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Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 310: Thomas G. Moses and Frank Cox

In 1894, Thomas G. Moses recorded getting the contract for the New Lyceum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee. Located at the corner of Third and Union Streets, the old Lyceum Theatre had burned to the ground during November 1893. The theater was on the lower floor of an athletic society building and the total loss was $360,000. Only three years old at the time of the fire, construction immediately began to build another theater on the same site.

*The original Lyceum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee, 1890. The building burned to the ground in 1893.*

Opened by H.L. Brinkley, the New Lyceum Theatre cost $235,000 and had a seating capacity of 2,010. It included an oblong proscenium that was illuminated with exposed light bulbs, similar to the electric scenic theater on top of the Masonic Temple Roof Garden that same year. This was a feature was called a luxauleator, or “a curtain of light” invented by Steel MacKaye for the Spectatorium in Chicago (see past installment #265). The New Lyceum was credited as being the first theatre in Memphis to have electric lighting.

The auditorium included open metalwork railings for each of the three balconies and boxes. Ironically, it was this decorative aspect that would ultimately postpone the opening as there was a delay in the arrival of the iron work (Montgomery Advisor 7 Oct 1894, page 9). The final dedication occurred on Monday, December 3, 1894, with Otis Skinner opening the venue. His productions were “His Grace de Grammont” and “The King’s Jester.”

*The New Lyceum theatre designed by Frank Cox with scenery by Thomas G. Moses, 1894.*

Moses wrote, “The firm wanted this badly, but the architect insisted on my work.” “The firm” was Sosman & Landis and the architect was fellow scenic artist Frank Cox. Tignal Franklin “Frank” Cox (1854–1940) was also the theatrical architect who was designing several other opera houses that same year.

*Tignal Franklin “Frank” Cox (1854–1940), scenic artist, decorator and theatre architect.*

His projects in Texas alone included remodeling the opera house in Sherman, a new ground-floor theater in Galveston, the Stanger Theater in Waco, the Peterson Theater in Paris, and the opera house in Gainesville (The Times-Picayune, 8 April 1894, page 27).

Newspaper articles would note Cox as the “well-known scenic artist and architect of theatres.” Cox worked as a scenic artist, architect, decorator, builder, and developer throughout the course of his career. During the time that he the theater in Memphis, he was still running Cox Bros. and working with his brothers and Clark (1861-1936) and Eugene (1869-1943). Their ages at the time were 40 (Frank), 33 (Clark) and 25 (Clark). The three men had five other siblings with a father who had started work as a Boston painter in 1871. Eugene Cox had a son named after him, Eugene Jr. (1889-1967), who was also a scenic artist, so it gets a bit confusing.

*Eugene Cox (1869-1943), scenic artist and decorator, was part of the New Orlean scenic studio, Cox. Bros.*

*Clark Cox (1861-1936), scenic artist and decorator who worked for Cox Bros. scenic studio at the New Orleans Opera House.*

Here is a little background to place Frank Cox in context of nineteenth-century scenic art. Harry Miner’s American Drama Directory (1882-3) credited Frank Cox with the scenery for the Opera House in Batavia, New York and Smith’s Opera House in Tarrytown, New York. By 1890, Cox was working as a scenic artist, decorator and architect in the New Orleans area. He continued to work as a scenic artist throughout the decade, being credited with scenery for Temple Theatre in Alton, Illinois (1899) and Klein’s Opera House in Seguin, Texas (1903-1904). Like Moses, Cox also worked in oil and exhibited his fine art. In 1894, he participated in an art exhibition with his brother Clark. Both were members of the Artists’ Association in New Orleans (The Times-Picayune, 13 Dec. 1894, page 3). This was one of many art shows where the Cox brothers exhibited their work.

This brings us to another interesting aspect of the Cox family – the family feud. Frank, Eugene, and Clark operated a scenic and fresco business known as Cox Bros. in New Orleans. However, it was referred to as “Frank Cox’s Studio at New Orleans,” him being the eldest and most experienced. They had quite a large staff by 1891 that included the scenic artist Emile Nippert and stage machinist James A. Kee (Fort Worth Daily Gazette 11 August 1891, page 2). The Cox Bros. studio was located in the Grand Opera House of New Orleans. Frank withdrew from the partnership in 1896, but the partnership continued to operate under the same name of Cox Bros., despite Frank’s public declamation that the firm was dissolved. Eugene and Clark published a rebuttal, wanting to make it “thoroughly understood” that they would continue to operate the scenic and fresco business under the name Cox Bros. By the way, there appears to be no immediate familial ties to the Jesse Cox Scenic Studio of Estherville.

