Author: waszut_barrett@me.com

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1920, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Early in January I started on a model for the big Elk’s Show, which we did in July.”

It is almost impossible to pinpoint the specific Elks Show that Moses was talking about by 1920. First of all, it is unclear where Moses was working at this time. In 1918 Moses Left Sosman & Landis to work for New York Studios. Within a year, he left New York Studios to work for Chicago Studios. He then returned to Sosman & Landis by April 2020. However, he also completed a lot of work under his own name. Without a specific reference to a producer or location, it is difficult to track down the specific Elks Show.

I have written quite a bit about the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks in past posts.  The fraternal group had roots in the theatre and was originally known as the Jolly Corkers. For an overview of the organization’s history see past post 539. Here is the link: https://drypigment.net2018/10/19/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-part-539-origins-of-the-jolly-corks-and-benevolent-and-protective-order-of-elks-b-p-o-e/

Like the Masons, some Elks used stage settings for their degree work; degree work otherwise conducted in a standard lodge room. Historic photographs of the Elks Opera House in Prescott, Arizona, show an early-twentieth century ceremonial scenery with a set piece containing the words Charity, Justice, Brotherly Love and Fidelity on a step unit (past post 538, https://drypigment.net2018/10/17/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-part-538-w-h-clifton-and-the-elks-opera-house/). Unlike many private fraternal theaters (like Scottish Rite Theatres), Elks Opera Houses were often options for touring productions and public performances.  They were more akin to the early-nineteenth century and mid-nineteenth century Masonic Opera Houses. The performance venue houses financially supported the ongoing maintenance of the fraternal building. This approach was similar to large Masonic buildings with retail spaces on the ground floors and lodge rooms above. For the Elks, the opera house was used by both the membership and various entertainment rentals, a win-win.

Elks Opera Houses dotted the landscape during the first few decades of the twentieth century, signifying another lucrative clientele for scenic studios. Elks Opera House postcard collections included everything from small social halls to large metropolitan venues. In each case, their entertainment venues demanded stage machinery, scenery, and lighting equipment. This signified a substantial investment, even for the smaller venues; big business for theatrical manufacturers. Early twentieth century newspaper article describe stage mechanics traveling the country, installing scenery collections, and putting on a presentation of scenic effects prior to their departure for another venue.

An Elks stage with new scenery meant new opportunities for social events and fundraising. Popular plays and minstrel shows became the vehicle for fundraisers, combining professional production staffs and leading performers with some local performers to function as a chorus. Like other firms, Sosman & Landis provided painted settings for “Elks Shows” and “Elks Follies” marketed by the Joe Bren Company (past post 941, https://drypigment.net2020/03/24/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-part-941-the-joe-bren-company-and-minstrel-shows-1916/). Other popular shows created specifically for Elks venues included “The Elks Tooth” (past post 864, https://drypigment.net2019/12/05/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-part-864-the-elks-tooth-1913/) and “Let’s Go Peggy” (past post 1031, https://drypigment.net2020/06/24/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-part-1031-lets-go-peggy-the-elks-big-show-of-1919/).

The survival of an early twentieth century scenic studio depended on diversification in projects. A firm could not solely survive on the production of painted illusion and stage settings for live theatre.  They needed a diverse clientele that could weather economic down turns and unexpected events.  Sosman & Landis cast their nets wide for clients and landed projects for fraternities, circus spectacles, trade shows, silent films, charity events, public pageants, electrical parades, private parties and other social gatherings. They also branched into the production of stage machinery, lighting equipment, fabric draperies, and projection screens. It was really all about survival.

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

At the beginning of 1920, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “A one night stunt for Mrs. Ryerson at the Congress Hotel Gold Room caused considerable trouble.” Moses was referring to Mrs. Martin Ryerson and the Congress Plaza hotel. The Gold Room hosted many interesting events during 1920. On January 20, there was an opportunity to meet an socialize with performers from the Chicago Grand Opera Company. This is possibly the “one-night stunt” that Moses was referring to in January.

