Month: March 2020

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1917, Thomas G. Moses recorded that Sosman & Landis delivered “a number of new drops for the Palace, Milwaukee.” Sosman & Landis had previously delivered scenery to Palace Theatres in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Detroit, Michigan. As with other chains, such as Fox theaters, there were multiple Palace Theatres all over the country.

The entry in Moses’ memoirs for this Milwaukee project was early in 1917.

The theater was located on 535 W. Wisconsin Avenue in Milwaukee. On February 19, 1917, the “Post-Crescent” reported, “Cigarette Fire. Stub starts blaze that partly destroys the Palace Theatre at Milwaukee today.” The International New Service announced, “Fire said to have originated from a cigarette stub left in the audience caused $10,000 damage to the new Palace theatre here early this morning. The house ran popular vaudeville and will be closed for several days pending renovation” (page 1).

It remains unclear whether any of the stage or scenery were damaged during the fire.

The venue was designed by local architects Charles Kirchoff and Thomas Rose. The pair later designed the Palace Theatre in New York (1918), as well as many other venues that included the American Theatre, Colonial Theatre, Garden theatre, Majestic Theatre, New Star theatre, Rialto Theatre, and Riverside Theatre. The only A detailed description of interior is posted at http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/4067, noting three eras for the venue.

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1917, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Got a $1,430.00 contract from the Murat Theatre.” 

Sosman & Landis previously provided scenery for the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Shrine building was named for the Nubian desert oasis Bin Murat. Bin Murat was named after Napoleon’s general Joachim Murat during his Egyptian campaign. The Murat Shrine in Indianapolis was located at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and New Jersey Street. The theater officially opened on March 1. By March 3, 1910, “The Waterloo Press” included a lovely article on the new structure in an article entitled “New Murat Theatre Opens” (page 2). The article reported, “The Murat Theatre, contained in what is said to be the most elaborate Mystic Shrine temple in the United States, was opened at Indianapolis, Ind., under the management of the Schubert Theatrical Producing Company. The temple, completed, will cost $250,000, but only the theatre has been finished. James T. Powers and his company, in the musical comedy, ‘Havana,’ gave the first performance in the theatre. Only the members of the Mystic Shrine were admitted but the subsequent performances will be public. The theatre is decorated with mural pictures representing camel caravans passing through a desert and approaching an oasis, and with other allegorical paintings symbolic of the significance of the Mystic Shrine.” The Schuberts leased the theater from 1910 to 1930. In 1910 Sosman & Landis also provided stock scenery for the Schuberts’ newly acquired Great Northern Theatre in Chicago.

Over the years, the building was known as the Murat Shrine Temple, Murat Shrine Theatre, Murat Theatre, and Old National Centre. It is now called the Murat Theatre at Old National Centre, located at North and New Jersey Street in Indianapolis. Noted at the oldest stage house in downtown Indianapolis, it is still in use.

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1917, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Trip to Indianapolis – March 16^th we were awfully late.  Left my pocketbook with $25.00 on the window.  Didn’t miss it until I started to get my breakfast.  I had 75¢ in silver.  Wired to Chicago for money.” He lost the equivalent of $505.00 today, no small amount, then or now.

Many of us have lost money over the years, leaving a purse or wallet in the store, library or classroom. I have many stories of my purses being returned, or going back to find them on a park bench, untouched.  The most memorable, however, happened on our honeymoon in 1993.

Andrew and I spent two weeks in the Canadian Rockies, with our first three nights at the Green Gables Inn in Canmore, Alberta, Canada.  On the first morning after our arrival, we went for a walk downtown; a nice little stroll along the river. There was a lovely dirt path with a few benches along our way. For whatever reason, we decided that I would carry all of the money and our credit cards that morning.  Needless to say, we have never done that since. At some point the purse disappeared. We strolled along the river, sat on a bench and headed back to the hotel. I may have left my purse by a bench, or the strings were cut by a thief. A few weeks after we returned, however, the purse was returned with my ID and credit cards, just minus the cash.

We were also fortunate that my parents could wire money, but we had saved up for months. It was a devastating at the loss. In the end, we tried to find some humor saying that we were a great Western Union ad –  “Please send money soon or we won’t have a honeymoon.”

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

The demand for school stage scenery increased in the early twentieth century in a similar fashion as that for fraternal stage scenery.  A dramatic increase in orders began during the second decade of the twentieth century. Schools were not a new client, but many more academic institutions begin to produce stage shows, necessitating the purchase of stock scenery and specialty settings for school productions.

