hisshow to John Durang, the American-born dancerand actor, who produced a Phantasmagoria"pur-chased of Sig. Bologno" at the New Theatre, Phila-delphia, on April 9, 1808.'4

WilliamBates, a comic performer,took up Phan-tasmagoriashowmanship n 1804 and gave Bostonitsfirst entertainmentof this kind on June 18, 1804 inthe "commodiousHall"of the ColumbianMuseum,15such museums at the time being important centersfor popular entertainmentsthat educated as well asamused. Here again, Philipsthal'sdescriptionof thePhantasmagoriawas used in the advertising.After aseemingly incongruous presentation of comic rou-tines, Bates gave an introductionto the Phantasma-goria and then showedslidesof ghostlysubjectssuchas the Aerial Progressionof Old FatherTime; a Fe-male Spirit, rising from the tomb; the King ofTerror; and the Ghostand Hamlet.A particularlyn-triguing image was An EgyptianPigmy Idol, which

instantaneously changes to a Human Skull; thismight have been accomplished by means of a me-chanicalslide or by Robertson's ransformation ech-nique described above. The portraitsprojected in-cluded Bonaparte and Shakespeare as well as theAmerican figures Washington, Franklin, and thePresident,Jefferson.16A reviewerfor the IndependentChronicle as impressedwith the waythe "objectsdi-minish on the eye of the spectator"but noted that"Someof the figures, indeed, did not seem so perfectas others."17On September30, 1804, Bates also in-troduced the Phantasmagoria o Providence,RhodeIsland, where a reviewer mentioned that the head ofWashington was greeted with rapturous applause,whereas "anemphatichiss of contempt and detesta-tion spontaneously rose to salute the shade of thebloody usurper Bonaparte."'8 This was a changefrom the depiction of Napoleon as heroic peace-makerin Robertson's irst shows.

From December 4, 1806 through mid-January,1807, Boston's Columbian Museum housed an-other Phantasmagoria, this time put on by Mr.Martin, a Parisian showman.19Martin was actuallyMartinAubee, one of a pair of brothers who wereprobably the first of Robertson's imitators. Thebrothers had served as Robertson'sassistantsat thePavilionde l'Echiquier,Martinbeing hired as a car-penter, but they stole his productionand stagedit inParis when he left briefly for Bordeaux.20Martinalso toured Europe with the show; Madrid,for ex-ample, sawhis spectaclefromJanuaryto May, 1806,the same year he brought it to America.21Martin'sBoston advertisementsdeclaredthat the"spacioushall"of the Museum was "decorated,"pre-sumably in the foreboding style of Robertson,andprovidedwithfoot stoves for the ladies. It alsowouldbe "illuminatedand darkened instantaneously, n avery surprisingmanner."This effect was explainedin the autobiography of another Phantasmagoriashowman, Andrew Oehler, who was performing inMexico City in 1806: he masked rather than stifledhis candlelightso that he could make it appear to goon and off magically.22Martin'sshow, as could be expected, was highlyreminiscentof Robertson's.He began with a tempestwith thunder and lightning. This was followed byvariousghosts appearingin different directionsandby the phantoms of celebrities. A scene depictingCharon'sferrywas included,as was the image of thegiant Goliath, who also appeared in Robertson'sshow. Martinspecifiedthathis Goliathwould "enter-

