Halloween: Magic Lanterns, Part 2—INTERVIEW with Gale Wollenberg
Gale Wollenberg is pretty handy in a machine shop. So handy, in fact, that he decided to build his own magic lantern. His incredible accomplishments are well-known in magic lantern circles. Mr. Wollenberg shares his time with us now to tell us how he got interested in the whole business...
How did you get interested in magic lanterns?
My interest in magic lanterns started after stumbling on to several magic lantern Web sites when looking for magician Web sites in the early years of this new century. As a teenager in the 1960s, I remember reading a comic book that told of an old magician who hired a lazy peasant (this depicted a medieval time period) to run his candle fired projection lantern. So I made all the mental connections of how the magic lantern had been used through about 300 years of it's history. I am a member of the Magic Lantern Society of the U.S. and Canada and have contributed one or two articles to the European Magic Lantern Society's newsletter.
A tool and die maker by trade, I found it rather easy to "reverse engineer" the antique lanterns that "took my fancy" and build replicas (I think 14 at last count) for use in demonstrating magic lantern shows of the past. I am also gifted in sketching, painting etc. And realize it sorta runs in the family -- my mom used to do a lot of fashion model drawings in her high school art class in the late 1940s and other cousin's on my mom's side are so gifted. And my oldest son has his MFA degree from K-State. He presently designs Web sites as a sideline and is one of K-State's Web site designers for the extension office. He gets it from both sides of the family. His grandma on my wife's side was a fashion photographers model and his Aunt is a gifted person with sketching and oil paints.
You've made magic lanterns...do you also collect them? Besides magic lanterns, have you reproduced magic lantern slides?
I also have several original factory made magic lanterns. I make my own slides using engraved plate images from books out of the 1800s and some of the Dover reprints of those old engravings. This way I can advertise authentic 19th-century images. This is done by first photocopying the images out of the book and then using colored pencils or colored markers to color the images and sometimes both coloring media. Then the image is cut along the border and pasted onto a square sheet of black construction paper and this whole affair is reduced in size to three and one fourth inches square onto transparency, or to save money onto another paper sheet so I can do six slide images at one time and then to transparency sheet using the best color copier you can find -- seems that Office Depot stores have the best in this area of Kansas (Topeka). Then these little squares are cut out and sandwiched in between two sheets of 3 and 1/4" square clear styrene (about 1/32" thick) and taped up with black photo tape or the blue painters masking tape which is a little less expensive.
I have to admit that I am a better craftsman than a showman but the shows still seem to go over very well. There is one showman who is set to travel (he's in Europe right now) greater distances with his equipment. He is Terry Borton who has the American Magic Lantern Theater Web site. He has performed his show before very large audiences and has a regular Halloween show on his venue. To this point my show has been limited to around a 30-mile radius of Topeka.
Do you have plans for a Halloween-themed magic lantern show?
I do have some replica phantasmagoria slides but haven't really put together a Halloween show yet. This winter I plan to start making slides totally by hand using oil paints and also making the large format poly slides 6 1/2" x 8 1/2"---see my picture on the Network of Toy Theater Enthusiasts Web site. That giant projector has a 13 3/4" diameter condensor lens.
How did you get interested in magic lanterns?
My interest in magic lanterns started after stumbling on to several magic lantern Web sites when looking for magician Web sites in the early years of this new century. As a teenager in the 1960s, I remember reading a comic book that told of an old magician who hired a lazy peasant (this depicted a medieval time period) to run his candle fired projection lantern. So I made all the mental connections of how the magic lantern had been used through about 300 years of it's history. I am a member of the Magic Lantern Society of the U.S. and Canada and have contributed one or two articles to the European Magic Lantern Society's newsletter.
A tool and die maker by trade, I found it rather easy to "reverse engineer" the antique lanterns that "took my fancy" and build replicas (I think 14 at last count) for use in demonstrating magic lantern shows of the past. I am also gifted in sketching, painting etc. And realize it sorta runs in the family -- my mom used to do a lot of fashion model drawings in her high school art class in the late 1940s and other cousin's on my mom's side are so gifted. And my oldest son has his MFA degree from K-State. He presently designs Web sites as a sideline and is one of K-State's Web site designers for the extension office. He gets it from both sides of the family. His grandma on my wife's side was a fashion photographers model and his Aunt is a gifted person with sketching and oil paints.
You've made magic lanterns...do you also collect them? Besides magic lanterns, have you reproduced magic lantern slides?
I also have several original factory made magic lanterns. I make my own slides using engraved plate images from books out of the 1800s and some of the Dover reprints of those old engravings. This way I can advertise authentic 19th-century images. This is done by first photocopying the images out of the book and then using colored pencils or colored markers to color the images and sometimes both coloring media. Then the image is cut along the border and pasted onto a square sheet of black construction paper and this whole affair is reduced in size to three and one fourth inches square onto transparency, or to save money onto another paper sheet so I can do six slide images at one time and then to transparency sheet using the best color copier you can find -- seems that Office Depot stores have the best in this area of Kansas (Topeka). Then these little squares are cut out and sandwiched in between two sheets of 3 and 1/4" square clear styrene (about 1/32" thick) and taped up with black photo tape or the blue painters masking tape which is a little less expensive.
I have to admit that I am a better craftsman than a showman but the shows still seem to go over very well. There is one showman who is set to travel (he's in Europe right now) greater distances with his equipment. He is Terry Borton who has the American Magic Lantern Theater Web site. He has performed his show before very large audiences and has a regular Halloween show on his venue. To this point my show has been limited to around a 30-mile radius of Topeka.
Do you have plans for a Halloween-themed magic lantern show?
I do have some replica phantasmagoria slides but haven't really put together a Halloween show yet. This winter I plan to start making slides totally by hand using oil paints and also making the large format poly slides 6 1/2" x 8 1/2"---see my picture on the Network of Toy Theater Enthusiasts Web site. That giant projector has a 13 3/4" diameter condensor lens.
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