Month: February 2019

Part 671: Charles E. Rosenbaum, Bestor G. Brown and Joseph S. Sosman

I have examined Bestor G. Brown and Brown’s special system over the course of several posts, placing both within the context of Midwestern stage carpenters and scenic artists.

Brown’s special system was manufactured by Sosman & Landis and marketed by Bestor G. Brown, western sales representative of M. C. Lilley & Co. Documented examples of Brown’s special system include Little Rock, Arkansas, Guthrie, Oklahoma , Duluth, Minnesota, Wichita, Kansas, Memphis, Winona, Minnesota (1909, recently demolished), Tennessee, Cheyenne, Wyoming, Santa Fe, New Mexico, Portland, Maine, Grand Forks, North Dakota, Asheville, North Carolina, and Tucson, Arizona.

Thomas G. Moses credited with origin of Masonic designs to David A. Strong. In 1911 after Strong’s unexpected death, Moses wrote, “Strong was the ‘daddy’ of all Masonic designs and he was a 32^nd Degree man.” We know that Strong was both a scenic artist and stage carpenter, instrumental in some of the earliest Scottish Rite scenery for the Oriental Consistory of Chicago.

Moses mentioned three other men in his memoirs who he credited with “the starting of the scenic decoration of real Scottish Rite degree work”– Joseph S. Sosman, Bestor G. Brown and Charles E. Rosenbaum.

In 1930, he Moses wrote letters Frank M. Jefferson at the Albert Pike Memorial during April 1930. In the last, he mentions the three men:

“April 20, 1930

My Dear Brother Frank,

I have tried for sometime to write you, to thank you for sending the wire that announced the death of one of my best friends. A man that I had all of the ­Brotherly Love for that was possible to give.

While at times, he would go for me rough-shod for some neglect of mine, but at the same time would go out of his way to help me in more ways than one, he gave me more sound judgment on my work than I have had from anyone outside of Bestor Brown – and I have put it to useful work. I am going to ask a favor. I want a photograph of Mr. Rosenbaum to place with the one I have of Bestor Brown, my two advisors in my chosen vocation.

Thanking you in advance and with best regards to all.

Sincerely and fraternally yours,

Thos. G. Moses”

_____

“April 29, 1930

My Dear Jefferson,

Yours of the 25^th received. I will visit Little Rock, every time I am in your vicinity, as I count on a warm welcome by my friends.

You mention having enclosed a photo of C. E. Look about your desk and you will find that you did not include it. I shall certainly be pleased to receive it.

I wish you would remember me to the Harris boys and father, Bill Leipzig (I have forgotten how to spell his name) also to Gene Smith and others.

Thanking you again for the photo which you will send.

I am sincerely yours,

Thos. G. Moses”

_____

“April 30, 1930

My dear Frank,

The photo has arrived. I had supposed it was one you intended to include with your letter. I don’t know how to thank you enough for this wonderful portrait you have been kind enough to send me. I will now have the 3 men that had all to do with the starting of the Scenic decoration of real Scottish Rite Degree work: Rosenbaum, Brown and Sosman. Many – many – thanks for the photo.

I am sincerely yours,

Thos. G. Moses”

_____

Charles E. Rosenbaum was president of the C. E. Rosenbaum Machinery Company in Little Rock, Arkansas. Like Brown, he held many offices in the Fraternity, including S.G.I.G. of Arkansas and the Lieutenant Grand Commander of the Supreme Council. Tomorrow, I will look at the remarkable life of Rosenbaum, a man who insisted one should never lose sight of the fact that a business is built on honor and should be maintained in the same manner.

To be continued…

Part 670: A Melting Pot of Ingenuity 

There are four things to consider when examining the development of Brown’s Special System – the Chicago Auditorium, the Beckwith Memorial Auditorium, the scenic studio of Albert, Grover & Burridge, and Sosman & Landis. There is no linear progression of events and Chicago is a melting pot of ingenuity.

I’ll start with what Rick Boychuk wrote in “Nobody Looks Up: The History of the Counterweight Rigging System,1500-1925.” Boychuk contends that Chicago Auditorium of 1889 is a game changer in the future of American counterweight rigging. Of the endeavor, he 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 states, “Chicago borrowed the sheave design and configuration from Budapest and the balance of the counterweight system from Vienna” (page 172). Read his book.

Things to think about as we contemplate the evolution of Brown’s special system: the Chicago Auditorium stage carpenter, Bairstow, was one of the charter members who founded Chicago’s Theatrical Mechanics Association. In fact, he was the organization’s first president in Chicago. Bairstow was a member of TMA Chicago Lodge No. 4. David Austin Strong was also a Member of Chicago Lodge. No. 4. At the time they were both members in 1891, Strong was an employee of Sosman & Landis, and was also credited as being the “Daddy of Masonic Design.”

This title was given to him by Thomas Gibbs Moses in his 1931 memoirs; Moses became the president of Sosman & Landis in 1915. Before Chicago, Strong enjoyed a successful career in New York as both a scenic artist and stage carpenter. Strong even provided one of the scenes for the 1866 production of “The Black Crook” at Niblo’s Garden Theatre. At this same time, the Theatrical Mechanics Association was founded in New York (1866). During the 1870s Strong relocated to Chicago, the hub of theatrical construction and activities after the great fire of 1871. Joseph S. Sosman moved to Chicago in 1874, with the Sosman & Landis studio being established by 1877. Sosman & Landis was the primary manufacturer and installer of Brown’s special system in Scottish Rite theaters across the country.

At Sosman & Landis, Strong, Moses, and another stage carpenter by the name of Charles S. King were part of a special group; this group could be considered scenic artists with a thorough understanding of stage machinery, or stage carpenters who paint extremely well. Each had a specific task that he gravitated toward, but their job title by no means limited their abilities and contributions to one task or a single skill. Others in this group included Walter Burridge and Ernest Albert. Albert and Burridge were two of three founders who established another Chicago scenic studio in 1891 – Albert, Grover, and Burridge. One of their largest projects would be the manufacture and delivery of scenery and stage machinery for the Beckwith Memorial Theatre in Dowagiac, Michigan. This theater is significant within the framework of American theatre history.

Here is a refresher of the Albert, Grover & Burridge before revisiting the Beckwith Memorial Theatre and its link to the Chicago Auditorium. Ernest Albert (1857-1946), Oliver Dennett Grover (1861-1927) and Walter Burridge (1857-1913) founded “Albert, Grover & Burridge.” Their studio was located at 3127-33 State Street, Chicago, covering an area of 100×125 feet. Two of the founders had a significant tie to stage carpenter Bairstow: Albert worked as a scenic artist for the Chicago Auditorium and Chicago Opera House, while Walter Burridge was the scenic artist for both the Grand Opera House and McVicker’s. Keep in mind that John Bairstow worked as a stage carpenter at McVickers, the Grand Opera and the Chicago Auditorium. Grover was an art instructor at the Chicago Art Institute and linked to the planning of the Columbian Exposition. Albert and Burridge both worked with Thomas G. Moses at Sosman & Landis during the 1880s. Each would have known the long-time Sosman & Landis stage carpenter, Charles S. King. King is also a possible contender for the conception and development of Brown’s special system.

The scenic studio of Albert, Grover & Burridge is described in “Chicago and its Resources Twenty Years After, 1871-1891: A Commercial History Showing the Progress and Growth of Two Decades from the Great Fire to the Present Time.” The studio was mentioned as implementing advancements in the methods of mounting and presentation of stage plays. Albert, Grover & Burridge leased the old Casino building on State Street, just south of 31^st street, and renovated it. Their space included 12,000 square feet of working area, and another 2,500 square feet devoted to storage and sewing room. There were twenty paint frames, ranging from 56 by 35 feet to 30 by 20 feet. This was a sizable complex.

