Thomas G. Moses – Page 42

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 454 – Thomas G. Moses and “The Night Before Christmas”

Part 454: Thomas G. Moses and “The Night Before Christmas”

In 1903, Thomas G. Moses designed and painted the scenery for “The Night Before Christmas.” This was not a theatrical version of the seasonal poem, but a pastoral-comedy-drama that toured the New York area during 1903. Hal Reid’s show depicted a domestic picture of rural life in the Buckeye State was advertised as “The Laugh Producing and Tear Compelling Story of Real Life! SENTIMENT! LOVE! MIRTH! TEARS!” “The Night Before Christmas” was one of Burt & Nicloai’s productions. They were theatrical managers located at 1495 Broadway in New York. The show first appeared in 1900 and toured the circuit as “The Old Home Drama” that was “a picture of nature” (The Bedford News, 24 October 1901, page 4).

An advertisement of “The Night Before Christmas,” from “The Bedford News,” 24 October 1901, page 4)

By the beginning of January in 1903, the show was receiving rave reviews in Buffalo, New York. It was performed at the Academy, known as “Buffalo’s Family Theatre,” and was one of five performance venues in the city. This was the production for which Moses created painted settings. The seating capacity at the Academy’s ground-floor theater was 1,586 (624 Orchestra, 352 Balcony, and 600 Gallery). The stage was framed by a proscenium measuring 40’ wide by 41’-6” high. The height to the fly gallery was 25’, with the height to the rigging loft at 52.’ There were 18’ grooves, but only for tormentors, not wing sets.

“The Buffalo Morning Express” reported, “The play is beautifully staged and abounds with realistic situations” (11 Jan 1903, page 25). At the same time, “The Buffalo Evening News” published, “The scenery was fine and the play handsomely staged, the churchyard scene and the court room scene coming in for the greater share of the applause. The plot of the story is very original and the love story is a fresh as the new mown hay. The story is complicated and tells the struggles of Jack Phillips to abstain from liquor for the sake of the girl he loved. The villain, Bud Meade, forces his attentions on the girl after a quarrel with Jack is killed by a tramp, who was at one time wronged by Meade. Jack is accused of the crime, tried, and sentenced to death by the judge, who is Jack’s father, faints upon pronouncing the sentence. The father in time becomes Governor of the State and pardons his son, whereupon the tramp confesses and comes out right in the end” (13 Jan. 1903, page 8).

“The Night Before Christmas,” from “The Buffalo Evening News,” 14 Jan. 1903, page 2

“Plain homespun characters are introduced, and the unaffected simplicity of scene and incident seems to exert a potent charm over all classes of theatergoers. Great pains have been taken to give the play, and adequate scenic equipment and a fine company, numbering nearly 30 people, will be seen” (Buffalo Enquirer, 3 Jan. 1903, page 9).

By the fall of 1903, the show was playing at the Gotham theatre in Brooklyn from September 7 to 12. Jack Drumier played Judge Phillips, formerly the leading man of the Elite Company. Jack Phillips was played by James B. Marting, with Amanda Hendrix as Marian Williams and Helen Gurney as Mrs. Judge Phillips (The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 8 Sept. 1903, page 10). The Gotham Music Hall is also fascinating; it opened in 1903 (some say 1901) and was built solely for plays and vaudeville with a 1,750-seat auditorium and stage house occupying the better part of a city block. In 1904, owners Sullivan & Kraus hired architect Thomas W. Lamb to do some minor alterations; it was his first theatre-related commission. By 1908, the venue was taken over by William Fox and began to include movies. The theater was razed for parking space in 1941. At the time, it was the oldest theater in East New York, originally built by the late Otto Huber, the brewer, as the Brooklyn Music Hall in 1894. It replaced Bennett’s Casino, a venue that had been destroyed by fire in the same decade.

“The Buffalo Morning Express” commented that the most thrilling scene in the show was the court scene, in which the father is sitting in judgment upon his son. “In this scene, a dry and usually uninteresting proceeding is turned into a thrilling act” (The Buffalo Morning Express, 11 Jan 1903, page 25).

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 452 – Thomas G. Moses and “Lost in the Desert”

Part 452: Thomas G. Moses and “Lost in the Desert”

In 1903, Thomas G. Moses produced scenery for the melodrama “Lost in the Desert” when he was in New York and running Moses & Hamilton. Living in Mt. Vernon, New York, he commuted to the city daily where he worked at both the American Theatre and the 125^th Street Theatre.

Advertisement for “Lost n the Desert,” from the Boston Post, 2 May 1903 page 10.

The Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, NY, 1 March 1903, page 16) reported:

“Lost in the Desert” is one of the numerous successes of that popular and prolific melodramatist, Owen Davis. The play tells of the adventures of a party of Americans who are wrecked upon the coast of Arabia, and who, through the villainy of one of their party, fall into the hands of the tribe of wandering Arabs. The chief of this tribe falls desperately in love with one of the ladies of the party and makes desperate efforts to force her to return his love. Through the aid of a friendly Arab, who has been touched by the young American girl’s helpless position, she is enabled to escape. After many exciting adventures and trials she is again captured and taken to the mountain home of the Arab chief. He determines to kill the girl’s friend and force his unwelcome attentions upon her. She is taken to his tent and her friends are placed under guard in the vaults of an old fortress. The American whose plans of revenge for his unrequited love had been the cause of all the trouble of his fellow-countrymen, begins to fear that the girl’s tears will prevail upon the Arab chief, and that he will be induced to spare the hero’s life, decides to take things into his own hands and plans an explosion that will bring about the death of the party of Americans. His plans, however, fail, as the explosion, instead of killing the prisoners, merely blows down the prison walls and opens their way to freedom. Once clear of the prison, by a daring ruse the girl is saved from the chief, and securing food and arms, the happy party starts home across the desert, guided by the Arab. The action of the play gives unusual opportunity for picturesque scenes and exciting climaxes, and the entire idea is novel and interesting.”

