The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1896-10-23
SCENIC ARTIST PORTER.
Remembered by Old Friends in Gill;
cinnatti.
Painted Scenery for Old Pixies Opera House.
His Reputation as Scene
Painter.

William T. Porter, the veteran scenic
artist in the United States, is probably
better known around the theaters
from Maine TO California than most
men connected with theatricals. When
the old Pixies Opera House in Cincin-
natl was built years ago, Mr.. Porter
was engaged to paint the scenery. Not
long after the theater burned and Mr..
Porter went to California, but the peo-
pie in Cincinnati have not forgotten
him, as the following, clipped from
the Commercial Tribune of October +,
will testify:
Through the kindness of Mr.. James
Landy, we are permitted to publish in
this issue of the Commercial Tribune
an admirable likeness of William T.
Porter, the veteran scenic artist, who
years ago figured conspicuously in our
local theatrical world. Mr.. Porter was
at one time the artist in charge of the
paint frame" at the old Pixies Opera
House, but directly after the burning
of that theater made his way to the
Pacific coast, where he has been for
nearly a quarter of century the lead
ing theatrical painter, finding employ
ment in the very first houses of the
far West. He was recently called to
Honolulu to fit up the Hawaiian Opera
House, erected upon the site of the one
destroyed during the revolution.
The scenery for the first theater in
Hawaii was from the brush of Mr.. Por-
ter, and it is no small compliment
to his ability that he should be called
from San Francisco a second time to
paint the curtain and "stock stuff" for
~, of fI1ot 70
city.
In the days gone by no artist stood
as high in the estimation of Cincin
natians as Mr.. Porter, and cherishing
even at this day the fondest remem-
ORANGES of the people of our city, he
sends to Mr.. Landy, one of his most
devoted friends, the Commercial Adj
vertiSer of Hawaii, containing an inter-
view in which he relates many inter-
esting things of the old Pike Opera
House days. Atlas Reader, the stage
carpenter of Pixies; Dewitt Waugh,
the artist, and nearly all of the con-
temporaries of Mr.. Porter are now
dead. E. T. Harvey, the distinguished
artist who, if we mistake not, was
paint boy under Mr.. Porter, is about
the only one of the number still active
ly employed in stage work.
The portrait upon this page is taken
from the Hawaiian Commercial Adver-
tiser."
The Cincinnati Commercial of the
same date, in speaking of Mr.. Porter,
says:%
"An item clipped from San Fran
cisco paper says: Scenic Artist Will
liam T. Porter is at work on the new
Honolulu Theater, preparing for the
opening by the Frawley company in
November.
Some thirty years ago Bill" Porter,
as he was called by his familiars, was
the scenic artist at the old Pixies Opera
House in this city, and later of the
Mozart Hall, now the Grand Opera
House. He went from here direct to
San Francisco, and has been constant
ly employed in that city up to the
present time. Mr. Porter was and is an
artist of great ability, being considered
in his younger days one of the best
scenic painters in America. Many Of
the works from his brush are still
among the stock scenes of the Grand
Opera House, many of them having
been in constant use for the last quar-
ter of century.