In addition to writing my daily blog, I have a published a few article this spring. One is “Brown’s Special System for Scottish Rite Theaters in North America” for Die Vierte Wand #009. Past articles for this journal also appear in issues #007 and #008. Die Vierte Wand is a wonderful publication by Stefan Graebner, Director of the Initiative Theatre Museum in Berlin. with articles in German and English.
Last summer, William D. Moore invited me to be the guest speaker at fifth annual American Fraternalism event at Boston University during spring 2019. Will is the Director of the American & New England Studies Program and an Associate Professor of Material Culture. Two of his past publications include “Masonic Temples: Freemasonry, Ritual Architecture, and Masculine Archetypes” (University of Tennessee Press, 2006) and “Secret Societies in America: Foundational Studies of Fraternalism,” co-authored with Mark Tabbert (Cornerstone Book Publishers, 2011). Will had been following my blog for some time, purchased “The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple: Freemasonry, Architecture and Theatre” book, and was intrigued with my current research posted to my blog.
Wendy Waszut-Barrett and William D. Moore after the 2019 American Fraternalism event at Boston University.
Several incidents shaped my topic, “A Masonic Legacy: Bestor G. Brown and Brown’s Special system,” and other articles that I was working on at the time.
Poster for the fifth American Fraternalism event at Boston University, 2019
Between November 2018 and February 2019, I wrote three articles: “Setting the Stage” (Theatre Historical Society of America’s fourth quarter issue of “Marquee”); “Brown’s Special System for Scottish Rite Theaters in North America” (TheatreInitiative Museum Berlin’s “Die Vierte Wand 009); and “Brown’s Special System: A Masonic Legacy,” (Scottish Rite Research Society’s spring newsletter “The Plumbline).” At the same time, I was still writing my blog and starting to make contact with the Valley of Portland in regard to Brown’s special system; they have the earliest example as originally installed in 1903, being manufactured in 1902. Then toss in work projects, conferences, family, the holidays, and other obligations; busy time at our house.
In regard to Boston, I was most excited to see Will. We first met during the planning stage for Lance Brockman’s touring museum exhibit, “Theatre of the Fraternity: Staging the Ritual Space of Freemasonry, 1896-1929.” The last time I saw Will and his wife was the Weisman Museum in 1996 when the exhibit opened. By the way, Lance’s catalogue still is available for sale on Amazon, here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/Theatre-Fraternity-Scottish-Freemasonry-1896-1929/dp/0878059474
I arrived in Boston on Tuesday, April 9, and spent a lovely afternoon chatting with Will about numerous fraternal subjects. We continued the conversation over dinner, adding his wife Charlotte to the mix. What a delightful arrival and evening spent with two extremely fun people. My presentation was not until 7:30PM the next day, so I was able to spend some time relaxing and writing in Brookline, New York. I am currently working on my next book about Sosman & Landis studio, so I treasure anytime that is devoid of distractions. Before my presentation, there was a group of us that went out to dinner, including friend and colleague Diane Fargo who teaches scene painting at BU; she is a remarkable artist in her own right.
Wendy Waszut-Barrett presenting at the fifth annual American Fraternalism event at Boston University
My presentation went extremely well, lasting 45 minutes with a 15-minute Q&A that followed. In attendance BU staff and students, as well as visiting Masons from Boston University Lodge, Harvard Lodge, the Lodge of St. Andrew and the Boston Scottish Rite. That evening, I was invited to tour the Scottish Rite stage before I left town the next day. On April 12, I visited the Boston Scottish Rite and the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. I knew that there would very little scenery, as the hemp system was replaced and an LED wall added to the mix. I was very curious to see how well new technology replaced historic scenery.
The Boston Scottish Rite auditoriumThe Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and the Boston Scottish Rite are in the same building.
Part 634: Revisiting Brown’s Special System with William Knox Brown
Scenic studios went far beyond painting drops. Scenic artists, stage carpenters, and stage mechanics were visionaries; those who combined painted illusion, lighting innovations, and new stage technology on a daily basis. They were at the forefront of technological innovation, integrating old trades and new technology, often registering their designs with the patent office.
In 1909, Brown’s Special System system was the Sosman & Landis’ “standard” when installing scenery and stage machinery in Scottish Rite theaters. For the past two days, I have examined possible candidates who may have been involved in the conception phase, design, and installation of Brown’s special system during the first decade of the twentieth century. I am now compelled to look at a few close connections in the Midwest – other stage carpenters, stage mechanics and scenic artists who may have been involved with this new counterweight system. I realize that it will be impossible to pinpoint, but that contributes to the enjoyment during this particular quest.
