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Sosman & Landis: Shaping the Landscape of American Theatre. Employee No. 43 – Chauncey D. Baker

Chauncey D. Baker worked at Sosman & Landis during the 1890s. He was credited as the electrical engineer for the firm’s two electric scenic theaters at the newly-constructed Masonic Temple in Chicago.

On February 10, 1894, an article in “Scientific American,” entitled “A City Under One Roof – The Masonic Temple,” described the new building at the corner of Randolph and State streets. The article reported, “Of all the buildings of our Western sister Chicago, none is more remarkable than the Masonic Temple, a structure which, in its functions, dimensions and construction, is one of the unique buildings of the world. In spite of its name, it is proudly claimed to be the “highest commercial building in the world.” In it we find exemplified the union of Freemasonry and commerce, a four and one-half-million-dollar building supplying beautiful halls and parlors for Masonic rites, as well as an unequaled collection of business offices.”

Atop of the massive structure was the Masonic Temple Roof Garden. In 1894, Sosman and Landis Scene Painting Studio designed, installed and managed two electric scenic theaters, situated at the roof garden level. The firm was diversifying, investing profits from Columbian Exhibition projects. New business endeavors included the establishment of the American Reflector & Lighting Co. and the theatrical management firm of Sosman, Landis & Hunt. The Masonic Temple roof garden was a culmination of the two; their first management theatre project before branching out and leasing other theaters throughout the region.

Sosman & Landis’s 1894 catalogue includes advertisements for both the Masonic Temple Roof Garden and the American Reflector & Lighting Co.

*Back cover of Sosman & Landis catalogue, 1894.*

*American Reflector & Lighting Equipment Co. advertisement in 1894 Sosman & Landis catalogue.*

Embracing electrical potential, Sosman & Landis began to expand the scope of their projects to electrical services and equipment. Already in 1889 company catalogues had offered a wide range of lighting equipment for performance venues, including the Eclipse.

*Lighting equipment offered in 1889 Sosman & Landis catalogue.*

By the 1890s, Sosman & Landis employed a full team of electricians, and leading their team electrical engineer, Chauncey D. Baker. Baker was considered a genius in his field, with four patents already filed.

Baker’s Masonic Temple project, however, was a game-changer for the firm. It highlighted the potential of electrical lights for the stage and scenic possibilities, using a very public, popular and accessible platform. The two electric scenic theaters were designed to accommodate seventy-five patrons each. They both featured a scenic metamorphosis that was aided by electrical lighting equipment. Although the firm only managed the venue for a year, it was a massive undertaking at the time.

When the Columbian Exposition closed, work slowed down at many scenic studios. It was at this time that Sosman & Landis planned an entertainment venue for the Masonic Temple Roof Garden. Sosman was a well-known Scottish Rite Mason and heavily involved with the production of new scenery for fraternal stages in the building. Joseph S. Sosman was a Scottish Rite Mason, and had been involved with the Fraternity in Chicago for years. Sosman & Landis were well known for specializing in of painted settings for fraternal productions and other activities. They even took out advertisements in a variety of Masonic periodicals. Including “The American Mason,” noted as a “Weekly Journal for the Craft.” The publication boasted a 10,000 circulation among Masons. Sosman & Landis placed an advertisement in the Dec. 3, 1892, issue that featured the new Masonic Temple in Chicago. They advertisement stated, “We make a specialty of Scenery for Illustrating the Different Degrees in Masonry. Nothing adds so much to the impressiveness of degrees as appropriate scenery. Much superior in every way to magic lantern or stereopticons.”

*Sosman & Landis advertisement in* “The American Mason,” *1892.*

*Chicago’s new Masonic Temple was featured in* “The American Mason,” *Dec. 3, 1892.*

Sosman & Landis decided to replicate two experiences from the Columbian Exposition: “A Day in the Alps” and “Court of Honor.” Articles about the new Masonic Temple noted that “A Day in the Alps” went beyond a mere imitation and included “extended improvements,” with more attention paid to detail.

