The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-06-18
MADE FAT IN FIVE MINUTES.
An Amusing Pantomime Trick Never
Before Explained.
From the NelO YORK World.

DSAOEo Explained.
From the Nel0 YORK World
One of the most amusing and astonishing
OF pantomime tricks ever originated was
that of the fat man, which was done by the
Ravels. One Of the actors in the panto-
mime sits at a table and ravaneously eats
dish after dish of food that a servant brings
to him. Presently the man. who, like most
ravenous eaters, was rather thin and
scrawny, begins to grow plump. His
clothes fit him snugly. His waistcoat
steadily swells out under the very eyes of
the audience All the while he is eating
ike sausage machine Iu few moments
he has grown 60 be giant, eight or nine
feet tall aud with the proportions of an in
fated balloon.
the sight always brought forth roars of
laughter. 1t is comparatively easy to pro-
duce it after you know how. The food
eaten is all property food" mads of tissue
paper, that the actor chews up into little
balls and takes out Of his mouth whenever
| occasion offers.
His clothes are all of rubber and made to
| MT air tight around the wrist and neck
| In setting down he puts TIE heel of one
| boot over little trap in the stage. An as
sistant below Immediately couples a tube
| running from bellows to hole in the
| boot-heel. Then he blows him up 1t must
| be a rather unpleasant sensation to the
actor to feel that he is nothing more
than wind-bag; but actor are
made to suffer. BY the time that
| the suit has grown so big that the
inhabitant has to have lantern to move
around in it, the wind supply is cut off and
the boot-heel plugged up. Then, by an in-
| genious arrangement of springs under the
actors feet, the hight is acquired.
There is a beautiful chance in this trick
for some prac -ical joke-loving property
man to blow in gas that would lift the I'M
| fortunate actor off his feet and send him sail
| ing about over the heads of the audience.
The smashed clown" is another we'll
known trick of former years that has never
! been explained. A big milestone falls on a
| clown, and when it is lifted up the clown
is picked up hattened out as thin as a pan
cake He is insensible and is placed on a
| table; another actor places the nozzle of a
bellows i'll his mouth and gradually initiates
| him to his normal size, when the clown
| jumps off the table and is himself again.
The trick requires deft work and consid-
cradle machinery. The milestone is hollow,
| of course. and has spring trap in the bot
tom, SO that when it falls it takes the clown
! into it. = AT the same time a trap in the
| stage opens and lets him down. the dummy
clown, all hattened out, is placed on the
Trap anu IL ID DICK 10 lJS DIdc5 ulQ0r
| the milestone. The actor meanwhile LAYS
| himself out at length on another trap that
rises up above the stage to the top of the
| table where the dummy is placed. Only the
outline of the clowns body is exposed above
the table. The dummy drops down on an
other trap behind it, and as it goes the body
of the real clown is slowly raised above
the table to give the effect of being filled
out by the bellows.
Another trick is that of big man stand
| ing up in nonchalant sort OF way, while
another man dives head first through his
stomach. This triiing with the calm re-
| pose of his dinner so annoys the big ma
| that he promptly turns into a steamboat
and puffs out his disgust in clouds of
smoke.
| 1t would be almost impossible to make
| any one but stage mechanic understand
the complicated workings of the trick. A
! trick backnet is used, SO that when the little
man dives through him the big man car
be lifted up horizontally to the rear, SO that
| his clothes aud head remain in the same
| position and to the audience he seems not
| to have moved.
As soon as he begins to be steamboat he
is jerked out of sight through the back
scene, and the steamboat comes up in sec
tions to IL trap inside his clothes, falls over
them and pulls out like a telescope until il
becomes river ste amer with its decks full
of people, who are shot up to their place:
| by spring traps. The smoke is easily
brought by pipe from under the stage. Il
requires thirty-6ve stage hands to work the
trick, aud they don't have much time foI
loa ting either.