Folklore of the Theater

7/28/2019 Folklore of the Theater

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George Spelvin Says the Tag :Folklore of the Theater* RALPH FREUDMEMBERS OF THE California Folklore Society and friends: It was probablyin a moment of mental aberration that I consented to speak here today. Mostof my waking hours at the moment-aside from those occupied with classesand the routine efforts of an educational administrator to unravel the compli-cated knot of university procedures-are concerned with rehearsals for nextweek's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which, through thecunning machinations of some hobgoblin or leprechaun, I find myself play-ing Bottom, the weaver. I am speaking here today, then, not really throughchoice; certainly not because I speak with the tongue of authority, but purelybecause I was tricked into it by the program committee.

Perhaps, however, there is a strange fitness in my talking to you aboutsome of the superstitions and tall tales of the theater at a time when my noc-turnal existence is that of a Bottom who flits about with fairies by the namesof Cobweb, Mustard Seed, and Peaseblossom, and who is only mildlyastounded at finding himself transformed into an ass.A Midsummer Night'sDream is, of all Shakespeare'splays, perhaps of all plays of all time, the great-est tale of mystery and magic told upon a stage.What I shall try to do here this morning is to carry you backstage intoan extremely intimate and closed world which, partly because of its isolation,has bred, over a period of two thousand years,a folklore and a body of super-stition all its own. Perhaps the factor that motivates me to speak this morningis the hope that some of you who are capable of recording and documentingitems of this sort will turn your scholarly eyes in the direction of the theater.For I fear that much of the superstition, the mystery, the magic, the tall talesof the theater are vanishing from view and leaving no record behind them.And I am afraid that the changing economic, social, and operational climateand environment of the theater is decreasingly one to nourish this folklore.I suppose superstitions are found in trades and professions in some kindof ratio to the hazardsexisting in those professions; and I suppose, too, thatcertain tales and superstitions pass from generation to generation in those* This paper was delivered at the first meeting of the California Folklore Society, Los Angeles,May 24, 1952.

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WESTERN FOLKLOREtrades which are taught, not on a formal level, but through a kind of ap-prentice-master,mouth-to-mouth, in-service training. Now both these factorsof hazard and in-service teaching have existed until recently in the theater.The theater is filled with hazards, physical, economic, and emotional. Andthe theater has taught its own workers within its own operating structure.In 1660 when the theater was re-established, after its prohibition underCromwell for thirty years, the arts of the theater were almost forgotten. ButRichard Burbage, the most talented actor of the Restoration, was able torevive the tradition that had been associated with Shakespeare'sGlobe. Col-ley Cibber in his Apology tells us how he learned that tradition: "Mr. Bur-bage had it from Mr. D'Avenant, who had it from old Mr. Luen that playedit with Shakespeare."Some of you here today are sufficiently hoary with age to have lived at atime when every city and town in America had its resident theatrical stockcompany. In the early part of this century there were, for example, the oldAlcazar Stock in San Francisco, the Fulton Theater stock in Oakland, TheMajestic and Moroscocompanies in Los Angeles, and the Savoy in San Diego.Even smaller towns, such as Pasadena with its Charles King Players, andAlhambra, with its Hart Players who performed in a tent, were blessed, orcursed, depending upon one's point of view, with a resident company.

These companies were the hotbeds of theatrical folklore. In many of themthe same people worked together for fifty weeks in a year. They laboredunder tremendous pressure, doing a new play each week. While they weredoing each new play at night and as many as three matinees a week, theywere learning the play for the following week and striving to forget that ofthe week before. Because of this intensive working schedule, emotions werevery near the surface, and, lurking over the box office at all times, was thethreat of economic collapse. It was natural then, that these workers wouldestablish for themselves gremlins, both good and bad, to help them face thesehazards.

While I have alluded particularly to the stock companies which operatedwithin the life span of some of you here, this same set of conditions existed inthe American theater from its beginnings in 1752 when the Hallam familyof actors was brought to the American shore on the sailing ship, CharmingSally.Now let me tell you some of the superstitions which many of us, normallyrational and even cynical and sophisticated human beings, can never quitedisbelieve. These may be divided roughly into three types. First, superstitionswhich are part of the common American cultural pattern and which havemerely been brought over into the theater and sometimes developed to alittle higher point-dramatically adapted to the playhouse, let us say. Second,

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FOLKLORE OF THE THEATERsuperstitions which were created by the people of the theater to serve somepractical cause or to serve as a social pressure within the playhouse. Third,superstitions which have no logic or known history of origin. These latterare by far the most numerous, and in many cases the most interesting.As examples of superstitions adopted by the theater from the world out-side, let me mention the following: To put a hat on a bed is unlucky, andto walk under a ladder or to pass anyone on a stairway is to court disaster.It is a bad omen if you are assigned to dressing room 13, although few the-aters have a room so numbered. Opals, worn on the stage, bring misfortuneto both the wearer and the rest of the company, as do peacock feathers. Ihave seen a stagehand, night after night, with real fear in his eyes, holdtightly to a stairwaydown which a leading lady descended wearing a peacockheaddress.