In 1917, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Closed with Oak Park High School for $675.00, the first they have bought for their stage.” On May 4, 1917, the “Chicago Tribune” announced, “High School to Give Opera. Oak Park High School will present ‘Hansel and Gretel’ this evening at the high school auditorium. A school orchestra of fifty pieces will accompany the cast” (page 11). Of the actual production, I have only uncovered the one article. The auditorium was only a decade old when Sosman & Landis delivered scenery in 1917, likely for the upcoming production of “Hansel and Gretel.”

Oak Park opened a new high school in 1907. That same year the school’s orchestra was founded. It was also one of the first schools to offer credit toward graduation based on student performance in the orchestra.

The new building was designed to hold 800 students and was located at East and Ontario Streets. However, by 1908, the school was deemed defective and needed extra work; the concrete floors were inadequate to carry the necessary weight and the contractors were sued. This is likely the reason that the school did not order any painted scenery until 1917.  Additionally, in 1916, the original Oak Park school building was sold for $25,000 and subsequently provided funding for a variety of projects. 

As I looked at school activities during 1916-1917, this was the same period when Ernest Hemingway was contributor to the school newspaper and literary magazine. Some of his works were included in “Hemingway at Oak Park High: The High School Writings of Ernest Hemingway, 1916-1917.” Hemingway played the role of Richard Brinsley Sheridan in his class’ performance of “Beau Brummel” at Oak Park High School; he graduated in 1917. His sister Marcelline was a member of the Drama Club. Here is an interestingly link to Hemingway’s High School graduation: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hemingways-high-school-graduation-100-years-later_b_59144a0ee4b016248243f1ff?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAE6eeE3ka8HhzZSB_FdpafZR0hncAj0sZbi5r4FHl3D5_qSW2XMBOgJHA5k7IQuFQQ5DaluarnAzGVegYWkez79SuhNf3ELLWUgKPcGjnIODIBV9hQGoPeNtifjGu11ZJcXp5pcVYQ85WUPsekX9LlF8MCISoewN1b9FrvK2yuWt

In 1917, local Oak Park real estate listings noted that the Oak Park high School was “one of the best in the country” (Chicago Tribune, 1 April 1917, page 74). The history of the Oak Park High School is quite interesting in itself. Oak Park was the home to many artists and architects who worked in Chicago; a short train ride to downtown. Oak Park was an affluent area with famous names.

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1917, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Closed a contract for two scenes with Gatts and Company, $825.00 for ‘Katzenjammer Kids.’  We hustled it out. Maier and I went to Michigan to put it on and nearly froze coming back.  14 degrees below zero.  As there was no train, we had to ride home in the trolley.”

The Katzenjammer Kids was a comic strip concerning two mischievous little fellows Hans and Fritz. The strip first appeared in 1897 and running until 2006. Rudolph Dirks created the strips, with its debut on Dec. 12 in the “American Humorist.” Harold Knerr later drew the strip, from 1914 until 1949. From 1949-1956 Charles H. “Doc” Winner was the cartoonist; from 1956 to 1976 it was Joe Musial; from 1981-1986 it was Angelo DeCesare; and from 1986-2006 it was Hy Eisman.

This comic strip was first turned into a stage play in 1903. In 1917, the Katzenjammer Kids was advertised as a “cartoon musical comedy” produced by Gazzolo, Gatts and Clifford. Hans, Fritz, Ma Katzenjammer, Der Professor, Der Captain and the other characters were featured in the production. Donald M. Bestor composed the music and Virgil M. Bennee choreographed the musical numbers. The play was staged in three acts, the first showing a hotel, the second a dock scenes and the third the Hawaiian Islands.

Of the production, “The Indianapolis Star” reported, “Particular care has been taken with the staging and costuming of the Katzenjammer Kids. The fashion plate chorus is gowned in various fetching evening gowns, all of which match harmoniously with the beautiful stage pictures and novel electrical effects” (15 March 1917, page 3).

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1917 Carl Holliday wrote a one-page article entitled “The American Showboat” for “The Theatre” magazine (May 1917, page 296).

As a student, much of my scenic art training occurred in the spring at the University of Minnesota – (Twin Cities). Lance Brockman’s scene painting class produced roll drops and painted wings for the the department’s fifth theatre space known as Minnesota Centennial Showboat. While working in the 1950s at U High, the University of Minnesota’s high school program, my mother attended some of the earliest productions, and continued to attend even after a new boat was constructed for a St. Paul location. The venue was near and dear to our family even before I began painting roll drops and learning scenic art skills.

