Information about historic theaters, scenic art and stage machinery. Copyright © 2026 by Wendy Rae Waszut-Barrett, PhD
Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
In 1915, Thomas G. Moses wrote, “Started the New Year in the right way, making a model and attending the theatre.” 1915 would prove to be a turning point at Sosman & Landis. I will start exploring the firm’s projects and Moses’ travels tomorrow, as I am on the road today.
To be continued…
Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
Even though Thomas G. Moses was vice-president of Sosman & Landis in 1914, he was on the road a lot. At 58 years old, Moses remained at the top of his game. Working as both a scenic artist and designer, well-known personalities throughout North America continued to seek him out.
Since his return to Sosman & Landis in 1904, Moses had full control over the design, construction, painting, and installation of all projects. By 1914, however, much of Moses’ time was consumed with making models and securing contracts.
When Sosman & Landis opened, it was Perry Landis who crisscrossed the country, securing scene-painting contracts for opera houses, music halls and other entertainment venues. Sosman and Moses followed Landis, rapidly completing one project after another. Moses admitted that it was a full six months after being hired at Sosman & Landis in 1880 before he was even able to meet Landis.
In 1902, Landis’ illness caused him to withdraw from studio work until his passing in 1905. This prompted Sosman to get Moses back to the studio by 1904. At the time, Moses was running the successful scene-painting firm of Moses and Hamilton in New York. It took a personal plea from Sosman, plus the promise of full artistic control, position of vice-president, and Sosman & Landis stocks to bring Moses back to Chicago. However, this meant that Moses’ increased responsibilities pertaining to artistic supervision and marketing meant less time painting.
A decade after his return to Sosman & Landis as vice-president, Moses’ responsibilities had primarily shifted to that of a designer, with him painting fewer and fewer drops. His design services were also in high demand.
In 1914, Moses wrote, “I then went to Atlantic City to make a model for the Colonial Theatre, and I found Atlantic City was a good place to make a model, so I remained there a week. Got back home May 4th, feeling fine after my little vacation.” The Colonial Theatre was located two blocks from the boardwalk at 1517 Atlantic Avenue near Mississippi Avenue. Seating 1,391 patrons, it was later renamed the Center Theatre in 1954. The sun, the sea and sketching must have been a welcome break from the hustle of the studio. Making models on site was a sure way to secure a contract. The client would be able to fully see what was being proposed and be amazed at the speed with which the model was built to his specifications. It also required an experienced hand to quickly craft a professional presentation, hence Moses going on the road again as a designer and salesman.
Sosman & Landis delivered scenery to Atlantic City the previous year too. In 1913, Moses wrote, “We did a New York Studio job for Atlantic City – a theatre on the pier.” B. F. Keith’s Garden Pier Theatre of was located on the 700-foot Garden Pier at the end of New Jersey Avenue, opening in 1913. The firm was a well-known quantity, having been in business for 35 years.
Other 1914 trips for Moses included French Lick Springs. That fall Moses wrote, “I made the second trip to Indiana and French Lick Springs, then back to West Baden – a wonderful big hotel. Got a frightful cold at French Lick Springs and November 28th, I went to bed with bronchial pneumonia. Pretty bad. Was three weeks before I could get out. The doctors wouldn’t listen to getting up after I had been in bed for two weeks. I was stubborn enough to get up and I made six models and felt better, forgot my worries and sold one set to Hopkinson of the Hamilton Theatre or $975.00. He called at the house to see the model and we started work right away. The illness was the worst I ever had. I ought to go south.” Ironically, French Lick Springs and West Baden boasted spas and luxurious hotels, attracting those in search of cures for their illnesses. Modeled after famed European spas, these luxurious locations were less than a half-day from Chicago. Here is a delightful post by Elizabeth Dunlop Richter that highlights the French Lick and West Baden resorts: https://www.classicchicagomagazine.com/french-lick-and-west-baden-resorts/
Moses turn for the worse in 1914 was likely a relapse after pushing through his illness and deciding to make the models. But this also signaled the beginning of respiratory concerns for Moses that would remain throughout his life. After years of questionable working environments an long hours, the frantic pace was taking its toll. At 58 years old, Moses could not sustain the same lifestyle and work habits that he established in his 20s without suffering some consequences. Although travel is never easy, making models on location may have been preferable to cranking out backdrops day in and day out, 10 to 12 hour days, six days a week. However, Moses was trying to do both.