Some superstitions have their basis in religion and reverence. A triplemirror cannot be used on the stage, or three candles lighted at once in adressing room. (In the days of heavily beaded eyelashes these candles wereemployed to melt the beading wax.) Three candles should never be mountedin one candelabra. This rule against the display of three items on a stageis of course derived from a reverence for the Holy Trinity. It is highlyunlucky to have a real Bible on the stage, probably because it was thoughtto be flying in the face of Providence to have the Book of the Lord on thestage in the House of the Devil. When it is necessary to cross oneself onthe stage in such a play as, for example, The Cradle Song, the cross isreversed-first to the right, and then to the left-rather than in the fashionof the Church.

The theatrical superstitions which have practical reasons and those ofsocial pressurebehind them are often amusing. The belief that no one who isknitting should be allowed on the stage unless the role demanded such actionwas created to keep the ever-present chaperone stage mothers of the 18oo'sand i89o's, who sat in the wings knitting constantly and keeping a wary eyeon their actressdaughters, off the stage completely and down in the dressingrooms. Perhaps the best known of the practical superstitions is that whichrelates to the bad luck occasioned by anyone's whistling in the dressingroom. Such whistling was reputed to cause the whistler and the person near-est the door in the room to be discharged from the company within twoweeks. The spell could be broken, however, if the whistler went outsidethe room, walked around a chair three times and spat. Obviously the beliefwas created to avoid the annoyance of the perennial whistler in the nervousatmosphere of the dressing room.The superstition that round-topped or, as they were called, "turkey-topped"trunks, were extremely bad luck was based on the fact that these trunks

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WESTERN FOLKLOREwere first used exclusively by European and English actors who might beputting native-born artists out of jobs. Sometimes American actors refusedto work in a theater where these trunks appeared. Speaking of trunks, youmust never close the lid of a trunk in a dressing room. This taboo stemsfrom the very practical fact that since so many children of actors spent theirearly days sleeping in the top tray of a trunk rather than a crib, the closingof lids might have disastrous results.Even today in touring companies there is a tradition that no man of thecompany will carrythe baggage of a young lady, since to do so is to announceto everyone that you are either engaged or emotionally entangled with theperson whose things you are carrying. I have no doubt that this belief wasdeveloped by the men of the theater. The desire of actors to avoid beingon the receiving end of a cascade of boots and shoes is the practical reasonfor the superstition that it is unlucky to put boots or shoes on any shelfin the dressing room higher than one's head.A certain group of stage superstitions seems to have been evolved for thepurpose of enforcing a kind of concentration upon the actor so that he mightnot let his mind concern itself with thoughts about his performance andthe possible audience reaction. Among these is the belief that it is good luckto make an entrance on to the stage or to leave the dressing room, startingout with your left foot first. It is also believed that one should put on theleft sock or stocking first, and that one should powder with the left hand.Perhaps the most numerous and interesting of all the superstitions arethose with little or no reason behind them, and whose origins lie so far backin the history of our art that they are completely forgotten. No one knowswhy soap should not be left in a dressing room overnight, or why it is badluck to hang pictures on a dressing room door. We don't know why yellowis extremely unlucky or the air of Tosti's "Good-bye" should be bannedfrom the theater. Equally mysterious is the superstition that no one but theactor playing the character in the play who uses it should ever sit in a wheel-chair, or why artificial flowers should be worn, and only artificial fruit usedon stage rather than the real thing. We don't know why if you leave yourdressing room and discover that you have forgotten something you mustnot re-enter, but on such an occasion must have someone hand the forgottenarticle to you over the threshold.I can find no reason, although I am sure a diligent researchermight, whyone should never start a trip on Saturdayor open a show on Friday,although,of course, the latter might come from the rather commonly accepted beliefthat Friday is unlucky. Perhaps you can figure out why if an actor visits anagent and tries the wrong door, he'll be unsuccessful, or why it is bad luckto look at someone's reflection in a mirror over your left shoulder.

