Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1916, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “May 1st was my first in six months at painting attempt in the studio. Models and sketches take up all my time.”
He was now the president of Sosman & Landis. A partnership had made the firm a success, and now Moses was pretty much on his own. In the beginning, Landis was on the road securing contracts followed by Sosman painting the projects. Moses was their first hire in 1880, assisting Sosman on many of their early projects before the staff grew, yet Sosman maintained artistic control while Landis headed sales. When Landis left in 1902, Sosman appointed Moses vice-president two years later. At this time it was David H. Hunt who focused on sales. By 1916, however, Sosman was gone and Hunt had started his own studio. Moses was left to pick up the pieces and please the shareholders, in addition to competing with Hunt for the same clientele.
Moses was attempting to both secure and supervise projects in the main studio and annexes. His statement, “Models and sketches take up all of my time,” emphasized his workload for sales that year.
He later wrote, “October 10th I was re-elected president of the company, Mrs. Sosman vice president and Lester Landis secretary and treasurer…Sosman and Landis Company enjoyed a good year. We have all been very busy. I have not done as much as I would like to do in the way of pictures, but I guess I did fairly well.” Moses then added a sentence that starts to show the wear and tear of his artistic soul, “I live on year to year, hoping, always hoping, for a little more time to gratify my ambition to paint if only one picture that I could really fell was worth while and all the years I have tried to do this were not spent in vain.”
At the beginning of 1916, everything seemed possible. The firm delivered scenery for the Strand Theatre in Indianapolis. Sosman & Landis took out an advertisement in the “Indianapolis Star” in support, announcing, “Designed, built and painted the elaborate picture setting for the new Strand Theatre listing their contribution. “Producers of Quality Scenery” listed Thos. G. Moses as “President and Designer” with P. L. Landis as “Secretary and Treasurer.” The advertisement also noted that the firm was established in 1877. An article also announced “Strand Scenery Excellent,” adding “Thomas G. Moses, president of the Sosman & Landis Company, producers of theatrical scenery, superintended the arrangement of the elaborate setting for the Strand Theatre. Mr. Moses has done a great deal of scenery work in the different theaters of Indianapolis dating back to the first production of Ben-Hur at English’s Theater. Mr. Moses has designed and painted productions in nearly every city in the country. In the Strand stage settings the possibilities for excellent lighting are obvious, and are taken advantage of by the Strand’s electrician, Mr. Dalton” (Indianapolis Star, January 15, 1916, page 9).
Moses started doing something new in 1916; Moses now took credit for his own designs work when Sosman & Landis manufactured it. In other words, programs and newspaper article now differentiated “designed by Thomas Moses” and “built by Sosman & Landis.” For example, on April 15, 1916, the “Rock Island Argus” reported “[Around the Town] was built in its entirety by the Sosman & Landis scenic company from special designs made by Thomas Moses” (15 April 1916, page 8). Another instance was for the Boston English Opera’s production of “Martha.” Newspaper advertisements reported, “Scenery Designed by Thomas Moses and Built by Sosman and Landis Studios” (The McPherson Daily Republican, 21 Oct 1916, page 5). T was too little too late, as the names of designers were no longer a driving that attracted attention.
All of Moses’ talents and experience wouldn’t help him in the end. The studio would soon begin to crumble. Times were changing; there was a new game with new rules and a war overseas. So many things began happen simultaneously and the supply for painted scenery began to outpace the demand. A new movement was in the making for the stage, and it concerned the rejection of painted scenery on the stage in lieu of fabric setting and motion picture. Moses would become the proverbial fish out of water, with Sosman & Landis floundering. The company would not survive the next seven years.
To be continued.
