Most American theaters have a ‘ghost light’ which is switched on when everyone leaves for the night. Usually a single bare light bulb on a stand, it remains lit until the next day.
Just one of the known rituals associated with the theater. The anxiety associated with performance has been the birth superstitions like saying break-a-leg rather than good-luck.
Evidently, in the days of early vaudeville, the producers would book more performers than could possibly perform in the given time of the show – since “bad” acts could be pulled before their completion… so, in order to insure that the show didn’t start paying people who don’t actually perform, there was a general policy that a performer did NOT get paid unless they actually performed on-stage. So the phrase “break a leg” referred to breaking the visual plane of the legs that lined the side of the stage.
Today known as the Palace Theater in London it was originally the Royal English Opera House – opera for the royals.
Adelphi theater intentionally built for the public in an era, 1809, when theater was a luxury of the elite.
Bend the knee, break the leg means taking a bow due to an excellent performance.
No mirrors, peacock feathers or use of the number 13.
Austin’s Paramount Theater
The Paramount was opened in 1915 as the Majestic theater. Austin was going through big changes in those days, going from frontier town to major city. Big acts started to frequent the Majestic. In fact in 1916 a Magician performed here. He was famous for being put in a straight jacket and suspended over the audience and escaping. Any guesses who that was? That’s right Houdini. To this day if you are sitting in the Orchestra section, look up and a little to your left. There is a hole in the ceiling. That is known as the Houdini Hole. That’s where he put the hook in the ceiling and was suspended. They have never repaired it because, Houdini did it.
A man was working on the stage when the Projector turned on. No light was coming out of the booth but he could hear the unmistakable clacking noise of the projector. He thought that he was the only one in the building so he went up stairs to investigate. He got the to projector room and found that the door was locked, but he could still hear the projector. He found the key, opened the door and was shocked. He could hear the projector loudly running but none of the wheels were turning and all of the switches were in the off position.
Books and Crannies in Historic Downtown Terrell, Texas
Where the only limit is your imagination………………………………
Books and Crannies is located in an old movie theatre which was built in 1925. “The Iris Theatre” operated continuously until it’s final show in 2001. We renovated it into our bookstore, but kept the flavor and the feel of the old theatre. We also have a small theatre in the back of the store where we show classic movies and where our theatre troupe, The Vagabond Players, perform live theatrical presentations.
Our goal is to have a place of peace in a busy world where our customers can enjoy a quiet time in our reading area with a good book or just peruse our shelves to find great books to read. Our resident feline greeters (Molly and Stormy) will be happy to help!
We sell both used and new books. New books normally are discounted up to 15% off retail with no shipping charge. If you are looking for an out of print book, please let us help you find it! We take your gently used books in trade, and will offer you a store credit to use to ‘purchase’ used books that we have in stock in the store. Up to 65% of your purchase can be ‘paid’ with credit from books you trade in. With close to 100,000 used books in all genres, you are likely to find something you can’t live without on our shelves! We are also the exclusive Terrell distributor of Susan’s Soaps and More – an all natural line of skin care products handmade in Scurry, Texas. Susan’s soap scents are nothing short of delectable, and the salt glows can help solve a myriad of skin problems. And with Skin Serums for every skin type, and lotion bars that smell good enough to eat, Susan has developed a complete line of skin care products.
Also located in the Iris Theatre building is Silhouette Ladies Resale Boutique. Check out the “Silhouette” page for more information on this shop. And our newest addition is a Metaphysical Shop called “Moonstone Treasures”! There you will find a selection of stones, crystals, jewelry, tapestries, tarot cards, incense, and more – come check it out soon!
