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Bill McManus
McManus began his career supplying lights for concerts at Saint Joseph’s University, where he attended college. Later on he became the lighting designer at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory, where he honed his chops lighting a variety of touring acts. In those early days of rock and roll tours, it was the responsibility of the local promoter to supply lights and sound for the bands when they came to town. He found that he had a natural ability in lighting design and he designed lighting packages for Jethro Tull, Elton John, Cat Stevens, The Eagles and The Who. As the industry developed and bands started carrying their own production, some who had worked with McManus would use his design as a template or technical rider for the lighting package.
In 1972, lighting designer Chip Monck designed a touring package for the Rolling Stones STP Tour that, at the time, was the most sophisticated of its kind, revolutionary in scale and plan. It was the first to include a painted set, touring follow spots and a rear lighting truss that was raised by hydraulics. The tour showed the industry that it was possible to create and keep a consistent look from city to city. It also gained considerable media attention, putting the Rolling Stones on the cover of Time and Life magazines. It was a pivotal point in the touring industry.
One of the fixtures that Monck had on the Stones tour was the Cine-PAR, originally built by Kliegel Brothers for the newsreel industry. Said McManus, “The Cine-PAR was barely a fixture. It had a yoke that held a very shallow round stamping with two ridges and two retainer rings; one for PAR 64 lamps and a smaller inner ring for PAR 56 lamps. The back of the lamp stuck out of the fixture and the exposed lamp prongs were attached to the porcelain socket and wires that ran to the yoke. 10" by 10" gel frames were held in place by gravity and clips were spot-welded on the two sides and bottom.”
The fixture was rarely used by anyone in the concert touring industry. It produced an oval-shaped pool of light, unlike the traditional circle shape. Because of its short barrel, it burned through gel very quickly. Monck used it on the Stones tour for backlight with saturated gel for deep, intense color washes. The Cine-PAR backlight created a vivid contrast to the white follow spots lighting from the front. The contrast gave the band depth that was noticed from even the back rows of the arenas.
At the time, McManus had been on tour for three years with Jethro Tull. Compared to the Stones show, the lighting package in the Jethro Tull tour was very basic, consisting of ellipsoidals, Fresnels and strip lights. Ian Anderson, lead singer of Jethro Tull, approached McManus and asked him to propose a lighting package that would compete with the Stones tour. McManus explained that it would be difficult to create a 144,000-watt show on Tull’s limited budget and one that could be loaded in, set up and loaded out every night. This was crucial since their schedule included 30 straight nights of shows, five times a year. But Anderson okayed the budget to design and build duplicate theatrical settings and lighting systems. McManus assembled two complete systems and road crews, the “B” and “C” teams, each with two semis that leapfrogged each other. In addition, the “A” team of road crew, directors and band members traveled with another truckload of sound and band gear working every day from noon to midnight. McManus’s innovative design included the first control console expressly built for pop music that allowed him to “play” the lights with the music like a band member.
With the new Jethro Tull budget, McManus approached Altman Lighting about making a variation of the Cine-PAR. He took a prototype of the new fixture and met with Ronny Altman. Together they reengineered the fixture, lengthening the barrel to set the gel further away from the lamp. The longer barrel had holes for heat dissipation and baffles to prevent light leaks. They added a spring latch to hold the gel frame in place and put a rounded cap on the back of the fixture. In the cap, they cut a hole so a technician could twist the socket to rotate the beam of the lamp. Within five weeks Altman had built 500 of the fixtures and the redesigned fixture redefined the lighting industry.
McManus, who partnered with Chip Monck on several epics in the mid 70’s, continued his innovative Emmy award winning lighting career by moving into location lighting for film and TV sports from the early 80’s until his death. He lit, among others, HBO’s Boxing events for the last 24 years. He also manufactured the Maxa Beam Xenon Searchlight, the “world’s most powerful handheld, battery-powered light.” Besides being designed into several pop/rock tours, sci-fi films and theme parks, the Maxa Beam has been deployed with the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Over 18,000 units have been fielded since it was first introduced to the US Navy in 1989.
Bill McManus was a giant in the lighting field and he will be missed by many.
source: PLSN
19th January 2005
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