Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1924 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Some small work has filled in very nicely. We secured the contract for my old hometown theatre.” Moses was referring to the Illini Theatre in Sterling, Illinois. The 1,200-seat venue was a combination house, built by George Greenough and W. A. Weeks. Moses & Megan delivered both fabric draperies and painted curtains, each now considered necessary for venues featuring both live entertainment and film. This project was secured and completed while Moses and Fred R. Megan were waiting to purchase the Sosman & Landis name.
On March 19, 1924, The “Sterling Daily Gazette” described the stage of the new theater. The article reported, “The stage, 28 feet deep and 52 feet wide, an arch opening which is 30 feet wide. The stage is equipped with appropriate drops to harmonize with the color and decorative scheme of the theater. The asbestos curtain is plain but for the letter “L.” Back of that are beautiful tobacco brown velour drapes which operate on tracks so that they may be gathered back in drape effect. Furnishing an outline setting for the silver picture screen is a lavender and gold drape of sateen. An advertising olio curtain, a wood scene and the usual interior and exterior boarders are included in the stage drops. All of the curtains were designed and furnished by Tom Moses of the firm Moses and Megan. Mr. Moses is a former Sterling resident and has many friends among the older citizens.”
After a brief nod to the scenic elements, the article described the new “beautiful lighting effects” at the Illini Theatre. The article continued, “The lighting effects comprise a tribute to the highest genius of electrical science. It is doubtful if Fairyland with its pale, delicate hues – the pinks and purples, the reds and yawning yellows, balmy blues and gentle greens of the most resplendent imaginative array – could be more adequately illuminated to reveal its hidden charm. An ingenious system of lighting operated by a new type of remote-controlled switchboard and cleverly adjusted dimmers, whose levers may be operated with piano touch, is the source of the subtle brilliance in the reflector boxes under the organ screen on both sides of the proscenium arch and throughout the auditorium. The seven primal colors of the rainbow may be blended and diffused by this artful scheme to suit the whims of the picture upon the screen, with unerring faithfulness to plot suggestion. There can be pink dawns, golden noons and purple twilights, bleak breaks-o’-day, cheerless noontimes and drab sunfalls, sombre nights shot with silvery moonlight; yellow hazes simmering in the summer in the summer sun; mountain blues and grey flecked with snowy whites, the vital greens of meadow and hillside, the pinks of rose and the red glows of pulsating life whichever the theme of the picture suggests.”
To be continued…
