Shadow Pictures may be accompanied by a phonograph. Care must be taken in arranging the lights so that the shadows of the actors may be clear cut and not out of proportion to the size of the sheet on which they are thrown. The concealed phonograph starts, and presto! the shadow actors behind the sheet seem to be the very embodiment of the voices of the records. It is difficult to realize that a machine is talking. Especially is this true when the impersonators are sufficiently familiar with the words as to be able to form them with their lips, although not really uttering them.
Shadow Show. One of the most pleasurable forms of entertainment, in which every boy and girl takes delight, is the shadow show, and a home-made one can be easily constructed and varied to your heart’s content, if you are at all ingenious.
First secure some light strips of wood one inch thick and two inches wide; you will need two of these six feet long and two of them three feet long. These are to be joined together, making a frame six feet high by three feet wide.
Next secure two strips one inch thick, one inch wide, and three feet long, and two strips of the same size, but one foot long. Attach the one-foot pieces to the three-foot strips six inches from each end.
This frame is to be attached to your larger frame, twelve inches from the top.
Your framework should be joined so that it presents a flush, smooth surface at all of the joints of the two frames. Over your large framework you will now tack or glue black paper or muslin, leaving the opening made by the smaller frame to be covered by white muslin, making a semi-transparent screen 12 × 24 inches, upon which are to be shown the figures.
A piece of tape is stretched across the bottom of the screen, close to the frame. This holds against the frame the figures used in the show and at the same time allows a continuation of their feet in the cardboard from which they are cut to project below, and so be held by the exhibitor.
By means of these continuations below the feet, the exhibitor can make the figures glide along, rock backward and forward, or suddenly disappear by pulling them downward.
All the figures should be cut out of cardboard and should have the projection or continuation of the feet. Scenery can be cut out the same way, and is quite easy, as you only need side screens. The scenes can be held by the tape strip or can be fastened to the sides by using thumb tacks. The joints of the figures are made with bits of broom wire. If you want the eyes of the comic figures to roll about, string a glass bead upon a thread and insert in a place cut for eyes in the figure; fasten the thread at either side with a bit of glued muslin. During the performance, this screen is illuminated by placing a light about three feet behind it; the room in which the audience is seated being, of course, dark. To shut out any light that may shine out at the sides or top of the doorway, you should hang shawls or strips of your black paper muslin.
Humorous and grotesque pictures may be cut out of newspapers and magazines, pasting them on cardboard and then cutting out the cardboard. The show may be a pantomime or the exhibitor may speak for the different characters. All the figures to be used should be placed on a table or a chair near the exhibitor or held by an assistant. With a little ingenuity you can make the figures so that the arms and legs and head work on pivots, attaching them to thread so small that it will not cast a shadow on the screen. There is hardly any end to the amusement you may have in this way.