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tain the audience by smiling, making faces, etc.," sothis slide must have been mechanical; another trans-parency of this type was used to create the effect of aphantom who would "change his head six times."Other scenes included Romeo and Juliet showndying, the Tomb of the Dives, the Tomb of MaryStuart, and a subject designed to appeal to the Amer-ican audience by mythologizing its own history, theApotheosis of Washington. One reviewer foundthese transparencies to be "superior to any thing ofthe kind, ever exhibited in this country."23 Martindid more than show slides, however; he also pre-sented shadows depicting the Dance of the Witches,and at one point in the evening a three-dimensionalskeleton went "through the theatre so naturally as ifhe were animated."24 Martin's Boston run wasbrought to an abrupt end on January 19, 1807, whenhe accidentally set fire to the Columbian Museum'ssecond-story hall, where he had been performing.An explosion resulting from his preparations forfireworks that were to be exhibited with the Phantas-magoria was probably the cause.25Although his equipment was lost in the fire,Martin managed to acquire a new projector by May18, 1808, when he began to present the Phantasma-goria at the Lyceum in New York. An advertisementfor this show called attention to the scene of MaryStuart rising from her tomb and to Goliath whosehead would be shown "about 10 feet wide"; this lastdetail is an indication of the size of Martin's screen.Then, on June 15, the production acquired some no-toriety when the CommercialAdvertiserprinted an ar-ticle decrying the Lyceum as "a place converted froma church into a place of amusement, for vulgarminds, such as tricks of legerdemain, and where thedevil dances on stilts to the tune of a hand-organ."Whether or not this satanic dance really appeared inthe show is uncertain, but there probably was somemusical accompaniment to the production. In anycase, Martin's business increased as a result of thisnegative publicity, and he wrote to the same news-paper on June 20: "Since that publication, moreladies and gentleman than before have come to see"the show, so "Mr. Martin, who was ready to leave thecity this week, will continue till the 4th of July, toshow as many devils as they may desire to see, and indoing this he hopes to keep the devil from hispocket."In May and June, 1809, Martin brought thePhantasmagoria to Philadelphia. A noteworthy fea-ture of this exhibition was that an "Orchestra ofItalian Music" was in attendance; this no doubt wasthe orchestra associated with Falcone's Ball Room,which served as the venue for the show.26 Savannah,

Georgia saw his Phantasmagoria in February, 1810.Staged at the "house of Citizen Smith" and featuringRobertson's famous image of the Bleeding Nun, thiswas, however, not Savannah's first ghost show. An-other, unspecified exhibitor had reached this farsouth in July, 1806 and produced the Phantasma-goria in one of the city's theaters, admitting "coloredpeople" to the back of the upper boxes.27 By January,1811 Martin seemed to be finished touring theUnited States, for he took out an advertisement inBaltimore stating that all his equipment was for saleand that he would instruct the purchaser in its use.28

By March, 1807 the New York museums weretaking advantage of the Phantasmagoria rageand presenting their own shows. E. Savage staged aghost show at the museum of which he was propri-etor, located at 166 Greenwich Street, before movingthe production to the Shakespeare Gallery of D.Longworth, the bookseller, on July 18 and then tothe Lyceum (which previously held Martin's show) onOctober 27, 1808 for a run to conclude the followingmonth.29 Savage's spectacle featured megascope pro-jections such as "a bloody hand grasping a steeldagger" as well as "appropriate music on the pianoby Miss Riley." His newspaper announcements de-scribed the Tomb of the Dives slide scene, which alsohad been part of Martin's repertoire: amidst thunderand lightning a wicked rich man rose from his tomband lifted his hands to heaven as if imploring mercybut was overwhelmed by flames and a tremendousshower of fire.30Given the complexity of this scene, itmust have involved several projectors and a numberof slides, some of which were mechanical.Another New York museum, this one at thecorner of Greenwich and Dey Streets, hosted thePhantasmagoria from March 10 through May 1,1808. This show was rather theatrical in that it fea-tured the portraits of actors and was structured inacts. A breakdown of the content of each act, how-ever, reveals how the Phantasmagoria could have avariety format so typical of popular entertainmentsof the time, jumping from image to image withoutany clear reason or connecting thread and even in-cluding musical interludes. The spectacle also couldincorporate subjects that did not pertain directly tothe central theme of the macabre, for as the yearswent by the term Phantasmagoria was increasinglyassociated with the showing of any slides of any topic,so long as they were projected by Robertson'smethods. Act I presented Hamlet and the Ghost;Macbeth and the Witches in a thunderstorm; the Ma-gician who commands Ghosts to rise and disappear at