The Congress Hotel was originally called the Auditorium Annex and built in 1893, hosting many visitors attending the World Fair that year. The current website for the venue states, “The original conception was an annex with a façade designed to complement Louis Sullivan’s Auditorium Building across the street, at the time housing a remarkable hotel, theater and office complex. The Auditorium Annex was built by famous hotel developer R.H. Southgate. The first section, or north tower, was designed by Clinton Warren, with Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler serving as consultants. “Peacock Alley,” a celebrated feature of the new hotel, was an underground marble passageway that connected the new annex with the Auditorium Hotel. The south tower, constructed between 1902 and 1907, was designed by renowned architectural firm Holabird and Roche. The South Tower construction included a magnificent banquet hall, now known as the Gold Room, which would become the first hotel ballroom in America to use air-conditioning. Another ballroom, called the Florentine Room, was added to the North Tower in 1909. These two famous public rooms combined with the Elizabethan Room and the Pompeian Room to host Chicago’s elite social events of the day.” Here is the link to this historic Chicago Hotel: https://www.congressplazahotel.com/history

In regard to the Ryersons, they of elite society with money to burn and some good deeds to do. On January 8, 1920, the “Chicago Tribune” reported a donation to the Field Museum by Mr. Ryerson (page 1). The donation of 222 stone blocks, comprising Unasankh’s tomb, was described in detail: “36×16 feet, with walls three feet thick…The excavation was performed by Arabs under the supervision of British officials – and 222 stone blocks were crated and shipped to Chicago.” Headlines announced, “Egypt, 2650 B. C., to Chicago, 1920; Story of Tombs.” Museum director, Dr. Frederick J. V. Skiff announced the gifts from Martin A. Ryerson and Edward A, Ayer. The article reported, “Mr. Ayer, the first president of the museum and the chief benefactor of its Egyptology department, learned of the possibility of acquiring the sarcophagi of these ancient dwellers of the Nile, and recently he conferred with Mr. Ryerson. That’s how Messrs. Uter-Neter and Unsankh happened to lose their tombs. Six hundred carloads of exhibits now at the old museum in Jackson park, about 80 per cent of them packed, are now being prepared for transportation to Grant Park.” Mrs. Ryerson was also involved with a series of guest lectures that spring, including Museum talks on Russian Art and Literature.

It is important to understand that scenic studios delivered far more than painted settings for commercial theater. They were also an artistic resource for high society, collaborating with wealthy women to produce elaborate and exotic themed social events for various charities. Scenic artists were visionaries for many public spectacles.

To be considered…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1920, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “The Madam and I saw Margaret Anglin in ‘The Woman of Bronze’ and it was very good.” “The Madam” was Moses’ wife, Susan “Ella” Robbins Moses. Both turned 64 in 1920. Moses would live for another fourteen years after that.

“The Woman of Bronze” was written by Henry Kistemaeker and Eugene Delard, adapted for the stage by Paul Kester. The show premiered at the Powers’ Theatre in Chicago, starring Margaret Anglin and went on tour. By the end of January, the show was featured at the Grand in Topeka, Kansas, and by February was playing in Sacramento, California. By the fall the show was featured at the at the Frazee Theatre, Forty-second street, Manhattan. By the time is appeared in New York, Margaret Anglin, John Halliday and Mary Fowler were featured as the leads from Sept. 7, 1920-April 1921.

The plot involves a husband’s infidelity with his artistic model.

Percy Husband wrote a review for the “Chicago Tribune” on January 9, 1920 (page 13):

“When Miss Anglin and the emotions are effectively in confluence, as they are in ‘The Woman of Bronze,’ you may expect to experience all the rapid and sympathetic heart-beats common to the theater. She knows her way about the ‘situations.’ Her voice is attuned to words of passion and distress; her individuality has great and friendly resources, her intelligence is one of the finest of the American stage, and her knowledge of ways and means is not excelled among the actors of the day. Her luck in the choice of plays, is not always good, but she makes the best of it.

“Miss Anglin’s present implement is a bounteous exploitation of the whilom triangle. She, as the adoring wife of a successful sculptor, loses her artist to a youthful kinswoman, enduring the bereavement now with controlled and quiet forbearance and again battling against it in temptuous rebellion. The circumstances permit her to exercise the full of her art and her splendid tricks and devices.