During the 1890s, scenic studio employees drifted from one studio to another. It was an intricate network propelled by an ever-increasing demand for scenic illusion and stage effects. In fact, it greatly benefitted studio owners to not only know their competition, but also maintain close ties to their competitors; they may need to draw upon another’s labor pool if a large project came along. During this period massive projects would appear, requiring a legion of theatrical suppliers and manufacturers to complete the projects on time. Projects requiring complicated stage machinery and painted illusion ranged from huge outdoor pyrotechnic events and grand circus spectacles to word fair amusements and electrical parades. There was a shared material culture between the general public and multiple entertainment industries.
Minnesota’s Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) were a short railway ride away from Chicago, the central shipping hub. Sosman & Landis completed many projects in Minnesota and the degrees of separation in the theater world were far less than the presently allotted six. It would be an anomaly to think that the movers and shakers of the theater world in Chicago were not in constant contact with those in the Twin Cities. There is one well-known stage mechanic and stage carpenter, William Knox Brown, who traversed the country throughout the late-nineteenth century. In 1888, the “Saint Paul Globe” reported, “W. K. Brown of New York, the stage carpenter, deserves credit for the clever mechanical effects to be seen at the People’s [Theatre]. He is enthusiastic, a skilled mechanic and an artist in his line” (Saint Paul Globe, 19 Feb 1888, page 10).
William Knox Brown, the stage mechanic, pictured in the “St. Paul Globe,” 19 Feb 1888, page 10
William Knox Brown engineered brilliant stage effects, and was a well-known stage carpenter and stage mechanic who traversed the country. Brown was an up and coming inventor during the late nineteenth century.
An article written by Geo. W. Welty, titled, “Experts Behind the Scenes,” included a brief synopsis of Brown’s career as a stage carpenter (The Star Tribune, 13 January 1901). The article noted that Brown was a “mechanic of experience” and “one of the best stage carpenters in the country” with a “thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the art of stage mechanism.” It then went on to describe his experience since first arriving in Minneapolis as a stage carpenter in 1882. Beginning in 1883, he was employed at the Grand Opera House in St. Paul. By 1887, he was connected with the People’s Theatre when it opened. He then took charge of the stage in Burd’s Opera house, in Davenport Iowa. From Iowa, he moved to the Harris theatre in Louisville, Kentucky,and by 1890 was connected with the Henrietta theater in Columbus Ohio.
By 1901, Brown had acquired the reputation for being one of the best stage carpenters in the country, being called “a mechanic of excellence” (Star Tribune, 13 Jan 1901, page 27).
Brown was also credited with “that rare quality of being able to control men without trouble, and while a strict tactician, he is yet extremely popular with all his employees.” These qualities landed Brown a position as master mechanic with the Hanlon Bros. spectacle “Superba.” Brown not only directed the staging of the production on tour, but also was engaged to direct the building, repairing and testing of new effects and “featured stage mechanisms” at their private stage and workshop in Cohasset, Massachusetts. The Star Tribune reported, “Mr. Brown, during his years of travel, with his splendid powers of grasping facts, has been able to acquire a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of the art of stage mechanism. This knowledge he has put to good use at the Bijou, for the stage of that theater today is conceded to be one of the most complete in the country; traveling managers sending many compliments for the excellent manner in which it is conducted” (Star Tribune, 13 Jan 1901, page 27).
William Knox Brown, the stage mechanic, pictured in the “Star Tribune,” (Minneapolis, MN) 13 Jan 1901, page 27
In 1894, the Hanlon Brothers lost $100,000 worth of “Superba” scenery during a fire at the “Globe” in Boston. It was the third time that the Company had been “burned out,” in other words losing their scenery, to fire in eighteen months (Chicago Tribune, 2 Jan 1894, page 1). If I were the stage mechanic, this may be my sign to leave the touring world and start my own studio. That year, Brown returned to Minneapolis to take charge of the Metropolitan stage in 1894 when it was opened by W. F. Sterling. Consider that there is a “Brown” who is testing new stage effects, developing machinery, and applying his know-how to the theater that he is working at by 1894. At this same time the Brown special system is likely in the early stages of conception.
