Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1917, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Closed with Joe Bren for $900.00, first part, and some front drops.” Joe Bren was a minstrel show performer and producer. His company, the Joe Bren Production 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 and other types of follies. They functioned as the producers, directors and performers for each project, providing instruction and all of the technical trappings. In 1917, Sosman & Landis provided scenery for a Joe Bren show that premiered in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
During this period, the company was especially popular with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Kiwanis Clubs, Lions, American Legionnaires, United Commercial Travelers, and Masonic organizations. In 1916 and 1917, Sosman & Landis provided the scenery, so I have explored the Joe Bren Company in 1916; see past post #941, here is the link: https://drypigment.net2020/03/24/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-part-941-the-joe-bren-company-and-minstrel-shows-1916/
The Joe Bren Production Company staff traveled across the country, helping stage shows that featured local talent. In 1917, the “Marion Star” announced that the Joe Bren Producing company was presenting an Elks’ Charity minstrel show that November (Marion, Ohio, 12 Oct. 1917, page 12). The article reported, “The scenery is also new and used for the first time in Kenosha.” The Kenosha Lodge of Elks in Wisconsin presented the “Jollies of 1917” at the Rhode Opera House in October, advertising that is was “no mere minstrel show” (“Kenosha News,” 6 Oct. 1917, page 3). It was to be a “clever mélange of vaudeville, musical comedy and minstrelsy.” The Marion Elk representatives traveled to see the show as guests of Joe Bren. What a smart move on Bren’s part.
In Kenosha, a hundred members of the Elks Lodge were “drafted” to take part in the program led by Joe Bren and Ralph Hamilton, another company representative (“Kenosha News,” 14 Sept. 1917, page 3). Fifteen young women were included in the second part of the show as guests in the resort hotel scene (Kenosha News, 2 Oct. 1917, page 8). In the big patriotic finale, the United States and the Allies were represented by “gorgeously costumed young men and women.” It was the introduction of this patriotic element to Bren productions that likely prompted the need for new scenery by Sosman & Landis. Of the painted settings, the “Kenosha News,” reported, “Scenery and costumes will be the finest possible to be turned out by expert scenic artists and costumers in the windy city of Chicago, and they do say that among its three millions there are those who can do ‘some’ turning out of the aforementioned articles” (6 Oct. 1917, page 3).
To be continued…