There is something interesting to ponder when thinking about the Cox family. Frank understood painted illusion for both the stage and auditorium. He would have been the perfect theater architect as he understood the aesthetic and mechanical demands of the venue. A variety of historical sources explain that architects would often hand over the stage design to a scenic studio. The studio would identify the layout and materials for the space, thus securing work from the architectural firm. I wonder if after guiding architects, Cox decided to work directly with the client and avoid working with a middle man -the architectural firm. Cox’s position as the architect would also secure work for his company Cox Bros., in the form of both scenic and decorative art. His position could have provided an endless stream of projects, as apparent in 1894. Maybe he was expecting too much of his younger brothers and swamping them with work, too much for them to handle without his help in the studio. Maybe that was why Cox reached out and specified other artists for his multiple projects – like Moses.

The big picture is that there was history and friendship between Cox and Moses, plus they were only two years apart in age. He was a friend of Moses and greatly respected his art. When you look at the front curtain for the Lyceum Theater, it is understandable why Cox wanted Moses in charge of the scenery for the New Lyceum . Moses and his crew painted a beautiful exterior landscape with his signature “babbling brook.” Decades later in 1931, Cox would again request that Moses paint some Fiesta floats in California, although Moses would decline.

*Interior if the New Lyceum Theatre (Memphis, TN) with drop curtain painted by Thomas G. Moses in 1894.*

*Detail of Thomas G. Moses’ drop curtain for the New Lyceum Theatre in Memphis, Tennessee, 1894.*

Regardless of the reason, Cox’s selection of Moses over Sosman & Landis in 1894 had to have been quite a blow to the scenic studio as the project would not be supervised by their company as planned. That was their ultimate goal after opening the annex studio -controlling all of Moses’ subcontracted work and keeping him on a leash. By doing this they maintained a position of control and ultimately determined which contracts they would pass down to Moses, yet benefited by his name. The New Lyceum Theatre was one in a series of projects where architects and clients specified that the work solely go to Moses. This was the beginning of his second departure from the studio of Sosman & Landis.

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 265 – The Masonic Temple’s Electric Theaters – The Court of Honor

Image from the website “Chicagology” that notes the location of the Chicago Masonic Temple, built in 1892.

There were two scenic electric theaters on top of the Chicago Masonic Temple in 1894. Both were created and managed by the Sosman & Landis scenic studio. Joseph Sands Sosman was a Scottish Rite Mason and member of the local Oriental Consistory.

View of the Chicago Masonic Temple (1892-1939).

Roof top of the Chicago Masonic Temple where Sosman & Landis managed two electric theaters in 1894.

The first production was an imitation of “A Day in the Alps,” an attraction that had been popularized at the Columbian Exposition in 1893. The second production depicted a specific scene from the Columbian Exposition – the “Court of Honor.” The view of the setting was from the agricultural building, looking northwest. As with “A Day in the Alps,” it included a transformation scene.

The Court of Honor electric scenic theatre, designed, produced, and managed by Sosman & Landis scenic studio in 1894. It was one of two shows on top of the Chicago Masonic Temple.

The “Court of Honor” opened with a vision of the world fair in the morning. Sunrise transitioned into brilliant sunlight that illuminated massive white buildings surrounding a lagoon. In front of the administration and electricity buildings, gondolas and electric launches added to the charm to the scene while band music played in the background. As evening approached, electric lights outlined the White City and were reflected in the water’s surface.

The February 24, 1894, issues of “Western Electrician” described, “Searchlight effects flash from one building to another, and 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), that produced the scenic changes and color shifts.

The large lamp in the center is a Packard Mogul Lamp – the same type used in the scenic electric theatre. This image is from Mount Vernon Museum of incandescent lighting. It is a picture of the Thomas Houston Case in the Carbon Room. Here is the link: http://www.angelfire.com/pe/pasttech/tour1.html

The Court of Honor lighting also included a luxauleator, or “a curtain of light.” This creation consisted of a border of incandescent lights around the four sides of the stage opening. An invention credited to Steel MacKaye, newspapers reported it as “a peculiar optical illusion” originally created for the Spectatorium in Chicago (The Wichita Eagle, May 26, 1893, pg. 6). 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). MacKaye’s luxauleator used rows of lamps that were placed in conical shaped reflectors. The newspaper article further 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.”

