User:BOB FOREMAN/sandbox/Peter Clark

Peter Clark (expert of theatre) new article content ...

Peter Clark, who designed the stage machines in more than three hundred theatres including the Radio City Music Hall, was born in New York City on March 19, 1878 and died at his summer home in Fairfield, Connecticut on August 19, 1934, following an illness of nine months. His New York Times obituary headlined Clark as an "Expert of Theatre," and Variety pegged Clark as the man who "completely revolutionized theatre equipment," adding that "an installation by Peter Clark was a hallmark."

The New York Herald Tribune billed Clark as the "technician [who] created [the] frameworks for [Earl] Carroll, [Sam] Harris, and [Florenz] Zeigfeld productions" on Broadway, and the New York World-Telegram editorialized that "a galaxy of stars might be stricken from the bills without creating the actual void on Broadway caused by the death of Peter Clark." The Tribune cited "the stage of the Radio City Music Hall [as] Clark's masterpiece," and the Times acknowledged Clark as the "inventor of the orchestra elevator." Other feature obituaries ran in the Brooklyn Eagle, the Motion Picture Herald, the Iron Worker and the Associated Press.

HARRIS, ZIG AND CARRO HOUSES PATENT HOLDER

Peter Clark Inc. came into existence in 1907, as heralded in this New York Times classified ad. with complete counterweight systems of his improved design, including forty Broadway houses, thirty Chicago houses, and ten in Los Angeles. Clark's shop equipped all of the major Movie Palaces throughout the nation, including those controlled by the Keith and Orpheum circuits, Loew's, Balaban & Katz, Fox, Paramount-Publix, Warner Brothers and RKO Pictures, a clean sweep. He installed picture sheet thingies in x theatres, and 185 improved motorized stage elevators in X theatres, including four hyd lifts in Radio City. He designed and installed the globe in the lobby of the Daily News Building, and he adapted his Music Hall lift technology to equip two Navy aircraft carriers. A table listing his 335x verifiable installations appears at the conclusion of this article.