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pleasure; Garrickas Richard III; Kemble as Rolla,bearing off the child; Mrs. Siddons as the GrecianDaughter; and the Death of General Wolfe. Act IIfeatured the Vision of the Night Mare;an AmericanRattlesnake;the Cock of France;the Beggar'sPeti-tion; Fifteen Likenesses of Distinguished Persons,such as Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Hancock,RobertMorris,FrederickIII of Prussia, he Emperorof Russia, and Mrs. Jones, late of the New Yorktheatre;and a Song. In Act III the spectatorsawtheEruption of Mount Vesuvius (probablyachieved byprojection onto smoke); the Flying Furies, Spiritswhichfly all around the room;and Twentyor ThirtyLikenessesof Celebrated Characters.The Battle ofPrague, rendered on the organ, concluded that sec-tion. Chinese fireworks and a Dance of Characters(i.e., Robertson's Dance of Witches) made up ActIV.31Numerous other showmen took up the Phantas-magoria.Some of these were establishedstage magi-cians such as John Rannie, whose ghost show couldbe seen in New York and Philadelphia n 181032;Fal-coni, who at New York'sTammanyHall in 1817 pre-sented complex scenes depicting Charon and theStyx, the Tomb of J.J. Rousseau, Danae and theBrazen Tower, and the Conquest of the GoldenFleece33; and Adrien, the "elegant" French per-former whose exhibition played such cities as Balti-more in 1825 and Philadelphia ten years later.34Even amateuractorsput on a Phantasmagoria how.In 1811 the Thespian Corps of Cincinnati,Ohio fol-lowed a performanceof the play ThePoor Gentlemanwith ghostly projectionsadvertisedas "scientific,ra-tional, and astounding."35Little is known, however,about the background of other Phantasmagoriashowmen such as Maffey, whose 1818 exhibition inBostonwelcomedchildren at half price,an indicationthat the ghost show by then had become so popular-ized that it was consideredappropriatefor all ages.36An exhibitor by the name of Massonneau, billinghimself as a "scholar"of Robertson, brought thePhantasmagoria to Philadelphia and Lancaster,Pennsylvania around 181937; Snell put on the showin Lexington, Kentucky n 182138;and Le Claireap-peared in Brooklyn,New Yorkin 1823.39One of the most famous Phantasmagoriaexhib-itors did not stage his spectaclein the United Statesuntil 1825, however. This was the aeronaut andphysicistEugene Robertson,son of the inventor ofthe show. After touring Europe he arrived in NewYork,where he displayedthe Phantasmagoria t theLafayetteCircus in August, 1825.40Bostoniansalsowitnessed the show at the Circus in WashingtonGardensfrom October26 through November 22 of

thatsameyear;the advertisements or thatrun notedthat the display, accompanied by music, presentedthe likenesses of the world'sheroes as well as scenesfrom history, fiction, and mythology. They alsopointed out that show was not terrifyingand did notdemand a total absence of light.41In an effort toreach a broad audience who might otherwisehesitateto attend an eerie demonstration,Eugene Robertsonseemed to compromise his father's original prin-ciples. By May, 1827 he was giving the show, whichnow featured some megascope projections, at theCamp Street Theatre in New Orleans,but after thishe made his wayto Cuba and eventuallywent backtoEurope.42Eugene Robertson, however, did return to theUnited States for a few months in 1834, presentingthe Phantasmagoria t New York'sEuterpeanHall inJuly and Septemberof that year.43An extant show-bill for the event lists hydraulic and other experi-ments to be followed by the Phantasmagoria Figure7); the bill was meant to convince all, includingchil-dren (whowere to sit in the front seats),that appari-tions were nothing but optical illusions. Mr. LouisMajor presided at the pianoforte during the projec-tions. These includedsome that seemed frightfulde-spitethe showman'sprotestations o the contrary: heThunderstorm,the Drum of the Eumenides,the Vi-sions,His SatanicMajesty,Medusa'sHead, the Shadeof a DepartedHero, and DoctorYoung InterringhisDaughter. This last probably referred to EdwardYoung, the Englishman who authored the melan-choly meditation on death titled The Complaint:r,NightThoughts1742-45), after his stepdaughteranda numberof other relativesdied. Devisedby EtienneRobertson and used in his shows, the Young slidescene wasdescribedin his memoirs:Young was seencarryingthe body of his daughterin a moonlit ceme-tery. He entered a vault and attempted to find anemptytomb,buteach wasoccupiedbya skeletonthatrefused to give up its place. Finally,one ghost, afterspeaking to Young, let him have a tomb. Once in-terred, the daughter was seen to rise to Heaven,which caused Young to prostrate himself. Otherscenes, such as the Balloonand the Parachute,Fred-erick the Great at Spandaw,and FrenchBrandy/Ja-maicaRum/EnglishGin were no doubt less grim, aswasRoseof Love,an allegorythatwasalsodetailed inEtienne'smemoirs (a rose tree was planted by a vil-lage girl and wateredby a shepherd;after emergingfrom a rose, Erosunited the two young lovers).44Although Eugene Robertson'sshow presented anumber of remarkable images, audiences of the1830s were probablygrowing tired of the Phantas-magoria. In fact, when Adrien presented a ghost

