St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-20
A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE PRO-
GRESS OF LIGHTING THE
STAGE.
DAYS OF CANDLE SHUTTERS.
RIDICULOUS ENCOUNTER BE-
TWEEN RICHARD III. AND
THE STAGE LIGHTS,
FIRST GAS IN LONDON AND PARIS.
Many Setbacks Which Have Occas-
toned Amusement and Pain
Henry IFving,s Methods

In the days of the Eliza bethan thea
ter the performances took place in the
open and began at O'Clock, so that ar
tlflcial light was rarely required. and
sunrise and sunset, moonlight and STAR
light, high noon and midnight. existed
only in the vivid Imagination of the
spectators, who must in those days
have found much education for their
fancy and inspiration for their sympa-
thies in theatergoing, which patrons
of the play today are relieved of by
the cleverness of stage managers and
electricians and painters, says the Bos-
ton Herald.
The first artificial light used on the
stage was furnished by two large
branches of lights, one on either side of
the stage, some idea of the shape of
which may be discovered by studying
the frontiSpiece Of Kirkman's "Collec-
ton of Drolis,' published in 1872.
These branches of lights INSTRUCTED
the view of the auditors, and they were
finally replaced by small circular wood
en- frames fitted with candles These
hoops of light were suspended from the
proscenium, and there were no foot
llghts between the actors and the or
chestra. There were usually eight
hoops of candles, four on either side of
the stage, and these were of wax or
tailoW, according TO the exchequer of
the manager. The body of the house
was lighted by cressets, or large open
lanthorns of nearly the same size with
those fixed in the poop of the Ship
An amusing incident in which one of
these hoops Of candles was employed
To- nv inho nd Lii Ii
Memoirs of the Bristol Stage" One
Winston, comic actor, who would play
tragedy at times, was doing Richard
Ill" when, in flourishing his sword in
calling for "a horse, a horse,'' he acct
dentally cut the rope that held up the
illuminating arch, and, as he lodged
it descended fairly and squarely round
his neck. to his great discontinue and
the delight of the audience, for theater-
goers in those days were not a jot diff
ferent from theater-goers of today, and
an accident was then. as now, always
productive of a peal of uproarious
laughter. Still, it must have been fun
ny to see Catesby struggling to relieve
his monarch of that embarrassing posi-
ton before the little affair at Tewkes-
bury could be settled
One of the first mentions of footlightS
in the London theaters was made in
1856, when Garrick introduced various
improvements into Drury Lane, among
them being row of footlights. Candles
were used at first, and for that pur-
pose, and were soon replaced by lamps,
footlights being then known as the
float" and consisting of one long tank
of oil, with a series of wicks
With the disappearance of the oil
lamp, which served to illuminate the
theater well into the nineteenth century,
both in London and Paris, disappeared
also from the playhouse a character,
who, up to then, was an institution
the candle snuffer," or as he was called
IN Paris, lie moucheur de chandelies'
This party's duty was to watch the
lights and walk right onto the stage
during the performance any time, to
snuff them, as they needed it,
In due course of evolution the candle
snuffer" became the tender of lamps.
then the gas man, and finally the cleo
trician. In his hour the candle snuff
err was a favorite butt for the humor
OF the audience. He was pelted if the
fancy seized it; he was guyed and
ScOffed at.
That humor of the audience exists to-
gay. although the modern methods of
setting and resetting the stage and
changing the scenes have largely re-
moved the opportunity. We all remem-
per the days when stages had deem
aprons, and the queer-looking men and
hoys always came in front to put down
or take up torn paper, or snow storm
with which previous act had Uttered
the stage; or, in the days before dark
changes, how the same men brought on
or carried off chairs and tables to the
delight of the small boy in the gallery
ana the large boy down stairs
1T is a little uncertain just when gas
was first introduced into the theater in
! LONDON. The first gas lamp appeared
IN the streets of London in 1909 when
fall MAIL was illuminated by that med
luln, ana remained for some time the
only thoroughfare SO lighted, although
eleVen years previous William Muir
dock, or Redruth, Cornwall. had used
gas to light his house and offices. and
the Dig manufactures at Soho had been
SO illuminated since 1898
Gas must have been used in the thea
ters some time previous to 1918, because.
according to Arthur Pougin. in that
year M. de la F'erte, "intendant des
menus plalsirs,' was sent from Paris to
LONDON to investigate the effects of the
use OF hydrogen gas, as applied to light
ing the stage, and his report was so
favorable that, after some experiments
on rep; ., 1872, gas was introduced sue.
cessluily at the opera. By a curious
COINCIDENCE, the first opera lighted bv If
was Aladdin, on la Lampe MerveiI-
reuse, new and posthumous work nv
Nicolo WI ~ ~
The example of the opera was ouickIv
IolloWed by all the ether Paris theaters
except the Coincide Franchise. where
Tor the rampe or footlights. oil wa 9
USED as less trying for the eyes of the
payers than the gas, which was en-
ployed in other parts Of the house
Each advance in lighting the nIav
encountered it's obstacles. In the
french theater oil received a terrible
setback in the latter part of the Ia sf
1 century-June 8, 17S1-when the float
became heated and exploded. Gas in
| the London theater received a similar
setback in 1923, when the was exploded
/ at Covent Garden. By the first acct
dent tWenty-one lives We're lost. and bv
| the second two
TO appease the frightened London
public the gas fittings were at once
removed, but the public gradually grew
polder, and gas was again used very
shortly afterward. In London gas was
opposed by the medical profession, as
productive, through vitiating the air. of
nervous headaches and apoplexy.
! Still even the stage lighting was most
primitive. The advance was made ONLY
in the direction of quantity Scenes
were brilliantly lighted, but the light
was all of kind and all from the same
direction-below instead of above the
stage-and this condition existed a
| quarter of a century ago.
In 1868 Charles Fechter, while man
aging the Lyceum theater, London,
sunk, for the first time, the footlights
below the stage and out of SIGHT of the