Strauss Peyton Photography

Benjamin Strauss founded Struass Studio in Kansas City October 1st, 1900. He built clientele through connections at his Jewish synagogue.

Due to the popularity of Strauss Studio, Homer Peyton was hired as an artistic collaborator. By 1909, Peyton was an equal partner. Struass-Peyton Studios was located at 3109 Troost Ave.

Strauss excelled at the setting of poses. Peyton was the artist, who performed pictorialist manipulations of the negative to form aesthetic backgrounds, sculpt shadows, and supply tonal drama.

Russia's Anna Pavlova, the most famous ballerina of her generation, was photographed by Strauss-Peyton in 1916, six years after her American debut in New York.

Because of Kansas City's importance as a transportation hub, it was the juncture of three different theatrical circuits. Strauss-Peyton secured a national reputation as celebrity portraitists.

Douglas MacArthur is pictured in a 1930 photo before he became the famous American general who liberated the Philippines and accepted the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII.

Hollywood's Golden Set worked in Kansas City in early days: Fred Astaire, the Marx brothers, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, and Kansas City's own Jean Harlow are just a few notable subjects.

In 1915, Strauss-Peyton opened a third parlor at the prestigious Muehlebach Hotel at 103 West 12th Street in downtown Kansas City and capitalized on the number of stage performers staying there.

Peyton's ambition as an artist grew too great to be content with Kansas City, and he went to New York in 1926 to oversee the branch office there. Strauss-Peyton maintained the partnership until 1929 when the stock market crashed.

Strauss kept the name of the partnership and was operating in Kansas City's elite Country Club Plaza by 1929, and became a fixture there for more than 50 years.