Page:Pyrotechnics the history and art of firework making (1922).djvu/113

 Other favourites have been Blondin on the tight rope, inspired by the appearance of the real Blondin on the firework terrace, surrounded by firework effects, in 1871; dancers of various kinds, from the Sailor's Hornpipe to Salome; Cat fights; Cock fights; the Boxing Kangaroo in 1893, when that performance was attracting crowds to the old Aquarium; an Indian Snake Charmer; a Fisherman; a Trapeze Artist, have all been produced by living actors in fire.

In 1895 "The Village Blacksmith" was enacted, with horse, blacksmith, assistant, and horse's owner, with forge, bellows, anvil, and all necessary "properties." The following year a piece was exhibited showing various members of the building trades at work. Then followed the Fire Scene, in which a house is seen on fire, the motor fire engine arrives, the men jump down, unroll the hose, and proceed to extinguish the outbreak with a jet of fire. Another ambitious effort showed a City policeman regulating the traffic. The most elaborate scene of the kind yet attempted was to work living figures in connection with the main set piece. The subject chosen was life in the Arctic Regions, and opened with the open Polar Sea, with whaling vessels, spouting whale, and launch of the whaling boat, which follows the whale and fires a harpoon. The picture then changed to Arctic winter, ice forms, and the vessel is frozen with the ice, sledging parties travel over the ice, and the picture concluded with a man and bear fight in living fireworks. The same year—1890—there was introduced into the Children's Fireworks, which form an annual feature of the Crystal Palace displays, a living Jack and the Beanstalk picture.

In 1906 the then popular song, "I wouldn't leave my little Wooden Hut for You," was the basis of what was described in the programme as a Living Firework Drama.