1959 short film of Stagehands at the National Theatre

Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

I just posted this in the general advise forum a little while ago.
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

Obviously it's making the rounds as I posted it even earlier. :D
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

Thanks for consolidating the posts. I looked for a bit before posting, but did not see another post first.

~Dave
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

From the comments section:
"National Theatre, Washington DC,
IATSE Local 22
June 20 through September 3, 1960
MY FAIR LADY– musical adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion.” Starring Michael Evans and Diane Todd. Also starring Charles Victor and Hugh Dempster, with Margaret Bannerman, Katherine Hynes, Reid Shelton, John Cunningham, Eric Brotherson, Charles Penman, Marie Paxton and Velma Royton. Production staged by Moss Hart. "

Did anyone else catch those batten lights using PAR64 lamps? And how about those GROUNDED Stagepins?
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

I also noticed the grounded stagepins, I was wondering when they actually came into use. These days, a tour is measured in how many 53' trailers are in use, back then it was the number of 70' boxcars you used.
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

I also noticed the grounded stagepins, I was wondering when they actually came into use. ...
From Connectors, Stage Pin - ControlBooth :
When was the third, center, grounding pin added? Sometime between 1957 and 1960. The Grounded style IS in the [Kliegl Bros.] 1960 catalog (as the 955-G below), but is NOT in the 1957 catalog.
which jives with the tour date of 1960. So the tour used a "new" connector type, but noting the missing paint on fixture s being hung on the Balcony Rail and Box Boom s, obviously not new instrument s.

But does anyone else think they were using 2P&G-30A?
1960_stagepins.jpg
The plugs in the video look to me larger than today's 20A variety. Or that's a small-handed stagehand.

It might be noted that My Fair Lady was the first show on Broadway to use dimmer, autotransformer rather than dimmer, resistance, a move which necessitated for many theatres the "upgrade" to from DC to AC power.

Another thing: X-Rays are moving light s? Technically true, I suppose, given that they move up and down, thanks to the fly system, but it would be twenty-five more years until the (truly moving) DLC. And yes, gafftapegreenia, I was surprised by the PAR64 lamps in the striplight s.
.
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

I was suprised that the top pipe was not a house item. but then seeing how the drops each had their own full length top batten..
here you can see how a lineset with opera/batten clamps could be used for 2 or more drops.

at 2:11 or so you see the fellow finish off the clove hitch and then he steps on the pipe to hold it to the floor. once all the loft lines were done and being held to the floor, the man on the fly rail would take all the slack out of each line. Then the fellow on the load plate would cinch the 5 or 6 loft lines together and likely attach a sandbag. once that was done the guys on the floor could step off the pipe and you had a level lineset to work with.

Quick and easy with a crew of 7 or more.
 
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Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

I was suprised that the top pipe was not a house item. but then seeing how the drops each had their own full length top batten..
here you can see how a lineset with opera/batten clamps could be used for 2 or more drops.

at 2:11 or so you see the fellow finish off the clove hitch and then he steps on the pipe to hold it to the floor. once all the loft lines were done and being held to the floor, the man on the fly rail would take all the slack out of each line. Then the fellow on the load plate would cinch the 5 or 6 loft lines together and likely attach a sandbag. once that was done the guys on the floor could step off the pipe and you had a level lineset to work with.

Quick and easy with a crew of 7 or more.

These were common when I started at a hemp house. They allowed 5 ropes to be set into a spring loaded cam device. You could easily trim the batten by pulling down on a rope. The sandbags attached to the bottom ring.
 

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Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

I was lucky to work with a flyman who toured in with San Francisco ballet when I was a young lad still in HS. (1974) the house had those trim blocks and he worked with them, but he did tell me that his preferred method was to use a choker of wire rope to cinch together the loft lines and hang the sand bag from, using the trim method as described. I can't say that I ever used that method myself as the house had trim blocks and permanent pipe battens. I do recall that the trim blocks were not all that easy to deal with as the pick point could only be lifted up in relation to the other lines. Lift the wrong line you had to start from scratch. But we never had any sort of training back then so most info was passed from upper class men to lower class men.

Looking at this video I can see much of what he described. My above discription is only my interpration of his instructions given so long ago.
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

I was lucky to work with a flyman who toured in with San Francisco ballet when I was a young lad still in HS. (1974) the house had those trim blocks and he worked with them, but he did tell me that his preferred method was to use a choker of wire rope to cinch together the loft lines and hang the sand bag from, using the trim method as described. I can't say that I ever used that method myself as the house had trim blocks and permanent pipe battens. I do recall that the trim blocks were not all that easy to deal with as the pick point could only be lifted up in relation to the other lines. Lift the wrong line you had to start from scratch. But we never had any sort of training back then so most info was passed from upper class men to lower class men.

