Famous actors and their homes . William Gillettes adoption of thestage was the result of natural impulse is theopinion of those who knew him as a boy. Asone of the most widely known New Englanddivines, Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, , putsit, Will Gillette was a born actor. The firsttime I ever saw him in that character was ina play he, with other lads, performed in hisfathers house, when he was no more thantwelve years old, before a Ladies BenevolentSociety of the church of which 1 ain pastor. Before that, when he was about eleven, hehad astonished his family by rigging up aminiature theatre. I
Famous actors and their homes . William Gillettes adoption of thestage was the result of natural impulse is theopinion of those who knew him as a boy. Asone of the most widely known New Englanddivines, Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, , putsit, Will Gillette was a born actor. The firsttime I ever saw him in that character was ina play he, with other lads, performed in hisfathers house, when he was no more thantwelve years old, before a Ladies BenevolentSociety of the church of which 1 ain pastor. Before that, when he was about eleven, hehad astonished his family by rigging up aminiature theatre. It was made of a largebox with the front cut out and the top takenoff. In the front he built a proscenium aboutthree feet high and of much the same width,with drop curtain, borders, etc. He had foot-lights, which were small candles arranged on[46 ] <§ THEIR HOMES a frame underneath so that they could beoperated up or down, and thus he got thehghting effects which he had seen in realtheatres. The scenes slid in from the top,. Flwtographed by Warner Photo. Den at the Homestead and he had a great deal of real enjoyment inpainting these scenes himself and arrangingeverything to work properly. The variouscharacters in the plays, or whatever else heproduced, were worked in a number of were suspended by very fine black [47] FAMOUS ACTORS thread or wire, and others, when the natureof the scene would allow it, were worked frombelow. The first thing he gave in this theatrewas a minstrel performance. The curtainrang up on what is known as the first part;that is, the entire company seated in a semi-circle with various instruments. These min-strels in this particular scene were workedboth ways. Some fine wires from abovewould work the arms and hands, in order togive them the appearance of playing theirvarious instruments, and then he gave themvarious motions from below and behind aswell. In this instance all the wires andthreads above were attached to a single piece,so t
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