Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2001 - 24

When Mielziner arrived in the theatre in the 1920s, he used what
was at hand: a hard-wired resistance dimming system keyed to footlights
and borderlights permanently installed in the theatres to provide general
illumination. Because he owned and controlled his own playhouse,
David Belasco had begun to use the balcony rails for fixtures to augment
the standard system and give more variety to the lighting. However, it was
not until Robert Edmond Jones and Lee Simonson learned from the continental theatres (most of which were state owned and supported) of the
potentialities of spotlights that they were added to the system. At the same
time, the compact piano box dimmer board brought a new element of
more efficient control into stage lighting.
While he was working for the Theatre Guild, Mielziner had made a
new friend in Edward F. Kook, the bookkeeper for Display Lighting Company, who was simultaneously absorbing as much as
he could about stage lighting, visiting the producers
and getting to know the scene designers. In 1929,
his overpowering fascination for lighting propelled
him into a bold step: the founding of the Century
Lighting Company with Display's technical wizard,
Joseph Levy, as partner. They planned to devote their
combined talents to researching and developing the
field of stage lighting and selling it to the theatrical
world both in and out of New York. The company
survived the Crash of 1929 to become the most influential and powerful agency for innovation in theatrical lighting in its own time.
Mielziner's friendship with Eddie Kook and
their mutual dedication to a new art brought about
astounding changes in both practical and aesthetic
aspects of lighting. George Izenour, whom Kook put on
Century's payroll (along with Stanley McCandless),
considers Mielziner the pivotal force in lighting, the
designer who with Kook's help and Levy's inventive
genius stretched the limits of technology to serve his
needs, allowing him to bound ahead of his old mentors. Izenour was charged with improving the dimmer switchboard, taking it into the electronic age
with resulting greater efficiency and versatility. The
first Izenour boards became available immediately
after World War II but at first required permanent
installations and had to await the new age of miniaturization and portability. (In the meantime, the
standard Broadway house was stripped of its lighting system and now depended on all equipment
brought in and installed for each show. It became
both a blessing and a curse for lighting designers.)
Kook and Levy developed a version of the ellipsoidal spotlight (the leko), which along with the
fresnel, became the workhorses of lighting the
scenery. (As is well-known, the leko produces a
beam of light that can be shaped, sized, colored,
dimmed to the designer's specifications.) It was not
only good business for Kook to visit the designers to
get their lighting specifications but also to become
aware of what they were trying to achieve and to
come up with solutions. With Joe Levy in the shop,
Century could expand its business and export the

latest in technical improvements to the rest of the country. With McCandless and Izenour providing the technological inspiration and inventiveness, the company could and did make giant leaps in the field. With
Mielziner speaking directly into Kook's ear, he was able to achieve astounding visual effects with lighting in such landmark productions as
Death of a Salesman and A Streetcar Named Desire, where the establishment of mood and emotion were all important. The sets Mielziner designed for these productions were anything but beautiful in the
traditional sense but when his lighting design overlaid on the painted
canvas and scrim, they became essential for the play-and transcendently
beautiful. When Mielziner specified about seventy-five light cues for
Death of a Salesman and probably fewer for Streetcar; he employed a
fraction of the lighting instruments used today and had to depend on the

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2001
