Music by the Lake at Glenwood, Minnesota

June 27, 2014, 6:12 pm

≫ Next: Kameraden in der Musik

≪ Previous: The Leader of the Dover Cornet Band

$

0

0

It's summertime. The hats are white, the grass is up, and there's no ice on the lake. What could they be watching?

The children watch too, divided into separate clumps of boys and girls.

Some wish that they were on stage too. Then they could wear a different cap.

What has captured everyone's attention? It is a children's band concert with nearly 30 young musicians all dressed in white and wearing sailor hats (with a few adult ringers to play the solos.)

They are playing their music in the band shell by Lake Minnewaska in Glenwood, MN. Civic structures like this were once very common all across America as summertime concerts were regular events for small towns like Glenwood, which had a population of only 2,220 in 1930. Constructed of concrete and brick, the design produced very efficient acoustics that easily projected sound without the need for electronic amplification. This band shell was built in 1925 (we can spot the date marker on the right, partly hidden by the small tree) and it remains a feature of Glenwood's lakeside park where the sound of school bands may still be heard across the lake.  


What makes this a special photo postcard is that Glenwood, MN was the hometown of my grandfather, Wallace Robert Dobbin. He was born there in 1906 but by the late 1920s or 30s when this school band photo was taken, he had made a new life far away in Maryland where he worked at the Union rail station in Washington, D.C.

Of course Glenwood then changed from a hometown to a holiday destination. And in the summer of 1935 he took his wife - my grandmother, and their 5 year old daughter - my mother, for a trip to meet his extended family relations in Glenwood.  I believe it was their first trip to Minnesota and their first look at  Lake Minnewaska.  

They got a little wet.

On the left is my great grandfather William Dobbin, my mother Barbara Dobbin, my grandmother Blanche Dobbin, and my grandfather Wally Dobbin.     It is a moment of pure delight. 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where it's summertime and the living is easy.

---

Kameraden in der Musik

July 4, 2014, 3:56 pm

≫ Next: Theatrical Ladies

≪ Previous: Music by the Lake at Glenwood, Minnesota

$

0

0

When four men share the soldier's life they become Karmeraden – Comrades. That bond is no less strong even if they happen to carry trombones instead of rifles. It was surely true of this quartet of hearty German army bandsmen with their arms linked together and trombones at the rest, as these musicians were from one of Kaiser Wilhelm's regimental bands. They stand in a large field that is perhaps a parade ground in some park where they are getting ready to play for a review of the Kaiser's troops and horse guards.

Their instruments are three tenor slide trombones and a bass trombone on the left. A trombone can be just as lethal as a rifle but is less reliable in sharp keys. It also has a tendency to jam in hot weather.

The back of the postcard has a message, presumably from one of the trombonists, that was written with invisible ink and is now faded. I have improved the contrast and above Lieber Freund! – Dear Friend! is a place and a date. I think it reads Charlottenburg which is a famous area of Berlin known for the Charlottenburg Palace of the Hohenzollern royal family, but the date is much less clear – 18.8.11 or 18 August 1911. It may be 1917 instead, but these men seem too cheerful for it to be the third year of the Great War. Was this photo taken on a parade ground near the palace?

In my experience, trombone players tend to be an affable and good humored lot, which I think we can see in the faces of this quartet. So it is not surprising that they would wish to send their picture and message to a fellow bandsman by SoldatenKartn or Soldiers Card. The surprise for me was that it was sent to a player of my instrument – Hornist W. Schmidt of the Pionier Battalion No. 24 in Köln.

Recently I acquired another postcard of one of the Kaiser's bandsmen. He is not Hornist Schmidt but he was a comrade too and a horn player. 

The photographer posed this young soldier in front of a very floral backdrop that undoubtedly was used more for photos of children, grandmothers, and wedding couples. The embossed name is difficult to read but it begins F. Ritt...er Neustettin. Neustettin is a city near the Baltic sea in Pomerania which was once part of East Prussia. Today it is in Poland and is known by the rather inharmonious name of Szczecinek.

On the back is some very stylized handwriting. On the left is the place – Neustettin and a year – 1910, or possibly 1915 or 1916. The postcard does not appear to have been mailed, so the address may be that of the bandsman. I read ?___ Meirich, followed by Musiker which is a bandsman's rank.

The young hornist stands at the ready as if waiting for his cue to begin a solo. He holds a single horn in F with 3 rotary valves. You can compare his instrument to those of the other army horn players in my collection who are from the same era, the Horn Player of West Kent  and the Belgian Horn Player, who used piston valve horns. Someone has penciled in some improvements to the curl in his mustache, and there is a fine reflection in the horn bell that I fancy is an image of the photographer. The horn player's tunic or Waffenrock is subtly different from the uniforms of the four trombonists, but includes the "swallow nest" on the shoulders which was an epaulet worn only by military musicians. Unfortunately the photos' sepia tone prevents us from seeing the colors on the bandsmen's swallow nest, collars, and sleeves which would identify their military units.

This soldier has no instrument but the fringed swallow nests on his tunic show that he too was a member of a Deutsches Kaiserreich regimental band. He has seen service in the war because tucked behind a coat button is the ribbon of the Iron Cross award.

On the back there is writing with a challenging cursive style. It is addressed to Familie P___(?) in possibly Gummersbach(?), which is near Köln. The year however is clearly 1916.

This photograph shows another bandsman of the German Reich who is also without his instrument, but he may not have needed one as I think he was a Militärkapellemeister or bandmaster. In his left hand he holds gloves and a sword hilt. The stripe on his trousers is actually the sword blade. Though many military bandsmen wore a short sword as standard equipment, this one appears to be longer and seems more appropriate for a band leader or officer. On his shoulders are the musician's swallow nests and there are two medals pinned to his chest.

    

The photographer was Wilm. Köhler of Posen, another city that was once in Prussian and is now in Poland. Today it is called Poznań.

Even without the photographer's address we could still discover where this bandmaster came from by looking closely at his distinctive Picklehaube helmet which he holds in his right hand. The Helmewappen  or helmet plate was a different design for each army regiment of the German Reich. This one is from a regiment in Preußia or Prussia and has the initials F. R. on the eagle's chest, which stands for Friedrich Rex. It matches this helmet found in Colonel J'.s collection, a website that has an extraordinary if not exhausting history on the military uniforms of the German Empire era.

Prussian M95 Pickelhaube Source: Pickelhauben.net

Comrades in arms and in music, these German bandsmen represent a military tradition of music making that vanished after the end of the Great War in 1918. Now all that remains of the German Reich era are the march tunes and the photos of shiny horns and Pickelhauben. 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone is a Kamerad ready to shake your hand.

Theatrical Ladies

July 18, 2014, 9:40 am

≫ Next: Two Musical Child Prodigies

≪ Previous: Kameraden in der Musik

$

0

0

It's an old army joke.

"Who was that woman I saw you with last night at the canteen," asked one soldier of another.

"That was no woman," exclaimed the other soldier.   "That was my Feldwebel {Sergeant} !!!"

Maybe it was funnier in the trenches of 1916 when this postcard of José ??? was printed for the Wandertheater of Armee-Abt. A. or the Traveling Theater of Armee-Abteilung A.  also known as the Division Falkenhausen of the German Army. It was named after its general, Ludwig von Falkenhausen, (1844 – 1936), who was in command of the southern part of the Western Front in Alsace-Lorraine and evidently thought soldiers deserved high class entertainment to improve their morale.

I told the story of the Wandertheater back in April 2013, and José ??? was a performer of questionable gender that I spotted in the lineup of the cast and orchestra.

 <<  >>

In this detail of the postcard, she\he stands in the front line and is the only "woman" in the ensemble of music hall players. On the left side with his dog is the comic Paul Pilz whose story I  wrote about in 2012. Clearly Paul and José ??? were headliners and popular enough with the troops to justify printing a promotional postcard for each of them. I feel certain that she\he sang cabaret songs accompanied by the orchestra and no doubt flirted with the manly acrobats and clowns in the group. The Wandertheater seems to have had a mixture of professional civilian  and army musicians that was not unlike the U.S.O. shows that performed for allied troops during the Second World War. Nothing serious, just a good lighthearted fun entertainment.  

The card was sent by Feldpost - soldiers post - from the Gebirgs - Batterie Nr. 14 to Herrn Konrad Linz. There is no date but similar postcards were mailed from 1916 and 1917.

<<<  >>>

There was more musical theater behind the German lines in World War One but German soldiers were not always the intended audience. In this case a musical was put on for French, Belgian, British, and Russian servicemen held in a Kriegsgefangenenlager or Prisoner of War Camp. This photo postcard shows the stage and orchestra at the Königsbrück camp. Five actors appear to be in a French restaurant and three of them are men dressed as women. The orchestra, which seems engrossed in the action, has 10 musicians with flute, clarinet, and violins. The musician on the left has a box shaped violin that was probably made in the camp.

The stage set, though quite small, has table and chairs, fancy drapes, and a painted scene flat. The signs on the left and right – Pièce {Room} and Défense de fumer {No Smoking} help create the illusion of a hotel restaurant. Judging by the makeup on the cook in the center, this was a farce where the two officers complain to the proprietress about the poor food and surly service .

This second photo shows another production in the Königsbrück camp but this one was for Russian prisoners as the postcard caption reads Gefangenenlager Königsbrück Russen Theater. There are 9 musicians in the orchestra with two violins, two guitars, and possibly 5 mandolins. The classic Russian string instrument is the balalaika which has a triangular shape and 4 strings, but the instruments here look like mandolins which have 8 strings and a pear shape body like a lute. The leader stands in the center wearing a white tunic and with his violin resting on his hip.

There is only a single performer on stage, a "woman" who bears a resemblance to José ???. She\he seems about ready to sing as the musicians play. The camera has captured a clear image of the sheet music on the violinist's  stand and it looks quite challenging. The stage set presents a drawing room that is much more elaborate than the French restaurant. The painted proscenium even gives a foreshortened perspective and the furniture is quite elegant. Was it borrowed from the camp commandant's residence?
   

The postcard was mailed by Feldpost on 21.12.16 or 21 December 1916 to Frau Rosa Ulbricht (?)f Armsdorf. The writer was a German soldier so perhaps he saw this musical. 

This last photo shows another French production from the Königsbrück P.O.W. camp theater where the photographer was closer to the stage. The cast of 11 men includes three dressed in drag as women.  The caption reads La Roulotte {the caravan} — Mlle. Culot. Though I can't be certain, the title may refer to an 1898 French comic operetta entitled Mamzelle Culot written by Maurice T'ar Nemo with music by Ch. Gerin.

The one reference was found on Google Books in the Journal général de l'imprimerie et de la librairie, Issue 87, Parts 1-2, page 456.

The back of this postcard has printed instructions more formal than what I have seen on other P.O.W. cards from 1914-1918. It has the location of Königsbrück (Sachsen) which was a small town in Saxony on the eastern side of Germany. That would explain the presence of Russian soldiers captured on the Eastern Front.

These postcards of captured servicemen indulging in recreation were obviously used to convey the supposed humane conditions of the German P.O.W. camps. They also had a propaganda purpose to convince the enemy to surrender. What soldier would not want to trade the horrors of trench warfare for a chance to put their feet up and enjoy a musical show? In fact there were over 15,000 POWs confined to the camp in Königsbrück, and it was just one of hundreds of camps. Many were harsh labor camps where enlisted men were compelled to join German work details. The millions of allied prisoners were also last on the German government's lists to receive food rations and health services. A POW camp should never be mistaken for a holiday resort.

What intrigues me about these postcards of POW theatrical productions and orchestra concerts is that they offered the men a chance to restore everyone's humanity, both captives and captors alike. The universal cruelty shared by all in the camps was unvaried boredom. Musical theater was a natural creative outlet for men faced with imprisonment for an indefinite period. That they were able to mount such a variety of costumed entertainments is a testimony to the tenacious human desire to tell stories and sing songs.

And as Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein would say 30 years later —
"There Is Nothing Like a Dame"! 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where guys are always in step, even in a tutu.

Two Musical Child Prodigies

July 25, 2014, 10:15 am

≫ Next: The Music Lesson

≪ Previous: Theatrical Ladies

$

0

0

 

It is the universal dream of every parent – a wish for a smart and clever child. But suppose that wish comes true? How do parents manage a precocious child who displays a musical talent beyond their years? Given such a marvel, some parents might decide to put them up on a stage and let people pay money to hear them. And that was exactly what the father of Tommy Fish did.

This carte de visite or cdv shows a small boy aged 5 or 6 years old leaning casually against a large chair while holding a piston valve cornet. The printed caption in large capitals reads TOMMY FISH For my Benefit. The boy's velvet short pants and fine slipper shoes are not the outfit for a typical family photo. He has the look of a professional performer.   

Newport RI Daily News - May 1, 1873

In fact his full name was Thomas Frederick Fish Jr. born in Rhode Island in 1869. His father, Thomas Fish Sr., was an immigrant from England and a well known musician of Providence, RI.  In 1873 Thomas brought his 4 year old son, Master Tommy Fish, onto a stage in Centredale, a village near Providence, to play a number of cornet solos with violin accompaniment by his father. The infant cornetist greatly impressed the audience with a pureness of tone, force and time not found in the playing of many older performers. All present were of the opinion that it was the most wonderful musical performence it had ever been their  pleasure to hear.

With that reception dad and Master Tommy headed for America's music hall circuit.

--

Brooklyn Daily Eagle - August 31, 1876

One early review in 1874 listed him as an infantile musical prodigy in a pantomime called "Humpty Dumpty". This was a variety show very loosely arranged around the classic children's rhyme with acrobats, magicians, singers, and a boy cornetist. Evidently it was popular with family audiences who were looking for a wholesome entertainment.


From 1873 to 1878, Tommy made appearances around the country playing towns like Augusta, GA; Janesville, WI; Chicago; New Orleans; Washington, DC. And of course the Big Apple of showbiz – New York City. 

This advertisement from 1876 for the Park Theater listed the acts in a variety produced by Colonel W. R. Sinn. There was a magician - The Great Herman; a strong man - The Berlin Wonder, Little Todd; the ascensionist and wire performer - Miss Jennie Engel; and

America's Infant Wonder, the marvelous Child Cornetist
Tommy Fish

 
The last report of Master Tommy was in 1878 from a Newport, RI newspaper. Retirement sometimes comes early for child stars. Tommy would have been about 9 (or even 10, as his young age, like that of many youthful artists, was often exaggerated) and after so many years on the road, the once bright and shiny child was no longer the box office draw he had been at age 4.

The traveling and relentless performing may have had an effect on his health too. In an 1879 newspaper report about a Hungarian boys band trying to gain permission to play in New York City, Tommy Fish was mentioned as an example of how brass playing could be detrimental to young lungs, because he had been forced to give up performing because of ill health.

In the archives of Ancestry.com, I found his name noted once more a few decades later in the new century. The document came from Pittsfield, MA and records the marriage in Albany, NY on August 1, 1905 of Thomas Frederick Fish, age 38 to Edith Rebecca Maynard, age 35.  It was his second marriage and her third.

Both husband and wife listed their occupation as musician.

>>> <<<

This bright child did not play the cornet. She played the piano. The cdv shows a small girl seated at an early piano with her dark hair set in stylish ringlets and her legs swinging from the stool. She appears even younger than Master Tommy. 

(I should add that in terms of rarity, antique photos of boys holding a cornet are surprisingly common, while a vintage photo of anyone playing the piano are very exceptional.)

The back of the photo reads:

Susie Medbery,
The Little Fairy Musician,
only four years of age,
and plays more than One Hundred
and Fifty Pieces on the Piano,
Melodeon or Organ, with a
correctness and precision
that would do
credit to many
Professional Players.

 ____

Duplicates sent to any address
upon receipt of 25 cents, by
Geo. B. Medbery,
Baltic,
New London Co., CONN.
____
James Lombard
     Photographer
---
Copyright Secured.

Susie Medbery was the wonder child of Susan and George B. Medbery of Baltic, CN. She was born there in 1864 during the Civil War. George listed his occupation in the 1870 census as Overseer, Cotton Mill. She had an older brother twice her age named George. (Genealogy research is never easy when families have name traditions like this.)