Unfortunately the University of Minnesota Department of Theatre Arts and Dance gave away this 2 million dollar asset a few years back. In the end, the boat was purchased for a small fraction of its worth and is currently docked down stream in Winona, awaiting a future. This was an unfortunate loss of not only history, but also a technical training ground for future generations of students. However, I still look back with great fondness at the venue, as do many who experienced working on an American showboat.

The Showboat was unique to theatre history, part of an American legacy that included “water gypsies” and “showboat players.”  Here is Holliday’s article in its entirety, as this one should not be forgotten:

“On a sultry day far up the Mononghela, the Kanawha, or the Missouri River the small boy, languidly fanning himself with a tattered straw hat, is suddenly thrilled into mad energy by the wild, weird shrieks of a calliope echoing far up and down the startled valley. “The showboat! The showboat!” and away he skurries to the river bank. I do not know whether these “floating palaces” are known to all American boys; but to the youngsters of the Middle and Southern States they are harbingers of joy – visions of splendor to dream of and wonder over many months after they have come and gone.

There are about 95,000 persons in America engaged in the work of entertaining the public – acrobats, minstrels, singers, vaudeville actors, dancers, magicians and what not. But of them all doubtless the most mysterious to the general public, the most happy-go-lucky, are the water gypsies, the showboat players. Often floating or steaming six thousand miles in the course of a season, playing from the green hills of the Kanawha in West Virginia to the brown plains of the Missouri in far Montana, these crafts and their motley crew of players saw more of real America and real American life than probably any other institution or class of people. There is a genuine glamour of romance about such a life – to those who do not live it. When the “Sunny South,” the “Golden Rod,” the “Cotton Blossom,” the “Dreamland,” or the “Evening Star” comes to town every boy is immediately seized with the wanderlust and would fain become an expert on the calliope.

It would be difficult to say how these floating theatres originated. They are almost entirely an American form of entertainment, formerly seen now and then on French and German rivers, but now almost confined to the Mississippi and its many tributaries. Probably such floating troupes developed from the itinerant actors who played the cabins of canal boats and “flat bottoms” on Eastern rivers soon after the Revolution. Just such a player, N. M. Ludlow, who had shaken the beams of those early stuffy cabins, was the first to appear with a showboat on the Mississippi. In 1817 he and a little band of actors travelled overland to the Cumberland River, playing as the many wayside inns as they went, and in the fall of that year transformed a huge flatboat into a commodious theatre, floated down the Cumberland into the Ohio, and thus passed into the Mississippi.

It was a dangerous occupation in those rough days. Often all hands, actor, actresses, and crew, had to turn out to “pole” the theatre around some dangerous sand bar, and when such notorious spots as Rowdy Bens and Plum Point were reached, every man and woman of them was armed with a flintlock to repel the possible attacks of river pirates. One night the ropes of Ludlow’s boat were cut by practical jokers, and the troupe awoke to find themselves floating amidst the snags and treacherous currents of the uncharted Mississippi. Then, too, a rival soon appeared in the person of the once famous actor, Sol Smith, but fortunately for Ludlow, Smith’s floating palace was cut in two in 1847 in a collision with another boat, and Ludlow’s company could boast itself as the “only original.”

In those early days a showboat was used for many purposes not exclusively theatrical, such as prize fights and horse-back specialties, but during the past forty years the average river theatre has presented only plays and the features usually seen in vaudeville. As early as 1847 an English actor, William Chapman, with his numerous sons and daughters, went by water from Pittsburgh to New Orleans, playing “The Stranger and Cinderella,” and from that time to this many an inland boy has gained his first vision of drama through seeing on a boat-stage such light comedies as “The Girl in Brown,” “Under Southern Skies,” and “The Minister and the Maid.” Heavier drama is sometimes undertaken, however, and not infrequently “Faust” has thrilled the awe-struck audience of river towns.

The equipment on some of these showboats is nothing short of astonishing. From $40,000 to $50,000 is not an unusual price for the finer ones – a cost far exceeding that of many good city theatres. Often designed after the plans of famous playhouses, such as the Blackstone of Chicago, these water auditoriums are scientifically built and lavishly furnished. For instance, the “Golden Rod,” a source of wonder to many a river boy, possesses an auditorium one-hundred and sixty-two feet long and forty-six feet wide, with nineteen upholstered boxes and a seating capacity of fourteen hundred. Many a city of fifty thousand people cannot boast of such a stage – forty-six feet wide, twenty-four feet deep, with six elaborate drop curtains and numerous “set” pieces and many changes of scenery.