To be continued…
Copyright © 2019 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
A reporter from Chicago’s “Inter Ocean” interviewed Walter Burridge on June 8, 1902 (page 42). His interview took place while Burridge worked on the stage set for “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz;” the production opening at the Grand Opera House. This is a great snapshot of information pertaining to his approach to a design and the production process.
“How Scenic Work is Done.
“How does the scene painter go to work on a new production? “ Mr. Burridge smiled at this question. “I don’t known just how to begin explaining,” he said. “There are so many details that it is a hard matter to explain. Suppose, however, that a manager tells me he has decided to produce a play or opera or a description of the scenes furnished by the author. In such a lay-out there is a detailed write-up of the action, as to whether a character enters through a door and jumps over a cliff. These points are called the practical notes, the artist making a careful study of the play and noting all the important points, action, and locality, the period, time of day, etc.
“If possible the studies are made on the ground, and should the scene be laid in the present time and in a place easily accessible to the artist he obtains photographs and makes studies and sketches. When Mr. Hamlin put on “Arizona,” three summers ago at the Grand he sent Frederick Remington and myself to Aravalpa valley, and a delightful pilgrimage we had, positively one of the most enjoyable artistic experiences in my artistic career.
“In the case of “The Wizard of Oz,” however, the story is laid in fairyland, so I am obliged to draw from my imagination for the scenes to fit the action of the play. First of all I make a ground plan of each act and the separate scenes, drawing a diagram on a scale of one-inch to the foot. On this scale I draw the different parts of the scenes on cardboard, finishing the model in watercolor, pastel, charcoal, or sometimes simply in pencil. When the different parts are ready and cut out they are fitted and glued together upon the line of the ground plan upon a miniature stage, the front of which is modeled in shape like a proscenium opening of a theater. The model is a reduced copy of the stage setting, so that one realizes the relative proportions in color and composition.
“At the Paris Exposition, the scene model exhibit was one of the features of the fair, being a picture history of the theater in France for a hundred years. The creation of the scene and the model is one of the most interesting of the many processes that constitute the scene painter’s art. The uninitiated in the theatrical world would be surprised to see the odds and ends used in the make-up of a model – glue, pieces of coal, clay, plaster of Paris, sticks, wire, gauze, muslin, and colored gelatins. In one of the scenes of “The Wizard of Oz,” the entire depth of the stage will be used to represent the approach to the throne room of the Wizard, and it will be lighted with hundreds of illuminated globes. In making my model I was obliged to use small pearls to indicate the globes. The time spent with the models pays in the end. With a complete model one thoroughly understands the practicalities of the scene, its color, lighting, etc., and changes are easy to make. To re-make and alter the scene proper, however, would entail an enormous amount of expense.
“After my models have been approved they were given to the master carpenter who superintends their construction, builds the scenes and delivers them to the artist to be painted. The different sections of scenery are taken from the carpenter shop to the paint-room or ‘bridge.’ The paint frame I am now using is the largest in this country. It is seventy-five feet long and forty feet high, and it is lowered and raised by water power along the rear wall of the stage of the Auditorium. The carpenter attaches to this frame the different portions of scenery to be painted. Drops are tacked on the paint frame, which are then raised to a level with the paint bridge floor. The assistants then ‘prime’ a canvas with a coating of glue and whiting, and artists begin work with charcoal placed in a crayon-holder on the end of a stick, observing the proportions as they appear in the model. The artist, as a rule, paints by daylight, so he must make allowance for the effect of artificial light on his colors. He must make his tones stronger because the calcium and footlights invariably bleach them out, and when a daylight effect is called for of a moonlight one he must allow for the lighting-up of the scene as the time and action differ in each set or scene. “Yellow or amber light dominates the daylight effects; blue is the tone for moonlights-green is used by some, but I prefer blue, as experience has taught me that a green tone tends to make the faces of the characters appear ghastly.”
To be continued…
For well over a year I have posted a historic stage setting every day to my Facebook group “Dry Pigment.” This post is then shared with other groups for digital dissemination, but not here. I often group stage compositions on a theme, posting one version after another over the course of a week. In the past I have covered landscapes, seascapes, palaces, dungeons, hell scenes, cathedrals, and much more. The images are often from scenery evaluations that I completed over the past few decades while traveling throughout the United States of America.
