Sosman & Landis: Shaping the Landscape of American Theatre. Employee No. 13 – Fred McGreer

Copyright © 2021 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

On June 1, 1893, Thomas G. Moses hired Fred McGreer to work at the Sosman & Landis  annex theatre on the West Side of Chicago.  He joined the West Side Force that included A. J. Rupert, Frank Peyraud, and Harry Vincent.  Moses recorded that McGreer “proved to be a good man.”

            Frederick Beesley McGreer was born in Muscatine, Iowa in 1866. He was the son of John McGreer and Louisa Beesley. The couple celebrated the birth of three children, with Fred being the oldest. The younger children were Eva (1869-1934), Rob Roy (1879-?) and Essie (1882-1966). Rob, Fred and their father all became artists. The family tale is quite something, beginning with John’s arrival to Muscatine, Iowa as a young man. Upon his passing on June 13, 1908, the Muscatine “News-Tribune” remembered John’s artistic abilities: “his greatest claim to distinction was as a comic picture painter. His skill with the brush was something marvelous and his comic designs were strikingly and peculiarly inimitable and original.” John did not have to fortune to begin his life as an artist, he began his career in mercantile pursuits, and engaged in the grocery trade with his stepfather Charles Drury. During the Civil War, John McGreer worked as a sutler, furnishing provisions to Union soldiers. It was near the end of the war that he married Louisa, with the first son arriving the next year. After the end of the war, John managed the City Hat Store. His success in the hat business allowed the family to move to Chicago 1870 where he established a pictorial printing office. Despite being burned out and losing everything in the Great Fire of 1871, he pursued his new occupation and was later acknowledged as a pioneer in this line.

John McGreer’s obituary remembered, “Much of his time and talent was devoted to the painting of comic pictures for which work he was especially gifted and won celebrity.” His listings in the city directories were either as artist or publisher, and by 1885 was associated with the Cartoon Publishing Co. in 1885. The McGreers frequently returned to Muscatine for family visits and were extremely close to John’s sister, Mrs. Henry Geiss, remained a resident of the town. Over the years, McGreer sent illustrated articles and cartoons for the Muscatine paper, including those that highlighted the artistic careers of his two sons, Fred and Rob. Fred McGreer had the good fortune to come of age in an artistic home with good press. His father’s publishing career greatly helped his sons’ artistic ambitions, keeping them very visible in the public eye.  By 1884, Fred McGreer worked as a lighting artist at the World Cotton Centennial in New Orleans. Later records would indicate that McGreer began working as a scenic artist at Sosman & Landis in 1887. Like many other scenic artists, he not only painted scenery for the firm, but also picked up extra work while on site. Additional work for scenic artists ranged from sign painting and decorative work to art exhibits and art classes.

On April 10, 1887, the “Inter Ocean” included a notice in the National Union section, announcing that McGreer was providing “an hour’s divertissement” in rapid oil painting at the Continental Council No. 55 (page 20). McGreer continued in this vein for the next two years as the couple celebrated the birth of their only son, Earl Milton McGreer on 3 May 1888. McGreer continued to work as a lighting artist, partnering with his cousin Ernest Cooke that summer. In August, the two were featured at E. W. Viall’s store on Main Street in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Each showed how fast paintings could be created and also gave lessons.  Their class sizes numbered 20 students, with the two also holding classes in Elgin and Janesville, Illinois.  By the fall, McGreer became a featured artist at James Wilde Jr. & Co., located on the corner of State and Madison Streets. If customers, spent more than $10 at the store, McGreer painted a complimentary 8×10 oil painting in ten minutes or less.  He was advertised as “the most Wonderful Artist in the World – the rapidity of his work is marvelous. Hundreds of thousands of people visited him at the New Orleans Exposition” (Nov. 28, 1888, page 8).  Every afternoon between 1 and 5pm, McGreer was stationed in the Children’s Department of the store.  Regardless of his travels as an itinerant artist, McGreer started a family in 1885. On July 14, 1885, Fred married Minnie Ella (Elma) Hunt in Ravenswood, Illinois. Minnie was from Cedar Rapids, Iowa (b. 1865). The two lived in Cedar Rapids before moving to Chicago a few years later. Within three years the couple celebrated the birth of their only son, Earl Milton McGreer on May 3, 1888.