The touring company that performed “Lost in the Desert” was composed of twenty-three performers that included Arab acrobats. Sie Hassan Ben Ali’s Whirlwind Acrobats and a camel were noted among the “accessories” that toured with the show. Newspapers commented that these exotic elements added realism to the production (Hartford Courant, 13 March 1903, page 7). The Hartford Courant also advertised, “It is said to be handsomely staged with special scenery.” These special settings produced by Moses & Hamilton included:

Act I-Deck of the Mary Jane – from Rockland to Budapest. A fire at sea.

Act II.-Lost in the desert. “O, for water to quench our thirst.”

Tableau-“A Race with Death.”

Act III. Scene 1. The Arab prison. “To Liberty.” Scene 2. The road to freedom. Scene 3. The oasis. The recapture.

Act IV.-The Arab camp. “Feasting and Pleasure,” introducing Sie Hassan Ben Alis Whirlwind Acrobats. “Who laughs last, laughs best.”

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 451 – Thomas G. Moses and “Reaping the Whirlwind”

Part 451: Thomas G. Moses and “Reaping the Whirlwind”

In 1903, Thomas G. Moses created the scenery for two shows written by Owen Davis – “Lost in the Desert” and “Reaping the Whirlwind.” The Broadway opening for each show was in the Star Theatre, located at 844 Broadway. The venue opened in 1861 and was previously known as Wallack’s Theatre and the Germania Theatre. It was renamed the Star Theatre on March 26, 1883.

The Star Theatre where “Reaping the Whirlwind” premiered in 1901. The show would later tour with new scenery by Thomas G. Moses in 1903.

Wallack’s Theatre before it became the Star Theatre

The playwright, Owen Gould Davis (1874-1956), wrote hundreds of melodramas during the first two decades of the twentieth century. He also used a variety of pseudonyms, including Ike Swift, Martin Hurley, Arthur J. Lamb, Walter Lawrence, John Oliver and Robert Wayne. Between 1897 and 1907, he wrote 100 melodramas. By the 1910s, he began writing comedies. He later wrote scripts for both film and radio. Davis became the first elected president of the Dramatists Guild of America and received the Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his 1923 “Icebound.” Davis then joined the staff of Paramount Pictures as a screenwriter from 1927-1930. He married the actress Elizabeth Drury Bryer. This was around the time he wrote “Reaping the Whirlwind,” how ironic. Davis eventually penned two autobiographies: “I’d Like to Do It Again” and “My First Fifty Years in the Theatre.” The latter focused on the period of his life from 1897-1947. I could not help think of Moses’ desire to have his own memoirs published – “60 Years Behind the Curtain Line.”

Owen Davis was featured in American Magazine (1911, Vol. 11)

Owen Davis was featured a 1911 issue of American Magazine under the section title “Interesting People” (Vol. 71, No. 5, page 609). The article called Davis “the Abou ben Adhem of American playwrights – quantitatively, at any rate.” It then reported: “And so Mr. Davis, who used to write ‘em so fast that he was what smokers would call a chain-writer – that is, he’d write FINIS to one play and, without resharpening his pencil, begin with the title of the next and go right ahead – Mr. Davis is thorugh with lines like “Have courage, girl, I’ll save you!” and “Rather than do what you say, Remington Hallowell, I would starve in the gutter!” Anybody who has seen one of Mr. Davis’s shows might not picture the author as a soft-spoken, mild-mannered, book-loving, modest-bearing (Note to Editor: Do compounds count as two words?) gentleman. That is where anybody might have erred. See him in his tastefully furnished West One Hundred and Sixteenth Street apartment, reading “Joseph Vance” aloud to Mrs. Davis, and you would hardly think he was the author of “The Opium Smugglers of Frisco” and kindred pastorals.” Here is a wonderful dissertation on the theatrical career of Owen Davis: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=4300&context=gradschool_disstheses

Another one of Owen Davis’ many melodramas.

Davis’ first Broadway play was “Reaping the Whirlwind,” opening 17 September 1900. It was one of the touring productions for the Maude Hillman company and based on the proverbial phrase, “They that sow the wind, shall reap the whirlwind.” The Maude Hillman Co. advertised “a repertoire of scenic productions” with “new and bright specialties” (Pittston Gazette, 27 Oct. 1903, page 3). The show was set during the Franco-Prussian War.

The Wilkes-Barre Record reported on the production, “A thrilling incident in a varied spectacle which the melodrama “Reaping the Whirlwind” affords is a sensational escape from the military prison at Metz. There are also other thrilling climaxes in this latest and victorious four-act drama. It is not a mess of lines built about a display of scenery, but it is a play with excellent characters interpreted by Maud Hillman and a strong supporting company. Hilarious mirth alternated with deep pathos.” (16 March 1903, page 5).

Advertisement for “Reaping the Whirlwind” in the Lebanon Daily News (16 April 1903 page 3).

I had to chuckle as I read: “It is not mess of lines built about a display of scenery.”

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 450 – Thomas G. Moses and “Old Sleuth”

Part 450: Thomas G. Moses and “Old Sleuth”

In 1903 Thomas G. Moses wrote, “We started the New Year with more work than last year.” The “we” was Moses and his partner Will Hamilton, having founded the New York studio of Moses & Hamilton. They used the paint frames at both the American Theatre and the 125^th Street Theatre. In addition to the seasonal work at the two theaters, they also accepted a variety of other projects, such as touring shows that traveled across the country.

Moses recorded that they took the show “Old Sleuth” to Elizabeth, N.J. for its final rehearsals. This was common for most of the shows that Moses worked on during this time. The majority of shows both rehearsed and opened in a smaller venues, where they could tweak any scenic or mechanical issues. After these trial runs, the productions went eiter on tour, or headed to Broadway.

The opening of “Old Sleuth” was rehearsed for three days whole days in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Moses wrote, “Everything worked fine – not a hitch.” However, on opening night the panorama in the tunnel scene fouled and stopped. Moses continued, “the driving rod fell off the locomotive and the Falls of Niagara refused to fall. Which caused a big laugh from the audience, and some profanity from the producers. After the show, I wanted to go back to New York, but the producers insisted on my remaining there. I had nothing to do with the actual working of the mechanical effects, but had to see that they were put in good working order, which I did in two days.” What a nightmare for Moses. It also speaks of the complicated aspect of many scenic elements for melodramas.

