A year after Thomas G. Moses was invited to a stage party hosted by the Palette & Chisel Club, his son Rupert was invited to an informal stag. In 1913, Rupert Moses received an invitation to an informal stag party, sponsored by the Pallet & Chisel Club. The letter was sent to Moses at the Sosman & Landis main studio address on 417 Clinton Street in Chicago. I encountered the invitation in the John H. Rothgeb papers at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin. It was part of the contents in an unlabeled file in an unprocessed collection.
The informal stag invitation announced, “Your presence is requested at the debut of Little Wayoff Saturday Eve, December Six Nineteen Thirteen” from “Gita Wayoff and husband.” The invitation included a ticket to admit “R. Moses” to “Little Wayoff” Palette & Chisel Club, 59 East Van Buren Street, Saturday, Dec. 6, 8:15 P.M.
“Little Wayoff” was billed as “an Eugenic Prodigy with Futuristic Tendencies,” sponsored by Gordon St. Clair. The production was “dressed by Gustave Baumann & William Watkins” with “orchestra muffled by Carl Krafft, Properties and plumbing by R. McClure and reception by Theodore Gladhand Lely.”
The cast for the production included:
Hesa Wayoff – an husband – Glen Scheffer
Gita Wayoff – his wife interested in the vote – Alex Kleboa
Little Wayoff – their only child aged six – A. J. Anderson
An Ice Bandidt – Mr. Wayoff’s half brother – R. V. Brown
The Art Wife – R. J. Davieson
Promise Wood Shavings – R. McClure
Prof. Glow-Worm – Art Instructor – R. V. Brown
Young Lady Sketcherines – Violet (John E. Phillips), Fay (De Alton Valentine), Gladys (R. J. Davison), Pearl (J. Jeffrey Grant), and Maude (D. Gut Biggs).
Hanging Committee – Hi Kroma (John E. Phillips), Siam Blooey (J. J. Grant), Harrison Wredo (D. Guy Biggs), Strontian Pale (Glen Scheffer), Paris Green (D. Valentine) and Hugh Newtral (R. J. Davison).
Lem – a janitor – W. C. Yoemans and Genevieve.
The “s’nopsis” for the first picture was Mrs. Wayoff’s husband’s kitchen not far from the Palette Chisel Club shortly after the great suffrage parade in the spring of 1913. The second picture was the sketch pasture of Prof. Glow-Worm’s class near the club’s summer camp at Fox Lake. The third picture was the hanging committee at play.
In 1908, newspapers reported that Ibsen’s Little Eyolf was sometimes referred to as “Little Way-off” (Star Tribune 26 Jan. 1908, page 19). However, “Little Wayoff” was also a parody of Ibsen’s work, included in “The Vassar Miscellany” (Vol. 24, 1894, page 227). Noted as “Life’s admirable paraody, wickedly entitled ‘Little Wayoff’ the book review commented the criticism was unjust. On June 17, 1895, the Baltimore Sun” mentioned “Little Wayoff” in the book review “Criticism – With Sugar” (page 8). The article reported, “ ‘Suppressed Chapter and Other Bookishness.” By Robert Bridges, author of ‘Overheard in Arcady.’ New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, Cushing & Co. It is not necessary to be dull to be wise, nor is long wind one of the requirements of a critic. A glance is pleasant if the eye sparkles, and a touch and away may leave an impress, while a heavier stroke would induce the wearied reader to exercise that wise discretion which is known as skipping. Those who have read ‘Drock’ in ‘Overheard in Arcady’ will need no introduction to the ‘Suppressed Chapters,’ from the ‘Dolly Dialogues,’ will appreciate the belated ‘Trilby’s criticism of Trilby,” and the absurd parody on Ibsen, of “Little Wayoff,” or the happiness of title and contents of ‘Literary Partition of Scotland.” On March 28, 1896, the “Courier-Journal” mentioned “Little Way-Off, a variation of Little Eyolf, is a clever addition to the work of the Norwegian Dramatist” (Louisville, Kentucky, page 9).
To be continued…
