Part 632: Tying Up Some Loose Ends and Flying It Out
The development of the counterweight system installed at Scottish Rite theaters by Sosman & Landis between 1904 and 1917 was called “Brown’s special system.”
At first glance it appears to be the brainchild of traveling salesman Bestor G. Brown, or someone he was working with at the time, possibly a stage mechanic at the Sosman & Landis scenic studio. There was one potential client who would benefit in the end– the Scottish Rite. This new technology allowed more drops to be crammed into a limited amount of space, resulting in the sale of even more stage machinery and scenery. It was a win-win for the manufacturer, distributor, and client.
This system does not use sandbags and pin rails, like those iconic backstage scenes depicted in movies. For those unfamiliar with the counterweight system, let me explain a few characteristics in laymen terms. “Brown’s special system” raises and lowers scenery completely out of sight, necessitating a fly loft to accommodate the full height of each drop. The counterweights are located off stage and match the weight of the scenery onstage (it is balanced like a big teeter totter when both kids are the same size). The counterweights (little metal blocks of varying sizes with notches to keep them in from falling out) are held in wooden frames, called arbors. Brown’s special system requires no locking mechanism at all, as each line is perfectly balanced. In other words, one can easily raise or lower the scenes without any effort; whenever I stop pulling on a line, the drop will stop moving and stay put. This is an deal system for stagehands without any knowledge of technical theater or rigging. Problems only occur when some well-intentioned person starts messing with the system; adding weight, moving drops to other lines; or doing in-house maintenance and repairs.
Back to the salesman who sold this system. From 1894 to 1917, Brown represented two separate fraternal supply companies – E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Co. and M. C. Lilley & Co. During that time, Sosman & Landis received the majority of subcontracted work from Brown. The Sosman & Landis studio consistently worked with Brown during his time, manufacturing and installing the stage machinery and scenery at Scottish Rite temples. This means that someone at Sosman & Landis worked with Brown to design the counterweight system called Brown’s special system. It may have been a stage mechanic at Sosman & Landis who conceived and developed the counterweight system that would become the standard for Scottish Rite theaters. The earliest existing example of Brown’s Special System, still working as originally installed in 1904, is located in Duluth, Minnesota. Earlier examples exist, but the scenery and stage machinery were removed from the original venue and installed in another Scottish Rite theater over the years. Earlier examples include scenery originally installed in Little Rock Arkansas (1896-1901) and later installed at Pasadena California; scenery originally installed in Wichita, Kansas (1898) and later installed in Yankton, South Dakota; and scenery originally installed in Guthrie, Oklahoma (1900) and later installed in Austin, Texas.
There is another player who enters into the fraternal mix with Bestor G. Brown, Sosman & Landis, and E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Co. That would be the veteran Sosman & Landis stage mechanic, Charles S. King. Let’s briefly review the first few players before throwing King into the mix.
- Brown was a very successful traveling salesman, representing two different fraternal supply companies (E. A. Armstrong and M. C. Lilley) after he left an investment banking career in 1893. For each firm, he promoted the outfitting of fraternal lodges and staging of Masonic degrees. He was a prominent member in many fraternal organizations that included Freemasonry, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Knights of Pythias, and Benevolent and Protected Order of Elks. He also was renowned for his worked as the Wichita Scottish Rite stage director and heralded as the only “Masonic stage carpenter” and “Masonic stage manager” in the United States. Brown was a member of both the Northern and Southern Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish rite of Freemasonry, so he fully understand the staging requirements and possibilities for the degrees.
- E. A. Armstrong Company (est. 1868 in Detroit, Michigan), like M. C. Lilley & Co. (est. 1865 Columbus, Ohio), was a supplier of regalia and paraphernalia for all societies, including fraternal, military, and band. They manufactured uniforms, costumes, banners, badges, flags, lodge furniture, and other accessories for various organizations and lodge rooms. Costumes and other fraternal regalia were essential elements to all rituals, especially after ritual revisions. E. A. Armstrong established their offices and manufacturing plant in Chicago, as the city became a central shipping hub for the western United States. Lavish clothing and the addition or even more elaborate décor transformed many lodge room degrees into fully tsgaed spectacles. Neither company, however, specialized in theatre scenery, stage machinery or lighting. For theater installations, they subcontracted all part of the stage portion to scenic studios, such as Sosman & Landis (Chicago).
- The scenic studio of Sosman & Landis was established in 1877 by Joseph S. Sosman and Abraham “Perry” Landis. Sosman arrived in Chicago as a young assistant to the successful scenic artist T. B. Harrison in 1874; keep that date in mind when we circle back to King working for Sosman. Little is known of Sosman’s scenic artwork in Chicago before establishing Sosman & Landis, yet the firm successfully ran until the mid-1920s. Sosman passed away in 1915, and the company president became long-time scenic artist Thomas G. Moses. Moses credit Brown with the development of Masonic scenery.
Enter Charles S. King, a well-known stage mechanic and Sosman & Landis employee. Before I start connecting the dots, there is a link between C. S. King and E. A. Armstrong during 1890 that appeared in the “Courier-Post” (Camden, New Jersey, 6 Jan 189, page 1). There were two cases in the circuit court involving E. A. Armstrong (plaintiff) and C. S. King (defendant). Each case pertained to a contract dispute between the two, suggesting that E. A. Armstrong was involved in theater before Brown. At the time, C. S. King was working for Sosman & Landis as a stage mechanic and E. A. Armstrong was operating his regalia company.