*The Masonic Temple in Chicago featured a rooftop garden and two electric scenic theaters.*

The electric theaters at the Masonic Temple were located 302 feet up from street level, providing an added incentive the visit the new performance venue. Even the journey to the top floor was an adventure worth taking. On Feb. 10, 1894, an article in “Western Electrician” described the ascent to the rooftop performance venue: “Upon entering the building a visitor’s attention is attracted by a large sign composed of incandescent lamps in the form of a hand pointing upward and the words ‘Electric Scenic Theaters.’ From the tip of the forefinger of the hand a row of lights extends upward the entire height of the building to the garden. This is called a “chaser,” and the lamp globes are of different colors. By means of a switch light passes along the line, changing in hue as it ascends, until it reaches the glass roof of the building.” This switch, as well as with all of the electrical devices for the electric scenic theater was credited to C. D. Baker, the electrical engineer for Sosman & Landis.

Images posted to Chicagology. Here is the link: https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage026/

I am going to include details of Baker’s work for the Masonic Roof Garden stages, as it gives some context for his position at Sosman & Landis during the 1890s.

The first electric scenic theatre replicated “A Day in the Alps” from the Columbian Exposition’s Midway Plaisance. 1893 World Fair guidebooks described the production in detail: “The stage picture is a beautiful Swiss Alpine scenery, depicting in a realistic way every change of nature shown from dawn to night, as each gradually appears, and representing some of the most wonderfully realistic light effects ever produced by electric lamps. It is almost beyond belief that the visitor is not looking at a marvelous production of nature itself, instead of a picture created by an ingenious and artistic display of electric lights.”

*The Electric Scenic Theatre at the Columbian Exposition, 1893.*

*Photographs of the Electric Scenic Theaters and Masonic Temple Roof Garden, posted to Chicagology.*Images posted to Chicagology. Here is the link: https://chicagology.com/goldenage/goldenage026/

Similarly, the Masonic rooftop production also presented a transformative alpine scene. The mountain stream running through the miniature painted setting was actually a motion picture screen, adding increased realism to the running water and activities of the townspeople. Upon the river’s banks were miniature houses, a chapel and mill. A castle was nestled high above in the snow-capped mountains, overlooking the village scene. Down below, villagers crossed a bridge – their projection on the central river screen. The show started with the midnight toll of the bell, and the gloaming of dawn gradually transitioning to a brilliant sunlit scene. Midway through the production, a thunderstorm approached the mountain valley, passing by with loud thunder and vivid flashes of lightning. The calms and the sun sets, with the moon rising high above in the night sky. There is a moment of tranquility as the clock strikes midnight. Lighting effects for the production necessiated focusing lamps, rheostat boxes, switches, reflectors and other devices placed behind the scene.

The second electric scenic theater depicted the “Court of Honor,” presenting a view from the Columbian Exposition’s agricultural building. Like “A Day in the Alps,” the scene transitioned from morning to night, changing the appearance of the neoclassical buildings that surrounded the central lagoon. In front of the administration and electricity buildings, gondolas and electric launches shifted position, underscored with band music in the background. As evening approached, electrical lights outlined the White City, beautifully reflected in the tranquil lagoon. The February 24, 1894, issue of “Western Electrician” described, “Searchlight effects flash from one building to another, and the administration building, with its handsome decorative lighting scheme, shines resplendent under these streams of light.” The article also noted that some of the illumination was achieved using a Packard mogul lamp (300-candle power).

The two electric scenic theaters also incorporated Steele MacKaye’s luxauleator, also known as “a curtain of light.” The luxauleator consisted of a border of incandescent lights around the four sides of the stage opening. An invention credited to MacKaye, newspapers described it as “a peculiar optical illusion” originally created for his Spectatorium. Unfortunately, the construction of this massive scenic electric theater was never completed for the Columbian Exposition and the project was abandoned (see past installment #187: https://drypigment.net2017/08/24/tales-from-a-scenic-artist-and-scholar-acquiring-the-fort-scott-scenery-collection-for-the-minnesota-masonic-heritage-center-part-187-hardesty-g-maratta-and-the-spectatorium/).

