Post by schlager7 on Jun 12, 2014 22:51:40 GMT -6
Phyllis Patterson, Who Revived 16th Century, Dies at 82
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIKJUNE 11, 2014
www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/arts/phyllis-patterson-who-revived-16th-century-dies-at-82.html?smid=pl-share
Phyllis Patterson, who brought 16th-century Europe to Southern California in the 1960s when she helped found the first contemporary Renaissance fair, died on May 18 in a hospital in San Rafael, Calif. She was 82 and lived in a log cabin nearby, in Novato.
The cause was complications of dementia, her son Kevin said.
A high school history and English teacher by trade, Ms. Patterson started the Renaissance Pleasure Faire with her husband, Ron, in 1963. The Pattersons are widely credited as the first to conceive of such a fair in modern times, recreating a typical Elizabethan spring celebration, complete with outsize turkey legs, flagons of ale, handcrafted wares for sale, jousting and swordplay.
The inaugural event, in North Hollywood, attracted 3,000 people, and fairs like it have since been held from Alaska to Texas.
Ms. Patterson was adamant about presenting history as accurately as possible.
“Everything is either authentic to the period or created from technology of the time,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992.
Would-be fair actors were held to exacting standards, and every merchant, knight and noble was trained in Elizabethan English and mannerisms. Anachronism was verboten.
“What we try to do is not just give people another diversion and another place to spend their money, but to give them a chance to broaden their perspective about other times and places,” Ms. Patterson said in 1992. “We try to bring history to life so that people can actually participate in it and learn something at the same time.”
The Renaissance Pleasure Faire is held annually in Irwindale, although the Patterson family has not been involved since the late 1990s. The fair has attracted more than five million people, averaging 20,000 a weekend, according to its website.
Phyllis Ann Stimbert was born in Omaha on Jan. 25, 1932, and grew up in Memphis. She graduated from Messick High School there, and then received a bachelor’s degree in English from Memphis State College (now the University of Memphis) in 1954. She married Mr. Patterson two years later. They divorced in 1980, and he died in 2011.
The fair was born from an arts education program that Ms. Patterson conducted out of their Los Angeles backyard beginning in the early 1960s, after she had stopped teaching high school.
In addition to her son Kevin, she is survived by another son, Brian; a brother, Vaughn; and two grandchildren.
Though Ms. Patterson strove for historical accuracy, comparatively modern times still intruded on the fair, sometimes glaringly.
“I remember a young girl running up to me a few years ago, almost crying,” Ms. Patterson told The Los Angeles Times in 1987, “saying: ‘You’ve got to do something. Someone’s back there playing Bach.’ ”
By DANIEL E. SLOTNIKJUNE 11, 2014
www.nytimes.com/2014/06/12/arts/phyllis-patterson-who-revived-16th-century-dies-at-82.html?smid=pl-share
Phyllis Patterson, who brought 16th-century Europe to Southern California in the 1960s when she helped found the first contemporary Renaissance fair, died on May 18 in a hospital in San Rafael, Calif. She was 82 and lived in a log cabin nearby, in Novato.
The cause was complications of dementia, her son Kevin said.
A high school history and English teacher by trade, Ms. Patterson started the Renaissance Pleasure Faire with her husband, Ron, in 1963. The Pattersons are widely credited as the first to conceive of such a fair in modern times, recreating a typical Elizabethan spring celebration, complete with outsize turkey legs, flagons of ale, handcrafted wares for sale, jousting and swordplay.
The inaugural event, in North Hollywood, attracted 3,000 people, and fairs like it have since been held from Alaska to Texas.
Ms. Patterson was adamant about presenting history as accurately as possible.
“Everything is either authentic to the period or created from technology of the time,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 1992.
Would-be fair actors were held to exacting standards, and every merchant, knight and noble was trained in Elizabethan English and mannerisms. Anachronism was verboten.
“What we try to do is not just give people another diversion and another place to spend their money, but to give them a chance to broaden their perspective about other times and places,” Ms. Patterson said in 1992. “We try to bring history to life so that people can actually participate in it and learn something at the same time.”
The Renaissance Pleasure Faire is held annually in Irwindale, although the Patterson family has not been involved since the late 1990s. The fair has attracted more than five million people, averaging 20,000 a weekend, according to its website.
Phyllis Ann Stimbert was born in Omaha on Jan. 25, 1932, and grew up in Memphis. She graduated from Messick High School there, and then received a bachelor’s degree in English from Memphis State College (now the University of Memphis) in 1954. She married Mr. Patterson two years later. They divorced in 1980, and he died in 2011.
The fair was born from an arts education program that Ms. Patterson conducted out of their Los Angeles backyard beginning in the early 1960s, after she had stopped teaching high school.
In addition to her son Kevin, she is survived by another son, Brian; a brother, Vaughn; and two grandchildren.
Though Ms. Patterson strove for historical accuracy, comparatively modern times still intruded on the fair, sometimes glaringly.
“I remember a young girl running up to me a few years ago, almost crying,” Ms. Patterson told The Los Angeles Times in 1987, “saying: ‘You’ve got to do something. Someone’s back there playing Bach.’ ”