“The Last Days of Pompeii” was a late 19th-century extravaganza combining historical vignette with fireworks show and dramatizing the destruction of Pompeii by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. The spectacular also included–if the press (see above, from an 1889 issue of the New York Times) is to be believed–a cast of 400 people including a ballet troupe of 36 dancers, a male chorus, soldiers, acrobats, jugglers, tumblers, and wire-walkers.
Image: Via Corbis Image Archive; Text from the New York Times archives, originally published June 9, 1889.
