Professor Risley and the Imperial Japanese Troupe. Frederik L. Schodt

posture of the nation, as dream of accepting Brougham in the capacity of a Prime Minister.” Another cracked: “Professor Risley and his Sons are positively stiff and inflexible when compared with the very supple state of the Marquis of Anglesea and his aide-de-camps. . . . ”50

      To keep his career going, Risley required a great deal of agility. After the success with his panorama of the Mississippi, he had a giant panorama of the River Thames created, which he took back to the United States for American audiences, and which Henry S. Risley later frequently toured. In 1853 he also imported a ballet troupe from Europe to America, and it proved a failure, so much so that he fell terribly in debt. At the end of the year, an expensive and expansive 114 acre property—that he had purchased in his glory days in Chester, Pennsylvania—was repossessed by the local sheriff. He toured cities on the Atlantic coast with his children and he developed a variety show, but the fates were not smiling on him. In the spring of 1854 someone abducted his beloved dog Pro, a purebred Newfoundland used in one of his acts. He was able to make the most of this misfortune and generate more newspaper articles when the dog miraculously returned alive, having apparently made his way home to New York from far away Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.51 But times were difficult.

      The world was changing. At the end of 1854, Risley was performing in New York with one son and a contortionist, named D’Evani. By the spring of the following year, he was finally appearing with a new protégé he would call his “son,” named Charles. It was time to try something new, and in 1855, for those seeking newness, the American West was a powerful magnet.