MacKaye’s original patent for his curtain of lights claimed, “In combination with the proscenium opening, a series of lamps bordering the same and provided with backings adapted to throw the space back of the lamps and the opening into complete shade, while flooding the opposite portion of the space with light so as to form in effect a vivid curtain or screen of light that will intercept all sight of persons or things occupying the shaded portion of the space, substantially as described.” On May 26, 1893, “The Wichita Eagle” described how the luxauleator used rows of lamps that were placed in conical shaped reflectors. The newspaper article reported, “The modus operandi was very simple, the mere turning of a switch being all that is necessary; the same movement of the switch that throws the current of electricity into the lamps of the luxauleator, also turns out all the lights upon the stage and the effect produced the same as if one were sitting in a brilliantly lighted room and endeavored to look out into darkness” (page 6). MacKaye’s lighting effects were detailed in an article for the February 24, 1894, issue of “Western Electrician” (Vol. XIV, No. 8). Here is a link to the article in Google Books, as it has some really wonderful images and information: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Western_Electrician/N3Q2AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22luxauleator%22&pg=PA86&printsec=frontcover

This lighting effect was incorporated by Sosman & Landis into the two electric scenic theaters. The firm heavily relied upon the skills of Baker at this time for many of their electrical offerings and projects. Unfortunately, beyond four patents and a couple directory listings, little is known about this electrical engineer. Here is what I have located to date about Baker:

Chauncey D. Baker was born in Vermont on March 26, 1848 in Vermont. One would think that the name “Chauncey” would help refine and limit the search; it did not. There were an unbelievable number of Chauncey Baker’s running around America during the late nineteenth century. The earliest listing that I have for Baker in Chicago is from 1887, but he was already living there in 1886. In 1887 the “Chicago Directory” listed Chauncey D. Baker as an electrician working at 114 Wabash and living at 41 236 State. In 1887, 114 Wabash av. was listed for rent by L. E. Crandall & Co. On Sept. 18, 1887, the “Chicago Tribune” listed, “TO RENT – VERY LOW, FOR MANUFACTURING or storage, part or whole of lot 100×50; elevator, large windows; centrally located” (page 22). I believe that Baker rented a portion of this space in 1886, when he was working on his Electrical resistance coil patent (No. 368,804. Aug. 23, 1887), governor for incandescent lights on arc circuits patent (No. 371,915. Oct. 25, 1887), and the commutator or electric circuit-breaker patent (No. 375,328. Dec. 27, 1887).

Chauncey D. Baker later partnered with Lewis G. Bronson of Chicago in 1888. They applied for an Electrical Apparatus patent on April 30, 1888 (No. 417,217. Dec. 17, 1889). Here is a brief excerpt from the patent’s description: “Our improvement is primarily designed to be used with relay-instruments – such as used with burglar-alarms and other electrical devices – for the purpose of bringing into operation an independent set of electrical devices when there is material derangement of, or change in the current of, the main circuit. Such derangement or change may occur either as a consequence of the opening of the circuit, or by short-circuiting the main circuit of grounding part of it.”

In 1890, Baker was still listed in the “Chicago Directory” as an electrician, living at 1320 Indiana. By the next year, his title transitioned to “electrical engineer,” living at 1089 W. Monroe in 1891. I have uncovered very little about Chauncey’s life in Chicago during the 1890s beyond his work at Sosman & Landis. However, in 1898 he was still listed as an electrical engineer in the city, now living at 225 S. Morgan.

Multiple family genealogies cite that he was married to Charlotte Wilson (b. 1823-?). This would make her 25 yrs. his senior, so I am a little skeptical. Not that it was unheard of, just unusual. Baker was definitively married, but I have yet to locate any marriage certificate to date. At the time of death, he was still listed as a married man. I am basing this off of his death record, as I have been unable to locate an obituary that was published in a newspaper.

