{"id":1682,"date":"2020-04-08T13:30:55","date_gmt":"2020-04-08T13:30:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recordsandarchives.westminster.ac.uk\/?page_id=1682"},"modified":"2022-01-06T11:53:33","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T11:53:33","slug":"ghosts-and-pantos-at-the-rpi","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/archive-blog\/ghosts-and-pantos-at-the-rpi\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghosts and Pantos at the RPI"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In the 1860s the Royal Polytechnic Institution was at the height of its popular fame, thanks to its\u00a0lavish Christmas productions. The 1861 programme established the pattern for family entertainment\u00a0with the building decorated with \u2018holly, Christmas and exotic plants\u2019. A giant Christmas tree in the\u00a0309 Regent Street entrance hall was a focal point for a \u2018gratuitous distribution of thousands of\u00a0beautiful ornaments, toys, pocket knives, scissors, cannons etc., among juvenile visitors\u2019.<\/p>

The Christmas programme was made up of a variety of events taking place throughout the building,\u00a0which were repeated during the two daily openings from 12 noon until 5pm, and then from 7 until\u00a010 in the evening. Visitors could choose between \u2018promenading\u2019 to music around the picture\u00a0galleries and the exhibits in the Great Hall, descending in the diving bell, taking refreshments, or\u00a0attending lectures on natural science accompanied by the Polytechnic\u2019s famous \u2018dissolving views\u2019\u00a0magic lantern shows. Most of these items were short, lasting about thirty minutes; the pantomime\u00a0was (unusually) allocated an hour on the programme.<\/p>

The first Polytechnic optical pantomime opened on Boxing Day in 1861 with a staging of Harlequin\u00a0and Mother Goose. Its success was followed in later years by other traditional favourites, including\u00a0Cinderella, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. The pantomime usually ran until Lent.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Programme for the Christmas season 1861-2<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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On Christmas Eve 1862, Professor\u00a0John Henry Pepper, director of the\u00a0Royal Polytechnic Institution,\u00a0introduced what was to become his\u00a0best known invention, the\u00a0\u2018phantasmagoria\u2019. Pepper had\u00a0obtained permission to use Charles\u00a0Dickens\u2019 tale, The Haunted Man,\u00a0and added optics and visual illusions\u00a0to explore the psychological demons\u00a0of Dickens\u2019 chemistry teacher. The\u00a0Times reported: \u2018We really do not\u00a0think we say a word too much in\u00a0praise when we call this “strange\u00a0lecture\u201d one of the most curious\u00a0displays in London. The spectres and\u00a0illusions are thrown upon the stage
in such a perfect embodiment of\u00a0real substance that it is not till the\u00a0haunted man walks through their\u00a0apparently solid forms that the\u00a0audience can believe in their being\u00a0optical illusions at all\u2019.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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This clever illusion was achieved by concealing an\u00a0illuminated figure beneath the stage who was reflected\u00a0onto a transparent plate-glass sheet to appear in\u00a0spectral form on the stage. The appearance and\u00a0disappearance of the ghost was controlled by the\u00a0strength of the hidden light source. Success depended\u00a0on the plate-glass being invisible to the audience and\u00a0also on careful rehearsal, because the other actors\u00a0could not see the ghost on the stage. At the first\u00a0performance the ghost\u00a0 took the form of a skeleton,\u00a0held under the stage by a man concealed in black\u00a0velvet. As the stage staff developed their skills in\u00a0presenting the illusion, so the ghost was seen to move\u00a0around and even to drink a glass of water.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Diagram of the ghost illusion, from J H Pepper, Cyclopaedic Science Simplified (London: Warne, 1869)<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The ghost was an instant success, transferring to the Polytechnic\u2019s large theatre and continuing to be\u00a0performed throughout the whole of 1863. Even the Prince of Wales (future King Edward VII) brought\u00a0his new bride (later Queen Alexandra) to see the illusion.<\/p>

The Christmas programme for 1866 was billed as the strongest ever presented. Pepper\u2019s continued\u00a0experiments led to the appearance of a truly macabre illusion called \u2018the decapitated head\u00a0speaking\u2019. An engraving on the front page of the Penny Illustrated Paper showed the scene that\u00a0greeted the audience as the curtain rose, revealing the severed head of a recently-executed criminal.\u00a0Its reporter described what happened next: \u2018To the right is the alchemist, gorgeously attired, who\u00a0performs certain incantations, at the end of which the head becomes brilliantly illuminated by a light\u00a0from above, slowly opens its eyes and lips, and, in a state of semi-animation, confesses that it was\u00a0alone in its guilt. This satisfactory result obtained, the curtain falls\u2019.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Engraving \u2018The Spectre Drama at the Polytechnic Institution, Regent Street\u2019, Illustrated London News, 1 May 1863<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The full Christmas programme included a dramatic reading of Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol, during\u00a0which a succession of ghosts silently walked the stage, and the pantomime Dick Whittington, in\u00a0which Dick was recalled to be lord mayor of London, \u2018not only by the touching appeal of Bow bells,\u00a0but also by airy figures produced by \u201cthe ghost illusion apparatus\u201d\u2019.<\/p>

Some historians have dismissed the ghost as \u2018an illusionist novelty that exactly suited popular taste\u00a0in those years of cheap sensations\u2019.2 But this view has been challenged by historians of science who\u00a0do not regard Pepper\u2019s illusions as mere stage magic, but value them as an integral part of his major\u00a0contribution to the popularisation of science. By blurring the lines between experiment and\u00a0performance, between laboratory and theatre, Pepper made the phenomena of physics and\u00a0chemistry both visible and accessible to the general public.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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And Pepper\u2019s Ghost continues to live on, its technique re-imagined for the 21st century to create the\u00a0appearance of Tupac Shakur onstage with Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg at Coachella in 2012, and Michael\u00a0Jackson at the 2014 Billboard Music Awards.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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University Records and Archives, December 2019<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBack to the blog<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 1860s the Royal Polytechnic Institution was at the height of its popular fame, thanks to its\u00a0lavish Christmas productions. The 1861 programme established the pattern for family entertainment\u00a0with the building decorated with \u2018holly, Christmas and exotic plants\u2019. A giant…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":0,"parent":3461,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1682","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/133"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1682"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3480,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1682\/revisions\/3480"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/recordsandarchives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}