# Old Codger



## PeterBuchin (Sep 20, 2011)

Light and technology have always fascinated me.

I'm a relic of a bygone era - before last week I'd never heard of PRG, Source Four, or Eos. Trusses were limited to R&R. You prepped a show by making cable bundles. If you wanted a color changed during a show you did it by hand. There were few Go buttons.

Went to Cass Tech HS in downtown Detroit which had a Performing Arts curriculum. I went to class the first day of each semester and showed up to class after that to take exams. The rest of the time I was backstage with a Ward-Leonard auto-transformer board and units from Hub. For really big shows we supplemented with Edkotrons and Capitol lekos. We did about eight productions a year. Worked on musicals at the Windsor Light Opera, lit for a local dance company, picked up a few gigs through the IA. 

Attended IU-Bloomington in the mid-'70s and worked in the Musical Arts Center (an all-Kliegl house with a Q-File, monstrous patch panel, and 5 lighting bridges.) Six operas, 2 ballets, lots of chamber operas. Lit a couple of student-produced musicals at the Student Union which had motor-driven auto-transformers. 

Moved to NYC at 20 not knowing a soul. Worked mainly dance and Off-Broadway doing electrics and special effects. Two-scene presets with TTI back ends were all the rage. 

Was the Electrics and Special Effects Department for Staging Techniques for two years. Mostly industrials. Worked on projection for several Broadway shows. Showed a film on the face of the Met. Super Simplexes and Ektagraphics with xenon lamphouses from Optical Radiation. 

Went on the road with a couple of ballet companies. Was the electrician for the world's largest Nutcracker (2-5k Panis, 12-1200w Buhls, 300 focusing units, 2 Dilor racks, and a Performer II. No trusses. No multi-cable. All from BASH.)

Worked for an industrial producer as their Stage Manager. Lots of multi-projector slide shows. Pulled at least one all-nighter a week and once stayed up an entire week. Went around the world twice in a six-week period, the first time in 10 days. Slides were my life.

Had a good rep because I was a perfectionist but I had no people skills. My motto was 'My time is your money.' No matter how hard I tried I never was able to get an IA card. In my career of over 2000 performances I had exactly two go down the tubes. 

That takes me up to 1985 when, for a variety of reasons, I left the business. 

A couple of pieces of advice:
1.) Theatre is not your life. It may be your job, your hobby, or your calling, but it is only one part of what makes you, you.
2.) Get the widest possible set of experiences that you can. Do as many shows in as many different situations as possible.
3.) Become the master of something that fascinates you so that when someone asks, "Who do you know that is an expert at ____?" your name immediately comes up.

I wish each of you All the Best!


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## seanandkate (Sep 20, 2011)

So glad you're here Peter! I'm a former Windsor boy and Wayne State type myself. Great to have someone of your background around.


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## DaveySimps (Sep 20, 2011)

Welcome Peter, from a Metro Detroiter. I hope you have a great time here with us on CB.

~Dave


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## ptero (Sep 20, 2011)

Another Old Codger AND a Cassite! Welcome Peter! Sounds like we might have almost crossed paths. I was in Avo Music, often backstage setting up and playing/singing concerts. As a senior in '70-'71, stagework took over my life. That's what really started me down this path. Ken Suddick rings a bell as the sort of TD/backstage staff guy. That was quite the light board, eh? Didja ever climb up off the grid onto the back hallway on 6 during class changes? What a hoot. I recall one musical was mounted over at the D.I.A.'s little theatre - looking for a better venue. 

Have you seen any pictures from it's recent demolition? They built a new one next door and the old Cass stood unsecured being scrapped and virtually destroyed inside for some 5 years. Unfortunately, that happens a LOT in Detroit. 

Yep, the theatre's a very different world these days. I went to Wayne State and ended up spending 4 years maintaining their Izenour Thyratron 10 scene preset system at the Bonstelle. (seanandkate?) Heh, we're all a piece of history! 

Glad you're here. All the Best to you as well. 

Take Care,

Reid Johnson '71

someone else's pix of Cass:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/detroitmi97/5862329208/in/photostream/
scan the photostream to the right for some 13 shots of it 
w/the odd shot from elsewhere mixed in... 
It goes about 40 shots on w/a lotta the same stuff. I find it fascinating.


