15 Facts About Frederic Thompson

Frederic Williams Thompson was an American architect, engineer, inventor, and showman known for creating amusement rides and one of the first large amusement parks.

Frederic Thompson was born in Ironton, Ohio, on Halloween 1873.

Frederic Thompson had many jobs early on including draftsman, artist and as a salesman in his own business selling building materials and furniture to local contractors.

At age 19 or 20 Frederic Thompson traveled to Chicago and ended up working several jobs at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition.

Frederic Thompson won a prize for designing a building for the 1897 Tennessee Centennial and International Exposition and designed his first amusement ride, called the "Giant See-Saw".

Frederic Thompson showed his flair for showmanship when his uncle got stuck with another attraction after a bad debt called the "Blue Grotto".

Frederic Thompson drew people into the exhibit by having a recorded barker pitch presented by a novel invention few people had seen, an Edison phonograph.

At the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha Frederic Thompson designed and exhibited an elaborate moving diorama ride called "Darkness and Dawn".

In 1899 Frederic Thompson move to New York City to study at the Arts Student's League and worked on ways to improve his "Darkness and Dawn" ride.

Frederic Thompson drew up elaborate designs for the park in a "free Renaissance and Oriental type" and Dundy managed to arrange $700,000 in financing to pay for it.

In 1906 Frederic Thompson's attention turned away from running his businesses when he married stage actress Mabel Taliaferro.

Frederic Thompson put his efforts into managing her in such productions as the 1907 Broadway play Polly of the Circus, Springtime and the film Cinderella.

Dundy died in 1907 leaving it up to Frederic Thompson to try to manage their holdings but by 1912 his fortunes had turned, and he declared bankruptcy.

Frederic Thompson got a job with Broadway producers Marc Klaw and Abraham Lincoln Erlanger and in 1913 he married Selene Wheat Pilcher from Nashville.

Frederic Thompson suffered from alcoholism and Bright's disease and after surgery died in New York City on June 6,1919, at the age of 45.