Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2018 - 47

cepted wisdom about these systems in
the United States, I hope that this piece
might convey some of the excitement
that I feel when discovering knowledge
that seems to have been lost. It is my
hope that the excitement that I feel might
ignite the interest of readers out there to
embark on a historical journey. There is
so much yet to uncover.
The Crump Theatre: One can plainly see the mortise
shoes of the mid rails indicating that the flat is, in
fact, on its side. Image courtesy of Aubrey Jones,
Columbus, IN.

A close-up view of the flat frame looking at the bottom
rail. One can plainly see the "sheave for flats." There
is a second sheave at the other end of the rail. Image
courtesy of Aubrey Jones, Columbus, IN.

but it has been closed for a number of
years, and social memory is only of the
Crump as a cinema. In his book about
the Crump Theatre, David Sechrest
quotes a newspaper review of the opening night in which the reviewer comments on how the machinery worked so
quietly. For those of us who have operated hemp rigging, which is what was
installed in the Crump, this point was
confusing. Of course, it operated quietly; hemp systems do. Charles S. King,
stage machinist of Sosman & Landis,
installed the Crump system, and thus a
new research question arose: Is it possible that King didn't just install a hemp
rigging system, but also installed a wing
and shutter system?
In the batch of Jones' images were a
handful that showed the frame of a flat
in storage on the fly gallery. There was
no muslin; it was just the frame. It didn't
look like much, but I was able to see the
stiles and the bottom, top, and mid rails.
The shoes, which attach the mid-rail to
the stiles, are most evident but are uppermost on the frame. This means that
the flat was on its side. This was a fortunate orientation, as it made the bottom
rail clearly visible. And thanks to the
excellent resolution of the image, one is
able to zoom in on the bottom rail where
one can clearly see a "flat sheave."
Another crucial data point can be
found in Julius Cahn's directory of theatres, which is similar to that of Harry
Miner. The 1903-04 Cahn directory
lists the Crump Theatre and indicates

grooves. The wing and shutter system
uses the flat sheave at the bottom, but
the top must be guided within grooves,
too. The grooves prevent the flats from
falling over and were generally attached
to the onstage face of the fly galleries at
a height to match the height of the tops
of the flats. Sometimes the heights of the
grooves were adjustable.
With this newfound knowledge, the
opening night review of King's successful and quiet machinery makes sense.
King is using Sosman & Landis "half
mortise sheave for flats." What technology did other theatres in Columbus use
that caused the scene changes to be so
noisy? It is a research question that is
yet to be answered. But, not only was a
wing and shutter system at the Seyer, it
apparently was also used at the Crump.
And if one looks closely, the frame is
almost as wide as it is tall. Since the
grooves were to the underside of the fly
gallery, they would have been at around
15 feet. And, it is 13 feet wide. This
would make the flat in the image a shutter, rather than a wing.

Historical Journey

The wing and shutter system was installed in the Steyer Opera House and
in the Crump Theatre. The theatrical
guides by Julius Cahn and by Harry Miner both indicated grooves in many--even
most--of the theatres listed. J.R. Clancy
and Sosman & Landis Scenic Studios
both supplied a key device for wing and
shutter systems. And Clancy did it for
decades. It is not hard to conclude that
the wing and shutter system, by this
evidence and more, was ubiquitous
throughout the United States and Canada in the 19th century. Just as important
as providing evidence to counter the ac-

Rick Boychuk is a theatre
technician and designer. He is
also an inventor and owns the
patent for the front-loading
arbor and has a patent
pending for an arbor trap, which is designed to
prevent runaway line sets. He has discovered
that new innovations for counterweight
rigging find their foundation in the history of
the technology. Boychuk continues to explore
the spread of the counterweight rigging system
in the United States in anticipation of
releasing a second volume of Nobody Looks
Up: The History of the Counterweight
Rigging System: 1500 to 1925, the only
book ever written to document the history of
the counterweight rigging system. See: www.
gridwellinc.com and www.
counterweightrigging.com.

Works Cited
Cahn, Julius. 1903. Julius Cahn's Official
Theatrical Guide 1903-1904. New York: Empire
Publishing Company. https://archive.org/details/
juliuscahnsoffic00cahn
Clancy, J.R. J.R. Clancy catalogue archive.
http://jrclancyarchive.usitt.org/
Glenn, George D. 1989. Steyer's Opera House
Decorah, Iowa. https://youtu.be/r_2l6pGmp3A
Green, John H. 1954. The Development of Stage
Rigging in the United States (1766-1893). Thesis -
University of Denver.
Miner, Harry. 1884. Harry Miner's American
Dramatic Directory 1884-85. New York: Wolf and
Palmer Dramatic Publishing Company.
https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/books/
Harry_Miners_American_Dramatic_Directory_for_
the_Season_of_1884-85_1000809072
Sechrest, David. 2013. Columbus, Indiana's Historic
Crump Theatre. Charleston: The History Press.
Steyer Opera House. See:
http://www.welcomeindecorah.com/listings/
venues/hotel-winneshiek-and-steyer-opera-house

SPRING 2018

THEATRE DESIGN & TECHNOLOGY

| 47

http://www.gridwellinc.com http://www.counterweightrigging.com http://www.gridwellinc.com http://www.counterweightrigging.com https://www.archive.org/details/juliuscahnsoffic00cahn https://www.archive.org/details/juliuscahnsoffic00cahn http://jrclancyarchive.usitt.org/ http://youtu.be/r_2l6pGmp3A https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/books/Harry_Miners_American_Dramatic_Directory_for_ the_Season_of_1884-85_1000809072 https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/books/Harry_Miners_American_Dramatic_Directory_for_ the_Season_of_1884-85_1000809072 https://www.forgottenbooks.com/en/books/Harry_Miners_American_Dramatic_Directory_for_ the_Season_of_1884-85_1000809072 http://www.welcomeindecorah.com/listings/venues/hotel-winneshiek-and-steyer-opera-house http://www.welcomeindecorah.com/listings/venues/hotel-winneshiek-and-steyer-opera-house

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Spring 2018