While I take a break from the life and time of Thomas G. Moses until November 11, 2019, I am going to share my Dry Pigment FB Group posts. It helps illustrated the scenic aesthetic that I have been writing about for over three years.
I primarily post daily pictures of historic backdrops each day for my fellow scenic artists, many of whom were not exposed to this history during their training, or friends who are completely unfamiliar with this form of American popular entertainment. I always hope that this small and consistent gesture will help others with their future projects and research.
Today’s Dry Pigment post depicts a palace interior produced by a the Twin City Scenic Co. of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Here is the last post about Universal Scenic Studio before returning to the life of Thomas G. Moses in 1912.While tracking down information about Universal Scenic Studio, I discovered an interesting article describing the use of miniature stages in 1931. This is the same year that Thomas G. Moses also built his electrified miniature stage model, featuring Masonic scenery (Blue Lodge, York Rite, Scottish Rite and Shrine settings).
Universal Scenic Studio, Twin City Scenic Co. and the American Theatre Supply Co. submitted theatre models displaying painted scenery and drapery to the Sioux Falls City Commission during the spring of 1931.
The “Argus-Leader” reported “Stage Equipment Studied By City; Contract is Let” (Sioux Falls, 30 March 1931, page 10). I am posting the article in its entirety as it provides a wealth of information about the scenic studio bidding process at this time. This is one example of vendors educating clients during a bidding process, so that the clients understand what they are buying.
“The city commission this morning received an intensive course of training in stage equipping, stage setting and stage building, when representatives of the Twin City Scenic Co., Minneapolis; Universal Scenic Studios, Milwaukee and American Theatre Supply Co., Sioux Falls, set up miniature stages fully equipped, explained grand boarders, tormentors, teasers, oleos, work curtains, sheaves, lines, trims, counterweights and the like. For nearly two hours, Mayor Burnside’s office was changed into a scenic studio while representatives of the companies bidding on the equipment of the coliseum stage showed and explained their wears. The contract for equipping the stage was awarded to the Universal Scenic Studios on its bid of $3,690. The Minneapolis company bid $4,567.50 and the Sioux Falls company $3,975. Velours, asbestos, canvas and equipment for stages were explained to the commission in rapid fire order by each representative in turn. When the course of study was over, the city commission could at least tell the difference between a wood wing and an oleo and a work curtain and a sheave. The mayor’s private office at times took the look of an art studio ready for an exhibition as case after case of scenes for curtains were displayed. Again it looked as though it might be a salon of a modiste, as the many types of material were draped in their many colors about the office. The miniature theatre, with their full equipment, even to lights, would have delighted the heart of almost any child, or adult for that matter, and held the attention of the commissioners. The exhibitions were a distinct diversion from the regular routine duties of the commission, and the noon-day whistles were all which cut short the training courses. The meeting was adjourned until 2 o’clock this afternoon when the contract was let.”
To be continued…
In 1910 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “On May 8th I caught the 20th Century for New York. Arrived next morning at 10 – big night. Had two models finished. Next noon the whole show was schemed out, estimate made, check for payment received and I was on my way home. The third day after my return, work was well under way for the show called “Girlies,” a summer show for the New Amsterdam.”
“Girlies” was Frederick Thompson’s first musical play, a two-act comedy. Moses and Thompson were well acquainted, after working on several projects together at Luna Park when he lived in New York from 1900-1904. From Thompson and Dundy’s “Trip to the Moon” to “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” Moses & Hamilton delivered a variety of attractions to Luna Park when it first opened.
In regard to Moses’ travel, the 20th Century Limited was an express passenger train that traveled between Grand Central Terminal in New York City and LaSalle Street Station in Chicago, Illinois. In service from 1902 until 1967, it was advertised as “the most famous train in the world.” Its passengers were mainly upper class and business travelers, such as Moses, with the train including a barbershop and secretarial services, comfortable accommodations and fine food. It first ran on June 17, 1902, completing a trip from New York to Chicago in only twenty hours at 70 miles an hour, a full four hours faster than previous trains. The 20th Century Limited only making a few stops along the way, using track pans to take water at speed. Here is a YouTube video on the 20th Century Limited: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOzVdzte8gY
The 20th Century train helped connect the theatrical communities in New York and Chicago, making quick turnaround project like “Girlie” possible. Sosman & Landis were able to directly compete with New York scenic studios, later establishing their own eastern affiliate in 1910 -New York Studios. The 20th Century limited helped facilitate the constant swapping of Sosman & Landis artists between Chicago and New York.