James “Hal” Reid, the playwright, actor and director.

“Old Sleuth” was a five-act melodrama written by James Halleck Reid. After rehearsing the show in New Jersey, the show opened on October 27, 1902 at the Star Theatre in New York City, and toured across the country. “Old Sleuth” was both the creation and pseudonym of Harlan Page Halsey (1837-1898), a “dime novel detective” that appeared in the 1860s. The use of “Old Sleuth” was the equivalent to the 20^th century use of “Dick Tracy.” During thr late-nineteenth century, it became quite common place to see multiple references in newspaper articles reporting various crimes being solved “Old Sleuth” equivalents.

A collection of “Old Sleuth Weekly,” recently sold at auction.

In 1874, the story “Old Sleuth, the Detective” was adapted for the stage in Manhattan at the Bowery Theatre. The Lebanon Daily News described the great detective play, reporting, “Old Sleuth is a character so well known to all lovers of sensational fiction further comment is unnecessary. The ‘Old Sleuth’ series of sensational detective stories from the pen of Chas. Garvice have been carefully dramatized into five thrilling acts and ten big scenes abundant with startling climaxes and intensely dramatic situations. Mr. Hal Stephens will portray the title roles and introduce his many lighting changes. He will be ably supported by a carefully selected cast of players, together with special mammoth scenery and marvelous mechanic effects” (Lebanon, PA, 1 Oct. 1902, page 2). A vehicle for lighting innovation and scenic effects, the play was packed with action adventure, including the rescue of the heroine from a burning bridge and another rescue in front of a speeding train.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reviewed the play when it was scheduled for the National Theatre, advertising, “A dramatic production which in its actions mirrors the caprice of temperament, sunshine, cloud, showers, raging storm and scented zephyr and has the atmosphere mingled and tangled over and over with thrilling and intensely powerful situations comes to the National this week. The play is labeled ‘Old Sleuth,’ a name familiar to those living in glittering palaces as well as to those that call a little hut in the desert their homestead, and where is one on the long plain that stretches from the Empire State to the Golden Gate, that has not read or heard of the cleverest of all detectives, ‘Old Sleuth?’ But non ever enjoyed the treat of seeing his doings realistically portrayed on the stage until Hal Stephens, surrounded by a cast of unusual excellence, went on a starring tour to move the many admirers of ‘Old Sleuth’ closer to him. The theme is so cleverly worked that sobs are followed by hearty laughs. The acting is startling, the scenery sensational and the mechanical effects of an order that will excite and thrill” (16 Nov. 1902, page 33).

“Moving Picture World” article on “Hal” Reid. Page posted on Pinterest.

Hal Reid credited as “Father of the Sport Shirt.” First page of article posted on Pinterest.

The playwright “Hal” Reid was born in 1863 in Cedarville, Ohio. Interestingly, I found a few newspaper articles that placed his birth in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Although he remained an actor throughout the duration of his career, he is primarily remembered as a writer of melodramas. Reid was responsible for writing at least thirty melodramas between 1895 and 1908 that opened on Broadway. He later went to Hollywood were he worked as a screenwriter, actor and director. Reid was eventually associated with the Reliance Company, directing all of their productions. “Moving Picture World” reported that he was only director at the time to have filmed the President of the United States and royalty of the British reigning family (page 414). His son Wallace was also an actor, but tragically died of a drug overdose in 1923, only three years after the death of his father.

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 449: R. M. Shurtleff and the Civil War

Part 449: R. M. Shurtleff and the Civil War

In 1903, Thomas G. Moses studied fine art with Roswell Morse Shurtleff (1838-1915). A few years earlier, the newspapers published an article about Shurtleff’s art during the Civil War. The story first appeared in the “New York Sun,” and later republished in newspapers all over the country. Here is “Designed Confederate Button” from the Lindsbourg Record in Kansas (Lindsbourg, Kansas, 13 July 1900, page 4).

“Of the many former confederate veterans who wear the button of the confederate veteran’s association very few know that the design of the button was first drawn by a union officer. The designer was Lieut. R. M. Shurtleff and he drew the original design without any idea that it would ever be officially adopted by the confederate army. This is how the matter came about, as Lieut. Shurtleff tells the story:

A few days before the first battle of Bull Run he was sent out on a small scouting expedition with a small party of men of the naval brigade Ninety-ninth New York volunteers, union coast guard, in which organizations he was the first lieutenant. He was to make a report on the condition of the country in front of the union forces. While reconnoitering with his party he was surprised and attacked by a much larger force of confederates, and after being shot through the body and arm, was captured with all his men. The small union flag which the artillery carried was used to bind up the leader’s wounds, and today Lieut. Shurtleff has in his possession, the officer who captured him having sent it to him with his compliments many years after the close of the war. For a time his condition was very serious, but his captors gave him the best care they could and as soon as possible he was sent to Richmond where he had hospital care. At that time the confederates were not well furnished with prison quarters for captives. Libby prison not having been opened, and the lieutenant eventually brought up in the Richmond poorhouse, where he had little to eat, but was treated very kindly.

Still weak from the effects of his wounds, he was unable to walk about and spend much of his time while lying on his cot in making drawings for his own amusement and for he edification of the soldiers. The officers got paints and brushes for him and he made water color sketches which he presented to them. One day one of the officers who had been very kind to him came to his cot and said, “I wonder if you could design a sort of patriotic emblem for me. ‘I might,’ replied the prisoner smiling, ‘but I suspect that your idea and mine of what a patriotic emblem is wouldn’t quite be identical.” “Very likely not,” agreed the other, “but this isn’t anything that you need to trouble your conscience about. Gen. Beauregard’s little daughter is a great chum of mine, and I promised her I’d get up some sort of a painting of a confederate flag for her to hang on her wall. I’ve been trying to think up something, but as a designer I’m no use. So it occurred to me that you might help me out.” “Why, of course, I’ll be glad to do whatever I can,” said Lieut. Shurtleff. Give me a few days’ time, and I’ll get something done in water colors.”

