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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1919)
V. ft ' .,lfl..'!..'Ml.ll iB ll It ' 1 WW )l Phone Douglas 66251 European Rooms, $1; With Bath, $1.50. Hotel:' Mar ley v- ' - . ' ,--v ' ...... 20th and Farnam Sts. H. I. Plumb, Prop. Write for Reservation. OMAHA, NEB. . Moving Grand Opera Is Bigger Job Than Circus Delicacy ' of Equipment Causes Constant Repair Stage Hands Often Do Forty-eight Hours Without ; ' Food Call Circus Men Amateurs. Presentation of grand opera from any aspect is not child's play. Watching it from feehind the scenes, one-soon' learns that there is a large body of specialties, never seen by the public, to whom it is the hardest kind ' of hard driving, incessant work. It is bad enough when a company like the Chicago Opera as sociation s in a city for a continuous engagement. It is worse when the organization picks up and moves to another place. Heavier Than Circus. Ask Harry Beatty, the genial giant in. charge of the stage force of the company's stage crew. He will, 'if he happens to have the time, tell you that moving a circus from town to towrf is a small thing in compari son. For years the circus train has been the, world's standard, the last word in efficiency in the matter ol moving. According to Mr. Beatty, a cir cus is not so much. . The men if charge may be estimable citizens and they probably are gifted amateurs, but they would soon learn that they were taking a postgraduate course iii their own profession i1 they were with an opera compan-. for a season or so. . Twenty Truckloads. ' "We have one production Aic alone," says Mr. Beatty, "whicl fills three 72-foot .baggage cars, the largest made, to the brim. When it goes to the theater it makes 20 automobile truckloads. Twenty up. and 20 back are 40. If the perfor mance is repeated, 80. And this i just one." ' When the Chicago Opera asso ciation went from Chicago to New 4 Ir i ' :::. " ' - i 4 I IT '" I I r 1 The Two GOPELANDS Side by side they performed at the ' recent concert in the music room of the Hotel Fontenelle,, before an au- dience of invited guests. One tvas the living Copeland The other ivas the Ampico r It was a direct comparison of the playing of the living pianist with the reproduction of 'his playing by scien tific means. , Never has such an invention had so , impressive a demonstration. - i . i Those present heard Copeland as he will play for future generations. The. records played at this remark able concert are at our warerooms. If you were not fortunate enough to be present at this wonderful concert, come and hear Cope land by means of the Knabe Ampico in our -ew Piano Department. Recitals daily. Hay den Bros. Exclusive Representatives of the Knabe Ampico and Knabe Pianos p. i , York in the last week of January this year, it took with it 46 baggagi cars of scenery. Four special trains moved this one item. 'In order to avoid all chance of delay on the road all this went ahead of the company. Trains of Personnel. But at 1:30 on the morning oi January 25, just after the final per formance of the season, three more special trains moved out of Chicago carrying nothing but people, the members of the company, prlnci pals, chorus, orchestra and stage crew. One was routed over tin. Michigan Ceneral, a second over the Lake Shore and the third over th? Pennsylvania. This doesnot count a number of other principals, who had been leav ing Chicago all through the week as soon as their last performances had been sung. During the last three days the organization's truck men had picked up 400 personal trunks in various part of Chicago, all belonging to members of the company, and had moved 1,200 cos tume trunks from the wardrobe warehouse. Incidentally the com pany own four five-story ware houses, each full of scenery, cos tumes and properties, with a total ilue of something lifce $1,500,000. An Intense Organization. ' It is interesting to a degree to watch the stage crew take posses sion of a stage jn a new town pre paratory to a performance. The men come on a day or so in advance of the singers and from the time they reach the stage until the cur tain rings up for the performance, ill is intense, organized and special ized industry. No time is wasted in looking over the equipment of the stage, for the company carries its own equipment, not only scenery, but lights and mechanical- devices down to the last stage-brace. "It did not take us long to find out,' says Mr. Betty, "that very few stages have rope enough to swing our scenes. So now we always carry our own rope, 20 coils of 1,000 feet each nearly four miles of rope, if you prefer to put it that way." Complete Light Equipment. The traveling electrical equip ment is as complete in all its details as that used in the Chicago audi torium. It is all of the latest and most improved type, and inc'.udes footlights, border lights, flood lights, bunch lights, strip lights and spot lights, together with dimmers, re sistence coils and switchboards. Spe rial crates hold the incandescent lights, 2,000 60-watt lights and 100 1,000-watt lights. The old fashion ed are lamps are entirely eliminated. The ten bunch lights carry 1,000 watts, and the four spot light: 3,300 watts each. The back drops or full-sized scene used in the Auditorium are 68 ."eet wide and 40 feet