Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
After a two-week break, I am back to the life and times of Thomas G. Moses. To recap, in 1918 Moses resigned as the president of Sosman & Landis. He initially worked for New York Studios and then left to join Chicago Studios. However, both were short lived, as by the spring of 1920, Moses was back at Sosman & Landis. We he returned to the studio, Moses agreed to only an annual contract. The same spring that Moses returned, Sosman & Landis Scene Painting Studio was credited with scenery for the Redpath Chautauqua’s production of “H. M. S. Pinafore.”
Annual Chautauqua events, or tent shows, were held in cities across the country during the spring and summer, featuring programs with all types of entertainment that ranged from popular Broadway shows and orchestra concerts to magicians and lecturers. During its peak, some 12,000 communities hosted a Chautauqua. The Redpath Chautauqua was massive circuit with hundreds of shows and thousands of entertainers. Although there were many Chautauqua agencies that contracted entertainers and lecturers, one of the most notable was the Redpath agency.
The “Newberry Weekly” included a picture of the 1920 Redpath Chautauqua production with the caption, “A feature of the coming Redpath Chautauqua here will be the presentation of a complete production of the famous Gilbert and Sullivan light opera ‘Pinafore,’ with special lighting and scenic effects, the scenery having been built especially for the Redpath production by Sosman & Landis, noted scenic artists of Chicago” (Newberry, South Carolina, May 4, 1920, page 3).
The “Bedford Daily” reported, “Three seasons ago the Redpath management presented a complete production of ‘The Mikado; which was so enthusiastically received that Chautauqua patrons have ever since been asking for another Gilbert and Sullivan opera”(5 June 1920, page 2). “The Mikado” production had also boasted scenery by Sosman & Landis. In 1917, a company of thirty, selected in part from the Chicago Grand Opera Company, had performed “The Mikado.” For more information about the Redpath Chautauqua Circuit and “The Mikado” tour, see past post 967 (https://drypigment.net2020/04/21/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-part-967-the-redpath-chautauquas-mikado-1917/).
By 1920, Sosman & Landis contracts ran the gamut, from tent shows to charity balls. Although Moses returned in April, he and his wife left for a 40-day western vacation that summer. Of his trip, he wrote, “We left for the West August 19th…Arrived home on September 28th, having been gone forty days, it was certainly some trip… It took me a few days before I was I the harness again, and working just the same as I did before I left two years ago. Landis and I got out after business within a few days after my arrival and succeeded in landing a few good ones. I started to do some painting but it did not last long, as I had too much other business to do. I found the conditions altogether different from what I supposed them to be – too much overhead. It will be awfully hard to keep up the output to balance it all I was very well pleased to learn that from September 1st, we made a profit of $12,000.00 before January 1st. I am afraid we will use it all up before spring.”
He would remain on annual contract. In 1921 wrote, “we had a director’s meeting and it was settled that I remain at $8,000.00 a year.” The monetary equivalent of an $8,000 annual salary in 1920 is approximately $103,000.00 today.
To be continued…