Getting out his paints, he set to work to sketch, and presently, with the instinct of an artist, became deeply absorbed in the manner of the design, working all that day and getting up early the next morning to continue the task, discarding one idea after another until he finally hit upon a design that suited him. This was the St. Andrew’s cross in blue on a red ground with minor ornamentation of stars. He finished it up handsomely in watercolors and turned it over to his confederate friend, who was much pleased with it and brought back word that little Miss Beauregard was highly delighted, and was going to importune her father to let the Yankee gentleman who made it go back north. Shortly afterward Lieut. Shurtleff was transferred to Libby prison, and in 1862 was exchanged.

He forgot about the design for the time. A year or so later it was called to his attention in rather a startling way as he saw a captured confederate flag consisting of his design almost exactly as he had painted it. Still later he saw an official flag of the confederate states of America, and there was another repetition of the design, for it formed the entire corner of the ensign. Naturally, the artist was not pleased with his friend, the confederate officer, who had put him in the position of furnishing flag designs for enemies of his country. From what he has since learned, however, Lieut. Shurtleff is inclined to believe that the officer was not in fault.

It seems that Gen. Beauregard saw the painting which had been given to his daughter, and on asking her about it was told that it was a flag of her country and belonged to her personally. He suggested that she present it to her country, and after some consideration she agreed, stipulating that the original be returned to her after copies had been made. The flag was then produced in cloth and Gen. Beauregard had it adopted as the battle flag of the confederacy. Just how it came to be incorporated into the official flag Lieut. Shurtleff doesn’t know. At the close of the war the southern association of veterans adopted the original battle flag design for their button, and all the confederate veterans’ associations now wear that design with some slight modifications or additions. Meantime Lieut. Shurtleff would be interested in finding out the exact steps by which the adoption of his watercolor as the basis of the national flag of the confederacy was brought about. There is probably some one still living who could enlighten him, but he doesn’t know how to come at the information.”

To be continued…

This confederate flag was listed for auction. The flag had been made by William Lumsden’s wife, Annie Suter Lumsden, during the Siege of Petersburg, and that Mrs. Lumsden had displayed the flag from the house that the Lumdsens then occupied, in Petersburg, in support of the Confederate troops. Lumsden would, after the war, become a successful businessman, working with a fellow ex-Confederate solider, William Tappey, to form Tappey, Lumsden & Company, in Petersburg; this company fabricated machinery for the textile industry. Lumsden, who died in 1886, is buried in the famed Blandford Cemetery Confederate Soldier’s section, in Petersburg, Va. The link is: http://perryadamsantiques.com/shop/rare-confederate-citizens-flag-from-petersburg/

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 448: Thomas G. Moses and R. M. Shurtleff

Part 448: Thomas G. Moses and R. M. Shurtleff

I return to the life and times of Thomas Gibbs Moses in 1903. Moses was living in Mt. Vernon, New York, and was running the scenic studio of Moses & Hamilton in New York City. His his business partner was William F. Hamilton. Everything was on an upward swing, but it wouldn’t last for long. In less than a year, his he would return to Sosman & Landis in Chicago. When looking at the entire context of Moses’ career, this was his last true ascent before starting a slow decline from this pinnacle. There would still be many highlights, but Moses would always lament leaving New York and the potential that seemed possible in the fine art work there. In New York, he was able to study landscape painting with the famous artist R. M. Shurtleff.

In 1903, Moses wrote, “I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. R. M. Shurtleff, the famous interior wood painter. I showed him some of my sketches and he was rather pleased with them. So much so, that he finally agreed to take me on as a pupil. I could only spare a day each week, but that gave me great insight into his successful methods. I had been an admirer of his work for thirty years.”

Roswell Morse Shurtleff (1838-1915) was born in Rindge, New Hampshire, to Asahel Dewey and Eliza (Morse) Shurtleff. His firs studies were at Dartmouth College. Leaving the institution in 1857, he later received an honorary BS in 1882, suggesting that he never completed his initial studies. In 1857, Shurtleff took charge of an architect’s office in Manchester, New York. By 1858 he moved to Buffalo, New York, and began working in the field of lithography. He continued his artistic studies at the Lowell Institute of Boston, later attending the Academy of Design in New York from 1860 to 1861. There he worked as an illustrator for newspapers and engravers. He halted all artistic training to enter the Civil War in 1861, initially helping to organize the famous “naval bridgade” for the protection of Washington. His grandfather had as also a soldier, having served in the Revolutionary war with Gen. Peleg Wadsworth’s brigade. The elder Shurtleff had also fought in the battle of White Plains and later in the War of 1812.

R. M. Shurtleff enlisted in the Ninety-ninth New York Volunteers on April 16, 1861. Soon after, he was wounded and taken prisoner while on a scouting expedition. As a Southern Prisoner, he was held in Richmond and detained until February 22, 1962. It was often reported that he was the first officer to be captured as a prisoner of war.

After the Civil War, Shurtleff married Clara E. Halliday (b. 1846) on June 13, 1867. She was the daughter of Joseph B. and Eleanor (Carrier) Halliday of Hartford, Connecticut (Hartford Courant, 7 Jan. 1915, page 19). The marriage never produced any children.

It was during the late 1860s that Shurtleff tried his hand at magazine and book illustration. His projects included designing the cover for an edition of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass.” He worked for the American Publishing Company in Hartford and also did several illustrations for Mark Twain’s “Innocent’s Abroad” and “Roughing It.” It was not until 1870, that Shurtleff began his fine art career in oils and watercolors in earnest. He opened a studio at the Charter Oak Building on Main Street in Hartford. In the beginning, he painted animals, but later focused on woodland landscapes.