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show on July 29, 1839 in Boston (see Figure 8), hecalled it a Phantascope presentation (after the nameof Etienne Robertson's projector) to convince audi-ences that they were seeing something new.45 After1840 touring showmen for the most part no longerpresented Phantasmagoria shows and consideredghost slides outmoded. For many years to come,however, magic lantern manuals and catalogs con-tained directions for how to mount a Phantasma-goria, including the convenient suggestion that thelantern could be carried by hand or strapped aroundthe waist rather than rolled on a table46;occasionally

Figure 7. Eugene Robertson'shandbill, New York, 1834. BibliothequeNationale, Paris. Courtesyof FranfoiseLevie, Brussels.

these techniques were used to project subjects otherthan supernatural ones. Indeed, in a complete turn-around from the original nature of the Phantasma-goria, Robertson's special lantern effects were evenused by American scientists of the late-nineteenthcentury to demonstrate scientific principles. In a lec-ture on acoustics delivered by Prof. Edwin J.Houston at the Philadelphia Academy of Musicaround 1879, a lantern wheeled back and forth be-hind the screen projected the face of a bugler whosecheeks were distended in the act of blowing. Ahidden musician concurrently played an actual

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X. TheodoreBarber

EXTRAORDINARYEXHIBIT I O NARTISTS'ALLERY,UMMER-ST.M O N S ADR I EN S E NTHEORIGINALREAT AGICIAN,T'lie ist that lias ever appeared n Europe or America, who has surpassed allthat have ever been seen to this day,-the proprietor f a rich Cabinet,the fiitest ever seen, has the honorto informthe citizens of Bostonthat lie will give this Evening,MONDAY, JULY 29, 1839,

aiid every successive evening, (Saturdays and Sundaysexcepted,) for ashort time, aniExhibition composedof many of his most

NOVELNDNTERESTINGEATS,such as have never been before attemptedby any other individual.PART I.Slight of hand, Physical Changes,Illusions, Magic,Necromancy, Metamorphosis.c-tlher i ith an infinity of BEAUTIFUL RECREC TIONS, particularlyTsmrOATr^ TO THPE rpTi

PART II.T H E PHANTASCOPEIN W\HICH WILL BI1 EXHIBITED

NOCTURNALPPARITIONSc f ; highly interesting and surprising character, which cannot fail todelight the spectator.T'HE XHIBITIONILL EVARIEDACHVENINGBYAVARIETYFEXTRAORDINARYOVELTIEN.

Mous. ADRIEN flatters himself that he will receivt, the patronageof tlh:ciuzens of Boston by his particularendeavors to please anidgratify his audi-:ecc, and that the name anidreputationi f his exlhibition ender it Itnnocessaryt uti:additionaldetails respecting it.

Ivlu fitting up the Saloon, particularattention hktsbeen pait to the cual-.ri; etudonvenicnce of ;n audience.IthAVIMITTANCE 50 CENTS. CHIILDREN UNDER 12 Y A1i,'OF'AGE,IIALFPRICE.

