Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
Thomas G. Moses returned to Chicago after landing the Tacoma Scottish Rite project in the fall of 1921. Of the return trip, he wrote, “Had a good trip to Chicago and within two days was on my way to Detroit where a $5,000.00 contract was closed for a picture setting for the Capitol Theatre, which has got to be done immediately, as I have promised to do most of the work.” Detroit’s Capitol Theatre was a cinema and live performance venue that opened in January 1922.
Movie screens at the time were lavishly set in the midst of painted scenery or “picture sets.” Part of Moses’ ability to land jobs on behalf of the Sosman & Landis studio in 1921 was that he promised to do the painting himself. He was well known for his speed and many clients relied upon that ability, especially when dealing with a compressed time frame. Upon his return to Chicago, Moses wrote, “I soon got busy on the Detroit job and did the big cyclorama 40 feet high.”
The Capitol Theatre opened on January 12, 1922. That day, the “Detroit Free Press” announced, “Palatial Play House Built at a Cost of $2,250,000” (page 11). The article reported, “the Capitol will be devoted to the showing of the better class of photoplays and the providing of the best in vocal and orchestral music, but it is so arranged that it also can present the largest and most gorgeous stage attractions which visit the city.” The new six-story building and basement store, included an office and theatre. Located on Broadway, it ran the block to Madison Ave. The large complex included “nine ground floor stores, twelve elegant ships, four floors of offices and the largest and finest Motion Picture Theatre” (Detroit Free Press, 24 July 1921, page 8).
Architect C. Howard Crane and his associate Elmer George Kiehler were responsible of the overall design. The “Detroit Free Press” noted “Splendid in architecture, magnificent in decoration, gorgeous in coloring, complete and modern in the conveniences and comforts provided, the Capitol will stand as a monument to John H. Kunsky, the man whose enterprise, genius and vision made it possible” (12 Jan 1922, page 11). Moses had worked for Kunsky in the past, delivering scenery for his two Detroit movie houses in 1919. Kunsky is a fascinating individual in his own right and I have written about him in past posts; keyword search Kunsky at www.drypigment.net
When the Capitol opened in 1922, it signaled a monumental shift in the perception of scenic art for the stage. The “Detroit Free Press” article announced, “Electricity has become the modern stage artist. All the painted scenery is largely subordinated to the light effect made possible by the mere pressing of a button. Thus, in the Capitol, light as a mobile element becomes an artistic medium for the creation of marvelous scenes of beauty.”
As Kunsky opened his Detroit movie palace, the “Washington Times” include an article written by Kunsky in for the “Detroit Times.” It was included as a response to the query, “What is the Moving Picture?” (Washington, D.C., 13 Feb 1922, page 16). The article noted, “A very good definition of the moving picture, as you will agree, is given by John H. Kunsky who has just built the Capitol Theater in Detroit, one of the most magnificent theaters anywhere. Writing for the Detroit Times, Mr. Kunsky says:
WHAT A THEATRE DOES.
By John H. Kunsky.
Throughout history the human race, worried with its problem and its struggles for life, has sought relaxation, a change in the mind’s work that means rest for the brain. The Greeks had their public baths, in which they met and talked; their public squares, their famous philosophical promenades.
The fighting Romans had their great arenas, in which men and beasts, and even ships on real water, fought to amuse the mob.
In the middle ages they had bear-baiting, their dog fights.
The Spaniards still have their bull fights.
The Americas, as a nation, far removed from the brutality of the gladiatorial arena, or the bill rig, find their mental rest and their mental pleasure in the theater. And in the modern theater and its work you find reflected the national personality, its interest, its culture.
WHAT IS THE MOVING PICTURE?
The question is not asked now as it once was when men doubted whether ‘the movies,’ so called would last.
The moving picture is SIMPLY THE SHORTEST ROAD INTO THE HUMAN BRAIN.
It enables the actor to display all of his skill, and the spectator instantly can see all that the story has to tell.
You can do with the moving pictures all that can be done by the living actor, and a thousand times more.
If you say that the voice of the living actor is missing from moving picture, I will admit it, and regret it. But I will answer that the absence of the actor’s voice increases the activity of the spectator’s imagination, and the work that goes on inside the mind of the spectator’s imagination, and the work that goes on inside the mind of the spectator is worth infinitely more that the spoken word of any living actor.
To arouse thought, stimulate the imagination, transport vast audiences as by magic, to all parts of the world, is a great, useful and education work. And that is what the moving picture does. An entire week of work by living actor and of close attention by spectators could not show as much as can be shown by the moving picture in two short hours.
Gigantic crowds of thousands such as no stage on earth could possibly hold are shown and brought before crowds in absolute reality on the screen.
The moving picture is a great educator, and no man can say what good is done to this and to other nations in which the moving pictures with its dramatic story is part, as it were, of the daily mental diet.”
To be continued…
