Copyright © 2020 by Wendy Waszut-Barrett
A while back I explored the career of Gerald V. Cannon, of Joy and Cannon Scenic Studio in St. Paul, Minnesota. Although the life of the firm was brief, each co-founder certainly made his mark on the world. At the time that I was researching Cannon’s life, I stumbled across multiple references to his military career and work for the US marines. Cannon organized the first unit to specialize in the brand new art of camouflage in 1918. He gathered together a group of scenic artists and once they learned the painting procedure, they were split up among the services. Cannon chose the marines.
Here is a 1918 article about Cannon’s project that I came across this week:
On February 27, 1918, the “Los Angeles Evening Express” reported “Scenic Artists to Mobilize as U. S. Aid in World Conflict” (page 12). Here is the article:
“Scenic artists in Southern California theaters are included in a country-wide plan to mobilize all of their craft in this country for war purposes. The scheme is being worked out by G. V. Cannon – appropriate name – of St. Paul, Minn., and is understood to have the sanction of the war department. The plan is explained in the following letter from Mr. Cannon, which has been received by attaches of local theaters:
‘The English and French governments have organized the artists of the countries, especially the scenic artists, to work in naval yards, as well as in the fields with regular army, for the purpose of painting large tarpaulins and canvas covers to mask field guns, and they grasped the value of the scenic artist, with his experience, with his wide experience and talent and reproduction and color. They have taken these artists with their various color schemes and composition to completely mask a series of field guns, or paint the sides of a battleship in nature’s true colors and the ocean and waves, so that it has completely baffled the enemy’s submarines to as near as half mile, and, at that distance, in many cases, they have made such poor targets that the submarine has had to maneuver around until it was detected and fired upon. This plan applies to transports on which the American government will have to spend every effort available to guard the loves of its men. Another feature of painting boats is in the painting of a huge wave on the bow of a battleship, this is being the chief method of judging the speed that a boat is traveling. This gives the enemy the impression that the boa is traveling at half speed. There are possibilities too numerous to mention on the value of scenic backgrounds, or fooling the enemy with paint. This plan is being put up to the war department by some of our leading artists and naval men. Among some of the nation’s leading advocates is Joe Cannon, former speaker of the house representatives, who in past years was a decorator and who realizes the value of the work. He is at present working in our interests as a personal favor to myself. So let us hear from all scenic artists who are interested in helping Uncle Sam down the Kaiser, by sending their name, address and age along with past experience and ability to me. – G. V. Cannon, 378 South Wabasha street, St. Paul, Minn.’”
In 1950, Cannon was featured in the “Star Tribune” article, “Minnesota’s ‘Little Marine’ Just Keeps Growing” (5 Nov. 1950, page 21). I am also including this article in its entirety for context.
“There’s a line in one of the censored verse of ‘Mademoiselle From Armentieres’ which goes ‘The little marine he grew and grew.’
The boys hereabouts seem to think that if a line ever applied to anybody in real life, it applies to Jerry Cannon.
More sedately, he’s Gerald V. Cannon, a scenic artist by profession who still makes up an occasional Marine Corps float or a spectacular sign. Its come to be a habit through 33 years of association with the corps.
Cannon will be present at the corps 175th anniversary dinner Friday night at the Nicollet hotel. Governor Youngdahl, Mayors Hoyer of Minneapolis and Delaney of St. Paul and various other functionaries also will attend, along with wives and mothers of marines now in service.
He now is national service officer for the Marine Corps league, the only veterans’ organization incorporated by act of congress. He is also state service officer under the auspices of the department of veteran’s affairs.
In that job, he is but carrying on a practice built up on his own time between two wars. Cannon was a marine in World War I. Prior to that he had been called upon to organize the first unit to specialize in the brand new art of camouflage. Cannon gathered together a half gross of scenic artists. When they had learned what they had to know, they were split up among the services. Cannon chose the marines and began an extra-curricular career from which he never since has been separated for long.
After the war he helped found three marine groups, each of which perished through inaction. But Cannon made it his business to keep in touch with marines and marine veterans and to pull what wires were necessary to help them.
He became a sort of special in veterans’ rights and made up for his small stature by fast talk and aggressiveness.
When World War II came along, Cannon had retired from the reserve as a captain with 100 per cent disability because of a heart condition. He went right back in, as a staff sergeant attached to the When Cannon enlisted in WWI he listed a health concern, there was foul-up; he got orders to report to Parris Island for boot training. A few days nearly did him in. Representative Melvin Maas rescued him by getting the orders changed and Cannon was shipped back to Minneapolis.
During the subsequent years, he indulged in his hobby of helping out marines and ex-marines. After being discharged he went to the Marine Corps league as a service officer.
His years of association with the marines have been a great help in cutting red tape. On his frequent trips to Washington, Cannon first-names big brass and walks right into offices which would be at least temporarily off-limits to almost anyone else.
Cannon through the years has loaded himself with Marine Corps lore, and documented a good bit of it by collecting relics.
He was a scene designer, for instance, for an Otis Skinner touring company of ‘Kismet.” Among the props was a handsome ivory-handled knife – no stage piece but a real article from Tripoli, dating back to their time the marines made their historic landing there in 1803.
After the tour ended, the knife was presented to Canon. He now keeps its tip sheathed in tape because it’s supposed to be made of poisoned steel.
The knife gave him some anxious moments a few years ago, when he was running a restaurant in the Midway district and had it on display with other relics.
Someone broke into the place and took, among other things, the knife. Both because it was a valuable souvenir and a dangerous weapon as well, Cannon left no stone unturned to get it back.
At length he and the police tracked it down. A bunch of kids were playing with it, using it in a game of cops and robbers. (The knife will be on display at the State Theater when the movie ‘Tripoli,’ depicting the Tripoli incident opens there Friday. The timing of the picture and the dinner is purely coincidental.”
An avid collector, Cannon often picked up books and relics in his travels as a scenic artist. In an old history of the Civil war he found a penciled map indicating a gunroom at old Fort Jackson, at the mouth of the Mississippi, had been sealed up.
He got a government commission to open it and dug through three feet of cement. In the room he found many rare pieces including a dozen large lamps. One of them, given him by the government adorns his home at Cleveland Avenue and Ramsey county road B. The house is li furnished with similar items.
Among them are a couple of hand-wrought nails from the home of Betsy Ross. A marine happened to be guarding the place when Cannon visited as it was being repaired, and a wink from one marine to another seems to mean something.
Busy as he has been, Cannon foresees an even busier time ahead. For one thing, veterans are in a peculiar position, as far as their rights are concerned; while theoretically convened by provisions involving ‘hazardous duty’ or ‘simulated warfare,’ the United States is not actually at was. This, he thinks, will affect claims coming out of Korea.
The men who appeal to him for help, however, are confident of his ability. The little marine, they think, grew until he knows as much about the Marine Corps and its procedures as anybody up or down the line.”
I have explored the Gerald V. Cannon of Joy & Cannon studios in the past. For more information, see past posts 797-800.
To be continued…
