This incident in the Little Country Theatre involved Paul Plann, a high school pal of mine who later became my roommate in California, and a big heavy box of theater props. The year was 1935.
The college administration was holding a conference in the Little Country Theatre auditorium; however, not all the 300 seats were filled. At the same time, Paul, then a freshman student in Mechanical Engineering and a volunteer LCT stagehand for an upcoming theater presentation, was in the process of assembling the props for the show. He was exploring all the miscellaneous things stored in the attic above the auditorium of the theater.
When the theater had been constructed in Old Main years before, the attic had been left without any flooring for budgetary reasons; the joists were bare, and any personnel wanting to move about in the attic had to step carefully from joist to joist as the lath and plaster auditorium ceiling was quite fragile. It was not a very good place to store materials for that reason. But there were not too many storage places in the theater proper or the Lincoln Log Cabin, so the attic space had been pressed into service for long-term prop storage.
Because it was a handy place, earlier student stagehands had stored a few pieces of furniture and some large boxes of props in the area. When Paul went into the attic that afternoon, he stepped carefully on the joists because he was aware of the meeting going on below and was trying not to make noise. When he found the box of props he wanted, he lifted the heavy carton and began to walk carefully back to the entrance door of the attic.
"With the big box in my arms," Paul recounted later, "I had a hard time seeing the joists, so when I slipped, I really slipped! My leg went crashing through the lath and plaster ceiling and I fell back across the other joists. I broke out laughing. I 'd been so careful to be quiet, I couldn't help but laugh. There I was with one leg hanging out of the ceiling and a huge box of props still locked in my arms. I was lucky I fell backwards across the joists; I could have fallen sideways and gone crashing all the way down to the seats below."
Down below in the auditorium, the people gathered for the conference were surprised when the plaster and dust dropped upon them. None of the participants were hit by falling debris. When they looked up for the source of the noise, they saw Paul's leg hanging down. After a slight pause, the audience broke into laughter, too. It was a funny sight.
Needless to say, the college administration reacted quickly and had a proper floor installed in the attic of the theater. When asked later if he had become hurt in the tumble, Paul would say with a grin, "I was lucky in that department, too! It was a close miss!"
(Told by Bill Snyder, NDAC, class of 1942)
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University Archives, 701-231-8914 Published by the University Archives, NDSU Last Updated: 8/27/04 |