A unique feature implemented by Albert, Grover & Burridge was that it included a staging area for scenic effects and innovations. The abovementioned publication reports, “The studio is so large that it permits the artists to introduce a novel feature in the art of painting scenery, which has been in their thoughts for some years. That is after a scene is painted, it can be hung, set and lighted in an open space the full size of any stage in the country, so that a manager can not only inspect it as an entirety, and thus suggest alterations, but he can bring his company to the studio and rehearse with the new scenery.” This idea had already been partially implemented by the Hanlon brothers at their private theater and workspace in Cohasset, where their master mechanic William Knox Brown tested new stage machinery and effects. Albert, Grover & Burridge went beyond the manufacture of scenery – they were the visionaries who combined painted illusion, lighting innovations, and new stage machinery. They were no different from other scenic studios in Chicago, they just had the space to expand and add a staging area. Scenic studios, with their staff of stage carpenters and scenic artists remained at the forefront of technological advancements, integrating old techniques with new technology. Unfortunately for Albert, Grover & Burridge, their business venture went bankrupt in two years, so they were not around when E. A. Armstrong and Bestor G. Brown were looking for a scenic studio to subcontract for Scottish Rite work. Sosman & Landis were waiting in the wings. However, their contributions can not be discounted when looking at the circle of innovators who helped disseminate the new counterweight technology.

By 1901, a Minneapolis “Star Tribune” article notes new settings at the Bijou Theatre in the article “Experts Behind the Scenes” (January 13). This provides a little context into the shifting staging techniques for commercial theater productions: “The stage proper was divided by the old system of grooves, which were used to hold up the scenery into divisions, one, two, three and four, where the stage was extra deep, sometimes five and six. Grooves are a mechanical contrivance in which the scenes slide back and forth. This method of stage setting is very seldom employed at the present time, the more modern arrangements of setting scenes in a box shape, supporting them with braces and connecting them by lash lines, being more common use.” At the same time box sets became more standard leg drops and fly scenery replaced wings, shutters, and roll drops.

In 1899 the fly scenery at the Beckwith Memorial Theatre is examined in “W.A. Norton’s Directory of Dowagiac, Cassopolis and La Grange, Pokagon, Silver Creek and Wayne Townships” (1899). The publication reports, “The scenery is designed for the cyclorama effect which has been found so effective, and which was first used in the Auditorium in Chicago. By this arrangement a scene can be set as a street or garden by simply moving the scenes which are profiled on both sides and top, anywhere desired. Every set of scenery is a finished piece of art. It is, after the latest fashion, lashed together with ropes and is capable of being made into seventy-five distinct stage dressings” (page 159). Earlier newspapers described the thirty-six hanging drops that could be combined in various combinations for seventy-six set possibilities.

The Dowagiac “Republican” from January 18, 1893 described the new building as “The finest theater in America,” elaborating on the painted scenery: “It is the fitting and arrangement of the stage in the Beckwith Memorial Theatre, that the greatest care has been exercised to obtain the best possible results, and a great degree of success has been obtained. To go into technicalities and the use of stage terms would not be perhaps intelligible to our readers generally, so we will note only the main points. The stage is fifty by thirty-eight feet. Up to the gridiron, from which is suspended by an elaborate system of lines and pulleys all of the stage settings it is possible to use in the form of drop curtains, is fifty feet, allowing ample room for hoisting out of sight a whole screen in a few seconds, and allowing rapid changing of scenes so necessary to the continuing of the action of a play and effects are made possible that were unknown in the old days of sliding flats. To those acquainted with and interested in things theatrical and matters pertaining to proper stage fitting we think it is sufficient guarantee of the success of the stage to say that Albert, Grover & Burridge, of Chicago, had the direction of the stage fittings and the wall decorations of the auditorium and the entire building. Ernest Albert, of A., G., & B., under whose direction the art glass, colorings, the selection of draperies, and the furnishings of the theater were made, had succeeded admirably in producing the most beautiful and harmonious whole.”

The Beckwith Memorial Theatre of Dowagiac, Michigan, was built in 1892 for the cost of one hundred thousand dollars. Albert, Grover & Burridge directed the plan and installation of all stage fittings, the wall decorations of the auditorium, and painted décor throughout the entire building. This was a major extravagance for a small town that numbered less than seven thousand people. For more information pertaining to this theater, see past installment 134.

To be continued…

A little more than a decade after Seth G. Bailey invented an electrical mechanism for handling hanging scenery, Victor H. Volland came up with another option to handle scenery. In 1930, the United States Patent Office published an application filed on August 23, 1926 for operating curtain drops.

Victor H. Volland of Clayton Missouri, assignor to Volland Scenic Studio, Inc. of St. Louis Missouri, a corporation of Missouri submitted an application for a patent pertaining to the “Operating Means of Curtain Drops.” Victor wrote, “My invention related to improvements in means for operating curtain drops, in which each curtain drop together with hoisting mechanism and other accessories are combined into a single unit.”

Victor H. Volland was Hugo R. Volland’s son. Hugo R. Volland (1866-1921) founded a scenic studio in St. Louis, Missouri with Patrick J. Toomey (1861-1922) called Toomey & Volland at the turn of the twentieth century. Here’s little background about the inventor of the patent’s family.

Hugo R. Volland was born on May 6, 1866 in Großenbach, Germany. He was first listed as a St. Louis resident in 1888, living with his brother Otto and advertising as a painter. He worked for Noxon & Toomey as a studio as a scenic artist and secretary for the firm in 1892. By 1901, Hugo R. became vice-president of Noxon & Toomey. In 1902, the firm’s name was changed to Toomey & Volland. Toomey remained president of the company until 1919 when he retired. Hugo R. then became president, with his youngest son being vice-president.

Hugo R. and his wife Laura had three children – Louis J. (1897-1973), Victor H. (1899-1964) and Rose M. daughter, Rose (married name was Rose du Mosch). We are going to focus on the sons for now.

Even though Victor H. was the youngest son, he would be the first successor of Hugo R after his passing in 1921. Victor H. joined the United states Army during July 1918 (Private, 332nd Battalion, Company A). He entered the Tank Corps and sailed Sept. 29, 1918, landing at Bordeaux where he was stationed at Langres, France.

He safely returned home from military service and married by 1920. Victor became the secretary for Toomey & Volland and continued in this position until his father’s death in 1921. At this point the company began to change, as Toomey had already retired three years prior to Victor taking the reign from his father. When Victor became president of the company, his older brother Louis became the vice-president. At this time there was a notable shift in the tenor of the company.

There was also a shift in studio locations. In 1900, Toomey & Volland studio was located at 2312-14-16 Market Street, just outside the downtown theatre district. This lot was owned by Toomey. In 1922, Toomey & Volland scenic studios moved to a new location at 3731-33-35-37 Cass Avenue. Hugo R. never saw the completion of the new building as he died of heart disease before its completion. His wife Laura also passed away from heart disease, just a few months later; she died in a theater.

Patrick Toomey died from a heart attack in 1922 only a year after Volland passing. His passing was the same month that the studio was anticipated to open – March. Toomey’s only son followed a different path in life and the scenic studio was under the complete control of the Volland family. To lose the two founders within a year, caused major changes in the company’s focus. The production of painted scenery at the studio began to take a back seat, and the manufacture theatrical equipment assumed a more dominant role. Furthermore, the name of Toomey was removed from the firm, beginning the age of Volland Scenic Studios, Inc.

