Strauss-Peyton
Time Period: 1903-1929
Location: Troost Street, & 12th St., Kansas City,
Biography:
Benjamin R. Strauss (January 27,1871 Cleveland, Ohio - 1952), brother of St. Louis's principal commercial photographer at the beginning of the 20th century, Julius Caesar Strauss, moved to Kansas City in 1900. Immediately, Strauss began working with motion picture pioneer George W. Curtiss, who had operated in Kansas City since 1894. The team's studio was renamed Strauss Studio by 1903. The following year Strauss Studio moved to 216 East 11th Street. Strauss built his clientele through connections at his Jewish synagogue, whom he portrayed in rather formal, straight sittings. The studio's reputation blossomed, however, when Strauss hired an extremely talented
assistant, Homer K. Peyton, who became an artistic collaborator. By 1908 Peyton was an equal partner and the following year Strauss-Peyton Studio was first listed in local city directories at 3109 Troost Avenue. In 1910 a second location was opened at 1026 Walnut. The earliest negatives still extant from the Strauss-Peyton Portrait Studio date from Strauss-Peyton's origin in 1908 through the 1940s. Of the nearly 80,000 existing original sitting cards detailing the Studio's daily portrait schedule during this time, only about 10,000 images may have survived. They comprise five tons of early, very fragile, glass plate negatives (and later acetate negatives), and are preserved in the Jackson County Historical Society Collection.
Strauss excelled at the setting of poses. In 1915 Strauss-Peyton Studio opened a third parlor at the prestigious Muehlebach Hotel at 103 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City. Although the Walnut location was closed in 1916, the Troost and Muehlebach locations were operational through 1926. An entrepreneurial partnership, Strauss-Peyton banked on their national reputation by opening branches in St. Louis and New York. The New York location was probably the brainchild of Homer Peyton, whose burgeoning ambitions ranged beyond Kansas City. The Broadway studio open in autumn 1926; by 1927 Peyton was fixed in New York. The Stock Market Crash of 1929 caused a disruption of business in Manhattan. When Strauss refused to subvent the New York venture further, the legal partnership was dissolved and Peyton left New York, crossing the country to set up business in Seattle, Washington. Peyton worked as an independent photographer for several years. Strauss, realizing the value of the Strauss-Peyton name, kept the brand, which is still in use today. In 1929 the studio located its studio in Country Club Plaza.
Specialty:
In the 1910s, Benjamin Strauss specialized in formal portraits of Kansas City notables. After he added Homer Peyton as partner, the business expanded to theatrical photography. Peyton was the graphic artist, performing pictorialist manipulations of the negative to form aesthetic backgrounds, sculpt shadows, and supply tonal drama. Strauss-Peyton's large format prints are noteworthy for their richness of texture. Because of Kansas City's importance as a transportation hub, it was the juncture of three different theatrical circuits. Strauss-Peyton, like their rivals, Orval Hixon and James Hargis Connelly, secured a national reputation as celebrity portraitists. Images regularly appeared in 1920s Movie and Theater magazines.
