The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1896-01-11
A STAGE no HOLD AN ARMY
Largest Theater In the World Cons
pleted In LOnlI ON t

largest 'Fheater In the World Com-
Il pleted In London. :5.
WI London now, possesses not only the
3 largest wheel but the biggest theaters
) in the world. UntI recently Chicago,
with it's tremendous Auditorium thea
ter, may be said to have had the
largest building, erected solely for
theatrical displays; but now Earl's
Court, with the Empress theater, goes
one better than the American city.
che only building in London in which
theatrical displays have been given to
be. compared with the Empress thea
ter is Olympia. As this huge structure
was not built expressly for theatrical
purposes the claims of the Empress
,theater still hold good. 81. IA
imagine an iron and brick building
towering above everything at EarIs
Court except the. great wheel, almost
as long as Trafalgar Square, and near
" as wide! The span Of the roof is
only beaten by one erection Of the king
dom, that, we believe, being the span
or st. Pancras Station. Z This reofsspan
of the Empress thelter is 800 feet.
while the height from ground To- Ian
tern is no less than III feet, Or more
than half the height of the monument,
and only seven feet shorter than the
duke of York's column in Carlton
house terrace. n
+ AS the Auditorium is one Of the
largest in the country, so, too, is the
immense stage. In designing this lat
ter work, Mr.. :Kiralfy. has adopted
some remarkable and curious devices.
The entire stage can be moved about
mere and there, and put up in sections
IN such a mechanical way that it can
be made to assume any form called for
by the .exigencies of the scene ~. r.
On this great stage of the Empress
theater there is room for atsleast 6, GOO
people without undue crushing, and at
least 1900 performers in addition to
500 .Workmen en--carpenters, shifters,
property men, etc.-are on it in one
scene in the production. When to this
main stage is added another 70 feet in
depth which can be made to appear
and disappear at will, some idea may
be obtained as to the hugeness of the
place. ~. - ,:s%* & ~ II ::
To provide for this immense number
OF performers there are scores of dress
ing rooms at the rear of the stage. To
hght this great stage and the auditor
ium over 30 electric arc lamps are
used, while 20 lime lights help to pro
duce the beautiful color effects now
seen in every theatrical display. In
addition to these greater lights over
5000 incandescent burners are in use
all over the building: II =.-Es@ssa Fl.
= Certainly in. the way of a curtain
the Empress theater has the biggest
in the world, It is a rich and elnbor-
ate piece of artistic work, IS feet
high and 260 feet long A curtain of
this kind would hide more than the
frontage of the National Gallery and
much Of the roof of that large build
ing:
Over $4,000 dresses are worn during
the production of India, many of the
performers wearing three. four and
five in the piece. The number of
sp1angles used runs into millions and
the sequins on the Indian dresses are
almost without number. Nearly as
many wigs as dresses are used. Of
the number Of dancers shoes which
are worn out during a months per-
formances it would be hard to give an
accurate report, but 1000 would be
near the mark.
ALI the scenery, the curtain, and the
stage are moved by steam power, for
no human effort alone could build I'D
some of the stage pictures produced.
From every point of view this theater
probably holds the palm for hugeness
and ease in mana ging it.-Tid-