Itors opcniat 1-2 past 7 o'click. -xhibitiion Io conimenec att-t jI;ist' o(I'crk, irecisely.PItTNTEDAl 'Ti' OFIt'tCK TH.. 5.W-. 'tr. ,n st,t..,

Figure 8. Adrien'shandbill,Boston, 1839.

bugle, and the music was made to grow louder andquieter in harmony with the size of the projectedimage to illustrate how distance could affect the per-ception of sound.47Another interesting survival of the Phantasma-goria is its currency as a word in the English lan-guage, signifying a changing series of things seen or

imagined. Nathaniel Hawthorne, for one, used theword frequently in his writings. To cite an example, acharacter in TheHouse of theSeven Gables 1851) had apropensity "to hang over Maule's well, and look atthe constantly shifting phantasmagoria of figuresproduced by the agitation of the water over the mo-saic work of colored pebbles at the bottom."48In discussing the survival of the Phantasmagoria,it should also be mentioned that another form ofspecter entertainment did become fashionable inAmerica in the 1860s and 1870s. Known as Pepper'sGhost after its English popularizer John H. Pepper,this effect presented moving images of phantoms ona sheet of glass that were actually reflections of cos-tumed actors hidden from the audience's view.49Thus the occasional late-nineteenth-century produc-tion of a ghost show may have used either Robert-son's or Pepper's techniques or a combination ofboth. In 1889, for instance, Frank Hoffman, ashowman with the Barnum and Bailey Circus, pre-sented "supernatural illusions and visions exhibitinga series of startling, theosophical delusions and ethe-real phantoms by modern scientific means" in a"black tent" darkened to keep out light.50 Nothing isknown, however, of Hoffman's production methods.

Needless to say, the Phantasmagoria was a cine-matic event with its projection of movingimages by means of mechanical slides and wheeledprojectors. In other ways, too, it (along with magiclantern practice in general) resembled film, especiallythe early motion pictures screened around the turnof this century. Designed to appeal to popular audi-ences, the Phantasmagoria made use of music, soundeffects, and the commentary of a narrator to enliventhe otherwise silent imagery. In some cases, the spec-tators may have even been caught up in the spectacleto the extent that they believed in the reality of theimages before them. As with early film, distributionwas dependent on touring exhibitors who broughtthe show to rented halls and other venuesthroughout the country. The projectionist orshowman played a role in selecting the sequence ofthe images to be screened, just as short films could bepresented in any order, but a variety format thatwent from subject to subject without a clear con-necting thread was typical projection practice. OnePhantasmagoria showman often copied the suc-cessful themes and images presented by another, andlikewise early filmmakers duplicated or imitated thework of their competitors. In addition, some of thetechniques used in the Phantasmagoria eventuallyfound their way into film; the looming heads of

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phantoms or celebrities, for example, were precine-matic close-ups. It was the early trick films, however,that most clearly paralleled the Phantasmagoria,which in itself was part of the magic tradition. Manyof these films included transformations, superimpo-sitions, and rear projections, not to mention frequentappearances of ghosts, skeletons, and the like.5' Withhorror films later taking up these same techniquesand motifs, the Phantasmagoria could be said to sur-vive, but in a new form, to the present day. e