“Girlies” was written George Hobart and Van Alstyne, with dances and ensembles by Jack Mason. The scenes were set at a co-educational college, called Hightonia, situated near ‘High Hill, Highland Country, U.S.A.” The New York Tribune described the plot: “Professor Spell wants to marry Marion See, director of deportment (Carrie E. Perkins). He fails to inspire her love because she wants to marry a hero. Spell gets a hint from the students, and he decides that the best way for him to become a hero is to dress himself in the suit of newspapers and start out on a two days’ journey, with no money in his pocket, and try to earn enough in forty-eight hours – without begging or borrowing – to clothe himself from head to foot. With the aid of his dog Blitzen (David Abrahams) and after innumerable amusing experiences, he finally returns an hour before the expiration of the time limit dressed in a complete suit of clothes. In spite of the interference of a woman detective (Maude Raymond), who tries to settle upon him the responsibility for a certain petty thieveries that have been occurring in the dormitories, he wins the hand of his ladylove” (14 June 1910. Page 7). The article continued, “The play was staged with elaborate attention to detail. Seldom have so many pretty girls been seen in a chorus. Their freshness and youth were delightful and the crispness and tasting coloring of their frocks were alluring.”
It was advertised as “Bright and lively, with clever specialty people to load the fun” and “Pretty Dancing Numbers with bevies of remarkably pretty girls in charming costumes and novel evolutions” (New York Times, 14 June 1910, page 11).
Only a few weeks after contracting the play on May 8th, Moses wrote, “On my way back to New York, May 27th, with the show, on my arrival I found Thompson wanted several new scenes. I had to farm some of them out and I used the paint frame at the Amsterdam for two drops. I had to stay in New York for three weeks. In the meantime I made a model for a new show at Luna Park, and got Dodge and Castle to paint it.” Good thing Moses had connections in New York! The quick turn around for painted scenery never ceases to amaze me during this time.
Once the show opened, “Girlies” was advertised as “a delightful form of summer amusement, free from vulgarity and full of pretty spectacles, good humor, graceful dancing and tuneful music” (New-York Tribune, 3 July 1910, page 52).
On July 14, 1910, the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” reported:
“A Roof Garden Downstairs.
Thompson’s ‘Girlies’ at the New Amsterdam will go up higher.
‘First impressions count for a great deal,’ continually repeated that exceptionally little clever little woman, Maude Raymond, in the opening production of ‘Girlies,’ at the New Amsterdam Theatre in Manhattan, last night, but it is to be hoped for the good of the piece that the first impressions of ‘Girlies’ will not be the final one. It was Frederic Thompson’s opening venture in the field of musical shows and evidently believing that a success is secured by giving the public the old, old story, the manager presented an entertainment that was without a single but of novelty.
‘The tired business man’ need not be afraid of ‘Girlies.’ It will not worry his brain a bit. It is the same old plotless piece with the same old tunes and the same old business. Interlarded in ‘Girlies’ are numerous ‘specialty,’ and these alone saved the show. The burlesques and the vaudeville turns in the second half are clever and should be acceptable in any old kind of weather, W. Browners, F. Walker and A. Crooker as three ‘Rube’ gymnasts, were the best of what, in burlesque houses, would have been called the ‘olio.’
“Maude Raymond worked hard in the hopelessly impossible part of Gloriana Gray. As usual she succeeded in winning the audience by her singing, and her song, ‘That’s good,’ was very good indeed. A burlesque of Mrs. Fay, that came later in the piece, showed that Miss Raymond also is an excellent mimic. Joseph Cawthorne, co-star with Miss Raymond, went through the full category of a German comedian’s tricks. The hit of the evening was made, however, by Doris Mitchell, in her burlesque of ‘Madam X.’
“When warm weather comes ‘Girlies’ will move to the New Amsterdam roof. Properly trimmed it should last; through the summer in its aerial home. Last night, it was almost midnight before the hard working chorus sang the medley finale. The chorus was made up of sixty” (page 21).