“You see her first, happy and carefree, with her husband and her friends at their summer home (the time is the present, the place twenty miles from New York), discussing his great work, The Woman of Bronze, a statue commemorative of the victory of the allies and their associate in the war. There you have Miss Anglin in her light and delicate mood, the smart and humorous woman of the world, saying and doing with possibly too much precision the right thing. You admire her so much that when, a little later, her husband and her cousin embrace in the gloaming and utter the wild and broken phrases of guilty amour, you wish that she might not steal in a catch them at it. But she does, and you regard her highly as, with her world tumbling about her white shoulders, she tells them that it is time for dinner.

“Then again, when it is teatime in the second act, and there is sift music, chatter, and sex-epigrams, she and the raisonneur sit upon the divan in the middle of the stage, close to the footlights, and she tells him of her miseries. Of how she has followed her husband and his sweetheart to their rendezvous, and standing in the rain, has watched the light in their chamber go up and go out. A lady of the streets saw her thus, she says, and pitying her, as one unhappy woman does another, pressed money into her hand and put her in a cab. This recital, which is heard only by the audience, is disguised. The others in the party think that Miss Anglin is whispering merely a funny story, because she laughs to drown the noise of her breaking heart.

“If one could be critical about a drama, he might suspect that the language in ‘The Woman of Bronze’ is perhaps superhuman in a rich, dank, tropical way. ‘Take your hands off his heart,’ says Miss Anglin to her successor in ‘A Woman of Bronze,’ just before she draws a dagger and threatens to kill her, and the speech which Mr. Fred Eric, as sculptor husband, addresses to his statue, just before he shatters it to bits, is that of a critic rather than a human being. He says that it is carnal and soulless, and that its bronze eyes are sightless, rather than gleaming with the spirit of sacrifice and victory.

“At any rate, ‘The Woman of Bronze’ is deliberate, premeditated and according to order. Paul Kester, who adapted it from the collaboration of Henry Kistemaecker and Eugene Delard, deprives it of none of its routine possibilities, and it is by no means a botch. The acting is very good, and it includes that of Fred Eric as the sculptor, Walter Connolly as the honest friend, Miss Marion Barney as a merry widow, Sydney Mather as a semi-villain, and others, among them Miss Ethel Remy, who is rather fugitive and fawn-like as the ingenue who spilled the beans.”

Three years later, “The Woman in Bronze” became a silent movie. Moses and his wife also attended the movies quite frequently. In 1920 he wrote, “We still keep up with the movie attendance. We do not always strike a good picture.” I wonder if they ever saw the movie version of “The Woman in Bronze.”

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1920, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Our new addition at home is nearly completed.  It has certainly hung along with the cold weather.”

The new addition was to the back of the house, extending the kitchen.  On Jul 19, 2019, I sat in that addition, enjoying a cup of tea with the current homeowners. My unanticipated stop was on a return trip from Philadelphia that month. I had a little extra time on my drive that day and decided to visit the Oak Park neighborhood.

Although I have written about Moses’ Oak Park home before, here is a brief recap.

Thomas and Ella Moses began house hunting in Chicago at the beginning of 1893, soon selecting a home in the western suburb of Oak Park. Located on S. Euclid Ave, the structure was only a year old and spacious enough to accommodate four children, ranging in age from four to fourteen. Of their new home, Moses commented, “very fine wood-work, a large stable, driveway, and a 60 x 178 feet lot.”  They purchased the house for $8,575.00, today’s equivalent of approximately $230,000.  Although the amount was much more than the couple wanted to pay, Moses wrote that it appealed to them as no other one had. He had a perfect spot for a home studio with plenty of light. His studio was located in the attic with a high ceiling and ample room to hang pictures.  Years later, his grandchildren would recall being told not to bother their grandpa when he was painting, yet they still managed to escape to the third floor.  Opening the attic door and venturing up steep steps, they were never reprimanded, just given a small project to keep them busy.

The Moses family moved into their new home on May 1, 1893 – the same day that the Columbian Exposition opened in Chicago.  He recalled that their new home provided plenty of room to entertain World Fair visitors.