high. This means 2,720 square feet of painted ind fireproofed surface for each. The company carries 47 such, a to tal of 227,840 square feet. Some thing over 200 set pieces of 156 square feet each, adds to the burden. The properties, or stage furnish ings, run to such numbers that the services of 12 men are necessary to handle them. Constant Repair Work. Stage equipment is fragile, easily broken, soon defaced. The com pany is obliged to maintain a plant in Chicago in operation the year around for the repair of old and the manufacture of new material. A visitor to the various workshops will find 25 employes making cos tumes, five who do nothing but make armor, ten in the electrical de partment, a like number in the prop erty department, 12 artists and they are real artists who construct and paint scenery; 25 in the carpen ter department. Merely for the setting up and per formance of an opera 100 men are necessary behind the scenes, and this does not count the stage man ager and his three assistants, three assistant conductors, the ballet mas ter, the chorusmaster, the wig maker and his four assistants, the two wardrobe women and the eight dressers. These are merely con cerned with the singers, the artists who appear in the focus of the lights and receive all the applause. The 100 are the stage crew, the elec ' tricians, the gripmen, the . flymen, the property men and all the rest. Often Miss, Meals. 1 They work themselves and their associates unmercifully, for, once fallen behind, it is twice as hard to catch up. . It is no unusual thing for the force to work 48 hours on end without rest or sleep, merely catch ing an occasional hasty bite of food as it is brought to them on the stage. Once on unloading crew in the railroad yards in Chicago did not have their clothes off for 72 hours. "But," said one of them apologetically, "it was during n big blizzard, and the storm slowed up the work a little." Sometimes they get a little "jumpy" in the nerves, but they get the work done. That is why Harry Beatty thinks circus men are amateurs. The Test i A Painting So Perfect That It Cannot Be Told From the Original. A Re-creation So Perfect That It Cannot Be Told From the Living Voice. The New Edison The Phonograph With a Soul The Only Instrument in the World Which Dares This Test. The Only Instrument in the World Which Can Give This Result. Let Us Prove It SHULTZ BROTHERS EDISON SHOP . 313-315 South 15th Street -OX' r"87 The Happy Ev6nings Spent with music are within the reach of every home. Do not keep a piano 'you can not play ex change it for a fine Player Piano at Oakford's. Look at These: . $650 used CLARENDON 88-note Player Piano; payments, $12.00 monthly; on sale $600 used ELWOOD 88-note Player Piano; payments, $15.00 monthly; on sale. $950 shop worn HADDORFF 88-note Player, extra . fine; payments, $20.00 monthly. .' $700 used TROUBADOUR -88-note Player, could not i be told from new; payments, $18.00 monthly. . . . Then in Used Pianos: $475,used KURTZMANN Upright grand, rich walnut tfJOOC case, a great bargain; payments, $10.00 monthly. V"v $440 used ANDERSON Largest, finest style, massive ease design; deep, rich tone; payments, dQ T C $8.00 monthly , $450 used CLARENDON Upright Grand, looks like d01A new and good as new; payments, $9.00 monthly. Iw $525 used HADDORFF Upright Grand, latest style, a magnificent piano, wonderful tone; payments, fcv1QC $12.00 monthly iptOO In Brand Nw Piano and Players Wa Would Call Your. J Special Attention to ' WEBER, GEO. STEQK, CABLE, CONOVER. WELLINGTON. HADDORFF, STROUD. CLARENDON, WHEELOCK, Etc. - We are sole agents for the DUO ART PIANOLA and the NEW VOCALION PHONOGRAPHS. $425 $495 $750 $575 DUO ART PIANOLA If possible call at our store and hear the new STEINWAY GRAND Remember: Every piano at this store is marked in plain figures at its lowest cash price. To those desiring time payments the only difference is 6 simple interest. Buy' Your Piano From the ONE PRICE, NO COMMISSION STORE Call or Write to 1807 Farnam. Douglas 4240. OMAHA, NEB. Willl""ilfTT lllalllil awsa r1 Z7- ' Omaha Auditorium 1919 ChicagoGrand Opera v Presenting a in a 99 xXmJ the sumptuous October 20th j Pavley-Oukrainsk) Ballet "LA BOHEME"- October 2 1st i Alma Gluck as Mimi Mail orders should be addressed to Mrs. Florence E. Whiteside, in care of Hospe Music Store, and must contain remittance, including nar tax and. self-addressed, . stamped envelope for the return of tickets. If return envelope is not enclosed, tickets vill be held at box office until called for. PRICES: Single Seats: - $5.00, $4.00, $3.00, $2.00, $1.00 Season Seats: $9.00, $7.00, $5.00, $3.00, $2.00 War tax of JO per cent must be paid on full value of season ticket. Box Office at Hospe's Music Store in construction, finjj miration and deligj to play some ligl Tschaikowsky comj rich, sweet tone, and GRAN 3 are invited to call a play their f avorite S' ard. Its resonant no . ately impress you w Omaha's M Phone; i,;. Douglas ; (0;'j 1973 iSwS V T- I mm The William end Mary Mi The Meir "The Plwnogrx To the musician it is r tunes. It is the RE-CRE To the interior decorator exquisite Period design; apart. - In the home, its true rat .of all that is beautiful a most cultural benefit; Its moods is a source of nev W e shall take pleasureli vava.k;vAA 1U1 JUUi Phone or torlUSS. ROll Phohograj