Part 714: The State of Scottish Rite Scenery at Sosman & Landis in 1909
I return to the entries in Thomas Moses’ typed manuscript during the 1909. Over the course of the past three-month, almost 100 posts, I have rambled down side roads that provided insight into historical scenic art, stage lighting, counterweight systems, and the evolution of Masonic scenery. For quite a while, I focused on theatre installations secured by E. A. Armstrong Manufacturing Co. of Chicago and M. C. Lilley & Co. of Columbus, and subcontracted to Sosman & Landis under the guidance of Bestor G. Brown. I am trying to tie up loose ends that uncover interesting historical tidbits that never quite made it into the theatre history textbooks.
Moses returns to the Sosman & Landis main studio at the beginning of 1909, as he had been traveling quite extensively throughout all of 1908, although one could say this has remained his standard mode of operation since starting with the company in 1880. Moses explained the cause for his return to the main studio instead of the annex studio, writing, “Sosman seemed to think I was needed there more than at 20th Street. Pausback took charge of the 20th Street studio.”
Business was booming, and Sosman & Landis increased their forces. Of staffing at the two studios, Moses wrote, “We have quite a force now at Clinton Street. We have forty-eight on the payroll, which includes the sewing girls and foremen. At 20th Street we have an average of twelve. I think we should turn out some work and we do. It is often a puzzle to me where it all goes, but the Masonic work requires a lot of time, and there is an average of eighty drops in each order so it makes plenty of work and is very interesting. The artists never grumble when they get it to do.”
Up to 1909, Sosman & Landis had delivered at least twenty-six Scottish Rite collections. In some cases more than one collection was delivered to the same location in less than a decade. The ones that I have verified include:
Chicago, Illinois (first, second and third installations)
Little Rock, Arkansas (first, second and third installations)
Oakland, California
Wichita, Kansas (first and second installations)
Guthrie, Oklahoma
Fargo, North Dakota
Salina, Kansas (first and second installations)
McAlester, Oklahoma (first and second installations)
Portland, Oregon
Duluth, Minnesota
Fort Scott, Kansas
Topeka, Kansas
Detroit. Michigan
San Francisco, California (first and second installations)
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Salt Lake City, Utah
Dubuque, Iowa
Yankton, South Dakota
Clarksburg, West Virginia
Wheeling, West Virginia
In 1909, I have verified that Sosman & Landis produced five Scottish Rite scenery collections: Dallas, TX, San Francisco, CA (second collection), Cleveland, OH, Kanas City, MO, Atlanta, GA, and Winona, MN. Even using Moses’ 1909 formula that Masonic installations averaged 80 drops per order, this would be 400 Masonic drops over the course of 365 days, not including the flats and other properties that would accompany the scenery collections.
According to scenic artist John Hanny who began with the studio in 1906, Masonic work only made up 24-30% of the studio’s entire output. This was also during the same time that Sosman & Landis had started creating scenery for the Ringling Brothers’ grand spectacles too.
We can therefore conservatively estimate that Sosman & Landis artists produced approximately 1200 drops during 1909. The output could have been more, but this likely means that the studio was producing approximately four drops every day of the week. Fortunately, they had a staff of forty-eight on payroll in the main studio and twelve in the annex to help with demand.
To be continued…
