Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In the life and times of Those G. Moses, it’s September 1918. Moses is now working for New York Studios, having resigned as president of Sosman & Landis on September 1, 1918. On October 10, he will be injured when a boy riding a bicycle accidentally knocks him down in the street.
By mid-September Moses was looking for a studio to paint in He wrote, “We got the 20th Street Studio for a month to month rental. It is pretty cold there but we can manage to keep going. We made Models and received the picture set order for the Hamlin Theatre. $1,000.00 is not much for the set.”
Chicago’s Hamlin Theatre was constructed in 1914 and located at 3826 West Madison Street, it was a 298-set venue that would close by 1929. According to cinematreasures.org, the space was later converted into an AmVets Hall (http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/45100). I have only identified a few advertisements for the movie house to date. The Hamlin Theater is a hard one to track down because over the years there were a few Hamlin Theaters that operated in Chicago during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.
In addition to the 1914 Hamlin Theatre, there were two other Hamlin Theatres built in Chicago during 1926; one was on W. Madison and the other on W. Belmont. The one that Moses delivered the picture set to was for the one on W. Madison.
Over the past few years, the most difficult part in tracking down Moses’ theater projects is locating the correct venue. Many theaters across the country used the same name because they were part of a circuit. Think of the names like Orpheum, Lyceum, Fox, Majestic, and so on. There were also some cities that had multiple theaters with the same name; I just don’t understand this at all. In a few cases, two theaters with the same name would open with the same name in the same year. Why anyone ever thought this was a good idea is astounding, as it never ended well as simply confused people.
When Moses received the picture set order for the Hamlin Theatre in 1918, it was primarily a movie house. By 1917, the Hamlin featured the same films as the Kimbark Theatre, Milford Theatre, Oakland Sq. Theatre, Lane Ct. Theatre, Ziegfeld Theatre and Halfield Theatre.
The actual project that Moses was referring to included the painted surround for a projection screen. Unlike today’s use of a simply white screen, elaborate compositions filled the area between the projection surface and the proscenium arch. What makes this confusing, however, is the use of the term “picture set.” In 1918, “picture set” was used to identify the painted surround manufactured by scenic studios for movie theaters. It also identified the actual settings used for films, such as the picture set for “Tarzan of the Apes.”
On Oct. 27, 1918, the “Boston Globe” also introduced a new definition for “pictures sets” (page 36). An article reported, “There are four stages used in “Chin Chin Chow” at the Schubert Theatre – the regular stage, and three small miniature stages on rollers, which show what are known as the “picture sets” being like small scenes viewed through a window. This stage device is new and somewhat resembles the closeups of the movies, only on a bigger scale.” This last use of “picture sets” has me a little baffled. For a little context about the production, “Chu Chin Chow” was a massive spectacle set in ancient Bagdad. The show included fourteen scenes with eighteen musical numbers and a company of three hundred.
To be continued…
