McKibbon is master of Cathedral lights, stage
Jul. 10—Robert "Bob" McKibbon spent most of his adult life traveling the country as a salesman, but the landing lights for him have always been at the Scottish Rite Cathedral.
For the past 50 years, he's been the master of the film projector, all of the stage lights and scenery drops and curtains and, for the past 33 years, he's been stage manager for the nine-story stately building overlooking New Castle's North Hill.
More than 100 celebrity stage shows have taken place inside its acoustically sound auditorium that boasts 2,736 seats, and McKibbon has seen all of the productions from behind the control panels.
During his career there — always as a part-time employee — many stars and musicians who have performed under the spotlights have crossed his path, shaken his hand and been fed. And he's always been the guy responsible for those spotlights that shone on them. Perhaps that's where he gained the twinkle in his eye as he shares his stories from decades past.
At 83, he professes to be the only one who knows enough about all of the ins and outs of stage lighting to run an entire show. He also operates the lobby, auditorium and chandelier lights.
A few others affiliated with the cathedral who work alongside of McKibbon know enough about the lighting controls, but they haven't run an entire production, he said, adding that he's not getting any younger and he's trying to show others the ropes. Literally.
A series of about 60 ropes are the pulleys for scenery backdrops, curtains and curtain skirts, motion picture screens and flags, and he has them all color coded but can probably choose in his sleep the ones he needs.
"Everybody says, 'teach me,'" he said. "But you just can't come in and learn it halfway. It took me a long time."
He currently is sharing his knowledge with Gordon Rees, who has been a custodian in the building for 45 years.
An intricate control panel of buttons and knobs are the center of his existence on the stage's light panel. They control the stage spotlights, chandeliers and other lighting in the auditorium. And he could probably close his eyes and know which ones to choose.
The lighting system was made by the original Frank Adam Co. of St. Louis and has dozens of levels and 2,000 switches, according to a historical "Images of America" book on the cathedral, co-written by locals Rob Cummings and Dale Perelman, both 33rd-degree Masons who have served on the Cathedral Foundation board of directors. A major pre-selective function can create 10 separate multicolored lighting scenarios on the border, foot, balcony rail and orchestra pit. An array of knobs on the 12-by-8-foot board has the individual capability of dimming the lights separately.
The stage bulbs are all 30 watts and in yellow, white, red and blue.
"Sometimes I get here early in the morning, and I'm here 16 or 17 hours at a time," McKibbon said, "and I don't regret a minute of it."
Rob Cummings, a Cathedral foundation board member and director of work and degree work for the Consistory for the Valley of New Castle, has worked alongside McKibbon at The Cathedral and acknowledged that while he and others are familiar with running the operations, "I can run it, but it takes me three times as long to do what Bob does. He's just done it forever. A couple of us can do it, but not like Bob can."
Cummings said The Cathedral is trying to train other younger people to learn the stage and sound operations.
"We're desperately out there looking for backup," he said. "There are others who can look at the board and figure out and flip switches, but it just takes forever and a day."
Cummings said he and McKibbon have become social friends from working together so closely.
"Sometimes you might start at 6 in the morning and be there till midnight," he said. "He's fun to work with, he has a good sense of humor and it makes things go a lot easier that way. He's fun to work with."
Earlier this month, McKibbon stood on his feet for hours in his own little corner of the 85-foot-wide by 42-foot-deep stage, turning on and off the red, white, blue and amber lighting for effects during the Ludovici Dance Academy dress rehearsal and recital that drew hundreds of people and featured 50 different scenes. The following weekend, he did the same for a weekend-long recital of Jennifer Leigh's Dance Gallery.
But he remembers the days of working the lights and the stage for big-time stars, musicals and other performances on the mammoth stage for capacity audiences. Those included Jerry Seinfeld, Benny Goodman, Billy Graham, Johnny Cash, Tom Jones, Kenny Rogers, Marvin Hamlisch, the Pittsburgh Symphony, Gino Vanilla and numerous other famous acts.
