PART 2 FRONT LIGHTS

Behold the Hall & Connolly High Intensity spotlight FR-10, two of which achieved the Easter show cross cue.   HD view.

How many manually-operated spotlights did the Music Hall possess?  Two?  Four?  No, my friend-- 36!  18 front lights and 18 side bridge lights on the stage.  This astounding complement of thirty-six carbon arc spotlights-- all with IATSE operators-- was utilized in Music Hall productions, many for almost fifty years.  

Note:  in Music Hall parlance, spotlights that follow are referred to as front lights or bridge lights.  The term "follow spot" was not coined until a decade after the Hall opened.

One third, or twelve of the Music Hall's carbon arc spotlights were located in the projection level.  There were seventeen ports in the projection level, which was divided into three parts:  south, center and north, and each portion contained its own restroom.

To reach the projection level there were several possible routes, three accessible from the stage entrances, the 51st Street entry shown here.

One could take the backstage elevators up to the 5th floor and climb through the ceiling catwalks; or take the elevator to the 7th and walk up a flight of stairs to the 8th floor and follow a circuitous path through the Studio level; or take the elevator from Street floor down to the basement (shop level) crossover and proceed through the basement to front of house. 

By far the easiest route was to enter the building at the 50th Street Executive entrance and take the private elevator there, known as the Executive Car.  Designed for his personal usage, it could whisk Roxy from the street up to the Roxy Box on projection level or his 8th floor apartment, far from the madding crowd.

Saying "projection, please" to the uniformed car operator would take you directly up to the south end of the Projection level.  Jacket and tie were required in the Executive Car, and front light operators and projectionists were not excepted from the rule.  The small executive car could fit three comfortably (including operator) and was the only elevator which served the 8th floor: the four Grand Foyer elevators topped off at the 3rd Mezzanine. 

A plan of the projection level.  HD View.

A view from the south end of the 3rd Mezzanine lobby or "Promenade" gave one an idea of the size of the projection level, directly above.  A rapid end-of-show escape route for the front light operators or projectionists was to descend the stairs from projection down to this Promenade and head for enclosed "secret stairwells," either Exit 79 (north) or 78 (south), which led directly to the street without any intermediate stops.

Street view of Exit 79, which terminated at an unmarked door on W. 50th Street to the right of the Executive Entry.

Ticket booths (W. 50th Street booth circled in red, below) were located at the base of each of the stairwells, but why there were separate entrances to the topmost seating section has been lost to time.  If a patron was shunted to this booth, like in a Southern theatre, he would be denied access to the Grand Foyer, the Lower Lounge restrooms, and without access to the patron elevators, he would have to climb five flights up to the 3rd Mezzanine ticket taker.  But since neither the Music Hall's former archivist, the Rockefeller Center Archive, the Rockefeller Archive Center, nor Daniel Okrent, author of "Great Fortune" were aware of the booths' existence, the most that is known about them is that they were a secret.

The center projection room contained four front lights, four film machines, and two Brenographs, which were glorified slide projectors and effect machines.

In this shot of the projection room proper, Chief Projectionist Charles Muller is seen in the foreground with two of his thirteen projectionists tending film machines and a third at the south Brenograph in the next room. The Brenograph operator is in the next room because two jurisdictional "union walls" were erected to subdivide the booth soon after the Hall opened.

From the beginning, the projection level at the Music Hall was under the jurisdiction of two different locals of the IATSE-- Local One (stagehands) for the south and north spotting booths and Local 360 (projectionists) for the center or "projection room."

According to projection room lore as related by former chief Robert Endres, the walls were built because the Music Hall management wanted the pricier projectionists to operate only the film machines, leaving two Brenographs and the four center spotlights to the stagehands.  But instead a strange compromise was reached, and each local got one Brenograph and two spotlights, as shown below.  

The walls were not intended to keep Local One men out of the projection room; they had to pass through it to get to the north spotting booth. However, there may also have been lingering bad blood between the Local One front light operators (formerly members of Local 35) and the 306 men (formerly members of Local 35-Auxiliary).  Local 35 was the spotlight operators' local, chartered about the same time as Local One (1886), although the exact date is unknown even to the International.  Local 35 was known formally as the Calcium and Electro-Calcium Lamp Operators of New York City.

