NEW YORK:
HENRY L. HINTON, PUBLISHER,
6 8 0 BROADWAY.
1870PHELAN & COLLENDER,
MANUFACTURERS OF
STANDARD
AMERICAN BILLIARD TABLES.
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ESTABLISHED 1853.
F. JULIUS KALDENBERG
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Meerschaum Pipes,
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Pipes and. Holders made to Order, with Monograms, &cc., &c..BOOTH'S THEATRE.
BEHIND THE SCENES.
ILLUSTRATED.
NEW YORE:
HENRY L. HINTON, PUBLISHER,
680 Broadway.
1870.BOOTH’S THEATRE.
BEHIND THE SCENES.
[REPRODUCED FROM APPLETON'S’ JOURNAL.]
We are nearly all familiar with the stage as it appears in front of the foot-lights, but there are but few of us who have entered into the strange mysteries that live behind the painted canvas. It is, moreover, common to suppose that a glimpse at the machinery of the stage will dispel all its charming illusions—that fairy-land, seen too near, will only have a rude, rough, distasteful aspect, which will extinguish our love for its ideal beauty forever. But we greatly doubt if this is really so. Some things “ behind the scenes ” no doubt would prove disenchanting to the unsophisticated observer, but in reality there is a greater world of mystery on the other side of the foot-lights than is ordinarily supposed. We are all of us prone to accept the scenic effects of the stage as mere matters of course, and are indifferent to the various forces that are set to work to produce them. A visit behind the scenes, hence, would be apt with most persons to strengthen their interest in the scenic illusions of the stage, and to enlarge their appreciation of an art so little understood. As Mr. Booth, in his splendid new theatre in this city, has brought stage-art almost to perfection, and has availed himself of the latest inventions and devices in producing scenic effects, we purpose carrying the reader on a pictorial tour around and among the complicated machinery—premising that our artist has done his best to illustrate all the mysteries of this strange scene, and yet but partially conveys an idea of the elaborate complications necessary to show in rapid successionthe castle walls and grand intricacies for “ Hamlet,” or the heaths, banquet-scenes, caverns and their mystic incidents, and the stir of battle-scenes, for “ Macbeth.” But let the reader imagine himself with us on a tour of inspection—recollecting that he is not this time to see how Hamlet appears at his ease in his dressing-room, or how Ophelia chats gayly with the grave-
THE STAGE—SETTING THE SCENES.
digger in the green-room, or how the queen smiles upon the ghost, or how the king smokes his pipe and roars at a new jest by Horatio ; he is to see only the dumb forces that set the stage, that lift castles and “ Birnam woods ” from the depths below, that drop pendant boughs and blue firmaments fromabove; that, at a word, summon the strange and insubstantial pageants, and at a word dissolve tbem into air.
But, in order that we may understand our lesson, it is well to begin at the beginning. Mr. Booth’s mystic realms, let us say, delve so deeply into the earth beneath, and reach so loftily into the spaces above, that we must save breath and strength by proceeding with due method from what is below to what is above.
Our artist, however, shows us first in order the stage proper, with numerous carpenters busy setting the side-scenes. But, firm to our purpose of proceeding in due order, let us resolutely turn from this picture for the pres-
HYDRAULIC RAMS FOR LOWERING AND ELEVATING THE SCENES.
ent, and descend beneath the stage. We need not vanish through the traps; there are prosaic stairs that will accommodate us. We are first led, not beneath the stage at all, but to the spacious excavations under the sidewalks, where we find the carpenters’ shop and a great array of timber, and, to our surprise, large boilers, and an engine pursuing its noiseless task. This engine in the daytime, we are informed, gives motive power to the machinery in the carpenters’ busy quarter, elevates the Croton to the huge water-tanks at the top of the building by which the hydraulic rams, hereafter to be mentioned, are worked, and at night sets a huge fan in motionunder the auditorium, which in summer-time fills the theatre with cool, and in the winter with warm air. "We may note that the rise of each seat in parquet and circle is pierced with numerous circular holes, through which constant ventilation is secured for every rapt listener above. It is dark and sombre here in this strange, cavernous cellar, and the crowd that we hear above bustling into their seats adds to the singularity of the sensation. But let us proceed. Descending numerous steps, we emerge beneath the stage, and come upon the scene depicted in our third illustration. The great hydraulic rams in the second picture lie beneath this spot; they act as the power that thrusts up and lets down the scenes.
