Term of the Day--on life support

on life support--when a show is losing money and ticket sales are going below the weekly nut (their operating expenses), the show is on life support because the producers are pumping in money to keep it alive until ticket sales pick up again. Sometimes these gambles pay off for the producers and a show survives with a longer, healthy run.

Pugilistic Term of the Day: one-punch artist

one-punch artist-- a stagehand who can knock another stagehand down with one punch. There is a very famous story behind this one, involving a Christmas House coming offstage and chicklets punched out on deck, but it is better as an oral legend.

Expression of the Day: laid and paid

laid and paid--happy stagehand, or a usually mopey stagehand who shows a brief moment of happiness. "It looks like he just got laid and paid."

Gold-Digging Term of the Moment--annuity-buster

annuity-buster-- a showgirl, or any person who gets a chunk of your annuity after the divorce. After the divorce, the ex-wife gets half your annuity for all the years you were married. "Bobby Bobby Bobby (an infamous stagehand) showed up to work catatonic after he'd found that his ex-wife had sucked half his annuity out of his account when the divorce was finalized. He had married an annuity buster."

Famous Stagehands in History #1: Edmund Spangler

Edmund Spangler was a carpenter at the Ford Theatre in Washington, D.C., working there on the night of April 14, 1865 when John Wilkes Booth shot President Abraham Lincoln. Spangler was an admirer of Booth, who was from a great American theatrical family. Spangler also shared Booth's successionist views and was pro-slavery. Spangler was responsible with other carpenters for preparing the box where Lincoln was to see the show.

On the night of April 14th, John Wilkes Booth showed up at the theater at 9:30 pm while the show was going on, and called for Spangler, asking him to hold his horse, a temperamental rented mare. After Booth shot the President and hobbled out on his injured leg that he broke jumping out of the box, Spangler punched out another stagehand pursuing the fleeing Booth.  He was arrested the next day, released then rearrested on April 17th. Spangler served six years in prison for conspiracy, until he was pardoned. He died of tuberculosis in 1879 in Maryland.