To bolster their numbers, in 1908 Local 35 graciously invited the then non-union projectionists to become members of Local 35, as an Auxiliary, but all Local 35 really wanted was their money and they treated the projectionists as indentured servants.  In the clip below, the term "branch" is used interchangeably with "local."

After seven long years of bickering, in 1913 the Auxiliary was terminated and Local 306 was chartered as Moving Picture and Projecting Machine Operators.  Judging from the photo below, the projectionists were much happier.

Without the projectionists, in 1918 Local 35 was ignominiously merged into Local One, suffering the same fate as the long-forgotten auxiliary Local 1A, which was ordered by the courts to merge with Local One in 1955.

The reason that carbon arc lamps were installed at the Music Hall is because they were infinitely brighter than any incandescent lamp available in 1932, unmatched for brilliance until the advent forty years later of HMI's, which were arc lights contained within light bulbs.  Carbon arcs required direct current, provided by eighteen 400 amp, 100 volt AC-to-DC converters known as motor-generator sets located way down in the 51st Street side of the sub-basement.  Head electrician (and successor to Gene Braun) Robert Quigley is shown here on an inspection tour of the General Electric MG sets which were remotely activated by push button from the projection booth, the four spotting locations, and the stage.

Each arc lamp contained two carbon rods, negative and positive, and the great light emanated from the arc gap between the two.  The lamps were dramatically activated by the operator striking the two rods together, creating an instantaneous dead short, then quickly pulling them slightly apart to create an arc, as shown in this 1952 illustration.

In actual practice, the operator was shielded from direct view of the brilliantly bright light of the arc.  An eye shield, a tiny window of double thick ultra-violet glass, allowed the operator to see how to strike the arc and how to keep it adjusted for maximum brightness without having to go blind. 

Carbon arc lamps had superseded the non-electric calcium or limelights by about 1910, according to Louis Hartmann in his book Theatre Lighting, because they were cheaper to operate.  Limelights required one tank each of hydrogen and oxygen and "gas was expensive and it cost producers money to carry the cylinders about and to express them to be refilled."

All that carbon arcs required was a steady supply of carbon rods.  As a lamp operated, the carbons burned down and had to be kept in constant adjustment or the arc would dim and go out.

The 1922 Handbook of Projection insisted that "no especial skill was required to handle a 'spot'" and that "a man of ordinary intelligence should be able to cover an actor when moving about."  By the mid-1920's carbon arcs had begun to be equipped with a motorized feeder for the carbons, but this primitive bare-bones spot Powers "E" (shown below) required constant attention, not to mention the difficulties presented by a front-operated color wheel.

"Trimming one's lamp" meant keeping it burning bright and was not a simple operation.

Moreover, it is best to remember that the operation of a carbon arc involved an element of danger, as evidenced by the 1903 Chicago Iroquois Theatre fire when hot particles of carbon escaping from a flaming hot arc set the draperies afire, ultimately leading to the death of six hundred and two patrons.

At the Music Hall, the two center booth spotlights which remained within the jurisdiction of Local 306 were Hall and Connolly high intensity spotlights known as FR-10's (of Easter show fame), shown below.  Color could be changed from the rear via the boomerang (top) and the carbon rods were automatically fed toward one another by a motorized drive.  When the split lens was open (as shown here) the lamp functioned as a floodlight; when closed, as a spot.

An integral condenser lens within the lamphouse served to magnify the brightness of the arc as efficiently as a reflector, and when combined with the split lens, the lamp could sharp focus, frame, and even accept gobos or templates.

A prototype of the FR-10 was originally designed for use in the 1927 Roxy as a joint collaboration of Brenkert of Detroit and Hall and Connolly of New York.  Five were installed at the Roxy Theatre along with fourteen Brenkert C-14 single lens spot-floods.  Units placed within the Roxy projection booth were finished in maroon to match the film machines.

Below left is the not-so-stylish Brenkert C-14, a reflectorless plano-convex spotlight (automatic feed an extra-cost option) and, at right, a heavily uniformed 1927 Roxy bridge light operator wrangling a stage side bridge C-14, the lamp wearing a top hat.  HD view.

A year after the 1927 Roxy opened, the FR-10 was perfected for the Keith-Albee-Orpheum vaudeville chain (soon to become RKO) and sold under the Hall and Connolly name.

