A WONDERFUL THEATRE.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19970, 3 July 1930, Page 4

A WONDERFUL THEATRE.

ZIEGFBLD, NEW YORK. It will, we think, be goner&lly ad* mitted, states the "Decorator," London, that few buildings offer so much scope to the decorator as the present-day theatre or cinema. Hardly a week passes without some new place of amusement of this kind being opened to the public, and the interest displayed by the latter in the decoration and furnishing <of the building is an encouraging sign of the times. A survey of the principal theatres — in which terra cinemas ant, of course, included—built daring the past ten yean reveals a very wide variety of treatment so far as the decoration is concerned. Almost every kind of period style has, on one occasion or another, been adopted or adapted; atmospheric decoration has been variously interpreted; futuristic treatment has, in one or two instances, been attempted, though in this respect European coun r tries are definitely la advance of us. It is to be doubted, however, whether we can show anything quite so remarkable as is to be seen In the famous Ziegfeld Theatre, Hew York. Although it is not new in the eenscf that it is recent, there is, nevertheless, a great deal of unexhausted decorative interest In this building, for the following brief description of which we are indebted to otir distinguished American contemporary, the "Upholsterer." Owing to the conformation of the Interior it is exceedingly difficult to obtain photographs that will show the impression the interior decoration makes upon an observer, because while the eye of the camera can see only that to which it is pointed, the eyes of an observer take in a greater expanse of the wall and the ceiling than can be contained upon a single photographic plate. An Elliptical Intsrior. The interior is like an elliptical cylinder, rising through two high storeys, curving into the ceiling line without break, and rising in the centre of the ceiling into a recessed dome. The curve of the elliptical wall, coupled with the colours of the decoration, gives a certain indefinite quality to the pictorial composition, so that the more closely one looks at the innumerable figures which disport themselves over the surface of the canvas, the more one sees of new figures which seem to come forward from a composition every bit of which is full of vigorous activity. One of the theories whieh probably prompted Joseph Urban, who, as architect and deeorator, is responsible for this unique creation, is apparently that of creating an intimate relationship between stage and auditorium, and the walls, which scintillate with colour and gold leaf, arc a static continuation of the light, colour, and activity that occur on the stage. The motif of the mural decoration, "The Joys of Life," is, however, not static, except in its stationary charae- [ ter. It depicts countless creatures, human beings as well as animals, both wild and domesticated, in the activities of hunting, running, leaping, lovemaking, singing in a gay riot of action,; which leads the eye from group to 1 group as one follows a written page, i This mural decoration is said to be the i largest oil painting in the world, the painting of the Sistine Chapel being the nearest to it in siae. It was executed by Lillian Gaertner and the Urban Studios at ¥oniters, and took approximately one year to execute. It Is mounted on the wall, as a permanent treatment, as* one continuous repeating picture like a huge tapestry woven in cylindrical form and attached to the walls. The technique, as well as the colourings, is also reminiscent of tapestry composition, unconsciously, perhaps, a "throw back" to the woven tapestry of Arras in the 14th century, which antedated tapestries to an extent that led to the first painted tapestries < being called "imitation Arras."