Sketch by R. M. Shurtleff published in an Art Magazine

In 1881, he became an Associate of the National Academy of Design and was elected a National Academician in 1890. Shurtleff was also a member of the American Watercolor Society. His artistic awards included a bronze medal at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, a bronze medal at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition, and the Evans Prize of the American Watercolor Society in 1910. For thirty years he maintained a studio in New York City, spending his summers in the Adirondack mountains and painting scenes in the forests. His paintings are in prominent collection throughout the United States, including the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Paintingl by R. M. Shurtleff, posted at www.1stdibs.com

Painted detail by R. M. Shurtleff, posted at www.1stdibs.com

On January 6, 1915, newspapers reported that the artist Shurtless fell dead of heart disease in front of 860 Ninth Avenue (The Sun, 7 Jan. 1915, page 13). Shurtleff was on an errand for his wife, Clara, and possibly entering a pharmacy at the time. He was only 78 years old. I could not help think of another mentor of Moses’ who suffered the same fate a few years earlier on the Streets of Chicago – David Austin Strong. Shurtleff was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Sons of the Revolution, the Salmagundi Club, and a variety of other social clubs.

Almost three decades later in 1932, Moses remembered his time spent with Shurtleff in New York. Moses recorded,” My love for the deep forests led me to the Studio of R. M. Shurtleff in New York, whom I considered a wonderful painter of the woods. I was very happy when he consented to take me on as a pupil. When he suggested my joining the famous Salmagundi Club I was doubtful if I could make it. As the picture I gave the club for my initiation fee was sold to one of the club members, this alone placed me in a good position and had I remained in New York instead of coming to Chicago I feel that I would have forged ahead in the higher art, and would have succeeded.” Shurtleff sponsored Moses’s membership in the Salmagundi Club during 1904. Later that same year that he would return to lead the paint shop at the Sosman & Landis studio. The frantic pace of the studio and numerous Masonic project coming in would slow down Moses’ fine art studies.

Of his own artistic style, Moses wrote, “My painting is of the old school, which to me is what I see in nature, my honest impression, which I have been honest in expressing the same – while some of the young artists just starting in the art world are being convinced that the radical modern idea is one big school to follow. I will cling to the Hudson River School of Painting that made George Innes, R. M. Shurtleff, A. H. Wyant, Robert Minor and many more. There are too many so-called “Moderns” that know very little of the rudiments of art, faulty in drawing and color.”

Later in life, it must have been hard to see everything that Moses had worked so hard to achieve challenged, dismissed and then dismantled. Moses would repeatedly mention Shurtleff throughout his memoirs and his instruction in landscape painting. In 1932, Moses wrote, “In 1904, I was at the peak of landscape painting in New York City, encouraged by my dear old friend, R. M. Shurtleff, N. A.” Moses would continue, “we scenic artists have a hard time [convincing] our brother artists that we are something more than mere craftsmen.”

To be continued…

Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: Making My Way to Salina, Kansas, on June 29

Making My Way to Salina, Kansas, on June 29

As I planned our return trip from Santa Fe, I wanted to visit the Scottish Rite theater in Salina, Kansas, to meet the new steward of the Masonic Center –Mary Landes, the founder of Salina Innovation Foundation. The organization intends to keep the Masonic Center ownership local, for use by the community to foster arts, education, culinary, and business in Salina.\

Front curtain for the Salina Scottish Rite stage. Photograph from the 2010 scenery evaluation.

In 2010, I had the pleasure of evaluating the Salina scenery for the Salina Scottish Rite on one of my many trips to McAlester, Oklahoma, where I was restoring the Scottish Rite scenery there.

Looking up into the flies above the Salina Scottish Rite stage. Photograph from my 2010 visit

I wanted to see the scenery collection that was originally created for the McAlester Scottish Rite’s stage before their current 1929 home. The McAlester scenery was resold to Salina for their 1927 building. In 1922 the Salina Masons began planning a new Masonic complex that would be completed five years later.

McAlester sold the 1908 scenery to Salina when their third stage was constructed in 1929. Thomas G. Moses also listed both the 1908 and 1929 McAlester scenery in his resume as two of the installations under his supervision. In 1928, Moses created new designs and started painting the scenery for the 1929 McAlester Scottish Rite stage. An earlier scenery collection for McAlester was sold to the Santa Fe Scottish Rite in 1908 when the second Scottish Rite stage in McAlester was completed.

A photograph of the Scottish Rite scenery in McAlester, Oklahoma, 1904. This building was known as “The Tabernacle.” It’s scenery was sold to the Santa Fe Scottish Rite in 1908.

The 1908 McAlester stage replaced an earlier Masonic stage in a building called “The Tabernacle.” I photographed images of the Tabernacle stage scenery while restoring ye collection in McAlester. The Scottish Rite had several original photographs of the 1904 stage and scenery in a display case. At the time, I documented these precious photographs, as their placement in glass display cases subject to direct sunlight were taking their toll. Amazingly, I found the link between Santa Fe and McAlester while doing research for the Santa Fe Scottish Rite book. Here is a little historical context to explain the relationship between the Scottish Rite scenery collections in Santa Fe, New Mexico; McAlester, Oklahoma; and Salina, Kansas.

The Sovereign Grand Inspector General for Oklahoma until 1908 was Harper S. Cunningham. He had started out as Deputy for the Supreme Council of the Southern Jurisdiction in Indian Territory. In 1908, he transferred to Santa Fe, New Mexico. While advising on the planning and construction for the new 1912 Santa Fe Scottish Rite building, he encouraged the Santa Fe Scottish Rite to purchase the used scenery from McAlester. His reasoning was so that the members could practice the theatrical staging of degree productions during the construction phase of their 1912 theater. This is the same theater featured in “The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple: Freemasonry, Architecture and Theatre” (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2018).