NOTES1. S. I. van Nooten, "Contributions f Dutchmen in the

Beginningsof FilmTechnology,"Journal ftheSocietyfMotion Pictureand TelevisionEngineers81 (February1972): 119.2. Hermann Hecht, "The History of ProjectingPhantoms,Ghostsand Apparitions,Part2,"NewMagicLanternJournal (Great Britain) 3, no. 2 (December1984):3-5; FranzPaulLiesegang,DatesandSources:ContributionotheArtofProjectionnd toCinematography,trans. and ed. Hermann Hecht (London: The MagicLanternSocietyof GreatBritain, 1986), 18.3. Francoise Levie, who is preparing a book aboutRobertson,claims that he did not give shows in Parisuntil 1799,althoughearlier dateshave often been cited(FrangoiseLevie to author,March19, 1985). The bestsources of information about Robertson's Fantasma-gorie show available in English include David Rob-inson, "Robinsonon Robertson,"New MagicLanternJournal 4, nos. 1-2-3 (April 1986): 4-13; WilliamTebra, "Robertson and His Phantasmagoria,"MagicLanternBulletin7, no. 4 (March 1986): 3-9; and J. E.Varey, "Robertson'sPhantasmagorian Madrid,1821(Part I)," TheatreNotebook (July 1955): 89-95 and"Robertson'sPhantasmagoriain Madrid, 1821 (PartII),"TheatreNotebook 1 (April 1957):82-91.4. Etienne GaspardRobertson,Memoiresrecreatifs,cienti-fiques et anecdotiques 'unphysicien-aeronaute, vols.(Paris: Etienne Gaspard Robertson, 1831-33). Ex-cerpts relating to the Fantasmagorieshow are trans-lated in Robinson,"Robinsonon Robertson."5. Varey,"Robertson'sPhantasmagoriaPartII),"82-83.Jac Remise also owns some slidesattributed o Robert-son. One of these is mechanicaland depictsa death'shead with movablewings.Jac Remise,PascaleRemise,and Regis van de Walle, Magie lumineuse:Du theatred'ombres la lanternemagiqueParis:Balland,1979),47.6. Paul de Philipsthal, playbill for show at Lyceum,London, 1802; quoted in HermannHecht, "SomeEn-glish Magic Lantern Patents," New Magic LanternJournal2, no. 2 (January 1982):2.7. New YorkChroniclexpress, 0 June 1803.8. According to George C. D. Odell (Annalsof the NewYorkStage,vol. 2 [New York: ColumbiaUniv. Press,1927-49], 183),a Monsieur Martinwasperforming n

New York n late 1802. If this wasthe sameMartinwhowas later to stage a numberof Phantasmagoria howsin America,then he wasin New Yorkat thisearlydate

and mayhave put on the MountVernonGardenexhi-bition.9. The Phantasmagoria was in itself a type of magic act,but it was also frequently presented in conjunction withother forms of deception and illusion. An importantaccountof the AmericanPhantasmagoria how in thecontext of the historyof stage magic can be found inCharlesJoseph Pecor,"TheMagicianon the AmericanStage: 1752-1874" (Ph.D. diss., University of Georgia,1976), 163-73, 249-51. Pecor's work was also pub-lished as TheMagician on theAmericanStage 1752-1874(Washington, D.C.: Emerson and West, 1977). Therole of magic, including the Phantasmagoria, in the de-velopment of cinema is discussed in Erik Barnouw, TheMagician and the Cinema (New York: Oxford Univ.Press, 1981).10. New YorkEvening Post, 5 November 1803.11. Bologna, bill for show at Lower Theatre, Lyceum,London, 1 February 1805, British Museum; repro-duced in Varey, "Robertson's Phantasmagoria (PartII)," 90. Dumutier was probably a variant (or incorrect)spelling of Dumortiez, who with his brother Jules Mol-teni was a leading French lantern maker. LaurentMannoni, "The Magic Lantern Makers of France,"NewMagic LanternJournal 5, no. 2(August 1987): 4.12. Odell, Annals, vol. 2, 207.13. New BrunswickGuardian, 5 January 1804.14. PhiladelphiaAurora GeneralAdvertiser,9 April 1808.15. Boston ColumbianCentineland Massachusetts ederalist,16June 1804.16. BostonGazette,28 June 1804.17. BostonIndependentChronicle,21 June 1804.18. George O. Willard, History of the Providence Stage:1762-1891 (Providence: Rhode Island News Co.,1891), 32.19. BostonGazette,4 December 1806-15 January 1807.20. Levie;Robinson,"Robinsonon Robertson," .21. Varey, "Robertson's Phantasmagoria (Part I)," 93.22. Oehler never presented the Phantasmagoria in theUnited States, but he did settle in New Jersey. ErikBarnouw, "The Fantasms of Andrew Oehler," Quar-terlyReviewof Film Studies9 (Winter 1984): 40-44.23. BostonGazette,1 January 1807.24. Descriptions of Martins's Boston show appeared in theBostonGazette,29 December 1806 and 12January 1807and in the ColumbianCentineland MassachusettsFeder-alist,24 December1806.25. Boston Gazette, 19January 1807. See Pecor, "The Ma-gician," 171 for further details about the fire.26. PhiladelphiaAurora, 1 May-27 June 1809.27. J. Max Patrick, Savannah's Pioneer Theaterfrom Its Or-igins to 1810 (Athens: Univ. of Georgia Press, 1953),69, 74.28. Milbourne Christopher, "Seeming Impossibilities,"Sphinx 42 (April 1943): 39. Similarly, when Martin wasleaving Madrid in 1806, he advertised that his equip-ment was for sale. Varey, "Robertson's Phantasmagoria(Part I),"93.29. Odell, Annals, vol. 2, 287, 321.30. New YorkEvening Post, 18 July 1807.31. Odell, Annals, vol. 2, 302-303.32. New YorkPost, 6 March 1810; Philadelphia Aurora, 14April 1810.33. New YorkPost, 17 and 23 June 1817.