At the Music Hall, the two FR-10's were used as the primary curtain warmers and for effects as well, and good examples of custom templates were those shaped to cover the band car only, as shown below, which the spots could follow as it moved upstage.  "It was too bad that they were never used to follow individual performers," recalled projectionist Bob Endres, "because in spot focus, with the focus wheel brought down to one-person size, the FR-10's wiped out everything else on stage."

The Music Hall FR-10's in 1941.  For pickups in the dark, "cheater" markings on the fire shutter above the lamp were a sine qua non for all but the most Zen-like operators.  Except for the lack of zoom optics and a trombone, the FR-10's were forerunners to the Super Trouper, introduced in 1955.

The two FR-10's in flood or "full round" position, with the split lens open, covering the giant contour curtain, with a third front light on the conductor.  The only house lights illuminated are the ceiling perforations, to be described later.

Also used for effects was the Brenograph, Brenkert's specialty.  Each was equipped with two lamphouses, top and bottom, so that large glass slides could be cross-faded.  A slowly-turning effects wheel could be fitted with any of forty mica discs, ranging from "a cyclone with flying objects" to "a flood with floating objects" to "slow moving fleecy clouds."  For an excellent essay on the Brenograph, consult Thomas J. Mathiesen's "The Brenograph," which may be downloaded here. 

When Music Hall spectaculars demanded the highest grade of effect, a dedicated 35MM film machine was brought into use, and the Hall had a stock film footage library which included "beachy" waves front-projected onto the scrim in the Undersea Ballet.  The Hall's thirteen projectionists had jurisdiction over ten 35MM machines:  four in the booth, two each in the 8th floor preview theatres; and two in the booth set into the upstage wall, its location shown below.  Rear projections from this booth were also used in the Undersea Ballet.  "The rear projection equipment, which may be used to create 'panoramic' backgrounds or to project regular pictures, is similar to that employed in Trans-lux theaters," according to the SMPE Journal of September, 1933.  HD view.

Projection at the Music Hall was serious business.  Click here to view a selection of articles describing  the projection standards at the Hall, including this 1937 article which noted, "It pleased me to note when I came in that a projectionist was seated beside the working projector, looking at the screen."

The projectionists were dear to Roxy's heart, and he saluted them in a farewell letter to his "dear boys."

The ten front lights which fell under the jurisdiction of Local One were the Music Hall workhorses and were manufactured by Kliegl.  Below, a plan of the three spotting booths.

The ten front lights in action.

All of the Music Hall lighting equipment, with the exception of the FR-10's and the GE switchboard, was furnished by Kliegl Brothers, and they issued a 1933 brochure itemizing the devices they sold to the Hall and the RKO Roxy, later known as the Center Theatre.  To read more about the RKO Roxy/Center Theatre electrics, click here.

In the same year the Music Hall was built, "Klieg" had become a household word.

Kliegl had missed out on supplying front lights to the 1927 Roxy because their lamps were not in the league with the Brenkert C-14.

Making up for lost time, Kliegl Brothers came up with model 1701, a knockoff of the Brenkert C-14, which at 100 volts pulled 140 amps, the equivalent of a 14,000 watts incandescent.  

Fully-equipped with automatic feed and a rear-operated boomerang, the 1701 weighed in at 347 pounds.   From the Kliegl catalog:  "All controls are centralized at or near the rear of the spotlight, and marked scales and dial pointers are provided for the assistance of the operator."  Set it and forget it.

Below, a plan of the south spotting booth and the private "Roxy box" equipped with another "God mic," a house phone, and a Dictograph intercom which served as a hot line to the switchboard, VIP's, and lesser lackeys.

From the Roxy box, Managing Director Gus Eyssell watches a Thursday dawn dress rehearsal and telephones his comments to Leonidoff at his rehearsal desk in the auditorium.  Front light operators received their cues by buzzer, despite the fact that the buzz could be easily heard by patrons in the 3rd Mezzanine where no window glass separated the booth from the house.  Buzzes were sent either via a foot switch from the head of front lights (he operated the two outside lamps in the south booth) or from the stage manager.  A buzzer was used because in 1932 one-piece integral headsets had not yet been invented and the concept of cuing by headphone was far in the future, not introduced at the Music Hall until 1979.  The head front light man could also address the front lights through a one-way squawk box.

