St. Paul daily globe., 1889-05-24
MADE FAT IN FIVE MINUTES.
An Amusing PantOmime Trick
Never Before Explained---TwO
Other Remarkable Stage Illu-
sinno

sions.
New York World.
One of the most amusing and aston
fshing Of pantomime tricks ever origi-
mated was that of the fat man, which
was done by the Rayels. One of the
actors in the pantOmime sits at table
and ravenously eats dish after dish of
food that servant brings to him.
Presently the man who, like most raven
Gus 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
like sausage machine. In a few min
utes he has grown to be giant, eight
or nine feet tall and with the proper
tions OF an inflated balloon.
The sight always brought forth roars
of laughter. 1t is comparatively easy
to produce it after you know how. The
food eaten is all property food" made
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 fit air-tight around the wrists and
neck. In sitting down he puts the heel
of one boot over little trap in the
stage. An assistant below Immediately
to a hole in the boot heel. Then he
blows him up. 1t must be rather un-
pleasant sensation to the actor to feel
that he is nothing more than wind
bag; but actors are made to suffer. By
the time that the suit has grown so big
that the inhabitant has to have lam
tern to move around in it the wind sup
ply is cut off and the boot heel plugged
up. Then, by an ingenious arrange
ment of springs under the actors feet,
the height is acquired.
There IS beautiful chance in this
trick for some practical j0ke-iOving
property man to blow in gas, that would
lift the unfortunate actor off his feet
and send him sailing 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 clown, and when it is lifted
up the clown is picked up flattened out
as thin as pancake. He is insensible,
and is placed ON table. Another
actor places the nozzle of bellows in
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 con-
siderable machinery. The milestone is
hollow, of course, and has spring trap
in the bottom, SO that when it falls it
takes the clown into it. At the same
time trap in the stage opens and lets
him down. The dummy clown, all
flattened out. is placed Oh the trap and
it is sprung back to its place under 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 another trap behind 1t.
and as it goes the body of the real
clown is slowly raised above the table
to give the effect Of being filed out by
the bellows.
Another trick is that of big man
standing up in nonchalant sort of way
while another man dives head-firSt
through his stomach. This trifllng with
the calm repose of his dinner so annoys
the big man that he promptly turns
into steamboat and puffs out his dis
gust in clouds of smoke.
1t would be almost Impossible to make
any one but stage mechanic under
stand the complicated workings of the
trick. A trick back-net is used, go that
when the little man dives through him
the big man can be lifted up horizontally
to the rear. SO that his clothes and his
head remain in the same position, and
to the audience he seems not to have
moved.
AS soon as he begins to be a steam
boathe is jerked outof sight through the
back scene, and the steamboat comes up
in sections to trap inside his clothes,
scope until it becomes river steamer
with it's decks full of people, who are
shot up TO their places by spring traps.
The smoke is easily brought by pipe
from under the stage. 1t requires
thirty-fiye stage hands to work the
trick, and they don't have much time
for loafng, either.