Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-11-25
PERIsHABLE PROPERTIES.
Articles Eaten, Drank, or Destroyed
In Modern Plays.
[St. Louis Post-Dispatch,]

when Clara Morris, Modjeska or Bern.
hardt sit down to the supper in Camille u
said the manager, ga layout of real viands
and sparkling champagne must be provided
that sometimes costs for single perform
ance as high as s35 or $40. Six persons sit
at the table in that scene, and when the star
is paying actress, like any I have men
toned, we can afford to provide costly
spread. Of course an ordinary actress won't
get S35 table in Camille About $40 or S12
is fair average for a single layout in this
play. In Hernes Hearts of Oak very
pretty supper set is feature of one of the
acts; the dishes come on steaming hot, and
the actors sit down to the table and eat with
appetites that suggest the possibility of their
having foregone their regular vesperal meal
at the hotel for the sake of eating it on the
stage. This spread costs from Sc to So per-
Torrance. In AS You Like tt the chaps who
banquet in the Forest of Arden have real
meal set before them. and in dozens of other
plays palatable viands are provided for the
performers"
Sand they are usually all they are repre-
sented to be."
Usually. In Raymond's Sol Sellers as
you know, the colonel, his wife, and their
young guest, the hero of the piece, sit down
to bowl of turnips and pitcher of aqua
Mississippi river. Well, now you couldn't
expect the actors to eat turnips-such diet
would soon kill them-so we have apples or
pears peeled and prepared so as to look like
the rutabaga article, and of course the audi
ence accepted them for turnips.'
"The drinks are, in nearly every case,
realr
''When wine is called for, nowadays, the
genuine stuff is usually brought on. In the
time of Ben De Bar cold tea was used, and Is
used even yet by the performers who are tenn
perate and prefer a mild drink; but cham
payne and other wines are common on the
present stage. Last week we had bill of S15
for wine used in the sleeping car scene OF
The Tourist When beer is used in any
quantities, as in the picnic incident in Baker
and Farron's Chris and Lena keg of bee.
is ON tap behind the scenesn
ssWho was the first to inaugurate the use
of real food in stage spreads?n
81 think Matilda Heron is entitled to the
credit of the innovation. She always insisted
on having the genuine articles on the table in
Camille Eighteen or twenty years ago
such thing was unknown, and even now
the tendency to realism in small details of
actors. James Wallack never went to play
Macbeth without having a steaming boar's
head-the real flesh and bone-article-on the
board in the banquet scene. Neither Booth,
Barrett, Mccullough, Keene, nor any of the
great tragedians Of the present day, demand
such property, and the banquet table is still
set with papier mache goblets, epergnes, etc,
as in the olden days. Before Herons time
limitations of articles of food were employed.
Sometimes other methods were resorted to-
Often. in playing Dandy Dinmont, 1 have
tackled a chicken made from a 2-cent
loaf of bread, toasted brown and
cut in the shape of a fowl, with a
real chicken leg stuck in one side. which Din
mont has to pull out and stick between his
teeth. When a steaming dish was wanted, a
little lime or hot ashes With water spriuAled
over it gave the desired effect"
"Who looks after all this stufln
''The property man of the theatre A com.
ing attraction sends on a list Of all its props
and the property man is expected to have
everything at hand when the curtain is ready
to ring up on the play. All props not per-
iShable are returned to him for future use, as
the phial of poison that Juliet is supposed to
drain off, the piece of red flannel, and the tin
tomahawk welded by the savage super in
Oliver Doud Byron's play. Yes, the property
man is occasionally guilty of practical
joke. l can remember the case of promi-
nent actor, who, in playing Robert Macaire,
got the bottle of salt water fixed up for
Jacques Strop by property man who had
grudge against Strop. There was much spit
ting and spluttering on the part of Macaire
after he got the dose in his mouth, and there
came near being a funeral from that prop
erty mans house in consequence"