Imagine my surprise yesterday evening, to see a detail photo of a fly rail with lights that looked like Volland’s drawing from his patent on FB Group Archiving Technical Theatre History. On February 7, 2019, Robert Bob Foreman posted a photograph with “Has anyone ever seen one of these? Mounted to the flyrail of the 1927 (Kalamazoo) State Theatre, it appears to be a series of cue lights, with switches operated by the cue-ee! System installer unknown.”

In all appearances, it looked like a part of what Volland invented in 1926. Attached is the 1926 patent with images. Volland’s patent described, “Mounted in the guard box 18 is an incandescent lamp 19 provided with a switch 20, said guard box being secured to a forwardly projecting end of the top member 11. At a particular time during a theatrical performance the map 19 may be caused to light, indicating to an attendant that a certain curtain is wanted, and by opening the lock 12 and pulling the rope 7, the curtain is raised or lowered as desired. Prior to this invention such devices were without individual locking devices and signal lamps.”

To be continued…

Part 638: Electrical Mechanism for Handling Hanging Scenery, 1910 

The best and worst part about writing my blog is I can go off on little tangents. There is no looming deadline, direction, or moment when all research needs to cease and I aim for a publication date. I try very hard not to get lost in the details, staying on track with a specific year in the life and times of Thomas G. Moses (1856-1934). However, the beauty of slowly meandering through history is that I get to fix incorrect information that I previously stated, or expand on something from an earlier post. Occasionally, I find a newspaper article and tuck it away for a specific year. Such is the case for the subject of today’s post, as it connects to the development of stage machinery during the first decade of the twentieth century. It aims at a stage improvement for operating scenery, similar to the idea that prompted the development of Brown’s special system. Electrical appliances to handle scenery was cutting-edge innovation in 1910.

I approach this information as a scenic artist and designer with some knowledge of stage machinery. I am not an expert in theater rigging or the history of counterweight systems. Luckily I have friends who are the experts in this field. It is wonderful to be able to throw out an idea without fear, or any thought that I may be reprimanded for my lack of knowledge. I may hear, “Didn’t you read my book?” or “I don’t think so.” But occasionally there will be a “That’s a remarkable discovery,” and “I hadn’t thought about that.” It reminds me of brainstorming for any project. It is only through continued discussions about discoveries with experts that new information comes to light. They bring additional information to the table, information that only can come through age and experience.

Here is a mind blowing article that I stumbled across well over a year ago. It was published in the “Lincoln Star” on Dec. 18, 1910. Keep that date in mind – 1910. I came across the article while I was looking for information pertaining to David H. Hunt, the Sosman & Landis salesman who was a founder of New York Studios, a scenic firm) and Sosman, Landis, & Hunt, a theatrical management company. New York Studios was advertised as the eastern affiliate of the Sosman & Landis, similar to many regional offices established by scenic studios during this time.

Here is the article in its entirety:

“A bas the stage hands,” exclaimed Mr. Martin Beck, general manager of the Orpheum circuit, today, says the Denver Times. Mr. Beck came to Denver to meet M. Meyerfield, Jr., president of the Orpheum circuit company. Together they are going to Oklahoma City to arrange for the building of an Orpheum theatre there, but that isn’t the cause of Mr. Beck’s breaking into French regarding the stage hands.

When confronted by an interviewer, Mr. Beck, with David H. Hunt of Chicago, a theatrical producer, and Frank W. Vincent of the New York booking offices were standing in front of the Orpheum theater. Mr. Beck was doing a juggling act with three solver dollars and Mr. Vincent was picking the currency out of the gutter, for Mr. Beck didn’t have the act down pat.

“I have just inspected the invention of Seth Bailey, stage manager of the Orpheum in Denver,” said Mr. Beck. “He has devised an electrical appliance which makes it possible for one man to handle sixty-five drops. It operates everything from the stage curtain to the back, gives absolute fire protection and does the work of an average of twenty stage hands. One man can operate it. It looks good to me, and if further tests prove it as successful as the indications are here we will install in all the Orpheum Theatres.

“The apparatus for handling drops, consisting of ropes and counterweights, has been the same for 200 years,” said A. C. Carson, manager of the Denver Orpheum house. “Mr. Bailey has perfected, the first invention, bringing the stage mechanism up to date. It has been a field neglected by inventors.”

“It is currently reported that you are now the kingpin in vaudeville controlling the entire situation,” was a suggestion o Mr. Beck.

The general manager of the Orpheum circuit gravely pocketed the dollars which were props in his juggling act. “That’s what they say?” he said, “but I am a modest man.”

“This is your first adventure into the southwest in the way of building theaters?” Mr. Beck was asked.

“Yes, but it will not be the last,” he replied. “We have no theatres in Pueblo or Colorado Springs.” “Are you going to build in either of those towns?”

“That would be telling,” smiled Mr. Beck, giving his interviewer a friendly tap with the ornate head of his ebony cane.”

 

A year later in 1912, newspapers reported, “Theatrical men and others in Denver have organized a $500,000 corporation to manufacture a mechanical device, which, it claimed, will reduce the number of stage hands needed in a theatre by three-fourths, at least. The new corporation is called the Bailey Fly Rail Machine Company. It is incorporated under the laws of Colorado. Seth Bailey, stage carpenter at the Denver Orpheum, is the inventor of the device. He worked on it several years before he announced that it was successful. About two months ago Martin Beck, M. Meyerfeld Jr., John W. Considine and other vaudeville managers, met in Denver and saw a demonstration of the apparatus. They appeared to be highly pleased with it. The names of A. C. Carson, manager of the Denver Orpheum; Fred W. Feldwich and Frank Bancroft appear at the prime movers in the matter of incorporation. Mr. Bancroft is an attorney. The device is operated by electricity (Wiles-Barre Times Leader, 18 Feb 1911, page 11). Other than patents, the stage carpenter and company never appear to depart from print. Here is information about the patents that were registered by Bailey at a little later.

Bailey obtained patent 1.027.027 Mechanism for Handling Hanging Scenery in Theater. Seth G. Bailey, Denver, Colo., assignor of one-forth to Martin Beck, New York, New York, and one fourth to Andrew C. Carson, Denver, Colo., Filed Nov. 28, 1910, Serial No. 594.466.

A second patent by Bailey was filed on Dec. 2, 1911. In the Official Gazette o the United States Patent Office, Vol. 200, published on Dec. 31, 1914, we find the following:

“Seth G. Bailey, assignor to The Bailey Theater Fly-Rail Machine Company, Denver, Colo. Scenery handling apparatus. No. 1,091,109; March 24; Gaz. Vol. 200, p. 958.”

 

 

To be continued…

Part 633a: Why Fire on Stage is Always a Bad Idea

This ties in with the continued storyline of Bestor G. Brown.

I am in nearing the end of writing an article about Bestor G. Brown, traveling salesman for E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Company (1894-1903) and later western sales manager for M. C. Lilley & Co. (1903-1917). Brown is fascinating on many fronts, one being his connection to the development and sale of Brown’s special system – the standard counterweight rigging system delivered by Sosman & Landis consistently to Scottish Rite theaters during the early twentieth century. He was THE mover and shaker for everything required for degree productions at Scottish Rite theaters in the Southern Jurisdiction beginning in 1896.

Brown belonged to MANY fraternal orders from 1884 until his passing in 1917. He was a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, Benevolent and Protected Order of Elks, Freemasonry and Knights of Pythias.

As a Knights of Pythias member, he performed in the title role of Pythias for the Knights of Pythias public production, “Damon & Pythias” during 1891. The fundraiser was held at an opera house in Topeka, Kansas, during 1891 where Brown resided with his young daughter. So popular was the amateur production of “Damon & Pythias,” that it repeated for the benefit of the fireman of Topeka. It opened at the Grand on November 20, 1891.