As a toddler, Susie demonstrated a remarkable ability to play the piano and sing tunes from memory. Such a gift was worthy of a mention in the newspapers of post-war America like this space filler from the Times Picayune of New Orleans in March 1869.  

New Orleans Times Picayune - March 14, 1869

Though her talent was noted in newspapers from Kansas to New York, she does not seem to have joined a touring music hall show like Tommy Fish. Traveling with a piano is not as easy as with a cornet, and most reports describe her as playing in Connecticut. For the parents of a Wunderkind, arranging a concert tour in this era was a challenging task as well as an expensive investment for a family. Even Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart, complained about the high cost of travel and accommodations in the previous century. While most parents would sign with a music agent to handle their young performers, some parents like George Medbery struggled by themselves to promote their little musician. I imagine George seated at the kitchen table while Susie practices her piano, as he writes countless notices to mail to newspapers.

This second cdv is not marked but we can recognize little Susie Medbery at the same piano. She is older here, perhaps 6, and wears a white dress with a floral band in her hair, so this photograph probably dates from 1870. Her national celebrity was very brief, only running from 1868 to 1870, after which her name disappears from the entertainment and trivia notes of America's newspapers.

Susie and her family were recorded for the 1870 census of Sprague, CN, but by the next decade's census in 1880, her father's name is absent, leaving only Susie, her mother, and brother at home. Her brother, age 24, works at the cotton mill.

Susie Medbery, age 16, listed her occupation as music teacher. 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where the signs all point to something different. 

The Music Lesson

August 1, 2014, 7:01 am

≫ Next: Prisoner #7280 - A Lifer in Music

≪ Previous: Two Musical Child Prodigies

$

0

0

LA LEÇON DE MUSIQUE – LL.

THE LESSON OF MUSIC – LL.

No.1

L'ÈLÈVE ―

Mi, mi, sol. — La musique est
un art ridicule! 

Je ne pourrai bien sùr
rien chanter aujourd'hui

Je ne sais pas vraiment quelle
 fièvre me brûle

Lorsqu'il me faut paraître
et chanter devant lui

THE STUDENT ―

Mi, mi, so. - Music is
a ridiculous art!

I can sing nothing well today

I do not really know
what fever burns me

When I must appear
before him and sing.

> <

No. 2

L'ÈLÈVE ―

Monsieur, décidément je vais
vous prendre en haine

Vous et votre musique
et votre Rossini!

L'ariette est atroce et j'en
ai la migraine

Je ne veux plus vous
voir Monsieur Paganini.

THE STUDENT ―

Sir, I will definitely make you hate 

You and your music
and your Rossini! 

The aria is atrocious
and I have a headache 

I never want to see you,
Mr. Paganini.

> <

No. 3

LE PROFESSEUR ―

L'art est Long, très long même,
a dit un très grand maitre

C'est par l'effort que le talent
se fait connaître

PROFESSOR ―

Art is Long, even very long,
said a great master 

This is the effort that
makes itself known
as talent!

> <

No. 4

L'ÈLÈVE ―

Vous en parlez, Monsieur,
très  doctoralement !

LE PROFESSEUR ―

Commençons, voulez-vous,
par quelques vocalises.

THE STUDENT ―

You speak, sir, very doctorally! 

PROFESSOR

Start, if you will,
with some vocalizations.

> <

No. 5

LE PROFESSEUR ―

Mais vous ne chantez pas ?

L'ÈLÈVE ―

Cela vous scandalise

Je vous écoute, vous jouez divinement !

PROFESSOR ―

But you are not singing? 

THE STUDENT ―

Does this offend you

I listen to you, you play divinely!

> <

No. 6

L'ÈLÈVE ―

Tiens ! je me sens en voix;
Mi, mi, sol ... L'ariette

Par vous accompagnée
est un chant d'alouette ..

THE STUDENT ―

Here! I feel in voice;
Mi, mi, sol ... The aria 

Accompanied by you is
like singing with a lark ..

> <

No. 7

LE PROFESSEUR ―

Pas mal ! Sons bien posés, mais vous manquez de flamme

Reprenons ce passage
et chantons tous les deux:

 ― Oui, vous l'arrachez
a mon âme !

Ce secret qu'ont trahi mes yeux ...

PROFESSOR  ―

Not bad! Well set sounds,
but you miss the flame 

Resume this passage
and sing both:

 ― Yes, you tear at my soul! 

This secret has been betrayed by my eyes ...

> < 

No. 8

L'ÈLÈVE ―

C'est là ce beau secret
que j'arrache à votre àme !

Vous m'aimez ! -- Un baiser !...
Monsieur l'audacieux

Dites-moi maintenant que je
manque de flamme !

THE STUDENT ―

It is this beautiful secret
that tears your soul!

You love me! - A kiss ...
Mr Audacious

Tell me now that I lack flame!

> < 

No. 9

LE PROFESSEUR ―

O joie. ô transport! ô bonheur!

Je veux être le Paganini
de ton cœur !

L'ÈLÈVE ―

Et mon cœur vibre avec délices

Sous vos baisers,
charmant complice !

PROFESSOR ―

Oh joy. Oh transport! Oh joy! 

I want to be the Paganini
of your heart! 

THE STUDENT ―

And my heart vibrates with delight
Under your kisses,
my charming accomplice!

> <

No. 10

MONSIEUR & MADAME ―

L'Hymen nous rend boudeurs: Pourquoi? Nous sommes fous

Si par hasard quelque
fausse note s'y glisse

Recommençons notre duo; embrassons-nous !

MORALE: 

Imitez leur exemple,
ô moroses époux.

MR & MRS  ―

Hymen [the Greek god of marriage] makes us sulky: Why? We are fools 

If by chance some false note slips in 

Let us begin our duo again;
let us kiss! 

MORAL:

Imitate their example,
O morose husband.

> <

These ten postcards were each sent one at a time from Monte Carlo to Mademoiselle Marthe Simone of Trévoux, Ain, France in April 1904.

Please pardon my effort at French translation. All offers for a better English meaning accepted, merci!.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

click the link for lessons of another kind.

By a nice coincidence the Sepia Saturday theme this weekend fits very well with one of my family photographs from 63 years ago. I suppose we could call it the first official family photograph.

Félicitations to Madame and Monsieur Brubaker 

for their many years of making music together.  

And just in case they forgot the details. Here is the announcement published a few days later
in the Hanover PA Evening Sun. 

Prisoner #7280 - A Lifer in Music

August 8, 2014, 5:35 pm

≫ Next: Music in the Field

≪ Previous: The Music Lesson

$

0

0

The way that some musicians play music should be a crime, and saxophone players often get accused of some illicit musicianship worthy enough to send them to jail. Yet despite the widespread abuse of their instrument it is surprisingly rare to find a saxophonist who actually served time in prison.

However even more rare is the musician who used the saxophone to get out of prison.

-

The man in the photo stares directly into the camera lens. He wears a dark suit with a stripped tie, and under one arm he holds an alto saxophone. It seems an ordinary portrait that could date from any decade after 1900. The intrigue comes from the note written on the back of the postcard.

In the Penn. for life
Lincoln Nebr.
July 22 - 1928

His face seemed familiar, so I went back to a photo featured on my August 2012 story of the Nebraska State Penitentiary Band. In this band of 12 musicians, he is standing on the left holding a larger tenor saxophone.

However the man next to him is not a musician. He is the prison warden, William T. Fenton.

When I acquired the postcard of this saxophone player, there was another postcard included in the sale. It is a similar portrait of a man in a dark suit, though he has no instrument. The photographer labeled the photo with one word.

Warden

Warden William T. Fenton (1873-1939) was a remarkable administrator of a very difficult institution. Still a young man when he was appointed in 1913 to run the Nebraska State Penitentiary in Lincoln, NE, he endeavored to reform the prison by removing the old methods of correction based on harsh conditions and punishment and replacing them with new concepts of inmate discipline, education, and training. His basic tenet was that by treating inmates with respect and letting them maintain their dignity, the prison could instill proper behavior that would restore them to society as good citizens.

He raised the wages of guards to eliminate corruption. He made improvements in the prison kitchen so that inmates were served better food. He eliminated the convict lockstep march and rule of silence at meals. He introduced recreational activities which included sport games and a band. He even bought regular civilian suits for all the inmates to wear at Sunday chapel instead of their striped prisoner uniform.

By 1915 Warden Fenton became recognized as part of the progressive movement that was changing America's prison system in the early 20th century. When he retired in 1934, his 21 year service under both Republican and Democrat governors would remain the longest tenure of any Nebraska warden. His fame even got him an offer to take over the Alcatraz federal prison which opened in 1933. He declined the job due to poor health and died in 1939.

But this story is not about Warden Fenton. It's about his boys in the band. 

_

On the right side of the penitentiary band photo is a man not dressed in white shirt and bow tie like the other musicians. Instead he wears a suit and long tie. With his two toned conductor's baton and youthful charming smile there is no mistake that he is the band leader.

He was also a murderer. 

He was known as "Black Tony" or more properly Antonio or Tony Ciarletta. His photo appeared in a 1924 newspaper article about his impending release from the Nebraska State Penitentiary. The state pardon board  had commuted his life sentence, and Black Tony was scheduled to be let out just two days before Christmas 1924. The caption also included the information that he was the leader of the state prison orchestra.

Lincoln NE Star December 14, 1924

In 1913 Tony Ciarletta, age 19, and two other men held up a resort in Omaha where Ciarletta worked as a bellhop. As they collected valuables from the resort's guests, one man, a bank teller named Henry E. Nickell, failed to put his hands up and made a threatening move. Ciarletta fired two shots and killed him. The three bandits escaped with the loot, but weeks later they were captured in Colorado, after a woman in Lincoln identified Tony as a man who had pawned some of the stolen jewelry with her.

In reporting on the trial the Nebraska newspapers gave him the nickname - "Black Tony" - a name which he vehemently objected to. At one court appearance he confronted reporters. "If I ever get out I'm going to get you _____ for calling me ‘Black Tony’. Haven't you any families of your own? How would you like to be disgraced with such a name?"  In March 1914 he was sentenced to life imprisonment.    

La Crosse WI Tribune March 6, 1914

Looking closely at the second photo featured in my story on the N.S.P. Band there is short young man standing in the center holding a cornet. I believe it is none other than Tony Ciarletta. On the right is Warden Fenton. 

According to one report Tony had very little education. In the 1920 census, recorded while he was incarcerated at the Lincoln prison, the entry for citizenship shows Tony immigrated to America in 1901 and that his native language was Italian. (Four names above his was inmate Joe Bird, born in Montana, language – Indian.) 

During that first decade of his imprisonment, Tony Ciarletta applied himself to self improvement and evidently became a model prisoner. In the process he learned to play several musical instruments and moved up from being a member of the prison band to becoming the band leader. On his release from prison he said"I hope to continue my work in music as soon as I get on my feet again financially,". There were even thoughts he might find work in an orchestra in his hometown of Joliet, IL or Chicago.  

Lincoln NE Star December 23, 1924

In the third photo from my 2012 story on the Nebraska State Penitentiary Band, we can see Tony crouching in front of the band. Again unlike the other musicians he is wearing a suit and in his right hand is a conductor's baton. His instrument appears longer and I think he has exchanged the cornet for a trumpet.


The band is posed in front of the prison greenhouse. Note that in this band of 14 musicians, there are two, possibly four, men of color, something that would not have occurred outside of the prison walls in the 1920s era of strict segregation. Could the man behind Tony be Joe Bird from Montana?

_ _

Standing on the left is Warden Fenton next to the saxophone player who older here, perhaps about the same age as his portrait. His instrument is a tenor saxophone.

The prison band, or orchestra as it was often called, performed daily at lunchtime for the inmates and at the prison chapel for Sunday services. They also played concerts that were open to the public during fairs and other events regularly held at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Some were benefits for the Salvation Army or regional disaster relief. On one concert the prison orchestra shared the stage with a chorus of Lincoln school children. At these shows the prison inmates appeared only on the stage and were not allowed to be in the audience. They got the previews. The warden had suffered enough with his share of prison breaks.

Warden Fenton was very proud of his musicians and used the band to promote the reforms he was advocating. One of his first innovations was to expand the prison facilities with a new auditorium. It could seat 1,300 people and had a stage over 30 feet wide and 26 feet deep with electric lighting and enough room for scenery and sets. In this theater space, inmates produced minstrel shows with comic skits, songs, and variety acts that used their own original material that they wrote and performed themselves. 

The prison's annual Thanksgiving show was a favorite entertainment in Lincoln and was promoted in the newspapers. In 1928 there was a full description of the inmates' show called "The Shutin's Frolic" with program titles, instruments, and names.  Midway down was A Bit of Saxaphone Melody – L. Chobar and later Rhythm Plus with L. Chobar, director, saxaphone (sic).

Could inmate L. Chobar be the same saxophone player as in the photos?

Lincoln NE Star November 30, 1928

Lincoln NE Evening Journal December 26, 1924

In December 1924, Tony Ciarletta learned he would receive the best Christmas present ever – his freedom. Yet who would take over the baton and lead the prison orchestra for the inmates annual Christmas show?  A convict  named Louis Chobar.

He was a murderer too.

_ _

In 1917, Louis W. Chobar was working on a large farm in Benedict, Nebraska where his wife was also employed as a housekeeper by the owner, Albert A. Blender. At the time Chobar was only 21 years old and his wife just 17. Not long after starting on the farm, Chobar began to suspect that Blender, a wealthy bachelor, was taking improper advantage of his young wife. In November 1917 he became convinced that Blender had assaulted his wife. In a fit of rage he confronted the man and shot him with Blender's own gun. Chobar then bound and gagged his wife, left a note to explain his crime, and fled in the victim's car. Supposedly he also took money from Blender which prosecutors used as the motive for his crime, but this was later proven false.


A $700 reward for Chobar's capture was offered by Blender's mother, and in late December 1917, he was apprehended by a sheriff's posse of 150 men. Chobar was charged with committing a felony murder for the purpose of robbery. In court his wife took the stand to corroborate Chobar's assertion that Blender had abused her, though this contradicted her earlier statements. It was not enough and the jury found him guilty of first degree murder. When the judge considered his sentence, prosecutors recommended leniency, but Louis Chobar was given life in prison.

Only two years later the state of Nebraska would install an electric chair at the Lincoln penitentiary. It would get a lot of use.

El Paso TX Herald November 30, 1917

_ _ _

This photo is clearly marked as the N.S.P. Orchestra. There are 20 musicians including six violin players on the left and five saxophones in the front row. Standing at the back center is Warden Fenton and on the right is Louis Chobar holding a conductor's baton instead of a saxophone.

On the far right is the only musician who is wearing a suit jacket. He holds a trumpet and with that broad grin, I believe it may be Tony Ciarletta. With so many sax players and only one trumpet, it would make sense for Louis to conduct while Tony played.

 _ _

Lincoln NE Evening Journal November 27, 1929

There were so many prison show programs published in the Lincoln newspapers that the penitentiary seemed almost like a high school music academy promoting its spring musical. This next photo postcard is labeled N.S.P. Show Troupe and shows the prison orchestra behind a line of men dressed in typical minstrel show costumes. Nine men are wearing powered wigs and 18th century style pantaloons. Four men on opposite sides of the stage have painted themselves in blackface. But one black trombonist at the back has no need for makeup.

In the center, next to the man sitting on a throne, is a blurred face that I believe is Louis Chobar, the bandleader.  

Chobar is also surely the bandleader in this photo of the N.S.P. Orch., though again the lighting has blurred his features. The stage has an elaborate backdrop with painted columns and ornamental lions. With 12 musicians that include three saxophones and two banjos, the band looks like a typical dance band from the 1920s. Notice that the trombonist in the back row is the same man as in the previous photo and that another black man is on drums. It's also possible that the trumpet on the far right may be Tony Ciarletta.

The internet continues to be an amazing resource for forgotten history. On the website for the Nebraska State Historical Society there was another reference to Louis Chobar.

Not as a saxophone player but as a songwriter. 

Source: Nebraska State Historical Society

The song was A Prisoner's Plea, published by the Nebraska State Penitentiary with words by Prisoner #7280 and music by Prisoner #8940.

