The Black Russian (32 page)

The old jail (L) and the old Coahoma County Courthouse, Friars Point, Mississippi, where Lewis Thomas
successfully
bid on a farm in 1869, and where he and his wife, India, pursued numerous legal actions in subsequent years. (Courtesy Flo Larson, North Delta Museum, Friars Point)

The Auditorium Hotel, Michigan
Avenue
, Chicago, where Frederick Thomas first worked as a waiter, c. 1892, now Roosevelt University. (
Auditorium
)

Frederick Bruce Thomas, c. 1896, probably in Paris. (L, NARA II. R, courtesy Bruce Thomass)

Frederick Bruce Thomas, c. 1896, probably in Paris. (L, NARA II. R, courtesy Bruce Thomass)

The Kremlin and Saint Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square, Moscow, as Frederick Thomas saw them, c. 1900. (Library of Congress)

View of Tverskaya Street, Moscow, c. 1900, one of the main streets in the center, showing the preponderance of low buildings and horse-drawn transportation.

Yar Restaurant in Moscow, one of the most famous in Russia, where Frederick Thomas worked as a maître d’hôtel and assistant to the owner, after its reconstruction in 1910.

Grand Entrance to Aquarium Garden, Moscow, c. 1912, when “Thomas & Co.” took it over. (author’s collection)

Frederick Thomas shortly after his marriage on January 5, 1913, to his second wife, “Valli,” with his children by his first wife, Hedwig—Irma, 4 years old, Olga, 11, and Mikhail, 6 ½. The other men may be his new wife’s relatives. (NARA II)

Frederick Thomas (1st row, 2nd from R) with actors in Moscow’s Aquarium Garden. (
Stsena i arena
, May 29, 1914)

“F. F. Tomas” on the eve of opening Maxim in Moscow, October 1912. (
Var’ete i tsirk,
October 1, 1912)

Elvira Jungmann, c. 1910, a German performer who became Frederick Thomas’s mistress in Moscow and later his wife. (author’s collection)

Elvira Jungmann, c. 1910, a German performer who became Frederick Thomas’s mistress in Moscow and later his wife. (author’s collection)