Evening Star Newspaper, September 8, 1935, Page 53

.UNCLE SAM AIDING REVIVAL OF DIORAMA ART HERE By Margery Rice. ing revived in this country, and Washington, center of many activities, is harboring one of the most active of the new diorama studios. Diorama artistry has been so long forgotten in the United States that the term itself has become unfamiliar to American ears, but it now appears that the business is due for a great deal of attention in the near future. A diorama is nothing more than a miniature model, having perspective, and placed in a setting which gives it an atmosphere of naturalness. The current revival of diorama making has | brought with it the introduction of | moving parts to the models, and so| successful has this innovation been that it appears that future dioramas may include animation as a rule rather than an exception. The local center of the business is an entire wing of one of the old *temporary” Government buildings on Seventh street, where Charles Plastow, diorama artist for the Interior De- partment, has his office. His studio consists of a large room furnished with a desk, a few chairs, work table, and metal and woodworking machin- | ery. Wall cabinets contain an assort- | ment of paints and putty, wires, nails | and screws, moss and lichen gathered | from trees, branches of peculiar shapes, | various kinds of wood, electrical equipment and other miscellany. NIMATED and improved, the long-neglected diorama is be- 'HE output of this studio to date has consisted of a group of dio- ramas which has proved a fascinating attraction wherever it has been shown. Some of them went to the Chicago Fair to show the public in a way that | would be remembered a few of the activities of the Federal Government. | Some of those same dioramas, and some new ones, are now at the San Diego Exhibition. Another group will | go to the Texas Centennial next year. | As an example, consider the “before and after” dioramas of the housing exhibit now at San Diego—before and after the Interior Department’s hous- ing division has done its work. They show the inside of a typical apartment in a crowded slum. The rooms are small, and too few, so that the largest of them must serve as kitchen, living room. dining room and at night a | sleeping room. Detailed models of | stove, table, chairs and kitchen equip- | ment show the living arrangements | to be inadequate and inconvenient. ‘The light is poor, as are the ventila- | tion and the sanitary arrangements. | The man of the house tries to read a | newspaper by the dim light which | comes through the one window. Chil- | dren play on a rough wooden floor, | which because of its splintery condi- | tion, cannot possibly be kept clean. | The-bed rooms are equally meager | in their furnishings and equally de- | pressing. Clothing is hung up to dry ! on improvised clotheslines stretched | across one room, The place is a fire- trap because of its one, exit dowp a | narrow stairs which serves a number of apartments on various floors, and it is altogether not the sort of home which is likely to produce good Amer- fcan citizens. % The “after” model is another story. It shows the same family housed in one of the proposed model apartments. ‘There is room enough so that only the bed rooms need serve for sleep- ing quarters and there is a kitchen and a living room There is a private bath room, & luxury which this family has never known, and there is ade- quate closet space, another item this | wife and mother has only dreamed of heretofore. The building is lighted | by electricity and an automatic re-| frigerator heips keep down expenses | by preserving food. Furniture, cur-| tains and wall coverings are cheap | but attractive, and the members of | the family appear immeasurably hap- | pier and healthier than they did in| the old surroundings. Another part of this same exhibit shows the outside of a modern low- cost housing project, side by side with an old-type tenement, an ar- rangement which is ideal for drawing the desired comparison. On the one hand there are green lawns, open spaces where children play on the grass under the trees, and a large, modern brick apartment house con- taining a number of low-cost apart- ments. Across a fence is an old-fashioned slum. All the dirt and general bro- ken-down appearance which charac- terizes such places is well brought out in the diorama. Children play in the narrow courts and above them o THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, SEPTEMBER 8, 1935—PART FOUR. lights in the homes are extinguished, leaving only the lighted elevator shaft in the modern building, and then the darknéss gives way to dawn. The steam shovel, which stopped with the dusk, begins its work again and the spectators stand fascinated. Most of them remain to watch the model through amother light cycle or two. an instrument of education has been overlooked these many years, clotheslines exhibit