By 1889, McGreer was listed as an artist in the Chicago Directory, living at 584 W, Van Buren. and working at 263 State. Interestingly, Walter C. Hartson and Harry Vincent also listed 236 State Street as their business address.  I have yet to identify this business, but these were the three that eventually formed the West Side Force for Sosman & Landis Studio in the early 1890s. In 1896 McGreer was still representing the Sosman & Landis studio when the firm was contracted to produce scenery for Green’s Opera House in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. On August 29, 1896, “The Gazette” reported, “The scenery was painted by Sosman & Landis, the well-known Chicago artists, the work being done by Fred McGreer who formerly resided in this city and who has developed artistic talents that place him among the foremost painters of the country” (page 3).

By 1897, McGreer traveled with Thomas G. Moses and Edward Loitz for Sosman & Landis, painting scenery for the English Opera House (Indianapolis, IN), the Grand Opera House (Columbus, OH) and the Valentine Theatre (Toledo, OH).  Of these projects and his crews, Moses wrote, “I think we did some good work.” Sosman & Landis then offered Moses Pike Theatre Stock Company work in Cincinnati, Ohio. He accepted, writing, “I accepted $75.00 per week and went, taking McGreer and Loitz from Chicago.”  It appears as if McGreer never left Cincinnati and soon became the scenic artist for the Pike Theatre, sending for his younger brother, Rob, to be his assistant.

The next year, the artistic success of the McGreers was published in their old hometown of Muscatine, Iowa. On Dec. 25, 1898, the “Muscatine News-Tribune” article was entitled “John McGreer’s Boys. Two Muscatine Brothers who are Winning Laurels in the Theatrical Art World” (page 16).  

Here is the article in its entirety, as it provides a wealth of knowledge about the two:

“While the News-Tribune’s friend Mr. John McGreer, has been busy preparing the illustrated article which is a prominent feature of this edition, the management has taken the trouble to gather some facts and photographs that will show “Johnny’s boys,” Fred and Rob, their friends in Muscatine, the home of their birth.

Fred the eldest, is an exceptionally clever scenic artist, at present located in Cincinnati. When he visited Muscatine with his father some twelve years ago they gave what was called ‘lightning art exhibition.’ The late Geo. W. Van Horne, while watching Fred at his painting said: ‘Well Mr. McGreer, you ought to be proud of that boy. He has the making of a great artist, especially in the line of broad effects, as cyclorama, or scenic painting.’ Mr. Van Horne’s art criticisms were not made without a knowledge of art, for he had visited and studied in the Vatican, the Louvre, and all principal art centers of Europe.

The fine asbestos drop curtain that was in Hooley’s theatre, was the creation and execution of Fred. It was highly complimented be the entire Chicago press, and admired by patrons of the theatre. Fred has autographic letters complimenting his work from many leading lights of the stage, among them John Drew, E.M. Willard, Henry Irving, Joe Jefferson, Modjeska, Nat Goodwin, Augustus Daly, and others. The ‘Cat Concert’ drop curtain in the roof garden theater of the Masonic Temple was a unique and catchy production painted by Fred. The fine drop curtain which many Muscatine visitors to Cedar Rapids have seen in Green’s Opera House was also painted by Fred several years ago.

‘Rob,’ the youngest (just out of his teens) shows really more natural talent than Fred did at his age, but has not had the experience. His forte runs rather more to cartoon and figure painting, after his father, but with better opportunities for cultivation. His sketches show boldness, character, and originality.

“Scenic painting nowadays is a very important factor in the theatre, as all plays of importance require special scenes to harmonize with the play. Whereas in former years one set of scenery had to answer for everything.

At present the McGreer brothers are scenic artists for the Pike Theatre, in Cincinnati, and are winning both the applause of the public and the praise of the press.

In speaking of a recent production of ‘Alabama’ at the Pike, the ENQUIRER has this to say:

“Mr. McGreer, the scenic artist, has given what the people one of two settings that will bear comparison with anything the best stage of the country has ever known. His first act is not so good, lacking in harmony and completeness, as well as exact fitness in atmosphere and surroundings for the poetical character of Mr. Thomas’ writing, but the third act is almost a scenic masterpiece, and merited even better applause that that vouchsafed it last night, liberal and demonstrative as it was. In this respect nothing is wanting in Pike’s Alabama.’”

