Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1916-04-01
Behind the Scenes
With birth of a
Nation" Rur1b'inqs

If ii were not for short, dark
haired young man who sits at dimin-
utive switchboard to the left of the
curtain on the stage of the Odeon dur
ing every performance of The Birth OF
a Nation" the production would lose
much Of it's effectiveness, as far as the
stage effects afeA concerned. This
young man assLoufs Ruben. electrician
and property man who has worked out
the noise effects and timed them with
so much precisionsthat the second the
audience sees flash and a puff OF
smoke from gun. that same second a
heavy report, accompanied by mufflec
trumblings, is heard from behind the
curtain. ~ -'ttao ass ~ g. @7tj -
Ruben has eight men working DUR
ing the action of the picture and by
mean Of his. switchboard he tells them
just when to produce the noises and
how much noise to make.
The switchboard in front OF which
Ruben sits is connected with seven
sets of lights of three different colors
each, green. red and amber. These
lights are placed in little boxes and
are in front efseaeh property man who
sits behind the1 sceItes in darkness with
his noise making machines in front OF
is at his place, watching every move
on the screen The first raid Of the
negro guerilla regiment is on. Ruben
presses three little buttons. throwing
on three amber lights. Amber means
soft rumble. At once the property men
beat softly on large oblong drums, COW
cred with quilts, suspended back Of the
stage. Then green lights come on.
That means harder rumb1es. Finally
! the reds come, meaning crashes and
, flashes as Of guns being fired. The
seven men back of the stage are beat
| ing the big. drums and hitting short
| sharp crashes on smaller ones to pro-
! duce the noise of a gun. In the bat
! tie scenes the action is faster and more
furious. All the lights are turned on
at once, and the property men work
as if their lives, depended on it.
So it goes thru the entire picture.
! Ruben acts as dispatcher, and knows
by long practice just when to throw
| his switches so as to produce the prop
| er effects. Ruben and John Johnson,
| the stage carpenter, travel with the
| company. The rest OF the men are
! given a rehearsal every Sunday morn
ing when the company gets into new
town. The drums and apparatus car
ried by the company fill sixty-foot
| baggage car. and take up as much
room as the properties carried by a
big musical comedy. The huge drums
for the rimblings are electrically
heated so as to prevent stretching and
shrinking in sudden changes OF tenn
perature. 49, 81 S-'tn
There is one shot in the production
that must be timed absolutely accur-
ately to the fraction Of second. This
is the shot fired by Wilkes Booth at
| President Lincoln. Ruben himself fires
this. He counts four after he sees
Booth come up behind Lincoln This
makes the noise correspond exactly
with the flash and puff OF smoke. once
in Burlington, the blank cartridge
missed fire. and Lincoln was shot with
out sound. ,taE .@ ,
The picture is timed exactly with
the music and noise effects. II the or
chestra leader, looks at the screen and
sees the little squirrel in the scene with
Flora Cameron and Gus, he knows II
is either 4:13sor 10: 13 as the per-
formance is matinee or evening. SINH
Iarly other scenes, all are timed pre-
cisely. 7'
Just twenty seats were left for thu
matinee today when the sale opened
this morning, and they were soor
gone. Many seats are left for tonight
. however. Friday nights house wa.
the best in the evening that the man.
agement has had here.
At 9:47 Sunday morning The Brit
: OF a Nation will go to Waterloo
where return engagement Is to b'
played next week. From there the pro
5 duction goes to Webster City. thel
! Iowa Falls, than another return dat
! at Mason city. This brings It up t
. April 80, when the picture opens Il
/. Zee M ntres This will be the first tim
4 Des ;Mofnes has had the spectacle, an,
e Manager Hurst expects TO stay in tn
j. capital city al least eight weeks 4
81 few chautauana dates will bring tn
e first of August around. and the shoy