ragged garments. K has been practically non-existent in Under the windows a steam shovel | this country since before the turn wheezes and puffs at an excavating | of the century. Garbage cans line the alley | used more or which runs past the place, and alto- \ Europe ever since about 1878, when gether it presents an unforgettable | two Frenchmen put a sky behind a picture of the sort of dwelling in | model they were making and orig- which people should not have to live. | inated the idea of providing atmos- Mr. Plastow and his assistants have | phere for their work. added to this diorama not only move- | Museum has made extensive use of job. ment, as used in the practical minia- ture steam shovel, but changing lights, a device which commands at- tention. In this model day and night.follow each other within a cycle of about one minute, showing the contrasted buildings by moonlight as well as by sunlight. Through the working of an auto- | matic _control, first floods the the sunshine which diorama gradually fades into twilight and darkness, at | the same time that the moon comes | out and street lights are turned on. Bright and cheerful lights appear in R e o ot it [ orgotten Art Is Being Brought Back to Life— Exhibits Pre- pared for Chicago Fair, San Dicgo Exposition and Forth- coming Texas Centennial, Dioramas have been less extensively in The British this form of art, and many English | youths have been enticed into going to far-off Australia by the attractive dioramas of the colonies created by | the museum for just that purpose. None of the European models made use of animation, however, as far as history shows. ’ The Chicago Fair was the signal e ot e e | 117 pchington Harbors One of [fhgrasyesse the Most Active Studios of An mated Model Making in the 73 s 0 weaa v COUNtry, Where an Almost 0 of putting action into models and | who is an artist and craftsman by miniature train actually ran through the orange grove, disappeared | in the distance, and shortly reappeared on the other-side of the model to run through it again with another train- | load of frmit for the North. | As far as he knows, Mr. Plastow says, this was the first use of anima- tion in diorama construction. The innovation proved very practical, however, and those dioramas with ac- tion regularly attracted more of the Chicago fair's customers than did the “stills.” | Other diorama makers, of which there are probably 10 or 12 scattered | over the ecountry, took it up, and this‘ year's models show boats rocking on | water of ripple glass, subsistence homesteaders actually hoeing their gardens, farm worlen working in| | model kitchens, a housewife taking her | ease in a porch chair that really rocks, | and other action which invariably | proves fascinating to the spectators. |~ All these marvels are accomplished | by means of mechanical devices which must be as perfect and as foolproof as they are ingenious. When a dio- rama leaves the shop it must be so constructed that its mechanical parts and lighting equipment will run auto- matically on a schedule for eight o (| THRTT F3* Upper left: Charles Plastow, head of the Interior Department’s staff of diorama artists, working on one of his models. Top center: the famous Bok Tower in orama craftsmen in their A diorama reproduction of Florida. Upper right: Di- workshop in Washington. Lower left: In the fish market scene, the fishing boats rock gently at their moorings. Lower right: The diorama achieves a- remarkably exact reproduction of dogs and hunters in a Southern forest. A DIORAMA maker, says Mr. Plas- tow, must be half artist and half mechanic, or better yet 40 per cent artist and 60 per cent mechanic. A person whose artistic leanings over- shadow his ability along mechanical lines is likely to use too much painted background and not enough modeled and constructed foreground detail. The Interior Department dioramas, follow- ing Mr. Plastow’s formula, show only a painted sky, with occasionally a few trees or mountains on the flat surface, and everything else modeled in three dimensions. Diorama making is just as inter- esting as it sounds. There are no rules to go by, or practically none, and each separate model presents new problems. The first step in any job is for the revival of the diorama busi- | changed his status from that of pen- | avocation, made a small rough model hours or more a day for months or | getting the information which it is ness in America, and the managers of that great exhibition brought an expert from London to make some dioramas for them. time Charles Plastow, who was then At the same | cago was to conta the principal industries and activi- | country. diorama artist. So far, Mr.