MacKaye’s patent 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.”

The Sosman & Landis electric scenic theater attractions in the roof top garden only lasted a year. The venue changed hands by May 1895 and reopened with “several new novelties” under the management of George A. Fair. The Chicago Tribune reported, “Everything connected with the roof garden is new, and the visitor last night saw but little to remind him of the same place last year. The electric scenic theater still remains, but the other stage has been moved around to the northeast corner of the roof. The present location affords a good view of the entertainment from every part of the roof. Directly In front of the stage are 3,510 opera chairs, while the rest of the floor space is given up to refreshment tables. A new feature of the garden is the concrete walks built around the dome of the roof, where an excellent view of the city and surrounding country can be obtained. It is the intention of the management to remove part of the glass roof, affording an opportunity of enjoying the view and listening to the entertainment going on below” (May 20, 1895).

View of the street from the top of the 1892 Chicago Masonic Temple.

I have to question the use of 3510 opera chairs. That was a dramatic increase from the original 150 for the two original theaters.

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 188 – Hardesty G. Maratta and Frank C. Peyraud in Peoria, Illinois

After the failure to complete the Spectatorium for the 1893 World Fair in Chicago, Hardesty G. Maratta was released from his contract with Steele MacKaye. He traveled with Frank C. Peyraud (1858-1948) to Peoria, Illinois, where they completed two public painting projects and several private commissions. They were contracted to paint murals and decorate the interiors of both the pubic library and City Hall. One of the library murals was titled “View from Prospect Heights.” The 20-foot by 11-foot mural painted for Peoria’s library presently is stored in the vault of the Lakeview Museum.

Mural by Hardesty G. Maratta and Frank C. Peyraud, celebrating the founding of the town in 1831.

The landscape depicts a meandering river and Peoria Lake with marshlands and a few islands. The composition shows the landscape before the construction of levees, a lock, and a dam in 1939. One of the Peoria City Hall murals was titled “Peoria, August 29, 1831” to commemorate the founding of the town. They also created fine art works for the library, some that still hang in the current boardroom. Here is a link to two paintings: http://old.library.eiu.edu/artarch/displayall.asp?LibraryID=749

Frank C. Peyraud. Painting by Antonin Sterba, Brauer Museum of Art, gift of Percy H. Sloan.

Peoria newspapers hailed Peyraud as “Illinois’ foremost landscape painter” who had produced artworks for the Union League Club, the Flanagan House, and the Peoria Women’s Club. Unlike Maratta, Peyraud stayed in Peoria for three years and offered art lessons for young aspiring artists. He stayed until his wife (also a fellow immigrant from Switzerland) passed away in 1899. Peyraud he found love again in 1906 with fellow artist Elizabeth Krysher. Kyysher was a children’s portrait painter and illustrator. Early on in their marriage, the couple traveled from California to the East Coast. In Old Lyme, Connecticut, they even stayed with a colony of impressionist landscape painters. The couple eventually settled in north-suburban Ravinia, Illinois (a section of Highland Park) in 1919. In 1921, Peyraud traveled back to Switzerland for three years.

I have previously touched on Maratta’s partnership with Peyraud in Peoria in the February 2, 2017 www.dry pigment.net post. In light of Maratta’s and Peyraud’s scenic art connection with Thomas G. Moses’ it is worth recapping a little information about this fascinating Swiss immigrant. Peyraud was a notable Impressionist landscape artist who would also work as a scenic artist with Thomas G. Moses during the 1890s.

François “Frank” Charles Peynaud was born in Bulle, Switzerland and received some early artistic training at the l’Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He traveled to the United States in 1881 and soon decided to stay, settling in the Chicago area. He would remain in this region for the majority of his life. Peyraud first applied for work as a draftsman at the architectural firm of William Le Baron Jenney. Historians have suggested that he did not receive any work due to his poor English. However, he started working as both a scenic artist, on cycloramas and panoramas. Very little is known of his early years in Chicago, but in 1891, Peyraud touched up Paul Philippoteaux’s panoramic painting depicting the Battle of Gettysburg.