Baker died 20 Nov. 1917 in Chicago at the age of 69. He was buried at Mt. Hope. His death certificate reported that he was still working as an electrician at the time of his passing.

For additional context, I want to provide a bit of history about the American Reflector and Lighting Co., as well as the company’s link to both Joseph S. Sosman and Perry Landis. The company was featured in their 1894 catalogue, stating “The American Reflector & Lighting Co. manufacture a full line of improved Lighting fixtures for electricity, gas or oil, specially adapted for the lighting of Theaters, Halls, Assembly Rooms and Churches.”

On March 24,1893, the “Inter Ocean” listed the American Reflector and Lighting Company of Chicago as a newly formed business under the heading “Licensed To Do Business.” The company’s incorporators were listed as Perry Landis, William A. Toles and Robert Latham, Perry’s brother, Charles Landis, as the treasurer. The companies official incorporation date was April 5, 1893. The firm’s salesroom was located at 271-273 Franklin Street in Chicago. They stocked approximately 150 styles of reflectors for use with electricity, gas and oil. The company advertised that both their indoor and outdoor reflectors “promised that the power of light was fully utilized, as its rays are saved from waste, strengthened and thrown in the desired direction.” Their lighting fixtures used crystal glass lined with pure metallic silver to provide “the best practical reflecting surface.”

The officers of the company, however, were Joseph S. Sosman and the three Landis Brothers – Perry, Joseph and Charles. They simply rotated the positions of president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer. In regard to the original incorporators, one man stands out, William A. Toles. Toles had a history with the reflector business in Chicago, having helped establish and manage the Wheeler Reflector Company of Chicago, along with Willard L. Gillam and George E. Plumb. The Wheeler Reflector Company sold the reflector designs of civil engineer and inventor, William Wheeler (1851-1932). By the way, Wheeler was widely known for his innovative patents that included not only lighting, but also water and sewage systems. In 1880, Wheeler filed a patent for a novel form of lighting and commercialized his invention through the Wheeler Reflector Company of Boston, Massachusetts. The company was extremely profitable and remained an important manufacturer of street lighting until the mid-twentieth century. Interestingly, an ex-employee in Chicago later accused Toles of bribing city officials to select their company when contracting work for streetlights during 1886 (“Inter Ocean,” 4 April 1887, page 1). This accusation contributed to the end of one business and the start of another; Toles established the Western Wheeler Reflector Company.

The Western Wheeler Reflector Company was located at No. 88 Lake Street in Chicago. On April 13, 1888, the “Inter Ocean” listed the company’s incorporators as William A Toles, Willard L. Giliman, and George E. Plume. Same individuals, just slightly different spelling of names in the newspaper announcement. The American Reflector and Lighting Company was Toles third reflector company, and at the time of its establishment, he was still actively involved with the Western Wheeler Reflector.

Baker and other electrical engineers were critical to the success of not only Sosman & Landis, but also the American Reflector & Lighting Co. It was the combination of their innovations and expertise that put them ahead of competitors. Featuring their electric lighting equipment and the work electrical engineer Baker at the Masonic Temple in 1894 was a fantastic marketing opportunity. Despite the short duration or financial outcome, this project pushed Sosman & Landis to the forefront of electrical effects for the stage by the mid-1890s. They would continue to offer a variety of stage equipment until the 1920s, when both Sosman & Landis and the American Reflector & Lighting Co. changed hands; each firm entering the second iteration of the company.

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 940 – The Allied Bazaar, Chicago, 1917

Sosman & Landis delivered painted settings for the Ten Allies Costume Bazaar in New York on November 28, 1918. They were also hired to provide decorations for Chicago’s Allied Bazaar at the Coliseum. However, this time an architect was in charge of the designs, not a scenic artist.

In 1917, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “We opened the season on the New Year with the great Allied Bazaar for the Coliseum and it is being rushed through in a hurry. I don’t like to deal with an architect on these decorative jobs. They get an idea they are building a house and don’t seem to see our way of knocking it together, depending on the general results. Of all the jobs that we have done of this character, where we made our own plans, we never had one that didn’t have the big scenic spirit of decorations and was always accepted.”

