Chapter VIII: Impromptu Moving Pictures for Thanksgiving

THIS entertainment is one that girls can get up themselves, though of course boys may take part. It is very funny if well carried out and will give every one a hearty laugh, which we all know is a good thing after the Thanksgiving dinner.

First make the poster, to be hung in a conspicuous place in hall or parlor. Print it in large black letters on a good-sized sheet of wrapping paper:

There Will be To-night
An Exhibition of
The World-Renowned
Moving Pictures
Taken by Madam Moselle at Great Risk of Life and Property.
No Expense or Effort Being Spared to Obtain the
Real Characters and Settings
of a
Puritan Thanksgiving
And Other Scenes from the Life
of Our Forefathers.

Make the picture screen by stretching a large white sheet on the back wall of the room where the performance is to be held, as you would for a magic lantern exhibition. Then get your costumes ready. These may be made up very quickly from materials at hand.

=The Puritan Woman’s Dress=

as well as that of the man must be entirely of black and white, and to carry out the effect of black and white pictures their faces and hands should be made perfectly white with chalk, their eyebrows blackened and black wigs made of fringed tissue paper. Only a little of the woman’s hair will show but the man’s should be long and hang down to his shoulders. A tight black waist and skirt nearly to her ankles; a long white apron, white kerchief and cuffs (cut from old muslin) and a tightly fitting little black cap with a turned over edge of white form the costume of the woman. With these should be worn low black shoes and white stockings. For the

=Puritan Man’s Costume=

have short, full, black trousers, long black or white coat with wide white collar and cuffs, a high-crowned, broad-brimmed black hat and low shoes with black stockings. A black leather trunk strap buckled across one shoulder may be added, also a long black cloak and staff. Cut the man’s collar and cuffs like Figs. 98 and 99, and the woman’s cuffs like Fig. 99. Fig. 100 shows how the Puritan hat is made of stiff brown paper over an ordinary straw hat. Fig. 101 is the brim, Fig. 102 the crown, which must be pinned together along its straight edges.

=The Properties=

for the Thanksgiving dinner scene are a long, narrow table spread for dinners, and chairs enough for the actors, six or eight taking part.

Before showing her pictures Madam Moselle should stand in front of the screen and say a few words extolling the pictures she is about to present.

The girl who represents Madam Moselle should deliver an amusing little speech, giving a foreigner’s idea of our first Thanksgiving, and it can be made absurdly funny with its many ludicrous mistakes.

At the close of her address the lights must be put out and the scene quickly arranged close to the screen, all the actors except two being seated at the table. Thus remain two empty chairs.

As quickly as possible the light should be turned on and at the same time the actors must begin

=A Pantomime=

of eating, drinking and talking.

They should express anxiety for the safety of the tardy guests, some of them leaving the table to appear to look out of a door or window.

All the while (this is the great point) the actors must shake and quiver in imitation of the queer trembling and quivering always seen in the moving pictures; and their movements must be very rapid.

Soon the missing couple should appear, coming in hurriedly and by gestures telling of an encounter with the Indians.

Their clothes should be pierced with arrows, and the Puritan’s hat must be bristling with them.

All this will be very laughable if the acting is good, and absurd little by-plays introduced; but the whole thing will be spoiled unless the constant quivering and shaking is kept up by all of the actors.

The picture can be “flashed off” the screen by simply turning out the light, and others may be shown giving various incidents in Puritan life or the early history of our country.