If you like this this song it may be obtained by sending 50¢ or
money order, which will assist us in publishing other songs, which
are beautiful fox trots, of our own composition. Also, friends, you
are helping two prisoners who desire to "Make Good" and return
to society as honest, law-abiding citizens.
Thanking you for an order, we are,

Very respectfully yours
Prisoner #7280 and Prisoner #8940
Nebraska State Prison
Lancaster, Nebr.

Who was Prisoner #7280?  None other than Louis W. Chobar.

Source: Nebraska State Historical Society

Chobar entered the Nebraska State Peniteniary in March 1918, with no expectation other than he would never leave. Not surprisingly, his wife got a divorce. His eyes stare at the camera and seem to look far beyond the lens.

He was given work in the prison furniture shop though he had no prior experience in wood craft. He wove wicker chairs, daybeds, lamp shades, and bird cages. Soon he became good enough to be made an instructor. Convicts earned a small wage in the shops and as a lifer Chobar was able to keep all his earnings of about $17 a month. After 6 years at this, he caught the attention of Warden Fenton who offered him the position of prison librarian. Even though Chobar protested he was unqualified, Fenton insisted and Chobar was given charge of choosing and distributing books for the entire prison population. His duties also included running the prison mail room. Life in prison now had a purpose.

Before his incarceration, music been a minor interest for Chobar who enjoyed singing in choirs and had taught himself to pick simple tunes out on the mandolin and violin. In prison he made an unsuccessful try at the cornet after hearing the band, but it was the saxophone that really caught his ear. He invested $168, nearly his full year's income, and bought himself a saxophone, devoting all his free time to the instrument and learning the fundamentals of music. The warden permitted him an hour a day of practice in the prison chapel in addition to two hours of band rehearsal. At night he taught himself the instrument fingerings silently in his cell. Before long, his talent was recognized and he was made a soloist in the band. 

Lincoln NE Star August 7, 1931

After 12 years in prison, in 1930 Chobar made application to the state parole board for a commutation of his sentence. Unlike Tony Ciarletta's hearing, where no one spoke against him, the family of Chobar's victim were very vocal in their opposition to Chobar's possible release or a reduction of his life sentence. Nebraska newspapers gave regular reports on parole board actions, and quickly picked up on Chobar's case as a contest between two mothers. On the one side Chobar's mother made a plea for clemency, and on the other side his victim's mother, Mrs. Blender, demanded that justice be served. Yet even with the support of prison officials praising his exemplary conduct, Chobar's application was denied.

The following year, when Chobar's mother became critically ill, Warden Fenton took the unusual step of securing Louis a 7-day pass from the governor to leave prison and visit her in Chillicothe, Illinois. Unsupervised. Across the state line. "I have never lost a prisoner under these circumstances when such a privilege has been granted," said Fenton. When it was clear she was near death, Chobar was allowed an extra 5 days.

Lincoln NE Evening Journal April 20, 1932

At his next parole hearing in 1932, Chobar's petition prevailed and the board commuted his life sentence to a term of 25 years. This made him eligible for release in 1935.

Louis continued as prison librarian and director of the prison's shows. The 1934 Thanksgiving production was a musical comedy entitled "Spooky Hours". Chobar auditioned over 40 inmates and chose 25 for the six act show. The two lead actors were both black men, one with 16 years experience in Negro stage work. There were three dance routines; short comic skits; a "high class" tap dance act; several popular and classical songs; a one act play; and a big finale depicting jungle life in South Africa. Accompanying all this from the stage pit was an orchestra of 12 musicians led by Louis Chobar. He was even featured as a saxophone soloist.

Each year, owing to the nature of the place, actors come and actors go, but this year Mr. Chobar is quite satisfied with the talent available, and so, says their director, "On with the Show."


The following year Louise Chobar became a free man again. He moved to Peoria, IL; worked as a salesman for a paper product company; remarried and became the father of a daughter.

Did he take his saxophone with him when he left prison? Did he continue to write songs or direct musicals? His name is attached to two songs listed in a 1949 catalog of music copyright titles. "Huckleberry Sweetheart" and "Illinoi' I Love You" for voice and piano, by Myrle Davis and Louis Merle (pseud.) i.e. Louis William Chobar. So perhaps he did keep a dream of pursuing music. But the internet does not have all the answers. After 17 years in the Pen, Louis was probably intent on making a new life on his on terms that was quiet and drew no attention. 








Besides "The Prisoner's Plea", Louis Chobar as Prisoner #7280 co-wrote another song with Prisoner #8940 entitled "Omaha, I Love You."a fox trot ballad. It is curious that Chobar is credited with the lyrics and not the music. Who was the composer?   

That was Prisoner #8940. His name was Art Boyd.

Source: Nebraska State Historical Society

Convicted in 1924 of breaking into and robbing a Missouri Pacific railway depot, Art Boyd was sentenced to serve 3 to 10 years in the penitentiary. Like Chobar and Ciarletta, he repeatedly applied to the parole board for a reduced sentence. By 1930 he was still inside after 6 years. To look at his prison mugshot with his shaved head, scars and missing eye, we could easily believe that he was capable of murder. The internet does not say if he ever was one.

But he did play the saxophone.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone pleads "Not Guilty!"

Music in the Field

August 15, 2014, 1:20 pm

≫ Next: The Jenkins Orphanage Band

≪ Previous: Prisoner #7280 - A Lifer in Music

$

0

0

It was a warm day. The air smelled of canvas tents, horses, and cut grass. The soldiers had begun their daily drills so there had to be music. Three boys came to hear the army band play.

The exact time and place of this photo postcard are unknown. This army band of about 28 are wearing uniforms appropriate to the decade 1910 to 1920. Standing at attention behind them are the drums and bugles of the field musicians. The photo has faded and I have improved it with digital software but I am still uncertain about the complexion on the faces of the musicians. Are they African American?  If they are, they may be members of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments – the famed "Buffalo Soldiers" which were two all black units of the U.S. Army. formed in the second half of the 19th century.

The photographer wrote a caption in the corner:

Guard Mount
In The Field

A Guard Mount was when one unit was assembled to exchange duty with another. There was a specific bugle call for this order.

The scene in front of the band might have resembled this image from a postcard of 1918. A band performs for a large company of soldiers arrayed in some kind of drill line. They are near tents and are watched over by officers on horseback.

This birds-eye view is entitled Musical Saber Drill, Fort Riley, Kansas. The soldiers are practicing basic cavalry swordsmanship, but minus the horses. No doubt it is always best to first learn this unmounted. The field is overlooking the Kansas River of Ft. Riley, a military installation once known for a brief connection to the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment and General George Armstrong Custer.

The postcard has a postmark of SEP 23, 1918 from Junction City, KS Camp Funston. This camp was one of 16 training camps set up around the country in 1917 to prepare new recruits and draftees for military service in the war against Germany. 

It was addressed to Mr. Emil E. Forderhase of Berger, Missouri in Franklin County.

Sept 22 - 1918

Mr Emil Forderhase. Dear Brother
Am going to send you this card for pleasure
Sure would like to see you little fellow
again Guess you will be a big man if
I get back. Cant tell exactly when
that will be. Guess you missed me
every evening as you went to bed
and also during the day Say Emil how
do you like school. Just study hard for
it is good to have a good education
always can make use of it. Am glad to
have a much as I have. Even is good
here where I am Are several boys here that
cant write or Read. Tell Ida that I read a
letter that Amelia sent to Benj Meyer & in
that letter she wrote to all of us.
As ever Harry

Harry's full name was Harry Walter Forderhase and he was 24 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Army in July 1918.  The American Expeditionary Forces under General John J. Pershing had already seen their first major action in the spring. They would see much more as summer ended during the so-called great Hundred Days Offensive, also known as the Second Battle of the Somme. By September there was still no expectation that the war in Europe would end soon, and America was now sending 10,000 soldiers a day to the battlefields of France.


Harry Forderhase was one of over 4 million American men who were mobilized for America's military contribution to World War One. I do not know if he was ever put on a ship for France, but his veteran record states simply that he was released from army service in January 1919. Perhaps more significantly, Harry survived the Great Influenza epidemic of 1918, as the Kansas army camps were later determined to have been an epicenter for this horrific contagion that killed millions more people than were taken by the war.


Emil Forderhase must have been very pleased to have his brother return to the farm in Berger, as he was only 10 when Harry joined up in 1918. The Forderhase family, though they were a generation or more removed from the old country, lived in a rural farm community where nearly every neighbor was of German descent.

In the postwar years, the family stayed together, as Harry, the oldest boy of 5 children, took over the farm in 1920. They were all still there in the 1940 census, single and unmarried – Ida, Harry, Oscar, Olivia, and Emil. The two youngest worked in a hat factory, where Olivia was a seamstress and Emil was a crown finisher.  They probably did not need to write many postcards or letters to each other.

>><<<

The days of saber drills and cavalry training are over in today's modern army. But the generals of 1914-1918 considered the horse and saber the preeminent force for war. This British film shows a group of raw recruits getting instruction in how to wield the saber. There are of course no horses. And sadly in this era of silent film, no band music either. I hear a waltz. Maybe the Blue Danube.

This Pathé video should start in the middle at 7m 58s, but the beginning is well worth watching too.

 

>><<<

 

>>><<<

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
Click the link to read more letters to home.

The Jenkins Orphanage Band

August 23, 2014, 11:37 am

≫ Next: Im Felde – In the Field 1915

≪ Previous: Music in the Field

$

0

0

Every photograph has a tale to tell, but few photos offer such an abundance of stories as this one does. Family history, social history, music history, and world history are all intertwined together in a souvenir postcard that once sold for a tuppence (2¢). The image shows a boys brass band of 19 young black musicians dressed in white jerseys and caps, and posed with their instruments – cornets, alto and tenor horns, tuba, helicon, clarinets and drums. The caption reads:

 Anglo- American Exposition
The Famous Piccaninny Band

The word piccaninny or pickaninny is derived from a creole word of West Africa and the Caribbean which has its root in a Portuguese word - pequenino, the diminutiveofpequeno for small. It was once used to describe a very smallchild, but in the 19th and early 20th century it became an affectionate term for children of color, though today it is considered a degrading label. In this photo the front row of very young boys, especially the little band conductor in the center, partly explains its use for the band's name.

 

The back of the postcard shows that  it was printed in Britain. Though it was never posted, it has an imprint for the Anglo-American Exposition, an event that was presented in the Shepard's Bush section of west London in an exhibition area known as the Great White City, which was an unfortunate coincidence for this particular band.

Another unfortunate coincidence
was that the exposition was held
in the summer of 1914.

-

This was not a British band but an American boys band from Charleston, South Carolina. They were all inmates of the Jenkins Orphanage which was founded by the Reverend Daniel J. Jenkins (1862-1937), a Baptist preacher and native of South Carolina. One cold winter in 1891 while collecting wood at the train yard in Charleston, he encountered a group of destitute small boys huddled in a boxcar. Hungry and homeless, these orphans inspired Jenkins to take them into his own family. His simple act of charity became his calling in life and brought forth such a boundless compassion for the homeless black children of his community that it led him to create an institution that could provide for their welfare and education.

According to census records, by 1900 there were nearly 70 negro boys and girls in Rev. Jenkins' orphanage. Like many children's homes of this era there was a school band, as music was a standard requirement for a proper education and learning a musical instrument offered a practical trade skill. An orphans' band also proved very helpful in soliciting donations for an institution so very low on Charleston's list of charitable organizations in the 1890s. Rev. Jenkins was a tireless fundraiser, making countless speeches and appeals for funds to support his work. He recognized that patrons outside of Charleston enjoyed hearing his talented charges, so he shrewdly arranged for the band to accompany him on his campaigns around the country, particularly in the North where there were many more sympathetic benefactors for negro charities than in the South.

During the summer months, the boys band would travel to large cities like New York, Washington, and Philadelphia. They appeared at the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY; the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, also known as the St. Louis World's Fair; and marched in President Taft's 1909 inauguration parade. The proceeds from the band concerts became a major source of income for the orphanage, and Jenkins had the band leader add a second band. Eventually there would be as many as four musical groups on tour. They would often stay at the YMCA or Young Men's Christian Association like the one pictured above in St. Petersburg, Florida - The Sunshine City and dating from 1930.

Columbia SC State April 25, 1914

In early 1914, Rev. Jenkins received an offer to bring his boys band to London to perform at the Anglo-American Exposition. It would not be his first trip to England, as in 1895 he had taken a band to Paris and then London where they ran afoul of a British law that prohibited children younger than 11 from performing music in a hall or on the street as a way to solicit money. They were stranded without funds to get back to the US, so they appeared in court seeking a remedy. The judge was unable to help, though he made a private donation, and the story was printed in many British newspapers. Eventually Jenkins and his boys did return safely but understandably he was now determined that any engagement in a foreign country should have a binding contract with suitable payment and conditions. Since this Anglo-American Exposition promised to be a lengthy and first rate gig, Jenkins secured several older musicians, alumni of his orphanage, to  reinforce the youthful first rank of the band .   

On the 13th of May, the Rev. D. J. Jenkins, his wife, and the orphanage staff and band of 24 arrived in Liverpool from New York . Their passage was a 3rd class fare on the Cunard liner Campania.

-

London Times May 14, 1914

The Anglo-American Exposition was promoted as a centenary of peace between Britain and America following the 1814 settlement of the War of 1812. Though it pretended to have elements of high art and science, the exposition was essentially produced as a summertime circus amusement park. There was a 15,000 square foot working model of the Panama Canal (which would officially open in August 1914); a realistic replica, with skyscrapers, of Greater New York that covered 6 acres; a model of the Grand Canyon of Colorado; and the 101 Ranch Wild West Show complete with Indians, Cow Boys, Wild-West Girls, Bucking Bronchos, and the Thrill of Thrillers – Auto Polo.

The Jenkins Orphanage Band was part of the Hordes of other Startling Novelties, which included numerous bands and musicians providing music throughout the park. The boy's first concert started at 11:45 in the morning and continued until their last set finished at 10:45 at night. Their program consisted of the typical waltzes and overtures of traditional brass bands but the music that distinguished them from other bands were the cakewalks, two steps, and ragtime music unique to the new American brand of popular music. The Charleston Piccaninny Band became a small sensation at the fair and sold thousands of postcards.
  
They even learned to play "God Save the King" after receiving an invitation to play before King George V who was encouraged to hear the band after his mother, Queen Alexandre and Empress Marie of Russia had heard them perform earlier in the summer. Since the tune is also the American patriotic song My Country, "Tis of Thee, it was no doubt an easy piece to arrange.











But in July, 1914, King George had other things on his mind besides grand expositions. On June 28, the crown prince of Austria, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were murdered in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austrian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. For the next month the assassination seemed to be only a contentious matter between the Austro-Hungarian empire and its neighbor Serbia. However on July 28,  a very complicated chain of alliances and military plans forced one nation after another to take up arms. By August, Europe was at war.  

Charleston SC News and Courier August 13, 1914

In June, Rev. Jenkins had just agreed to extend the orphan band's stay in London, but he and his wife had planned to return to Charleston in early August. Everything changed when Britain declared war on Germany on August 4th following the German army's violation of Belgium territory as part of the Kaiser's military strategy to invade France. All passenger ships were commandeered for the war effort. Rev. Jenkins and his wife somehow managed to get on board the S.S. Laconia that left for New York on August 8th. but the boys would be held over indefinitely. 

-

Brooklyn Daily Eagle Sept. 13, 1914

Despite the British mobilization for war, the Anglo-American Exposition struggled  to continue its daily shows into September, but ticket sales clearly suffered. Performances of the 101 Ranch Wild West Show had been changed when their stadium was turned into a drill ground for the army. There were special promotions and servicemen in uniform were allowed in for free. The war created a myriad of obstacles for travelers. Adding to the problem of crossing the Atlantic, train service across Europe was disrupted, and border crossings that only a month before had been open were now closed.

The Jenkins Orphanage Band finally secured passage on the S.S. St. Louis which carried many Americans escaping the hostilities back to the States, including a number of theater and opera artists. A small group of the Wild West Show Indians which had been on loan to another circus in Germany even managed to get released and rejoin their troupe. The Jenkins Band was worthy of notice because they were well known in New York.

The ship's manifest from the S.S. St. Louis that sailed from Liverpool on Sept. 5th, 1914, and arrived at the port of New York, Sept 12th, 1914 listed the names of each musician in the Jenkins Orphanage Band along with their age and date and place of birth. Their address was 20 Franklin St., Charleston, SC.