From the “Chicago Tribune,” 8 Jan 1917, page 9.

The Allied Bazaar was held at the Chicago Coliseum for a week, beginning on January 11, 1917. 8,000 people were involved in marketing of the bazaar, abandoning many other routine society events to promote the “million dollar show” (Chicago Tribune, 12 Jan. 1917, page 6). Promoters publicized the event in Minneapolis, St. Paul. St. Louis, Cincinnati, Louisville, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Detroit. 4,000 men and women worked the bazaar, with approximately 500,000 attending. Exhibits connected with the European war were on display, and included big guns, ammunition, aeroplanes, French biplanes, German Taubes, American Curtiss and Wright machines, hospital devices and field ambulances. The show even included a reproduction of a trench with dugouts, barbed wire, loopholes, and other military appliances. This particular exhibit was built under the direction of English army personnel Capt. Ian Hay and Capt. Norman Thwaites.

From the “Chicago Tribune,” 20 Jan 1917, page 3.

Of the event the “Chicago Tribune” reported, “This is the third big event of this characters for the aid of the suffering in the allied nations, in Boston the bazaar proceeds were $400,000, in New York $700,000” (Jan. 11, 1917, page 3). The article continued, “Yesterday with the hum and bustle of the industry artisans were putting the finishing touches to the Coliseum. A fairy city of shops, brilliant in color, impressive architecture, has been raised within the big building down on Wabash Avenue. Hammers tapped away as busy as woodpeckers. The air was filled with sawdust. An electric lathe whirred away turning, planning and cutting lumber for more booths and other galleries.

“Electricians with trailing threads of wiring weaved away up in the vault like spiders. Workmen and society women workers jostled each other in their hurry, overalls and sealskins fitted about in the streets of the fantastic city that charity has built. There is a buffet, a tea garden, a cabaret, a shooting gallery, sideshow, grocery store, fortuneteller stand and many art shops in bazaar town.

“Among the scores of well known persons who were at the Coliseum supervising the arrangement of the booths formerly as observers, were: Henry J. Pattern, Mr. and Mrs. Chauncy McCormick, Lady Aberdeen, Baroness Charles Huard, Baron Huard, Mrs. James T. Harahan, Mrs. Halsted Freeman, Mrs. Charles Hamill, Mrs. Walter S. Brewster, Countess Langston, Miss Cornelia Conger, James Ward Thorne, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Insull, Mrs. John Winterbotham, Mrs. George Higginson, and Mr. and Mrs. D. H Burnham Jr.; the former largely responsible for the architectural planning.

“The Coliseum is full of stuff of all description. Pianos, antique jewels, original etchings by Whistler, automobiles, a motor boat, groceries, dolls, seal coats, artistic brasses, painting and fancy work…Work is being rushed on the war exhibit which will be a feature of the bazaar. This includes all sorts of shells from the French 75s to huge sixteen-inch projectiles weighing tons. There are many types of field pieces, trench mortars, rifles, pistols, wrecked gun carriages, a German torpedo, uniforms, and war motors.

“In the exhibit is the first American hospital ambulance set to France. It was given by Mrs. William K. Vanderbilt. It was wrecked by a shell and the driver killed. The rusted plate with the name of the donor in big letters was almost ripped from the ambulance by the same shell.”

From the “Chicago Tribune,” 8 Dec 1916, page 3.

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 881 – Thomas G. Moses and “Daddy Long Legs,” 1914

From the “Chicago Tribune,” 17 March 1914, page 9.

In 1914, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “One scene, 3^rd Act, for Henry Miller in ‘Daddy Long Legs.’ It was a very delicate interior, real fabric walls.” The first scene of the play is laid in the dining room in the John Grier home, the second in the girl’s study at college, the third on a picturesque New England farm and the fourth in a library in a New York home (Hartford Courant, 28 September 1914, page 9). Moses painted the exterior setting of a picturesque New England Farm.