I wanted to visit Moses’ Oak Park home since I first read about it as an undergraduate student.  The Oak Park and Forest Park area, suburbs located immediately west of Chicago, were home to many Chicago artists who commuted to the city. Never dreaming that it was still standing, I was surprised when the address popped up in google maps and I zoomed in from the satellite view. From 1893-1934 Oak Park was home for the Moses family. Only from 1900-1904 did the couple rent the house out when they temporarily moved to New York, where Moses established the short-lived scenic studio Moses & Hamilton. Although they also spent a few winters in Oakland, California, Oak Park remained their primary residence.

On the morning of July 19, 2019, I pondered whether to drive to Moses’ Oak Park home or venture north to Fox Lake where the Palette & Chisel Club built a summer camp.  I decided on Oak Park, as I could also stop by a nearby cemetery to document some scenic artist graves. It was ridiculously hot that day and darting out of my car to look at gravestones seemed preferable. Moses’ one-time business partner, Walter Burridge, was buried in Forest Home Cemetery. On my drive I contemplated if I should venture up to the front door and make contact with the current owners. As I was traveling alone and the home was in an unknown area, I remained undecided until I pulled up in front of the house. In the end, I summoned up enough courage to knock on the door.

As I walked up the front steps, it was hard not to think of the many artists who ascended these same steps throughout the duration of Moses’ life, his close friends who stopped by to chat or discuss an upcoming project. I recalled one particular instance when a few Palette & Chisel Club friends came over to examine the 300+ paintings in his attic studio, convincing him to do a one-man show.

When I reached the front door, I noticed the sign “All are Welcome” and heaved a sigh of relief. My knock triggered a chorus of dogs, and I began to wonder if someone was actually home.  As I began to ponder my decision, the door slowly opened. I was greeted by a smiling woman about my age. I was there for almost two hours.  My grand tour ended with a cup of tea in the 1920-addition off the kitchen and a gift – a music CD; one of the daughters has a band.

After visiting Moses’ home, I stopped by Forest Lake cemetery and the drove southwest toward Moses’ hometown of Sterling, Illinois. The part of my visit that continued to play in the back of my mind was my ascent to the attic space that was once Moses’ studio. Standing in the same space where he painted hundreds of artworks, some of which I own, was absolutely magical. Sometimes, you experience a brief moment that verifies you’re traveling on the right path.  It’s like getting a thumb’s up from the universe. Stopping by Moses’ Oak Park home and studio brought closure to one road on my journey, a respite from what often seems to be an insurmountable mountain of research.

There was still an abundance of artwork in Moses’ old home. Sharing stories and laughter with the current residents brought a moment of peace.

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1920, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “We had a hustle job at the swell Casino Club.  We managed to complete it on time, and it looked very good.”

On Dec. 2, 1914, the “Chicago Tribune” reported, “The Casino is the latest and most exclusive of all Chicago’s clubs. Moreover, it is the only social organization reflecting the modern spirit. Its membership includes both men and women – on a Dutch treat basis of finances. There are 400 on the list. Perhaps this signifies, but some years ago the late Ward McAllister of New York made the number socially famous. He selected 400 members for New York Society. Since then Society – capitalized- has known no other name more expressive than ‘The 400’” (page 13). Alongside the article was a list of members. The article continued, “The club, after some effort getting located and established at 167 East Delaware place is to be opened on the afternoon of Saturday, Dec. 12, at 4 o’clock. After that much of the social life of Chicago will receive it. Its chief object is to promote the gayety and happiness of its members. Originally, with this thought in mind, it was to have been called the ‘Bluebird,’ or perhaps ‘At the Sign of the Bluebird,’ since the bluebird signifies the pursuit of happiness, but the name was changed to the Casino early in the plans of the organization.”

The president of the club was Mrs. Joseph G. Coleman, with Mrs. Howard Linn as the vice president. Robert G. McGann was the secretary and Robert H. McCormick the treasurer. The governors were Arthur Aldis, Mrs. John Alden Carpenter, Miss Helen Cudahy, Howard Chatfield-Taylor, John T. McCutcheon, Howard F. Gilette, Harold A Howard, Frank Hibbard, Eames MacVeagh, and Honoré Palmer. Moses had worked for Mrs. Coleman and Mrs. Carpenter many times by 1919.

