THE iconic Salt Lake
Temple was wildly in the news for photographs, not of its gothic looking
exterior, but for surreptitiously obtained interior pictures, back in September
of 1911, just over 18 years after the Temple was dedicated.
What unfolded
was a tale of lies, deceit and blackmail against The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints.
Here’s a
summary of what took place:
Gilbert L.
Bossard, a German convert to the Church, was living in Salt Lake City. He
excelled at photography. In an interview, Bossard said that he spent the better
part of an entire year sneaking into the Salt Lake Temple with a camera and
taking a total of 68 inside photographs.
He said he
often hid a camera under his coat. He may have also convinced an assistant
gardener on the Temple grounds (according to the Salt Lake Telegram newspaper
of Sept. 18, 1911) to help him gain access to the interior of the Salt Lake
Temple, at times. There is even a tale that he may have entered into the
Temple’s interior through a large heating vent.
In any event,
he had the photographs to prove that he somehow took them, even though in one
interview, he said it was usually that he was only able to take one interior
photo with each visit to the Temple.
Other than the
600 VIPs who got to tour the inside of the Salt Lake Temple, before it was
dedicated, in 1893, there were no other public tours of its interior, Hence,
there was a lot of curiosity about inside, where only members with a Temple
Recommend could go.
Bossard took
his photographs and sold them to Max Florence, a motion picture businessman,
who was formerly of Salt Lake City and since moved to New York City.
It was no
secret that Florence was in financial trouble.
“Max Florence
on financial rocks?” was a November 11, 1910 headline in the Deseret News,
outlining his financial debts.
So, he wanted
to blackmail the Church into giving him money to not release the pictures
publicly. In one interview, he mentioned a $100,000 sum of ransom, but then
said that was not the amount.
“Max Florence
fails to scare the Church” was a September 16, 1911 headline in the Deseret
Evening News.
Church President Joseph F. Smith said, “I will make no bargain with thieves or traffickers in stolen goods. I prefer to let the law deal with them.”
President
Smith also stressed that the inside of the Temple was sacred, not secret.
(Note that until the later 20th Century, public tours of undedicated temples were rarely given and so to outsiders, the Latter-day Saints’ Temples were somewhat “mysterious.”)
Florence
seemed to also want to discredit the Church and even boasted that he could
steal the Angel Moroni statue, if the Church made him any madder. He also said
he knows the Salt Lake Temple as well as its architect (Florence was not a
member of the Church and he also seem to brag as if he took the pictures, when
they were taken by Bossard).
Elder James E. Talmage made a suggestion to the First Presidency in September of 1911, that he could write and compile a new book, “The House of the Lord,” that could include high-quality interior photographs of the Salt Lake Temple, taken by their own photographer, thus stealing Florence’s thunder, as well as handling the pictures in a complimentary and explanatory way, instead of for revenge and ransom.
It was a bold, but clever move. That book was
published a year later and contained 31 interior temple pictures. (Elder
Talmage was made an Apostle in December of 1911.)
Note that back
in 1911, there was no quick way to release photographs to the public, as there
is today, so a printed book was considered the optimal and widespread method.
The Salt Lake
Tribune reported on October 4, 1911, that Bossard, who took the unauthorized
interior Salt Lake Temple photographs, was excommunicated. Years later, living
on the East Coast, Bossard tried to regain his Church membership, but Church
leaders said he failed to recognize how badly he had discredited the Church and
its flagship temple.
-Perhaps a
long-lasting after effect to this incident was a phobia, a fear, among Church leaders, that the Holy Edifice could be invaded again. Security at the temple was probably reviewed and improved after the incident, And, as such, the Salt Lake Temple also had an
iron fence around it and only members with recommends could get close to the
Temple, or touch it. (No other temple seemed to have a similar barrier.) That didn’t change until about 2001, when the Church
prepared to welcome the world for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Then, the wall came down and there was more open access to the Temple Square
grounds around the Salt Lake Temple itself.
-In addition,
to this writer’s advantage, when he prepared to write/compile a new book,
“Images of America Salt Lake Temple,” he was surprised at how many great
interior photographs of the Salt Lake Temple from the early 20th
Century were available. Even though he knew of the “stolen photographs” story,
it was a long time before he connected the dots and realized that without that
ransom incident, such a book would likely not be possible, because of not
nearly enough official inside pictures of the Salt Lake Temple being otherwise
available, to support such a vintage picture book. (This new book will be available in April of 2027, through Arcadia Publishing.)
-If you would like a more detailed (and scholarly)
examination of the Salt Lake Temple stolen photographs incident, “I’m Here for
the Cash”: Max Florence and the Great Mormon Temple,” By Gary James Bergera, was
published in the Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, Number 1, 1979.
A link to that lengthy article:
https://issuu.com/utah10/docs/uhq_volume47_1979_number1/56?e=65&o=1
NOTE: This
article and all of the NighUntoKolob blog are NOT an official website of
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They are the author's
conclusions and opinions only.
