Hanlon Brothers
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The Hanlon Brothers or Hanlon-Lees were a world-famous English family of artists whose repertoire ranged from artistry and pantomime to stage spectacles. The Hanlons appeared on stage from 1846 to 1912, with a changing line-up. The Hanlon Brothers' pantomime and comedic numbers provided the basis for Charlie Chaplin , Buster Keaton , Stan Laurel, and many other silent film comedians .
Live and act
The three Hanlons George, William and Alfred celebrated their debut together with their mentor Professor John Lees in the Adelphi Theater on December 26, 1846 with the play: The Celebrated Entortilationists. Lees, a friend of their father's, trained the young Hanlons in gymnastics and acrobatics. In 1847 the company toured Europe, with demonstrations in Paris, Madrid and Barcelona. In the following years the tour of the Hanlon-Lees continued worldwide. In the winter of 1855, John Lees died of yellow fever in Colón . The Hanlons then returned to their place of birth, Manchester . All six brothers appeared as Hanlon-Lees from 1856 in memory of their mentor . In 1859 they began to incorporate exercises on the trapeze into their ideas. The revue Zampillaerostation premiered on December 12, 1861 in the United States. William performed the first sensational trapeze act in which the artist flew over the heads of the audience.
On August 14, 1865, Thomas had a serious accident on the stage. During the demonstration of the "leap for life", he slipped off the high wire and fell into the lighting. The injuries were so severe that he could only work intermittently. Thomas' suicide was spectacular three years later in a holding cell to which he had been transferred because of an acute risk of suicide. Half-somersaults and head first, he kept jumping onto a cast iron heating pipe or its mother. He is said to have jumped twelve to fifteen times. The Hanlons were shaken by Thomas's crash and decided to hold safe demonstrations for them from then on.
First of all, the newly released Michauline , a pedal crank bicycle, was built into the demonstrations. US Patent 86834 of February 9, 1869 modified the Michauline with a height-adjustable seat, shock absorber and solid rubber tires . Frederick Hanlon performed various tricks on this machine. The Hanlons tried to open a two-wheeler production with the carriage builder Cavlin Witty, but failed because of Witty's inability. The Hanlons' bicycle school on Broadway was more successful , with participants including John Jacob Astor ( Astor (family) ) and Charles Anderson Dana ( New York Daily Tribune ).
In the same year, the safety net was introduced for the trapezoidal number. This invention, developed for the jumping mat , was proposed and presented to the New York Fire Department in 1869 for rescuing fires. On January 19, 1870, the Hanlons performed a double backward somersault for the first time in the world .
The Hanlons' stage career began with the 1879 comedy Le Voyage en Suisse . Moving horse-drawn carriages and a derailing train were presented on the stage and the idea incorporated. The big stage show Fantasma from 1884 presented less acrobatics, instead the fight between good and evil was shown. The sensation in Fantasma was a movable stage ship for which William Hanlon received a patent in 1882. Thomas Alva Edison's film Fantasma (1914) is based on the script by the Hanlon Brothers. The show Superba , first presented in 1890, had a higher proportion of trick and pantomime; George was 55, William 51 and Edward 44. In 1912 the stage program Fantasma was performed for the last time by the three surviving Hanlons.
Props and patents
William Hanlon developed props for the shows, for which he received patents and which were decisive for later stage actors.
- Theatrical Boat Scenery ,
- Ludicrous Pantomimic Representations ,
- Beheading Block and Ax ,
- Dismembering Apparatus ,
- Conjuring Apparatus , and
- Theatrical Illusion Apparatus .
The Hanlon Brothers
| Surname | Year of birth | Died |
|---|---|---|
| Thomas | 1833 | April 5, 1868 |
| George | 1835 | November 5, 1926 |
| William | 1839 | February 7, 1923 |
| Alfred | 1842 | January 24, 1886 |
| Edward | 1845 | March 9, 1931 |
| Frederick | 1848 | April 6, 1886 |
George W. Hanlon Jr., son of George, invented a mechanism for making giant soap bubbles in 1908. George's other sons, William Jr. and Fred, introduced the Just Phor Phun show they developed in 1905 . Fred Hanlon worked as a clown at Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus from 1945 .
Web links
literature
- Marc Cosdon: The Hanlon Brothers: From Daredevil Acrobatics to Spectacle Pantomime. Theater in the Americas, 2010, ISBN 978-0809329250 .
- John A. McKinven: The Hanlon Brothers. David Meyer Magic Books. 1998, ISBN 0-916638-82-0 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Mark Cosdon: A Chronological Outline of the Hanlon Brothers, 1833-1931 (2011)
- ↑ McKinven, Preface.
- ↑ McKinven, p. 9
- ↑ McKinven, p. 15.
- ↑ forgottenstories.net Thomas Hanlon (accessed October 22, 2017)
- ^ Marc Cosdon: The Hanlon Brothers , p. 30.
- ↑ McKinven quotes seventeen times. See McKinven, p. 26.
- ↑ U.S. Patent 86834
- ↑ McKinven, S. 90th
- ↑ McKinven, p. 26.
- ↑ McKinven, p. 28.
- ↑ McKinven, p. 29.
- ↑ U.S. Patent 263900
- ↑ U.S. Patent 293324
- ↑ U.S. Patent 420,995
- ↑ U.S. Patent 421493
- ↑ U.S. Patent 554682
- ↑ U.S. Patent 1035435
- ↑ McKinven, S. X.
- ↑ adopted
- ↑ McKinven, p. 73.