To be continued…
The following is the third in a series of posts pertaining to the article “The Art and Mystery of Scene Painting,” published in “Britain at Work. A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries” by W. Wheeler, during 1902. Here is the final of three posts:
“When a manager, sometimes with help from the author, has roughly indicated the kind of scene he requires, the scene- painter makes a sketch, and if that is approved he proceeds to construct of cardboard a complete model, on a scale, say, of half an inch to the foot. It is here that the resourcefulness and inventiveness of the scene-painter are able to make themselves felt. The model shows every thing, down to the smallest detail — not only the landscape, but door and windows, those which have to open in the actual scene being made ” practicable ” in the model.
“Wings “and “top-cloths” [borders] are also shown, and even the pulley and ropes which will be used in the adjustment of the scene are indicated. This part of the work, as may be supposed, calls for abundant patience, but its importance is manifest, and no scene-painter begrudges the time he has to spend upon his model, even when he knows that he will have to toil early and late to get the work finished by the stipulated time.
The model, when at last it is completed, is submitted to the manager’s consideration. It may be that he or the author desires some alteration, generally an in considerable one. When the modification has been made, the model is handed over to the master carpenter, who constructs the framework which is to receive the canvas. Having been affixed to the frame, the canvas is prepared by the painter’s labourers, whose business also it is to mix the colours. These are ground in water, by means of such a machine as is figured in one of our illustrations. Now the artist draws the design in chalk or char coal, and then the colours are filled in, always, as I have said, with due regard to the artificial conditions under which the picture has to be viewed, certain colours, therefore, which appear very differently in artificial light as compared with natural light, being avoided al together, or modified, as the case may be.
That scene-painting, like most other modes of earning one’s daily bread, is not without drawbacks, I am not prepared to assert. Strange indeed would it be if this were not so. The work, as the reader will know for himself, has a plentiful lack of regularity, and while both master painters and assistants often have to toil under heavy pressure to get their scenes ready by the eventful night, the assistants, at any rate, sometimes have periods of enforced leisure.
The attractions of the vocation, however, to those to whom the work itself is congenial, far outweigh this disadvantage. If the practitioner of the art is clever and resourceful, if he can not only wield the brush swiftly and deftly, but is also facile in inventing a scene from the manager’s brief hints, which is a much rarer gift, he in no long time may rise to distinction, besides being liberally rewarded in a pecuniary sense for his industry and skill”.
To be continued…
Part 533: George Cohan’s “45 Minutes from Broadway”
In 1905 Thomas G. Moses designed and created the models for George M. Cohan’s new show “45 Minutes from Broadway.”
Abraham Erlanger had just lured Fay Templeton away from Weber & Fields, convincing her to sign a contract with the Theatrical Syndicate. Erlanger approached Cohen to create a play for his new star. This was to be a vehicle for Templeton that would possibly boost her career into stardom. Temple played the role Mary Jenkins for two seasons before leaving the stage to marry William J. Patterson, a Pittsburg Millionaire. “45 Minutes from Broadway” also starred “Kid” Burns as Victor Moore, Donald Brian as Tom Bennett, Julia Ralph as Mrs. David Dean, and James H. Manning as Daniel Krohman. Cohan created a show with only eight chorus girls, a new concept that concerned Erlanger in the beginning.
According to railroad timetables, New Rochelle, New York, is 45 minutes from Broadway. The plot began with Tom Bennett’s arrival to New Rochelle after the death of his millionaire Uncle Castleton, who presumably did not leave a will. Bennett’s wisecracking secretary, “Kid” Burns, accompanies him to New Rochelle, “Kid” is a retired prize-fighter. Bennett’s fiancée, Floradora Dean, follows him to New Rochelle with her mother, Mrs. David Dean.
“Kid” Burns discovers that Bennett’s uncle left all of his possessions to Mary Jenkins, the favorite servant of the millionaire. Jenkins, engaged to be married to Dan Cornin, is the most popular servant girl in New Rochelle. Cornin is a promoter of bucket shops; his business thrives in the first two acts. By the way, in a bucket shop “trades” were carried out instantly according to the prices listed on the board; the prices came from Wall Street by telephone or tickertape.
