The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-02-08
INTERESTING FACTS
ABOUT STAGE SPOOKS
Reflecting Mirrors and the Motion
Picture Machine Coming Into
General Use at Theatres

Although the ghost is no longer the
main feature and attraction of stage rep
resentation, as 1t was 30 or co years ago.
it is still an important character said
the manager of a theatre the other day.
according to Tit-Bits. In very small
theatres where stage mechanics are con-
spicuous by their absence, ghosts are
often as solid and unrealistic as they were
in the days of John Kemble and Mrs
Jordan, and it is not unusual for the
ghost of Hamlets father to be attired in
suit of real armour. One such "appari-
ton tripped up while coming on to the
stage and, falling down with very
metallic thud, rolled slowly towards the
footlights, causing a pitite to shrek out,
"Old ironl'
Ghosts Are Realistic
The spooks that haunt the London
stages today are fairly realistic" and
when Sir Herbert Tree produced Mac
BETH at his maiestys theatre the other
year he gave his audience ghosts which
were really yaporous and unearthly, glid-
Ing. transparent, mysterious. Macbeth
wilted in terror at the appearance of
Banquos spooll, and everyone declared
that the entrance and general "get-up"
of this member of the spirit world was
the most ingenious and impressive ever
seen at a theatre
| think it was Charles Kean who first
resorted to Illusion to make stage ghost
a little transparent. When re produced
Macbeth" at the old Princess theatre
he manufactured contrivance which al
lowed Banquos ghost to appear through
transparent column.
Later on, when Mrs. Ann Radeliffe's 8
Iear - bo ecto
Covent Garden theatre, those responsible
for it's production arranged that the spook
in the piece should be seen by the audi
ence through gauze of bluish-grey color.
so that the too corporeal effect of a live
actor might be removed. Follet the
clown. celebrated for his eating of car
rots in the pantomimes," was the shade,
and he wore a closely-fitting suit of grey
material, sewn together in the form of
armour, and in this he foated across
the stage like a shadow behind a sheet
of gauze much to the delight of the
spectators.
+ Insisted on Ghost
E When the old playhouse in Drury Lane
opened, in 1894. with a performance or
Macbeth" Banquo's ghost was omitted.
Although Mr. Kemble's acting was fine
enough to make the audience almost be-
lieve that they really did see the ghost,
the people were not satisfied until the
system they had been used to was re-
adopted, and Banquo's shade allowed to
trot bodily across the boards. In those
days theatragoers would have a spectre,
Notwithstanding that the spectre was a
super" in a white sheet with a streak
of red paint on his brow, who thrust
himself through a trap-door or rose from
behind a cardboard tomb when blow
was struck upon tin can and a spoonful
of blue fire ignted in the wings.
Reflectng mirrors and the cinemato-
graph are coming in general use at the
theatres. and with them It has been found
possible to manufacture ghosts capable
of striking terror into the hearts of all
followers of the occult. 1t Is interesting
to know that at the Autrion theatre in
Paris, when Gerald Hauptmann's Han
nele" was acted. in which the men are
spirits seen by dying child all the
phantcms We're the reflections of actors
cast from mirrors behind the stage on
to the bed In much the same way the
ghosts in Richard Ill" have been
brought into being. Quite an assembly of
apparitons are supposed to rise up and
address themselves alternately to Rich
ard and to Richmond The spirits of
Pri.-aa Edward. Henry VI. Clarence,
Rivers Grey. Vaughan. Hastings, the
two young Princes. Queen Anne. and
Buckingham have to denounce with curses
the tyrant and bless his opponent.