Sometimes the handbills of these crafts proudly – and truthfully – announce a “family circle” with cushioned settees for five hundred and a “dress circle” with a thousand arm chairs, while steam heat in winter and cold-air blowers in summer make the audience forget the weather on shore. In the days immediately after the Civil War hundreds of gas jets and innumerable mirrors made the white walls of the boat glisten; but now a thousand electric lights glow within and without and send their many colors shimmering far over the rippling waters. An inspection of one of the larger boats casts out all doubt as to the cost of the building. For example, the “American Floating Theatre” finds necessary two steam engines, one gasoline, a thousand-pound ice-plant, a steam laundry, an electric vacuum cleaning outfit, two large dynamos, electric fans, a well equipped printing plant, a telephone system, a complete hot and cold water system, a thousand electric lights, a huge American flag composed of seven hundred and fifty colored incandescent globes, and, of course, the joy of every American boy, a huge calliope.

Music is indeed an essential factor in showboat life, and many floating theatres have not only a calliope but expensive chimes which on a quiet summer night echo from hill to hill of the long river valleys with a melody wholly entrancing. Often a pilot house is built upon the plan of the second bookcase, and may contract or expand with surprising rapidity to accommodate the band. And when the steam-organ, the bells, and the band unite to rouse the night, mothers should have care for their little ones.

One may well fancy that no mere handful of people can attend to the many duties of such a theatre. The manager of a showboat must indeed be not only a thorough business man, but a student of humanity; for besides the regular boat crew there may be on board from forty to eighty theatrical specialists, all possessing that excitable trait known as artistic temperament. For some of these rooms, with private baths and cozy furniture, are as well equipped as in fashionable hotels; while the food for all, often bought day by day from river farmers, is far more wholesome than that obtained in many a metropolitan restaurant. Such a venture, then, as running floating palaces takes money and plenty of it, and the larger farms have large amounts invested in what may be truly called “watered stock.”

It was not always thus, however. In the days before the Civil War and immediately afterwards any “flat bottom” would do for a showboat and actors, who also served as captain, pilot and engineer, and cook, frequently gave performances that were anything but conventional. For many years, in fact, the showboat business was the last resort of human river-rats. Broken down gamblers with a knowledge of flashy card tricks, deck hands who had learned ventriloquism, drunken acrobats, medicine fakers whose long black hair and swarthy complexion enabled them to pose as “noble red men” – such fellows brought together by ill-luck, could always make a living by giving river shows.

Sometimes patent-medicine companies came to their aid and paid for a lecturer of a singer. In fact, one showboat presented for some years a play in which the heroine seeking health was rescued from a villain by a hero who soon brought her new life by means of a patent medicine.

Old actors will seldom confess that they ever played on a floating palace; but secretly many of them remember such a life with pleasure. The slow gliding past green fields and forests, the night breeze softly ruffling the water on every side – all these things posses a romance and mysterious thrill not found in the stuffy, formal theatres of the city.”

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1916, Sosman & Landis Scene Painting Studio also produced scenery for a production entitled, “At Ocean Beach.” The show was billed as “a sprightly tabloid musical comedy” and “a breezy musical comedy.”

The “Dodge City Daily Globe” reported, “It is a wholesome musical comedy…some high classed elaborate scenery is utilized to dress it, and girls who not only possess and astonishing degree of personal pulchritude, but real singing voices as well. It is in comedy that the piece is strongest, however. Don Adams as Augusttus Klutz, proprietor of the hotel, is the funniest Dutchman seen here since the palmy days of Joe Cawthorne. He reminds one of the notorious ‘Hans Nitz’ of ‘The Telephone Girl’ fame. His makeup is so good that it looks like the real thing, and his comedy tickles the risabilities of the audience until it roars in appreciation. ‘Billy Batchelor plays the burlesque characetrs of a dop fiend, under the title of ‘Daffy Dill.’ When Batchelor comes on the sage at first he looks like a dressed up ‘rough nut’ abiout to make an announcement. He improves as the minutes go by, until the final drop of the curtain. He and Adams make an exceedingly strong team, in fact, and are deserving of heavy patronage while they are here. ‘Blanche Oliver,’ played by Norine Robinson, is a startling good character. Miss Robinson has an excellent voice and knows how to use it” (1 Aug. 1916, page 1). Here was the program posted in the article:

