Word: truckful
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Franklin, who did his first bus-and-truck in 1954, is dauntlessly cheerful. "An exciting day before us," he declares, putting on an artsy accent. "Bringing the-ah-ter to the masses." Franklin nips at a bottle of Maalox and goes off to work singing "It's a beautiful day in Peoria" to the tune of Mr. Rogers' theme song. Burns starts his day with Mountain Dew, because he has checked the label and found caffeine prominent among the ingredients...
...around 1 a.m., when the lights and scenery are packed up after the night's show, then start unpacking it again with a local crew at a new theater at 8 the same morning. They have a delicate and demanding job. The scenery and equipment fill two 48-ft. truck trailers, and some theaters aren't big enough to accommodate the whole show. Some theaters aren't fit to accommodate any show. Burns is still muttering about one theater where the local crew chief, a plumber, counterbalanced 800-lb. light pipes and pieces of overhead scenery not with the customary...
Peoria, which has a roomy new theater, goes smoothly. No one in the local crew shows up under the influence of cherry Robitussin, as happened at an earlier stop. No one threatens a sit-down strike, as happened when Burns lit up a cigar in the truck trailer in Madison...
...starry sky gets folded up and tucked into a basket. The sleeping-car set begins to tremble under the ratchetting of half a dozen socket wrenches and quickly comes apart in 40 pieces. Someone shouts, "Hit it!" And a dozen men bully a light rack onto a truck, wheels humming and clattering up the aluminum ramp...
...little more than two hours from the curtain, Burns slams shut the back door of a truck and drives home the lock in a single move. "We gone," he shouts. It is time to get back on the bus. Bloomington, Ind., lies just a few hours ahead...