Pike’s prize play, ‘The Charity Ball,’ was recently given, and the COMMERICIAL GAZETTE says this of the scenery:

“Mr. McGreer, the chief artist of the house, gave three scenes to the play that were marvels of their kind, while all of the accessories were not only handsome, but so carefully chosen as to deserve the warmest and most sincere commendation.”

The CINCINNATI POST gives the brothers this complimentary notice regarding their work:

“From a plane of minor importance, the scenic artist has attained a position second to none about a theater. If the average person were asked the reason of the great success of the productions of the Neill Stock Company at the Pike, the answer would be, “The excellence of the company and the beauty of the scenery.” Two gifted artists are responsible for the elaborate stage settings that have been seen at this house. They are Frederick B. McGreer came to Cincinnati from Hooley’s Theatre, Chicago, and as an artist of exceptional talent and splendid taste in color and design. Robert McGreer, his brother, worked most of his life with Augustin Daly’s artists in New York. They form a duo whose combined work is the admiration of every patron at the Pike.”

The portraits accompanying this article are reproduction of recent photographs, but will scarcely be recognized by their many Muscatine friends who knew them in early boyhood days.”

In 1900, McGreer was still successfully employed at the Pike Theatre and listed in the1900 Cincinnati Directory was the chief scenic artist for the Pike Opera House, boarding at the Burnet House.

On April 15, 1900, McGreer described his artistic process to the “Cincinnati Enquirer” in an article entitled, “Vast Amount of Artistic Labor Contributed by Scenic Artist Fred McGreer Toward the Success of Many Pike Productions” (page 12).   

Although lengthy, it is a wonderful snapshot in time of McGreer and his scenic art process from 121 years ago:

“Perched up in a little room on level with the head of a big white lady who holds a cluster of electric lights, over the right proscenium box at the Pike, is a small room in which an unseen factor in many successes at that house toils industriously day after day making for success on the Pike Stage.

The potent influence is Mr. Fred McGreer, the capable scenic artist, whose stage settings at the Pike have been a prominent feature of the 60 odd productions seen at the house during two seasons he has worked there.

The writer, after climbing up a narrow flight of winding stairs and stumbling over bits of scenery reached this little den the other day, and found Mr. McGreer hard at work sketching out the stage plan for Nero’s banquet hall which will be seen there this weekend in ‘Quo Vadis.’ Rich in scenic opportunities, Mr. McGreer had spread himself on this big production, and judging solely by the care and work he has lavished on it, the scenic side of the piece promises to be a triumph.  Leading man and lady, villain or adventuress, or the others have thrilled with the applause at the Pike for their efforts, but Mr. McGreer who has contributed a great share to the stock company’s weekly offerings, seldom hears the same applause for his art as distinctly worthy as that of the players.

If the reader will follow we will take journey into his little den off the third landing of the winding stairs and see if we can’t get a faint peak at the amount of work a new production means to the indefatigable artist. You can imagine you climbed the stairway and arrived at the room, him half out of breath, with the writer who felt how sadly he had neglected his athletics. A generous part of the room is Mr. McGreer, a young man attired in a well-frescoed pair of shoes highly daubed overalls pulled over his other clothing. His sketches are works of art and marks the backdrops used in the course of a season, while at the other end a big roll of paper stands awaiting instructions.

When the photographer arrived, Mr. McGreer had just finished the elevation for the Nero palace.  He gave clear insight into the business side in painting a theatrical setting, which the average playgoer sitting in front would never realize from simply looking at it.  ‘We’ll begin at the beginning,’ said Mr. McGreer when told that his description of how a scene is built up was wanted. ‘The first thing that I do is to read the manuscript of the play to be put on. Then comes a consultation with the stage director regarding the practical openings for each setting of the play as every exit and entrance must be letter perfect so that the players will be kept within the point or sight and at the same time be able to make their exits properly.  This done I map out the stage plans for the carpenter with the elevations for each set, and he sets to work to make the wooden frames for the various scenes.’

On these plans the frames are all cut out and placed just as they go.  Then the heavy drill cloth is fastened to the braces which are attached to the paint frame.  This is worked by a windlass that can raise or lower the canvas at will.  The artists work on what is called the bridge while painting the scenery. This is a narrow platform suspended about 30 feet above the stage at the rear wall and the paint frames operates up or down close to this so that we can work up to the height on the drop merely by moving the windlass in whatever direction desired.

