This is the Central Theater's revolving stage, the first of its kind in the country. night Ye Liberty opened, recalls that the staff consisted of 12 musicians, two stagehands, an electrician, a flyman, a carpenter and assistant, a scenic painter and assistant, a property man and assistant, 12 girl ushers, two cashiers, a publicity map, the manager and two assistants, three doormen and three jani- tors- total of 46 persons. "Some of the shows had a cast of 100," Du Frane recalls. "The show people were nice people, and we had good clean audiences. They'd be so enthusiastic, we'd give them five or six curtains. Shows were for one week, although an exceptional show might be Continued Page B-21, Col. 1 Woman Nearly Itches To Death "I nearly itched to death for 7½ years Then I found awes wondercreme. Now I'm happy," says Mrs. D. Ward ofLA. . Here's blessed relief from tortures of vaginal itch, rectal itch, chafing, rash and eczema with an amazing new scientific formula called LANACANE. 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Redwood APPLE Empire, CIDER ½1/ Gallon or Bottle JUICE . 55€ Grade EGGS A. Extra NULAID Large doz. 435 OREGON RUSSETS POTATOES .... 25:89 Oakland Tribune, Sunday, Feb. 14, 1960 End of Local Theater Is Also End of Dream By FRED The theater which in 1904 was the pride of the theatrical world will soon be no more. It will disappear into the mists of memory when workmen tear down the Central Theater, on Broadway near 14th, to make way for a parking lot. The theater was the brain child of Harry W. Bishop (Harry Morosco), a talented entrepreneur of 50 years ago. It was christened Ye Liberty Play House and was one of eight theaters catering to Eastbay drama lovers. THE OPENING Excitement ran high on March 14, 1904, when 1,500 persons awaited the moment when Ye Liberty's curtain vuld rise for the first time on James Neill and Edythe Chapman in "A Bachelor's Romance." This was the great social cvent of the season. The lobby was a solid mass of flowers. The play was exciting and the actors excellent. This, the first-nighters proc'aimed as they awaited their 11:40 carriages, was theater at its best. And well they might have thought so, for Harry Bishop that night had offered an innovation which was to startle show business. Bishop was irked by the time, labor and expense involved in changing scenes. "Why," he asked himself, "not build a revolving stage?• Then two, three, four or even five sets could be placed before the audience merely by turning the stage!" It was a revolutionary idea, and one that was to be copied throughout the nation. But Bishop did not profit from his idea. Money meant little to him. He plowed profits back into new productions with a prodigal hand. He gave the public great entertainment, but in the end he was to lose Ye Liberty Play House. He was also, later, to lose the Bishop Play House (afterward -re-named the Fulton Theater and Franklin Theater), which also had a revolving stage. END OF THE LINE Bishop was to die a heartbroken man in 1928. At the end he was virtually penniless and, sadly, his creative qualities never received the recognition they deserved. Creative? Bishop decades ago invented now widely-heralded smellies. There is a scene in Augustus Thomas' "The Witching Hour" in which an old ige, communing with the ghost of a beloved sweetheart, read these lines as the wraith appeared: the air is filled, that she passes through, with a subtle, sad perfume. The delicate odor of mignonette, the ghost of a dead-and-gone bouquet." As the lines were read, an odor of mignonette faintly pervaded the theater. "The effect," Tribune drama critic, the late Wood Soanes, BRAUE reminisced, "was quite extraordinary." Ye Liberty Theater in 1904 was an extraordinary amusement palace, relatively as pretentious as the rococo movie palaces which were to spring up in New York 30 years later. To assure visibility, t.; orchestra section was steeply pitched much so that it was said if a patron tripped at the entrance, he would inevitably roll into the orchestra before he could be rescued. Indeed, after an evening's work, the girl ushers complained they had not of fered their services for nountain climbing. But the important fact was that every seat was a good seat. This was as Bishop wanted it. THE STAGE The stage was (and is) a wonderful thing. It is 96 feet wide and 90 feet deep. The revolving stage was (and is) an amazing 75 feet in diameter. Dressing rooms, nOW bare and dusty, line the stage, two tiers on each side. At the rear, and 30 feet above the stage, is the scenic loft in which scenery was built. This was in itself an enterprise. Canvas was placed on a 30 by 54-foot frame (still in the theater) which was dropped to stage level. As it was raised, scenic artists created the backdrop by working from the top down. In the 14 years before Bish• op lost his theater through bankruptcy, he presented great names-Frank Bacon, Jimmy Gleason (Jimmy married Lucille at a little church at 13th and Clay), Walter Catlett, David Warfield, Landers Stevens, Marjorie Rambeau, Nance O'Neill, Willard Mack, Otis Skinner and many another-not to overlook Richard Hotaling. PARADOX Hotaling was a paradoxa rich actor. He was also an amateur actor. His portrayal of Tinker, in "A Midsummer Night's Dream,' in which he was floated above the stage at the end of a wire, may have lacked authenticity. In any event, a zany stage crew had an inspired moment. It hoisted the actor high above the stage, fastened the wire and walked away. It was avely reported that lot ling's excited pleas, growing increasingly loud, had the au"en in convulsions. The plays presented by Ye L'berty's stock company were memorable. There was the "Man on the Box,' "Charlie's Aunt," "The Man from Mexico," "The Girl I 'Left Behind Me," "The Girl of the Golden West," *445 Minutes from Broadway," and almost every other hit of the day. The theater 50 years ago was an important business in the community. Capacity audiences were the rule. William Du Frane, who was assistant carpenter on the