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Forms to be Filled out for Eacn Interview
FORM
Circumstances of Interview
STATE New York State
NAME OF 1k OHM/ Terry Roth
ADDRESS 47 W. 69th St.
DATE February 28th, rJ39
SUEJECT Folklore of Stage RRnds.
1. Date and time c' interview
Feb. 27th, and 28th
2. Place of interview
Adelphi Theatre
3. Name and address of informant
Yr. Powderly and Mr. Cassels
No names to be used.
4. Name and address of person, if ally, wno put you in
touch with informant.
5. Name and address of person, if any, accompanying you
6. Description of room, house, surroundings, etc.
Backstage
FOLKLORE
NEW YORK
(Use as many additional sheets as necessary, for any of the forms, each
bearing the proper heading and the number to which the material refers.)
FORM C
Text of Interview (Unedited)
STATE New York State
VOT: OF IAINMR. Terry Roth
ADDRESS 47 W. 69th St.
DATE February 28th and 29th
SUBJECT Folklore of Stgwe Hands.
"THATS HOW WE ARE"
FOLKLORE
NE I': YORK
"In the ole days we didn't have any unions in the country. Ya
take thirty five years aro, with just a small crew. Maybe two or
three. Ant we pick up the kids that hung around the theatres. There's
your crew for you all the time you're in the town. Ant what's in it for
tier? No pay. Ony a couple passes for the show. Or a few beans maybe
beside, if the house was doint good and the boss was a sport. So kin
ya expect them to have interest in the work. A course not. Ant
sometime they jast walked out onya cold ant you here with a show to
go on. What was in it for them? What about the times ya picked up a
crew and they was the firemen of the town. Surei The minnit that
fire bell goes, goes the crew. Then the unions start showint up an
next thing you know, every body's a union man. The clearers, the
grips, the flymen, all the electric crew. Nobody works outta line.
Even though there was no union before, they was real union people.
Nobody came arount beg'in' them to join up. They just walk in like
it was nacheral they saould be there. Now we got advantages.
INother thing. Ya go out with a show now, they guarantee ya two weeks
salary so you kin get back if the show folds up. An' we get lower
berths of we go travellint, instead a payinl our own way in a chair.
An' ya can't work outta line now. Before the union, when we pulled
inta a town, I usta post the 24's (large billboard signs), get the
luggage to the theatre, carry the water for the dressin, room, help
pull the sets around, strike the show (pull it apart) en trirr: the
lamps (handle the spots). The ony thing what's not changed is the
hours. We're on 24 hour call all day, seven days a week. Ony, for
a midnight show we get one sixth a week's salary extra. Ant if a
guy gets hurt, an believe me there's plenty, the company pays him
compensation. Somepun falls on ya easy as not. Me? I got plenty
thinra ta do before I croak.
A lotta this crew wuz in the way, an' they all thinks about
things like me. We gotta mind our own vusiness. Keep outta Germany.
What they wantta do over there, that's their own business. Ant
leave us out. Muzzelini an' Hitler, let ten do anything they like.
Sure I don't like some of the things they do. But I sa s, keep
away from my door, Muzzelini. Those things happen in all countries.
Like Mexico. An' we didn't vet inta that. As long as they don't
bother us an leave us alone, it's O.K. here.
We usta have a gag pulled in the old days. Ye come inta a
town an' ya get a yokel that's dying to helpya. So you say, "Go
out, 3o, an' get the key to the curtain. Sometime you tell him
where to go for the key an' you fix it up with some of the guys
3
at another theatre to give him somepun heavy. Like one time there
was an ole toilet lyinl around off stage ant they made that kid
carry it over to our theatre, three blocks away. Or you say to a
guy, "put a tie on", that means make it stationery. The scenery. An
he says I rot one already on. That usta give the boys a good laTh.
Ye hear a lot about things happeninl back stage. But that's not
always. I remeLber I was wid an English Company, playint Bird in a
Hand. The: had a set there for dinner, ant that set was always ready,
set with dishes, in back of the flat. When this gist roes up this
nirht, the table tips ant the dishes go over. This English manager
starts pullinl his hair out, but I turned to the clearer and tell
him to go out to that restaurant in the alley. We was using Bordages
crockery. But he comes back with greasy sppon cups. Ye know. The
thick ones. The manager says we can't use them props. What are wa
gonna do? Why cant we, I says. An' we used them an everything is
alright. So after the show he comes up to re an says, In England,
if that happened, the show would have to close for a fortnight,
dat's two weeks. But Americans, they come upta emergencies.
Another thing about Anerican show people. There's buncha
fakers. You take when I wuz down South wid The WinLing of Barbra
Wert. We go inta a town ant have 24 sheet posters all over town,
with only nine in the cast. We chahge ler three ten to see a show
that wuz robbry. Ye know how they got away with it? People in them
days didn't have no radios and when a show comes to town, that's
somepun. But soon they git wise that this is no big time stuff.
Ye can see the act is dyinl on there feet, so the people wont pay no
big dough no more. It got so bad, I rememba we played ta three people,
and one of doze tickets wuz bought by an acter in the show. Another
thing they'd do. Ef a show went over big, say like Captain Rickets',
in a couple monts they come back to the same town with a show named
The Boundin, Maine. When the people cone in they saw it was still
Captain Rickets. They did this three times in one little town until
the manager says to the show what cane in. "I don't care what ye
call yer show. Ef it's Captain Rickets I'll run ye outta this town
so you'll remember what show ya got."
I forgot to tell ye this. In the old days, a stage hand had to
play a paht in a pinch. Sure. I went on an' it wuz funny. It wus
in Canada ant the leadinl man's mother dies so that if he went to
the funeral to see his mother, the show closes. I get the juvinile
lead an' ant him to play the leading paht. "If you do", I Says to
him, "I'll play youron". Tne manager says O.K. ant we rehearse a
couple times, so I almost know the paht. In this play there's a
Prairie Schooner on the stage ant we all sit in it, ant I'm sittint
in there with my palit in my hand. But it's down low so that the
audience out front can't see what I got in my hand. All of a sudden,
the comic, who also is in the boat, grabs the scrip from outta my
and and trows it off stage. My knees wuz shakin' ant I think I
can't do it. But I never missed a cut. Ant that juvinile, he misses
three.
5
Say, Elmer, shows the bank ya made. It's one of them country
toilets. Yea. Outhouses. In the top you pull outs drawer ant
put your dough in. The money falls back there ant you can't get
it out. Ony if you take the roof off. See. It ain't so easy to
take the money out like other banks. Now open up that door there.
See the two holer? The money is in back of that. We sent one of
Elmerts banks to President Roosevelt. It was a duck, ant it had
200 names pasted on it an 200 dimes inside for the Paralysis fund.
But it's a funny thing. We never had a letter or nothint. ElMer
sold around 85 outhouses to the negroes in this show. They eat 'em
up for 75e each.
That reminds me once when I wuz with Elizabeth Risdon in her
show, she's trying to find a place for her to dress. Ant the cnly
place we had on stage viz a toilet. With no backints or nothint.
One of these portable ones. We set her what she wus gonna do. Ya
know what she said? "0,K, boys, me fur the Crapper." She wuz English,
too, but a real regular one.