Daffy Dill – Billy Batchelor

Miss Getrich – Hazel Vert

Augustus Klutz – (Proprietor Ocean Beach Hotel) – Don Adams

Count Jean Campeau – Ed Smith

Blacnhe Oliver – Norianne Robinson

Italian Street Singers – Smith and Robinson

Guests of the Hotel

Adeline Guild – Mildred LaRae

Thelma Palmer – Joy Lynn

Claire Summers – Norianne Robinson

Edithe Vandergould – Evelyn Sintae

Alice Astorbilt – Miriam Bennett

Nina Beach – Billie Douglas

Place – Veranda, Ocean Beach Hotel, California.

Time – summer evening.

(Costumes by Chas. Stevens Co., Chicago; shows, by the Aiston Co., Chicago; scenery, the Sosman & Landis Co., Chicago; stage settings, the Pacific Coast Ratan Co., Los Angeles, California.”

MUSICAL NUMBERS

Prologue and opening – Billy Batchelor and Guiests

In the Valley of the Nile – Count Jean Champeau and Guests

Let Me Be Your Husband – Augustus Klutz

Are Your From Dixie? – Blanche Oliver and Guests

Moonlight on the Rhone – Miss Getrich and Guests

Ah Marie – Ed Smith

Ciribiribin – Italian Street Singers

Finale – Entire Company

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

Sosman & Landis delivered scenery for hundreds of productions that were not mentioned in Moses’ diary during 1916.

One Sosman & Landis client in 1916 was Joe Bren, a minstrel show producer. The Joe Bren Company was a Chicago-based theatrical company that partnered with fraternities and civic groups to stage fundraising shows. Company representatives traveled from town to town, working with local talent to organize minstrel reviews; working as the producers, directors and performers for each endeavor. The Joe Bren Company not only provided instruction, but also all of the technical trappings to produce the show, including scenery by Sosman & Landis, lighting equipment and “resplendent costumes” (The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, 12 Feb 1916, page 8).

The Joe Bren Company primarily staged minstrel shows in 1916.  The Bren Company was especially popular with the Kiwanis Club, Lions, American Legionnaires, United Commercial Travelers, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In 1916, Bren’s company was featured in “The Sunflower Council No. 31 United Commercial Travelers Grand Minstrel Revue.”

Bren was also contracted for the “Amin Temple Shriners Minstrel show,” as well as “The Elks Grand Minstrel Review.”

As I was looking for a little history surrounding Bren, and came across “A History of Broadcasting in the United States: A Tower of Babel to 1933” by Erik Barnouw. Barnouw explains the Joe Bren Company “made a business of staging local shows throughout the United States for lodges, churches and clubs” (page 225). He goes on to describe, “Local talent was used; the Joe Bren Company supplied sketches, jokes, songs, costumes, and supervision.” Freeman Fisher Gosden, who later played “Amos” of Amos ‘n’ Andy, traveled for Bren. In fact, Gosden truly began his professional career as an entertainer with Bren, going on the road to organize reviews, minstrel shows and carnivals. Charles Correll, who later portrayed “Andy” of “Amos ‘n’ Andy” also worked for Bren. For those who are unfamiliar with the radio show, “Amos ‘n’ Andy:” https://www.nytimes.com/1972/12/31/archives/weaf-700715-ow-wah-ow-wah-ow-wah-amos-n-andy-the-angelus.html and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_%27n%27_Andy

Here is a peak into the popularity and productivity across the country during the year that Joe Bren hired Thomas G. Moses of Sosman & Landis to deliver scenery for their shows:

In 1916, the Joe Bren Company produced “A Grand Minstrel Revue” for the Elks in Paducah, Kentucky (News-Democrat, 19 Jan. 1916, page 8). Shows under the direction of Ralph Hamilton, representing the Joe Bren Company included the Shrine Minstrel Show in Springfield, Missouri (Springfield News-Leader, 9 Nov. 1916, page 3), the Shriners Minstrel Show in Sioux Falls, South Dakota (Argus-Leader, 18 Oct. 1916, page 5), the United Commercial Travelers Lodge Show in Salina, Kansas (Salina Daily Union, 27 April 1916, page 4), the Shrine Minstrel Show in Munster, Indiana (The Times, 8 Feb. 1916, page 1), the Elks Minstrel Show in Hutchinson, Kansas (The Hutchinson, News, 21 Feb, 1916, page 2), the Elks Follies in St. Joseph, Missouri (Catholic Tribune, 11 Nov. 1916, page 7), the Jollies of 1916 in Lincoln, Nebraska (Lincoln Star 19 Nov. 1916, page 19), and the Shrine Minstrels of Cedar Rapids, Iowa (Gazette, 21 Jan. 1916, page 1).

