The following tour of a property room at the Grand Theater in Saint Paul, MN, first appeared in The Saint Paul Globe in 1902. This is the third selection from that article, with the first appearing here, the second here, and the third here.
Like the property room on the stage floor of the Metropolitan this property room behind the stage of the Grand serves to house the “props” that are in immediate use. And these “props” as a rule belong to the company that happens to be playing the week’s engagement. However, there are many little things in the way of stage furnishings that few companies carry and these, of course, are supplied by the house. Adjoining the property room at the Grand is a completely fitted out carpenter’s shop, the sanctum sanctorum of the stage carpenter. In this shop all the stage furniture is made. Just now the stage carpenter is at work on a set of parlor furniture of Florentine design. As soon as it is finished this furniture will be placed in the property room and designated a “prop.”
The Grand possesses something that is not often found in theaters in this country and that is a property room in the fly gallery. This fly gallery is nothing more than a platform that swings out half way between the stage and the roof of the theater. The gallery is reached by means of a spiral staircase made of iron. Two windows looking out upon a court furnish a dim light for the room. […] The property room of this fly gallery at the Grand is peopled with odds and ends that, looked at separately, would never be connected with the stage below. But all of them have played their brief part in some drama and because of this have earned their right to the dignified title, “prop.”
For instance, there is a complete outfit for a cosy corner to be found in this particular property room. This outfit consists of three long pikes with broad heads, a flimsy covering of Oriental stuff, a seat cushioned with Oriental cotton and a swinging Oriental lamp. Seen from the auditorium the effect of such a cosy corner is always picturesque. A nearer view takes away all the enchantment that distance lends. The wobbly pikes, the flimsy faded cotton and the seat that is anything but “cosy” are suggestive of nothing so much as those magazines that tell the credulous how, with the cut of a tomato can and a few tacks, almost anything in the shape of furniture can be evolved. Opposite this fly gallery, to the left of the stage, a place has been found for two more property rooms of the Grand. In one is neatly arranged a variety of chairs and odd bits of furniture, card tables, hat trees, foot stools, etc., each one fitted deftly into its proper place. All of this furniture is kept in excellent repair and although of inexpensive woods, is substantial looking enough to harmonize with the most elegant stage setting.
Originally published in The Saint Paul Globe, February 23, 1902, page 22.