Edith Brown Kirkwood of the “Chicago Tribune” described the interior of the club on Dec 13, 1919:

“When the Casino club opened formally yesterday afternoon, spick and span in its fresh dress, not many of the members realized what a few members had done for the whole of them.

“There were Mr. and Mrs. Honoré Palmer, Mrs. John Alden Carpenter, and Miss Catherine Dudley, and Harold Howard, who had put on their working clothes early in the morning, after having spent many days getting the club built, and had gone over to the clubhouse to get things in readiness for the great moment. There was much to be done, the casual visitor might have placed the opening a week hence rather than a few hours. The men had unpacked boxes and wrapped furniture, while the women. Good old fashioned dust clothes in hand, had made the chairs and tables shiny.

“Nor was this all, for the afternoon found the same group still pegging away at the finishing touches-as late as 3:30 o’clock with the first guest expected at 4. It was 8:30 o’clock, in fact, when Harold Howard turned to the few who had been admitted to the big general room and called:

‘Every one out of this room while the floor is scrubbed.’ Every one filed out into the reception room only to be met by another masculine voice which said: ‘Every one out of her while to floor is scrubbed.’ Mrs. John Alden Carpenter came through bearing a bog vase of flowers. ‘While they are scrubbing this floor we’ll all go in there,’ she announced. ‘Can’t,’ answered Honoré Palmer;’ we’ve just been driven out of there, too. No place to go while the floors get washed for the party.’ But there still remained the three smaller rooms which flank the reception hall, and into these the company scattered.

“The public has heard great deal about the Casino club, but from this time forth it will not be told so much, for no guests ever are to be admitted, according to present plans. Exteriorially the club is said to resemble Anna Gould’s French ‘petty palace’ except for the fact that the latter is in pink marble. Someday, perhaps, the walls of the Casino are also to be pink tinted – at least so rumor says. At present the sidewalk leading up to it is pink, but perhaps that has no bearing on the color of the Casino.

“Within the club is not large. It has been founded so that the society folks caring for informal afternoon tea, cards, dancing, and kindred pleasant pastimes may have the opportunity to gather for indulgence in one or all of these things.”

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

In 1920, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “The New Year was ushered in by a very cold day.  The Madam had the girls from the Bohemian House (another settlement House where she taught sewing) out for dinner and I am sure they enjoyed themselves.”

The “Madam” was Moses’ wife Susan “Ella” Robbins Moses. The “Bohemian House” was actually the Bohemian Settlement House. The Women’s Presbyterian Society established the Howell Neighborhood House for Home Missions in 1905, also known as the Bohemian Settlement House, located in the “Little Pilsen” neighborhood. The first settlement house was in a small building on the corner of Nineteenth Place and May Street. By 1912, a fund-raising drive resulted in a new building at 1831 South Center Street (now known as Racine Avenue). Since its establishment, the Bohemian Settlement House served a community predominantly composed of Bohemians, Poles and Czechs, offering social services and personal welfare assistance. Services expanded over the years, and by 1914 the there was a library, English Night School, Boys and Girls Clubs, and Sunday school.

The Bohemian House was featured in “Home Mission Monthly” in 1912 (Vol. 26, No. 5, page 125). Helen I. Duncan wrote an article entitled, “The Bohemian Settlement House:” Her is the article:
“In ‘Little Pilsen,” a district with a population of 40,000 Bohemians. The former May Street Mission, which appeared in last year’s report as the Centre Avenue Mission, has again changed its name, and now appears with enlarged facilities and opportunities as the Bohemian Settlement House. In seven years the work which started with a kindergarten for children of this crowded Bohemian neighborhood has so grown and developed that it now includes all the activities usually carried on by a social settlement. These activities are supported, however, by religious backing which so few social settlements believe to be essential.

