The Waterbury Democrat., 1934-12-06
In New York
ny PAUL HARRISON

New .York-Battles, confiagra- tions, storms and some other forms of wholesale destruction have been reproduced with fair success in the theater. But not until the current vogue for realism began challeng- ing the scenic agility of the. movies did anyone try to stage an eartn- quake.
 It's being done now, and quite satisfactorily, in a new play called "Gold Eagle Guy" The stage doesn't rock, but it seems to when things start falling down and large golden plaque begins to swing like a pendulum of doom.
 Audiences, however impressed they may be, don't have half as much fun as the manipulators backstage. It's one fellows job to climb upon the files and toss down chunks of plaster Another keeps the hanging plaque in mo- tion., A third beats like mad on two huge thunder drums.
 Sounds like water rushing from broken mains are obtained by swishing water in a large tin tank. Meanwhile. three expert crashers are busy. One breaks glass. one smashes wooden packing cases. and one losses around an assort- ment of scrap iron. A distant booming effect Is obtained by shooting compressed air into an or gan pipe. The glow of flames comes from red flashlights. And finally a marble arch, which is hinged in three places, collapses. For few minutes bedlam comes to Broad way.
 Stage Money Is Real
 There's an authentic touch in the farce comedy. Page Miss Glory" which only the front row custOnl- CTS are able to appreciate. Instead of stage money. genuine currency Is used. True! there's only s360 in various denominations, when the sum is supposed to be $2500, but it serves very well.
 Quite ritual is involved in handling the cash: First the thea ter treasurer takes 1t from the box office and gives it to the stage man. ager. He gives 1t to the property man. who in turn hands it to an ac- tor. After the show the property man goes around collecting from the performers among whom the money has been split. He hands it to the stage manager, who returns it to the treasurer, who puts 1t back into the evenings receipts. And everybody sighs with relief. Imported Strike
 One of the scenes in ''Merrily We Roll Along" provides realistic bit-the sound of chimes from the famous clock in the Tower of Lon don. A tower appears on the stage backdrop, and from it is supposed to come the sonorous striking of the hour of nine.~ George Kaufman the director. wouldn't tolerate the tinny set of dinner chimes the property man brought in. So they finally had to get an actual phonn- graphic recording to boom through the stillS night
 errors in staging and dialogue these days that Martha Madison goes into training for the writing of her mclodrdmas. While mulling over ideas for Subway Express" she rode back and forth on sub way expresses for days at time =. i. While preparing. The Up and Up" during the prohibition era. she did part of her writing in speakeasles .. Her latest. "Tte Night, Remembers" set her off on criminological research. Visited famous psychologist. talked with police officials. attended the police lineup, where criminals pass in review-and finally insisted on spending q couple of hours locked in cell in Tombs Prison.
 -
 Animated Idea
 A MT. Robert Schirmer who knows a good idea when he sees one, was strOlling in Paris last summer and noticed q thcater marquee sign which read: L'Heure Joyeuse de Mickey House." Went in and discovered that the entire program was made up of animated cartoons.
 He came back to New York and leased theater in the heart Of the rialto. It's now the only house in America devoted exclusively to M. Mouse, the Three Little Pigs and their fellow animations. T found the place damned the other afternoon. and there were more adults than you'd expect. MT. Schirmer says n lot of the elder customers are foreigners and deaf mutes. Youngsters are something of problem on Saturdays: many of them come in the morning and stay all day. Mothers check their children there while they go shop nj la 1 A1A