In Moses’ scrapbook, he pasted a newspaper clipping about the used McAlester Scottish Rite scenery collection that was purchased by the Salina Scottish Rite in 1927. The article reported, ”The one hundred and seventeen drops of scenery that has been in use on the old stage for twenty-five years, has been sold to the Scottish Rite Bodies of Salina, Kansas, and it has been shipped to them. There was nearly a carload of it. Brother John T. Leibrand, 33°, Wise Master of South McAlester Chapter of Rose Croix, negotiated the sale to the Salina brethren who came to McAlester to inspect it. The scenery was painted by Brother Tom Moses under the direction of that great Scottish Rite Mason and student Bestor G. Brown, and was said to be the finest in the Southern Jurisdiction at the time. Brother Tom Moses is painting the scenery for our new stage settings. He is also building stage properties, and all will be the last thing in that line. The brother that does not see this great stage and these wonderful properties at our Fall Reunion will miss something. The Salina brethren are negotiating with Brother John G. Redpath, who had charge of the old stage for years, to superintend the hanging of the drops in their temple.” This used scenery collection was clearly marked with standard Sosman & Landis labeling in charcoal on both the stage right and stage left sides. The charcoal notations denote the degree; the size of 18 feet high by 36 feet wide; and the original venue as “So. McAlester.”

Before Salina purchased the 1908 collection from McAlester, they contracted Sosman & Landis to produced their original 1901 scenery. This installation was also listed on Moses’ resumé, but not recorded in his typed manuscript. I am hesitant to believe that Moses painted the 1901 Salina scenery, as he was quite busy with other projects and had left Sosman & Landis by 1901 to partner with Will Hamiton, forming Moses & Hamilton (1901-1904). The Moses & Hamilton studio offices and paint frames were all located in New York City. My research suggests that the original 1901 Salina Scottish Rite scenery was primarily painted by David Austin Strong, the Sosman & Landis artist who Moses referred to as the “Daddy of Masonic Design.” Strong was one of the original artists hired by Sosman when the studio opened and worked closely with Moses in the early years. Strong was also a Scottish Rite Mason in Chicago’s Oriental Consistory. In the context of theatre history, Strong was one of the original scenic artists for “The Black Crook” at Niblo’s Garden in 1866. Strong’s painting is still visible in scenery currently used at Scottish Rite theaters in Austin, Texas; Yankton, South Dakota; Pasadena, California; and Cheyenne, Wyoming.

One of the Scottish Rite drops in Salina, Kansas, that was originally produced for the Scottish Rite in McAlester, Oklahoma.

But the current Scottish Rite scenery in Salina, Kansas, has another story connected to the venue; one that I discovered during the 2010 evaluation. On November 13^th 1923, the Secretary of the Salina Scottish Rite received a letter from the executive offices of the Sosman & Landis Company, with a stamp noting that their new offices were now located at 6751 Sheridan Road. The letterhead also contained the address of their previous office location at 417 South Clinton Street in Chicago. In 1923, a new scenic studio was leasing the old Sosman & Landis space at 417-419 Clinton Street; the company was Chicago Studios.

In retaliation for Chicago Studios pretending to be Sosman & Landis, Perry Landis contacted many of the Scottish Rite venues 1923. The Sosman & Landis letter said,

“Dear Sir:

It has recently come to our attention that a certain studio is advising our old customers that they have bought the Sosman & Landis Company and are now operating some, combining it with their original company. We wish to assure you that this is not fact and that our original organization is intact, but our studio has been moved to new and better quarters. Mr. Thomas G. Moses, our Art Director would like the opportunity of meeting with your scenery committee to submit our designs and specifications covering your requirements. You will perhaps recall that we were favored with your original scenery order, working through the M. C. Lilley Co., and therefore, it is not necessary for us to give you any reference as to our ability and quality of our workmanship.” They were referring to the scenery created for Salina’s first Scottish Rite stage and before the purchase of the used 1908 scenery from McAlester, Oklahoma.

To be continued…

Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: A Visit to the Tabor House in Leadville, Colorado on June 18, 2018

A Visit to the Tabor House in Leadville, Co. June 18, 2018

We left Denver at 7am and headed to Leadville, Colorado. I had a 10am appointment with the executive director of the Tabor Opera House. Normally a two-hour trip, we planned on an extra hour for sightseeing, stopping several times along the way for “scenic overlooks” and “points of interest.” As we left Denver, overcast skies turned into puffy clouds scattered across brilliant blue skies.

One of our stops was in the town of Frisco. The name rang a bell and I soon realized that it was because Thomas G. Moses mentioned the town during his 1884 sketching trip to Colorado. This was his trip with tree other scenic artists to see the mountains.

The town of Frisco, Colorado, where Thomas G. Moses visited in 1884.

Frisco is situated on the shores of Lake Dillon, seventy miles west of Denver. Henry Recen founded the town after a mining boom in the 1870s and soon boasted two railroads, many businesses, hotels, and saloons. The town was the center of mining activity because of the railroads and a stagecoach stop, serving as the gateway to the towns and mines in Ten Mile Canyon. It later became the sleepy little town that Moses encountered during his 1884 sketching trip. Of Frisco, Moses wrote, “We soon came to a little cemetery. One rough head-board had the following epitaph, printed with black letters: ‘Here lies the body of John Sands. A Frisco miner, an honest man and an old timer.’ No dates nor age. Near by was the small town of Frisco, which at one time was a prosperous mining town of about three thousand inhabitants. The mines gave out, no one stayed, and homes and stores were left to the elements. As we struck the main street we looked about, but we couldn’t see a living thing, excepting a few chickens which convinced us, however, that someone must have stayed. The feeling we had among the deserted homes and stores was rater uncanny. The buildings had been hastily built; all very rough, and very few of them had been painted. The signboards were a hot, badly spelled and very typical of a frontier mining town; a regular mushroom town – it grew over night.”

After enjoying the bustling town, getting the contact for the city historian and walking about the marina, we headed to the Tabor Opera House in Leadville for our 10am meeting. I had asked Ziska Childs to join me on this particular adventure and we spent the morning looking at historic scenery produced by Kansas City Scenic Company. The drops are suspended by a hemp system – no counterweights or sand bags. As at the Brown Grand Opera House in Concordia, Kansas, the drops are raised and lowered by an individual pulling the full weight on the three ropes that are connected to the drop’s top batten. I was fortunate to help at one point and able to examine the pin rail and rigging. While assisting with one line, I was delighted to discover that the original paint frame that was still suspended from one of the lines. No, we didn’t lower it. I was told that it takes three men to handle the lines when either raising or lowering it!

Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado

The Tabor Opera House in Leadville, Colorado

Wood scene with backdrop, two legs and a foliage border.

The four historic scenes at the Tabor Opera House include a drop curtain, a garden drop, a landscape and a street scene by Kansas City Scenic.

Front drop curtain at he Tabor Opera House

Detail of drop curtain at he Tabor Opera House

“Kansas City Scenic Co.” on bottom right corner of the front curtain in the Tabor Opera House, Leadville, CO.

Pin rail above the stage to raise and lower drops.

There are other historic scenery pieces along the back wall that were too buried to uncovered. There area also older roll drops, wings, and profile pieces are stored in the attic for both this stage and the previous stage before the Elks altered the building in 1901. Unrolling a few backdrops will be part of my morning adventures today. The Executive director explained that the scenery has been rolled up for over a century. I am curious to see what the original 1879 scenery in the attic looks like from the original stage.

The existing fly drops above the Tabor Opera House stage were produced by Kansas City Scenic. Lemuel L. Graham (1845-1914), a previous employee of Sosman & Landis, as well as one-time business partner of Thomas G. Moses founded this studio. Moses left the Sosman & Landis studio during May 1882 to partner with Graham. That year Moses recorded that while they were working on the Redmond Opera House project in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Graham boarded at a hotel and fell in love with the head waitress, eventually marrying her. Moses wrote, “she proved to be a good wife and good mother.” Moses wrote that Graham “was a regular Shylock, a good fellow and a hard worker, but altogether too close to please me.”

The partnership of Moses & Graham only lasted a little over a year. In 1883 they returned to the Sosman & Landis studio. After Moses and Landis encountered each other while bidding on the same job, they rode the train back together for Chicago. Sosman met them at the station and the three discussed a possible return. Sosman & Landis wanted Moses and Graham back, they were each offered $45.00 a week. Moses wired Graham their proposal, but Graham was not so eager to accept and countered “$50.00 and extras.” The studio agreed and on May 1, 1883, Moses and Graham were both painting in the Sosman & Landis studios again. It lasted less than a year for Graham, however, and in 1884, he left Sosman & Landis to form Kansas City Scenic Co.

To be continued…

Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: A Visit to the Omaha Scottish Rite on June 15, 2018

I take a brief break from the “Tales of a Scenic Artist and Scholar” storyline as I travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico for the book release (“The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple: Freemasonry, Architecture and Theatre”). For the next three weeks, I will post about historic theaters that we visit on our journey. Yesterday, we visited the Omaha Scottish Rite. We are now on our way to the Hastings Scottish Rite and the Minden Opera House, landing in Cheyenne, Wyoming, tonight. I’ll keep you posted as I start the short series: Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Here is the first installment. Pictures of the Omaha Scottish Rite were posted yesterday.

Travels of a Scenic Artist and Scholar: Omaha Scottish Rite. June 15, 2018

We were able examine all of the backdrops at the Scottish Rite Theatre in Omaha, Nebraska, yesterday morning. The current Omaha Scottish Rite building constructed in 1914 at 20th and Douglas Streets, with the first Scottish Rite Reunion in the space being held that fall. It is now using scenery purchased from the Valley of Kansas City (Kansas) in 1996 for $40,000. This current scenery dates from the 1950s and will be described at the end.

In 1914, the “Omaha Daily Bee” described, “The new Scottish Rite Cathedral is a three-story structure, with high basement, built of Bedford granite, with imposing Ionic columns and porticos. The auditorium on the second and third floors where the initiations will take place, is an attractive modern theater, with a stage 30×40 feet and a seating capacity of about 1,000. It is tinted in cream and pink decorated panels and has all the arrangements for lighting, stage settings and precautions against fire, of the most up to the minute theater. It has a wardrobe and paraphernalia room adjoining” (1 Nov. 1914, page 25). No mention was made of the company that was providing the stage settings – VERY odd and unlike the opening of any other Scottish Rite in the country at the time.

M. C. Lilley subcontracted the 1914 set of scenery for Omaha to Sosman & Landis in Chicago during 1914. Thomas G. Moses confirmed this in his diary that year recording, “Some new Masonic work for Omaha.” Sosman and Landis had also created an earlier set for the Valley of Omaha to use at their previous space. During 1914, Sosman & Landis were creating Scottish Rite scenery for Grand Forks, ND, that “furnished a lot of work for the boys.” They also started the Pittsburgh Scottish Rite scenery collection of 100 drops. Regarding that project, Moses wrote that the job “will keep us busy for a long time.”

This was also the same year that Joseph S. Sosman passed away on August 7,, 1914, and the board of directors elected Moses as the company’s new president. He recorded, “On the 10th, a stockholders meeting was called and I was elected president of the Sosman and Landis Company. Arthur Sosman was elected vice-president and P. Lester Landis, secretary and treasurer. It is very strange to me that I had never given this change of the business a thought. I had never thought of Sosman dying.”

This is a horrible turn of events forever changed the fate of the studio; it placed a scenic artist in charge of a scenic studio that specialized in Scottish Rite scenery without any Scottish Rite Mason on staff. Sosman had been the driving force for years, as he was a well-respected Scottish Rite Mason in Chicago, a member of the Oriental Consistory. There was a new problem; Moses was not yet a Mason who understood how to navigate the Fraternity, or manage all of the necessary administrative duties at the studio that Sosman knew so well. Moses was, after all, primarily a scenic artist, stage mechanic, and designer.
Yet there was one other complication in 1914 that I just discoveredwhile reading “The Omaha Valley Scottish Rite Freemasonry, 1867-2014” by Wm. Larry Jacobsen. This book was a parting gift in Omaha, given to me by our wonderful guide Micah Evans. Interestingly, there was a misunderstanding on who was responsible for the structural work necessary to support the scenic drops. Part of the standard procedure for Scottish Rite scenery installations at that time was that they were suspended from “Brown’s special system.” This was named after the M C. Lilley western sales representative and Scottish Rite Mason, Bestor G. Brown. It would be atypical that someone, or any company, besides M. C. Lilley or Sosman & Landis would install 1914 stage machinery to accept their painted scenery.