Usually in theatres the scenes are principally on the stage, set in grooves, and run in by hand from the sides to meet in a common center. In some instances scenes are hung on large rollers, and let down or wound up by ropes adjusted for the purpose. But at Booth’s Theatre is the first instance we have of scenes worked altogether by machinery, which are lifted from below, by means so carefully and accurately adjusted that the scene almost noiselessly, and with perfect precision, glides upward into its place. This is effected by hydraulic rams—of which our artist illustrates one, but there is a long, formidable row of them. To the auditor, comfortably seated in the theatre, the scene rises like magic, often transporting him with its beauty ; but to the visitor, thirty feet below the surface of the stage, the transformation above is a sort of pandemonium below—huge pistons move, wheels revolve, there is a rush and stir of waters, and the thing is done. Leaving the hydraulic rams—which are a mighty, dismal, and demoniacal sort of powers, hidden away in their subterranean caverns—we may pause a moment to note the great congress of towers and churches, forests and cathedrals, cottages and bowers, gardens and cataracts, rocks and roads, palaces and chapels, pavilions and ruins, inns and temples, taverns and grottos, that remain waiting for piston and wheel and water to send them up for the admiration of eager spectators. All these scenes, the extreme ends of which can be seen in the picture, are gathered directly under the stage, and only wait their turn : but this pile against the wall is the reserve of pictorial wonders, that either adorned the last or will, illustrate the coming play. We also note, in this illustration, a series of platforms; these are under the traps on the stage, from which mounts the ghostly or other visitor, or upon which descend the disappearing genii. These platforms, called bridges, are lifted and moved by the rams.
We may now ascend to the level of the stage. There is no confusionbeliind the scenes on the stage, but that which the carpenters make. To you, sitting in the boxes when the curtain is up, the actors are all; but when the curtain is down, your kings and queens, and princes and warriors, your heroes and heroines, slink off ignominiously into corners, while a set of robust plebeians, in working-attire, become masters of the place. When the curtain comes down on a hovel, and the next act must show you a palace,
BENEATH THE STAGE—“TRAPS AND PLATFORMS.
there is in a minute a hundred things to do. No sooner does the canvas glide between stage and auditors, than an army of busy workers—rough genii in shirt-sleeves, who with almost magical swiftness transform squalor into splendor, or transport you from Occident to Orient—are busily running hither and thither, like a disturbed hill of ants, summoning from subterraFLY-GALLERY.nean depths below, giddy heights above, and mystic receptacles you know not where, the materials for the new mansion that is to be built and furnished and adorned with almost the rapidity of thought.
The visitor at Booth’s has doubtless noted that the stage is not dressed after the old style. The side-wings, that in other theatres stand at right angles to the spectator, are abolished, and instead there is an arrangement by which the scene apparently extends to the right and the left, as well as to the rear. When seated at the side of the theatre, you do not look between the wings, but your vision is confronted, if the scene is a room, by enclosed walls; if an exterior, by rocks, or trees, or plains, that recede, and carry the eye off into imaginary space. There is a greater suggestion of extent and largeness on the Booth stage than on others much more extensive.
Mr. Booth’s artists, moreover, understand that it is an error to attempt to erect an entire cathedral or a palace within the narrow coniines of a stage, but that, by painting parts of a structure, and letting them lead off into undefined limits, the imagination immediately supplies space and extent. All the scenes at Booth’s Theatre are so set that the eye wanders off into suggestions of space; if it is a forest, a tangling of boughs blends above, and at either side the wooded depths seem to recede away. What suggestions, for instance, of noble space were manifest in the arrangement of the graveyard scene in “ Hamlet” as produced at this theatre last winter ! The art of the scenic artist made his “ pent-up Utica” almost boundless. The eye wandered olf to the church and amid the distant trees, until we seemed indeed to be looking upon a veritable scene rather than the seeming of one. The side-wings at this theatre are arranged at oblique instead of at right angles, forming to every side-view as perfect a picture as can be afforded directly in front of the foot-lights. These wings are not run in on grooves, as in other theatres, with slides above to support them, but are held in place by long braces, which we see men busily placing in our first illustration.
