A Bandstand Request

He is dressed in elegant white tie and tailcoat while his musicians, all men, sport black tie and wide lapel dinner jackets. On the left are five violins and on the right are winds – two trumpets, a blackwood flute, an oboe and a clarinet.





Further to the left are five more strings – a cello, two violas, and two men without instruments who are most likely the pianist and the double bassist. We will have to guess which is which.






On the opposite side are five more musicians – a bassoon, two horns, a trombone and an older gentleman who surely must be the percussionist of this small 20 piece orchestra. Though this photo postcard was never mailed and has no marks for date, the two horn players provide a clue for the general location as they have very distinctive piston valve horns, an instrument which was the standard for British orchestras for generations up until the 1950s. The three long piston valves and removable mouthpiece crook are a 19th century French design used by horn players of France, Belgium, and England from the 1850s to the 1950s.

German rotary valves, which eventually became the prevalent plumbing mechanism for modern horn makers around the world, were once considered deficient in some chauvinist way that supposedly made the German horn tone inferior to those with British piston valves. Considering that many of the early London horn players were of German origin, and that so too were many London conductors,  this musical heritage is even more unusual in how it gave British orchestras a  special quality that persisted for many decades.  





The full view of the stage shows the orchestra to be rather cramped for space. It appears to be an outdoor pavilion with decorative pillars that look vaguely Egyptian. The photographer's camera was placed about twenty feet from the edge of the stage and other than the bench rail, there are no other clues for location. But it seems a very model of a British seaside resort concert orchestra. The gentlemen's clean shaven and slick hair style suggest 1920s or possibly 1930s.

A Google search for the sign's abbreviated phrase surprisingly produced only four hits, and all were pages from a website called the Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives. This privately run website, based oddly enough in Atlanta, GA, offers an extraordinary amount of historical material on US immigration, military documents, and particularly steamship passenger records. The four webpages reference a rule found in the passenger brochure for ships of the Canadian Pacific Ocean Services traveling from Liverpool to Quebec during the years from 1924 to 1928.

Candian Pacific Ocean Services Source: Gjenvick-Gjønvik Archives

Just below the names of the officers and 109 passengers who were on the S.S. Montrose during its voyage in February 1927, are numerous advisories. Between Lifebelts and Emergency Stations is this cautionary appeal:

Boat Deck.—Parents are respectfully requested not to allow their children to frequent this deck.

Just above it is this note on the ship's entertainment.

Orchestra at luncheon, dinner, and in the Lounge, and on Deck for dancing.

The ship's shop soldpostal cards, stamps, candies, cigars, cigarettes, tobacco, pipes, magazines, toys, and novelties. Library Steward provides stationery, telegraph forms, books of reference and railway time tables.