Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1914-04-17
A NEW ARTIST
IN PANDEM0N|UM
He is the Drummer Evolved by
the Moving Picture Show
Houses
AN EXPERT IN MAKING NOISES
He Plays on Three instruments at
once-Wonders He Can Perform
with a Leather Pad and Two Slap
stlcks-How He Tells a War Story.

with Leather Pad and Two Slap
stlc<s-How He Tells a War Story.
In the moving picture shows the or
chestra is apt to consist Of not more
than two persons, a plano player and
q drummer, but by the aid of various
auxiliary contrivances It Is able to
produce great variety Of effects. For
the reason that the piano player has
all the time full occupation for both
hands on the piano keys these auxil-
ary contrivances are all operated by
the one other member of the orches-
tra the drummer.
There are three instruments that
he can play on at once, snare drum
with his hands and bass drum and
| cymbals with his feet, but 1t is with
the other contrivances that he pro-
duces the realism. He has a string
Of sleigh bells hanging handy to jim
gle when in a moving picture scene a
sleigh crosses the stage, bar Of steel
to strike resonantly at the proper mo-
ment for the sound of a bell, whis-
tie to blow. He may even supplement
these contrivances by the use of his
own voice on occasion
He may use the drums for initiative
purposes. He initiates the quicker
| pucker" of a motorboat on the snare
drum, and with fidelity he reproduces
the sound of steam exhausts.
You see in the picture showing on
the stage a railroad train rolling into
station. Passengers debark and get
aboard. The train starts and you see
the first white puff, the first exhaust
shoot up from the engines stack as
the engineer gives her steam, and not
only do you see it but you hear 1t
too. and with a sound so true that
for moment you fancy it is the
real exhaust you hear. Then as the
train gathers headway and its move
ment quickens the noise Of the ex-
hause comes quicker and quicker and
nearer together, till they blend final
ly in the steady roar, diminishing and
growing fainter and fainter as the
train draws away, finally to be lost
in fading blur.
A wonder, all this, in naturalistic
sound production. If you happen to
sit near the drummer your wonder
grows as you see him, with his eyes
on the picture, producing the sound
of those steam exhausts with drum
sticks on drum. But wait till you
see and hear what he can do with a
leather pad and two slapsticks.
A war story, this next series, show
ing first wooded country with a
stretch of clearing in front. AT the
near edge of the clearing soldier
comes into view, facing away from
you across the clearing toward the
woods and keeping moving toward
them. Before you know it another
soldier appears a little further along,
and then you see three or four or half
a dozen more of them scattered along
over the clearing-a skirmish line ad-
vancing; and then puff of smoke
from the woods and you hear the
crack of a rifle and you see that first
man that came in keel over. The
skirmish line keeps on advancing and
then you see three or four puffs of
smoke come from the woods and you
hear the rifles crack! crack! crack!
crack! and then our felloWs-we call
'em our fellows because they started
in from in front from our side Of the
stage-our fellows answer and you
hear a dozen quick, scattering shots.
Then a squad of cavalry comes in
on the gallop to back our fellows up
and they do mix things up in that
clearing in great shape with rifles and
pistols banging away all the time
crack, crack, crack, and crackle, crac'
kle, crackle. 1t wasn't battle, there
weren't nearly enough engaged for
that, but 1t was what the newspapers
refer to when in war time they print
, a despatch from such and such place
: which starts off by saying: There
was lively skirmish near this place
= yesterday between -" and so on.
We had seen that skirmish from
start to finish and we'd been neal
enough to 1t so that we could heal
every shot that was fired, and If YOU
= eye had wandered for moment from
9 the moving picture on the stage to the
spot where the rifle shots actually
came from you would have seen the
drummer of the orchestra, with hi!
eyes fixed on the picture, spatting
a spatting, spatting, spatting, with two
!, slapstisks on pad that looked like {
4 leather chair cushion. A simple de
/ vice this, but by It's aid what would
:. otherwise have been only picture
t dumb show, had been wrought up int,
4 a scene that was thrilling
q Few Dentists In Greece.