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…