• Brown, Clinton - age 16 - born Aug. 2,  1898 Manning, SC
• Brown, Edqward - age 18 - born Aug. 3, 1896 Charleston, SC
• Aiken, Lucins - age 18 - born Feb. 27, 1896 Charleston, SC
• Mills, Alonzo - age 18 - born Nov. 12, 1895 John Island, SC
• Patrick, Jacob - age 18 - born Aug. 18, 1896 Charleston, SC
• Harper, Emerson - age 17 - born Feb. 28, 1897 Columbia, SC
• Dreher, Clarence - age 21 - born Nov. 27, 1892 Darlington, SC
• Patrick, Edward - age 20 - born Nov. 25, 1893 Charleston, SC
• Jenkins, Edmund - age 20 - born Apr. 9, 1894 Charleston, SC
• Daniels, Paul - age 30 - born Jun. 7, 1884 Bambery, SC
• Bacon, Sallie L. - age 26 - born Jan 23, 1888 Charleston, SC
• Garlington, John C. - age 10 - born Nov. 17, 1903 Laurens, SC
• Thomas, William - age 10 - born Jan. 8, 1903 Charleston, SC
• Holmes, Hoarce - age 11 - born Dec. 27, 1902 Charleston, SC
• Brown, Charles - age 11 - born Oct. 14, 1902 Greenville, SC
• Rennicks, Marion - age 11 - born Jun. 3, 1902 Greenville, SC
• Thayer, George - age 11 - born Dec. 25, 1902 Charleston, SC
• Benford, William - age 14 - born Apr. 18, 1900 Charleston, SC
• Briggans, Eunice - age 16 - born Apr. 9, 1898 Savannah, GA
• Frasier, Jacob - age 16 - born Dec. 23, 1897 Charleston, SC
• Gibbes, William - age 16 - born May 5, 1898 Charleston, SC
• Wright, Stephen - age 17 - born Jun. 27, 1897 Charleston, SC
• Aiken, Augustus - age 15 - born Jul. 26, 1899 Charleston, SC

Reports from the first months of the war were filled with public anxiety. No one knew what to expect or how best to react. Most people hoped the war would end by Christmas. Few expected that it would drag on for 4 more years. No doubt the Jenkins orphan boys were happy to go home to Charleston.

Rev. Daniel J. Jenkins died in 1937, a much loved and respected elder of Charleston. He had guided his orphanage through a tumultuous era of American history. Over the 46 years that he promoted his orphan boys band, it produced many capable musicians who would help create a new 20th century art form called jazz music. Several former Jenkins Band members became well known musicians in the big bands of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and other band leaders of the 1930s and 40s. 

In 1928 another generation of Charleston waifs were filmed in front of the Jenkins orphanage by Fox Movietone News using a new technology of sound recording. The original newsreel was quite short, but this compilation has over 10 minutes of outtake footage restored by the Moving Image Research Collections at the University of South Carolina. The band plays only one tune, over and over, but there are some closeups of the band members at 3:06 and some little girls dancing at 6:20. Their rough musical style isn't exactly modern jazz, but it has an original voice that comes from youthful energy and learning music from the inside out, that is – playing by ear. It resembles the music of a band from Orangeburg, SC that I heard many years ago and described in my post from 2010, A Picnic Band. It's possible that some of those musicians were once in the Jenkins Orphanage too.

>>> <<<

>>> <<<

The summer of 1914 was a momentous turning point for the world that forever changed the direction of nations, culture, science, and art. But out of this enormous cataclysm, there were a few small wonders of hope. One is found in the listing for the Jenkins band on the S.S. St. Louis where one name is struck through with a line from an immigration official's pencil: Jenkins, Edmund - age 20 - born Apr. 9, 1894 Charleston, SC.  It was easy to guess that this might be the son of Rev. Jenkins. But why was the name struck through?

An internet search quickly produced some answers. He was indeed the seventh son of Daniel J. Jenkins, and there was a reason he was not with the other Charleston musicians returning to America. Ancestry.com produced the emergency US passport granted by the American embassy in London to Edmund T. Jenkins, who arrived in England in May 1914 for the purpose of musician and stayed behind. 

For six years. The date of the application was July 22nd, 1920.

When he took passage the following week on July 31st, 1920 aboard the Cunard liner Imperator, Edmund Thornton Jenkins traveled 1st class to New York. He listed his UK address as Royal Academy, Marylebone Rd., London, where for six years he had been enrolled as a student at one of London's great music conservatories, the Royal Academy of Music. He was now 26 years old and had became an accomplished clarinetist and proficient composer, winning prizes at the RAM for his compositions, and getting his music performed at the Queen's Hall and even mentioned in the music journals. That kind of achievement would have been impossible for a black man in Charleston, South Carolina in 1914.

Jenkins was also a successful performer on the clarinet, and on his return to London in 1921 he was appointed an instructor at the Royal Academy. The cakewalks and rags of the orphanage band were not on any music conservatory curriculum, but they were good training for a musician who wanted to organize a small combo band to play in a new night club above the Queen's Hall. Jenkins linked up with an English musician named Jack Hylton, a pianist who would later become a successful bandleader in the 1930s and 40s. Together they produced several 78rpm disc recordings of popular dance tunes in 1921 with Edmund Jenkins on saxophone and clarinet. On this YouTube video we can hear Jenkins leading the melody on saxophone for a tune entitled The Love Nest. Is it an alto or soprano sax? I'm not sure, but it does demonstrate a very expert musicianship.

>> <<

>> <<

Edmund Thornton Jenkins tried going back home to Charleston but the freedom of expression and the dignity of equality he found in England were denied him in America. So he returned to London and then moved on to Paris where he joined other African American artists who prospered in France during the postwar years. He had aspirations for a career as a classical musician and composed orchestral pieces and an opera, but he found more profitable work in the dance bands of the French cabarets. The vibrant Parisian night life of the 1920s fostered a new kind of jazz idiom that inspired many European composers like Maurice Ravel and Igor Stravinsky. With his crossover education, Edmund T. Jenkins might have become an important musical figure in France, Britain, and America, but fate takes tragic turns and he died of peritonitis in a Paris hospital on September 12, 1926 at the age of 32. He was buried in Charleston.     

One hundred years ago, a small group of African American boys went on a big adventure in a foreign land unlike anything in their experience. They introduced Britain to a special culture and a new kind of music that despite the sudden disturbance of war, would contribute to bending the course of the musical arts from its old classical traditions to a new popular style. Perhaps more significantly, they left one of their own talents behind to thrive in  an environment free of the bigotry, intolerance and injustice that infused American society in 1914.

This is not to say that there was no racism in Europe, but Edmund Jenkins was able to flourish in England and France because he was not automatically refused opportunities or deemed a second class citizen as he would have been in South Carolina. He clearly had extraordinary gifts as a musician and composer that might have placed his name among the great artists of the postwar years. We can't speculate very far with that idea, but we can imagine the excitement of a young man, now on his own as the summer of 1914 ended, when he waved farewell to his friends from the dockside and then turned away to pursue a dream. 

>>> <<<

I have written about several photographs of orphan bands. The one most like the Jenkins Orphanage Band was the New York Orphan Boys' Band which came from the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York. There are numerous photos and postcards in my collection from World War One, and one of the categories on this blog is for black musicians. But no other photograph can compare to the wealth of stories contained in this simple postcard.

This post is not intended to be a complete history or commentary, but instead I have tried to present the highlights of my research as I discovered whatever information was hidden behind this postcard. As I began to piece it together I soon realized that each story deserves a book, and in fact there are some excellent authors who have done just that, writing comprehensive histories on Rev. Jenkins' Orphanage Band and his son, Edmund T. Jenkins. Their books provided answers to my questions and illuminated the history in ways that I am unable to do on this blog.   


The first can be found on the blog of London historian Jeffrey Green who has documented many fascinating stories of people of African descent in London before the Second World War. He has also written a biography: Edmund Thornton Jenkins: the life and times of an American black composer, 1894-1926 published by Greenwood Press, 1982.

Another superb book, Doin' the Charleston: Black Roots of American Popular Music and the Jenkins Orphanage Legacy by Mark Rowell Jones has some splendid pictures and a very detailed history on the Jenkins Orphanage Band. He makes a very good case for Charleston to be recognized as an important root of American jazz music due to the many jazz musicians who received their musical training in the Jenkins Orphanage.

I should also recommend a terrific illustrated children's book entitled Hey, Charleston!: The True Story of the Jenkins Orphanage Band by Anne Rockwell. She presents their story in a way that captures the imagination of readers, young and old alike.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
Click the link for more fans of old photographs.

---

Im Felde – In the Field 1915

September 12, 2014, 11:55 am

≫ Next: A Royal Family

≪ Previous: The Jenkins Orphanage Band

$

0

0

Eins,

Zwei,

Drei,

G’suffa!

Prost! 

S.S. 11       Im Felde 1915

 

A small moment in the lives of soldiers
captured on film and turned into an accidental work of art. 

These men from a Bavarian Infantry Division would certainly know the traditional Oktoberfest cheer. They sent this postcard on 13 June 1915 to a friend named Simmel (?)  in Thansüß, Germany.

Did he appreciate the music of Haydn? Did their horse enjoy a serenade of violin and cello?  I'd bet there was some singing too!

Eins, zwei, drei, g'suffa!
One, two, three, drink!

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday.

Where everyone is in a cheerful mood this weekend.

A Royal Family

September 19, 2014, 8:51 pm

≫ Next: Two Make Three

≪ Previous: Im Felde – In the Field 1915

$

0

0

Once upon a time there was a prince who lived in a grand palace.
On summer evenings, he and his beautiful  wife enjoyed nothing better
than to listen to their children play music together.
 
Until one day when it all vanished in a flash. 

These might be the opening lines of a fairy tale,
except that it is a true story. 

It begins with a photo postcard of three musical children whose father was the Erzherzog Leopold Salvator, an Austrian Archduke of the Habsburg-Lorraine royal family. His oldest son Rainer sits at an ornate grand piano, while younger brother Leopold and sister Antonie stand on either side holding violins. The photographer, Nashbruck Verg. (?), has left a nice embossed logo in the lower right corner with a date of 1908. Notice that the two boys wear sandals under their sailor suits and short pants, which seems a very modern footwear for the 1900s.

But Rainer, Leopold, and Antonie were just three of 10 children of the Erzherzog Leopold Salvator (1863 – 1931) and his wife, the Infanta Blanca of Spain (1868 – 1949).  Altogether there were 5 boys and 5 girls. Antonie, or more properly Maria Antonia, had 3 older sisters. In this next postcard, father Leopold sits on the left with his youngest child, Karl Pius, and mother Blanca stands center.

All the children shared the title Erzherzog, or Erzherzogin for the girls, which translates from German as Archduke or Archduchess. It came by way of their father, Archduke Leopold Salvator. Though he was born in Bohemia, Leopold was a member of the Tuscan, Italy branch of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine which was one branch of a very complicated family tree of the Hapsburg Holy Roman Empire. He was the eldest son of Archduke Karl Salvator and Princess Maria Immaculata of the Bourbon-Two Sicilies, who produced 10 children. He was also the grandson of Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Archduchess Blanca was the eldest child of Carlos, Duke of Madrid, a claimant to both the throne of Spain and the throne of France too, and his wife Princess Margherita of Bourbon-Parma. The title Infanta is used in Spain to signify a daughter of royal blood. However Blanca's father was born in Slovenia, and her mother in Lucca, Tuscany, Italy.
 
This tangled lineage of royal houses was once common knowledge in past centuries when royalty was the only celebrity status that mattered. In 1908, noble blood lines were particularly convoluted in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as it held a great many national groups in what was then a very large country. 

Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria, Prince of Tuscany Source: Wikipedia

As one of many Archdukes in the Austrian nobility, Leopold Salvator was given various state duties by Emperor Franz Josef who was simultaneously Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary in a political arrangement that kept the two principal parts of the empire, Austria and Hungary, on a more or less equal status. This created the uniquely Austrian German term kaiserlich und königlich  meaning Imperial and Royal, usually abbreviated k.u.k.  Leopold found service in the k.u.k. army as an inspector of artillery and seems to have had an excellent tailor for his magnificent uniforms. Did you spot his spurs in the previous photo? Leopold was a first cousin and exact contemporary with the Emperor's nephew and heir, Archduke Franz Ferdinand who was also born in 1863 to Leopold's mother's sister. 

In this postcard, the Salvator family stands outside on the terrace of one of their residences in Vienna. Only seven children and the family dog are with their parents. Missing is the very youngest son and two oldest daughters. Infanta Blanca was very proud of her Spanish heritage and took special efforts to give her many children an education suitable for their high ranking position in a multinational society. In 1944 a book about the second youngest son, Archduke Franz Josef, was written by Bertita Harding. It is entitled Lost Waltz: A Story of Exile and in it she describes details of mother Blanca.

Of greater importance than her accent was the Infanta's choice of reading matter. For entertainment of the younger children she kept on hand the Contes de Fees or fairy tales published by Hachette's famed Bibliotheque Rose Illustre. This fascinating gold-beveled edition was garnished with steel engravings that were either of a cloying sweetness, adored by the very young, or else capable of arousing the most horrendous fright.

Here were the old familiar stories, dear to childhood everywhere. But with a difference. Due to the Infanta's zeal for variation, which in her case was phonetically no variation at all, the listeners became at times confused. Mama liked reading the same tale successively in four tongues, which called for mental agility on the part of her audience. Quite early the children learned that Cinderella was at the same time Cendrillon in French, Cenicienta in Spanish and Aschenbroedel in German. Equally Little Red Riding Hood became Petit Chaperon Rouge, Caperucita Roja, or Rotkappchen, while the dread figure of Bluebeard reappeared as Barbe Bleue, Barba Azul, or the ominous Blaubart.

Palais Toskana, Wien Source: Wikipedia

The Salvator family home in the city of Vienna was known as the Palais Toskana, a palatial residence built in 1867 in the neo-classic style. I suspect that the previous photos were taken at this home. 

Archduchess Maria Antonia (1899 – 1977) was baptized with the names Maria Antonia Roberta Blanka Leopoldina Karole Josepha Raphaela Michaela Ignatia Aurelia, but was called Mimi by her family. One can only wonder what pedigree names were given to the dogs, but this alert dog standing by her was more than a family pet.

The postcard caption reads:

Erzherzogin Maria Antonia mit
ihrem Hund der für Kriegszwecke
zur Verfügung gestellt wurde.  

ArchduchessMariaAntonia with
her dogwhich was used
for warpurposes.

On June 28, 1914 Maria Antonia's cousin, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo. A month later Austria and the rest of Europe was at war.

_

Archduke Rainer (1895 – 1930) was born in Agram, now known as Zagreb, Croatia. His full name was Rainer Karl Leopold Blanka Anton Margarete Beatrix Peter Joseph Raphael Michael Ignaz Stephan.As the eldest son of Archduke Leopold his future was planned for him from birth, and service in the Emperor's k.u.k. army was a duty in time of war. 

His younger brother Archduke Leopold (1897 – 1958), also born in Agram, was given the names Leopold Maria Alfons Blanka Karl Anton Beatrix Michael Joseph Peter Ignatz von Habsburg-Lothringen.

In 1914 at the start of World War I, both Rainer, age 19, and Leopold, age 18, joined an artillery regiment as lieutenants, no doubt through their father's influence. Leopold distinguished himself in 1917 at the Battle of Medeazza, near Trieste, Italy and was awarded the prestigious Order of the Golden Fleece by his great uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph in one of the last honors given by the old Emperor who died in 1916.   

(How the Emperor managed to do this months after his death is not explained in Leopold's Wikipedia entry so we will have to accept this as part of the fairy tale. Perhaps the Golden Fleece was a prize for some other good conduct)

_

In this wartime photo with their mother, the two young officers wear more elaborate dress uniforms. Rainer leans against a piano, which is similar to the one in the 1908 photo but it has different legs. On the wall behind them are portraits of two sisters. Can you spot the sandals?

This photo may have been taken at the family's country residence, a large estate on the edge of the famed Vienna Woods, called Schloss Wilhelminenberg. This very grand house had previously belonged to another royal member of the Salvator family tree who had died childless, and in 1913 it was inherited by Archduke Leopold Salvator. 

