This Week in History: 1905 Mount Vesuvius erupts in Vancouver
Credit to Author: John Mackie| Date: Fri, 16 Aug 2019 19:47:08 +0000
The masses love their disasters. And few disasters have held their attention like the volcanic eruption that buried Pompeii in 79 A.D.
The Roman city was rediscovered in 1748, buried under the ash and lava that had erupted out of Mount Vesuvius. Some poor souls were cast like sculptures by the layers of hot ash that killed them, a haunting image that terrifies people to this day.
James Pain thought the tragedy would make an epic show. So in 1882, the English “pyrotechnist” mounted The Last Days of Pompeii at his 10,000-seat amphitheatre at Manhattan Beach on Coney Island in New York.
The “pyrodrama” was such a sensation that Pain wound up taking it on the road, for decades. On Aug. 14, 15 and 16, 1905 — 23 years after it debuted at Coney Island — it came to Vancouver.
The venue was Recreation Park, a baseball stadium that stood between Smithe, Nelson, Homer and Hamilton Streets from 1905 to 1913.
“Fully 300 persons are utilized in this marvellous Pompeii spectacle, and four acres of massive scenery will stand for a representation of the historic old Roman city at the foot of the treacherous Vesuvius,” said a preview in the Aug. 5, 1905 Province.
“The Last Days of Pompeii depicts as accurately as possible one of the greatest events recorded in Roman history. The streets of the mimic city are filled with citizens, soldiers, senators, priests, priestesses, guards, flower girls, etc., all correctly costumed.
“There are brilliant pageants and solemn processions, pretty ballets and sensational acrobatic and aerial specialties, Roman races and feats of the ancient hippodrome, boxing, wrestling, fencing, gladiatorial combats, etc., by skilled performers and famous athletes.”
At the end Pain promised to set off $1,000 worth of fireworks depicting the eruption of the volcano.
“The scene depicting the destruction of Pompeii by volcano and earthquakes is truly startling and awe-inspiring in its awful realism,” said the Vancouver World on Aug. 14.
“As terrific explosion after explosion rents great fissures in the sides of the treacherous mountain, floods of fiery ashes and lava are vomited upon the doomed city; huge buildings, arches and temples totter and fall with a crash, flames break out in all sections of the ill-fated city, and its people seem apparently buried in its ashes.”
Detail from Pain’s Last Days of Pompeii, Coney Island, 1903. (Official title is No. 1 of Pain’s Spectacle.) A version of this “pyrodrama” played Recreation Park in Vancouver in August, 1905. The volcano in the background and architecture are sets or painted into the background. Benjamin J. Falk/Library of Congress LC-DIG-pan-6a28056.
A photo of the Last Day of Pompeii’s Coney Island setup in 1903 is in the Smithsonian. It’s basically a giant set, with the city in the foreground and a painted volcano and mountain looming behind. Some of the buildings appear to be painted, as well, and in front is a row of dancing girls — it looks like an ancient Roman version of the can-can.
General admission was 50 cents to the extravaganza, $1 for a reserved seat and $1.50 for a box seat. One of the Province stories says there were 5,000 people at one show. It was so successful it was held over for a fourth show on Aug. 17, so it may have drawn 20,000 people over four days, at a time when Vancouver’s population was estimated to be about 45,000.
Ironically there was a local tragedy the same week Pompeii came to town. At 3:20 p.m. on Aug. 13, the side of Shawniken mountain near Spence’s Bridge collapsed, wiping out a native village and killing 18 people.
“The landslide descended into the Thompson River, damming it and sweeping the waters over the entire Indian village about half a mile west of the (Spence’s Bridge) railway station,” the World reported.
“The landslide came with such suddenness and the waters turned over the rancherie so swiftly that the natives had little or no warning of the death-dealing wave.
“The descent of so much sand and rock into the Thompson had the effect of backing up the waters and an immense wave, from 10 to 15 feet high, started up the river carrying the ferry, boats and canoes with it.”
Most of the people killed were members of the Cook’s Ferry Indian Band, a Nlaka’pamux First Nation. Five were killed in the slide, the rest by drowning.
Detail from Pain’s Last Days of Pompeii, Coney Island, 1903. Benjamin J. Falk/Library of Congress LC-DIG-pan-6a28056.
Vancouver Province story on the Last Days of Pompeii show at Exhibition Park, Aug. 14, 1905.
Vancouver World story on a landslide that wiped out a native village near Spence’s Bridge on Aug. 13, 1905.