A scandal arises at the announcement of Jenkins and Cornin’s engagement; the girl is accused of being in league with Cornin, who it is soon discovered, has robbed the girl’s employer by selling him bogus shares in the Montana Copper Mine.
This information is only discovered at the death of Cornelious Castleton, for whom Mary has been working for thirteen years. Upon the arrival of the heir, Thomas Bennett, Jenkins is asked to leave town. She is upheld, however, by the citizens and asked to stay until proven innocent. The arrival upon the scene of young Bennett’s fiancée starts another scandal. Bennett’s fiancée is retiring from a musical comedy chorus to become the wife of the millionaire. It is only through the diplomacy of Mary Jenkins that the actress is accepted by the so-called New Rochelle society. Through methods that he employs, he accidentally discovers that Mrs. Dean is an old friend of Cornin. Finally he drives the woman and her daughter back to Broadway. He asks Mary to marry him, and having spent 24 hours in New Rochelle, starts back to New York, declaring that “the little town is 45 Minutes from Broadway isn’t any more civilized than Providence, R.I.”
“Kid” Burns goes to his employer and implores him not to marry the actress, whom he knows is one of the mercenary maidens. Meanwhile, Mrs. Dean plots to have both Jenkins and Burns discharges from Bennett’s employ. Enter, Daniel Krohman, the unscrupulous stock broker and con man who swindled the millionaire uncle with phony mine stocks. Krohman also knows Mrs. Dean and threatens to reveal her true identity unless she divulges the combination to Bennett’s safe. Although she concedes, Krohman is caught red-handed with attempting to steal back the phony bonds in New York. As the police close in, Mrs. Dean and Floradora flee to the city. Burns confesses to Jenkins that he is in love with her, but is unable to marry such a wealthy woman, handing her the millionaire’s will to which she is the recipient. Determined to make her own fate and happiness, she rips up the will.
The show went on to become the largest grossing musical since the “Black Crook” in 1866. During the show’s first eight weeks, it grossed $104,851.50 (The Scranton Republican, 24 Dec. 1905, page 6). Side note: For the “Black Crook,” it was Moses’ colleague and friend, David Austin Strong who was one of the original scenic artists for the 1866 “Black Crook” at Niblo’s Garden. In 1905 Moses and Strong were still working together at Sosman & Landis’ studio. Both the “Black Crook” and “45 Minutes from Broadway” had spectacular scenic effects. For the third act in “45 Minutes from Broadway,” Moses designed a life-size replica of a train car pulling out of the station.
After an exceptional run in Chicago during the fall of 1905 at the Colonial Theatre, the production opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre on January 1906 where it played a limited 90 performances before returning to Chicago for several months. Ad’s in Chicago included, “Yes, sweetheart, I’ve seen it a dozen times and, like old wine, it gets better as it lives on” (Chicago Tribune 19, November 1905, page 70. By November 5, 1906, “45 Minutes from Broadway” returned to Broadway at the New York Theater on November 5, 1906 for another 32 performances.
To be continued…
Part 519: Palette & Chisel, October 1927 – The Design Process
Thomas G. Moses was a member of the Palette and Chisel Club in Chicago and contributed a variety of articles to their monthly newsletter during the late 1920s. His series for “Stage Scenery” started during September 1927
Here is the second part of Moses’ October installment to the Palette and Chisel newsletter during 1927:
“The artist makes a ground plan of the scene, scaled to one-half inch to the foot. The stage director approves of it, the model is made and every detail is worked out in the model. The recessed window calls for glass or the equivalent; a thin piece of mica or celluloid is glued on the model over the opening cut in the cardboard, the sash lines are drawn with heavy ink, and small bits of heraldry or stained glass are introduced. All the doors have the small thickness jambs, the floor is drawn in imitation of inlaid woods, the whole model is carefully colored and when completed is submitted to the stage director who, in turn, submits it to the playwright and the producing manager. If any minor changes are necessary they are made. When the model is O.K. it is turned over to the stage machinist and an estimate is made to build and prepare the scene for the artist who makes an estimate to paint the scene, which includes the cost of the model.