Other Joe Bren Company collaborations included the Mohassan Grotto Minstrel Show in Davenport, Iowa (Quad-City Times, 30 Aug. 1916, page 3), the United Commercial Travelers Lodge Show Lodge No. 127 in Shreveport, Louisiana (Shreveport Journal, 11 May 1916, page 5), the United Commercial Travelers Lodge Show in Wichita, Kansas (Wichita Beacon, 15 Feb 1916, page 9), the Elks Minstrels in Independence, Kansas (Independence Star, 10 April 1916, page 2), the Sons of Black Hawks (S.O.B.H.) Minstrel Show in Waterloo, Iowa (The Courier, 1 Feb. 1916, page 9), the Shrine Minstrel Show in Montgomery, Alabama (10 Jan. 1916, page 7), the Elks Minstrel Show in Kenosha, Wisconsin (Kenosha News, 31 Oct 1916, page 1), and the Shriner Minstrels in Knoxville, Tennessee (Knoxville Sentinel, 5 April 1916, page 5).

Jo Alex Robb was another “advanced director” for the Joe Bren Company. He took charge of the Shrine Minstrel Show at the Alhambra Temple of Chattanooga, Tennessee (Chattanooga News, 11 Dec, 1916, page 7).

The Joe Bren Company was quite sophisticated, with a staff that travelled the country and helped produce shows.  Like Sosman & Landis, they tapped into a unique form of clientele that was driven by the “everyone wants to be a star” mentality. There were, and are, many people who want their moment on stage, a chance to shine under stage lights, and Joe Bren delivered that – an opportunity to don a costume and perform on stage in front of professional scenery.  Although the Scottish Rite had private performances for its members, it was based on this same principal; you take an ordinary citizen and let him be an actor on a professional stage. 

Over the years, the theatre industry has continued to draw upon this particular drive, the desire to be a performer. I also think of past productions that awarded top donors an opportunity to participate in a production as supernumeraries; they were dressed up for a stage scene, but they were able to associate with professional actors and stand on stage before a large crowd.

The only true flaw in this formula is the blackface nature of the minstrel show and the deepening of racism in America. These shows were immensely popular, with many new stage effects being developed by lighting and scenery manufacturers. They also perpetuated prejudice and validated racism, one that thrives today even today. There were still blackface minstrel shows in the 1960s. On March 20, 1970, Vermont’s “Burlington Free Press” reported, “Black face minstrel shows still take place in many Vermont high schools” (page 2). By the late 1970’s newspaper articles fondly remember blackface minstrel shows, recounting comic routines between “black-face clowns” (News-Press, 8 Dec 1974, page 79). In 1977, the “Bennington Banner” included an article about the Lions Club Variety Show announcing, “No black face, but minstrel spirit remains in Arlington” (Bennington, Vermont, 24 March 1977, page 8.

The article describes, “One echo of minstrel days has not died. That’s the tambourines, when the lights go down. Day-glo painted on the lips and hands of the tambourinists and fluorescent ribbons create that old contrast of bright and darks that inspired black face to begin with.” In other words, instead of blackening the skin and exaggerating the white lips, associated with stereotypical representations of African Americans; they just used bright paint to exaggerate the lips, the iconic illustration of a black-faced performer. Is it any surprise that there was a large group of white supremacists just waiting for validation from a public leader again?

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

Sosman & Landis delivered painted settings for the Ten Allies Costume Bazaar in New York on November 28, 1918. They were also hired to provide decorations for Chicago’s Allied Bazaar at the Coliseum.  However, this time an architect was in charge of the designs, not a scenic artist.

In 1917, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “We opened the season on the New Year with the great Allied Bazaar for the Coliseum and it is being rushed through in a hurry.  I don’t like to deal with an architect on these decorative jobs.  They get an idea they are building a house and don’t seem to see our way of knocking it together, depending on the general results.  Of all the jobs that we have done of this character, where we made our own plans, we never had one that didn’t have the big scenic spirit of decorations and was always accepted.”