It was Peyraud, Maratta, A. J. Rupert, Harry Vincent, Thomas G. Moses, and a number of others artists painted who William Hawoth’s “Flag of Truce” in 1892. By the way, the original script is still available at the University of Chicago (in the Charles Morton Agency Collection of American Popular Drama 1842-1950, Box 35, folder 2). Peyraud worked with Moses in the theatre during 1892 and 1893.

By the mid-1890s Peyraud was noted for his impressionist style, often depicting dramatic skies at dawn, sunset, or moonlight.

Yellow Moon Over Setting Sea, Frank C. Peyraud. Currently held in the Peoria Historical Society Painting Collection.

His fine art was exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Academy of Design (NY), the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (Philadelphia), the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), the Pan-Pacific Exposition (San Francisco) and many other exhibits too numerous to mention. His paintings remain in a variety of collections worldwide, including the Art Institute and Union League Club of Chicago, the Municipal Collection of Phoenix and the Art Museum of Bulle, Switzerland. In 1935 the conservative Association of Chicago Painters and Sculptors awarded Peyraud a gold medal and he was widely regarded as the dean of Chicago landscape painters.

Frank C. Payraud, Autumn on Desplaines, 1925. Richard Norton Gallery.

Peyraud won the Young Fortnightly Prize for the best painting in the Chicago Art Institute’s 1899 annual show. It was the first of many awards he would receive over the course of his career. Other awards included a Municipal Art League p prize in 1912 and the Art Institute’s Martin B. Cahn Prize in 1921. In 1948, Peyraud exhibited for a final time at the Chicago Galleries Association. He died later that year, on the eve of his ninetieth birthday.

Frank C. Peyraud, In the Shade, Worlds Fair 1933. Richard Norton Gallery.

It is Moses’ mention of Peyraud, Maratta and other notable artists that causes me to ponder the significance of Moses writings, scenery, and fine art. His typed manuscript, handwritten diaries and scrapbook are much more significant than the interesting details that provide a glimpse into theatre history. Moses provides eyewitness accounts and context for his contemporaries in an ever-shifting art world.

These artists from a variety of backgrounds worked, traveled, dreamed, and planned together. They were working towards a much bigger picture in the world of arts and sciences. One gets a sense of their personalities, the industries that they worked for, and how fluid their talents were during this golden age of scenic art. Their friendships, social exchanges, moral support, and partnerships went far beyond the realms of mere work or artistic study for the stage. They played and brainstormed together about future possibilities for not only themselves, but also later generations.

To look at Moses’ creation of the Fort Scott scenery collection as simply a small moment in Masonic or theatre history is shortsighted! It was the culmination of decades of training after interacting with international visionaries. He was part of a patchwork quilt that transcended our own country’s borders.

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 187 – Hardesty G. Maratta and Steele McKaye’s Spectatorium

Hardesty C. Maratta and Frank C. Peyraud were actively involved with Steele MacKaye (1842–1894) and his Spectatorium project for the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Maratta had committed to a fifteen-year contract with MacKaye during the planning stage of the Spectatorium. He was hired to head MacKaye’s scenic department.

Proposed Spectatorium. Image posted in: https://chicagology.com/

Traverse section of proposed Spectatorium. Image posted in: https://chicagology.com/

The Spectatorium was to be the largest auditorium in the world and part of the 1893 Chicago World Fair. On September 25, 1892, the “Chicago Herald” described the much-anticipated venture: “After months of preliminary work, the initiatory steps for the construction of the biggest auditorium of the world were taken yesterday. A building permit was issued to the Columbus Celebration Company to erect a “Spectatorium” at numbers 1 to 27 on Fifty-sixth Street. The structure is to be six stories in height, 480 by 240 feet in dimensions and of frame and staff construction.” William LeBaron Jenney and W. B. Mundie were the architects of this endeavor, costing over $350,000 for the structure alone. This price did not include furniture, scenery or machinery. In the article, MacKaye was quoted that the undertaking was “the realization of full twenty years of fond dreams and much study in the realm of the spectacular.”

