Hi Steve-
My quick guess (and that's all it is) would be this is a conceptual sketch to or from the case builder. Who would have been involved in packaging the LS-8 into such a compact form? For a show that wasn't touring I'm surprised at the casework origami.
@TimMc While you're guessing "case builder", I'm recalling a similar case when Chorus
Line played 2 performances in Hamilton, Ontario jammed into a gap in their tour. This would've been in '77.
Our
theatre had recently opened; George McPherson was our 1st GM and was eager to have as many ticket selling productions as possible in his brand new
venue. Mr. McPherson used his decades on Broadway and years as Harry Belafontes Tour Manager to snag as many tours as possible to fill gaps in his blank
canvas. It was not uncommon for us to have tours stop for a 16 hour non-stop
load in, 1 matinee, 1 evening, then straight into an all night out to make their next scheduled stop.
I especially recall the fancy case as the touring LX head treated it like platinum; only his touring crew handled it. The
console was rolled into one of our STAR dressing rooms where it sat in the LOCKED room acclimatizing with one of its handlers napping beside it.
It was a MAJOR deal to have a touring memory
console in our building. Several of our LX department were allowed to watch, from a respectful distance, when two of the tours LX crew gingerly rolled the
console from its STAR accommodation into DSR where it was re-powered and guarded by two or three of the tours LX department.
Tom Taylor, our Head LX, + one of our most senior brothers, and myself as the lowly Assistant LX, were allowed to stand within 10' feet of the
console while its operator was checking to make sure his cues had survived intact.
We had one of the first
Strand Century drum memory consoles in our
theatre's booth, a massive
desk with two telco style 23" wide (when 19" was the normal standard) 40-ish RU tall racks racks. Our IDM Q was
Strand Canada's version of Thorn's
Q file.; ours was equipped for 80 channels and expandable to 100. It was a BIG deal to have Chorus
Line's comparatively tiny WONDER in our building for roughly 24 hours.
Maybe a decade later
Strand's new little MX series were running circles around the
Strand / Thorn IDM Q /
Q file.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
