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From the
program book given to guests who attended the Iroquois
Theater premiere on November 23, 1903:
The asbestos, or fireproof curtain, shows a summer scene on the Mohawk river,
made from a sketch by the artist himself, from
which, however, he has eliminated every semblance of
modern civilization, with the view of illustrating
the historic valley as it might have appeared 150
years ago when its banks were peopled with the
Iroquois Indians only.
The act drop is a study rich
and mellow in autumnal tints. It is a landscape
also, and treated in Mr. Lewis' best style.
The plush curtain, which is of rich velvet
of a beautiful red to harmonize with the color of
the auditorium, is ornamented with a portrait of
Sagoyawata [Sagoyewatha], or Red Jacket, a chief of
the Senecas, and later the most celebrated chief in
all the tribes in that confederacy of Indians known
as the Six Nations, or Iroquois, after which the
theatre is named. This curtain was made and
ornamented by Marshall Field & Co., who also furnish
the draperies."
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St. John Lewis (1866–1915), a native of Britain
(immigrated in 1890), was a noted scenic designer
and theatrical curtain painter. Soon after his
arrival in America, he was hired by
photographer Frank Jay Haynes to paint scenes of Yellowstone
Park that Haynes then offered for sale in his booth
at the park. * Lewis became a favorite of the
theatrical syndicate, painting curtains at the Nixon
Theatre in Pittsburgh and other syndicate theaters,
including the Illinois, Powers, Hooleys, Columbia,
and Haymarket theaters in Chicago. He was also a
personal friend of Iroquois Theater manager Will J.
Davis, serving as a pallbearer when Davis' mother
died in 1896.
There are no extant photos of the Iroquois Theater
curtains. The rush to complete construction was such
that the carpenters were going out the back door
when theatergoers entered the front door for the
November 23, 1903 grand opening.
The picture at top left is a portion of a signed St.
John Lewis gauche painting from the estate of
Iroquois manager Will J. Davis. (a painting last
known to be in Oklahoma). It shows a forest
gathering of the Six Nations (also known as the
Iroquois Confederacy and the Haudenosaunee),
consisting of Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga,
Seneca, and Tuscarora nations.
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Davis may have contracted
with Lewis to produce a painting for his personal
collection or it may have been a sketch that didn't
make the cut in Lewis's Iroquois submissions to
Davis. Lending to this latter possibility is that it
was not framed, leastways not in 2005.
In 1906 Lewis was painting scenery at the
Hammerstein's Manhattan opera house when he received
a cablegram that he had inherited $1.5 million
dollars from a London relative, banker Sam Lewis.
($46 million today.)
Stricken with illness and early death, St. John
didn't get many years to enjoy his inheritance, but
he wasn't lonely. In 1909 he married Vincie E.
Toohey (1884–). Vincie was the sister of Thomas Alva
Edison Jr.'s first wife, chorus girl Marie Louise
Toohey (1881–1906).
In the photo montage above, in addition to a portion
of Lewis' Six Nations painting, is one of Sagoyewatha wearing his Red Jacket medallion, close
up views of the medallion, front and back, and a
painting by Lewis of "Old Faithful."
In the last years of his life, St. John Lewis was
partners with H. Robert Law.
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Discrepancies and addendum
* A helpful reader reports
that the Lewis paintings did not sell well in the
park, and several were transferred to the Montana
Historical society with Haynes estate. I couldn't
find them on the society's website, so do not know
if they are still part of the organization's
collection.
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