The star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1908-1909, 1908-03-25
The Wind and the Waves, the
Clouds and the Lightning,
at Close Range.
MOVABLE STAGE is A
HIGHLY INGENIOUS DEVICE
Edward Abeles, the Star of the
Play, Has No Ambition to
Appear in Hamlet"
u E stopped watching them get the

3 10 say How dye do to Edward
Abeles in his dresslng-room at the
Newark Theatre.
Aar. Abeles was making up at the
time, but between dabs of the grease
paint and the eyebrow pencil and the
! powder pun. he found time to. tell us
, something about himself and the play.
He is a genial fellow to meet, justly
pleased with his success and that of
b play. but exhibiting none of the
frills one sometimes expects from actor
folk. He especially wished it made
emphatic that he has no desire to play
Hamlet" thus claiming for himself
a rare distinction among comedians.
Il expect to continue in 'Brewster's
Millions another year after this" said
Mr.. Abeles. After that I don't know
what I shall do. Mr.. Thompson and /
are reading a dozen plays a week out
OF about fifty submitted to us. and
some time, perhaps. Wen find some
thing with possibilities in it. It's ex-
eraordinary the amount of trash that
ga actor or a manager has to wade
Through before he comes across a man.
uscript that betrays a glimmer of .lru-
man Intelligence
Mr.. Abeles was a newspaper man
-~It@ = 49, WV gCioA nv I'll "a LAA1
stage. He has been before the foot
lights sixteen years now, he told us,
getting most of his valuable experience,
like so many other stars, in a stock
company. The last play in which he
appeared, before he was advanced to
fstellar ranks via "Brewster's Millions
Was Shaw's Man and Superman," in
Which he a the small but fat part
Of John Tanners cockney chauffeur.
We asked him how he happened to fall
into Monty" Brewster's shoes.
1--WE had had the play in mind a long
wllile before it was dramatized," he re-
j., piled. Mr.. Thompson had purchased
le rights from Mr.. McCutcheon and l
mad talked over ways and means of
staging it with both of them in the I'M
outstanding that ] was to assume the
sadlng hole. 1t was at my suggestion
iat Winchell Smith was selected to
Faihatize it. and that Byron Onyley
was called in later i'm the capacity of
auylser. The four OFF us worked to-
ses9fr and the ressalt you see. We
new, mad much doubt of it's success,
though we did trembale a bit at the i'm
mense task Mr.. THOMPSON had set HIM
Sci IN staging the storm scene"
Az. Abe.es is a most entertaining
ta4her, but his REMARK about Fred
Hfiompson's storm lscene had reminded
US OF the only thiihg that would have
made US consent td5 cave before it was
time Tor him to go IN. We wanted to
see them set thfs storm scene work
u we wers i fke a small boy with his
- J 9tetS Acouldn.t> be satisfed until
FAD investigated how it worked for
oufgelf. Let anybody watch Monty
Brewster's yacht tossing and straining
at the pull OF the wind and the waves,
moving rapidly out to sea past a Wis
tbly receding shore, with the elements
doing Titanic battle all around, n
he'll maybe feel as inuuisitive as we
did.N How is 1t done? How, especially,
do they produce that pitching move
ment. of the stage, which is the great
factor in the whole Illusion?
We seized upon a point of vantage in
the wings, and Manager Charles X.
Miller kindly acted as personal con-
dpctor and lecturer to enlighten US. 1t
requires, he said, no less than forty
men TO set and operate the scene.
The entire contriNancc is the inven-
ton Of MIR. Thompson. AS everyone
knows VINO has seen the play, the deck
: OF tbs yacht is a movable stage about
two feet above the stage roper. h
four corners of this secondary stage
are raised Slightly and the whole thing
works Oh wheels set in steel tracks.
Al eaela OF the corners is a huge lever
which, when the storm is al its height,
requires two men TO work. As they
pull these le vers the stage moves back
and forth in It's runway and the mo-
ton OF pitching is obtained. An assis-
liant electrician stationed at one cor
ner gets his cue from the stage, and
T when 1t is time for the storm to get in
it's heavy work, he waves a red cleo
trio light to secure a unison of action
from each corner.
The waves that toss about so rest
lessly in the rear of the yacht arc of
course merely painted drops, four Of
them suspended from the flies by wire
and showed alternately back and forth
by two stage hands. The lighthouse
and other scenery along shore moves in
a radius (whatever that Isl in response
to tho pull of a small engine. A blower
arrangement sends salt spray flying
across the stage and a light is flashed
along with it. Otherwise the effect
would be lost. Other blowers operated
by engines are utilized to create the
wind that so realistically blows about
the actresses dresses when the storm
is at its height.
At each side Of the stage are the
wind machines, barrel-like affairs,
turned with a crank. The thunder
: comes from a square drum about five
4 feet in height. Four moving picture
machines are employed to make the
cloud effects. The loud rushing noise
supposed to initiate the sound of
h the surf. comes from a long. narrow,
rectangular box worked up and down
on a saw-horse and filed with loose
sand and pebbles.
When these various devices are all
being worked together the aspect of the
men on the job is as of a unatic asy-
IuIn in active eruption. But there is
the strictest discipline and order in
every move by a crew as carefully
trained and rehearsed by the stage
manager as the actors are themselves.
Realism of the fsort achieved in this
scene, the highly complicated mechan-
ISM of which we have barely suggested,
may not appeal to the high-browed and
l~ong-haired critics Of the drama as the
acme of theatrical art. but it certainly
pleases the vast majority Of playgoers
who seek solely to be entertained
There is O great deal of good comedy
a. aPrayster's Millions" but. lust as