From the “Chicago Tribune,” 9 August 1914, page 42.

“Daddy Longlegs” was a comedy written by Miss Jean Webster (1876-1916) and first presented at Powers’ theater in Chicago on March 16, 1914. Based on the 1912 novel, the “Chicago Tribune” reported, “the love story of a brilliant waif who falls happily in love with her affluent benefactor” (Chicago Tribune, 7 June 1914, page 56). The story was first published as a Ladies’ Home Journal serial (Inter Ocean, 17 March 1914, page 6).

From the “Chicago Tribune,” 18 March 1914, page 14.

“Daddy Long Legs” centers around orphan Judy Abbot, played by actress Ruth Chatterton. Judy is brought up in an orphanage with a hundred little children. However, instead of being put out to work when she turns fourteen, Judy is allowed to remain and attend high school for four years. This was not a pure gesture of generosity, as Judy becomes the maid, saving the orphanage the expense of having a servant. The head matron berates her daily until Judy finally stands up for herself during a monthly “Trustees Day.” A new, wealthy, and young trustee, Jervis Pendleton, discovered that Judy was different from the other “ cowed, apathetic orphans” and sends her to college (The Pittsburgh Press, 6 Dec. 1914, page 57). His identity remains that of an anonymous benefactor, going by the name of John Smith, with his becoming the “shadow of a father.” Judy is only allowed to see the shadow of Jervis Pendleton, and Judy exclaims, “What funny long legs the shadow has! He is like a spider. I’ll call him my dear old Daddy Long Legs.” As her anonymous benefactor, Pendleton watches Judy grow, falling in love with her and becoming jealous of her attentions toward another young man. At the same time, Judy unknowingly meets her “Daddy Long Legs’ and falls in love, but is too embarrassed of her past to proceed. Pendleton believes that he hesitation is due to her love for another. It is only through a series of letters that Judy writes to Daddy Long Legs that she reveals her true feelings, eventually finding her happy ending.

Ruth Chatterton as Judy Abbott in the 1914 play “Daddy Long Legs.”

An interesting article was published in the “Inter Ocean” on 12 April 1914 titled “Accidental Art” (page 32). It described some of the lighting for the production: “When Henry Miller was rehearsing ‘Daddy Long-legs,’ and while the play was in process of formation (for many changes were made during the first rehearsals), he was very anxious to show the shadow of Jervis Pendleton on the walls of the school room. It was his idea that this shadow could be made to explain the reason why pretty Judy nicknamed her benefactor Daddy Long-legs.

“Time after time Mr. Miller experimented with various lights and lighting effects to get the shadow on the wall, but he always found fault with the effect. Many sorts and kinds of automobile lights, spotlights and other devices were used to project the shadow into the room, and not one of them proved effective. In his mind Mr. Miller turned over the problems; thought of silhouettes. Lantern slides and dozens of other ideas, and turned them all down as impractical.

“Finally Miller and his assistants were at their wits’ end. Nothing seemed to answer for the effect desired. The company electrician had given up hope after exhausting all of his ingenuity.

“While the final consultation was ending, a house electrician was removing the various experimental apparatus, and at the end he changed position of an ordinary spotlight used to illuminate the stage for rehearsal. Across the stage swept a straight beam of light, wavered on the side walls and left the stage.

“‘There! You’ve got it!’ cried Mr. Miller. ‘There is the very thing we want! We can’t hope to make a Daddy Long-legs shadow, but we can have a perfect effect of an automobile turning in the drive outside and casting its lights through the window.’

“Since then the motor lights have flashed through the asylum window nightly, a fine stage effect that des not entail any expensive machinery and merely utilizes one of the usual electrical effects with which every theatre is equipped.”

Under the direction of Henry Miller, the 1914 cast included Frederick Truesdell (Jervis Pendleton), Charles Trowbridge (James McBride), Mrs. Jacques Martin (Mrs. Semple), Mrs. Jennie A. Eustace (Miss Prittchard), Miss Ethel Martin (Mrs. Pendleton), Miss Agnes Heron Miller (Julia Pendleton), Miss Cora Witherspoon (Sallie McBride), Miss Margaret Sayres (Mrs. Lippett) and Miss Ruth Chatterton (Judy).