Furthermore, Jacobsen writes that “M. C. Lilley suffered further anguish when the Omaha Valley reduced the number of drops to 34 from its original 80 because of the price” (page 44). This number, however, obviously increased as there are sixty line sets today. Jacobsen also explains that “after numerous communications, a general agreement was reached in January 1915 and the scene drops were ready for the Spring 1915 Reunion.” To NOT have the scenery for the opening of a building that cost a quarter million dollars instead of the anticipated 60,000 must have been embarrassing. The entire endeavor was incredibly over budget and would have been quite a scandal.

Fast forward to 1996 when the Valley of Kansas City put it’s building on the market and moved to a new location. They had a set of scenery produced by the Great Western Stage Equipment Company of Kansas City from the 1950s. I had discovered this sale while researching Scottish Rite compositions for my doctoral dissertation; the entire set of backdrops was posted online at the time. $140, 000 was spent to remove the drops from Kansas City, transport them to Omaha, and install the new drops.

So, what I was able to add to this Great Western Stage Equipment Company acquisition story was the specific artist who painted the drops. You see, in 1989, I processed the scenery designs for the Great Western Stage Equipment Company collection at the University of Minnesota Performing Arts archives. Like the Atlanta Scottish Rite, the scenic artist responsible for the Omaha Scottish right was Maj. Don Carlos DuBois (pronounced “due-boys”).
DuBois is unique, as he signed many of his backdrops – sometimes in a cute little beetle logo, and always with the date. He was also reprimanded in writing by his superiors to not put the names of living people on painted gravestones in the 30th degree catacombs drop. Clearly they couldn’t take a joke.

Images for several of the backdrops and were posted yesterday on my public FB page Dry Pigment. I will upload some later, as I am having internet issues on the road.

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 447 – Thomas G. Moses and “Egyptia”

Part 447: Thomas G. Moses and “Egyptia”

In 1902, Thomas G. Moses listed the some of the shows that he worked on during 1902. He listed “Egyptia” – as “a big spectacle.” Of all the shows that Moses listed in 1902, this one stumped me. I found a small reference to a collection of operas online, titled “Egyptia.” That year, there was also a patent for a new paint called “Egyptia.” The Dayton, Ohio Roofing Co. filed to use the label for roof-paints or paints for metal and composite roofing (The Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office, 38.133, Washington, D.C., 15 April 1902, page 210). The patent wasn’t issued due to a prior use of the name since 1897. Although interesting tidbits, nothing seemed to fit Moses’ description for a spectacle called “Egyptia.” Then I discovered a newspaper article that featured the star of an Italian acrobatic troupe – “Egyptia.” This possibly was the spectacle that Moses was referring to in hos memoirs.

I have noticed that much scenery for American spectacles during the late nineteenth century was produced for productions that featured acrobatic acts. One example is the extensive scenery produced by the Hanlon Brothers to accompany their shows; lovely backdrops, mechanical stage effects and transition scenes were all part of the act. In fact, the Hanlon Brothers hired William Knox Brown as one of their stage mechanics to develop scenic effects in their Massachusetts studio (see past installment #155). Brown later became one of the three founders for the Twin City Scenic Co. in Minneapolis Minnesota (1894-1979).

“Egyptia Picchiani” may, or may not, be the Egyptia spectacle that Moses produced scenery for in 1902. Regardless, it is a fascinating read that I am going to share.

A picture of Egyptia Picchiani, from the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch,” July 3, 1902

Here is the article from “The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (3 July 1902, page 2):

“Seven girl gymnasts from the sunny shores of Italy are one of the big attractions at Forest Park Highlands this week. Women gymnasts are rare, and rarest of all are they when they do their feats in parlor clothes.

The seven Picchiana Sisters come on the stage in swell satin dresses, cut low and short sleeves. The skirts of their costumes have ruffles and frills. Their hair is coiffured as if they were going to a ball, and adorned with side combs, satin and velvet bows, and even flowers. Nothing gets out of place in all the somersaulting, hand-springing and tumbling they do.

The Picchianis were born in Florence. Their father was a noted acrobat, who has just celebrated his fiftieth stage anniversary. He is still in the business, although not as nimble as formerly. He taught all his children to become acrobats and began their education, when 2 years old. The troupe now at the Highlands began to show for the first time on any stage at Alexandria, Egypt, in 1890. Eight years before that date Egyptia Pichiani was born in the Nile country, hence her name. Signor Picchiani, brother of the seven sisters, who is with them on the stage, says that at first they did their act in tights.

‘Then we switched to dresses,’ said he the other night, as he mopped the perspiration from his face after a particularly difficult feat. ‘It took four years of hard practicing before we were able to do in skirts what we had done all our lives in tights. Since then we have played in every large theatre in the world.

‘My sister, Egyptia, who does some of the most daring things of all the girls is now 19 years old. Like myself, she went on stage when she was 2 years old. She does some very difficult things, but the feat which is original with us is the cross-pver somersault. Egyptia is on my shoulders, Louise on the shoulder of our eldest sister. They pass each other from shoulder to shoulder, making a double somersault. No other company does that. We were a year practicing before we attempted it for the first time in public. It requires some wonderful close gauging, and no one has ever imitated it as it is too risky.’

The Picchiani practice every morning on the stage of Forest Park Highlands just as hard, as if they were novices in the business. Last Sunday night Louise Picchiani missed in the difficult shoulder to shoulder turn.

The second time she accomplished it without a hitch. But there was a great row afterwards back of the stage, because of that one failure.”

To be continued…