As each design was removed from the second trunk and hung from a puppet frame, I contemplated other Masonic compositions that I had examined over the years. I noticed some similarities, but many of the designs were absolute surprises. Moses’ designs were a radical departure from the standard Scottish Rite collections that I had encountered across the country. He really was trying to do something new that would bring back the Scottish Rite business.
There were designs for each of the twenty-nine Scottish Rite degrees and many other settings for Blue Lodge, York Rite and the Ancient and Arabic Order of the Noble Mystic Shrine degree productions. The scope of his project made me think of the scenery installation in Winona, Minnesota. Now owned by the City of Winona, the collection was the most complete Masonic one that I had encountered to date with settings for the Blue Lodge, York Rite and Shrine.
The future for this historically significant rigging system and painted scenery collection was tenuous at best. Most of the collection had been damaged by water after the city had failed to repair a leaking roof. At this time, the community was going to select only ten drops to retain and the rest would be auctioned off.
The significance of Scottish Rite scenery installations is as a collection, not as individual drops or even partial scenes. It’s like keeping only ten random items from a silver service; keeping a silver teaspoon but getting rid of everything else. Unfortunately, no amount of reason could make the city council understand the tragedy of their decision, especially after counsel provided by a local expert Paul Sannerud. The eventual destruction of Winona’s scenery would make this 1931 model even more significant as it depicted the scope of Masonic degree productions.
Each of Moses’ model settings was complete with set pieces that could accompany the scenes. The whole set up was quite impressive and I thought of the viewing rooms for clients at other studios that were pictured in various catalogues when business boomed during the first two decades of the twentieth century. This was obviously a model that could be shipped, yet was possibly intended for wherever Landis would set up an office, even if it were independent of a rented studio space.
Moses’ drops showed a new generation of designs, specifically including early prototypes that he painted for Scottish Rite installations during the mid- to late- 1920s.
By November 1923, the executive offices of Sosman and Landis had moved from 417 South Clinton Street to 6751 Sheridan Road. The Sosman & Landis Company sent out letters to past clients clarifying that their company had not been purchased by another studio and that Thomas G. Moses was still their Art Director. The studio that now used the old Sosman & Landis space on Clinton street was “The Chicago Studios.”
Moses’ 1931 model included earlier compositions created for the Scottish Rites in Fort Scott, Kansas (1924) and McAlester, Oklahoma (1929). These were two jobs solely painted by Moses, his assistant, and a carpenter. During the scenery restoration at the McAlester Scottish Rite, I was amazed with the “Rebuilding of the Temple” scene, complete with a massive scaffolding structure entirely netted in a cut drop that measured 40’ high by almost 60’ wide. Then I identified several compositions in Moses’ model that I had encountered in Fort Scott. His 1931 creation was intended as an entirely new standard for staging degree productions.
As previously mentioned, the stage settings for Fort Scott did not always include a final backdrop, common to most Scottish Rite scenes. Most Fort Scott settings were created with leg drops, cut drops and the painted cyclorama for a distant landscape. This created a stage picture of vast depth and at the time I had been fascinated with his continued use of a wrap-around cyclorama. In many cases, there was only an 8” fabric strip at the top of each cut drop that hung from the top batten. Moses’ 1931 model also included a painted cyclorama that set up behind the hanging designs and surrounded the drops, creating an extremely effective scenic illusion. This was one of the aspects that I was trying to include at the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center when I was let go as it would make the acquisition even more unique.
I started to think about the modern stagecraft and sheer volume of space presented on stages – especially for dance in the 1920s. Was this Moses’ attempt to replicate some of the stylistic tendencies associated with the commercial stage at the time? To rejuvenate Scottish Rite degree productions across the country with something slightly new?
This attempt had been made by Sosman & Landis once before, starting in 1908. At that time they started to sell many Scottish Rite Valleys a second collection, replacing the original ones.
To be continued…
