Richmond daily register. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1917-1978, 1921-12-14
LIGHTS CHANGE
STAGE SCENES
Turn of Switch Transforms the
Scenery, Costumes and Fig
ures in London Theater.
WORKED OUT BY A RUSSIAN
~. SamoiIoff Asserts He Is Merely
Utilizing Harmony Between Light,
Line and Coior-Principles
Are Not New.

London.-The wonders accomplished
in transforming scenes. costumes and
actual figures from one period OF his
tory to another 10y mere change Of
light on the stage OF the HippndroT.e
has set all London talking. la q revue
now playing there is scene repre-
Senting very modern damSel signing
for her lover i'm Il frowning mountain
pass. She sings. the echo answers and
The audience is beguiled by the sweet
sentimeataiity OF the situation.
Then behind the scenes somebody
does something and everything Is
altered in Il Hash. The grim noun
talns become Hindu temple, the
frowniug rocks melt into sands and
palms ana the tall. slender young
woman turns into stout Indian
maidcn. II has all hrcn brought about
10y Il change in light, 10y the manipu-
lation OF more than lm different
switches Al the same m"ruCnt. ami the
audience is carried back 5000 years
and from one continent To- another.
Every detail il tran>m"=riiird. ami Ile
girl. VIII" was clad conVcutioually in
a yellow artificial silk blouse with hiue
faciu:,S ami riI>i-rcd Goif skirt. ap-
pears now with hcr must driprd ia
white, embroidered I'm black and
brown. with her waist uncl"thcd and
her trou>crS->kirt pale cream with
' graceful figured pattern.
Back Goes Everything.
An Oriental scene follows with the
! Customary dances Men and women.
! I'm all the fncry of tlie East enter and
| weave in and ont in the maZeS OF the
ballet The lover comes ON, - all APP
pearances robcd in the loose white gar
! nlents and the trousers of certain
castles Of Hindus. The action grows
fast and furious: the heroine Is threat
ened by rival; she runs To the hero
fer protection. and as he clasps her To
his arms some one throws hose
/ switches again.
Back goes everything to -. -
tah gorge, and Il very modern young
IAN in a brown lounge suit of unex-
ceptionable cut Is seen embracing the
young woman in the crowd Of equally
modernly dressed people.
How is it done? Only Adrian v.
camoiloff. the Russian artist who has
worked the thing out, and the Moss
Empires, who hold the patent. can tell
N detail. but il is possible 10 give
general idea of this startling new
stage effect When NJ. Samoiloff was
/ ask @Eout It, he said:
| "I.'s merely matter of establish
| ing and utilizing harmony between
| light. line and color. Is IL new? Well,
| all the elements of IL have been been
| known for years; l have merely
brought them together and worked
them out scientifically and systemau-
cally. Do-Sou remember. for instance,
| the postcards we had as children.
which showed one inscription i'm one
| light and another In another? Well,
! that's part of il. Then during the
| war he heard a lot about dazzle and
| camoufiage, and how n few apparently
random lines of paint would alter To
the distant observer the shape OF the
| outline of a vessel. That's part or IL.
too. have merely worked along these
| and similar fines until 1 got the re-
| suits 1 wanted"
But the girls skirt and blouse In
/ the mountain scene seemed To be of
solid color and heavy material, while
I'm the Hindu scene they were quite
aImsy and covered with embroidery.
How about that?"
Light Changes Costus7ss
THAT'S quite simple" replied ~.
SamoiIoff. ITO the coIors l Use in
the mountain scene applied two meth
o.ls Of ANALYSIS. First. | took their
/ inf
used chemically. From TIE spectra I
found into what colors the first would
split up by the application or the
proper kind or strong light. and by
/ chemical analysis | discovered that a
great variety Of substances had been
used in the original paints and colors
1 to produce the original hues. Take,
for example, several pieces Of rcd ma
! terial: they will seem 10 match ex-
actly, but chemical analysis will show
| that one contains radium bromide.
| another phospherine or zinc, aud
third no special chemical at ALL Ia
ordinary daylight they look exactly
alike, but when I begin to throw my
specially prepared lights upon them
| they change in different ways accord
Ing TO the chemicals they contain.
When you have worked this out very
carefully, as l did. 1t will be quite
simple for you to make plain blouse
look like a mass OF embroidery.
perhaps you noticed in the Oriental
scene three OF the dancers who seemed
to be clothed in quite different ways
one looked as II she were wearing
merely a skirt. another was draped TO
her shoulders. and so on. Yet when
the l.rht wcS changed all three were
foun,S % be Cad in modern gowns. the
only difference between them being
the colors OF their costumes. Ife
merely an application of the knowl-
adRe OF how light affects color"