In 1919, “Daddy Long Legs” was made into a silent movie, starring Mary Pickford as Judy and Mahlon Hamilton as Jervis Pendleton. Tomorrow, I will look at the production of Daddy Long Legs dolls to help the war effort during 1914-1915.

1919 “Daddy Long Legs” movie with Mary Pickford as Judy.

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 471 – Stage Hands – “Theatre People You Don’t See”

Part 471: Stage Hands – “Theatre People You Don’t See”

“Stage Hands “The Chicago Tribune” (11 June 1902, Page 4)

Today’s installment is a little lengthy, but I have seldom encountered descriptions about the backstage process. It is easy to find information about the performers or artists, however, insight into the activities of a stagehand during a turn-of-the-twentieth century show is rare. Months ago I encountered an article about “Stage Hands” in “The Chicago Tribune” (11 June 1902, Page 4). It was republished across the country in 1902, including “The Boston Sunday Globe (22 June 1902, page 51).

Once again, I was astounded at the sheer number of individuals employed working in the backstage area; moving lines, lights and scenery, all at the stage manager’s cue. It’s the highly organized process from start to finish. I think that sometimes we forget that the complexity of the backstage activities over a century ago. Here is “The Chicago Tribune” article in its entirety:

“Stage Hands.

Behold now how many and what different results a little thing will accomplish. A fat man in soiled white shirt sleeves, standing just beyond the right edge of the curtain, presses three electric buttons, one after the other, with his pudgy forefinger.

Illustration from “The Chicago Tribune” (11 June 1902, Page 4)

One of the buttons rings a bell up above in the electrician’s gallery. The electrician, whose blue shirt is open at the neck — it is hot behind the scenes — throws three or four switches and all at once the auditorium lights flame out, the footlights blaze up, strip lights hanging in the scenery are lit, and bright spot lights, at each of which a man is stationed, begin to make circles of especial brilliancy in various places on the stage.

The second button pressed by the stage manager rings a bell down in the musicians’ room under the stage and a dozen hot and perspiring men stop their games of pinochle, put on their coats, and climb up the stairs which lead to the orchestra pit. For answer a red electric bulb glows on the little shelf before the stage manager and he knows that order has been obeyed.

The third signal summons all the stage carpenters to stand by the pieces of scenery to which they are assigned in readiness for the quick change at the end of the first scene.

Meanwhile, a tall youth in an evening coat that is far too long for him goes running down into the deep basements, where the supers dress, and up three or four or five flights of stairs by the dressing-rooms of the principals, wailing, “Overture! Overture!” He is the call-boy, and it is his duty to sound the warning to every actor half an hour and fifteen minutes before the performance begins and also when the orchestra begins to play the overture. Meanwhile the actors and actresses in fashionable clothes and lacy summer costumes begin to gather in a crowd on the stage. Mingled with them are property men, clearers, grips, and carpenters, giving the last touch to some detail of the stage setting. The stage manager gives a final glance at the big clock. He notes the exact time on the blank schedule hanging on the wall before him, claps his hands, calls, “Clear the stage” and all the people you don’t see vanish into the wings.

But they work behind quite as hard as the actors are working before the scenes. A property man sets down a bottle of beer and two glasses in the wings, just where it can be found by the stage waiter, who will need it in five minutes. Nine stage carpenters are standing, each with a firm grasp on a certain piece of scenery. Other property men are placing a lot of furniture and made pieces in an orderly row behind the last set at the back of the stage so that they may move it all forward when the time comes without an instant’s delay. High up in the fly gallery, fifty feet above the stage, nine husky men in overalls and shirt sleeves are pulling away at a long series of big ropes that run up as high as the rigging loft and down again over pulleys to the corners of various heavy pieces of scenery. Something like the ringing loft of a big church belfry is this fly loft, with its orderly rows of huge ropes and its men pulling and straining as they raise and lower heavy canvas ceilings, walls and flies into position.