_

Schloss Wilhelminenberg Source: Wikipedia

The first version of this house was built in 1781 but by 1903 it had became dilapidated and was demolished and rebuilt in the new Second Empire style. In the book Lost Waltz: A Story of Exile there is this description:

At Schloss Wilhelminenberg there were eighty-six servants, all told. This included chauffeurs, grooms, stableboys, valets, cooks, maids, gardeners, gatekeepers, laundresses, dressmakers, mending women, and the nursemaid Resi. Most of these workers, with the exception of the valets, personal maids, and Resi, were housed in separate quarters adjoining the mews, some fifty meters below the archducal home. Daily an administrator set the wheels of the great estate in motion, taking stock of the produce from vegetable and fruit gardens, as well as budgeting the household's needs.


During the war it was converted for use as an army hospital, as was the Archduke Salvator's in-town residence, the Palais Toskana. However the music room of the Schloss Wilhelminenberg probably continued as a center for family concerts. This next photo, courtesy of Wikipedia, shows the Salvator family arranged in a splendid room. Maria Antonia is on the left by her father, and behind her is an older sister with a violin while another brother, Franz Josef, sits at yet one more ornate piano. In the center standing behind his father and sporting a maturing mustache, is Rainer surprisingly with a rotary valve trumpet tucked under one arm.

It looks like a very happy family. But as this must be around 1917 or 1918, they can not know that days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are soon to come to an end.  

Archduke Leopold Salvator and his wife Infanta Blanca with their ten children Source: Wikipedia

The end of the Great War of 1914-1918 brought dramatic changes to many countries where monarchies were dissolved in favor of new forms of government. For an Austrian Archduke whose country was on the losing side, this was especially troubling. The life of privilege and entitlement that Leopold and his family had enjoyed for generations came to a crashing halt. There was no longer an emperor or king to serve, and the Austro-Hungarian empire was divided into multiple new nations. The property of royal households was taken over by the new state governments, and Archduke Leopold's personal wealth of lavish houses, fancy uniforms, and gilded pianos was lost forever.

Thankfully no one in this family lost their life in the war but things were never the same after 1918. Archduke Leopold and Infanta Blanca would not recognize the new Austrian republic and were forced to leave Vienna and become exiles from their homeland. Their royal family connections to France and Italy offered no benefit as these countries had been at war with Austria, so Blanca sought asylum in Spain which was granted only after she and her children renounced any claim to the Spanish throne. They moved into a modest house in Barcelona. In 1931 while on a trip to Austria in an effort to recover some of his confiscated properties, Leopold Salvator died at age 67. Now a widow without support, Blanca and three of her children moved back to Vienna, ironically renting three rooms in their former home, the Palais Toskana. When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, they moved to Viareggio,Italy where they ran a small vineyard until her death in 1949.

Brothers Rainer and Leopold, were allowed to remain in Vienna after renouncing all claims to the Austrian throne. For a time Rainer ran a auto garage and then a motorcycle service delivering film reels to cinemas. In 1930 at age 35 he died of blood poisoning in Vienna. He never married.

Leopold stayed in Vienna as bit longer, but after a failed marriage ended in 1931, he moved to the United States, eventually ending up as a factory worker in Connecticut where he died in 1958.

Maria Antonia stayed with her parents on the move to Barcelona. When her parents become concerned that she might take holy orders and become a nun, she was sent to the Island of Mallorca where she fell in love with a man who belonged to family of minor Spanish nobility. They married and lived in Mallorca with their five children until his death in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. Seeing no prospects in Spain, Maria Antonia emigrated with her children to Uruguay where she married for a second time in 1942. She died in Brazil in 1977.

The grand estate of Schloss Wilhelminenberg was sold to a Swiss banker after the war in 1922, but he lost it in foreclosure to the city of Vienna. For a time it was used by the celebrated Vienna Boys Choir, and in the next war reverted to use as a military hospital. It is now run as a hotel.  

-_ - _-

For thousands of years, musicians depended on royal patronage. Being a member of the aristocratic class meant having lots of leisure time for the appreciation of high culture. The pages of music history are filled with references to noble princes hiring musicians, commissioning composers, or engaging music teachers for their children. Many great musicians like Mozart and Beethoven supplemented their income by giving music lessons to children of royal families. For boys the music was only a recreation but for girls it could be their primary education, as daughters were considered more marriageable if they had accomplishments on a musical instrument. That relationship between royalty and musicians changed just as dramatically with the end of World War One. 

The photos of Archduke Leopold Salvator and his family intrigue me because of their evident love of music. We can not know how serious the children were at learning a musical instrument but the instruments were clearly important enough to be included in these formal Salvator family photos. I don't believe this was a common practice of other wealthy and illustrious Austrian families, so I think it indicates a special family pride in musical accomplishments. 

But the thing that really interests me about these images is that they are postcards. For whom were these postcards made? None of these photos were ever sent through the mail and only two have a name of a collector imprinted on the back. Did cousins across the many branches of the Hapsburg family tree exchange them on the holidays? Were they sold at the corner newsstand like other ordinary tourist postcards? Why did a member of a royal family go to such efforts to have fine photographs made into postcards?

Uncovering the detail about the many domestic servants employed at Archduke Leopold's Schloss Wilhelminenberg got me thinking about a larger family unseen behind the camera. Many household servants probably spent their entire lives looking after royal children, from infancy to adulthood. Despite the differences in class and position, many servants must have developed an affectionate attachment to their royal charges. What could be a better gift for 86 family servants than a collection of souvenir postcard portraits of the Salvator family?

I'm happy to entertain other ideas about why the postcards were made, but this seems to me as good an explanation as any. It is also another example of a class relationship that was destroyed by war and the subsequent collapse of the European monarchies.

Fairy tales do not always end well.

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
click the link for more sailor suits.

Two Make Three

September 26, 2014, 7:48 pm

≫ Next: The Musical Water of Mineral Wells, Texas

≪ Previous: A Royal Family

$

0

0

When does two make three? When one half of a pair is doubled of course. In this case it is the two musicians and three cornets of the Esperantoj Artisto. On the left stands a woman playing a cornet while her gentleman partner holds two brass instruments to his lips. One is an ordinary cornet in his right hand while the larger instrument in his left a flugelhorn. He has a very uncommon skill to vibrate his lips simultaneously on both sides of his mouth.

The woman's elaborate embroidered dress with pearls and sequined butterflies could only be suitable for a music hall artist. This French postcard has no postmark but dates from around 1910. Google's Translate considers their name to be in the artificial language of Esperanto.

_

Not only could this duo play trios on cornets but they also played the cor de chasse, the true French hunting horn. This instrument has no valves so the Esperantaj Artisoj musicians demonstrate it in the traditional manner with the bell held up to both left or right.

The sound of the hunting horn is quite loud and raucous, which is appropriate for an outdoor instrument. In France it is commonly played by groups of cor de chasse players arranged with the musicians turning their backs and the horn bells towards the audience. Another copy of this image has a postmark date of 1909.

_

In this postcard, the duo has changed sides and Monsieur plays two cornets while his female partner holds the flugelhorn. Their name has changed to Les Gouget, Virtuoses musiciens.

Monsieur Gouget is dressed in formal white tie and tail coat, and wears a medal on his coat pocket. Perhaps it it a prize for most duets by one musician. Madame Gouget wears a longer embroidered gown, but I think her sensible stage shoes are the same as in the previous photos.

Making the fingers work six valves and buzzing a doubled sound with the lips into two brass mouthpieces is difficult but not impossible. But tonguing is another matter. It would take quite a special technique to get the right rhythmic articulation while playing two brass instruments at once. That would be real artistry!

Did Madame develop this same talent?

_

In this last card the duo has made yet another name change, this time to English, as:

The celebrated Gouget's Fantaisistes  9, Rue des Petites Écuries, Paris
(The Street of the Small Stables) 

Both musicians hold a cor de chasse at the ready, and evidently they considered themselves world class artists as seen by their white traveling outfits. Monsieur Gouget wears a kind of colonial officers uniform with tropical topee hat while Madame Gouget is dressed in a short skirt and jacket with a kind of automobile touring hat. And both wear very high and tight fitted boots.  

What music did the Gougets play? Did they include other instruments or more musicians?  Did they make costume changes in their act?

We may never find those answers but they surely captured the attention of any music hall audience.

_

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where every couple is on a bike.

Among my family photographs, there is a photo made in the 1920s of my grandmother Blanche Dobbin that makes a match with the Sepia Saturday theme. Not yet 20 years old she sits perched on the back of her cousin's motorcycle, outside his home in Washington D.C. 

Many years later when I was in my 20s and still in college, I bought a motorcycle and once gave my grandmother a very short ride. I doubt we went any faster than 40 mph but she had quite a thrill, no doubt remembering this long ago moment with her cousin.  

The Musical Water of Mineral Wells, Texas

April 11, 2014, 11:40 am

≫ Next: The Band on the Pier

≪ Previous: Two Make Three

$

0

0

Texas is usually known for cowboys, not sailors. But in 1917, some 400 miles from the Gulf of Mexico, a children's band from Texas posed for the camera in their best white jumpers and sailor hats. This postcard tells us who they were.

Woodward-Davis Family Band
consisting of W. W. Woodward and Sister, Mrs. E. L. Davis and their Children,
ages from 5 to 16 years.
Season 1917.   Permanent Address: MINERAL WELLS, TEXAS

Photos of family bands usually show Father as the bandleader, though many were a Mom and Pop outfit. This band is unusual to have a brother and sister combine their progeny into a performing group. It's a brass band with Mrs. Davis on tuba and W. W. Woodward on clarinet. The oldest boy on cornet looks about age 18, while the youngest on drums might be 6 or 7. Their Permanent Address was Mineral Wells, a small town west of Fort Worth, that was far from the sea, but not from the water.
  

Even very prolific siblings would be hard pressed to make up this 28 piece band on their own, which has added more local musicians to the Woodward & Davis company. The group is posed outdoors on the steps of a rooming house or hotel and the card is captioned:

The Junior Rotary Band.   Mineral Wells, Texas
W. W. Woodward, Director. Mrs. E. L. Davis, Instructor

The band director was William W. Woodward, who ran a jewelery store in Mineral Wells. In the 1920 census, he and his wife Maude had 5 children and a niece in their household. His sister's name was Minnie Davis and she was married to Edward L. Davis, employed as secretary of the Retail Merchants Association.

With occupations in the Mineral Wells business world it is not surprising that the children would be part of the Rotary Club which is a nationwide service organization for merchants and local leaders. Most of the boys and girls appear to be teenagers but there are some older musicians in the back row. The youngest is the boy in front wearing a fez and holding a long cane as a baton.

This same photo was used in a short report that appeared in the San Antonio Express, Sunday morning, June 1, 1924.

MINERAL WELLS, Tex., May 24.

San Antonio delegates to the recent meeting of the West Texas Chamber of  Commerce at Brownwood were amazed at the quality of music produced by the Junior Rotary Band of Mineral Wells,  one of the remarkable musical organizations of Texas. Ten members of the band belong to two families, and they are related. The band is directed by W. W. Woodward who has five children in  the organization, and his sister, Mrs. E. L. Davis; who has three children playing in it. Only  two of the youngsters in the band are 17 yeas  old, the next in age  being 15, and the youngest being only 8. The average age of the band members is 13 years.
Guy Woodward, oldest boy in the band,  not only is principal cornet player, but can play all other band instruments. He directs the K. of P. band of Mineral Wells, and also the municipal band of Perrin. Dorothy Davis, also a cornetist, teaches piano and violin. Dell Woodward, aged 10, played a cornet solo the last night of the convention at Brownwood. Members of the band also have a jazz orchestra and a  saxaphone quartett.



The Woodward-Davis Family Band was a great feature of Mineral Wells, TX, and clearly the citizens took pride in the group to send them to a convention of the regional Chamber of Commerce. But there was more to it than that. It was all about the water.

This vintage colorized postcard shows Oak Street in Mineral Wells with a trolley car in the center and what looks like two fire wagons participating in a parade. The generous pavement and numerous retail establishments give the town a prosperous appearance. 

> <

View Larger Map

{If the Google Map Street View does not display Click the link above}

(The new Google Map embedded viewer has a gremlin)

> <

The same intersection today in Google Maps street view shows a faded city whose colors are not nearly as vibrant. The sidewalks have narrowed, the street car line has been paved over, and the pedestrian crowds have disappeared to air conditioned malls.

But if you take a virtual walk up Oak St. you will find some businesses remain.

On the left just above the trolley is the Palace Saloon which is still in the same place today. The Poston Dry Goods Co. - The Store With All the Goods is also still on Oak St. but has moved down next to the saloon. And in the distance is a large building with the name, Crazy Well Water Company, painted on the roof line.

Even for Texas that's an odd name for a business.

The back of this postcard provides a clue. It has no postmark but the style of printing puts it in the prewar 1905-1915 era. It was sent to Mrs. Frailey of Joplin, MO with this funny message.

If you would fire those two nurses you have and come down here you could kick the shingles off the chicken house in a few days   
Bart






The Crazy Well Water Company was one of many enterprising businesses that took advantage of a natural resource that made Mineral Wells a tourist destination. In the late 19th century, Texas became famous for its mineral waters which people consumed in a belief that it could cure whatever ailed them. Mineral Wells was only one of over a hundred Texas communities in the decades 1890 to 1920 that advertised the healthful benefits of drinking Texan alkaline water. Bart's enthusiasm was doubtless due to his having imbibed the invigorating waters of Mineral Wells.  


The first water well in this part of Texas was dug in 1880 on a ranch that was four miles from the Brazos River which had previously been the ranch's only source of drinking water. The Lynch family who lived there discovered that their poor health improved despite the water's strange taste, and soon their neighbors noticed this dramatic change too. By 1881 the demand for the curative water was strong enough that more wells were dug. Before the year was finished the boundaries of a new city were surveyed. It was named Mineral Wells, and Mr. Lynch was the first mayor.

The Crazy Well Water building we see in the postcard view, was the site of a well also drilled in 1881. At the time an old woman suffering from some mental disturbance took up a habit of sitting by the well and asking people to bring her some of the water. When her condition improved, the well became known as the Crazy Lady Well and later just the Crazy Water Well.

Some of the waters of Mineral Wells do have a significant amount of lithium. The other minerals that were promoted as medicinal agents­­ – calcium, magnesium, and sulfate­ – supposedly could effect dyspepsia, neuralgia, sore eyes, paralysis, insomnia, liver and kidney problems, rheumatism, scrofula, and improprieties of the blood. In an age when medical science had few cures for disease and chronic ailments, it is no wonder that a magical water would attract people desperate for any product that might restore health.

It is also no wonder that big money could be made selling the water and providing a place to stay while it was consumed.  By 1913, Mineral Wells had 21 water companies; several bath houses and sanitariums; and over 40 hotels and rooming houses. Each well offered different methods for consumption of the water and people visited each establishment to get the full benefits. This drove a boom in recreation services like restaurants, gaming houses, and resort amusements of all kinds. The Woodward-Davis Family Band were a small part of this entertainment industry supporting the many spas of Mineral Wells.  


One of the hotels was also located on Oak Street, just a block past the Crazy Well Water Company. It was called the Delaware Hotel, and on October 16, 1907 it burnt to the ground. Evidently there were limits to the restorative powers of the local mineral water.

Photo postcards have an interesting sub-genre devoted to photographs of disasters and accidents. Fires were a popular subject and here the Mineral Wells photographer has artfully colored the smoke to emphasize the dreadful horror. The firemen's horses and wagons might even be the same ones pictured in the parade on Oak St.    

Oct.16, 1907 Delaware Hotel Fire, Mineral Wells, TX Source: Portal to Texas History

The archives at the Portal to Texas History provide another view of the same hotel fire. It is easy to see how a postcard like this would become a big seller to the tourists who stayed in Mineral Wells. It was still published two years later in 1909 when it was sent to Miss Ida Vinther of Godley, Texas.