Looking at this video I can see much of what he described. My above discription is only my interpration of his instructions given so long ago.

These devices made it easier to deal with rope stretch due to humidity. Eventually you ran out of rope to adjust and needed to re-set the clamp. You did that by tie-ing off the rope set to the pin rail, removing the bags, loosen the wingnuts on the clamp sliding the clamp down the rope set, tighten all, restore bags.

A lost art. Like running a multi-scene preset console.
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

Yea I thought the same thing about those 2P&G plugs, they sure do look like 30 amp varieties.
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

I was suprised that the top pipe was not a house item. but then seeing how the drops each had their own full length top batten..
here you can see how a lineset with opera/batten clamps could be used for 2 or more drops.

at 2:11 or so you see the fellow finish off the clove hitch and then he steps on the pipe to hold it to the floor. once all the loft lines were done and being held to the floor, the man on the fly rail would take all the slack out of each line. Then the fellow on the load plate would cinch the 5 or 6 loft lines together and likely attach a sandbag. once that was done the guys on the floor could step off the pipe and you had a level lineset to work with.

Quick and easy with a crew of 7 or more.

That was all due to the way drops were painted. In the "old days" drops could only be rolled, not folded. If they were folded, the paint would fall off/the drop would be damaged. So, the pipe traveled with the drop in order to keep its shape. My venue actually has a remenant of this practice. When they were designing the building the needed to have a way to transport a 50' long rolled drop to the stage, 12 stories above the loading dock. The freight they designed was 24' wide by 20' tall. So, they installed a 5 ton "drop hoist". In my grid I have 10 HP motor geared down, connected to a large hook. There is a trap in the floor that opens to a 4'x4' shaft that goes all the way to the loading dock. You would drop this hook all the way to the dock, hook the end to the drop, and with the aid of a sliding cart you would get the drop vertical. You would then haul it all the way to the grid. After it was onstage there is another hoist located stage right which you would hook on the bottom of the drop. Using the two hoists together, you would land horizontal on the deck. It is a rather elaborate system.

Now... this was all designed in the 60's when moving drops like this was common. By 1978 when the building actually opened folded drops was industry standard. The story goes that the system was tested once and never used again. The system has been removed in the loading dock. I still have the operation panel and all the winches onstage. Because the whole system weight few tons (that is sitting on our already overloaded grid) we are trying to get it removed.

These devices made it easier to deal with rope stretch due to humidity. Eventually you ran out of rope to adjust and needed to re-set the clamp. You did that by tie-ing off the rope set to the pin rail, removing the bags, loosen the wingnuts on the clamp sliding the clamp down the rope set, tighten all, restore bags.


A lost art. Like running a multi-scene preset console.

Lost, but not missed. Did a show 6 months ago in a hemp house, my back was not happy with me for a few days. I'll take throwing bricks over hooking bags anyday.
 
Re: Stagehand Educational Video from the 1950's

I also noticed the grounded stagepins, I was wondering when they actually came into use. These days, a tour is measured in how many 53' trailers are in use, back then it was the number of 70' boxcars you used.

Actually they weren't boxcars, they were special baggage cars, usually with end doors to facilitate unloading the drops from the end of the cars, like out of a semi trailer. I remember talking to a guy at the Cirque "Dralion" show and he said there were 47 semi's for that show. First time I'd ever seen Cirque.
 
So the full video is now on Youtube. Soooooooooo many Beam Projectors :cool:

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Came across this interesting video today. Interesting to see similarities to today. As old as I am though, I've never seen a stagehand smoking a cigar while working.

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I can't see the embedded video... link is here
 
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Came across this interesting video today. Interesting to see similarities to today. As old as I am though, I've never seen a stagehand smoking a cigar while working.

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I can't see the embedded video... link is here

In the days when water shows were still traveling by railcar and IA brothers were assembling pools in open air football stadiums, working while smoking cigars was not unknown. When the new 'soft seater' opened in the fall of 1973, we still had at least one IA brother working with a cigar in hand. The city fathers were cracking down on smoking but it was still a few years before the ashtrays disappeared from the crew's 'coffee table'. 'Coffee table' was a bit of a euphemism as, post strike, the prop man would often liberate a case of 24 from within the prop room fridge and the 'coffee table' would become the beer and smoking table.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
If 1959/60 is correct, that's right around the time halogen lamps were invented, iirc. Probably coincidence, but neat.
 

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