Newspaper Page Text
Second battle of Atlanta
to preserve Cyclorama
By O’NEIL HENDRICK
ATLANTA (UPl)—Rhett Butler didn’t give a ...
and he seemed to speak for the city of Atlanta which
wouldn’t give a dollar.
Consequently, the second battle of Atlanta is being
waged against nature and neglect in an attempt to save
one of the world’s best known battle scenes, the
Cyclorama.
Rain streaks from a leaking roof have marred the 50-by
-400-foot painting depicting the Battle of Atlanta on July 22,
1864, in which 5,000 Confederate and Union soldiers died.
Rot has caused cracks in the 90-year-old linen canvas. A
musty odor permeates the humid Cyclorama building.
The tourist attraction has been deteriorating through
the years because of a lack of funds needed for extensive
repair and remodeling, including air conditioning to
preserve the painting.
“Every day we don’t do it, it gets closer to serious
damage,” says George Beattie, an art consultant for the
Cyclorama.
Help may be on the way. But that is tinged with ifs and
controversy.
Atlantans will vote in a Dec. 9 referendum for bonds
which would channel about $1.5 million to the Cyclorama.
The state possibly would put up another half-million
dollars.
This money would be enough to do the necessary face
lifting on the painting. And Theodore Mastroianni,
Atlanta’s parks and recreation director, says he has
committed $350,000 of his current funds for the Cy
clorama.
“This would be enough to renovate the building,
acclimatize it, clean it, rearrange the ground works and
put in air conditioning,” he said.
A drive for private funds also is under way.
Contributions of about SIOO a week have been received by
Cyclorama Restoration, Inc., since its formation last
August.
Many of the donations are coming from the North.
One contributor is a grandson of Gen. Tecumseh
Sherman, who commmanded the federal forces in the
Battle of Atlanta.
Many other contributions have come from Milwaukee,
Wis., the home of the German artists who painted the huge
mural in 1885-1886.
“We would be losing an important part of our heritage if
we don’t save the Cyclorama,” says State Rep. Paul
Bolster, recording secretary of the Restoration’s board of
directors.
“Some great things are happening through the restora
tion committee. We want to get a good campaign going.”
Beattie agrees that the painting is an important link
with the past.
“Cyclorama is not a great work of art, but it is a great
illustration and an important period piece, like a
documentary," he said. “It is a marvelous illusion.”
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A recent study indicated it would cost around $lO million
to construct a new building to house the Cyclorama. That
sparked a controversy over whether the exhibit should be
moved from its present site in Grant Park (named after a
city dignitary, not Ulysses S. Grant), located in an older
and somewhat rundown section of Atlanta.
Some officials have suggested moving the Cyclorama
into a new complex nearer the downtown area, but Bolster
said Grant Park residents are “ready to fight to keep it in
Grant Park.”
“The Cyclorama could be used as a good teaching tool,
showing the reconstruction of the South, the moving away
from slavery,” Bolster said. “It would be important for
the black community. Maybe in the past, too much
emphasis has been put on the white man’s part.”
Beattie also favors keeping the exhibit in Grant Park,
where it could be a catalyst for restoring the
neighborhood.
“Some of the largest wood frame houses exist in Grant
Park. They could be, and are being, restored,” he said.
Proponents of a move say the exhibit would attract
more tourists in another area, and they cite figures which
show an attendance decline of about nine per cent a year
for the past four years.
Other observers feel, however, that the deterioration of
the painting has as much to do with the tourist decline as
the painting’s location.
Mastroianni says the Cyclorama still brings in about
$130,000 annually.
Many of the viewers of the circular painting, made
three dimensional in 1936 with the addition of tree stumps,
bushes and plaster figures, are moved to tears, according
to Mrs. Sara Boleman, a Cyclorama guide for the past 27
years.
Actor Raymond Massey came to see the painting after
playing Abraham Lincoln, said Mrs. Sara Boleman, and
“we tried to hide our tears from each other.”
“Finally, he looked up to the platform and caught my
eyes and said, ‘Mrs. Boleman, why don’t you come down
here and we will cry together.’”
The late conductor Arturo Toscanini was struck by the
illusion of the scene.
“I see, I see, but I do not believe that it is only an
illusion,” Toscanni told Mrs. Boleman. “They did with a
brush what I do with my baton.”
Joseph Llorens, who supervised the three-dimensional
construction of the exhibit, says some celebrities have
damaged the groundworks of the painting by walking
through the plaster figures and shrubs, many times for
publicity purposes.
Such was the case for the 1939 premiere of the movie,
“Gone With The Wind,” featuring Clark Gable as Rhett
Butler and Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara.
It is now tomorrow for the Cyclorama’s plans for the
future.
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Building a big one
PALMDALE, Calif.—The Space Shuttle Orbiter, the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s
(NASA) major space transportation effort for the rest of
the 20th Century, is becoming a reality as the structural
SCLC plans march Jan. 15 to demand policy
ATLANTA (UPI) - The
Southern Christian Leadership
Conference plans a mass march
Jan. 15 demanding a full
employment policy from the
national government on the
birth date of Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
“Our intention is to make this
the first national celebration of
the birthday, in that we have
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Page 15
— Griffin Daily News Thursday, November 20, 1975
people from all over the
country coming in,” Mrs.
Coretta Scott King said at a
news conference Wednesday.
Mrs. King said more than
20,000 persons are expected to
participate in the march.
She said that as King’s many
marches in the South and in
Washington focused national
attention on his civil rights
components are being put together by Rockwell
International’s Space Division at the Palmdale final
assembly facility.
(UPI)
work, the birthday march will
be directed at unemployment.
“The emphasis, is on the
national government and a full
employment economy,” said
Mrs. King. “It is the responsi
bility of the government to see
that every person has a job.”
Mrs. King, a co-chairman of
the National Committee for
Full Employment, said the
march would end with a rally
in downtown Atlanta.
Other activities planned for
the two-day birthday observ
ance include a full-employment
conference, and the dedication
of the permanent entombment
of Dr. King’s body at the site of
the Martin Luther King Center
for Social Change under con
struction here.