“Most interesting phases of our educational work are the new Bohemian school for children and English school for adults. To the Bohemian school, held twice a week, come fifty children who want to learn to read and write the mother tongue, which they speak in their own homes, and which is often the only language the parents can read. In English school, as in most of our classes, no direct attempt is made to present the religious side of our work; Protestants, Catholics and Free Thinkers are welcomed without question. We are finding, however, that even when no words are spoken, the Spirit of Christ is working through these classes. They are proving a source of help and inspiration to many who can not yet acknowledge the Christian Church. But as we win confidence and trust, our church membership too is growing: we were glad to count fifty-four communicants at our Christmas morning celebration of the Lord’s Supper. For the last two years all the religious work has been under the charge of the Rev. Vaclav Vanek, a most able and gifted Bohemian preacher.”

By 1965 the Bohemian House merged with the Bethlehem Community Center to form the Neighborhood Service Organization. The new charter stated the Neighborhood  Service Organization’s goal: “To be a neighbor to the neighbors in such a way that families are strengthened, lives are made more meaningful and purposeful and individuals see and understand the dignity and worth that is theirs as children of God.” Over time, the demographics of the neighborhood changed, and by the 1970s Mexican immigrants replaced many of the Central European immigrants. The Bohemian Settlement House is still serving immigrants, and is now known as the Casa Aztlàn. Here is some additional information from the National Park Service about Pilsen Historic District, Cook County, Illinois: https://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/hispanic/2010/pilsen_historic_district.htm

Also, the University of Illinois at Chicago holds the Bethlehem Howell Neighborhood Center Collection, including the Bohemian Settlement House. In their special collection (MSBHNC70) Here is the link for more information: https://findingaids.library.uic.edu/sc/MSBHNC70.xml

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

As the year draws to a close in the life and times of Thomas G. Moses during 1919, there is one more event I need to mention. My grandparents, John H. Kohnen and Elvina Dressel were married that year. After meeting at a country dance, they became engaged to be married. However, before they began their wedded life together, my grandfather fought overseas in WWI and my grandmother survived the Spanish Flu. I never knew either grandparent well, as my grandmother passed when I was 1 year old and my grandfather passed when I was seven years old. They were older than most when they married, with my mother coming along fourteen years after that. It was the same case with my father’s family; both he and my mother were the last of three children, the babies born 15 and 14 year after their eldest siblings. It has been my mother’s stories that have kept my grandparents alive for me. Attached is their wedding picture from 1919.

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

On September 10, 1919, the “El Paso Herald” announced, “El Paso Scenic Artists in Okla.” (page 13). The article reported, “Friends of Ben F. Tipton, former scenic artist of the Redmond Follies and Art Phillips, who spent one year in El Paso as scenic artist of the Raymond Teal company, will be pleased to know that they have opened a studio in Tulsa, Okla., and are doing a good business. Tipton left El Paso about two weeks ago to join Phillips who had preceded him to Tulsa and arranged for the opening of the studio. ‘Tip’ writes that the company at present has more scenery than it can handle and that Tulsa at present is a live wire town as a result of the Oklahoma oil boom.”

The Phillips Tipton Scenic studio was credited with providing the scenery for “All Aboard” by the next spring (Morning Tulsa Daily World, 21 April 1920, page 9).

By July 7, 1920, Oklahoma newspapers announced the opening of another scenic studio – Southwestern Scenic Studio.  The “Daily Law Journal” announced, “Certificate of Partnership of the Southwestern Scenic Studios…That Chas. Cassius and Raleigh Dent, are associated as partners in the business of furnishing theatrical scenery of all descriptions in the City of Oklahoma city, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, Scenic Studios; that said partnership is a general partnership, dating from the first day of May, 1920” (page 4). Both Phillips Tipton Scenic Studio and Southwestern Scenic Studio were relatively short-lived, a common trait as scenic studios continued to pop up like daisies all over the country. The abundance of firms often saturated an area, quickly causing supply to outweigh demand and prompting the closure of new companies.

