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Light Console (1935 - 1955)
Strand
Light Console Revolutionary lighting control, based on a Compton organ console, giving the operator a view of the stage for the first time.
The Strand Light Console is designed to give an operator, seated in full view of the stage, absolute control of all the lighting circuits that make up a modern stage installation, whatever the size of the theatre.
This revolutionary lighting control, and the ubiquitous Pattern 23 spotlight became synonymous with Fred Bentham and Strand. The Light Consoles lasting legacy was to progress the technology of lighting control from a complex on-stage mechanical device to a remote control which could be located where the operator could actually see what was being lit.
The recently discovered specifications from 1936 and 1937, for installations which never came to fruition, show the efforts made to customise every detail of the console to each situation.
A specially-made church organ console remotely controlled banks of resistance dimmers which were connected to constant-speed, motor driven shafts via magnetic clutches
Installations:
[01] 1935: Original / Prototype: King Street Strand Electric Theatre (demo theatre). Moved to London Palladium in 1941 following bombing of King Street. The console was situated at the stage left / auditorium right end of the Grand Circle with a good view of the stage. It was replaced with a larger model in 1949 (below). [Victoria & Albert Museum collection, UK]
[02] 1940: National Opera House, Lisbon (108 ways)
[03] 1946: Theatre Royal, Bristol (60 ways)
[04] 1946: South Short Icedrome, Blackpool (64 ways)
[05] 1949: London Palladium (152 ways, replacing the 1935 original)
[06] 1949: National Opera House, Ankara, Turkey (136 ways)
[07] 1949: Palace Theatre, Manchester (108 ways) [now in Gerriets Museum]
[08] 1950: Empress Theatre, Earls Court, London (90 ways)
[09] 1950: Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London (216 ways) [now on display at White Light]
[10] 1950: Stoll Theatre, Kingsway, London (176 ways)
[11] 1951: Royal Festival Hall, London (84 ways) [now on display at DHA Designs]
[12] 1952: London Coliseum (216 ways)
[13] 1954: Her Majesty's Theatre, London (152 ways)
[14] 1954: Adelphi Theatre, London (152 ways)
[15] 1954: Caracas University, Venezuala (94 ways) [still in situ and still operational in 2019]
[16] 1955: Plaza, Caracas, Venezuala (121 ways)
[17] 1955: Theatre Polski, Warsaw [This was the last Light Console manufactured]
The document 'Technology of the Light Console' by Brian Legge (see below) goes into great detail about how to operate a Light Console.
The 1945 Strand Catalogue includes a large section on the Light Console
See also Nick Hunt's excellent resources on the Light Console installations.
Related Venues:
Extra Information: Comments from Adrian Buesnel (September 2001)By
Adrian Buesnel My special interest is in the early Compton Theatrone electronic organs, as I own what is possibly the first, dating from 1938. There seems to be very little written material about these organs, less than 20 were made, and I am exploring various leads in the hope of finding out more information.
In a roundabout way, I learned that Compton had some involvement with the Ideal Home Exhibition circa 1938, and wondered if my organ could have been there. Hence I e-mailed the present-day organisers, and have been sent copies a few pages from the 1939 programme and also from a book about the exhibition over the years.
The light show described by Stephen Hancock was the centrepiece of the 1939 exhibition, in front of which Lord & Lady Harmsworth declared the exhibition open. The feature was described as the 'Kaleidakon' and it seems it was just as Stephen described. However the programme states that B. E. Bear was to operate the Light Console. The music was provided by the famous cinema organist Quentin MacLean on a Compton Theatrone (which was not my one). The organ console and the light console were symmetrically positioned facing each other, to one side of the lake. (Whether this was a later repeat of a 1932 feature would be interesting to know, in which case the newfangled electronic organ might have succeeded a live band. Pipe organs were impractical to transport!)
Your picture of the Light Console looks so uncannily like a well-equipped organ console, complete with three manuals of ivories and black notes, stop tabs, thumb and toe pistons, swell pedals and music desk (using organ terminology) that I can only imagine that the 'Kaleidakon' arose out of a collaboration between Strand and Compton (which made most components of its consoles from raw materials-there is a video available which shows the Compton factory in 1936). Indeed the Theatrone organ carries the parallel further, as unlike modern electronic organs, the sound generator is in a cabinet some distance away, containing about 200 relays, a motor and various other equipment, connected to the console by an 'umbilicus'.
I am particularly interested in the organ aspect of the installation, and how this concept was arrived at (presumably Strand had other work at the exhibition). I wonder where further information might be found, and whether there is an account (or even a film) of what the lighting effects looked like, and how they related to the music. Also, what became of the tower after the event?
The article, written by F. P. Bentham is two pages long, describing the installation in layman's terms (and frustratingly simply describes the Compton Console as 'very familiar'). There is a drawing of the Kaleidakon.
Extra Information: From Fred Bentham's 1976 book 'The Art of Stage Lighting'Light Console Controls
By
Fred BenthamEach channel was selected by a stopkey to be "played" on a master keyboard. When off, the dimmer stayed where it was last driven. Each master consisted of twelve keys, three of each colour - white, red, blue and green. The stopkeys were coloured similarly. Dimmers could be moved against their colour master by using "Reverse" and "General Move". Master keys were double-touch giving in fours from the left: Blackout/Dim, Raise/Dim, Full-on/Raise. Dimmers had both series and short-circuiting contactors.
Extra Information: Comments from Stephen Hancock (January 2001)Light Console - Stephen Hancock
By
Stephen Hancock"Fred Bentham designed the Light Console for the 1939 Ideal Home Exhibition at Olympia. It was for a light show "son et lumiere" style. Using a large translucent perspex tower, several storeys high, in the middle of an artificial lake, it was internally lit with different colours, controlled by the Light Console. The light show was accompanied by music, it might have been a live orchestra even. My Grandmother told me she saw the light show at the exhibition. Maestro (whose real name, I now remember, was Len Jordan) got his nickname from the expert "playing" he did at that show. I know there are some B&W photos of the gig in an old edition of TABS. "
See also:
Documents
Light Console (unknown venue ?Adelphi Theatre)
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From
Alan Ashton CollectionLight Console Controls
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From
Strand Archive[01] Fred Bentham at the Light Console (from LIGHTS, Feb 1992)
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From
Strand Archive[04] Light Console for Blackpool Icedrome with lid closed
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From
Frederick Brown CollectionHilary Gould at the Light Console, London Palladium (from TABS March 1964) (1942)
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[06] Light Console at the National Opera House in Ankara with Memory Box (1949)
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From
Frederick Brown Collection[13] John Gray at the Light Console at Her Majesties Theatre (1954)
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From
John Gray Photo CollectionLight Console - Stephen Hancock (1971)
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From
Strand Archive
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