Frederic Williams Thompson (October 31, 1873 – June 6, 1919) was an American architect, engineer, inventor, and
showman known for creating amusement rides and one of the first large
amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
s.
Biography
Frederic Thompson was born in
Ironton, Ohio on
Halloween
Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observanc ...
1873. His father, Casey, moved the family around frequently working as a manager in the steel industry in
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
,
Johnstown, Pennsylvania,
Springfield, Illinois
Springfield is the capital of the U.S. state of Illinois and the county seat and largest city of Sangamon County. The city's population was 114,394 at the 2020 census, which makes it the state's seventh most-populous city, the second largest o ...
and
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...
. Frederic trained as an architectural draftsman at his uncle's office and studied at the
Ecoles des Beaux Arts in Paris. He had many jobs early on including draftsman, artist and as a salesman in his own business selling building materials and furniture to local contractors.
Exposition and entertainment business
At age 19 or 20 Thompson traveled to Chicago and ended up working several jobs at the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordi ...
. He won a prize for designing a building for the 1897
Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition and also designed his first amusement ride, called the "Giant See-Saw". Thompson showed his flair for showmanship when his uncle got stuck with another attraction after a bad debt called the "Blue Grotto" (a recreation of the
Blue Grotto cave on the island of Capri). Thompson drew people into the exhibit by having a recorded
barker
Barker may refer to:
Occupations
* Barker (occupation), a person who attempts to attract patrons to entertainment events
* Barker (coachbuilder), a builder of horse-drawn coaches and later of bodywork for prestige cars
* a person who strips tanbar ...
pitch presented by a novel invention few people had seen, an Edison
phonograph
A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...
.
At the 1898
Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha Thompson designed and exhibited an elaborate moving diorama ride called "Darkness and Dawn". In 1899 Thompson move to New York City to study at the
Arts Student's League and worked on ways to improve his "Darkness and Dawn" ride. When applying to exhibit his ride at the 1901
Pan-American Exposition
The Pan-American Exposition was a World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York, United States, from May 1 through November 2, 1901. The fair occupied of land on the western edge of what is now Delaware Park, extending from Delaware Avenue to Elmwood A ...
in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...
Thompson found he had already lost out to another showman,
Elmer "Skip" Dundy, who had proposed his own pirated version of "Darkness and Dawn" and used his business skills to outmaneuver Thompson in getting the
midway concession. Thompson then struck a deal with Dundy where they became business partners, sharing the profits from running several concessions on the midway including "Darkness and Dawn", his "Giant See-Saw", and attraction called "Old Plantation", and a new ride Thompson created, "
A Trip to the Moon
''A Trip to the Moon'' (french: Le Voyage dans la Lune) is a 1902 French adventure short film directed by Georges Méliès. Inspired by a wide variety of sources, including Jules Verne's 1865 novel ''From the Earth to the Moon'' and its 1870 s ...
". Tickets for this popular ride were
US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
0.50 ($ in dollars) at the time, twice the price of other attractions at the exposition. It was experienced by over 400,000 people before it closed on November 2, 1901. It was the first electrically powered mechanical "dark ride" and one of the first space rides.
After the exposition, Thompson and Dundy moved "A Trip to the Moon" and the "Giant See-Saw" to Tilyou's seaside
Steeplechase Park on
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. They went on to purchase the nearby
Sea Lion Park. Thompson drew up elaborate designs for the park in a "free Renaissance and Oriental type" and Dundy managed to arrange $700,000 in financing (although they advertised it as $1,000,000) to pay for it. The totally rebuilt park with expanded attractions opened in 1903 renamed
Luna Park. In 1905 Thompson and Dundy built a huge indoor stadium in Manhattan called the
Hippodrome.
In 1906 Thompson's attention turned away from running his businesses when he married stage actress
Mabel Taliaferro
Mabel Taliaferro (born Maybelle Evelyn Taliaferro; May 21, 1887 – January 24, 1979) was an American stage and silent-screen actress, known as "the Sweetheart of American Movies."
Early years
Taliaferro was born as Maybelle Evelyn Taliaferro i ...
. He put his efforts into managing her in such productions as the 1907 Broadway play
''Polly of the Circus'', ''Springtime'' (1909) and the film ''Cinderella'' (1911). They had one child and were divorced in 1911. Dundy died in 1907 leaving it up to Thompson to try to manage their holdings but by 1912 his fortunes had turned, and he declared bankruptcy. Thompson got a job with Broadway producers
Marc Klaw and Abraham Lincoln Erlanger and in 1913 he married Selene Wheat Pilcher from Nashville.
Frederic Thompson returned to the midway at the 1915 San Francisco
Panama–Pacific International Exposition with a ride called "The Grand Toyland", but with the war in Europe in the news fair goers were more interested in the a bigger attraction, airplanes. Losing money on the fair he returned to New York. Thompson suffered from
alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...
and
Bright's disease and after surgery (one of many over a several year span) died in New York City on June 6, 1919 at the age of 45.
Jeffrey Stanton, Coney Island - Thompson & Dundy, 1998
/ref>
References
Further reading
*
External links
“Amusing the Million” by Frederic Thompson, EVERYBODY’S MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 1908
Fred Thompson, Creator of Luna Park
Frederic Thompson - find A Grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Frederic Williams
1873 births
1919 deaths
People from Ironton, Ohio
American entertainment industry businesspeople
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
20th-century American architects
19th-century American businesspeople