Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-12-21

course, would destroy the theatre, and
yet the audience is led to suppose that
! they have witnessed just such a scene.
Once again the imagination of the
grown-up child has been called into play.
CPEAKING of the big scenic effects of
y Seven Days Leave" one must pay
tribute to the work of two native Phila-
delphiang, Frank d. Thomas, now a
resident Of New York, and George Lay
ton, who lives with his mother, Mrs.
Mary RanouS. and a sister at Fifty
second and Spruce streets, this city.
Layton. who was born here. passed his
apprenticeship in the Stetson hat fac
tory and dabbled in electricity at va
rious local theatres until he became an
! acknowledged expert on lighting, cine
matograph projection and illusions. He
and Thomas control patents governing
the employment of motion pictures in
conjunction will stage action in the de-
velopment of dramatic situations, and
from their little office and laboratory in
the Gaiety Theatre building, New York,
have come all the big stage sensations
of that sort from the bathing scene in
the "Follies of 1907 down through the
various revues and Winter Garden shows
to the spectacle now holding the boards
at the Opera House, where Layton
worked nearly two score years ago as
an electricians helper.
Two motion-picture machines, twice
as many stereopticons and numerous
mechanical light effects play stimuli
taneously upon an ingenious arrange
ment of scenery during the marine
scenes of Seven Days Leave" blend
| Ing in a manner that leaves the specta-
tor overwhelmed with realism and puz-
II go --I
: what he imagined he saw. Nor is the
l latter question preposterous, for the new
so-called flash" method of illusion is
9 also employed upon the inky-black stage,
E backed up by sound effects that con-
|; vey to the mind powerful suggestions,
1 causing the spectator to visualize things
8 that exist only in his mind. This branch
y of stagecraft has been successfully en-
. ployed In short plays in New York this
season without any other elaboration,
but as used in Seven Days Leave
every trick of stage technique Is used
: simultaneously.
9 Layton developed the original idea
s upon which all such situations are
based, employing 1t first in a vaude-
II willie act called 1.-The Spook Minstrels, u
q presented at a local vaudeville theatre
n in 1905 and familiar to vaudeville fans
through the fact that the act revisited
Philadelphia again and again for years
It Lhomas' then a i8cal contracior' Whose
l. Dissest Jop Was she cohstruettoh VI Sme
Y, baltiIIoIe Iostohice, saw greater poss'
developed It until they Jointly created
the most striking scenes in THE Fol
u iles, Ihe Mnilt o. ne HoF'u, n
pougs LussasS riamIiSL on Proau
a way, Lew 5relua niaunIsnt 2ois'
summer MiuoMeLs sun DoIsers
E. An Ap9anI INC nILierouS W W
10 SIaiueH " ~ "uult'om ~ 49,
~ DAYS Leave. numerous allract'ohs ar
he uslhs Sneai H" ing He%SoH, !''Iau
,e ing EoInE ~, L9r "Llcl theS con
10 IrlDuteu Ine a'rIli1hS scene mes
lie thee's' WIZ a SN'''eu crew 10 oPetau
enen"' ~ 80 - ~ pay aouLS
the run Of the attraction and constitut,
is a comnIete indeDendant orpanizatio
lie within the organization with which the
in appear. Because of the elaboratenes
Id Of the effect" i'm Seven Davs' Leave,
Thomas and LAYTON p avai vitb the M
Sc traction. and have done so ever since
I'd was brought to this country from Eng
We land,
en- WHILE the Government theorists hav
nc w been bordering deeply on what t
n do with the soldiers no longer needed l
inc war a GOOD hundred men from IN
RI Aberdeen Proving Grounds have solve
he that problem, so far as they are cor
e. cerned, although II isn't lhHely they wi
take advantage of that solution. tn
fact Is that II they are as good soldier
C. as they are actors-and the assumptio
al Is that they mus be-nothing in III
ed way OF opposition could stop them. !
us IL no eNaggeration TO say that the
an musical comedy; who Stole the Hat