As in the 19^th century, American scenic artists followed the work. Scenic studios were established in areas experiencing economic growth and building booms. In 1919, the Ben Tipton cited the Oklahoma oil boom as the cause for an abundance of painting projects. Although the oil boom began in 1897, the money was still streaming in by 1919. Great influxes of money into the economy supported theatrical growth and even shifted the theatrical centers throughout North America. After the 1871 Chicago fire, a period of unprecedented theatrical construction activity drew scenic artists and other theatre technicians from all over the country to the Windy City. By the turn of the Twentieth century a similar period of activity in New York, especially Coney Island and coastal attractions such as the Atlantic Boardwalk shifted the theatrical centers again. Although many believe that the theatrical center remained in New York throughout the duration of the 20^th century (Broadway), there were a series of building booms that drew people westward. Oil money offered ample opportunities for scenic artists to secure work, whether it was for live theatre, public spectacles, or residential murals in mansions of the wealthy. During the severe recession that hit the United States in 1920 and 1921 scenic artists left the larger metropolitan areas of the east. Sometimes labeled as a depression, western opportunities in successful towns funded by oil money continued to support a variety of artistic endeavors during this time.

There is something else to consider at this time. There was also the stylistic shift in scenic art that prompted artists to move west. As the “new art” for the stage diminished the demand for painted illusion, film offered additional opportunities for those experienced in romantic realism for the stage. Moses and many of his Chicago colleagues dreamed of both living and working in California.  It was not only a vibrant theatre scene, but also an artistic hub for fine artists. Moses actively sought work in the Oakland area, starting in 1918 when he was working for New York Studios (Chicago branch). He became a member of the Laguna Beach Art Association (1est. 919).

Those specializing in traditional scenic art were able to tweak their skill set, tighten their brushwork to produce realistic film backgrounds. It is understandable that the west coast drew and abundance of highly skilled and well-known scenic artists. Those transitioning to work in the film industry likely had an easy choice when examining the set designs of the modern designer. Film offered the continuation of painting large and picturesque vistas.

To be continued…

Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett

Times were changing for many professional scenic artists in 1919. In addition to the rejection of painted illusion for the stage and traditional scenic art, there was an increase in amateur dramatic organizations. The Little Theatre movement was gaining ground across the country. It caused a divide between theatre practitioners, with some seeing it as an obstacle to professionals.  Other declared the movement an opportunity, allowing the doors of the industry to swing wider for “courageous young producers.” Beginning around 1912, the Little Theatre Movement provided a unique outlet.  I am actually going to quote two lines from Wikipedia as says it all: “The Little Theatre Movement provided experimental centers for the dramatic arts, free from the standard production mechanisms used in prominent commercial theatres. In several large cities, beginning with Chicago, Boston, Seattle and Detroit, companies formed to produce more intimate, non-commercial, non-profit-centered, and reform-minded entertainments.” Here is a link for more information about the movement: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Theatre_Movement and the Encyclopedia Britannica entry https://www.britannica.com/art/little-theatre-American-theatrical-movement.

An interesting article about Little Theatres appeared in the April 1917 issue of “The Theatre” (Vol. 25, page 292, 314).  “Mr. Belasco has recently declared, in the New York Herald that we must “protect our drama” from “amateur dramatic organizations”….The so-called “Little Theatres” which are springing up all over the country, not only in New York, but in Detroit, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other places, are amateur theatres, with their faults and weaknesses, their failures, their fads. Their audiences, numerically, are but a drop in the bucket. Yet they are a sign, a portent, which cannot be ignored. They are a protest against the easy, safe professionalism which has divorced our drama from all serious contact with problems of actual life, which has reopened the gap which Herne, Fitch, Moody, Eugene Walter, George Ade and other seemed a few years ago on the point of bridging; which has left the public without any control over its esthetic expression in the playhouse. Just as soon as these amateur efforts result in any considerable popularity and financial stability, they will visibly and definitely begin to effect our theatre for good, and the doors will swing wider open to the courageous young producers like John Williams and Walker Wanger. In New York this winter we have seen “The Yellow Jacket” established on Broadway, we have seen Stuart Walker’s amateurs playing for a month, we have seen Gertrude Kingston come up from the East Side, we have seen the Washington Square Players move from beyond Third Avenue into the Comedy Theatre, and there remain. In every case something was added to our stage which it sorely lacked, and the contribution was welcomed by a substantial public. The way has been made easier for further experiments, for future dramatists with something fresh to say. If Mr. Belasco honestly believes this to be a bad thing for our theatre, if he honestly fears this sort of competition, he has delivered the most scathing self-criticism ever written. At any rate, the drama of to-morrow in America must be reborn out of the amateur spirit, and the increasing number of amateurs who are giving themselves gladly to task to-day is the most hopeful sign in our theatre.”

