What is a 'Belasco scene'? Found mention in a Leslie Ford mystery

[bobbieinok]

Narrator says she had just come in on the 2nd such scene that was a prelude to the murder (that the book is about)

Ford wrote in the 30s, 40s

[RockRaven]

1. I think it is a theater term.

a reference to this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Belasco

Edit: I should have written "theater reference" I think. An allusion to a then-contemporary(ish) artist's work. I suspect that the narrator is commenting upon the visual qualities of the scene before them.

[bobbieinok]

2. I saw that but couldn't tell what kind of content, effect one had

[bobbieinok]

5. Reading some Google links, he was a director who set scenes to create tension in audience

Maybe an early Trump,,,,,,,, who however restricted himself to the relatively innocuous realm of the theater.

[elleng]

3. What does Belasco mean?

That's when the guy calls Gatsby a "regular Belasco," referring to David Belasco, a theater producer known for his super realistic sets. (Yeah, the owl-eyed man is calling Gatsby's house a set.)

from Gatsby:

"This fella's a regular Belasco."
"See!" he cried triumphantly. "It's a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella's a regular Belasco. It's a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too—didn't cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?"

https://www.shmoop.com/quotes/belasco-great-gatsby.html

[bobbieinok]

4. Wow! Never know where a simple question posed at DU might lead!

[elleng]

6. Happens often around here!

[Iggo]

7. Oops. I should've read the other responses before replying...lol.

Previous subject line: I found this in the wikipedia biography for one David Belasco (1853-1931)...

"From late 1873 to early 1874, he worked as an actor, director, and secretary at Piper's Opera House in Virginia City, Nevada, where he found "more reckless women and desperadoes to the square foot…than anywhere else in the world". He said that while there, seeing "people die under such peculiar circumstances" made him "all the more particular in regard to the psychology of dying on the stage. I think I was one of the first to bring naturalness to bear in death scenes, and my varied Virginia City experiences did much to help me toward this. Later I was to go deeper into such studies." By March 1874, he was back at work in San Francisco. His recollections of that time were published in Hearst's Magazine in 1914.[4]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Belasco

Interesting read. And it may have nothing to do with what Ford was talking about. Either way, I'm glad I looked him up.

[Falcata]

8. The only Belasco

I've ever heard of was "The Belasco House" in "The Legend of Hell House". A classic horror movie.