Presently an actor speaks the last line of the first scene. At the cue the stage manager presses some more electric buttons. Every light in the house, back and front, goes out for a moment and a light auxiliary curtain drops down and cuts off the stage. Behind this curtain some dim lights are turned on. But even while it is still dark the fifty men who help to make the show a success, though they are never seen or heard, have jumped into their proper places and are hard at work. One gang pulls the old scenery out of the way and piles it up against the walls of the stage in certain defined places. Others rush forward, each man carrying a certain piece of new scenery to exactly its proper spot. The clearers carry away the old properties and the property men set in place everything that is needed for the second scene. The flymen have hauled up the old stuff out of sight and let down the new, and the electrician has rearranged his spot and strip lights.

The stage manager claps his hands again, cries, “Clear the stage!” presses the buttons that turn on the lights and raises the curtain, and the second scene is on.

“We’re a little slow today,” he says, as he writes down the exact minute on his schedule — which is like a railroad time table. “It took us a minute and a half to make that change.”

Now there are some fifteen minutes to pass before either property men or stage hands will have anything to do, and they scatter to spend the leisure time in different ways.

Altogether, for the handling of an elaborate product, like “The Suburban,” fifty-five stage hands and property men are required. The stage hands are under the direct command of the stage carpenter and his assistant. They are divided into carpenters and grips and flymen, there being eleven of the first class and nine of the second. There are two property men and ten clearers, the duty of the latter being to clear away in a hurry what the property men have placed with care. Then there are an even dozen electricians who have to look after all the many different electric and calcium lights, which are used in various scenes. Add the call boy, the stage door man, and half a dozen minor positions and it is easy to count up the company of fifty-five which the stage manager has under his command.

When there comes a wait which gives stage hands a little leisure a crowd of them are likely to get together in the carpenter’s room under the stage, where a game of lotto, a first cousin of keno, or some other game is in operation. They pack the little room to suffocation and the excitement sometimes runs high, but the instant the stage manager’s warning bell sounds everything is dropped and each man gets into position without delay, for delay is the one thing which can never be forgiven in a stage hand.

On hot afternoons and nights others of the stage workmen go out into the alley about the stage door when they get a minute’s rest and get a breath of fresh air and other cooling refreshments. But always they are in sound of that warning bell.

Some rivalry exists between the property men and the stage carpenters, or at least the line between them is closely drawn.

Not for his life would a stage carpenter or grip lay his hand on any of the properties, even in an emergency, nor would a property man or clearer touch a piece of scenery, though it never were moved into place. The union rules and the pride of the profession both forbid such intermingling of functions.

Severe and unsparing critics of the speaking actors are these dumb and invisible “artists” of the stage. Let a new star go on for the first night and there will be enough biting and uncomplimentary things said about him and his work by the critics in dirty shirt sleeves who look down from the flies or stand in the entrances to make anything the newspaper may say the next morning sound like the sweetest flattery. They spare nobody. A great reputation will not cover faults to them. And as that many of them rarely if ever see a play from the front of the house. They look at bits of a thousand plays from between the wings and form their opinion from what they see.

Most of the responsibility for the stage effects rests upon the head carpenter and the property man. Every morning the stage carpenter has to make what is called a “pack” of all the different pieces of scenery. That is, he has to arrange it all in its regular order in a great pile leaning against the wall, so that the next piece wanted will always be next in the pile. On the outside of the pile stands the first piece needed in making the first change. On it in big letters are printed the words, “Keep alive,” which is stage talk for, “Don’t bury this piece under anything else.”

If there is a matinee the stage carpenter has to make a second “pack” between the afternoon and evening performances. The property man is charged with seeing that every little thing that is needed during the play is on hand and ready for instant use. Over them all reigns the stage manager. After each scene is set he casts a rapid and critical eye over it to see that everything is in exactly the right place and that carelessness has not marred any of the effects.

To be continued…