Little Theatres also weathered the 1919 actors’ strike. This was mentioned at the end of an article by Uarda McCarty in 1919. On Sept 14, 1919, McCarty wrote an article entitled “Melodrama Again is Coming Into Own As Style Wheel of Stage Makes Circle.”

“Drama, it appears, like all things else, must needs feel the influence of change. Style waves in the dramatic world, sweep with as sure and effect as waves of reform, politics or any other trend in life.

And the era for change is apparently at hand. The movement in the drama, this season, as evidenced by the late summer attractions, and early fall openings, seems to be more in the nature of a reverting back to old forms than the introduction of anything new. And the particular child of the past, which American drama has decided to resurrect and endow as the heiress of this season’s accomplishment, is melodrama.

‘Not any sophisticated, full-grown child of new ideas and forms, but the good old-fashioned, ‘dyed-in-the-wool, blood-and-thunder melodrama. The kind with the old types villain, the wronged girl, the old-fashioned trusting parents and other regalia of melodrama of half a century or so back.’  So says Maude May Babcock, director of the Little theatre, who has recently returned from a month in the east studying the theatrical situation.

One of the noteworthy examples of this type is ‘John Ferguson,’ a severe tragedy set in the north country of Ireland. It is a play with the religious element strongly predominating – for it opens with the old father, the principle character, sitting with an open Bible on his knees and closes with the same picture. But withal, the play is a melodrama, for in it appears the wronged maiden, the villainous villain and the virtuous hero.

Its popularity is attested by the fact that it ran all during the summer months and is still booked for Gotham presentation, at the Fulton theatre on Forty-fifth street.

Another play, forecasting the same trend, is ‘The Challenge’ at the Selwyn theatre. Both theatres weathered the actor’s strike, ‘John Ferguson’ the entire time and ‘The Challenge’ for a goodly portion. ‘The Challenge’ was forced to close by a walkout on August 16.

The reason for ‘John Ferguson’ continuing was because the actors playing are members of the Little Theatre guild, and organization growing out of the old Washington Square Players and the Producing Managers’ Association, against whom the strike was called, had no connection with the production.

One of the leading characters of ‘John Ferguson’ is portrayed by Rollo Peters, a leading man new to Broadway – that is, new in the art acting.”

Rollo Peters was not only an actor and director, but also a scenic artist who embraced the new stage art. He was also one of the individuals who benefited as the doors of the theatre industry began to open for a younger generation of theatre artists.

I have noticed that few people enthusiastically embrace change, especially when if they already benefit from the status quo. Amateur theatrics in the United States was nothing new, but it gained momentum during the second and third decades of the twentieth century. Scenic studios had to adapt, with many firms targeting the manufacture of stock scenery for academic institutions and other non-profit venues. Our industry was teetering on the pinnacle of change. It was the convergence of Little Theatre movement, the increased construction of cinemas, and the rise of the modern stage designer that all contributed to massive aesthetic shift in scenic art. In the past, I have said that this is when scenic painting shifts from an art to a craft, and I still stand by the statement. The necessary scenic art skill set was dramatically shifting, ushering in a new era of painting. What I consider as the golden age of the American scenic artist was nearing an end.

To be continued…

In a world of limited travel and social distancing, I find myself revisiting favorite locations with my brush; painting is a means of escape for me. My previous series “Quarantine Travels” helped me weather the first wave of COVID 19 from April 28-June 19, 2020.

Here is a new series about Colorado that will hopefully do the same as numbers continue to increase across the country. I will post each completed painting in the series to this page.

This series of thirty-five paintings was completed on February 21, 2021.

Here is a link to my previous series “Quarantine Travels” –

Here is a link to my current series “Mountains of Rock” –