The Gwynne Production Box
By Jack Gwynne

THIS production box proved both effective and practical during the time I used it in my vaudeville act. It gives the effect of a large trick with comparatively little apparatus. Such apparatus as there is has been designed to pack in a small place to aid in transportation.

The box. which is built up one panel at a time and which is obviously empty, becomes full of live stock or silks without any suspicious loading. The method is a development of the tip-over principle. It is cleverly disguised and the disguise eliminates the angle problem usually encountered. Therefore, the trick is not only adaptable to stage use but also to the small platform so frequently encountered by the club performer.

The illustration shows, in Figure A, what the audience sees. A small, folding, three-winged screen, which looks like a fancy table, is used as a base on which to build the box, and at the same time it serves to hide the load chamber at the beginning of the trick. As this screen is entirely unprepared, it can be used for many purposes. Each panel is about 14 inches wide and 32 inches high.

The back and sides of the box are hinged to fall down, as in Figure A. or to stand up to form a box as in Figure B. The box is built on a wooden tray. The front of the box is fastened to the load chamber and draws it into place. One side of the load chamber forms the front of the box, while the lower side, as it fits in the tray. forms the bottom of the box.

Figure E shows the shape and construction of the load chamber. This is pivoted to the tray so as to hang down inside the screen until the box is built. It is pulled into place in the box when the front panel is drawn up.

To prepare the trick, the box must be set up on the screen as in Figure D. The chamber is loaded and put out of sight by folding down the front to lower the chamber inside the screen. The box is then taken apart, and folded as in Figure A. The top cover is stood on the floor and leaned against the screen. In presenting the trick, the performer stands behind the screen and calls attention to the folded box. The back and two sides are raised and the lid is put on. The box then appears as in Figure B. Attention is called to the emptiness of the box, and the front is raised to bring the load chamber into the box.

The front has a leather tab, or small metal ring, fastened to it, so that the performer may catch hold of it with ease. The tray, with the box built upon it is removed from the screen and placed on an undraped table. The screen is folded and casually laid aside. 'The performer is now able, by opening the lid of the box and the door in the load chamber, to produce whatever it was that he carefully tucked away.

The box may be made of polished wood or painted a solid color which harmonizes with the rest of the material in the act, or both the screen and the box may be decorated with a Chinese or some other Oriental design or some futuristic pattern. Both the box and the screen are best constructed of three or five ply wood, as this will entirely eliminate warping.