There was pre-show play before “Damon and Pythias,” titled “The Fireman’s Child.” The first in a series of short scenes depicted a house fire and a small child being rescued by a fireman from a window. The scenes used live flame.

On November 22, 1891, the “Topeka State Journal” reported a small fire that broke out during the “The Fireman’s Child.” Here is the article in it’s entirety:

“IT WAS TOO FIERY. The Red Fire at the Grand Goes off All at Once.

An exciting accident occurred at the Grand opera house last night during the realistic fire scene which came dangerously nearing making the scene too realistic, by far. On the interior of the set representing the burning house were six men who were manipulating the flames, the crashing glass, the crackling of the flames,” and other features of the fire. They had only about eight feet square to work in. Mr. T. D. Humphrey was in charge of the red fire and got it well started. The flames were rolling out of the windows famously, when all at once two pounds of the treacherous powder, standing near in boxes, from which the covers had been carelessly removed, caught tire. With a puff and a roar, the flames soared up into the flies, and the scene on the interior of the house instantly became an exciting one. The glass smasher dropped his box, and the “flame crackler” fled. The fire leaped up against a parlor set standing near and it instantly burst into flumes. Manager Alton, who was on the stage, rushed to the hose lying near, ready for just such an emergency, turned on the water and in a minute had a , stream on the blazing scenery, which Speedily extinguished the fire. In the excitement the hose was accidentally turned on Mr. Bestor G. Brown, who was drenched, and all the grease paint was washed off of Mr. Humphrey, who had made up preparatory to going on in the play. Several Grecian soldiers loafing around were also soused. For a few moments there were a frightened lot of people on the stage, but when it was all over, they had a good laugh. Mr. Humphrey’s hands and arms were severely scorched. The audience, fortunately was not aware of the accident.”

 

Part 637: John H. Bairstow (1844-1923)

John Bairstow worked as the full-time stage carpenter at the Chicago auditorium from the time that it opened in 1889 until 1905.

John H. Bairstow was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England, during 1844. His father was Fred Bairstow, and the Bairstows manufactured machines. They still are a family of inventors if you follow the Bairstow descendants. It is funny how some family lines will gravitate toward certain professions. Halifax’s main industry was manufacture of woolen’s, beginning in the 15^th century. By the 19^th century, much of the region’s wealth derived from a combination of cotton, wool and carpet industries, not unlike many other Yorkshire towns. There were a large number of weaving mills necessitating the manufacture and repair of loom as well as other mechanisms necessitated by the trade. Bairsstow came from a family of machinery manufacturers in Ovenden. An 1864 entry in the “London Gazette” mentioned the dissolution of Bairstow Brothers and Co. It was after this event and the end of the Civil War in the United States that John Bairstow immigrated to the United States. I have yet to locate the exact year.The entry is as follows:

“NOTICE is hereby given, that the Partnership heretofore subsisting between the undersigned, Thomas Bairstow, John Bairstow, Henry Peel, and Thomas Hudson Oldfield, in the trade or business of Machine Makers, carried on at Forest Mill, in Ovenden, in the parish of Halifax, and county of York, under the style or firm of Bairstow, Brothers, and Co., was this day dissolved by mutual consent, as to the said John Bairstow, and in future the business will be carried on by the said Thomas Bairstow, Henry Peel, and Thomas Hudson Oldfield on their separate account, who will pay and receive all debts owing- from and to the said partnership, in the regular course of business.—Witness our hands this 17th day of September, 1864.Thomas Bairstow. Henry Peel, John Bairstow. Thomas Hudson Oldfield.” This not the same John Bairstow, but a relative who stayed in the region.

At the age of twenty, Bairstow married Mally Scott. She would also go by the name of Molly. The couple married and immigrated to the United States and raised seven children – six sons and one daughter. The Bairstow children included Arthur, William H. John, Frank, Robert and James (who predeceased him). In Chicago John Bairstow worked as a stage mechanic for various venues, including McVickers theater and the Grand Opera. He accepted the position as stage mechanic for the Auditorium in 1888 at the age of 44 years old. Bairstow lived until the age of 78, four months and 27 days, passing away in February 1923. Like many of his theatre colleagues, he is buried at Rosehill Cemetery, Notices of Bairstow’s death were also sent to Halifax newsletters.

Little is known of Bairstow’s career from his arrival in Chicago until 1882. The “Chicago Tribune” lists his name in an advertisement for McVicker’s Theatre on Jul 29, 1882, page 7. It is an ad for the commencement of the Twenty-sixth season of McVickers. The theater reopened after completing a three-month renovation with improvements. Upon reopening, articles reported that the improvements “render it the Model Theatre of the World.” The ad continued, “In point of safety, there being now twenty-three separate exits from the auditorium.” The premiere production was “Taken From Life” “By Henry Pettitt, Esq., and is the sole proprietor of Mr. Sam’l Colville; has scenic illustrateds by Mssrs L. Malmsha and J. H. Rodgers: Mechanical Effects by John Bairstow and Frank E. Langridge; New Music by Karl Meyer; Stage Direction by Mr. AlexFitz Gerlad, who has been greatly aided through the kindness of J. D. Beveridge, whose familiarity with thebusiness of the drama has extended inro two hundred representations at the Aldelphi Theatre, London.”

John Bairstow is listed again in 1884 when certificates of organization were filed by the Chicago Theatrical Mechanics’ Association of Chicago, with John Barstow, John E. William, and Frank F. Goss as the organizers and first directors (“Chicago Tribune” on May 6, 1884, page 3). A month later, Bairstow was credited as the newly elected president of the Chicago Theatrical Mechanics Association in a short Chicago Tribune” article (Chicago Tribune 23 April 1884, page 8). Sixteen charter members represented various theaters in the city. The article reported, “The society will be benevolent and protective, and the membership will be strictly confined to the skilled working employees of theatres – stage-carpenters, scene-shifters, property-men, gas-men, etc. – of whom there are a large number in the city.” The other elected officers included Jay Tripp (vice-president), Frank F. Goss (recording secretary), Alfred W. Palmer (financial secretary), and John Faust (treasurer). By 1891 McVicker’s Theatre as their stage carpenter.

By 1891, the Theatrical Mechanics Association convention was held in Chicago from July 26-28. An article in the “Chicago Tribune” reported, “This association is composed of men working on the stages of the theaters throughout the United States and Canada. There are twenty-eight lodges in this country. Each will send delegates. The committee having charge of the entertainment of the delegates is James L. Quigley, John Bairstow, Willaim Edgerty, John Dutton, Frank Gammon, and C. F. Faber” (7 July 1891, page 3). Bai

Throughout the 1880s, Bairstow also worked as a stage carpenter at the Grand Opera and McVicker’s. An article published in the “Chicago Tribune” on May 13, 1888, included a portrait of Bairstow in an article. He was pictured in the section that discussed the Theatrical Mechanics Association. The article reported, “Chicago has also a Theatrical Mechanics’ Association, which takes in all the hands about a theatre except the actors and managers. Many persons are employed in the purely mechanical department of the theatre. At McVicker’s 120 persons were behind the curtain when Irving played, their duty being to look after scenery, lights, traps, ‘drops,’ properties, etc. It required sixty to look after ‘A Run of Luck,’ and forty is the average number of men employed. Mr. John Bairstow, master carpenter at McVicker’s, has been the head of the Theatrical Mechanics’ Association since it was started, but recently has been pushed out by radical members, who wish to make the society a labor instead of a mutual aid association. The men work only a couple hours a night, and they want $9 a week instead of $6. This exorbitant demand is likely to be firmly resisted by the capitalist managers. The theatrical mechanics will likely find that they have destroyed a worthy charity in forming a worthless labor machine” (page 25).