 The illustrations accompanying this show Mr. McGreer and his assistants at work on the paint bridge as well as several other phases of the work incidental to making the scenic productions for the famous play.

‘I am able to outline the scenes after they have been coated with glue priming, for which a particular glue is used that will not crack.  After the priming had dried I sketch the outlines with charcoal, and meanwhile the assistants are mixing their paints in buckets, and when I have concluded they set to work painting the scenery.  In this process, first the broad colors are laid in and then comes the ornamentation, such as the figures on the walls of interiors, or colors for the moldings to get the lights and shadows.  This is ended with the detail work of what we call bringing the scene together.  It is like the finishing touches you see the rapid-fire artists put on their pictures in the vaudeville theaters when a form emerges out of what is apparently a chaos of conflicting colors.  At this period, I may discover too much red at the base of a scene, or not enough red beneath the cornice of an exterior, and these must be toned down.

With the scene painted it is again hustled off the paint frame to make room for another act.  The painted set goes back to the carpenter to be cut out and attached to the lines running to the rigging loft, there being three lines to each drop. The columns and solid sections which will be noticeable in ‘Quo Vadis’ are made of what we call profile board.  It is a wooden veneer and is pre-hinged to a stand shipping.  These columns also stand by themselves as though apparently part of the setting.

In the first scene for ‘Quo Vadis’ the case is different.  The entire scene was originally painted on one big drop and then after it was completed I ‘red lined’ the whole scene.  This is to outline the columns and vases with a delicate red line, which the carpenter follows in sawing out these separate sections.  They are then all placed in position on the stage and the stuff that has been cut out is fastened together with a delicate netting which is invisible to the audience.  The perspective created the impression that they are standing alone though really the entire set is one big drop.  Some idea of the work required can be gained from the explanation that a single drop of this description generally requires the efforts of the carpenter and four assistants an entire evening to fix up.  On the drop for this garden scene, we used 1080 feet of cloth and about 75 pounds of paint. In order to attach them to the rigging loft about 300 feet of rope is also used.  Now another heavy scene is in the arena setting for the last act, in which over 700 feet of platform space is required, built up to a height running from two feet and reaching the topmost platform 15 feet above the stage.  These platforms are all hinged and made so they will fold for shipment as the piece goes on the road after it is used here.

In ‘Quo Vadis’ every scene is numbered and arranged so that it can be put together hurriedly and when brought into a theater is very much like the animal puzzles that are so popular with the Children at Christmas.  Only the stagehands will just know where every piece goes without being puzzled.

Mr. McGreer in conclusion estimates that he has painted over 30,000 feet of canvas for the big production this week and used about 2,000 pounds of paint in doing it, in addition to five barrels of whiting alone was used, while the paint was distributed among 20 or more colors. For ‘Quo Vadis’ everything had to be made new as nothing like it had been produced at the Pike.

Mr. McGreer during his two seasons at the local theater has mapped out and painted over 220 stage settings, and of these the ratio ran about three interiors to one exterior. The mere mechanical work of making the scenes is antedated by studies of the costumes as the ladies dresses and the scene colors must harmonize, and historical research as historical accuracy is demanded in these times.  In all his stay, nothing has been used over much, excepting the solid doors that figure in Pike productions.  These doors have been doing service for three seasons.  They have been slammed by the impetuous Nigel or gently brought to by the careful Todman, but in all that time the same old doors groaned under the weight of added paint until now they are so heavy it takes a firm grasp and a long pull to draw them open.

But this is digressing from Mr. McGreer.  Next week this popular artist will bid adieu for the summer, at least to his den back of the big white lady.  He goes to New York, having been engaged by Gates and Morange, the scenic artist there. If long and varied experience will count for aught, Mr. McGreer is sure to make his mark there for few visiting attractions as the first-class houses have exhibited scenery which compares to that which has been in evidence so frequently at the Pike.”

During the summer of 1900, McGreer painted scenery for the Sosman, Landis & Hunt production of “Quo Vadis.” Of the production, Moses wrote, “It was not a success, as another company with the same play got in a week ahead of this production at a better theatre, which naturally killed the Herald Square Show.” The artists for the Herald Square production included Thomas G. Moses, Will Hamilton, John H. Young, Fred McGreer, and Gates & Morange.