Hello Ida   How are
you. I am feeling
all right this morning.
I eat my breakfast  t...(?) mor...(?)  I
don't know when
I will get to come
home. I had
hot eggs for breakfast
they were put in
the hot water and
that was all. I
have a good nurse
Good Bye  (Willie
St. Joseph's Infirmary


We can only hope that eggs poached in Texas mineral water provided Willie with some relief, because I can't believe that they tasted very good. 

Woodward Family Band/Gem Theater Band Mineral Wells, TX, circa 1915 Source: Portal to Texas History

The same Texas archives have a photo of the Woodward-Davis musical clan standing in front of the Gem Theater of Mineral Wells. The description dates the photo to 1915 based on the two movie posters behind them - The Diamond From the Sky, and The Wayward Son. Perhaps the films of the 1917 season had a more nautical theme which would explain the band's sailor suits.

Minerals Wells remained a prominent and profitable health spa resort through the years of the Great Depression and WW2, but by the 1950s magic elixirs were no longer a good reason for visiting central Texas, even with air conditioning, and the town's fortunes declined.   

However you can still get bottled Crazy Water, and the brand's website presents a terrific history of this health resort town and its salubrious water.

No doubt the children of W. W. Woodward and his sister Minnie Davis thrived on it and drank it every day. See how musical it made them?

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
Click the link to book a room at another hotel.

The Band on the Pier

October 10, 2014, 9:29 pm

≫ Next: Send in the Clowns!

≪ Previous: The Musical Water of Mineral Wells, Texas

$

0

0

The custom of having a band play to welcome a ship on its return to port is a fine naval tradition. But these musicians must have been a thrilling surprise to the young college men on deck, all Army ROTC students of the University of Maryland, who had just completed their first sea voyage. I know this detail because standing center left with his back to the camera is my father, Russell Brubaker. It was the summer of 1949 and he was 20 years old.

My father was about to start his junior year in the university's Reserve Officers Training Corps program. That summer he went to an ROTC training camp at Ft. Monmouth, NJ where he also found part-time work in the signal corps photography lab to help pay for his college expenses. This explains how he came to have this official 8" x 10" photo. The camp activities for the men included two field trips, first to Bermuda and later to Havana, Cuba. The cruise to Bermuda was aboard a U.S. Army Transport ship, the FS-122, which departed from Annapolis, MD but never actually got there, as half way into the Atlantic a bad storm forced them to turn around and return to a port in Hampton Roads, VA. The photo catches the moment of their arrival at the docks of the Ft. Eustis army base on the James River.

The ship was not part of the navy fleet but instead was operated by the army as a Freight and Supply vessel for transporting troops, equipment, and supplies. The FS-122 was one of many army cargo ships that played an important logistic role in World War 2 on both the Atlantic and Pacific campaigns. After the war many of these ships were moved into coast guard and navy service, but in 1949 though the operating crew were likely to be coast guardsmen they were still under army command. The fate of FS-122 is unknown but a website on US Coast Guard history provided an image of the FS-177 which probably resembles the ship my father was on that summer as it shared the same ship class design. 

U.S.A.T. ship FS-177 Source: United States Coast Guard

My father did not mention how long they were at sea. Since Bermuda is about 800 miles (1300 km) southeast from the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, I would guess they were aboard for at least 3 days which in rough weather it must have seemed twice as long for a Maryland country boy who had never been on a boat of any kind. When the small ship tied up to the wharf, the sound of a military band must have sharpened their sense of relief on getting ashore again.
   
There is a detail that makes this family photograph more interesting to me for its music history. The band playing on the pier is definitely a US Army band, but it is not one usually seen in photographs from this era. All the musicians are African-American as this is a band from one of the negro army battalions. Racial segregation was once an institutional part of the military just as it was in the rest of American society in the last century. In both WW1 and WW2 black servicemen were restricted to segregated units used mainly for support work, and many served in the US Army Transportation Corps. Though President Truman officially ended segregation in the armed forces by signing Executive Order 998 on July 26, 1948, the implementation struggled against fierce opposition. A year later Truman's Secretary of the Army, Gen. Kenneth Claiborne Royall, still refused to desegregate the army and was compelled to resign. 

I've been unable to make an exact identification of this army band, but I believe it could have been attached to the 62nd Transportation Truck Battalion, a negro unit which was reactivated in 1947 from the former 120th Quartermaster Battalion and was stationed in Ft. Eustis managing heavy trucks from 1947 to 1950.  Since Virginia was a state in America's segregated South, there are few public records of a negro battalion band and they may have rarely played off the base for civilian audiences. What I can be sure of is that they made a big impression on one young man.

The University of Maryland's ROTC program trained officers for the army's air, infantry, signal, and transportation corps. Though my father initially chose the signal corps, in January 1951 after completing all his courses, he received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the transportation corps detailed to the infantry. 1951 would turn out to be a busy year as in August he married my mom and by the end of the year he was on board another ship, this time crossing the Pacific to join the war in Korea.    


A few years later my father saw this pier again when the army posted him to Ft. Eustis and he would return twice more during nearly 25 years of service at 15 different stations. Somehow that summer field trip of 1949 left him with a taste for saltwater, and after his retirement our family chose a home on the water in Virginia Beach, VA. The inland bays around the Chesapeake inspired my dad's enthusiasm for boating and shortly after leaving the army he became a volunteer in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, exchanging a uniform of army khaki for one in coast guard blue. Over nearly as many years as his army career, my dad was an instructor for the USCG Aux and taught countless people how to tie a proper knot; navigate a small boat on a dark night; and hoist the correct sail in a storm. On weekends he would take his own boat out to stand watch and help the Coast Guard monitor the thousands of boaters and fishermen on the popular waters of Virginia Beach. When motors failed or sails got fouled, my dad and his fellow Auxiliarists were there to assist. 

2nd Lt. Russell E. Brubaker

Two weeks ago on Friday morning September 26th my father died unexpectedly
but quietly at his home. He was 85. Somehow fortune sent me there for a visit that week and
allowed me to be with him and my mother. 

Earlier this year when I found this photo in the family file box my dad was able to explain some of the context then. Setting aside the band on the pier, I thought it made a great photograph because of how it set up my father's future career. I know that this small adventure captured his imagination and persuaded him that the army life was for him, changing his focus from radio engineering to the logistic side of military organization. It would lead to many more adventures in Korea, France, Germany, and Vietnam. Later after retirement he continued to enjoy the excitement of travel, though without the hazard pay, visiting exotic places like Russia, Egypt, and even England a few times.  

And certainly this short experience on the water had a profound effect on our family life too. We once lived three years in Kansas and I don't ever remember a discussion about retiring to Topeka. Even the band music had a consequence, as the first live music I can recall hearing was of an army band, and though I may have taken up a civilian line in music, whenever I hear (or play) Sousa's El Capitan march my feet start to tap just as my dad's must have on that day on the James River.


This past week while helping my mom put his affairs in order, we discovered notebooks that my dad had used over the past several years to write down events from his life. Scattered around the pages are various memories and stories like a long list of every home he lived in (42) including descriptions and hand-drawn maps of the house layouts. A chronology of his military career with the units and his rank. Several pages devoted to a detailed list of every car he owned, along with the approximate mileage. Even a list of the members of his 1940 high school baseball team. Tucked into one notebook were two loose papers entitled "Why I Chose An Army Career" which gave me the extra details to his photo. I know my Sepia Saturday readers will recognize what a priceless treasure this is.

Photographs are about light and time. We see a moment and wonder what it all means. A beam of light refracts through the prism of a camera and creates an image of history spread out in a broad band of color. In this photo of my dad, I know what happens next. It's a long and rich story that will take some time to tell. I will miss him more than I can say, but I haven't lost his voice.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

click the link for more traveler's tales.

Send in the Clowns!

October 17, 2014, 2:51 pm

≫ Next: Sharp Hats for Low Brass

≪ Previous: The Band on the Pier

$

0

0

Did she catch your eye? That girl looking into the camera? She distracts our attention from this saxophone quartet until we notice that the other three players are made up with clown faces. Of the four musicians dressed in military band uniforms, she's the only pretty one and no doubt the smart one too, in The Bonnes Cie., a music hall act from Belgium.

The name of the group, The Bonnes Cie., may involve an ironic mixture of the French word bon for good, (bonnes = fem. version) with the term bonnes for a domestic or housemaid. The use of an English article, The, with a French abbreviation Cie. for compagnie or company adds to the confusion, which of course is probably the idea since clowns specialize in nonsense. Here the quartet have replaced saxophones for muskets and bayonets and put on tall military hats. We get a larger view of the painted stage backdrop which shows an army encampment outside the walls of a formidable fortress.

The quartet now pose around a small cannon and we are left to wonder at what buffoonery is about to happen. Can you see the confetti about to explode in someone's face?

The postcards were never mailed but on the back is the mark of a photography studio in Anvers or Antwerp, Belgium where the languages spoken can be French, Flemish, and sometimes Dutch.

Photographie Jacqmain
113 RUE CARNOT, 113
ANVERS. Téléphone 5957

Poses á la lumière électrique, le
soir jusqu'á 8 heures également
les Dimanches
Pas de succursales.

Opnamen met electrisch licht.
's avonds tot 8 uren Zon-en
werkdagen
Geene bijhuizen

Pictures in electric light
eveningup to8:00also Sundays.
No branches.

_ _

Source: The Internet

Somewhere in the vast universe of the internet, on a website now lost, I found this image of a colorful poster for

The Original Bonnes Co. 
Great Musical Novelty

The illustrator has used the last two photographs to draw the four comical characters in their military uniforms.  Presumably the jacket and trouser colors of red and blue did match the real costumes.

Though they are advertised as a musical novelty, for some reason the saxophones do not appear on the poster. However just behind their name is an American flag! What's that about?

_ _

The Bonnes quartet returned with instruments to an unnamed studio for this next photo postcard which shows a typical saxophone quartet in 4 different sizes, (l-r) soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. The saxophone was invented in 1840 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian instrument maker working in Paris, who had the imagination to combine the single reed sound of a woodwind instrument with a brass instrument so that it would be louder and more stable when played outdoors in a military band. It could even be made in 8 sizes, with one smaller than the soprano, and three monstrous bass saxophones larger than the baritone. It was first used in French and Belgian army bands in the mid-19th century but was generally ignored by German bands and was not common in British and American bands until the 20th century. 

The musician's uniforms, except for the girl's gypsy bandana, resemble those of the Belgian army bands of the era before 1914, so I believe the photos of this vaudeville music hall act date from before the First World War.
 

The back of this postcard has the address of a French music agent in Paris,

Raoul PITAU
15, Rue de l'Echiquier, 15
PARIS
TELEPHONE No. 271 60

His stamp appears on other music hall acts of the pre-war era.

The Bonnes also brought along another quartet of instruments – 4 concertinas, a type of free reed button accordion. It would appear that the girl's instrument is one size larger and therefor more baritone than the squeezeboxes of the other men.

And what self-respecting clown could neglect the most comical of instruments – the highland bagpipes?  In this last photo, the Bonnes have changed instruments for two Scottish bagpipes with snare and bass drums. The tall bearskin caps were a feature of the grenadiers or guards uniforms in several armies as well as the British army. The pineapple shaped badge on the Bonnes' caps is the emblem of the Belgian grenadier regiment.

advertisment for Theatro S. Jose Correio da Manhã, Rio de Janeiro 6 November 1926

The group kept together during the war years and must have been successful enough to keep people of any nationality laughing, as the Bonnes Co. - (phantasistas musicaes) turned up in a 1926 notice for a Brazilian music hall in Rio de Janeiro. They were on a South American tour and performed twice a day at 4:00 and 8:00 alongside Japanese acrobats, Tyrolean singers, and the Catalini bicyclists who pedaled around on a giant spinning plate. The theater also showed a silent film with the American actress Norma Talmadge.




I think the sound of a saxophone quartet can make terrific music, whether for classical, jazz, or pop. We can never know what jokes or music that the Bonnes Co. made, but if they were around today I think we might hear them performing at Disney World, just like this saxophone quartet that works the streets of the Tokyo Disney Resort. And they have one girl too.

<<>>

<<>>

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
click the link to find out what other folks have cobbled together this weekend.

Sharp Hats for Low Brass

October 24, 2014, 3:24 pm

≫ Next: Trick or Treat?

≪ Previous: Send in the Clowns!

$

0

0

The uniforms of military bands have always been where more high fashion is displayed than martial arts. In the decades before 1914, an army bandsman's apparel was often as bright and flashy as any costumed entertainer in the circus or theater world. A bandsman's tunic was often bedecked with elaborate gold braid and embroidery. Each band used distinctive buttons, badges, belts, and epaulets to signify its regiment. And topping off the uniform was usually an extravagant shako cap like this sharp one worn by a musician from Hull, England.

The Prussian army helmet with its distinctive and impractical spike, called the Pickelhaube, was a popular military headgear emulated by several other nations around the world. Since the British army shared a Germanic heritage when the Hanoverian King George I became the British monarch in 1714, it was not an uncommon British helmet style prior to the Great War.

The swallowtail epaulets on this musician's shoulders are also a Germanic device used to distinguish a bandsman's uniform from an ordinary soldier. His instrument is a baritone horn, a member of the low brass family of brass band instruments and a kind of treble tuba.

Notice that he also has a short sword on his belt, which is a very useful implement to attach to a baritone or euphonium, making it an even more offensive weapon.

_ _

Source: East Yorkshire Helmet

The helmet plate on the bandsman's hat has quite a lot of shine in the photograph, but the shape is still clear enough to identify the era it was used, which was during the reign of Queen Victoria. The center circular boss could be changed for different regimental badges and here we can see an 8 pointed star and white rose which is the symbol of the East Yorkshire Regiment of East Riding.

This image was posted on Photobucket by a collector of militaria and it offers a splendid match to the baritone player's helmet. He might even have served during the Second Anglo-Afghan War and the Second Boer War.

_ _

The photographer was W. M. Edmonds of 123 Witham, Near North Bridge, Hull or Kingston upon Hull as it is formally known. On the back he advertises for Large Groups and All branches of outdoor Photography.  The style of helmet and photographer's stamp would date this carte de visite to the 1890s.

_ _

American bandsmen also used the Prussian helmet style but often added extra height with a feathered plume. This tuba player sports a frilled hat as he stands for the photographer in Jackson, California, which is SE of Sacramento. Unlike the shoulder pads on the bandsman of Hull, his fringed epaulets are a style used by the French military. His jacket also has cut-away tails which are difficult to see. He appears not to have a belt or sword. But then tuba players rarely need them.

This cabinet card dates from the 1890s and the photographer was W. Kay of Jackson, Cal., with L. C. Swain, operator, who must have jiggled the camera or there was a small earthquake, as the image is a bit blurred.   

_ _

To give a better view of the American army band uniform of this period I bring back one of the well dressed trombonists I featured in a post from May 2012. This valve trombone player was a musician in a U.S. Army regimental band in California's premier city, San Francisco. His plume reveals more of the spike and eagle helmet plate. The original photo is quite faded so I have improved and enlarged it.

The photographer was the New York Gallery of J. H. Peters & Co. of 25 Third St., San Francisco.

He might have worn a sword on his belt too, but it would be hidden behind his back. A typical trombone trick. 

_ _

Finally a quartet of seriously low brass from Osage, Iowa. These bandsmen have posed with an alto horn (back right), two tenor horns (left back and front), and a baritone horn (front right). Their uniforms are similar to other army bands of the 1880s and 1890s and I believe they may be members of the 6th Regiment of the Iowa National Guard. They wear a variation of a German style cap that has a flattened top and short plume. The photographer of this cabinet card was Evans and Conray of Osage, IA. which is in north central Iowa near Minnesota. If you click the image to enlarge it, you can see a faint outline of engraving on the horn bells.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where tall hats are all the rage again.

---

Trick or Treat?

October 31, 2014, 11:08 am

≫ Next: The Poet Photographer

≪ Previous: Sharp Hats for Low Brass

$

0

0

Ya like our tunes? Don't squawk or holler.  
We'll take a pie, a jug, a nickle or a dollar.

Whatcha ya got? We ain't picky.

We got plenty more songs to set your feet a'tappin'.

Each one worst than the last.

So pay up now or we'll keep on playing!

(And take no mind to our cannon!)