| The Florida State exhibit at.Chi- |State’s best-known products are trans- | Plastow says, simple design and can-l come models of ' ported to the northern sections of the | ful construction have resulted in a and-ink artist and model-maker to | showing a citrus grove, a fruit packing | perhaps years without breaking down | planned to present. Then the manner | plant, and the railroad by which the | or Tequiring repairs. of presenting it must be worked out and a plan drawn. Mr. Plastow frequently makes a is a true representation of what the finished product will be, enables the artist to work out many of the me- chanical problems in advance, and to | gt the exact comparative size which | various objects in the diorama should | have. It is also possible to try out | colors and lights in advance by this | method. | There are a few limitations which must be observed. Chief of these is that any action must be from side to side rather than from front to back. | For example, a train running from | front to back of a model, or vice versa, | would have to change size as it moved in order to retain its relation to the nearer or more distant trees and houses which it would be passing. A train can move from one side to the other, however, without encountering | this difficulty. Action must be exact enough not to | appear nidicrous, thus causing the | spectators to question the sincerity of perfect record in this respect for the | small “postcard” model in addition to | the entire model. In the case of the ! drawing a plan. Such a model, which | subsistence homesteader the windows of the modern apart-|living in Tampa, Fla, got the idea !ties within the State. Mr. Plastow,| The whole idea was a good one, but ' Interior Department’s dioramas. THOSE WERE THE HAPPY DAYS! POE, PRINCETON BREWER, HARARD 89 WYCKOFF- Corng/, - 05 !/ EEKS - CoLumsia. JOHN, ON-CRiSLE. ~ ECKERSALL-CHicAGO-~ MAYHEW - Blown - SCHOLZ- SCHOLZ- MicHiGAN - >0 1901 ‘03 ‘o5 06 ~ YALE — 70g SAAKLING Brown ~ AW! WHATS TH’OSE CALLIN’ SIGNALS ’10 A " HILL KSQS‘\‘ GNEITTO = /HOOKS" CO '%NOLET HIM - [ EMEMBER QUNWITH IT l/ —_— e | WHEN WE NEVER = | HEARD OFF A HUDODLE IN FOOTBALL AND WE CLAYED WITH ELEVEN MEN O LESS AND NO Cememeer THIS ONET, AFTERTHE. GEORGETOWN VIRGINIA MeETRE AT THE EBBITT- 1498 F . bR 4 «B0DY WAS TAKEN OLT OF THE GAME UNLESS ~ ( HE BROKE AN ARM OR LEG ?Your ABILITY ASA QLAYER™ WAS SODGED 8Y THE LENGTH OF JOUR HAIR AND “THE PADDING I N YOUR SHOULDERS. P VLl e o Y PR h. i - Q{V &7 Vi i/ it “Grid Memories” ~ —DBy Dick Mansfield s 4 VS. MqquKj. ; SN e — |HE ~R& ANDLOT BATTLE =0 CH YEAR~ REMEMBER. WHAT DO YoU REMEMBER * ONSWER TOLAST WEEK'S OESTION, HERE WAS FOREST LAKE CEMETERY D ANSWER, -' HE TERMINVUS OF W Ga Ave. S E Now TeDAR = W HILL CEMETER Y. : B, ot E R hoeing his garden, the Interior Department staff hesitated to use the animation because |it was possible only to move the hoe |and the man's arm, whereas a man hoeing actually moves his whole body with each stroke of the tool. They tried it, however, and found that the action was accurate enough that the | public did not object, but was at- | tracted by it. Mr. Plastow’s staff goes to a great | deal of trouble to get desired effects | A brick house is only a wooden model with tiny grooves to show the joints but a pile of bricks is a pile of actual tiny brick-shaped wooden pieces fast- ened together with glue and pins. It was found that really lifelike trees can be made only by the ap- plication of several thousand separate | leaves to especially selected natural branches. Out of necessity the crew developed a method of its own for making quarter-inch leaves in large lots. A Government writing pad half an inch thick was nailed to a board and rows of leaves drawn on the top sheet of paper. These were then cut out, board and all, with a jig- saw. Next, a wire of the required length and shape was glued to each row of leaves, so that one tip of each leaf was fastened to the wire and the other hung free. When the glue dried the whole “branch” thus made was dipped in green wax of the proper shade. Then the wire was bent into the desired shape and fastened to the branch which was to serve as the trunk of the diorama tree. A large variety of every-day articles provides the raw material for the Interior Department’s dioramas. Wood of several kinds is the most im- portant. Various modeling mediums are used extensively and paper is necessary. Wire screening over & wooden frame makes a mountain when one is needed. Human figures are modeled in the studio, the larger ones are dressed in clathes of real cloth and the smaller ones in clothes painted on the models. Small bushes, hedges dhd grass are made of moss and lichen painted the proper color. Furniture is made of wood or cardboard and is con- structed in the studio. All kinds of electrical equipment go into a model, both for lighting and for any ani- mation it may contain. One last particular sets this-busi- ness apart from others which occupy the time of the wage earnera of 1085. The field is not overcrowded. On &he other hand, Mr. Plastow sags when fair is in progress of preparation t is im) ble to get experisnced do- workers,