whistling in theatres

[Frankie Babe]

Skinnyblues question made me think of somehting my mum said when I was a kid. She said it was frowned upon to whistle inside a theatre cos it brought bad luck to everyone. Where did she get that from?

[stoo_pid]

Back in the old days before headsets & cue-lighting, stage crew would signal the raising & lowering of scenery from the roof (aka the flies) during a performance by whistling. If you whistled while backstage you could find you had unwittingly issued a command to lower a heavy piece of the set onto your head.

[skinnyblue]

i was whistling backstage and got told off! They said you should never whistle in the dark and I thought that was because it was unlucky- evidently it would be unlucky! Thank you everybody for clearing that small matter up for me!