Theater History Question

[jaso_n]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 9:32pm

When performers would sing in old Broadway musicals (before all of the modern technology we have now) did they use microphones? How did they project their voices throughout a huge theater?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 9:34pm

Proper training and technique.

[D2]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 9:34pm

The same way they do in the opera houses: singing with proper technique and breathe support.

[AtLeastIveBeenThere]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 11:22pm

I heard somewhere that initially they had stationary mics set at the downstage edge of the stage.

[keen on kean]

Posted: 12/22/06 at 11:24pm

Not that I recall.

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 1:04am

I know in some shows floor mics were used to help it reach the back of the house, but that wasn't until the late 40s. I wanna say Richard Rogers used them for something in "South Pacific." The first body mic was rumored to be on Carol Channing in "Hello, Dolly" I do have to state that it's been a long time since I heard these, and I could be off on my info.

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 1:18am

"How did they project their voices throughout a huge theater?"

it has just as much to do with the audience's ability to listen. the actors back then were better at projecting, and the audience members were used to leaning forward and truly listening to that natural sound. it may have been a struggle to hear quieter bits, but that also made for a more engrossing, concentrated theatregoing experience. they hadn't been exposed to the over-miking and loud music, which has since then made us lazy listeners and also deteriorated our sense of hearing.

Updated On: 12/23/06 at 01:18 AM

[dry2olives]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 1:28am

When unamplified orchestras played in pits in front of the stage, their sound would travel up. Unamplified singers would face forward so their sound traveled out. Orchestrators would write arrangements so that singers could be heard. The conductor was the sound designer. And, of course, the theatres were built for acoustics.

[sondhead]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 1:43am

There's a reason Ethel Merman got so much work!

Also, listen to old recordings. You'll find horns usually punctuate the ends of phrases and never play under solo singing. Another orchestration trend that's gone away is the "last nate fades into the orchestra". They even replicated this effect on many recordings. "I Could Have Danced All Night" on the OBC is a perfect example.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 2:25am

An old post of mine I just dug up in a search:


"Some tidbits from Mark N Grant's "The Rise and Fall of the American Musical":

-- Floor miking goes back to the 30s. Earl Carroll is said to have brought out a Hollywood sound man to "enhance" his revues as early as 1933 (critics Brooks Atkinson and Richard Watts publicly took Carroll to task for doing so in his 1940 revue). "Dubarry Was a Lady" (1939) secretly used amplification because of the heavy brass orchestrations, despite Merman being in the cast.

-- Saki Oura was apparently the first person to receive Playbill credit for "consulting sound engineer" for 1945's "One Touch of Venus."

-- Richard Rodgers said that Carousel was his last show without microphones and Ethan Mordden has said that ironically ex-opera singer Helen Traubel was the first R&H performer to be miked in Pipe Dream (1955).

-- West Side Story (1957) used foot mikes

-- the first show to use a sound mixing console in the back of the theatre was 1957's Jamaica, so that Lena Horne's voice could be heard at the back of the theatre over the heavy orchestrations.

-- Wireless radio microphones were first produced in the early 1960s (one source claims Carol Channing used one in Dolly in 1964), but didn't become widely used until the 1970s. Cats (1982) was probably the first show in which every single performer wore a wireless mike. Even as late as 1981, Dreamgirls only used 5 wireless mikes; when the shows other performers came downstage, the whole orchestra had to come down in volume because the performers were coming off of the foot mikes."

Updated On: 12/23/06 at 02:25 AM

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 8:04am

Most old theaters had good accoustics

Most of the newer ones do not

[Smaxie]

Posted: 12/23/06 at 8:34am

I think there's a story in The Abominable Showman about a mishap with Anna Maria Albergetti and her body mic in Carnival...

[OtherDaryl]

Posted: 12/24/06 at 12:54pm

AS my voice teacher would say, "Use your diaphram, dear, and project like hell!"

[keen on kean]

Posted: 12/24/06 at 11:48pm

The first Broadway musical I attended that I recall seeing individual miking with was the 1976 revival of My Fair Lady - before then, I simply don't recall seeing the little antennae!