NOW ITS A HIPPODROME.
New Amusement Planned for
Twelfth and Charlotte.
Within a few weeks Kansas City will be in possession of a real hippodrome. Already the spacious car barns of the Metropolitan company, at Twelfth and Charlotte streets, have been leased for the purpose, and from now until the building will have been transformed into a wonderland of beauty hundreds of workmen will be employed.
The Hippodrome Amusement Company, with T. J. Cannon at its head, is responsible for this innovation in Kansas City's amusements. Mr. Cannon for several years was connected with the New York hippodrome and Luna park at Coney Island.
Having a floor space of 96,000 feet, the old car barns afford ample room for the project. The roof will be torn off and raised eight feet, making it sufficiently high for the performance of aerial acts. The gallery will have a seating capacity of 7,200, and the whole interior of the hall will be brilliantly lighted with arc and incandescent lights.
The interior of the building will be arranged so as to resemble a mammoth midway, most of the concessions having their entrances and exits from it. It is the intention to bring one of the largest herds of trained elephants in the country here, all of which will be seen in Elephant Path, and can be ridden for a small consideration.
Among the numerous amusement devices will be an aquarium, zoo, and animal sh ow, the latter two being received from the best specimens in the Bostock animal shows. There will be the famous razzle dazzle from Luna park, Coney Island, the second of its kind to be erected in this country, while one end of the building will be devoted to the gondola, an amusement device said to be the thriller of them all.
In conjunction with the concessions there will be two free exhibitions of some sort each week, and it is said to be the intention to spare no expense to procure the very best obtainable. These acts will include the famous automobile thrillers of circuses now on the road, high wire acts, dare devil bicycle acts and others.