 McGreer left New York soon after this and headed to San Francisco. By January 1901 McGreer accepted a position as the scenic artist at Morosco’s Grand Opera House in San Francisco, California. He remained at the chief scenic artist for the venue until his passing in 1902.

Fred McGreer is buried at Chicago’s Graceland Cemetery.

Fred McGreer’s gravestone at Graceland Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

On January 18, 1902, the “Muscatine News-Tribune” reported his passing:

“Noted Scenic Artist is Dead. Mrs. Henry Geiss departed last evening for Chicago, in response to a message announcing the death of her nephew, Fred McGreer, the descendent is a son of our former townsman, John McGreer, the News-Tribune’s special artist. The Chicago Record-Herald, in its last issue, prints a fine portrait of this noted scenic artist and says:“ Fred B. McGreer, whose death occurred last night Monday at the German Hospital in San Francisco, was one of the best scenic artists in America. His first work was with Sosman & Landis, Chicago, fifteen years ago [1887], and since then has been identified with many of the leading theatres of the country. The drop curtain at Power’s theater in this city was painted by Mr. McGreer. One year ago, he took charge of the scenic studio of the Morosco Grand Opera House in San Francisco. The remains will be brought to Chicago for burial. The funeral will take place from Graceland Chapel next Monday afternoon at 2 o’clock.” (page 1). No cause was listed.

Fred’s son Earl continued his artistic legacy and by 1918 his occupation was listed as manager of Commercial Art School. He served in the army during WWI, achieving the rank of Sergeant and then moved Los Angeles California where he lived until his passing in 1954.  

His uncle Robert McGreer also lived in California and continued in the theatrical trade after his older brother’s passing. Robert had accompanied his older brother to California in 1901 and was listed in the San Francisco Directory that year as an artist for the Grand Opera House. When Fred died in 1902, Robert traveled the world. From 1902 to 1910 Rob McGreer visited the “Orient, Australia and South Africa.” During this trip he married an Australian actress named Beattie in 1904.  The two were still married and living in San Francisco in 1910.  However, in 1912 he married another woman Olive Mary King in Honolulu, Hawaii. He departed for Hong Kong in 1913 without his young wife.  Interestingly, his 1919 passport application lists a second trip for “theatrical work” with stops in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, Burma, India, Ceylon and elsewhere. McGreer departed San Francisco on October 22, 1919. Overall, Rob McGreer could be the topic of a whole separate post, so I will stop here.

However, during Rob’s first absence (1902-1910), his father went to live with their sister in New York and met his own tragic end.

John McGreer’s passing at the age of 69 yrs. old made headlines in newspaper across the country. The aged artist died while sketching the Hudson River. On June 13, 1908, newspapers described the horrifying incident:

“John McGreer, a landscape artist, of No. 602 West One Hundred and Thirty-second Street, was drowned in the Hudson River yesterday afternoon. He had his easel on an old barge anchored near the shore at the foot of that street, and was seated upon a pile of bricks upon the scow. Laborers who were working in the vicinity were suddenly startled by the shouting of the artist’s grandson, who cried out that his grandfather had fallen overboard. The laborers saw that the Albany, one of the steamers of the Albany Day Line, had just passed down the river, and they also noticed that the barge upon which the artist had been painting was rocking and rolling in the big swell from the passing steamer. They ran to the deck of the boat, where the little boy told them that his grandfather had been thrown into the water by the rolling of the barge in the swell. Two of the men leaped into a small boat near at hand. They had scarcely done so when they say that Mr. McGreer’s head appeared above the surface of the water about thirty feet distant from the barge. Before they could reach him he sank and was seen no more. John McGreer, the nine-year-old grandson, ran home and told has what had happen. The West One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Street police station was notified by the dead man’s daughter-in-law, and efforts will be made to recover the body. The artist’s wife went to Atlantic City several day ago, and word was sent to her last evening. Robert McGreer, a son, is now in Manila. Two daughters of the artist are Mrs. L. N. Semper of this city and Mrs. Harry Crosby of Chicago. Mr. McGreer had been working upon his painting of the river for several days. The picture was a medium sized canvas showing a section of the Palisades and the Hudson with a schooner in the middle distance. The artist’s brushes and easel and picture were found upon the barge, and were taken to the home of his daughter-in-law. Mr. McGreer was sixty-nine years old and a civil war veteran. He lived, until recently, in Chicago”

To be continued…