Sadly, the digitized image at newspapers.com is less than ideal, but better than nothing!

By 1885, his son William H. followedin his father’s footsteps and was listed at the stage carpenter at Chicago’s Schiller Theatre (Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide for 1885-1886). While his son was working for the Schillaer, Bairstow rose to the top of his profession in Chicago and was appointed the future stage manager for the Chicago Auditorium, necessiatating him to travel. In 1888, Bairstow toured Europe with architect Dankmar Adler to see stage machinery at opera houses in Europe. Note: Adler also designed McVicker’s Theatre. Bairstow returned from his European tour during November and took his position as the venue neared completion.

Bairstow continued to work full-time at the Chicago Auditorium until 1905, when his son, William, took his position as stage carpenter at the venue. However, Bairstow only partially retired from the Auditorium that year at the age of 61. John Bairstow continued to come back to the Auditorium and supervise the raising of the auditorium floor for various events. In 1909, the “Chicago Tribune” reported, William H. Bairstow, master carpenter at the Auditorium theater, succeeded his father in that position, and has been at work for a dozen years. His father now receives a pension as a reward for excellent services in the well known theater.

I’ll leave you with an entertaining tale from an article “Ready for the Fair” when the Chicago Auditorium was being transformed for a Hebrew Charity Bazaar, “John Bairstow, the Auditorium stage manager, looked wild-eyed and frantic. Wherever he went a crowd of women followed him, asking about this and that, and wanting everything done at once. He dodged around to avoid them as though he were playing a game of tag, and finally went back on stage and climbed into the rigging loft.”

To be continued…

Part 636: John Bairstow and the Chicago Auditorium

I have repeatedly mentioned the Chicago Auditorium in the past few posts. Here is a lengthy article about the theater that may help clarify its international significance. Tomorrow I will focus on the Chicago Auditorium’s stage carpenter, John H. Bairstow.

 

On 7 December 1899, the “Chicago Tribune” published the article “The Auditorium Stage. A Revolution in Scenic Apparatus and General Equipment” (page 12). It is packed of absolutely wonderful details about the stage machinery and scenery. This is the theater that every single college student should encounter in theater history class. Unfortunately, this space was never discussed in any of my theater history throughout my BA, MA and PhD studies. Here is the 1899 article in its entirety:

THE AUDITORIUM STAGE.

A Revolution in Scenic Apparatus and General Equipment.

Twenty Hydraulic Rams by Which the Floor Can Be Raised of Lowered-Innovations Art All Old Idea-As Absolutely Fire-Proof as Anything Can Be Made-The Electrician’s Room a Study-Eleven Miles of Steel Wire Cloth-An Iron Curtain That Weighs 9,000 Pounds.

There are twenty hydraulic rams by which the entire floor of the Auditorium can be raised or lowered at will. There are fifteen traps, large and small, some extending over the entire width of the stage, which can be raised to represent elevations of be dropped to allow spirits to disappear. A goblin or fiend may shoot up as quick as lightning, or a ghost rise slowly into view. No need any longer to depend on the effects of an imperfect perspective and the occasional rock to represent the valley in which old Rip Van Winkle appears. A real valley can be produced on the stage by some ne on the stage floor touching a few brass handles and knobs, when the traps will rise or drop and give the desired elevations and depression. No need of any makeshifts to produce the impression of a ship at sea. H.M.S. Pinafore can appear rocked by waves, life size almost, and make the huge hydraulic rams oscillate to produce this motion it will take only the moving of some more brass handles on the stage floor.

What produces the remarkable stage effect in the background? It is no longer a level canvas on which perspective compels the painter to have a view toward the horizon narrowed. On the contrary, true to nature, the view expands as you look farther towards the horizon. The horizon consists of a semi-circular piece covering the background and running forward on the sides halfway to the curtain. The effect produced is as in a panorama. The painted part gradually approaches, and merges into, the adjacent parts of the real ground and objects. This horizon works a wonderful change in the appearance of the stage. It is movable. It runs on a track and is rolled around a perpendicular cylinder at the other end. It contains four kinds of weather so that be setting the rollers in motion a perfect effect of a change from fair weather to a dark, threatening sky, and finally the heavy clouds of a storm, can be produced. Transparent clouds will permit the effects of light, be it sun, or moon, or lightning, to be made from behind this horizon. The horizon looks pretty and airy, but weighs 5,800 pounds, including the counterweights.

AS COMPARED WITH OTHER STAGES

The trap arrangements, the movability of the entire stage, and the horizon are probably the most remarkable improvements that distinguish the Auditorium from all other stages, not only in this country but in Europe. It is to be the most completely equipped stage in the world, and will be in every respect, except size, the most perfect. There are only three other stages containing all the improvement that the Auditorium will have – namely: at Budapest, Prague, and the old German University Halle. Most of these innovations are the patents of the Asphaleia company of Vienna, or the firm of Kautsky & Sons, one of whom, Fritz Kautsky, has been here for a month superintending the construction. This system was selected by Architect Adler and Mr. John Bairstow after a careful examination of the systems of the principal European stages, and it is safe to say that the introduction of it by the Auditorium will cause a revolution in the scenic apparatus and general equipment of American theaters.

If there ever will be an absolutely fire-proof stage this one is probably the ideal. Everything is of iron and steel. There are no wings, the horizon makes them superfluous. There are no grooved running crosswise, suspended from the flies; the horizon dispenses with them. Side pieces of which there are an immense number, thirty-five to forty feet high are let down on stout wire ropes and pulled up again with ease. Everything, including the large cylinders and pistons for lifting the stage is moved by hydraulic power, the water being stored in huge tanks above the fifteenth story. The properties are stored away from the busy stage in large, convenient storerooms, There is no other than electric light. Rows of 990 colored globes run along the flies across the stage, forming the border lights, and by a touch of a little handle the most startling effects of light can be produced. The clumsy old calcium light process is at last completely wiped out. The electrician’s room is a study in itself. As it will require a most expert engineer and one of the highest ability to mange the apparently inextricable network of pipes, rods, rams, cylinders, pistons, and cables, so the electrician must be of the highest order obtainable in order to find his way through the wilderness of handles, knobs, and buttons in the little room on the stage floor behind the reducing curtain. He has to control 5,000 lights on the stage and in the house. In the like manner the engineer has to control eleven miles of steel wire cable and any number of rams, beside the iron curtain which weighs 9,000 pounds. But everything is so perfectly balanced by counterweights, and the hydraulic motors so admirably arranged, that a mere touch of the hand is sufficient to set in motion many thousands of pounds.

NO FLIES ON THIS STAGE

During the performance nobody will have to be in the flies. In fact there are no flies on the Auditorium stage. The side pieces – Mr. Kautsky calls them “walls” to avoid the term “wings” – are held up by steel ropes and propped up from behind. Almost 100 feet above the stage floor these “walls” are suspended ready for use. The artistic finish of all these pieces makes them worth looking at on their own account. Ordinary stage decorations are coarse when looked at closely, but in this case each piece is a picture in itself, so perfect that one might hang it in a parlor alongside a good oil painting.

About eight feet below the stage floor is another floor, which is in every particular an exact duplicate of the one above, each trap is raised on the stage floor to be used as an elevation of some sort, its place can be filled by the trap from the lower floor, s as to close up the stage floor. Beneath this lower floor is the basement, containing the hydraulic machinery, with a total pressure of six atmospheres. All scenery is operated from the stage floor.