Now let us leave the level of the stage and ascend. We wind up a circular stairway that seems almost endless, and arrive at what is called the “ fly-gallery.” This is depicted in our sixth illustration. The long, narrow scene, forming the fourth in our series, represents also the fly-gallery, but on the opposite side. We here see the flies—the top scenes that are let down from above, to meet and unite with those that are sent up from below. They hang in a long array, and are moved by manual force, aided by countless ropes and pulleys—a very wilderness of ropes, as one may see by looking at the engraving (number six). At this point we are sixty-five feetabove the level of the stage, and ninety-five feet above the rams hidden darkly away in the depths far below the stage. In this fly-gallery—we are now standing in the one depicted in cut number four—we may look down through a narrow opening upon the stage, where the actors are dwindled into pigmies, whose voices come up uncertain and confused. It is a little odd to watch a play—what one can see of it—from this “point of Vantage,” but it is hardly worth while to point out the peculiar advantages of a chance
RIGGING LOFTS—ALSO SHOWING UPPER PORTION OF ACT-DROP.
seat in this private gallery, as we fear the larger number of our readers will not be able to test them.
Above the flying-galleries, and crowning all, is the great, gloomy, spacious “ rigging-loft.” This is directly under the roof, and above the pendant flies. The point of view from which our artist has sketched this illustration needs to be described in order to make it comprehensible. The view is from the loft over the auditorium, between that painted and gilded ceiling the reader has probably often admired, and the roof of the building. It showsthe machinery by which the flies are raised and lowered, and also exhibits the top of the “ act-drop”—the painted curtain let down between each of the acts—which is now lifted above out of sight of the audience. The curtains at this theatre are not rolled up, but are lifted, retaining their exact perpendicular, and hanging suspended above the stage when out of use.
We are now higher even than the “gods” of the gallery; and the gal-
WORKING FLY-GALLERY.
lery at Booth’s always seems as if ambitious to top “ high Olympus.” When the reader is in a vagrant humor, let him go up into the gallery, ascend to the topmost of its steep row of benches, and look down the dizzy height to the stage below, looking like a mimic theatre, with puppets for actors. But here in this loft one may take a novel view of the scene. Where the giant chandelier hangs from the ceiling there are openings through which onemay peer, down through the interstices of pendant glass, and glittering gas-jets, upon the innocent heads of the multitude. If the view of the stage from the far-up fly-gallery was a little odd, this glimpse of the auditorium from the dizzy crown of the chandelier is sensational. One fancies what sort of flight he would make cutting through the air, and dashed upon the array of carved seats below. One might pause here and paraphrase the Shakespearean lines upon Dover Cliff. These great heights have certainly a singular hold upon the fancy; and the writer will always, when thinking of Booth’s, imagine himself perched there above the high chandelier, peering down that dreadful distance upon the unconscious spectators.
Up through these open spaces in the ceiling comes a swift rush of air— a miniature gale, in fact, the reader will recollect our description of the great fan down in the cellar under the auditorium, ceaselessly sending its currents of air up through little carved interstices under the seats. Well, here these upward-flowing currents concentrate, and come like a little tornado, rushing through the net-work in the ceiling, to be carried off through the open skylight in the roof.