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X. TheodoreBarber

34. BaltimoreAmerican and CommercialDaily Advertiser, 17January 1825; Adrien, programme for show at Ma-sonic Hall, Philadelphia,4 November [1835], TheatreCollection , New York Public Library at LincolnCenter,New York.35. West T. Hill, The Theatre n EarlyKentucky1790-1820(Lexington:Univ. Pressof Kentucky,1971), 68.36. Boston ColumbianCentinel, 23 September 1818.37. Philadelphia Poulson's American Daily Advertiser, 14May-i June 1819; Felix Reichmann,"AmusementsnLancaster 1750-1940,"Historical Papersand Addressesofthe LancasterCountyHistorical Society45, no. 2 (1941):46.38. LexingtonKentuckyGazette,1 February 1821.39. Odell,Annals,vol. 3, 84.40. Ibid., 164;New York ost,29 August 1825.41. Boston ColumbianCentinel, 26 October 1825.42. Levie; John S. Kendall, The GoldenAge of the New Or-leans Theater(Baton Rouge: Louisiana State Univ.Press, 1952),45.43. Odell,Annals,vol. 3, 697; vol. 4, 43.44. Eugene Robertson, handbill for exhibition at Euter-pian [sic] Hall, New York [1834], Bibliotheque Na-tionale, Paris;courtesy of FrancoiseLevie. The exact

nature of several additional scenes on the bill (LoveShaves EveryBody and the Head with the RevolvingGlory)remains unclear. The Danceof the Chinesewasprobablya variationon the Dance of the Witches.45. Adrien, Senior, handbill for show at Artists'Gallery,Boston, 29 July 1839; reproduced in H.J. Moulton,Houdini's History of Magic in Boston 1792-1915 (Glen-wood, Ill.: Meyerbooks,1983),opposite 27.46. See, for example, BenjaminPike,Jr., Pike's llustratedDescriptive Catalogueof Optical,Mathematical,and Philo-sophicalInstruments,vol. 2 (New York: Benjamin Pike,Jr., 1848 and 1856), 207-11.47. "The PhantasmagoriaEffect," Exhibitor, o.8 (August1879):59.48. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables(New York:AirmontPublishingCo., Inc., 1963), 142.49. Fordetailsabout the effect, see GeorgeSpeaight,"Pro-fessor Pepper's Ghost," Revue d'histoiredu theatre,vol.15 (January-March 1963), 48-56.50. Barnum and BaileyShowRoute Bookof theSeasonof 1889(N.p.: Joe Meyer, P. T. Barnum, and sole owners ofthe GreatestShowon Earth, 1889), 14.51. See Barnouw,TheMagician,85-105 for a discussionofsome of these trickfilms and their techniques.

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