When was the 'birth' of the gobo?

[eldar]

Okay, here is a slightly more unusual question...

 

Does anyone know when the gobo was invented?

 

At what point did someone decide to fit bits to lanterns to shape the light? And was this before the idea of projection, especially the linnebach projector?

 

 

Any info or a point in the right direction to research would be fab. I'm currently googl'ing but the work 'gobo' has far too many places online to narrow my search.

 

Cheers in advance.

 

eldar

[w/robe]

Is a black silhouette type glass slide in a magic lantern a gobo? After all this being exactly how a modern gobo is made.

[obsoperator]

And I also presume that you're not intending to consider the use of perforated shapes external to the lighting instrument, which have been used in film and TV for a long time.

 

Does it help to know that Century (in the USA) and Kliegl Bros. (also in the USA) patented the Lekolite and the Klieglight, respectively, in 1933?

 

I notice that Stanley McCandless had 1932, 1939, and 1947 editions of "A Method Of Lighitng the Stage". It might be interesting to compare them and see if gobos are mentioned.

 

Your question is going to take a lot of searching to answer, for example, paging through all of the Strand archive.

[Wuddy]

Have a look at www.theatrecrafts.com and click on 'glossary of theatre terms' and do appropriate search.

[Ken Coker]

After a very quick look:

 

McCandless (1958 4th ed) does not mention them. The ellipsoidal drawing on p41 has a shutter mechanism but no gobo runners.

Rubin (1966 reprint of 1954 ed) does mention them in the context of television.

Further research pointers can be found in Bergmann "Lighting in the Theatre" (1977) - especially the bibliography.

 

Ridge "Stage Lighting"(1928) does not mention them.

 

Hope that helps a bit

 

KC

[eldar]

Thanks all for your replies - plenty of places for me to go and nose in.

 

The main reason I asked was I because I am currently looking into linnebach projectors on the request of a director, for use in a victorian style ghost story. I want to try to explain that while the linnebach is a good idea we have a evolved a little in theatre techniques, I have a real modern projector that I plan to use instead.

 

If I can point out that while the linnebach projector was amazing at the turn of the century (which it was) it was a very crude device compared to what has happened since - including the invention of the gobo and more. We have more sophisticated methords of projecting shapes or images.

 

Next step is to modify 'peppers ghost' for use in a theatre with no wings or orchestra pit!

 

Cheers

 

eldar

[Snowblade99]

I am told the word GOBO comes from the stage managers call to the follow spot of "Go Blackout", when a card was dropped in front of the beam of a follow spot in order to create an instant black out. As time when by it was discovered that cutting shapes in this card would give an additional effect on stage.

I would expect finding out the true genesis of the GOBO will be a near impossible task.

[woody74]

I am told the word GOBO comes from the stage managers call to the follow spot of "Go Blackout"

 

Interesting. I have never heard that one before. I was told long ago that gobo is an acronym for GOes Before Optics. Yours is much more interesting ;)

 

-w

[andy_s]

If I can point out that while the linnebach projector was amazing at the turn of the century (which it was) it was a very crude device compared to what has happened since - including the invention of the gobo and more. We have more sophisticated methords of projecting shapes or images.

 

Next step is to modify 'peppers ghost' for use in a theatre with no wings or orchestra pit!

 

Cheers

 

eldar

 

 

for some types of shadow projection the linnebach or a variation is still the best way to go - for instance a lighting effect in an old Adventures in Motion Pictures show I worked on called "Deadly Serious" (early nineties - LD Rick Fisher) used a 1kW fresnel with lens removed (effectively a linnebach) to project a giant shadow of one of the dancers who was standing in the wings onto the cyc in a spoof of the shower scene from Psycho. (the show was a homage to Hitchcock). Could have been done with a gobo, except the shadow had to move and then the real dancer appear on stage for the gag to work. I suppose now you could do it with video projection at ten times the cost in terms of prep time and equipment. The hardest thing in our version was persuading the resident technicians to take the lens out and promising that we would put it back at the end of the run in their venue.....

[Tomo]

The hardest thing in our version was persuading the resident technicians to take the lens out and promising that we would put it back at the end of the run in their venue.....

I'm not surprised about that - the lens in a theatrical lantern is not purely for optics - it's a safety feature as well.

 

If the lamp goes boom, the lens stops bits of hot quartz glass being showered over turns.

 

IIRC, t's a requirement in the EN regs to have two 'things' to stop hot glass showers - two lenses, or a lens plus a suitable mesh - and the size of mesh depends on the lamp.

[andy_s]

The hardest thing in our version was persuading the resident technicians to take the lens out and promising that we would put it back at the end of the run in their venue.....

I'm not surprised about that - the lens in a theatrical lantern is not purely for optics - it's a safety feature as well.

 

If the lamp goes boom, the lens stops bits of hot quartz glass being showered over turns.

 

IIRC, t's a requirement in the EN regs to have two 'things' to stop hot glass showers - two lenses, or a lens plus a suitable mesh - and the size of mesh depends on the lamp.

 

 

absolutely. Thanks for pointing this out.

 

though in my own defense: 1) the fresnel was on the floor pointing up, so any discharge wouldn't have been showered over anyone. 2) in my experience, problems with fresnels have involved lenses shattering rather than lamps exploding, though of course that doesn't mean it couldn't happen....and 3) the objections raised at the time (as I recall) were more along the lines of forgetting where the loose lens had ended up and therefore not being able to restore the lantern to its usual state.

 

it was a long time ago and thinking and attitudes change. It was still the best way to achieve the desired effect (the point of my post). If it's a technique that's no longer acceptable due to safety concerns, then of course we have to bear that in mind.