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## derekleffew (Sep 20, 2011)

Welcome to _Ye Olde Pharts Club_. Glad to see not everyone is dead yet. Be sure to answer http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/new-member-board/6917-cb-members-age-survey-v2-0-a.html .

Kliegl Bros., Hub Electric Co., Capitol Stage Lighting Co., Major, Ward-Leonard; of course it was all crap, but at the time none of us knew any better. It was what we had, and it made light, so we used it, happily.

The newfangled Source Four is a passing fad, and will never catch on. Hey you kids, get offa my lawn.


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## DaveySimps (Sep 20, 2011)

Derek, I think it is time to take your medication, and get back to the home before they send the men in the padded station wagon to come and get you. 

~Dave


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## PeterBuchin (Sep 20, 2011)

Hi Sean, 

Did you ever know Marg and Bob Pond from WLOA? The were truly nice folks. When I worked with them there was a German scene painter, Dieter, who was a hoot (and quite the beer drinker.)


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## PeterBuchin (Sep 20, 2011)

Hiya Reid!

I started CT the fall of '71 so we jessst missed each other! I got bitten by the bug my 2nd week of school and, indeed, Ken was the Stage Technician. Eric Tompkins was was the ME that first year. I was the ME my last semester. (they decided to graduate me a semester early 'cause I was an intellectual troublemaker. Because of the DFT strike I graduated in February of '74.)

We usta do timed races up to the grid and back. Once, a group of us unlocked a door on either 3 or 4 and found ourselves above the ceiling. It was pretty bloody stupid, walking around on narrow wooden catwalks without handrails that were 55 years old.

I was there for 2-1/2 years so only worked on 2 musicals: both were mounted at DIA. 

Thanks for the photo album - I hadn't seen these ones before. I've got a bunch of links scattered around. Oughta just build a page with all of 'em. Those brushed aluminum chandeliers were installed in the summer of '73 if memory serves me. The originals were so much nicer. I always liked the Exit signs and truly wish I could've obtained one. Ah, well.


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## MPowers (Sep 20, 2011)

Peter,

I started in the biz a few years before you. Did the piano board and real salt water dimmers in the the Boston and NYC area in the late 50's early 60's. After the USMC and NAM I did Grad school at IU Bloomington in 69-71. I helped install the Kliegl system in the (then) brand new IU-MAC. I'm sure Frank S., Gary G. Richard S. were all still there in the theatre dept. Was Brockett still there when you went through? How about Hal Mack and Al White in the opera school? I did a lot of shows there too. Was Joan Sullivan still there then?

In the 90's I was TD at Meadowbrook in Rochester at Oakland U. Worked with a lot of Wayne State people. Also did a lot of gigs at COBO and the Temple (what a PITA to load into). Did a number of gigs at Hart Plaza. They put a huge scaffold stages over the north side. 

BTW, you're not an "Old Codger" 'til you're as old as me. Oh Wait, you can't catch up, so you'll always be .... "the probie"!


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## PeterBuchin (Sep 21, 2011)

Hi Michael!

Lots of familiar names there! I took a stage electroonics course from Frank (where I caught up on my sleep.) Also had a theatre architecture class taught by GaGa - what a great guy!! Brockett had moved on but his book remained. What was Richard's last name? Did you know Margie Heymann? She may have preceded you by a couple of years.

On the south side of the stream, Hal was TD, Al was LD, and David Higgins was Head Painter. I met Joan a couple of times at parties. I think she was at Chicago Lyric at the time. 

Say, did you know Jobie Rice while you were in Detroit?


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## PeterBuchin (Sep 21, 2011)

Well, well, Derek...

It was not *all* crap. Not by a long shot. Yes, a lot of it was: Hub and Major were towards the bottom of the pile. I remember going to a trade show where someone had a B&W monitor with bits of gel taped to it - pretty cheesy. Some of it was dangerous stuff: all that asbestos... leads, two-fers, switch boxes, fire curtains, and heat skirts. Nothing had safety chains. 

Altman, at that time, was the standard in the for-profit world in NYC - but you get what you pay for and they were pretty inexpensive. 
Capitol was a step up from Altman. I thought their rotate-into-place cap was pretty cool.
Ward-Leonard auto-transformer were reliable, indestructible, and when you had a slice of pizza between 2 stacked 6-packs it was kept nice and warm.
Ditto for TTI dimmers - except the pizza would get cold.
LMI made a beautiful two-scene preset that was responsive to the touch.
Kliegel units were easy to focus, though their 30-pound boat-anchor dimmers couldn't keep a trim. 
I ran my share of Strong follow spots and actually enjoyed replacing the rods. 
I took a pair of 5k Pani projectors on the road and they didn't give me a lick of trouble. 
Reich + Vogel machines were definitely the best engineered theatrical products at that time. 