By 1895, William Knox Brown enters a partnership with Theodore Hays and William P. Davis, starting the Twin City Scenic Studio. The three initially work out of the Bijou Opera House in Minneapolis and later construct their own studio on Nicollet Avenue in Minneapolis. Each partner had a specific role: Theodore Hays was the business manager, Brown was in charge of the stage mechanics, and Davis, who had previously worked at the Chicago Auditorium, led the painting.
By 1904, however, Brown is heralded for a new invention that pertains to rigging. (Star Tribune, 7 Jan 1904, page 7). The fire at the Iroquois theater prompted many cities and theater managers to contemplate fire safety in their theaters. The “Star and Tribune” quoted then manager of the Bijou Theodore L. Hays. Hays stated, “The Chicago catastrophe has emphasized the importance of asbestos curtains and the Girard Avenue theatre fire in Philadelphia, where an asbestos curtain was lowered in proper time, demonstrated their worth by keeping the fire from the auditorium proper fully fifteen minutes, ample time for any audience to be dismissed, evening in a panic… Appreciating the necessity of its quick operation in an emergency, W. K. Brown our stage carpenter, has already perfected and put in practical operation an arrangement which permits the lowering or raising of the asbestos curtain from either side of the main stage floor, as well as from the fly gallery.” Later Hays added, “We want safety and not ingenious inventions that nobody understands but the inventor. Safety in this matter lies in the things that ones fingers out of habit would operate automatically no matter how excited the brain might be.”
I re-read this section several times seeing what I had known all along to be the whole point of Brown’s special system. It was easily operated and relatively safe; no locks, sand bags or belaying pins. Whoever pulled the line was in complete control of the speed, it could go as fast, or slow, as needed. Whoever designed the counterweight system that is still used by many Masonic stage hands every year realized that “Safety in this matter lies in the things that one’s fingers out of habit would operate automatically no matter how excited the brain might be.”
Think of the cowboys and bankers waiting off stage before a scene change at a Scottish Rite Reunion – first-time stagehands. Their brains were excited, but all they had to do was pull a rope.
The earliest functioning example of Brown’s special system still n the original venue is located in Duluth, Minnesota. The Sosman & Landis installation of the system is dated 1904. In 1905, the “Minneapolis Journal,” advertised, “general stage apparatus and appliances designed, manufactured and modeled by the Twin City Scenic Studio, leading scenic contractors of the northwest” (Minneapolis Journal, 25 Feb 1905, page 18). Brown was listed as the stage mechanic for the company in the ad. That meant W. K. Brown was designing special stage stage apparatus. At the time, stage apparatus was the word designating rigging systems. So W. K. Brown was designing special systems for the stage, like Brown’s special system.
Advertisement for the Twin City Scenic Studio from the “Minneapolis Journal,” 25 Feb 1905, page 18
The Valley of Austin was just down the street from the Harry Ransom Center on West 18th. Eric Colleary had kindly provided a preliminary email introduction to the woman that ran the Scottish Rite theater. This was another situation where a community theatre group had primary access and control of the stage and not the Masons. Taking a break from the reading room, we walked over to the Scottish Rite to meet the women who were the theater’s new caretakers. I intended it as a short trip for an in-person meeting, hoping one day to come back and evaluate the scenery collection in its entirety.
I knew that most of the Austin Scottish Rite scenery had been purchased second-hand through the M. C. Lilley Company from Lance Brockman’s research, but not much more. Mitchell C. Lilley (1819-1882) founded the M.C. Lilley Company in Columbus, Ohio during 1865. Originally starting as bookbinder and publisher, his company expanded to include regalia and paraphernalia for both military and fraternal organizations, as well as stages for fraternal theaters. For the many Scottish Rite Valleys in the Southern Jurisdiction, it was M.C. Lilley who contracted the entire project and then subcontracted individual portions of the project to various manufacturers and suppliers.
The Austin Scottish Rite scenery was purchased second hand through M. C. Lilley in 1913. It was originally manufactured by Sosman & Landis for Guthrie, Oklahoma in 1900. At the time of the scenery’s creation, David Austin Strong (1830-1911) still supervised Masonic scenery production in the shop; Moses had again left the studio and was freelancing in New York at this time. In his typed manuscript, Moses credited Strong as the “Daddy” of all Masonic design. I had always wondered about this statement as I had traced the origins of Scottish Rite scenery elsewhere in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, believing that Moses was solely referring to Strong’s influence on Masonic scenery at the Sosman & Landis studio, and their individual designs for the Scottish Rite.