When the scene is ready for the artist it is placed on his frame. When painted, the machinist puts on the finishing hardware and lines. It is now ready to be moved to the theatre to be produced or rehearsed. The artist and stage machinist superintend the setting and lighting for the first time. It is then turned over to the stage director, and here is where the real hard part of the production comes. After many nights of labor on the scene, as well as long days in preparing the models and painting the scene, completely fatigued and ready for a good nights sleep, he must attend the rehearsal, supposed to be a scenic rehearsal. It is anything but that. The chances are that a umber of artists are interested as there are three or more acts and often a number of scenes to each act, each scene probably painted by a different artist; so each must wait until his act or scene is called. Lucky the fellow who has the first act for he is apt to get away before 10:00 P.M. The one with the forth act will probably get away about 3:00 A.M. for the director will probably go over an act several times before pronouncing it perfect. If this happens in the third act the artist of the fourth act is alone in his long waiting. After he is through and on his way back to New York City he will probably be almost unable to keep awake.
Most of the new productions of New York City are tried out for a week or so over in New Jersey, at Jersey City, Newark, Trenton, Plainfeild or Elizabeth; they all have to stand for it, for that is about the only time they get any of the Broadway production, and the show soon hears from them. If it happens to be poor and the weak points are strengthened and rehearsed every day until they are in good shape for New York critics. The scenic decorations are supposed to be perfect; in fact, they must be perfect.
The scenic artist should know all branches of scenic art and not specialize too much. While it is almost impossible to be perfect in all branches, he should have a good knowledge of landscape, architecture, figures, free hand scroll, marines and drapery; in fact, about everything under the sun. While it is necessary for an artist to be absolutely correct in many details he very often has to gloss over a great many important points which are not noticeable to the public.
Within the past few years many of the stage interiors have solid wood wainscoting, six or seven feet high, very heavy door casing and thick jambs. These solid and realistic interiors are all right but even the relief ornaments and mouldings often have to be high lighted and the shadows made strong. The walls are usually made of some real fabric. So on these scenes there is very little work for the artist. Even in the exteriors the modern, up-to-date idea is to have a lot of artificial flowers and shrubs among the painted pieces.”
To be continued…
Part 486: Ringling Brothers’ “King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba”
I now understand why people ran away to join the circus during the early twentieth century. If I were born a century ago, the circus would have been too tempting to resist as it passed through my hometown; it offered escape from a mundane existence. In 1914, the “Indianapolis Star” reported, “Nero has watched his Rome burn to a cinder beneath a circus tent. Pompeii has fallen to ruins in the scattered sawdust of the ring and Cleopatara has taken her last look at Egypt before the clown’s entry. And now the wise King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba have been made the hero and heroine of the circus spectacle, surrounded with all the gorgeous pageantry and lavish costumes a showman can devise” (4 May 1914, page 3).
That same year, Thomas G. Moses was still designing scenery for the Ringling Brothers’ Grand Spectacular productions, also advertised as “great wordless plays” (The Evening News, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 16 May 1914, page 9). Moses designed and led the scenery production at the Sosman & Landis studios. The completed settings were then delivered to Baraboo, Wisconsin, as the production was prepared at the circus’ winter quarters.
In 1914, Moses wrote, “Jan. 6th, went to Baraboo, Wisconsin, to see the Ringling’s for the new spectacle, “King Solomon.” Another big show. Made a model for one scene and got $2,900.00.” Of the final production, Moses observed, “Ringlings’ work came out very good. Everyone was pleased and that is saying a good deal.” Moses was referring to the 1914 Ringling production “Solomon and the Queen of Sheba” that toured throughout the United States.
Of the circus with Moses’ scenery, the “Star Gazette” reported:
“Nearly half of the entire train section is used to transport the scenery and costumes used in the massive spectacle, “Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.” The spectacle includes a cast of more than 1,250 characters and a ballet of 300 dancing girls under the personal direction of Ottokar Bartik, balletmaster of the Metorpolitan Opera House, New York, and late of La Scala, Milan. The music for this spectacle has been written by Faltis Effendi, formerly bandmaster of Khedive of Egypt, and is rendered by an orchestra of 90 musicians, 400 trained singers and a chorus of 1,000 voices accompanied by a cathedral pipe organ, costing $100,000. The Ringling Brothers’ have expended $1,000,000 in the production of this mammoth spectacle which faithfully and accurately portrays the pomp and ceremony, life and wisdom of a period a thousand years before Christ, and introduces Solomon in all his glory and Balkis, Queen of Sheba, the most interesting woman of her day” (Elmira, NY, 21 May 1914, page 3). The US Inflation Calculator measures the buying power of $1,000,000 in 1914 to be the equivalent of $25,200,600.00 in 2018. Fifty men were needed to handle scenery and special effects (Dayton Daily News, 26 April 1914, page 31).