Performances special to McKibbon were those of B.E. Taylor of Aliquippa, the lead singer of a pop rock band who typically attracted near-sellout shows. Taylor died of a brain tumor in 2016.
"Some of the stars were nice, some were snooty," McKibbon said. He always asked them to sign the house book.
Then there were the lists of things that each star wanted that he had to fulfill when they arrived. Seinfeld's list included about 100 things, mostly food for his dressing room. He didn't touch any of it but his crew ate it, McKibbon said.
Boxcar Willie, who performed there, told McKibbon that his light show there was the best he ever had. He was the headliner for Marty Robbins, who wanted all-white lights. Robbins died a few weeks after that performance.
"I think that was his last show," McKibbon said.
"The Oak Ridge Boys scared the daylights out of me," he said. They asked for volunteers to climb more than 50 feet to the top of the auditorium and secure the spotlights, and he volunteered. He went to the top wearing a seatbelt, and he was afraid to get down.
"This was the 37th year that I've done 'The Nutcracker,'" he said of the annual ballet performance by the New Castle Regional Ballet.
When the musical production of Annie was performed there, it arrived with 11 semi-trucks, McKibbon said.
"It was the biggest show," he said. "We were the only theater that could handle the full production."
In 1982, The Cathedral hosted Wrestlemania and showed it on its 400-foot screen, "and this place was packed," he said, adding the crowd was not the neatest and left the auditorium a mess.
McKibbon's 42-year career as a salesman took him all over the United States to shows where he sold Precious Moments and Hummel figurines. He marveled at how people would pay top dollar for the coveted Precious Moments collector statues that were made in China and today would be worth almost nothing. The Hummel statues, made in Germany, are not worth what they once were either, he said, "but I made a decent living."
McKibbon lives in a former church on a hill in Hillsville. A 1959 New Castle High School graduate, he lived on the city's North Hill when he was younger. He joined the military when he was around 21 and served in Vietnam and in Thailand at the military base as a military policeman. He got sprayed with Agent Orange during his service overseas. Decades later, he is a survivor of three bouts of cancer.
McKbbon's work at The Cathedral evolved from being interested in movies and running film projectors at the Penn Theater, where he had to put in 100 hours to qualify for the job.
"It was the biggest thing in town," he recalled of the North Mercer Street business that sat where the First Commonwealth Bank branch exists now. McKibbon worked for the International Alliance of Theatrical Motion Pictures Employees union and also ran movies at the Highlander and at the Cinema downtown.
He ran the first show, "That's Entertainment," for the State Theater, and only two people attended.
Later, it became a pornographic theater, with movies starting at midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
"They were horrible films to show," he said, "and they would break all the time because they were never inspected. But I had to go where I was sent."
When he became a salesman, "I was my own boss, so I was able to come to all of the shows here (at The Cathedral)," he said. "I started working as a stagehand and ran the spotlight for 15 years. Those controls were at the very top of the back of the auditorium, from where he also ran the projector, showing movies there.
"They were 16-millimeter movies like you'd see in school," he said. "They used to show old-time movies, but they don't do it anymore."
The 36-by-20-foot screen on the stage weighs 950 pounds and is showing its age after being in the building for 60 years. A new one costs about $23,000, he estimated.
McKibbon, a 32nd-degree Mason, became the Cathedral's stage manager in 1990, and also does work on stage for the Masonic organization, for the presentation of the 32 degrees that are done on stage with elaborate costumes. At one time there were 3,000 Masons, but that number is dwindling every year, he said, remembering, "it takes days to get organized for the degrees."
Sadly, some of the stage lighting parts have become inoperable and are in need of repairs, which he said can cost thousands of dollars to replace.
"It's on its last legs," he said. "It's 97 years old. It was state of the art when they put it in."
Looking back, he said, "It takes someone with a passion to do this. It's not just a job, you have to really love it.
"It's a great old place, and I've done a lot of work in here ... a lot of free work, too," McKibbon said, adding, "I don't need or want the credit, it's just what I do."
