Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1989 - 64

In the Beginning ...
continued from page 4
from Pittsburgh to Bloomington in the back of a '63 VW
bus.)
Gary Gaiser with "Recent Developments" and subsequently Dick Thompson were dependable with continuing columns; the trick was to find people who would stay
with the deadlines. Another contributor who really understood regular responsibility was C. Ray Smith, whose
"Reports on Theatre Design as Theatre" were thoughtful
comn1entary on major events of the day in '66 and '67.
Early issues were a bit heavy on buildings, in part because that is what I was "into," and partly because the
boom in buildings was in full swing: it, along with the
quartz lamp and the SCR dimn1er, was what was happening. Stage designers were a lot more difficult to interest in
submitting work because the magazine had no reputation,
and our paper wouldn't allow even the sparkling blacks
and whites that Fred Bentham's enameled paper yielded to
Tabs.
Ming (really Betsy Lee) and Peter Wexler were most
helpful in the earliest issues, and a little later I found my
way to the Slovak Vychodil and the Czech Svoboda, who
knew all about large, contrasty black-and-white prints and
don't worry about fees, just spell the photographer's name
correctly.
As to "editorial freedom," most of the articles were
indeed juried by three Institute readers. But it wasn't too
difficult to anticipate who would reject a certain kind of
article: a reader really expert on, say, rigging would almost
never find anything of interest in another's rigging
manuscript-the reader knew it all already. But the same
manuscript might well be a revelation to someone who
only stayed current on lighting subjects. In fact, I remember almost no Institute attempts to influence editorial
policy beyond the general charge with which we began.
There was just an occasional harrumpf about having
translated a communist critic for publication in the first
two issues (McCarthyism was still quite alive in 19651but then the Institute later gave the author an award for his
article.
I leaned hard in the begil1.l1ing on Bob McGregor at
Theatre Arts Books on matters relating to copyright and
permissions; and on Eric Pawley, then still Technical Secretary of ALA, whose red pencil on each of the first year or
two's issues was an informal education for me. On matters
of Institute politics, your guide was the president of the
moment-or Joel Rubin, who never quite stopped being
president.

ASIC
American Society of Theatre Consultants
THE

PROFESSIONAL

ASSOCIATION

THEATRE

CONSULTANTS

U.S.

INFORMATION
In general. fomlal requests for additional information, including
activities and membership lisls. should be addressed 10 the office of

the SOCIety.

TD&T'

American Society of Theatre Consultants
12226 Mentz 11,11 Road
51. Louis. Missouri 63128
(314) 843·9218

SPRING t 989

I got into editorial warm water twice that I remember,
on one occasion involving Ed Kook and the other Century
in the days just about the time Ed was becoming a staunch
Institute supporter:
In early 1966, I solicited a review from David Thayer of
Ed Kook's Ford Foundation grant report on scenic projection, Images in Light for the Living Theatre. Thayer had
expected more from Kook's book than he found, and his
review was nothing if not candid. The author didn't share
the reviewer's opinion, and when I called to read Kook the
review before it hit the newsstands, he expressed an
equally candid contrasting opinion on the review and a
pointed evaluation of my editorial judgment. Score one for
freedom of the press.
On another occasion I was on much shakier ground for
allowing publication of someone's helpful household hint
on how to do a home improvement to a Century Edkotron
dimmer box. (Techyuppies: If necessary, ask someone
older; the "Edko" part bears a historical relation to a subject of the previous paragraph. I We had to backpedal a bit to
get Ollt of that one.
The early years' layout and general appearance of the
journal don't stand up very well to the Fieldings' scanned
and dithered output of today's USITT newsletter,
Sightlines - they didn't even come up to the early Theatre
Crafts issues which were soon to appear by '67-'68. Theirs
must have been laid out by professionals comn1Uting from
the Hamptons and with skills honed on Organic Gardening and other slick rags - or so it seemed from my spare
bedroom in Pittsburgh. I was soliciting the manuscripts,
doing the library work and permissions, editing, proofing,
pasting it up-and much of that after ten o'clock at night.
Staff meetings were not a big problem at TDetJT in the
sixties (nor are they either in the eighties, I guess).
When I made the trip into New York to resign gracefully
before the Executive Committee after five years, my good
friend Ed Kook wanted to know if I would be interested in
continuing on a paid basis! Advertising would make the
difference.
Indeed, in the first "guest-edited" issue with advertising
and color printing, a crass firm in Harrison, NY was to
offer "a simple, yet definitive six-page guide to the use of
color media" in a display ad featuring (in addition to comfortable dark grey and TV-2 white) a dazzling Process Blue!
Some blonde in a skirt too short sold a "truly custom"
Skirpan control system; Century-Strand used fire-engine
red to a1U10unce an "enlightened liaison" that was "bound
to happen" (Ii ttle did they know about liaisons that were
still to happenl; Ward-Leonard, with a five-scene console
solarized almost beyond recognition, offered "design consultation available-Gratis!"; and Colortran used a record
two colors to explain how Gelatran "chemically linked the
color t-h-r-o-u-g-h-o-u-t the Mylar."
But I had already finished my day in the editorial sun
and TDetJT harlot that she had become, was to sleep from
bedroom to bedroom with magazine men until Tom Watson gave her a real home again in October 1972.

In the Beginning ...
continued from page 5
and 500 light cues for starters - there was no out-of-town
tryout tour. As with most new Broadway musicals, the
ini tial COSt was high and the producers, the director, and

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 1989