Noss Picture Gallery
Third Avenue, New Brighton
"We have spared neither time, pains
nor money in perfecting Our Ideas, and are pleased to state that
the present is the most elegantly costumed programme ever presented
by us, and cannot fail to meet your expectations and approval.
Wherever we have once appeared the reputation left behind is sufficient
guarantee of the promise for the future".
FERD NOSS, Manager
The NOSS FAMILY, whose home was in New Brighton, made music and the stage their career. A family of eight including parents, they were known as the Musical Noss Family, later as The Noss Jollities of Musical Comedy. When the parents dropped out of the act, Ferd, Flora, Lottie, Frank and Mary billed themselves as "The Five Musical Nosses" and made for New York. There they became a vaudeville success. They retired in 1925 with the coming of the "talkies". They toured the entire United States, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico many times over and enjoyed the fruits of their chosen profession, having reached the topmost rung of the the theatrical ladder and appearing in the highest class theaters both legitimate and vaudeville.
Mr. HENRY NOSS, the father of this family whose parents were members of the Harmony Society, will be remembered as the Boy-fac-to-tum at the Old Water Cure and Merrick House, later launching into house painting with his little brick shop on Fifth Avenue (then Railroad Street) between Tenth and Ninth Streets. He was born in Harmony in Butler County in 1837 and came to New Brighton in 1850. From there he went into Photography (then in its infancy) with his studio (Gallery) above Billy McKee's Grocery Store in what became Eli Rosenberg Building on Third Avenue, where he successfully carried on for thirty years. He is said to be the first professional photographer west of the Alleghenies. His work was excellent and many of his pictures have survived. His advertisement said "Noss the Boss" Photographic Studio. Henry married Charlotte Winter, daughter of Reverend Ferdinand Winter, minister to Burry's Church (St. John Evangelical Lutheran) at Zelienople, Pa. for forty years.
During the Civil War, Noss served in the 63rd Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteer Infranty of the Union Army. Henry was a cornetist in the regimental band during the war, and after the conflict organized his eight children and wife into a family orchestra. They were Flora, Ferdinand, Charlotte, Frank, May, Bertha, Helen , and Lottie.
From their parents the children inherited a talent for music and were given every oportunity to perfect themselves in the musical field.
In an interview Ferd said, "We all came from New Brighton. Our father was a Union bugler during the war, and after he came home and we came upon the scene he organized us into a sort of family orchestra, teaching each of us some instrument or other. I remember that father had an old cornet with a broken valve. He had to hold it together with a rubber band to make it work. When we were children we used to play around for the neighbors and at church entertainment. One time we played all week at a local festival, and at the end of the week each of us was given a shining dollar. It looked big to us, and I guess that paved the way for our gradual drifting into professional work."
First they played for their own pleasure. Then the New Brighton churches called upon them to perform at various socials. The death of his first wife left these little ones to be cared for, but he carried on. A second marriage to Mrs. William Todd, widow of a druggist, herself a dressmaker and formerly Miss Mary Lourimore. With her place of business in the same building as the gallery, she was able to assist in the costuming of this family in their professional career.
One of the earliest recollections of the Old Opera House days was the Drummer Boy of Shilo when Ferd Noss as a boy played the Drummer Boy, Flora the Hero's sweetheart, and Mr. Noss as Fatty Schmidt. About this time a manager from Boston searching for talent made Mr. Noss an offer to place his family under contract which was accepted, at the same time giving up his business to devote his time to his family on a theatrical tour of the southern states.
Their first professional local performance was in Homewood. There a circus man from Maine saw them in action one day and offered to manage them on a 16-week tour of Maine. Later, Ferd became advance agent and made up the bookings for a week or two at a time. Horse driven busses were provided with wicker and upholstered seats for the company, and one for trunks and stage equipment in which they toured throughout the eastern states. They played local opera houses until the show grew to 14 people, and was too big for the small towns and not large enough for the cities.
Later they tured extensively by private bus throughout the United States, Canada, Cuba, and Mexico, appering only in first-class theaters.
The career of this family is remarkable in that no fires, no accidents nor illness experienced throughout the great number of miles travelled covering the years 1880-1924,(25) the latter being the year of retirement of the family group.
FLORA NOSS married J. LAWRENCE AUTENREIGH of Pittsburgh, head of a chain of stores. FERD NOSS married MARGARET LITTLE and had several nieces and nephews. Ferd went back to New York after 1925 and worked for Abraham Strauss, Macy's and Stern's. He was sent as a demonstrator to the World's Fair in Chicago. Ferd returned to New Brighton later and took tickets at the old State Theatre in Beaver Falls at the age of 83. He lived in the house at 923 Sixth Avenue, where he was born. He died November 24, 1965, the community's oldest resident at that time. Ferd was born October 3, 1866 and died a month after his 99th birthday at his home.
FRANK NOSS was manager of New Brighton Autenreith Store.
MARY NOSS married CHARLES MACDONALD of New York.
BERTHA NOSS married GEORGE DEAN RUSSELL,
a prominent New York
attorney. Second husband was JACK LINGWOOD of New Brighton.
She was the youngest member of the family, and the most widely
known in the show world.
HELEN NOSS married FRANK CAPO of New Brighton.
The Noss family is buried in Grove Cemetarie, Section G.
The home on Sixth Avenue, where the family lived, was believed to be one of the oldest houses in town and which has its own particular history. In the early days this house was a four room square house with its identical counterpart at the end of the old covered bridge and owned by a friend. This friend and Mr. Noss decided they wanted to live together, so the old house at the end of the bridge was rolled on logs through the streets and sagely landed beside its twin. The house has been torn down. Mr.Noss later bought out his friend and improved the house in more modern fashion. Beams in this old house proving too massive and hard for utilities to wire, other methods were resorted to. Grandma Noss lovingly cared for a beautiful flower garden landscaped in lovely flower beds.
When asked about returning to New Brighton after all the other points visited, their reply was always the same - "New Brighton is the old home town, where else could we go"? It was a well known fact that this family was devoted to each other and remained close and were never very far apart.
This was a close knit family and New Brighton remained the old hometown to which they always loved to return.
The will of Henry Noss, written Aug 31, 1913, was registered at the Beaver County Courthouse MArch 11, 1925. He left all his property to his children, share and share alike.