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Biography in BriefCharles Hermann
by Oscar Smith CHARLES HERMANN, a mild, soft-voiced little man, spends most of his working hours backstage and yet he isn't an actor. He probably has been associated with as many theatrical "greats" as anyone in Akron. He remembers when "Ben Hur" thrilled local drama lovers and when Al G. Fields' Minstrels also packed 'em in. For 37 years he has been a member and for 22 years an officer of the Akron local, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators of the United States and Canada.
No wonder the union has shortened the name to Akron Stage Employees union, local No. 48. For the last five years "Charlie" Hermann has been its business agent, and he formerly served as secretary. |
BORN IN GERMANY [sic - Austria-Hungary] 59 years ago, he went as far as the eighth grade in school. Originally a clerk, he worked in a combination grocery and hardware store. In 1907, [sic - 1906] at the age of 18, young Charlie quit his job and came to the United States.
He went to Cleveland first and got a job in a bakery. He specialized as a cake baker. Now he never bakes a cake at home. Mrs. Hermann doesn't want him meddling around the kitchen, he explains.
Coming to Akron in 1910, Hermann took up electrical work. He has wired a lot of Akron homes. In 1911 the manager of the old Grand theater on N. Main St., which was torn down a number of years ago, offered him a job as stage electrician.
He has been working at that ever since--back stage at local theaters and on special jobs, such as dental equipment and X-ray machines.
MELODRAMAS and big musical shows comparing with "Oklahoma" in size were the lures for theatergoers in his first years backstage. Shakespearean plays, such as "Othello" and "Romeo and Juliet," were popular. Thurston, the magician, was an annual attraction.
Hermann met backstage such stars as the Barrymores; Eva Tanguay; Florence Reed in "The Shanghai Gesture"; Guy Bates Post in "The Masquerader" and George M. Cohan. Bert Lahr and Harry Welch were famous burlesque comedians.
Al G. Fields' Minstrels always opened the theater in September. "Ben Hur" was one of the big shows at the Grand. In the famous chariot race scene horses galloped on the sage--on a treadmill. Other popular shows were "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," "The Bells" "Everywoman," "Way Down East" and "Nellie, the Sewing Machine Girl."
"In those days burlesque comedians really were good," says Hermann. "They told clean jokes, but funny ones, not the dirty kind you hear in burlesque today. Burlesque women wore tights."
FOR THREE YEARS Hermann was at the old Miles Royal theater on Case av. Since 1929 he has been at the Colonial theater steadily, and off and on before that time in summer stock there.
He worked at the old Music hall on E. Exchange st., where the Beacon Journal building now stands, at the time of World War 1. He also has helped out when needed backstage at the Palace and Loew's theaters.
Hermann has worked many home talent shows, including Woman's City club; Weathervane and University club productions at Goodyear theater; Goodyear Operetta society shows and those by the Wingfoot Players, also at Goodyear theater.
Once he worked a big ballet performance starring Pavlowa in Goodyear theater. The huge audience sat in the gymnasium at the rear of the stage, because the gym seated more than the theater auditorium. Later the rear proscenium arch was bricked up.
Hermann remembers most show people of years ago as being temperamental, "hard to get along with." Now there's less show of temperament. They're more congenial, he says.
IN 1912 HERMANN married the former Martha Forst of Cleveland. They have two daughters, Mrs. Gretchen Allen and Mrs. Olga Burke, and three sons, Carl, Howard and Daniel. A sophomore at Kent State university, Daniel is interested in art and dramatics, sings in the glee club and chorus.
The Hermanns live at 1201 East av., where Charlie has a garden and grows flowers. His real hobby is raising tropical fish. He's on the board of directors of the Akron Aquarium society, and is a member of Fraternal Order of Eagles. He attends Zion Lutheran church.
OLD-TIME STAGEHANDS here swear that Hermann is the best stage electrician in this country and Canada. He has the happy faculty of looking out for the men in the union, as its business agent, and at the same time the theater management's interests.
What difficulties any outsider may have with Charlie and the union are easily and quickly ironed out. If a member ever "cusses out" the business agent, he finds he can't stay angry at him very long. The men like him, and say he also is well-like throughout the state and international organizations of the union.
The Stage Employees union has never been on strike in the 37 years Hermann has been a member. Harmony exists between the union and theater managers.
"The show must go on," says Hermann. "We can't walk off the job unless we give sufficient notice and get permission from the international."
HERMANN LIKES to tell about a performance of "Salvation Nell" at the Grand theater. In the early days Akron breweries used to donate beer to actors.
A stagehand who had gone to the beer keg too often had been pressed into service as a policeman for the shooting scene in front of the bar. Befuddled by beer, the policeman lurched onstage, glanced at the murderer, stooped down and put the handcuffs on the dead man. That just about rang down the curtain on "Salvation Nell."
Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio
Sunday, April 11, 1948
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Penny Allen Nelsonpennyallennelson@comcastREMOVE.net
Spokane, Washington, 2009
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