When the circus arrived in Elmira, New York, the “Star Gazette” included a large article about the early morning arrival and events, advertising:
“The big circus is almost here. Tomorrow morning in the small hours just before dawn, four long red and yellow trains, made up of 86 cars will roll quietly into Elmira coming from Binghamton, over Lackawanna railroad. They will be unloaded immediately and within a few hours the big aggregations of world wonders which comprises Ringling Brothers’ ‘world’s greatest shows’ will be safely sheltered under twenty acres of white canvas on the show grounds.”
The circus included an elaborate parade that traversed the principal streets of each town on the morning of their arrival. The “Star Gazette” announced, “The cavalcade which, it is promised, will be the longest and most gorgeous display ever seen in the streets of this city, will start from the show grounds promptly at 10 o’clock. It will be more than three miles in length and will include all the performers and animals, in addition to the long procession of handsome tableau wagons and allegorical cars, filled with pretty dancing girls in gay costumes. Six bands and two calliopes will furnish the music for the cavalcade and the fifty famous Ringling clowns will be on hand to keep the sidewalk spectators in good humor. A striking feature of the procession will be the long line of elephants, forty in all, and a team of sixteen camels, broken to bit and harness driven the same as horses. These beasts draw a huge parade wagon and this is the first instance on record where the ‘ship of the desert’ has ever been successfully broken to harness and bit.”
The “twenty-four hour man” arrived a day ahead of the circus to set up the infrastructure needed to feed an enormous amount of people and animals. Other circus staff that arrived a day early included “a number of stage and electrical experts who precede the show to make arrangements for the staging and lighting of the big spectacle “Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.” It is important to remember that the King Solomon spectacle was just one of the principal features for the Ringling Brothers’ program that season; it was not the whole show. This makes theatrical touring shows, such as “Ben-Hur,” seem like child’s play when compared with the logistics of a touring circus with thousands of moving parts.
The first train to arrive was the commissary department and the first tent to be pitched on the show grounds was the “cook house.” The second and third trains pulled the heavy red wagons, loaded with canvases, properties, the elephants, the 730 horses and the other animals. On the last train, composed entirely of sleeping cars, arrived all of the performers and ancillary staff members for the show.
“King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba” was presented in a series of dramatic pantomimic pictures staged with “all the lavish splendor and opulence that marked the period when the wise Solomon ruled the Kingdom of Israel, the action of the spectacle is laid in Jerusalem, at the time of the historical visit of Balkis, Queen of Sheba.” The Star Gazette continued, “The spectacle is presented on an enormous, specially constructed stage, which occupies nearly one entire side of the main tent. The tent measures 560 by 320 feet and seats 14,000 people at a performance.” Remember that two shows were given daily; one at 2pm and one at 8PM, and the doors opened an hour before show time, allowing spectators to visit the 108 cages in the Ringling zoo and purchase candy and souvenirs!
The Star Gazette concluded, “Despite the enormous cost of the spectacle, no expense has been spared to make the arena program the most thrilling and novel entertainment that has ever been presented. In the three big rings and two stages more than 400 performers will appear in a series of new and sensational, riding acrobatic and aerial acts, nearly all of which have never before been witnessed in America. Such famous foreign performers as Charles Augustus Clark, England’s foremost bareback rider; the Mirano brothers, wonderful perch artists; the Balkani troupe of the Far East equestrians; the famous four Lloyds, daring Indian riders; Mijares, the Mexican wire wizard, and the world famous Clarkonians, who turn triple somersaults in mid-air and are a few of the host of performers who will furnish the spectators with an abundance of thrills.”
The Queen of Sheba was played by Mme. Bartik, a Russian actress and a pupil of M. Pierre Devereau, the French teacher of pantomimic art.
Who wouldn’t get caught up in this excitement and plan their escape from the doldrums of everyday life? But this was just the 1914 show. Another would be planned for 1915. By the end of 1914 Moses wrote, “Took a trip to Rockford to see Ringling’s about more work for the next season.”
To be continued…