The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-02
A STAGE MORCUE.
The Final Resting Place Of
Theatrical Equipment.
Where Old Scenery, Costumes
and Properties Are Found.
ENTIREBUILDING FULL
Packed Full Of Stuff Once Bril-
liantly Lavish.
ENTIREBUILDING FULL
Armor, Bridges, Trees, Forests
and Clothing by Tons.

anu ClObutHR Ny AOuSs
What becomes of the old scenery
and properties and costumes of dead
shows?
A lot of it goes to 27o Washington
street, Jersey City, where William A.
Brady has a private morgue and hos
pital for it. The building looks from
the outside like an abandoned feed
store. There is a shed covering the
sidewalk and the windows have not
been washed since they were put in
But when you touch an electric but
ton and get inside it seems as if the
corpses of half the dead plays that
have held the boards in. the last ten
years were laid away to molder there.
The building is four stories high
Three stories and the cellar are pack
ed so full of dead stuff that it is
hard to edge ones way from the door
to the stairway in the rear The top
floor is very much alive In 1t new
scenery is built up in skeletons and
old scenery is stripped to the bones
and patched up to be repainted in the
studios of the scenic artists in New
York.
A New York Sun reporter touched
the electric bell one day last week.
and when he stepped inside, a voice
from away overhead shouted to him
to come right up. He looked up the
hoistway, which is about ten times
the average size. The voice came
from a man in overalls at the top, who
gave directions for finding the stairs.
Mind you walk carefully" he
The caution was we'll timed. Feel
ing his way through an alley piled
with flats and wings, the reporter
tripped over a rustic step. The capt.
tai of Corinthian column jammed his
hat over his eyes. Wooden foliage
caught him in the ribs The stair
way, however, was clear, and the
busy top floor was soon reached. Half
a dozen men, dressed like carpenters,
were hard at work. One man had a
section of forest, very much the worse
for the weather, face down, on great
bench He was mailing strips on the
frame to strengthen it. Another had
the side of a house, with practical
door, in hand. He was tearing off
the canvas picture as fast as he could.
A third man was kneeling on the floor
FASTING, reinforcing strips and patch
eS on the back of an open fireplace,
which he picked up and worked on
hinges, folding and unfolding it until
he made sure it was in good service
This is way Down. East said Lou
Steffens; who did the talking for the
crowd. This scenery has been over
the country from Maine to California
oh, yes, it's going on the road again
We're getting it ready as fast as we
can for the painters.
This is morgue," he went on
eff you choose to call it by that name,
and hospital, too. It's great deal
more than a morgue or hospital
1--WE build up all the new scenery
here. No, no painting; that 1T all
done in New York in the artists own
studios; just building. We build the
scenes
AS fast as a play is withdrawn
from the New York stage or COM
he al
the material belonging to it is shipped
to the Jersey City loft. If it is to
be revived, the scenery is at once put
in hand. If not, it goes into the
morgue on the lower floor.
Scenery is reprinted practically ev-
cry season. said Mr.. Steffens. we
strip it to the bones, make them sound
recover them with canvas, and the
fellow in New York does the rest
Of course, the old designs are repeat
ed, but the scenery is practically
new"
On the floor below the workshop
a full suit of armor is one of the most
conspicuous objects. 1t hangs from
the ceiling.
Its been here so long" said Stef-
fens, that nobody knows what it was
used in. Just look at what its feet
rest on-a cooking stove! Maybe it's
all that's left of Henry or Joan
Of Arc. 1 don't know, but it's funny
to see it dancing on the old stove
The scenery is stacked against the
walls. There are crates full of fur
niture and heavy properties, and
trunks full of costumes. A space, say
20 feet by 10, is devoted to the re-
mains of "a Little Tragedy in ITEM
tsin."
"All that for twenty eight-minute
SKETCH said Steffens.
The mechanism of the light open
bamboo work, which was a feature of
the scenery, is pitilessly revealed in
frames, on which the canvas strips |
painted to represent the cane are fast |
ened. On top of the boxes which |
contain the costumes and properties
are about a dozen big electric lamps.
These provided the elaborate light eff |
fects of the sketch.
1--WE have open lights Steffens
explained, land spot lights and dim |
mers- A spot light? Oh, that's the |
light that follows a dancer all over
the stage and falls on nobody else
lights often specially arranged to pro-
duce it's effects. We must have a |
hundred sets here Those colored
squares? They're mediums ?''
The mediums were squares of col |
ored isinglasS in frames. They are |
slid in front of the calcium or electric |
lights to produce sunrise or sunset or
moonlight illusions.
On the floor below this THE Pit"
and 'sUncle Toms Cabin and Lovers
Lane" are all but inextricably en- |
tangled. A big bass drum which fig
A Pill in Time