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FOLKLORE OF THE THEATERPerhaps the greatest misfortune that can come to a group of players is tohave some unknowing actor in the castquote a line or a speech from Macbeth,or to hum any of the incidental music that has been written for it, such as

the Murphy score. This taboo against Macbeth is particularly applicableto the speeches of the witches.It is even considered bad luck to produce Macbeth. A favorite occupationof old actors is to sit around talking of the horrible events that befell variousMacbeth companies and the theaters in which they played. Even the LondonOld Vic has been touched by this superstition, since it was while this playwas being performed that Lillian Bayliss, the founder of the Old Vic, died.Other than Macbeth, the bad luck play of all time was White Cargo. Overhalf the original cast died within a short time after it had played. It is inter-esting to note in connection with this play that it was claimed to be plagi-arized, and many believe that fate somehow punished the thieves of theoriginal writer's work.There are also some good luck superstitions in the theater, but they'rerather in the minority. It is considered very lucky, for instance, to have acat walk acrossthe stage, and the belief is held that if the cat is ejected fromthe theater it must be carried out the door opposite from the one whichit entered. Falling accidentally on the stage is a sign that you'll play a repeatperformance in that theater. If your shoes squeak as you make an entrance,it means good luck for the entire run of the play. It may be a carry-overfrom the sign of the cross made on passing a church, but it is true that anactor passing a billboard on which his name appears should assure his luckby "tipping to his billing," or doffing his hat. It is good luck for an actor toenter through the stage door a theater where he is about to play, and bythe same token he should take care not to enter through the front of thehouse. Knocking on the boards of the stage, board by board, from the frontof the stage to the back wall, is still practiced by a good many actors as akind of prayer for good fortune. Others make a circle tour of the settingbefore the play opens, firstclockwise and then counter clockwise. It is ratherpopularly known, I believe, that the Barrymores carried on a tradition ofgiving each other an apple for good luck on their opening nights, but theBarrymores were not the originators of this custom. It had existed in thetheater many years before Lionel, Ethel, and John trod the boards. It shouldalso be noted that the luck is only good so long as the apple is kept in thedressing room and not eaten until closing night.I'm sorry that I've taken up all my time with you this morning in talkingabout the superstitions of the theater and that I have therefore no timeleft to tell you some of the tall tales of my profession. Many of these talesreach back through generations and keep recurring about every twenty years,

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5WESTERN FOLKLOREwith the only change in the tales being a change of the actors and a modern-ization in the theater in which the story is supposed to have happened. Thusthere is the story of an actor playing in a drama for which the setting wasa large baronial hall. This actor was waiting for his cue in the wings whenhe heard a fire engine outside the stage door. The actor knew he still hadseveral minutes before his cue came, so he went to the stage door, saw thefire engine turning a corner and followed it, watching the firemen go towork on a fire nearby. Suddenly the actor realized it must be just abouttime for his entrance. He ran back to the theater and through the stage door,heard his cue being spoken on the stage, and dashed on to the setting throughthe nearest opening, only to find that instead of entering through a door-way he had come onto the stage through the large manor house fireplace.

This particular story has been repeated to me about five times during aperiod of thirty years,and each time it has been told it concerned a differentactor and a different company. I wish time would allow my telling more ofthese tales.I notice, in closing, that I still have not explained the title of this paper,"George Spelvin Says the Tag." Now let me explain that the "tag" is thelast line of a play, and that it is considered extremely bad luck for an actorever to say this line during a rehearsal; he must say it the first time on theopening night. Nowdays we compromise a bit and let the actor say this lastline, but we break the spell by having the director say under his breathjust before the actor speaks, "rehearsalover."But who is George Spelvin? Any of you reading Westbrook Pegler duringrecent years are probably aware that he used "George Spelvin" as the nameof the common, everyday, garden variety American. Actually, George Spelvinis a revered name in the theater. It is a pseudonym assigned to an actorin the theater program where it is desirable for one reason or another tohide the true identity of the player from the audience. For example, if thedetective in a play returns to the setting in a later act disguised and bearingan assumed name, he is listed in the program as George Spelvin so that theaudience will not recognize him. If the character is a woman, the actresswill be Georgianna Spelvin. It is also common to assign certain parts toGeorge Spelvin which are played by actors who play two or more parts inthe same play. Thus, I have seen in some small companies where it was neces-sary to save extra salaries, a play in which parts were played by George Spel-vin, Georgianne Spelvin, George Spelvin, Jr., George Spelvin, II, and GeorgeSpelvin III.

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Folklore of the Theater