Category: Volland Scenic Studio

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 639 – Operating Means for Curtain Drops, Victor H. Volland in 1926

A little more than a decade after Seth G. Bailey invented an electrical mechanism for handling hanging scenery, Victor H. Volland came up with another option to handle scenery. In 1930, the United States Patent Office published an application filed on August 23, 1926 for operating curtain drops.

Victor H. Volland filed a patent in 1926 to operate scenery. Here are the drawings.
Victor H. Volland filed a patent in 1926 to operate scenery. Here is a detail.
Victor H. Volland filed a patent in 1926 to operate scenery. Here is a detail.

Victor H. Volland of Clayton Missouri, assignor to Volland Scenic Studio, Inc. of St. Louis Missouri, a corporation of Missouri submitted an application for a patent pertaining to the “Operating Means of Curtain Drops.” Victor wrote, “My invention related to improvements in means for operating curtain drops, in which each curtain drop together with hoisting mechanism and other accessories are combined into a single unit.”

Victor H. Volland was Hugo R. Volland’s son. Hugo R. Volland (1866-1921) founded a scenic studio in St. Louis, Missouri with Patrick J. Toomey (1861-1922) called Toomey & Volland at the turn of the twentieth century. Here’s little background about the inventor of the patent’s family.

Hugo R. Volland was born on May 6, 1866 in Großenbach, Germany. He was first listed as a St. Louis resident in 1888, living with his brother Otto and advertising as a painter. He worked for Noxon & Toomey as a studio as a scenic artist and secretary for the firm in 1892. By 1901, Hugo R. became vice-president of Noxon & Toomey. In 1902, the firm’s name was changed to Toomey & Volland. Toomey remained president of the company until 1919 when he retired. Hugo R. then became president, with his youngest son being vice-president.

Hugo R. and his wife Laura had three children – Louis J. (1897-1973), Victor H. (1899-1964) and Rose M. daughter, Rose (married name was Rose du Mosch). We are going to focus on the sons for now.

Even though Victor H. was the youngest son, he would be the first successor of Hugo R after his passing in 1921. Victor H. joined the United states Army during July 1918 (Private, 332nd Battalion, Company A). He entered the Tank Corps and sailed Sept. 29, 1918, landing at Bordeaux where he was stationed at Langres, France.

He safely returned home from military service and married by 1920. Victor became the secretary for Toomey & Volland and continued in this position until his father’s death in 1921. At this point the company began to change, as Toomey had already retired three years prior to Victor taking the reign from his father. When Victor became president of the company, his older brother Louis became the vice-president. At this time there was a notable shift in the tenor of the company.

There was also a shift in studio locations. In 1900, Toomey & Volland studio was located at 2312-14-16 Market Street, just outside the downtown theatre district. This lot was owned by Toomey. In 1922, Toomey & Volland scenic studios moved to a new location at 3731-33-35-37 Cass Avenue. Hugo R. never saw the completion of the new building as he died of heart disease before its completion. His wife Laura also passed away from heart disease, just a few months later; she died in a theater.

Patrick Toomey died from a heart attack in 1922 only a year after Volland passing. His passing was the same month that the studio was anticipated to open – March. Toomey’s only son followed a different path in life and the scenic studio was under the complete control of the Volland family. To lose the two founders within a year, caused major changes in the company’s focus. The production of painted scenery at the studio began to take a back seat, and the manufacture theatrical equipment assumed a more dominant role. Furthermore, the name of Toomey was removed from the firm, beginning the age of Volland Scenic Studios, Inc.

Imagine my surprise yesterday evening, to see a detail photo of a fly rail with lights that looked like Volland’s drawing from his patent on FB Group Archiving Technical Theatre History. On February 7, 2019, Robert Bob Foreman posted a photograph with “Has anyone ever seen one of these? Mounted to the flyrail of the 1927 (Kalamazoo) State Theatre, it appears to be a series of cue lights, with switches operated by the cue-ee! System installer unknown.”

1927 State Theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan
Drawing from Victor H. Volland’s patent, filed in 1926

In all appearances, it looked like a part of what Volland invented in 1926. Attached is the 1926 patent with images. Volland’s patent described, “Mounted in the guard box 18 is an incandescent lamp 19 provided with a switch 20, said guard box being secured to a forwardly projecting end of the top member 11. At a particular time during a theatrical performance the map 19 may be caused to light, indicating to an attendant that a certain curtain is wanted, and by opening the lock 12 and pulling the rope 7, the curtain is raised or lowered as desired. Prior to this invention such devices were without individual locking devices and signal lamps.”

To be continued…

Tales from a Scenic Artist and Scholar. Part 92 – The Volland Collection at the St. Louis Scottish Rite Library

Every once in a while, the universe sends you a signal that you are on the right path regardless of recent obstacles. My trip to the St. Louis Scottish Rite theater and library was a success. Several loose ends were tied up for me in terms of both the evolution of Masonic scenery and its future preservation.

As I reached for the last Volland Studio folder in the library during March of 2017, I had a sense of profound relief. For months, I had been working at warp speed and the pace was staring to wear me out. That morning, there had not been a moment to spare, as I needed to quickly return to the conference center for USITT activities. I reached for the final folder labeled “Miscellaneous,” wondering if this might include Shrine or Grotto materials. When I looked at the first photograph, however, time seemed to stop. I just sat there staring at an image. This was a momentous discovery.

Volland scenic artist sketching foreground of camp scene for St. Louis Scottish Rite scenery collection, 1924. Photograph by Waszut-Barrett, March 2017.

I silently regarded this depiction of a Volland scenic artist sketching out a camp scene, the same one created for the Valley of St. Louis in 1924. The caption on the photograph even read, “painting a 32’ x 90’ drop on a 60’ paint frame.” I was too excited to speak for a minute and then called over to the librarian. By now, John was a little immune to my gasps of delight as I paged through dozens of degree production designs. “Here is a picture of a scenic artist working on the camp scene from your collection,” I said. John raised his eyebrows and came over to my table. “Really?” he drawled, “How can you tell?”

St. Louis Scottish Rite camp scene. Photograph by Waszut-Barrett, March 2017.
St. Louis Scottish Rite camp backdrop. Photograph by Waszut-Barrett, March 2017.

First of all, I photographed the scene from the same angle. I then pointed to the caption, explaining, “The note at the bottom verifies the same width of ninety feet! This is not a standard size for Masonic scenery.” It was rumored that a special building had been constructed to produce the extremely wide scenery and I had always wondered about the validity of that statement. If a special building had been created for this particular installation, the paint frame would have measured the same size as the drops. During my evaluation, I had not encountered enough scenery to justify the expense of new structure.

Toomey & Volland had built a new studio just prior to producing the St. Louis Scottish Rite scenery and I had recently acquired that image for my files. Six months earlier, I had discovered the Toomey & Volland’s advertisement depicting the construction of their 1922 studio.

This had been one of many unique finds at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas. That entire trip during October of 2016 continued to bear fruit for my own personal research projects.

I now added a photograph of a studio painting portions of a drop at a time. This was a process that I had read about and actually done myself when I had a limited paint area. For the St. Louis collection, it meant painting two-thirds of the drop and then shifting over the entire composition. Having done this for much smaller drops, I knew what a pain this must have been and marveled at the difficulty to shift a scene of that size. The photograph also showed the painting process as the scenic artist was working on the final part of the composition, the foreground.

Photographs of scenic artists painting scenery in studios are common. Finding the corresponding painted scene to accompany the photograph is unusual. What an exciting discovery! Here was one more find that contributed to the rich context surrounding the evolution of Scottish Rite scenery.

To be continued…