“I know why I want to,” Clarissa insisted. “If I had beautiful golden hair I might not go home at all. I might stay here and get a job doing commercials. See that girl on the floor now? I could do what she’s doing. I could demonstrate a magic cleaner as well as she can. I did plenty of cleaning and scrubbing at home, and I didn’t have any little fairy to help me, either. Look, girls! See that little fairy dancing around the sink. It isn’t there, but you can see it on the monitor. How do they make it look like that?”
The guide explained it. A cartoon film was placed in a camera she called a balopticon so that the fairy appeared to be helping the girl clean the sink, dancing about in the powder and waving her magic wand. Little specks of stardust seemed to fly from the end of it until the whole kitchen was spotless.
“Interesting, isn’t it?” she finished.
Some of the people found it so. Questions were asked about the properties set up to make the studio look like a kitchen. The floor was a design of squares painted on with water colors. It would be washed away when the set was changed.
Others were beginning to act bored. Judy noticed several women stopping to take mirrors out of their purses and look at themselves critically. One of them asked, “Will we need stage makeup? I’ve heard the stars use plenty of it.”
“Not at all,” replied the guide. “We will appear as we are.”
“Oh dear!” wailed Clarissa. “I look terrible. My hair is dull. My hair is drab—”
“Turn her off, somebody!” Pauline interrupted. “We’ve heard that record before.”
“She has my head spinning like a record,” declared Judy. “I hope I remember some of the things we’ve learned on this tour. A balopticon is one kind of camera and a dolly is another—”
“It isn’t the camera. It’s the truck that’s called a dolly,” Pauline corrected her. “You see, it takes two men to work it. That’s the camera man up there on the funny little seat.”