Former assistant stage manager Dean Irwin recalls, "As the overture began, I would hold a rubber-coated button with a long wire connected to the arc lights way in the back of the theater, and I’d wait for the moment in the overture which called for a lighting change, push the button which signaled the arc light guys to switch their gels, turning the contour curtain from blue to red, orange to green, or whatever the show called for. The button made a loud buzz, audible not only to the arc lights but in much of the theater, but no one seemed to notice. I was on pins and needles never to miss those lighting cues hidden in the music. There are still pieces, like Gershwin’s 'Concerto in F,' which I cannot listen to without reaching for that button."  Below, the Kliegl front lights in action, cross-lighting the drowsy Rockettes at the dress.  Seen here are beams from the front lights located in the center and north spotting booths.

The center and north booths in plan, separated by the control room for the house public address system.

A view from the public address control room gave an idea how far away the stage was from the booth, almost two hundred feet.  Local One audio engineer Vincent Gilcher is at the RCA Victor controls.

A Music Hall front light in cartoon.

Roxy described what he expected from his spot man.

No Music Hall cues sheets survive, but a Mr. Johnson from the sticks offered his suggestions.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of front light operation at the Music Hall was that two spots were assigned to one operator, as illustrated in this 1932 photo.  The color boomerang controls, normally furnished on the right hand side, alternate right and left, and a single cue sheet clipboard and running light was provided between each pair of spots.  Overhead were sleek ducts for exhaust fans to evacuate the poisonous fumes.  HD view.

It is possible that Local One began allowing tandem spotlight operation for producer David Belasco years before the Hall was built.  In this 1911 photo of "The Return of Peter Grimm" at the Belasco Theatre (nee Stuyvesant), at least one man (green arrow) appears to be operating two spots.  Every character in this groundbreaking production was individually followed in a specific color to differentiate them from the character of Peter Grimm, who was a dead ghost.  HD view.

The unit(s) above that the electrician is operating are not arc lights, but 5" incandescent plano-convex spots or "baby lenses" which Belasco's electrician Louis Hartmann invented for locations where arc lights were too bulky to fit.  "No skilled electrician is required to operate it," says the 1913 Kliegl catalog cut (below) despite the fact that Hartmann claimed "to get results took time and extensive training."

If anyone was entitled to a dispensation from Local One, it was Belasco, who used more carbon arcs than Roxy, and no carbon arc could burn unattended even if the focus was stationary.  Below a 1906 production at the first Belasco Theatre with forty-two carbon arcs on the side bridges, and in the far downstage corners are the new "baby lenses" which here Hartmann calls "chaser babies" because they followed.  In Music Hall parlance, the Kliegl 1701's are called "babies"-- coincidence or proof?  Fittingly, Hartmann ended his career at the Music Hall where he was chief assistant to the director of sound maintenance and operation when he died of a stroke in 1941.  HD View.

Six more Kliegl 1701's were employed in D-Cove-- nearer the stage and at a neat fifty degree angle. 

Were these lamps, perfect for pickups of the orchestra leader, organists, and downstage principals, designed for one-man-per-spot operation?  This 1932 photo of D-cove below suggests so, but at some point the boomerang controls were altered for tandem operation and the manning table reduced by half.  All told, there were 18 front lights, including the FR-10's, and a grand total of 10 operators.  HD view.

What helped to simply two-for-one operation of the front lights was that they, as well as the onstage carbon arcs, were equipped with outboard remote-controlled dousers controlled from the stage switchboard.  In this way, simultaneous blackouts of the arcs and incandescents could be perfectly executed.

Nearer to the stage than D was C-Cove, close enough for the use of incandescents, in this case four 2000 watt plano convex spots marked "Leader's spots" and twenty-four 2000-watt beam projectors in eight groups of three labeled "Musician's Floods."

The C-Cove units were one of a kind, with each group of three beam projectors sharing four interchangeable gel frames, the size of two full sheets, in colors chosen for each production, remotely changed from the stage switchboard in a manner similar to the carbon arc dousers.  On the switchboard, the units were labeled Musician's Floods and Boomerangs and divided into alternate circuits of X and O, X's for the stage apron and O's for the orchestra pit.  HD view.

This section drawing show the various front and stage light positions, as well as the elevation of each elevator stop, both backstage (left) and front of house (right).  HD view.

A cross section showing the maze of attic catwalks.  HD view.

To continue to Part 3: The Stage, click OLDER POSTS at the bottom right.