Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1921 Thomas G. Moses recorded that he secured a contract with the Omaha Scottish Rite for $2,400.00 worth of work. He later wrote, “I have plenty to do on Masonic models and I am afraid I will have to get some help.” By 1921, the country was experiencing another wave of Scottish Rite Theatre construction. The building of massive Masonic structures and the expansion of existing ones were occurring all across the county.
This also signaled that money was flowing into the Scottish Rite at an almost unprecedented rate, helping fund these endeavors. WWI had paused many Masonic construction projects, as had the Spanish Flu pandemic and had a brief recession. Many Scottish Rite Valleys returned to an investment in membership experience; stages and new degree productions were a significant part of the membership experience.
The story surrounding the original Sosman & Landis scenery for the Omaha Scottish Rite is quite fascinating. In 1914, the “Omaha Daily Bee” described, “The new Scottish Rite Cathedral is a three-story structure, with high basement, built of Bedford granite, with imposing Ionic columns and porticos. The auditorium on the second and third floors where the initiations will take place is an attractive modern theater, with a stage 30×40 feet and a seating capacity of about 1,000. It is tinted in cream and pink decorated panels and has all the arrangements for lighting, stage settings and precautions against fire, of the most up to the minute theater. It has a wardrobe and paraphernalia room adjoining” (1 Nov. 1914, page 25). M. C. Lilley subcontracted the 1914 scenic portion of the project to the Sosman & Landis Studio in Chicago. The firm had also created an earlier set for the previous building. Other Scottish Rite theatre projects in the Sosman & Landis studio that year included Grand Forks and Pittsburgh.
This was also the same year that Joseph S. Sosman passed away on August 7,1914, and the board of directors elected Moses as the company’s new president. He recorded, “On the 10th, a stockholders meeting was called, and I was elected president of the Sosman and Landis Company. Arthur Sosman was elected vice-president and P. Lester Landis, secretary and treasurer. It is very strange to me that I had never given this change of the business a thought. I had never thought of Sosman dying.”
This is a horrible turn of events that forever changed the fate of the studio in regard to Masonic contracts. It placed a non-Masonic scenic artist in charge of a scenic studio that specialized in Scottish Rite scenery. Sosman had been the driving force for years, as he was a well-respected Scottish Rite Mason in Chicago, a member of the Oriental Consistory. There was a new problem; Moses was not yet a Mason who understood how to navigate the Fraternity, or how to manage all of the necessary administrative duties at the studio.
In 1921, the Omaha Consistory held its annual session in Omaha from November 14-17 (Bloomfield Monitor, 3 Nov 1921, page 9). An attendance of 1000 members was anticipated, likely prompting the purchase of additional scenery. (Alma Record, 4 Nov. 1921, page 3).
I had the opportunity to visit the Scottish Rite Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska, on June 15, 2018. This was the first of many stops at historic theaters on our way to New Mexico. I was heading to Santa Fe to participate in the book signing event for “The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple: Freemasonry, Architecture and Theatre” (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2018).
The host for my stop at the Omaha Scottish Rite was Micah Evans, Development Director of the Scottish Rite Foundation of Nebraska. Evans could not have been more accommodating or generous with his time, as I slowly documented all of the scenery painted by Maj. Don Carlos DuBois. I knew I was not going to see the original Sosman & Landis collection from 1914 or the additional scenery ordered in 1921. The Omaha Scottish Rite now uses Masonic scenery that was originally installed at the Scottish Rite Theatre in Kansas City, Kansas. In 1996 the collection was purchased for $40,000, and after all removal, transportation and installation, the tab was approximately $140,000.
The whereabouts of the original Sosman & Landis scenery remain unknown, only a few stage artifacts remain in lobby display cases.
To be continued…
