Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-17
By Harris Merton Lyon

.yO-- Passenger who accompanied
Gynt Shpboard. The grue-
some effect of this face livid
green IN color. peerlng out at the audience from
q p1tChblaCk stage, can hardly be imagined by
those who did not see the play.
:" suppose the actor simply rubbed a sort of
phosphorus on his face didn't he,' my
query.
No. answered the cunning carpenter. 81
did that by a green electric light concealed
under the vlzor of the player cap. He wore a
battery in the small of his back which supplied
the necessary electricity.
Bullets on the Canvas Rocks
THE same man staged The Round Up.
In one of the acts there is a most realistic
stage fight. Two men, lying beside an Arizona
water hole in little sandy opening in the cliffs
are being shot at by band of Apaches. The
Indians are off stage, and the fainter sounds
of their firing would indicate that they We're
some distance away.
Now, to give the desired effect of immediate
fear and danger one of the property men acted
upon line he had read in kipling. With the
bullets kickin dust spots the green.
Kicking dust Spotsi There was an idea !,
When the curtain went up on this act. there the
cliffs were. getting nlcked every few seconds
by vicious off-stage bullet, and you could tell
Just where the bullet hit because it was fol-
lowed by puff of dust This was accomplished
by leaving holes in the canvas rocks and
shooting fuller earth through them by means
of big syringes This little idea vitalized the
scene immensely.
Bayins Hounds on the Stage
TOHN DREW was in trouble once He was
= playing Delaney. and at one JunCture it
required that some foxhounds should run
past in the distance, baying on the trail of their
victim. How to get that far off, vet diStin-
guishable baying. was the problem 1t was
solved in the following way The Frohman
forces repaired to New Jersey shoot one day
equipped with large photograph and some
fresh wax cylinders AS the hounds went past
the record of their baying caught on the
machine perfectly.
Back with the apparatus went the property
maker to New York, where he set it up back
of the scenes. Then he attached a megaphone
to the machine-and to give the faint and
far effect he crammed a horse blanket into
the megaphone's mouth The illusion
amazingly good.
Apparitions by Mirrors
THOSE who have had the delight of seeing
Maude Adams as Peter Pan will be
surprised to hear that in reality Tinker Bell,
for whom Peter begs credence of the audience,
is composed of four men, arc light. and
mirror. Tinker thus being thrown about the
stage much in the same fashion a small boy
throws the reflection from a looking glass into
his teachers eyes.
The apparltlon, or parsonage, OF Christ, IN
" Ben Hur.' is also caused by an electric light
shifted about the stage so as to shine on
sort of clustering dust that is slowly scattered
from the " flies" above the stage: and to one
who is not puritanical the comments of the
stage manager upon the good effect or the bad
effect of the Nazarene night by night are highly
picturesque and amusing.
The Roaring of the Mob
MOB effects, to be realistic are always
A'A ticklish things to obtain. Generally the
stage manager has to work with hastily
gathered band of supers, who 60 through
their work in slpshod fashion. knowing that
they are drawing only fifty cents night and
that for a few nights only. Roaring-that is.
roaring which is worth while-cannot be done
extempore. as good Bottom once was known
to declare.
Henry Irving had man who was passed mas
ter in the handling of drilled mobs off the stage.
This individual always appeared for each per-
Torrance dressed in severe evening clothes,
not deigning to lead the supers himself but he
instituted system of flag signals that gained