I once read somewhere that, when Billy Rose signed the contract with MGM, he insisted that the film’s main title read BILLY ROSE’S JUMBO, which is how it appears.
If I have it right, The Hippodrome of Jumbo fame was on the corner of West 43 St and Sixth Avenue. After it was torn down, a huge multi-story parking garage was built there. The name on my parking receipts was: The Hippodrome. Just across the street from Stern Bros department store, just down the street from the editorial offices of The New Yorker, and a few doors away on West 43 Street from a small but lovely Norman Rockwell looking New York Fire House. ToddPoint
Were the actors like Durante on a microphone? I don't remember the Hippodrome, but if it was a big arena style place, I can't imagine any of the dialogue could be understood without amplification...and this was before wireless mikes.
In Educational Theatre, we were taught PROJECTION, as CHIC points out. Projection is not yelling, it is delivering your lines, even stage whispers, so that they clearly reach that proverbial "Little old lady in the back row of the 2nd balcony". Getting it takes professional instruction and disciplined practice akin to circus work. On a recent ABC TV series, now cancelled, theatre friends of mine agreed Don Johnson was losing us with his understated delivery, while our friend from those days, Barry Corbin, in his co-starring role, projected his lines with effect. Barry is stage-trained.
9 comments:
This was the last production
at the Hippodrome before it
was torn down in 1939
MGM bought the film rights
soon after this show opened
I once read somewhere that, when Billy Rose signed the contract with MGM, he insisted that the film’s main title read BILLY ROSE’S JUMBO, which is how it appears.
Like CECIL B. DeMILLE'S...EVERYTHING HE EVER SHOT.
If I have it right, The Hippodrome of Jumbo fame was on the corner of West 43 St and Sixth Avenue. After it was torn down, a huge multi-story parking garage was built there. The name on my parking receipts was: The Hippodrome. Just across the street from Stern Bros department store, just down the street from the editorial offices of The New Yorker, and a few doors away on West 43 Street from a small but lovely Norman Rockwell looking New York Fire House.
ToddPoint
Were the actors like Durante on a microphone? I don't remember the Hippodrome, but if it was a big arena style place, I can't imagine any of the dialogue could be understood without amplification...and this was before wireless mikes.
Yes indeed Todd the Hippodrome
was located on Sixth Avenue
between 43rd & 44th Streets
Early theaters both in the US
& the UK many of which are in
use to this day had (& have)
great acoustical properties
Even stage whispers could be
heard in the upper balconies
Performers knew how to project
both dialog & song lyrics so
they could be heard throughout
the theater but with today's
OVERAMPLIFIED digital sound
that's all history & modern
theaters have no such quality
Early Broadway & UK West End
theaters from the 20s & 30s
still offer such environment
In Educational Theatre, we were taught PROJECTION, as CHIC points out. Projection is not yelling, it is delivering your lines, even stage whispers, so that they clearly reach that proverbial "Little old lady in the back row of the 2nd balcony". Getting it takes professional instruction and disciplined practice akin to circus work. On a recent ABC TV series, now cancelled, theatre friends of mine agreed Don Johnson was losing us with his understated delivery, while our friend from those days, Barry Corbin, in his co-starring role, projected his lines with effect. Barry is stage-trained.
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