Along the sides strong iron stairways lead to the top. An iron bridge extends across the proscenium just above the curtain, and along the background is the painter’s frame with two platforms, all suspended in steel wire cables. Near the top in the property room there is a force of artists at work now preparing the properties. Fawcett Robinson and his brother who used to be Henry Irving’s property artist are constructing the articles of papier-maché in such close resemblance of the genuine articles that at a distance of five feet one would take the tables and bookcases to be made of antique oak, and his copy of Thorwoldsen’s Venus looks at a distance of about ten feet like a perfect plaster cast. Mr. Robinson is an enthusiast in his work and his room alone is worth more than one visit to the Auditorium stage.

Not only is the apparatus for producing artistic effect so complete and varied that it will create an almost perfect illusion, but the convenience of the actors. Musicians, and workmen has been consulted to a hitherto unheard-of degree. The Diva need no longer receive callers on the stage.

MILWARD ADAMS’ NEAT IDEA.

A beautiful little reception-room has been provided-Milward Adams’ idea. The dressing rooms are comparatively large and commodious and provided with all conveniences. They are thirty in number, comparable of accommodating 300 people without crowding. The largest and best are on the stage floor, the others open off the landings along the iron stairways at the sides. The room where the musicians can be during the intervals of their work is as large as the orchestra pit, the prompter’s box commodious without being offensively conspicuous. A large covered court adjoins the rear of the stage for the reception of the actors and actresses in carriages or on foot. The stage manager has a convenient little room adjoining that of the electrician.

A magnificent plush curtain is covered by an iron curtain with a coat of plaster. The side borders are simply but tastefully decorated and display in letters of gold the names of a number of leading composers, classical and modern. The list comprises the names of Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Haydn, Schumann, Rossini, Mozart, Verdi, Gounod, and Glück.

FIGURES OF THE SCENIC APPARATUS

A few figures may assist in forming an estimate of the larger proportions and perfect construction of these scenic apparatus. The iron curtain weighs 9,000 pounds, exclusive of counter-weights; the reducing curtain, covered with plaster, weighs 23,000 pounds. The horizon is forty-eight feet high by 300 long. The contract for the iron work on the stage footed up $110,000, and the total equipment of the stage exceeds $200,000.”

[$200,000 in 1889 is equivalent in purchasing power to $7,388,771.25 in 2019. The cost of the entire building was $3,200,00.00]

The article concluded, “In the hall is to be used for other than theater purposes a level floor can easily be placed on the stage level, and the ceiling has a piece fastened by iron chains to windlasses which are hidden from view so that it can be lowered and shut the gallery out of sight.”

From the opening of the auditorium until after his partial retirement in 1905, John Bairstow would be in charge of raising the auditorium floor for special events. In 1910, the “Chicago Tribune” reported, “ John Bairstow is getting in trim for the one effort which claims his attention from year to year. Who is John Bairstow? Well, John Bairstow is the first stage carpenter, and from the beginning of the charity ball as an Auditorium function John Bairstow has laid the great dancing floor for the event. He has been doing this for twenty years and in the mind of John Bairstow no other carpenter, not even his own son William Bairstow, who has succeeded him as stage carpenter, may be entrusted with the duty. He retired from active work five years ago and this year he is far from the best of health, but already he is getting the numbered sections of the ballroom floor carefully arranged, mentally – as it will appear the night of Jan. 31 – for after every ball the floor – built originally at a cost of $10,000 – is taken up, its sections numbered carefully and stored away. This year thirty-seven boxes will be erected to add to the forty-five permanent stalls. The new boxes will be arranged four on either side beneath the organ grills, eight on each side of the stage proper, five around the rear wall of the stage, and eight at the west end of the ballroom. To get the theater in readiness a force of seventy-five carpenters and assistants will work two days and nights to complete the work” (22 Dec 1910, page 8).

I will continue with the life of stage carpenter John Bairstow tomorrow.

To be continued…

Part 635: The Era of Brown’s Special System and the Role of Stage Carpenter

The “Star Tribune” article “Experts Behind the Scenes” (Minneapolis, January 13, 1901) noted that the “ruler of this realm behind the footlights” was titled “stage carpenter.” Titles have changed over the decades, as they are fluid and defined by a specific time or place. Titles may designate specific roles in the larger makeup of the theatrical trades, differing a century later. Today, some may identify the title “stage carpenter” as a “builder” and a “scenic artist” as a “painter.” There was a time when these two distinctive titles designated “stage visionaries” who brilliantly engineered and lit a variety of scenic effects and staged illusions, thrilling nineteenth-century audiences. During the late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth century, it was not uncommon for a stage carpenter to paint scenery or a scenic artist to engineer mechanical effects. Furthermore, many scenic artists controlled the lights on their painted scenes, visually guiding the intended stage aesthetic from conception to performance. It was a time of great possibility in America, when we were neither limited to a single trade nor skill.

By 1907, there was an article that defined the stage carpenter, using John Bairstow (also printed as Barstow) as an example. John, and later his son William H., were two of the Chicago Auditorium’s stage carpenters. While researching stage carpenters during the spring of 2017, I discovered a wonderful article about their work and the contribution of John Bairstow and the design of the Auditorium stage.

On September 28, 1907, the “Oregon Daily Journal” included an article written by Jonas Howard in their Sunday Supplement about stage carpenters. It provides a historical context for the title of “stage carpenter,” as it was perceived during the first decade of the twentieth century. This was printed at the same time that Sosman & Landis were delivering Brown’s Special System to Scottish Rite theaters across the country. Here is a section from the article:

“The only jack of all trades who has mastered them all is the stage carpenter. What the stage carpenter doesn’t know or can’t find out could be written in a small book. He must be not only a carpenter of the first rank, but a plumber, machinist, painter, blacksmith, sailor, tailor, artist and common laborer as well. In fact, the stage carpenter must be an all around genius or he wouldn’t hold his job five minutes.” [We’ll pause right here to look at two things. The first is that they distinguish between a painter and artist. The second circles back to the 1901 “Star Tribune” article that describes how the stage carpenter ruled the “realm behind the footlights.” No kidding, because if you are capable of doing it all, you understand the process and details that could prevent and foresee a catastrophe]

Howard’s 1907 article continues, “Stage carpenters begin their careers as assistants to the property men or scene painters. During the first year of their apprenticeship they do nothing but the rougher jobs around the stage, such as moving scenery, repairing frames and helping the electrician. Later they are allowed to work some of the ropes that are used to manipulate the scenery and gradually work into the positions as fly men. It is not until a stage carpenter can make and repair “trick” stuff that he is called proficient in his business, and as “trick” stuff is as intricate and varied as the tricks themselves it is only the keen witted carpenters that reach the front of their profession.

‘Trick’ stuff is that part of the stage machinery that is used to bring about various spectacular scenic effects that are so common on the present day stage. Sometimes there is an automobile race to be brought off, and it is up to the stage carpenter to devise a scheme that will make an automobile run a mile or more at top speed in the space of 20 or 30 feet. To do this there must be a set of rollers under the floor to turn the automobile’s wheels. The country through which the race is run must be painted on canvas and wound up on upright rollers so it can whizz by at the rate of 90 miles an hour or so. All of this arrangement must be put together with skill or it would not endure through the performance. Stage tricks are so numerous that there could be no accounting of them. Nearly every show has some mechanical device to produce its stage effects and the stage carpenter must be enough of a mechanic to be familiar with all of them.