King’s name was first brought to my attention by Rick Boychuk, He detailed King’s contribution as a stage carpenter during the construction of the Crump Theatre in 1889, a project with scenery and stage machinery delivered by Sosman & Landis and a drop curtain painted by Moses. This is only one year before the abovementioned court case with E. A. Armstrong.
By 1887, King was credited as working in more than 200 theaters across the nation, yet very little is known about this prolific stage mechanic beyond a few newspaper articles. Let me summarize what I know about this individual. King began his career as a stage carpenter and stage machinist in 1859, With the exception of serving in the Union Armey during the Civil War and managing a large touring company, King solely functioned in these two roles his entire career. King notes that he began working for Sosman & Landis in 1874, yet the firm did not officially open until 1877, suggesting that King began working with Sosman upon his arrival in Chicago during 1874. King installed stage machinery in theaters throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. A “Star Tribune” article from January 27, 1881, reported, “Mr. C. S. King, the stage carpenter at the Grand Opera House, was initiated into some of the mysteries of stage mechanism as exemplified in our new temple of amusement. Mr. King who was summoned here from Chicago, is regarded as one of the best stage-carpenters in the country, having had wide experience and possessing perfect knowledge of his progression. He says that our opera house will have the finest stage, the easiest worked, and will be the best appointed theatre west of Chicago, or of many large eastern cities.” The stage carpenter who would manage the venue after King’s departure was William Knox Brown, one of the three founders of Twin City Scenic Company. Another Twin City Scenic Co. founder was William P. Davis who previously worked as the primary scenic artist at the Chicago Auditorium. Brown’s stage mechanic flourished with the Hanlon Brothers who hired William Knox Brown as one of their stage mechanics to develop scenic effects in their Massachusetts studio (see past installment #155). The Hanlon Brothers engineered amazing mechanical effects for their staged spectacles.
In 1889, an article about the Crump Theatre reported, “Mr. King Came to Columbus Sept. 11, and commenced on the bare floor of the new theatre to construct the various stage machinery, mount scenery, and everything connected with stage settings, all without drawings or specifications, except those stored in his head from long experience. How well he succeeded in his work is there to speak for itself, and is pronounced by the profession to be the most modern, convenient and elaborate.” The 1881 and 1889 articles suggest two things: 1. King possessed techniques pertaining to the design and construction of stage machinery that others did not and, 2. King’s keeping everything connected with stage settings in his head, “all without drawings or specifications,” suggests he maintained trade secrets. Think back to guilds and cathedral builders, complete with lodges, masters, passwords, and secret signs. Being able to do something that others can’t gives you the leading edge. Now think of King being “initiated into some of the mysteries of stage mechanism.” It is possible that these were more than common ceremonies associated with the rise of American fraternalism.
What new innovations pertaining to stage machinery could be occurring at this same time? Lets look back to Chicago where Sosman & Landis are running a successful studio, Detroit fraternal supplier E. A. Armstrong is contemplating a move to Chicago, and the Chicago Auditorium is being planned. Add in the possibility of a world fair, with the potential of untold networking and future projects.
One particular event examined at this time is in Rick Boychuk’s “Nobody Looks Up: The History of the Counterweight Rigging System, 1500-1925” (https://www.amazon.com/Nobody-Looks-Up-History-Counterweight/dp/1508438102/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1548878503&sr=8-1&keywords=rick+boychuk) – the Chicago Auditorium of 1889. Boychuk writes, “The first counterweight rigging system in American was state-of-the-art technology when it was installed in 1889 in the Auditorium Building in Chicago – commonly referred to as the Chicago Auditorium” (page 167). Boychuk explains how Ferdinand Peck, the visionary for the Chicago auditorium, traveled to Europe to examine opera houses, later joined by architect Dankmar Adler (Adler & Sullivan) and Chicago stage carpenter John Bairstow. Boychuk suggests, “Chicago borrowed the sheave design and configuration from Budapest and the balance of the counterweight system from Vienna” (page 172).
Now consider that John Bairstow was a member of the Theatrical Mechanics Association, an organization established in New York during 1866 (see mentions in past installments 125, 153, 215 and 384). By 1891, there were 28 lodges represented at the Theatrical Mechanics Association convention in Chicago, including members from Chicago Lodge No. 4. Lodge No. 4 – John Bairstow and David A. Strong. Strong was a well-known scenic artist and stage mechanic working at Sosman & Landis, Strong provided scenery for the original “Black Crook” at Niblo’s Garden in 1866. He later moved to Chicago where he joined the Scottish Rite and continued work as a scenic artist, eventually joining the studio of Sosman & Landis, working alongside another Sosman & Landis stage mechanic – King. Thomas G. Moses would credit Strong in his memoirs as the “Daddy” of Scottish Rite design; he did not specify that Strong solely designed the painted aesthetic. Two other Theatrical Mechanics Association Chicago Lodge No. 4 members who attended the 1891 convention would also later become Scottish Rite Masons – F. V. Sauter (joined Oriental Consistory in 1892) and Wallace Blanchard (joined Oriental Consistory in 1899).
So lets look at the players who were known Scottish Rite Masons when this all began – E. A. Armstrong (regalia supplier), Bestor G. Brown (salesman), William Knox Brown (stage mechanic), Joseph S. Sosman (scenic artist and studio owner), David A. Strong (stage mechanic and scenic artist).
To be continued…
