After a summer of painting scenery in Pennsylvania, Moses and his family returned to Chicago during early September. Moses only worked a week in the studio before he and Ed Loitz started for Pittsburg, They were to furnish all of the scenery for the Alvin Theatre.
The Alvin Theatre was owned by the actor named Charles Davis. Davis had made his fortune playing “Alvin Joslyn,” a rural farmer character.
The Alvin Theatre had a very large conservatory and substantial Art gallery. Moses recalled that the decoration of the space was also quite fine. The Alvin Theater’s stage was “ample and complete in every detail.” Moses and Loitz worked throughout September, finishing the job on November 10.
History records that Davis was not a good actor, but was an extremely good manager and press agent. Thomas G. Moses worked directly for Davis while in Pittsburg. Moses wrote many passages of him, describing,, “He carried a band furnished with the best and most expensive instruments. He wore some fine diamonds. His vest buttons had diamonds in them. A $7000.00 watch was a novelty. He had a body-guard who was close to seven feet tall, while he was only five feet there. On day in Cincinnati while dining, his body guard approached him, begged his pardon for being late, and counted out to Davis thirty $1000.00 bills, and apologized for not being able to get the balance. The table was filled with traveling men and as they opened their eyes at $30,000.00, Davis cooly put it in his vest pocket. As soon as the meal was over, he slipped the money back to his bodyguard who got it back to the bank where he had borrowed it for an hour. Of course, on good security. Just a little advertising. Everyone talked about it. He had many little stunts like that.”
Charles Lindsay Davis (1848-1900) was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Here is his obituary:
DEATH OF C. L. DAVIS
KNOWN THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY AS ALVIN JOSLYN.
Character Actor Who Played in Great Hit Years Ago and Owner of a Theater at Pittsburg Dies March l.
Charles L. Davis (Alvin Joslyn), well-known character actor and owner of the Alvin Theater, of this city, died to-night, aged fifty-two years. He had been sick for several weeks with peritonitis and paralysis of the throat, and died after much suffering. Mr. Davis came of theatrical parents, and was born while his parents were on the road. He went on the stage at the age of five years, and was in the show business continuously from that time until 1889, when he retired and built the Alvin Theater at a cost of $225,000. At the time of its building the Alvin was considered the finest theatrical house in America, but it was too much of a burden, and in its second season the Fort Pitt Bank, which held much of Mr. Davis’s paper, took charge of the house, with the understanding that when the $170,000 indebtedness was cleared its owner should resume charge. The claims had all been met, with the exception of about $20,000, at the beginning of the present season, and Mr. Davis expected to be sole owner next season. Mr. Davis was known throughout the entire country as Alvin Joslyn, the New England farmer character, which he originated in the early sixties, and which was the medium through which he made a fortune. He was not known to have a living relative.
To be continued…