In the Auditorium theatre in Chicago which has one of the largest stages in the world, there is 2,000,000 feet of rope and cables. To handle these and keep them in repair requires the services of a man who knows as much about ropes as a sailor. In the producing houses more stage carpenters are employed that are used in the theatres where the stage productions are shown after they are once set up. When a play is produced all of its scenery must be made and painted and the work is under the supervision of the stage carpenter. Each piece of scenery must be made so that it can be used in the average theatre throughout the country, for it would not do to make the scenery to fit any one house. John Barstow, former stage carpenter at the Auditorium, the stage of which he built, has been in the business nearly fifty years. He began his career in Europe, coming to this side shortly after the civil war. Before the Auditorium was built Mr. Barstow was sent to Europe to learn all he could about the stage arrangements of the best theaters and on his return he incorporated all of the best features of these houses in the Auditorium stage. His son, William H. Barstow, is the present stage carpenter at the Auditorium.”

Of all the stage carpenter’s in the world, the author uses Bairstow and the Chicago Auditorium as an example. I’ll look start with the venue tomorrow.

To be continued…

 

Part 634: Revisiting Brown’s Special System with William Knox Brown  

Scenic studios went far beyond painting drops. Scenic artists, stage carpenters, and stage mechanics were visionaries; those who combined painted illusion, lighting innovations, and new stage technology on a daily basis. They were at the forefront of technological innovation, integrating old trades and new technology, often registering their designs with the patent office.

In 1909, Brown’s Special System system was the Sosman & Landis’ “standard” when installing scenery and stage machinery in Scottish Rite theaters. For the past two days, I have examined possible candidates who may have been involved in the conception phase, design, and installation of Brown’s special system during the first decade of the twentieth century. I am now compelled to look at a few close connections in the Midwest – other stage carpenters, stage mechanics and scenic artists who may have been involved with this new counterweight system. I realize that it will be impossible to pinpoint, but that contributes to the enjoyment during this particular quest.

During the 1890s, scenic studio employees drifted from one studio to another. It was an intricate network propelled by an ever-increasing demand for scenic illusion and stage effects. In fact, it greatly benefitted studio owners to not only know their competition, but also maintain close ties to their competitors; they may need to draw upon another’s labor pool if a large project came along. During this period massive projects would appear, requiring a legion of theatrical suppliers and manufacturers to complete the projects on time. Projects requiring complicated stage machinery and painted illusion ranged from huge outdoor pyrotechnic events and grand circus spectacles to word fair amusements and electrical parades. There was a shared material culture between the general public and multiple entertainment industries.

Minnesota’s Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) were a short railway ride away from Chicago, the central shipping hub. Sosman & Landis completed many projects in Minnesota and the degrees of separation in the theater world were far less than the presently allotted six. It would be an anomaly to think that the movers and shakers of the theater world in Chicago were not in constant contact with those in the Twin Cities. There is one well-known stage mechanic and stage carpenter, William Knox Brown, who traversed the country throughout the late-nineteenth century. In 1888, the “Saint Paul Globe” reported, “W. K. Brown of New York, the stage carpenter, deserves credit for the clever mechanical effects to be seen at the People’s [Theatre]. He is enthusiastic, a skilled mechanic and an artist in his line” (Saint Paul Globe, 19 Feb 1888, page 10).

William Knox Brown engineered brilliant stage effects, and was a well-known stage carpenter and stage mechanic who traversed the country. Brown was an up and coming inventor during the late nineteenth century.

An article written by Geo. W. Welty, titled, “Experts Behind the Scenes,” included a brief synopsis of Brown’s career as a stage carpenter (The Star Tribune, 13 January 1901). The article noted that Brown was a “mechanic of experience” and “one of the best stage carpenters in the country” with a “thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the art of stage mechanism.” It then went on to describe his experience since first arriving in Minneapolis as a stage carpenter in 1882. Beginning in 1883, he was employed at the Grand Opera House in St. Paul. By 1887, he was connected with the People’s Theatre when it opened. He then took charge of the stage in Burd’s Opera house, in Davenport Iowa. From Iowa, he moved to the Harris theatre in Louisville, Kentucky,and by 1890 was connected with the Henrietta theater in Columbus Ohio.

By 1901, Brown had acquired the reputation for being one of the best stage carpenters in the country, being called “a mechanic of excellence” (Star Tribune, 13 Jan 1901, page 27).

Brown was also credited with “that rare quality of being able to control men without trouble, and while a strict tactician, he is yet extremely popular with all his employees.” These qualities landed Brown a position as master mechanic with the Hanlon Bros. spectacle “Superba.” Brown not only directed the staging of the production on tour, but also was engaged to direct the building, repairing and testing of new effects and “featured stage mechanisms” at their private stage and workshop in Cohasset, Massachusetts. The Star Tribune reported, “Mr. Brown, during his years of travel, with his splendid powers of grasping facts, has been able to acquire a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the art of stage mechanism. This knowledge he has put to good use at the Bijou, for the stage of that theater today is conceded to be one of the most complete in the country; traveling managers sending many compliments for the excellent manner in which it is conducted” (Star Tribune, 13 Jan 1901, page 27).

In 1894, the Hanlon Brothers lost $100,000 worth of “Superba” scenery during a fire at the “Globe” in Boston. It was the third time that the Company had been “burned out,” in other words losing their scenery, to fire in eighteen months (Chicago Tribune, 2 Jan 1894, page 1). If I were the stage mechanic, this may be my sign to leave the touring world and start my own studio. That year, Brown returned to Minneapolis to take charge of the Metropolitan stage in 1894 when it was opened by W. F. Sterling. Consider that there is a “Brown” who is testing new stage effects, developing machinery, and applying his know-how to the theater that he is working at by 1894. At this same time the Brown special system is likely in the early stages of conception.

By 1895, William Knox Brown enters a partnership with Theodore Hays and William P. Davis, starting the Twin City Scenic Studio. The three initially work out of the Bijou Opera House in Minneapolis and later construct their own studio on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. Each partner had a specific role: Theodore Hays was the business manager, Brown was in charge of the stage mechanics, and Davis, who had previously worked at the Chicago Auditorium, led the painting.

By 1904, however, Brown is heralded for a new invention that pertains to rigging. (Star Tribune, 7 Jan 1904, page 7). The fire at the Iroquois theater prompted many cities and theater managers to contemplate fire safety in their theaters. The “Star and Tribune” quoted then manager of the Bijou Theodore L. Hays. Hays stated, “The Chicago catastrophe has emphasized the importance of asbestos curtains and the Girard Avenue theatre fire in Philadelphia, where an asbestos curtain was lowered in proper time, demonstrated their worth by keeping the fire from the auditorium proper fully fifteen minutes, ample time for any audience to be dismissed, evening in a panic… Appreciating the necessity of its quick operation in an emergency, W. K. Brown our stage carpenter, has already perfected and put in practical operation an arrangement which permits the lowering or raising of the asbestos curtain from either side of the main stage floor, as well as from the fly gallery.” Later Hays added, “We want safety and not ingenious inventions that nobody understands but the inventor. Safety in this matter lies in the things that ones fingers out of habit would operate automatically no matter how excited the brain might be.”

I re-read this section several times seeing what I had known all along to be the whole point of Brown’s special system. It was easily operated and relatively safe; no locks, sand bags or belaying pins. Whoever pulled the line was in complete control of the speed, it could go as fast, or slow, as needed. Whoever designed the counterweight system that is still used by many Masonic stage hands every year realized that “Safety in this matter lies in the things that one’s fingers out of habit would operate automatically no matter how excited the brain might be.”

Think of the cowboys and bankers waiting off stage before a scene change at a Scottish Rite Reunion – first-time stagehands. Their brains were excited, but all they had to do was pull a rope.

