Part 635: The Era of Brown’s Special System and the Role of Stage Carpenter
The “Star Tribune” article “Experts Behind the Scenes” (Minneapolis, January 13, 1901) noted that the “ruler of this realm behind the footlights” was titled “stage carpenter.” Titles have changed over the decades, as they are fluid and defined by a specific time or place. Titles may designate specific roles in the larger makeup of the theatrical trades, differing a century later. Today, some may identify the title “stage carpenter” as a “builder” and a “scenic artist” as a “painter.” There was a time when these two distinctive titles designated “stage visionaries” who brilliantly engineered and lit a variety of scenic effects and staged illusions, thrilling nineteenth-century audiences. During the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth century, it was not uncommon for a stage carpenter to paint scenery or a scenic artist to engineer mechanical effects. Furthermore, many scenic artists controlled the lights on their painted scenes, visually guiding the intended stage aesthetic from conception to performance. It was a time of great possibility in America, when we were neither limited to a single trade nor skill.
By 1907, there was an article that defined the stage carpenter, using John Bairstow (also printed as Barstow) as an example. John, and later his son William H., were two of the Chicago Auditorium’s stage carpenters. While researching stage carpenters during the spring of 2017, I discovered a wonderful article about their work and the contribution of John Bairstow and the design of the Auditorium stage.
On September 28, 1907, the “Oregon Daily Journal” included an article written by Jonas Howard in their Sunday Supplement about stage carpenters. It provides a historical context for the title of “stage carpenter,” as it was perceived during the first decade of the twentieth century. This was printed at the same time that Sosman & Landis were delivering Brown’s Special System to Scottish Rite theaters across the country. Here is a section from the article:
“The only jack of all trades who has mastered them all is the stage carpenter. What the stage carpenter doesn’t know or can’t find out could be written in a small book. He must be not only a carpenter of the first rank, but a plumber, machinist, painter, blacksmith, sailor, tailor, artist and common laborer as well. In fact, the stage carpenter must be an all around genius or he wouldn’t hold his job five minutes.” [We’ll pause right here to look at two things. The first is that they distinguish between a painter and artist. The second circles back to the 1901 “Star Tribune” article that describes how the stage carpenter ruled the “realm behind the footlights.” No kidding, because if you are capable of doing it all, you understand the process and details that could prevent and foresee a catastrophe]
Howard’s 1907 article continues, “Stage carpenters begin their careers as assistants to the property men or scene painters. During the first year of their apprenticeship they do nothing but the rougher jobs around the stage, such as moving scenery, repairing frames and helping the electrician. Later they are allowed to work some of the ropes that are used to manipulate the scenery and gradually work into the positions as fly men. It is not until a stage carpenter can make and repair “trick” stuff that he is called proficient in his business, and as “trick” stuff is as intricate and varied as the tricks themselves it is only the keen witted carpenters that reach the front of their profession.
‘Trick’ stuff is that part of the stage machinery that is used to bring about various spectacular scenic effects that are so common on the present day stage. Sometimes there is an automobile race to be brought off, and it is up to the stage carpenter to devise a scheme that will make an automobile run a mile or more at top speed in the space of 20 or 30 feet. To do this there must be a set of rollers under the floor to turn the automobile’s wheels. The country through which the race is run must be painted on canvas and wound up on upright rollers so it can whizz by at the rate of 90 miles an hour or so. All of this arrangement must be put together with skill or it would not endure through the performance. Stage tricks are so numerous that there could be no accounting of them. Nearly every show has some mechanical device to produce its stage effects and the stage carpenter must be enough of a mechanic to be familiar with all of them.
In the Auditorium theatre in Chicago which has one of the largest stages in the world, there is 2,000,000 feet of rope and cables. To handle these and keep them in repair requires the services of a man who knows as much about ropes as a sailor. In the producing houses more stage carpenters are employed that are used in the theatres where the stage productions are shown after they are once set up. When a play is produced all of its scenery must be made and painted and the work is under the supervision of the stage carpenter. Each piece of scenery must be made so that it can be used in the average theatre throughout the country, for it would not do to make the scenery to fit any one house. John Barstow, former stage carpenter at the Auditorium, the stage of which he built, has been in the business nearly fifty years. He began his career in Europe, coming to this side shortly after the civil war. Before the Auditorium was built Mr. Barstow was sent to Europe to learn all he could about the stage arrangements of the best theaters and on his return he incorporated all of the best features of these houses in the Auditorium stage. His son, William H. Barstow, is the present stage carpenter at the Auditorium.”
Of all the stage carpenter’s in the world, the author uses Bairstow and the Chicago Auditorium as an example. I’ll look start with the venue tomorrow.
To be continued…
