The story behind a picture

 Back in September 2020 this blog published an article “Whatever happened to the faces in the old photographs?” – a line taken from the song Mother Country by John Stewart. It was about a detailed photograph from a Photodrama of Creation showing in Toledo, Ohio from February 1914. It was in such high definition in the original that you could make out many of the faces.

Readers may wish to go back to that article which presented some selective enlargements. From them it was possible to see the faces in the original photograph. No doubt the Photodrama made a big impression on all those standing there, including a number of young people.

It prompted an interesting response from correspondent Moses G. who had photographs of the theater where the Photodrama was shown in four parts for one of the first times. He also supplied correspondence about the showing and people who were there. All the material that follows is gratefully credited to Moses.

The Camden-Post newspaper (Toledo, Ohio) for February 2, 1914, carried the story.

First, the venue was generally called Burts Theater, in Toledo, Ohio. Here is a postcard from that era showing it.

It still exists today. Here is a more recent photograph of the venue.

Most likely attending that very early showing was a young colporteur, Walter Kessler from Auburn, Indiana, who wrote a letter to Wayne Brooks from Oil City, Pennsylvania. Moses has a collection of letters stretching from 1905 to the 1940s, showing these men and others working as colporteurs, working in the Bethel Home, and also working with the Photodrama of Creation.

Walter lived from 1892 to 1973.

The letter relating to the Photodrama indicates that maybe Walter was one of those in the photograph of the people in front of the theater in the original post. It is dated February 27, 1914.

In the letter, Walter writes that he saw the Photodrama at Toledo three weeks before. So far we do have not have a photograph of him to try and pick him out from the group photograph. What we do have is his draft registration card when he was called up in 1917. It shows he claimed exemption as a minister with the IBSA. Sometimes these form have a photograph attached, but sadly not in this case.

Returning to his 1914 letter, it is full of news about different individuals and thus is a store of information about names from the past.

Walter indicated that he supported his colpoteur activity for a short time by working for a new automobile company called “Imp Auto Cycle.” It operated in Auburn, Indiana, for only two years, 1913-1914. Here is one of their advertisements.

One final thought from his letter. He mentions a Brother Higbe from Toledo using his auto to advertise the Photodrama. Perhaps it looked like the model in this 1914 photograph.