The Spanish Renaissance style building more ground than any other building planned for the fairgrounds. The front extended over 480 feet with a depth averaging 311 feet. The height was 100 feet and included a large dome in the center will be surmounted by a statue of Fame. The theatre would seat 9,200, with ample exits that could empty the house in about half the time of an ordinary theater. The stage proscenium was 150 feet wide with a proportionate depth. The stage was arranged so it could accommodate its flooding with real water at a depth of four feet. The scenery was planned run with wheels on railroad irons, placed under the water. Each piece would be separately controlled from the prompter’s desk. The prompter will only have to push a button and the electric motor would do the work of 250 men. The overall intent was to prevent any mistakes in the shifting of scenes.

Investors included George M. Pullman. E. L Browster, Edson Keith, John Cuday, F. W. Peck, H. E. Bucklene Lyman J. Gage, Murry Nelson, Benjamin Butterworth, C. H. Deere, Arthur Dixon, J. J. Mitchell, Andrew McNally, Franklin H. Head, Ferdinand W. Peck, E. H. Phelps, F. G. Logan, N. B. Ream David Henderson, A. C. McClurg, Andrew McNally, Ben Butterworth, F. E. Studebaker, and other well-known citizens. Newspaper articles published that the gentlemen claimed, “It will be a more pleasing and more talked of novelty than the Eiffel Tower.”

The anticipated production and scenic effects were described in the “Chicago Herald” (September 25, 1892):

“The character of the performances to be given are promised to equal Wagner’s most extraordinary dreams of all that a great dramatic-musical performance should be. The greatest orchestral music, especially written by the best composers, solos and choruses by eminent artists, all Illustrated by brilliant spectacular and. realistic pantomimes, will be presented. The story of the piece to be given will be the life of Columbus and the discovery of America. Ships of the actual size and appearance used by Columbus will be fully manned by sailors in exact reproduction of the characters of those times. The capture of Granada and the procession of Columbus and Isabella to the Alhambra as well as the surrender of Boabdil, last of the Moorish kings, will be especially grand and on an immense scale. The scenery costumes and music will be elaborate and picturesque, and the promoters claim that it will be the greatest of the kind ever attempted.”

MacKaye was and actor, director, playwright and inventor. He was well known for his stage technology, especially his improvements to New York’s Madison Square Theatre where he engineered the “double stage.” This included an elevator the size of a full stage that was raised and lowered by counterweights and reduced scene changes to one or two minutes. By 1885, MacKaye had established three theaters in New York City: the St. James, Madison Square, and the Lyceum Theatre.

Unfortunately, his “super theatre” destined for Chicago was deprived of funds during the panic of 1893. On February 27, 1894, the “San Francisco Call” reported, “The MacKaye Spectatorium has failed and will go into the hands, of a receiver. It has not paid expenses; and with the death of its originator it passes out of existence.”

The unfinished structure of the Spectatorium is visible in the background. Image posted in: https://chicagology.com/

The dismantling of the Spectatorium was covered in the Chicago Tribune on October 7, 1893. “The Spectatorium, the large pile of steel and wood at the north end of the World’s Fair grounds, which was to have housed the grandest theatrical representations in the world, is being torn down to be sold as scrap iron. The Spectatorium, as yet incomplete, cost $550,000. It was sold for $2,250. The project was that of Steele Mackaye. He broached it first last year to leading capitalists of Chicago and it met with favor. The plan was to build a structure sufficiently large to give a representation of the discovery of America on a scale larger than was ever attempted. MacKaye invented new methods of lighting which promised to revolutionize the methods of stage illumination. The life of the production was to have been a great chorus arranged on the principle of the old Greek chorus. The organization of the company proceeded well. Work was begun, hundreds of men employed, and actors and actresses contracted with and put on rehearsal. The Spectatorium failed and went into the hands of a receiver June 1.”

It was reported that MacKaye blamed the failure on “bad weather, labor troubles, a tight money market, and an article declaring the project a failure, which prevented the disposition of the company’s bonds.” Then Building Commissioner declared that the Spectatorium must be torn down as it was dangerous. It took two hundred men, thirty days, and $15,000 to clear the site and remove the 1,200 tons of iron. The lumber was repurposed for sidewalks and the building of small cottages for working people.

To be continued…

One of the best internet sites that I have encountered for information pertaining to Chicago events, structures and people is “Chicagology.” Here is the link: https://chicagology.com/ The site provided some lovely images from the planning and initial construction of Steele MacKaye’s Spectatorium.