  >>> <<<

Not every band could afford fancy uniforms and some deliberately chose rather unflattering costumes. This band of yokels left a few clues on the the back of the torn and creased postcard which dates from 1905 to 1920. Evidently they kept high musical standards to be known as Bland's Symphony Orchestra though obviously they are just a 10 piece brass band (with a token clarinetist). We can discover where they were from because the photographer left a stamp with his name:

The Violet Ray Studio, Lakeside, ...
C. H. Geyer, Prop.

An internet search turned up just a single match for another postcard by C. H. Geyer, Proprietor. It shows a rail car from the train line to Lakeside, OH, a private community on the shore of Lake Erie about half way between Cleveland and Toledo and just across the bay from Sandusky, Ohio. Lakeside was founded in 1873 as a holiday resort for members of the Methodist church and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The musicians are dressed in country bumpkin outfits that were typical of a Rube Band. Musical clown groups like this started in the 1890s as a variation on the minstrel shows and featured a marching band of hayseed musicians who had more enthusiasm than polish. Though originally a type of traveling troupe associated with comic vaudeville theater, the rube band style became popular with Masonic and Fraternal Societies since musicianship was optional. Back in 2013 I wrote about a photo of the Zanesville Rube Band which was a similar but larger clown ensemble with the Fraternal Order of Eagles of Zanesville, Ohio.

Because of its background as a religious retreat, Lakeside was one of the first communities to join the Chautauqua movement which was a circuit of summertime fairs that brought preachers, scholarly  speakers, theatrical and musical artists together for a few days of wholesome family entertainment. Though Chautauqua events were temperate and educational, they were not without humor so this group might have been part of one.    

Sandusky OH Star Journal August 7, 1901

This report from 1901 appeared in the Sandusky Star Journal and offers a good description of a band similar to Bland's so-called Symphony Orchestra.

Reubens
From Marion Render Some Very Choice Music

   An excursion composed mostly of Marion Elks came to town today bringing along a Rube band. And that musical organization would bring to the most unimaginative mind pictures of ploughed fields and country cross roads, with a nice big hay stack thrown in for scenic effect.
   The Band struck town this morning and started up Columbus avenue playing "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight." The slide trombone player was the leader and the others followed him as best they could. The marching order was original, the bass drummer making himself a sort of rear guard, the tuba player on the right flank and the remaining members of the organization tooting manfully somewhere in the vicinity. The uniforms were suggestive of harvest time and the boots of the bass drummer seemed strangely out of place on a paved street. They looked homesick for the springy loam in the wake of the plow.

   The band rendered several selections at the foot of the avenue, among which was "Say Au Revoir." This number brought tears to the eyes of the cigar store Indian on the West House corner. After this selection the band retired to the ice water barrel on the post office corner.

_ _

The idea of costumed bands has been around since ancient times and continues with the parade celebrations for the New Years, Mardi Gras, and Carnaval holidays. Sadly the Rube Band with its now unfamiliar rural farm roots has lost appeal in America, but it is still a tradition in Kamloops, British Columbia which has maintained one for many years. Perhaps Canada treats its unsophisticated country rubes with more respect and dignity than in America.

Here is a short video of a Canadian parade with a band
where costumes, clowning, and fun are more important than the music.

[Click this video link to watch it on YouTube]

_ _

_ _

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
click the link and dig in!

> <

> <

The Poet Photographer

November 7, 2014, 9:18 pm

≫ Next: Time for Two

≪ Previous: Trick or Treat?

$

0

0

Some photographs are more than a two-dimensional image. Some have hidden meanings and clever twists that convert a picture into poetry. This modest carte de visite photo is one of them.

A bearded man stands in a typical 1860's photographer's studio blowing into a type of woodwind instrument. His plain hat and coat are not those of a bandsman or professional musician. Though his instrument might be mistaken for a clarinet or even an oboe, it is something very different which is seldom pictured in early photographs.

He is playing a gentleman's instrument, a flageolet.  

English Flageolet Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection

The flageolet or flageolett is a type of recorder or fipple flute which produces a whistle sound when the player's breath is split over a sharp edged window that is carved into the wooden tube. It descends from the recorder or blockflöte which was an ancient wind instrument common throughout the medieval and baroque eras. But the recorder lacked the ability to play very loudly and as Baroque composers like Bach became old fashioned in the new Classical era of Mozart, many early wind instruments like the recorder were made obsolete. Its replacement was the keyed flute which was played in a transverse manner by blowing across a hole placed in the top part of the tube. It offered more notes and more dynamic contrast.

But the flageolet had a brief period of resurgence in the early Romantic era when English and French instrument makers made a new version with keys. The ivory beak-like top is hollow and makes no noise. The lower section has 6 or 7 finger holes in front and one thumb hole in the back. The additional keywork untangles the fingerings for different notes. On 19th century flageolets there are often ivory buttons between the tone holes which are mainly decorative but help in holding the instrument. Like the recorder it was incapable of loud and soft dynamics and therefore was not intended as an orchestral or band instrument. Mostly it was played as a solo instrument for private enjoyment or occasionally as an accompaniment for voices. 

YouTube provides a very good demonstration of a flageolet played by Rubens Küffer - his first try with an original French flageolet. This one is made of ebony while the example above is in boxwood. It's a short video so stick with it until his courteous bow when he doffs his cap.

***

***

This second cdv shows the same musician but this time seated and surrounded by three men who have placed their hands on his shoulders in an affectionate manner. The flageolet player has removed his hat and holds a piece of paper in his hand. They have the look of friends rather than family and initially I thought they might be a quartet of singers.

The floor cloth has the same pattern as the first and the only thing to suggest that the photographs were taken at different times is the color of his hat. Cream for summer and grey for fall?

What is on that paper and why does he want us to look at it?

 _ _

The unsophisticated poses of the men and the way the paper mount of these two cdvs has been trimmed at the corners so as to better fit the early photo albums, likely dates them from around 1865 to 1870. On the back of both small photographs is a large dramatic design of a young man holding a flag and heroically waving his hand forward. On the flag is the word EXCELSIOR.  The photographer is:

C. G. BLATT,
Traveling Artist

 
His full mellifluous name was Cyrus G. Blatt of Bernville, Pennsylvania, and he was a traveling artist, a common term then used for photographers who took up a itinerant trade with their camera and went town to town with all their equipment making photographs. In the 1860s this part of southeast Pennsylvania seems to have been the center of American photography to judge by the thousands of carte de visites and later cabinet photos preserved from this area.   

Excelsior is a word usually defined as Ever Higher!

It is also the term for fine wood shavings used as packing material, the 19th century bubble wrap.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882)

The illustration of this flag man in the short kilt is actually a literary allusion which would have been instantly recognizable to anyone from the mid-19th century. He is the young standard-bearer in the poem Excelsior by  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882).

Poetical Works of H. W. Longfellow pub. 1856 Source: Google Books

Excelsior
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,

Excelsior!

His brow was sad; his eye beneath,
Flashed like a falchion* from its sheath,
And like a silver clarion rung
The accents of that unknown tongue,
Excelsior!

In happy homes he saw the light
Of household fires gleam warm and bright;
Above, the spectral glaciers shone,
And from his lips escaped a groan,

Excelsior!

"Try not the Pass!" the old man said;
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead,
The roaring torrent is deep and wide!"
And loud that clarion voice replied,
Excelsior!

"Oh stay," the maiden said, "and rest
Thy weary head upon this breast! "
A tear stood in his bright blue eye,
But still he answered, with a sigh,
Excelsior!

"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch!
Beware the awful avalanche!"
This was the peasant's last Good-night,
A voice replied, far up the height,
Excelsior!

At break of day, as heavenward
The pious monks of Saint Bernard
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer,
A voice cried through the startled air,
Excelsior!

A traveller, by the faithful hound,
Half-buried in the snow was found,
Still grasping in his hand of ice
That banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!

There in the twilight cold and gray,
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay,
And from the sky, serene and far,
A voice fell like a falling star,
Excelsior!

* A falchion is a short sword with a curved blade.

Longfellow published this poem in a collection of his poetry in 1841 and it became one of his most well known short poems. Though he had traveled widely throughout Europe and spoke several languages, Longfellow reportedly took his inspiration for this poem from the motto Excelsior on the New York state seal. The poem was originally published without illustrations, but its popularity invited artists to render the words into art and even into song. This next image comes from a 4th grade school reader published in 1886 by a company using Excelsior as their trade name.

Sadlier's Excelsior 4th Reader: pub. 1886 Source: Google Books

The imagery in Longfellow's poem captured the sentiment of many aspiring adventurers, entrepreneurs, and artists of the second half of the 19th century. When you see a man with a banner held high on a mountaintop in a 19th century painting it undoubtedly is a reference to this poem. Composers also were captivated by the words. Franz Liszt used the idea of the ever upward youth for the prelude to an early secular oratorio entitled Die Glocken des Strassburger Münsters– The Bells of Strasbourg Cathedral. Richard Wagner like it so much he ‘borrowed’ Liszt’s Excelsior theme for the opening motif of his opera Parsifal. There were at least two popular song settings of Excelsior made by other composers, and even a ragtime piano piece published in 1909 by the composer Joseph Lamb entitled Excelsior - A Rag.

Title page: Excelsior - A Rag by Joseph Lamb 1909

Walt Whitman frontispiece to Leaves of Grass 1855

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was not the only poet who liked this wonderful exclamation. His contemporary Walt Whitman (1819-1892) also used it as a title of a poem that was published in 1855 in the collection Leaves of Grass, arguably the most influential literary work of the 19th century.

_ _

Excelsior 

by Walt Whitman

Who has gone farthest? for I would go farther,
And who has been just? for I would be the most just
    person of the earth,
And who most cautious? for I would be more
    cautious,
And who has been happiest? O I think it is I !  I
        think no one was ever happier than I;
And who has lavish'd all? for I lavish constantly the
        best I have;
And who has been firmest? For I would be firmer;
And who proudest? for I think I have reason to be
        the proudest son alive — for I am the son of the
        brawny and tall-topt city;
And who has been bold and true? For I would be the boldest
        the boldest and truest being of the universe;
And who benevolent? For I would show more be-
         nevolence than all the rest;
And who has projected beautiful words through the
         longest time? By God! I will outvie him! I
         will say such words, they shall stretch through
         longer time!
And who has receiv'd the love of the most friends?
         For I know what it is to receive the passionate
         love of many friends;
And to whom has been given the sweetest from
         women, and paid them in kind? For I will
         take the like sweets and pay them in kind;
And who possesses a perfect and enamour'd body?
         For I do not believe any one possesses a more
         perfect or enamour'd body than mine;
And who thinks the amplest thoughts? For I will
         surround those thoughts;
And who has made hymns fit for the earth? For I
         am mad with devouring extacy to make joyous
         hymns for the whole earth!

U.S. Postal Stamps 1940

I will leave it to readers to decide which is the better poem, though it seems clear that Whitman has used Longfellow's thematic idea. What interests me is that both men cultivated an individual fashion style and frequently posed for photographs to enhance their celebrity status. And as you can see there is a resemblance between both poets and the musical gentleman from Pennsylvania. To be clear he is neither Whitman nor Longfellow, but I do think he might be a poet too.

This infant of undetermined gender is perched on a photographer's stool and has wiggled its foot just as the camera shutter blinked. The child seems unsupported but it's possible a hidden mother is holding on to it from behind the backdrop.

The style is typical of thousands of similar children's  photographs made by traveling artist photographers.

But the printing on the back is what makes it a unique photo.

C. G. Blatt's
Photographic Emporium,

Isn't this a good old treat,
Where the public fears no cheat,
They know his pictures have no beat,
In finish, excellence,–and cheap.

Sour faces made so sweet,
And the style so nice and neat:
Besides they are so very cheap,
That the poor man need not squeak.

And all this you will find,
If you only come in time,
To see C. G. Blatt, you see,
Who will still in Bernville be.

He knows that you must laugh
Fifteen pictures for one and a half,
Additional pictures he will
Give fifteen for one dollar bill.

 > <

Cyrus G. Blatt was a poet as well as a photographer with high aspirations. His promotional idea was one of the first jingles printed so that the public might remember his business. Born in 1841, the same year as Longfellow's poem, he was listed as a photographer in the Bernville census of 1870. There are no military records with his exact name, so he may not have served in the Civil War. At some point he quit the traveling artist work to takeover a studio in Bernville, PA. His home still remains as a historic landmark in this small town of 900 citizens. 

There are a few varieties of Cyrus's advertising rhymes. This next one has 5 verses and refers to a photographer's specialized techniques and mishaps. 

Source: American Museum of Photography

C. G. Blatt's
Photographic Emporium,
Bernville, Pa.

Only have your shadow secured by C. G. Blatt,
Will take better portraits than any you had;
I take them myself, as no other can,
I color them, too, as no other man.
 

I praise each production than goes from my shed;
The ears and the nose, the mouth, and the head.
'Tis true that an eye may be lost to the view,
Or an ear left uncolored and awfully blue.
 

A scratch on the plate, or a hand double size,
A bright pinky color close up to the eyes;
One side of the head in shadow, no doubt,
The other is lost and quite eaten out.
 

By the rays of the sun and open air light,
Is a fallacy settled by those who have sight,
No matter whatever I do is well done,
Influenced by moon or influenced by sun.
 

My portraits are second to none, and I say it
Or rather my language being different I pray it.
Then such are my pictures, such also am I,
I live to be laughed at by all passers by.

> <

 I like how the word Emporium has the same grand qualities as Excelsior!  A 1939 article in the Reading PA Times on past times of Bernville said that C. G. Blatt advertised "magic invisible photographs" and gave them this astonishing name: "aquamirabiliso-graphictrickography".

His output of photographs continued to about 1900 and he died in 1915 at age 77. His obituary noted that in his early career he traveled Berks county with a magic lantern show and that on his death the locality of Bernville loses one of its most useful citizens. 

As you may have guessed, I believe this bearded gentleman is Cyrus G. Blatt. In the second photo I think he is holding an advertising flyer for his photography Emporium and that the other men are his assistants and apprentices. A man who liked words would likely dress the part of the romantic poet, and the few clues to his evident good humor make me think that he would enjoy music and song too. The flageolet would be a perfect musical instrument to accompany a traveling artist like C. G. Blatt. What better way to let customers know that your wagon was approaching than to announce it with the ever higher trill of a flageolet. Perhaps there was even a melody that he played for his poems.





Of course I can't prove it beyond doubt, and instead this may be some unknown musical shop keeper from some other town in Pennsylvania. But sometimes poetry has hidden meanings that we can never learn unless we keep striving higher and higher.

Excelsior!

>>> <<<

Sam Loyd's "Excelsior" 1858 White to play and mate in 5 moves using the least likely chess piece.

One last interesting trivia connected to this poetry theme. The great puzzle maker and chessmaster Sam Loyd (1841 - 1911) created a special chess problem in 1858 to challenge a friend who claimed to be able to always find the one chess piece that would finish a game with checkmate.

Loyd bet his friend that he could not pick out the one chessman in this problem which could not possibly play for a checkmate of the black king. But actually would! Sam Loyd gave it the title Excelsior in honor of Longfellow's heroic boy who climbed ever higher to the top. 

{ see the answer below }

Did I ever mention that I like poetry and puzzles too?

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone else has gone finshin'

Excelsior Solution follow Pawn b2 to its promotion to Queen a8 - checkmate

Time for Two

November 14, 2014, 10:37 am

≫ Next: Don't This Dazzle Your Eyes!

≪ Previous: The Poet Photographer

$

0

0

Today's extreme sports enthusiasts could learn something from the daring example of this happy couple of 1913 who are sledding  down a steep Alpine slope while at the same time playing two complex string instruments. If only they had had Go-Pro video cameras in their hats.

 _

This unidentified Austrian duo are holding two unusual  instruments that produce a very distinctive and beautiful string sound.  

The large guitar is a type of harp guitar instrument developed in Vienna around 1850. It is called a contra guitar or a Schrammel guitar after the brothers Johann Schrammel (1850–1893) and Josef Schrammel (1852-1895) who popularized the instrument in their Viennese quartet of the 1880s.

The contra guitar or Kontragitarre typically has 15 strings, with the normal 6 strings of a regular fretted guitar combined with a second neck for 9 more strings played open without frets. Though associated with the music of Wien it was also used by small musical groups in the Alpine regions of Bavaria, Austria, and Switzerland. Note that the instrument in the postcard has an almost modern shape with its angled upper bout. This allows an easier reach of the higher frets by the left hand. 