The earliest functioning example of Brown’s special system still n the original venue is located in Duluth, Minnesota. The Sosman & Landis installation of the system is dated 1904. In 1905, the “Minneapolis Journal,” advertised, “general stage apparatus and appliances designed, manufactured and modeled by the Twin City Scenic Studio, leading scenic contractors of the northwest” (Minneapolis Journal, 25 Feb 1905, page 18). Brown was listed as the stage mechanic for the company in the ad. That meant  W. K. Brown was designing special stage stage apparatus. At the time, stage apparatus was the word designating rigging systems. So W. K. Brown was designing special systems for the stage, like Brown’s special system.

To be continued…

Part 633: Revisiting Brown’s Special System

I am still exploring the development of Scottish Rite stages and degree productions, specifically the implementation of “Brown’s Special System.”

I left off yesterday with a new counterweight system being developed in the Midwest with a unique client – the Scottish Rite. This innovation allowed more drops to be crammed into a limited amount of space, resulting in the sale of even more stage machinery and scenery. This development and sale of this new counterweight system involved three entities – a fraternal supplier (E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Co.), a salesman (Bestor G. Brown), and a scenic studio (Sosman & Landis). It happened sometime between 1896 and 1904. I am aware of only one example that exists, as originally installed from 1904. This system would be still be installed by Sosman & Landis in the 1920s, as used stage machinery was recycled for future Scottish Rite installations. In other words, during a time when metal frames became the standard, Sosman & Landis was still installing used wooden arbors.

 

So lets look at the major players: E. A. Armstrong Co. is the fraternal supply company secures the stage contract and then subcontracts the scenery, rigging and lighting portions to other firms. They move to Chicago in 1892 and construct a new factory in 1893. Bestor G. Brown, who leads the Maosnic Department at E. A. Amstrong and Co., moves to Chicago and begins working as a traveling salesman in 1894. Joseph S. Sosman and Abraham “Perry” Landis who establish a scenic studio, manufacture stage hardware, and install Brown’s special systems. These two also establish the American Reflector and Lighting Company in 1894.

Who may have been responsible for the design of “Brown’s special system?” Obviously, someone who understands the mechanical needs of stage houses. After examining Bestor G. Brown’s education, training and early career choices, there is nothing to suggest that he had any mechanical experience as a stagehand or worked backstage at a theater. If would be unlikely for someone devoid of any backstage experience to intimately understand a stage house and come up with an innovative new system to improve it.

If we interpret the “Brown” in Brown’s special system to designate the salesman peddling the new technology and not the designer of the system, one needs to look at potential candidates in the region, especially those at the Sosman & Landis studio, who may have designed the system. We do not know who was in charge of delivering Brown’s special system at Sosman & Landis. Here are the known individuals who we know worked with development, construction and installation of stage machinery at Sosman & Landis:

W. H. Clifton, a Sosman & Landis stage machinist sent to superintend installations at opera houses, theaters and Elks auditoriums. The first mention of Clifton working for the company is 1889, and he continues into the first decade of the twentieth century. Newspaper articles report that Clifton was sent to superintend the work, requiring him to spend time on site – often about four weeks. His duties on site included fitting the stage carpets and conducting a final run through of all items with the client.

Charles S. King, often listed as C. S. King, was listed as both a stage mechanic and stage carpenter in the same article! King began his career in 1859, and by 1887 had installed 200 stage systems. In 1889, he mentioned that he began working for Sosman & Landis fifteen years earlier – in 1874 – the same year that Sosman arrived in Chicago. Sosman & Landis did not officially form until 1877. The date of King’s death is currently unknown. Both Clifton and King are the only stage carpenters/stage mechanics who I have discovered being publically mentioned as installing scenery and stage machinery on site. Both appear in article during the late 1880s.

David A. Strong was a scenic artist and stage mechanic. We know the most about his scenic art work at Sosman & Landis in the memoirs of Thomas G. Moses. Moses worked with Strong in the beginning, assisting him as an “up and coming young artist.” Strong also works as the lead scenic artist in the beginning at Sosman & Landis, painting much of the Masonic scenery orders as he is a Scottish Rite Mason and has a wide artistic range of subject matter.Moses later refers to Strong as the “Daddy” of all Masonic design, yet he does not differentiate whether the design was solely painted composition or the entire stage aesthetic and scenic effects. We know that brown was a member of the Theatrical Mechanics association and the in same Theatrical Mechanics Association Chicago Lodge No. 4 was John Bairstow who worked on the stage house for the Chicago Auditorium. Brown unexpectedly passed away at in early February 1911.

By 1904, Moses supervises the production of most Masonic work at Sosman & Landis. We know that he did not simply paint scenes, but also designed scenic effects and some of the necessary machinery needed for a variety of spectacles. He had done this for many clients, whether he was representing Sosman & Landis or himself. He also designed amusement park rides after briefly working for Fred C. Thompson.

“Mr. Brown” was a Sosman & Landis stage carpenter who worked for the company during the first decade of the twentieth century, maybe before. Thomas G. Moses mentions the unexpected death of their foreman carpenter– Mr. Brown, who died during late February of 1911.

Now this is where the stage carpenter and stage mechanic can get confusing. Throughout the nineteenth century, the term is somewhat fluid, as stage carpenters are credited with the design and construction of mechanical effects and stage illusion. Stage mechanics are also credited with the design and construction of mechanical effects and the engineering of metamorphosis on stage. Newspapers will refer to the same person associated with the same production as both a stage carpenter in one article and a stage mechanic in another. Although there may be specific duties applied with each, they did not seem to be uniform when used in programs, newspaper articles, or handwritten memoirs.

There were many other stage carpenters and mechanics who filtered through the Sosman & Landis shops from 1877 until 1904. But only one was recognized as being “the only one” who was thoroughly familiar with Brown’s special system by 1912. A statement made by Bestor G. Brown in written correspondence with the Austin Scottish Rite during 1912 states that there was one specific stage mechanic who supervised the installation of the stage machinery for all Scottish Rite installations. At the time, this mechanic was currently working at the Santa Fe Scottish Rite on their new stage. Brown explained that the mechanic’s anticipated timeline was three weeks on site during the fall of 1912. This statement about timeline corresponds with information pertaining to the stage mechanic Clifton superintending an installation.

A later letter from Brown to the Austin Scottish Rite reported that their “superintendent and installation expert” died from an accident, commenting that their deceased employee was the “only one thoroughly familiar with the special method of installing Scottish Rite scenery.” Then he continued, “We do not mean that it is impossible to follow the same methods as heretofore, but it will take a longer time to do it because of a lack of familiarity with the work.”

It may not be the case that this he was the only person who knew the special method – ever. He may have been the only one remaining who was familiar with the special method. If we consider that two potential candidates unexpectedly died during 1911, a team of three could have rapidly been depleted to a team of two in one month. Scenic artist and stage mechanic David A. Strong died on February 5, 1911. Sosman & Landis’ foreman carpenter “Mr. Brown” died on February 27, 1911. It is possible that the only remaining individual who understood the system was Charles S. King. We do not know that the expert was King, but we also don’t know when King died. In 1912, King’s age could have been 69 years old. I use this as a baseline, since many in the technical theatre industry started their profession at the age of 16. Would the expert be sent out on the road at an advanced age? Yes as we know that Moses worked well into his seventies; not solely from an office, but he worked in the studio and on site.

Now there was another “superstar stage mechanic” in the region when Brown’s special system was developed and installed…William Knox Brown. Same name even. Brown was also a Scottish Rite Mason. As a stage mechanic, he had certainly proved his worth and ingenuity time and time again. Brown would also found a scenic studio with two others in the mid-1890s. We’ll look at what Brown was doing in the Midwest tomorrow.

To be continued…