The Allied Bazaar was held at the Chicago Coliseum for a week, beginning on January 11, 1917. 8,000 people were involved in marketing of the bazaar, abandoning many other routine society events to promote the “million dollar show” (Chicago Tribune, 12 Jan. 1917, page 6). Promoters publicized the event in Minneapolis, St. Paul. St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Detroit. 4,000 men and women worked the bazaar, with approximately 500,000 attending. Exhibits connected with the European war were on display, and included big guns, ammunition, aeroplanes, French biplanes, German Taubes, American Curtiss and Wright machines, hospital devices and field ambulances.  The show even included a reproduction of a trench with dugouts, barbed wire, loopholes, and other military appliances. This particular exhibit was built under the direction of English army personnel Capt. Ian Hay and Capt. Norman Thwaites.

Of the event the “Chicago Tribune” reported, “This is the third big event of this characters for the aid of the suffering in the allied nations, in Boston the bazaar proceeds were $400,000, in New York $700,000” (Jan. 11, 1917, page 3). The article continued, “Yesterday with the hum and bustle of the industry artisans were putting the finishing touches to the Coliseum. A fairy city of shops, brilliant in color, impressive architecture, has been raised within the big building down on Wabash Avenue. Hammers tapped away as busy as woodpeckers. The air was filled with sawdust. An electric lathe whirred away turning, planning and cutting lumber for more booths and other galleries.

“Electricians with trailing threads of wiring weaved away up in the vault like spiders. Workmen and society women workers jostled each other in their hurry, overalls and sealskins fitted about in the streets of the fantastic city that charity has built. There is a buffet, a tea garden, a cabaret, a shooting gallery, sideshow, grocery store, fortuneteller stand and many art shops in bazaar town.

“Among the scores of well known persons who were at the Coliseum supervising the arrangement of the booths formerly as observers, were: Henry J. Pattern, Mr. and Mrs. Chauncy McCormick, Lady Aberdeen, Baroness Charles Huard, Baron Huard, Mrs. James T. Harahan, Mrs. Halsted Freeman, Mrs. Charles Hamill, Mrs. Walter S. Brewster, Countess Langston, Miss Cornelia Conger, James Ward Thorne, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Insull, Mrs. John Winterbotham, Mrs. George Higginson, and Mr. and Mrs. D. H Burnham Jr.; the former largely responsible for the architectural planning.

“The Coliseum is full of stuff of all description. Pianos, antique jewels, original etchings by Whistler, automobiles, a motor boat, groceries, dolls, seal coats, artistic brasses, painting and fancy work…Work is being rushed on the war exhibit which will be a feature of the bazaar. This includes all sorts of shells from the French 75s to huge sixteen-inch projectiles weighing tons. There are many types of field pieces, trench mortars, rifles, pistols, wrecked gun carriages, a German torpedo, uniforms, and war motors.

“In the exhibit is the first American hospital ambulance set to France. It was given by Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt. It was wrecked by a shell and the driver killed. The rusted plate with the name of the donor in big letters was almost ripped from the ambulance by the same shell.”

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1916, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Hurried to New York City, made a hasty model; closed a contract for $5,700.00 for Allied Ball Decoration.” Later that year he wrote, “…on to the big Allied Ball work…November 25^th, Mama and I started for New York.  We expressed the scenery and November 28^th it was all up.  I did the society stunt while Nadier and Pausback put all the work up, and for a wonder everything fitted.”

The event mentioned by Moses was the Ten Allies Costume Ball. On Novemebr 28, 1916, the  “Evening Sun” reported, “America’s greatest single effort on behalf of relief organizations of the Entente Allies will be staged tonight when the Ten Allies Costume Ball will be given in Madison Square Garden. Ten boxes will be decorated to represent each of the ten nations of the Allies. In each will be prominent persons f these nations. At a given hour the hall will be darkened and a spotlight turned on the French box from which Madame Chenal will sing the chorus of the “Marsaillaise.” Next will come “God Save the King” then the Russian, the Italian and the rest. Finally the light will be directed as the box draped in the Star and Stripes and the “Star Spangled Banner” will be sung. All of the national soloists and a chorus of 2,000 will join in the singing of the American anthem “ (Hanover, Pennsylvania, 28 Nov. 1916, page 3).

Among the organizations that benefitted were, the American Ambulance Fund, the British-American War Relief Fund, French Heroes LaFayette Fund, the Millicent Sutherland Ambulance Three Acts Fund for the Crippled and Maimed French Soldiers, the Blinded in Battle Fund, Refugees in Russia Fund, National Allied Relief Committee, Vacation War Relief Committee and the American Fund for French Wounded.