Strong was a prolific artist in his own right, having flourished in New York as a scene painter before moving to Chicago. Among many impressive accomplishments, he is credited as one of the original artists for the 1866 productions of the “Black Crook” and “Rip Van Winkle.” His story is a tale that desperately needs to be told too.
Of the total 67 drops installed at the Austin Scottish Rite in 1913, 53 included the original charcoal markings designating their origin for Guthrie and measuring 15’ high by 30’ wide. This scenery was replaced when stage was enlarged in 1910, necessitating new scenery that measured 19’ high by 38’ wide. M.C. Lilley offered the the Guthrie Scottish Rite $1400 credit toward their new scenery purchase, intending to quickly resell the collection to another Scottish Rite Valley. This 1910 Guthrie scenery collection then was later transferred to their current building in 1923.
Records from Guthrie suggested that the original scenery collection had been purchased by Fort Scott, Kansas – a fact that shocked me when I stumbled across it. I now believe that the original Guthrie collection was split up immediately upon its return to M.C. Lilley; a few of the old drops were sent to Fort Scott to expand their 1904 collection and the rest remained in storage.
My discovery of the two scenes in Fort Scott that were much older than the remainder of the 1924 collection supports this theory. Furthermore, a 1912 letter to the Valley of Austin from Bestor G. Brown, then manager of the Western Offices for M.C. Lilley, discussed the division of the original Guthrie installation; noting that all of the original scenery would not be installed at the Austin Scottish Rite. Brown mentions that there were several drops and scenic pieces that would be of no use to the Austin Bodies.
As an M.C. Lilley representative, Brown negotiated with the Valley of Austin for the sale, arrangement, and installation of the Guthrie collection in their “new” theatre; they purchased an existing building. A scene plat was mailed to the Austin Scottish Rite for use when determining the final arrangement of scenes. Brown wrote, “The arrangement of drops is one of the most difficult things.” I know this intimately, as I designed how the Fort Scott scenery could fit into the new rigging system for the Minnesota Masonic Heritage Center. There is a rhythm that you must follow to ensure an effective stage picture that will accommodate scenic illusions.
In 1912, Brown explained that they would arrange the used scenery so that it would be “properly adapted to the different Degrees and the sequence of Degrees.” However, he noted that even after careful preparation, some modifications would still occur after all of the scenery was hanging. Interestingly, all of the negotiations with Austin were delayed due to another M.C. Lilley project – the Santa Fe Scottish Rite.
As Brown later explained M.C. Lilley had only one employee who specialized in Scottish Rite scenery installation. I believe that this individual was possibly the stage machinist, Charles S. King, a Sosman & Landis employee. Little is known of King beyond a few newspaper articles identified furing the extensive research conducted by Rick Boychuk regarding the history of counterweight rigging.
Brown notes that the one who would be “superintending the installation” for the Austin project was currently occupied in Santa Fe at the Scottish Rite, installing an entirely new stage there, necessitating that he remain on site for approximately three weeks. Shortly after his correspondence, this superintendent and installation expert died from an accident. Brown explained that their deceased employee was the “only one thoroughly familiar with the special method of installing Scottish Rite scenery.” This special method was referred to as “Brown’s special system.” Then he continued, “We do not mean that it is impossible to follow the same methods as heretofore, but it will take a longer time to do it because of a lack of familiarity with the work.”
On January 23, 1913, Brown also noted the condition of the 1900 Guthrie collection, noting that “The scenery is in very good shape – infinitely better that the average theatrical scenery used on the road. The writer personally went over the scenery at the studio last week. While our contract does not contemplate it, we are touching up some of the scenery and if it be properly lighted, you will have a handsome set of scenery that we would not undertake to paint and install for less than, at least, $8,000.00”
The M. C. Lilley contract on February 25, 1913 sells the Austin Scottish Rite Bodies 64 used drops for $1,650, with a third due upon installation (cash), a third due the following year, and the final third due in two years. This financing was standard for these Scottish Rite endeavors and Brown writes, “In fact, if we had not been able to carry the Bodies in the Southern Jurisdiction as we have, we believe that fully one half of the development of the past ten years would not have been possible.”
Up to that time, M. C. Lilley had installed between 35 and 40 Masonic installations nationwide since 1900. And now some of these collections were finding new homes. I immediately thought of the line from Fanny Brice’s recording of “Second Hand Rose” for the 1921 Ziegfeld Follies: “It’s no wonder that I feel abused, I never get a thing that hasn’t been used.”