Yeah, there's better stuff being made today, and in 40 years it'll be antiquated. But the best part of using that stuff back then, and the cool stuff now, and the now-undreamed-of stuff to come is that they're just tools used to help an audience evoke a reaction. After all, the play's the thing.


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## JChenault (Sep 21, 2011)

derekleffew said:


> Welcome to _Ye Olde Pharts Club_. Glad to see not everyone is dead yet. Be sure to answer http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/new-member-board/6917-cb-members-age-survey-v2-0-a.html .



Now I am really depressed. I was born over 20 years before the earliest date on the survey. Sigh


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## mstaylor (Sep 21, 2011)

PeterBuchin said:


> Well, well, Derek...
> 
> It was not *all* crap. Not by a long shot. Yes, a lot of it was: Hub and Major were towards the bottom of the pile. I remember going to a trade show where someone had a B&W monitor with bits of gel taped to it - pretty cheesy. Some of it was dangerous stuff: all that asbestos... leads, two-fers, switch boxes, fire curtains, and heat skirts. Nothing had safety chains.
> 
> ...


I always took great pride in being able to surprise LDs with how fast I changed rods in Strong supers. I started on a Frank Adams board, my old junior high still has one in service. I still have a facility that has a Kleigl board in service. A buddy bought all the Kleigel lekos at surplus. The equipment nowadays is great but I sure miss running old TTI dimmers with a two scene LP1000.


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## avkid (Sep 22, 2011)

mstaylor said:


> The equipment nowadays is great but I sure miss running old TTI dimmers with a two scene LP1000.


 That can be arranged, I have both of the aforementioned items.


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## MPowers (Sep 28, 2011)

PeterBuchin said:


> Hi Michael!
> 
> Lots of familiar names there! I took a stage electroonics course from Frank (where I caught up on my sleep.) Also had a theatre architecture class taught by GaGa - what a great guy!! Brockett had moved on but his book remained. What was Richard's last name? Did you know Margie Heymann? She may have preceded you by a couple of years.
> 
> ...





Richard Scammon (spelling???)

Met David my last year there, did not know J. Rice.

Nice to chat with someone who remembers


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## derekleffew (Sep 28, 2011)

PeterBuchin said:


> ...Also had a theatre architecture class taught by GaGa - what a great guy!! ...


GaGa=Gary Gaiser and not the much more recent reference?


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## MPowers (Sep 29, 2011)

derekleffew said:


> GaGa=Gary Gaiser and not the much more recent reference?


 
First met Gary in 1969. I had just got back from Nam and finished a couple of whirlwind years working in LA as a Special effects Pyro tech and for Foy and got accepted to IU grad school. I showed up a week before classes and was put to work on equipment inventory. I was up in one of the coves when this weird guy with a frizzy hair cut and salt'n'pepper beard burst in and grabbed a couple things and rushed around like the "Nutty Professor" It was Gary (though I didn't know it then) pulling some stuff for a photometrics experiment with his second and third year grad students. Some Brilliant idea had just come up and he had to work on it "NOW". Not knowing if he was a skid row bum or Albert Einstein, I asked if I could help, He just bustled around almost as if I wasn't there and said "nope, I think I've got what I need" and was gone before I could decide if I should call the cops or what. Later I enjoyed more than one good German beer in his basement (AKA Grad photo lab) where he always had a keg on hand. We did photographic slide experiments for projection and had photo stands and developing rooms set up there. No available space in the theatre building back then. For one show, in 1970, we made over 5,000 35mm slides that were projected on 6 screens using 12 carousel projectors running off a purpose built, some what programmable(to change a path you switched soldered leads), logic controller, without IC's. That was the genius of Frank Silverstein, Gary's Faculty counterpart in the technological department. The Main console was about 3' x 5' x 2' high. Lots and lots of wire and single component circuits. Today you go out and buy a cheap, off the shelf PLC for $50, 3" or 4" square and an inch thick, with built in programs and Ethernet connections and DMX. 

Anyway, Working and learning with Gary and Frank was an education in itself. They were an inspiration and true friends, I will never forget them.


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