As I searched for more information, I came across a really interestingly article in the Chicago Tribune on Nov. 26, 1916 (page 36). “Chicagoan Goes East with Scenery for Allied Ball” was written by Mme. X, and the first few sentences say much of the theatrical relationship between New York and Chicago in 1916:

“When New York wants anything out of the ordinary accomplished it is not from the ranks of home talent that it seeks its organizers and leaders. Chicago supplies much of its bone and sinew. George W. Perkins, T. P. Shonts, Frank A. Vanderlip, Elbert H. Gary, and a host of others are all drawn from the ranks of Chicago capables.  And now one more proof that the great metropolis is dependent on us, not alone in the realms of finance and big business, but in the domain of art and adornment is the departure of Mrs. John A Carpenter last Tuesday for New York and the much heralded Allied ball, which takes place next Tuesday in the Madison Square Gardens. Mrs. Carpenter was escorted by huge rolls of scenery for the East Indian background and setting for the ball, which had been painted here from her designs and under her direction. She is developing a genius for this sort of artist expression, which is making her name famous on both sides of the Atlantic…It is rather a stupendous affair, a costume ball, with remarkable stunts, and its proceeds are to go to the same cause as the big New York allied bazaar last spring and ours is coming this January.”

The day after the event, the “New York Herald” published an account of the eventnon November 29, 1916 (page 2):

“15,000 See Pageant at Ten Allies Ball. Brilliant Costumes Worn by Society and Stars at Fete. Notable in the Parade.

New York may be neutral, but not when there’s an Allied Ball going on. At least there were 15,000 or so Gothamites at Madison Square Garden last night who didn’t talk neutral, didn’t act neutral and didn’t dress neutral. And the old Garden, that has held everything from aristocracy’s horse show to Col. Cody’s Wild West in its day, never sheltered such a gathering before as far as brilliant costuming and bizarre disguises go.

The Ten Allies Costume Ball started at midnight according to the programme, but it was really nearer half past by the clock. It is true the doors opened at 9 and the music started for dancing some time after 10, but the real thing was the pageant.

A group of buglers sounded a fanfare and out from between hanging curtains at the east side of the Garden came the pageant. India led, with Rajah Ali Ben Haggin at the head on a big black Arab steed. Ben Ali had planned to ride in on an elephant, but the floor wouldn’t stand it. Behind him came Mrs. Haggin and Mrs. William Astor Chanier in palanquins borne on the shoulders of Hindus and surrounded by an entourage of military looking Ghurkas and Sepoys in khaki.

Next came Great Britain, with Lady Colebrook as Britannia, and Miss Louise Drew with a company of girl scouts. John Drew and sixty members of the Lambs and Players club stood for England of to-day, every man of them in khaki. In fact khaki was the color scheme for the men and there were many who wore the little cloth stripes that mean real service.

Ireland, color scheme green and leader Miss Elsie Janis, came next with some of the best known actresses on the Broadway stage in the train. Scotland of course was Burr McIntosh and William Faversham, with Bruce McRae and Cyril Scott and the like.

Canada was represented by a train of Red Cross nurses, and Mrs. Charles Greenough who led them, had culled the pick of society’s debutantes.
For Belgium marched Miss Ethel Barrymore, with a score or so of the “Four Hundred” and Miss Marie Louise de Sadeleer, daughter of the Belgian Minister.

Alla Nazimova led Russia’s contingent, with a company dressed in costumes from “War Brides” and “Women of the People.”

The theatre had charge of Italy, with Mrs. William Faversham leading a group of screen actresses and actors with Blanche Bates and the Washington Square Players in their “Bushido” costumes marched for Japan, and Miss Cathleen Nesbit and come others were for Portugal.

James K. Hackett as Louis XVI and Mrs. Hackett as Clothilde had charge of France’s pageant, and in the ranks were every one from Jeanne d’Arc to Robespierre. And at the end a big bunting covered tower was shoved out and Miss Anna Fitziu of the American Opera Company gowned as Columbia and wearing the Liberty cap closed the show with “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Up to the time of the pageant it was all music and dancing. The loge and arena boxes were filled with people whose autobiographies are in “Who’s Who,” while behind them, in the seats of the gallery, where the hoi polloi, who could only pay $5 for a seat. And everybody was there.”

To be continued…