In our ascent to this altitude we have passed three or four scenes illustrated by our artist. One is the scene-painter’s room. This is situated on the right side of the stage, as you face it, in a portion of the building formed by an L. It is admirably arranged for its purpose, the scenes being adjusted against the walls, and movable up and down at the painter’s will, through openings in the floor. The painter does not mount on ladders to his work, as is usually the case, but his canvas is lifted or lowered to the level of his brush. This painting room, like all other parts of the theatre, is new in design and arrangement, and most convenient to the workers. One lingers here a little loath to depart, for it is in this spot all the splendid conceptions are worked out which in the illusive scene so charm the eye and refresh the imagination. As the stage advances, the scene-painter’s art gains more and more a place, sometimes even supplanting the actor. At Booth’s Theatre, it is made the happy aid to the actor’s personations, not dividing the attention of the spectator, but supplementing and completing the illusion. And what magic the scene-painter’s pencil conjures up ! what scenes of beauty, earthly and unearthly ! In the very first number of this Journal, in referring to the pictorial art of the stage, we said- “ Art upon the stage not only reaches larger numbers than is possible otherwise, but its effects are broader, its illusions more perfect, and its impressions more stimulating. It is far more real. It is capable of grander and sublimereffects. It is move satisfying to the imagination. It is more nearly the thing depicted. We speak, of course, of this art in its better and more successful expression. We mean such pictures as were exhibited last year in £ Midsummer Night’s Dream ’ at the Olympic; in a recent scene called the‘Lilacs’ at Niblo’s; in a few scenes in the French Opera; and in several scenes now presented at Wallack’s Theatre, in ‘ Much Ado about
scene-painters’ room.
Nothing,’ and at Booth’s new beautiful dramatic temple, in ‘ Romeo and Juliet.’ These are all artistically beautiful, and prove that while scene-painting has often been low, coarse, false, and hurtful, it is capable of being employed in a higher and purer spirit. In these instances quoted, the stage scenes have nearly the same effect upon the imagination, only more vivid, that a landscape by one of our painters has. Not so completely refining, ofcourse ; not so pure in taste ; not so simple, symmetrical, and chaste ; with more or less thought, no doubt, to dazzle the unthinking—and yet with a largeness of perspective, a completeness in proportion and fulness, that render them the most powerful form of pictorial expression.”
There are two other pictures from the pencil of our artist, which we have not yet mentioned; but they seem to tell their own story without the aid of a chorus. The “ property-room ” gathers within its fold a marvellous curiosity-shop ; helmets and tiaras, mitres and swords, crowns and masks, gyves and chains •, furniture of the past and of to-day, “ cheek by
PROPERTY-ROOM.
jowlgriffins and globes, biers and beer-cups, coffins and thrones ; decorations for the garden, the boudoir, the palace; furniture for the salon or the hovel—a multitude of things, in fact, more numerous than can readily be catalogued. The “ armory,” if not a collection of such strange things, is interesting, and looks as if we were wandering through some ancient tower or castle rather than “ behind the scenes ” at va theatre.
Our artist has not illustrated the wardrobe-room, because the pencil could not readily tell its story; one must imagine the almost endlessgathering of costumes—of the robes for kings, rags for beggars, togas for the Roman, and comicalities for the Yankee. The “ green-room ” is also left to the imagination of the reader. This place is identified with so many great names, so connected with the wits, the great actors, the poets, and the dramatists, in English theatrical history, is simply the assembly-room, where the performers meet when ready for the stage. It is curious, often, in its collection of costumes seen somewhat too near, and it is frequently amusing as a gathering of bright and witty spirits; but these conditions were a little beyond our artist’s skill to reproduce.
ARMORY.
We know the names of the actors to whom we are indebted for our pleasure at the theatre ; but these artists of the scene, quite as essential often to our gratification, are rarely heard of beyond their own little world. Let us do something toward amending this injustice. Although all under Mr. Booth’s supervising and suggesting taste, and that of his stage-manager, Mr. Waller, we must give large credit for all the complete features of this theatre to Mr. J. L. Peake whose inventive talent constructed the machinery; to Mr. Withan, whose skilful pencil gives us pictures of such rare beauty;to Mr. Deuel, whose taste and research provide all those many accessories of furniture and properties, so often necessary to give illusion to the scene; to Mr. Joyce, who reproduces with historical accuracy the costumes of bygone periods; to Mr. Dunn, the carpenter, without whom the play were naught; and to Mr. Kelsey, engineer, whose care and watchfulness contribute to our safety and comfort.No. 13.
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A FINE PORTRAIT OF
E3 ID "W I 3ST BOOTH.
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ARTIST’S PROOFS (of which there are only SIXTY Impressions) - -- -- -- - $2.00 INDIA PROOFS (of which there are only a HUNDRED Impressions) - -- -- -- - 1.00
 * ------
Published by HENRY L. HINTON,
680 BROADWAY, NEW YORK.
SENT BY MA.IE, POST E R EE.