_

The postcard was sent on 27/IV/1913 to Fräulein Berta Kocanter (?) of Wien. Given the calamitous events that changed the boundaries if not the landscape of Europe in the next 4 years, I like to think this card was saved for its happy memories of a more peaceful time.

YouTube provides a perfect video to hear and see these two instruments together in the duo of Alfons and Rita Bauer from a 1990 German television program.

Another musical couple who are perhaps a few years beyond extreme performances are pictured in this postcard from 1912.

Volkssänger-Duett Franzl –Mirzi

D' Juxvögl"

Frau Mirzi stands with a standard 6 string guitar while Herr Franzl has a zither on his lap. As Volkssänger the duo specialized in folk songs. Vogel means bird but their full name does not easily translate so I assume it is a contraction of a German dialect word.

_

Alpine zither Source: Wikimedia

Franzl's instrument is an Alpine Zither which is a larger version of the regular concert zither having 42 strings. The first 4 or 5 melody strings are over a fretted fingerboard and a curved extension is added in the same manner as the contra guitar to support the length of the open bass strings.

The playing technique is similar to a steel guitar or a dulcimer but requires a very dexterous little finger on the right hand to reach the bass notes.

_

This Austrian postcard was sent in December 1910 to another Fräulein whose name and address is beyond my ability to decipher.

One characteristic of the Germanic folk music of the Alps is good humor. This duo - Original Christania Duo — Frankfurt a M. certainly demonstrate it with their clown faces and comic Alpine costumes. Surely they were singers too though the only one with an instrument is the man playing a guitar. I would guess his female companion undoubtedly had the last word in the act.

This postcard was sent in August 1913 from Hessen, Germany which is a good distance from the Alps. It shows how well the Alpine music style, even in satire, traveled throughout the Germanic people. 


YouTube provides several videos with the delightful sound of the zither and contra guitar. This group, die Kerschbam Zithermusi has one of the best using three zithers. Perfect music for any beer or wine.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
click the link to see what other couples are up to.

Don't This Dazzle Your Eyes!

May 23, 2014, 11:29 am

≫ Next: Brown's Family Orchestra

≪ Previous: Time for Two

$

0

0

There's something very odd about this band's photo. Despite their proper posture the 49 musicians of the Ladies' Concert Band, Iowa State Normal, of Cedar Falls, Iowa appear to be sliding off the stage. There's also something peculiar about the big bone girls of the low brass section at the back who must tower over their petite companions in the woodwinds.

It's another early Photoshop fail, but say don't this dazzle your eyes?

That's what C.C. wrote to his/her friend A. M. Perry in Waterloo, Iowa on August 29, 1907. The band was one of the musical ensembles of the Iowa State Normal School which was the first name of the institution now known as the University of Northern Iowa. It was established in Cedar Falls in 1876 as a training school for public school teachers. Iowa was very progressive in offering equal education opportunities for both men and women, when in 1855 it became the first state to establish a coeducational public college system.

This second postcard view shows the Iowa State Normal School Ladies Band playing on a more level platform. The band is smaller with only 31 musicians and beneath the conductor's feet is a caption. I.S.N.S. 1906 and a message, perhaps for the spring break: Easter Greetings from Abbie.

An alternate photo was made into another postcard in 1906. This time the young ladies have their instruments down in their laps and the conductor stands in the shadows at the back of the band. The message reads:

Mar. 21 - 06 Cedar Falls Ia.
I arrived safely, didn't play "snap" but
tried to satisfy myself thinking it
would be a nice day tomorrow
I'll write soon. Your true friend Anna

Was Anna a member of the band? If so she did not provide her friend, Miss Mella Long of Kalona, Iowa with an X over her position in the photo. 

The band has the full assortment of brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments that would be typical of a concert band. The one man standing at the back is Professor Frank A. FitzGerald who was the director of an orchestra and two bands at the Iowa State Normal School – one for men and the other for young ladies. FitzGerald introduced a ladies band shortly after joining the Normal School as a music instructor in 1896 but his credentials, despite his title of Professor, were not like the other academics at the college. This short bio comes from Illustrated Iowa (page 81) published in 1898 by the Iowa State Teachers College.

Mr. Fitzgerald's education was obtained in the old school of musical study or that of experience under various masters from whom he took private lessons before the day of well-equipped conservatories. He was four years with Gilmore's Band, six years in charge of the Illinois Watch Company's Band at Rockford, Illinois, and for sometime was assistant director of the Apollo Club, of Chicago. Mr. Fitzgerald, besides his work at the Normal, instructs and leads the famous Cedar Falls A. O. U. W. Band, the organization that had the honor of accompanying the Iowa G.A.R. to both the Louisville and Buffalo National Encampments as official band, and also lead the Methodist church choir and gives lessons in vocal and instrumental music to many private pupils in the city.

Covina CA Argus May 25, 1907

In 1907, F. A. FitzGerald retired from his teaching position in Iowa and moved to Covina, California where he owned an orange orchard. The Covina Argus which was clearly proud to have this talented musician move to the area, published a very flattering report on him and his distinguished musical career. He was described as teaching both band and string instruments at the Iowa State Normal School and giving the school a wide reputation for meritorious musical production and ... the Normal Ladies' Band, the largest band equipped wholly with women. 

The hyperbole, if not the unfortunate phrasing, was understandable in this era when female musicians were restricted from performing with traditional all-male bands and orchestras. Surely Professor FitzGerald was very proud of his talented young women, and maybe he even considered them better musicians than those in the boy's student band. 

Certainly one of his students in the cornet/trumpet section was a special source of pride. When she graduated from the Iowa State Normal School she was offered a music teaching position in Correctionville, Iowa as the new high school band director. Her name was Miss Edna B. Straw and the news of a female band leader merited a picture in the paper.

Sioux Valley News (Correctionville, Iowa) August 13 and October 15, 1908

The first report in August 1908 tells how the superintendent of  Correctionville schools went to Cedar Falls to inquire about suitable teachers and Miss Edna Straw was given an enthusiastic endorsement by the faculty. By October, she had organized a band of 24 musicians for the high school – all boys.

The newspaper states that Edna had played first cornet for three years in Cedar Falls, but in the second article on the Correctionville band she is singled out as the solo trumpet with seven boys listed as playing cornets. Looking at the three images of the Ladies Concert Band, I believe she is the woman seated far right in the second rank, and that she is playing a trumpet and not a cornet. The difference is very subtle and not completely clear, but her instrument has a long slender shape compared to the short round cornet seen in the first ranks. If Edna's instrument was in fact a trumpet and not a cornet, she was on the cutting edge of how brass bands were evolving in the new 20th century. For decades prior, the cornet had been the principal solo band instrument but it lacked the brilliant tone color of the trumpet. By the 1940s the trumpet would takeover the lead position in bands of all kinds and today the cornet is played only rarely in wind ensembles, the one exception being the British Brass Band tradition. 

In 1908 Edna Straw was no doubt paid much less than a male teacher. And there was probably a clause in her contract that terminated her employment if she were to marry. Yet in the 1909 Alumni Registry for the Iowa State Normal School, Edna B. Straw was listed as Third Assistant Principal and Music Teacher for Correctionville.

That kind of success would dazzle the eyes too.

This is my contribution toSepia Saturday.
Click the link to find out what other College Girls are up to.

Brown's Family Orchestra

November 21, 2014, 1:16 pm

≫ Next: The Ladies of Wien

≪ Previous: Don't This Dazzle Your Eyes!

$

0

0

Some puzzles turn out to be more challenging than they first appear. The solution seems tantalizingly apparent but somehow remains concealed. For some time this musical photo has been a riddle that remained unsolved. At least it was until this week when its secret was finally unlocked. The answer turned out to more interesting than expected.

It is a postcard photo of a family band posed outdoors in a field. Their name is displayed on the bass drum.

Brown's Family Orchestra
Wilmington, Del.

Father and mother stand on the left behind their five young children. All wear durable band uniforms with heavy capes and military style caps. Father holds a French horn which, because it is my instrument too, is the reason the photo first intrigued my interest. Mother has a tenor saxophone and in descending age the children hold a tuba, drum, cornet, alto horn and alto saxophone. The oldest boy appears about age 13 while the two on the right might be 5 or 6. Are they boys or girls? Maybe twins? The bobbed hair style suggests 1920s or 1930s. They have the look of a professional family band, a musical tradition that has its own album in my collection. The two stories that most resemble this group are the Lehr Family Orchestra and the Biehl Family Orchestra. Both of those groups included a violin player which at a stretch allowed for the term orchestra, but the Brown's instrumentation is just a small seven piece wind band. 

The back of the card has a note that reads

Harvest Home
Bullion
1925

A name, a place, a date. This puzzle seems pretty easy. But the question of who they are turned out to be a difficult question to answer.

_ _

The surname Brown is perhaps one of the most common in America, and quite a few live in Wilmington, Delaware. The date of 1925 makes the censuses of 1920 and 1930 of limited usefulness, since searching for a husband and wife named Brown with 5 children produced too many possible matches.

The note also adds confusion as it refers to a fairground called the Bullion Harvest Home which isin Venango County, Pennsylvania, some 300 miles from Wilmington. This private park was the property of Perry Edward Hoffman who established it near his farm west of the Alleghenies near Franklin, PA and rented it out for family reunions and fraternal society events.

Even the name Brown Family Orchestra proved problematic as there were several other groups with that same name beginning in the 1880s and going into the 1960s. The photo is actually on the Delaware State Heritage website but there is no information provided. No full name and no date.

It was a puzzle. Who exactly was this jovial family of musicians?

This week I tried searching again in Newspapers.com which is a super archive that I only recently added to my list of research sites. Instead of orchestra I substituted band, and Bingo! the lock clicked open.

The Neosho MO Times October 14, 1926

A detailed announcement of a Unique Program coming to the Orpheum Theater appeared in the Neosho MO Times for October 14, 1926. The Famous Brown Family Band was to perform.



The company includes Ralph, 15 years, bass; Vera, 12, the only girl, plays drums, traps, bells and xylophone; Martin, 9, the cornet; and Albert, 7, the cymbals and alto, while Mrs. Brown plays the piano and saxaphone (sic) and Mr. Brown, director, is master of the violin and French horn, and last but far from least is Gordon, the youngest of all who is past master of the saxaphone. 

In all it is just a true American family of musicians.


The family traveled with its own tutor, a licensed school teacher who made sure that Whether in Maine or California the Brown juniors get the instruction just the same as if they were in their school at home.

_ _

 

Riverside CA Daily Press February 2, 1927

The Brown family band was next mentioned in a report from the Riverside CA Daily Press of February 2, 1927.

The family consists of Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Brown and five children, whose ages are 18, 12, 11, 10, 8 years respectively. Their home is in Delaware. Last winter they played in Florida and last summer at Revere Beach, near Boston. When crossing the continent they stopped along the route and played at theaters. They traveled in a well-equipped house on wheels. A school teacher accompanies them at all times, so the children keep up with the public schools.

_ _

With those initials and names I quickly found them in the 1920 census for Wilmington Delaware. Herbert Brown, age 36 was born in Pennsylvania and worked as a Contractor. His wife's name was Luella Brown, age 34, and five children, Ralph, age 10; Verna, 5; Martin, 4; Albert, 2; and Gordon, 1. The father's draft card from 1918 gave his full name as Herbert Hinmon Brown and he worked for a company that made components for shipbuilding and railway rolling stock. How did he become a master of the violin and horn, two instruments with very different musical disciplines? Was he from a musical or theatrical family? That's a question that may never get answered. 

1920 U.S. Census, Wilmington, DE

Rocford IL Republic September 25, 1926

According to the several newspaper notices that I found, the Brown family performed around the country from Florida to Massachusetts to California from 1925 to 1928 playing vaudeville theaters, county fairs, dance halls, church socials and the like. They traveled in a kind of early motor home described as an auto pullman car. I have been unable to find a picture of this vehicle, but it may have been a large converted bus or a house trailer towed behind a car. It even had a fold-out platform that Mr. Brown had built which the family used whenever they needed a stage.

In September 1926, Mr. Brown got into a dispute with a tourist camp near Rockford, IL which charged him 50¢ even thought the signs to the campground read "Free Tourist Camp".

In the 1920s most people used the trains to move around the United States. The interstate motorways did not exist and even the few numbered national highways were largely incomplete. Recreational camping was still a novelty and for a family of 8 people, including the tutor, to crisscross the country in these years was a formidable logistic feat.

How long they maintained this lifestyle is unknown but the dates suggest that it was more than just a summertime activity and evidently they made enough money to keep going. Undoubtedly the decline of the vaudeville theater circuit and the new popularity of movies with sound and then the rise of radio contributed to the end of traveling show business families. The Brown family decided to leave Wilmington and relocate to Shreveport, LA.

_ _

Neosho MO Daily Democrat October 16, 1926

Their Neosho, MO performance received several writeups in the papers. One report made special mention of the two youngest musicians, Albert and Gordon and corrected their respective instruments. Albert had the nickname of "Pud" Brown and was promoted as a seven (actually 8) year old saxophone wonder.  In a closeup of the band we can see that Albert Pud Brown is the older  boy on the right holding the alto saxophone.

Instead of picking up "Al" or "Bert" as a nickname, the family called him "Pud". The appellation stuck and he continued to use it for the rest of his life. Had the Neosho report left out this detail we might never learn about the rest of the Brown's story.

Though the family's roving life came to an end, Pud Brown chose to make his career as a professional musician playing saxophone and clarinet. He settled in Chicago which had become a booming center for jazz music as a result of Chicago's prohibition era nightclub scene. His specialty was in Dixieland music but his talent found him work playing with many well known bands like Phil Lavant's orchestra in 1938 and then Lawrence Welk's band where he met his future wife in 1941. During the war he returned briefly to Shreveport but Hollywood beckoned and he moved to Los Angeles where he was a sideman in the bands of Les Brown, Coleman Hawkins, Doc Cheatham, Kid Ory, and Louis Armstrong among many others. In 1975 he returned to Louisiana and the birthplace of American jazz – New Orleans. He played in Clive Wilson's Original Camelia Brass Band and was a regular featured musician at the French Quarter's Palm Court Jazz Cafe.  He was celebrated in jazz circles as one of the best of traditional Dixieland soloists on clarinet and saxophone.

Pud Brown died on May 27, 1996 and his obituary was written up in several newspapers including the New York Times, the Guardian, and the Independent. Some made just a mention of his early years touring in the family band but I don't know that anyone has ever made his connection to the postcard of Brown's Family Orchestra.

Jazz Funeral for Albert "Pud" Brown, May 1996 Source: Wikimedia

Of course the musicians of New Orleans had to give one of their own a time-honored jazz funeral parade. Someone has generously posted several photos of their tribute on Wikimedia and this one shows the parade leader starting off under a traditional umbrella while holding a large photograph of Albert "Pud" Brown (1917 - 1996). You can see more at this link.

Solving a photo riddle always provides a satisfaction, but the surprise of discovering it was a very youthful photo of a celebrated musician makes this a very special reward. The bonus came from YouTube with a chance to actually hear Pud Brown and get a sense of what his family band sounded like. 

_ _

Pete Daily and his Chicagoans was a Dixieland band led by the cornet player Pete Daily. He started his band in Chicago but in 1942 moved to Hollywood and formed a 7 piece band. It included Pud Brown on clarinet and saxophone and may be the reason why he moved there. The band made several short films in 1951 and here are two which feature Pud. The first is called Goat Blues and Pud takes a solo at about 1:40.

***

***

This second clip is entitled Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone. and Pud Brown starts the tune playing tenor saxophone. This uptempo song by Sam H. Stept with lyrics by Sidney Clare was published in 1930 but shares essentially the same chords and melody structure as an earlier song from the 1920s – Has Anybody Seen My Gal? also known as Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue. It was a very popular melody in 1925, the same year that Brown's Family Band was touring. I suspect that Pud knew it backwards and forwards. 

***

***

But wait! For my friends at Sepia Saturday, there's a dog too!

Neosha MO Times October 14, 1926

And not just any dog, but Sandow the World's Greatest Dog!

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

click the link for more family stories that may include a dog or two.