The Boys Concert Band

In the 1900s, what could a boy do for fun? There was no little league baseball, no pee wee football, no boy scout troops, no chess clubs. In fact childhood was considerably shorter than it is now, with many boys taking employment even before their teen years. But in many communities across the US, boys could have fun by making music in a brass band. The story of Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man is more true to this era than we might think today. And of all my photographs of young musicians of the 1900s, this one is my favorite, The Boys Concert Band.

What makes this large 8" x 6" albumen studio photo a special find is that the nine boys have signed it. Their small brass band of two cornets, an alto and a tenor horn, two tubas and a snare and bass drum have their names added in different colored inks and in different handwriting. They are dressed in sharp white duck trousers, dark shirts (blue is my guess in this sepia tone), white bow ties, and neat bandsmen caps with a monogram BCB badge. And one boy, perhaps age 6 or less, wears a fine embroidered bandmaster uniform and holds a long baton. On the snare drum, which is unusual since a snare drum head takes a lot of wear, is written their name - The Boys Concert Band.

There is no photographers mark but there is something on the back.

Unfortunately the mounting has been cut and part of the full text is lost,
but what we can read says:

.... ..... collection to uniforms        taken in 1908

Frank Wright

Darl Rinken

Frank quinn

Walter Hitchcock

Urban? McGonagle

Carl Craven

Clarence Lehman

Ben Craven

?mascot "Pete" Yater - with Baton

A wonderful photograph with date, names, even signatures - but no location.
Where are these boys? This could be any town in any state in 1908 America. But this is the kind of challenge that genealogy detectives love. Where shall we start?

The band's name is useless, and produces nothing on the internet. The names are fairly unique but individually they are still too common to develop a connection between each other or to any one place. A search on Ancestry,com provides the best results but comparing the residence of each name against the others makes for a very large grid of cross references.

Finally success. In the 1910 census for Pike Township, Perry County, Ohio I found a name and age that fit, then a second, and then a third. And then nearly all the names.

Frank Wright, the drummer standing left, born in 1891. Darl Rinken, the tuba next to him, born 1890. Frank or Francis Quinn, the drummer with folded hands, born 1894. Walter or William W. Hitchcock standing on right with his tuba in front, born 1896. Urban McGonagle, seated left with a cornet, born in 1895. Carl Craven, on alto horn, born 1896. Clarence Lehman, tenor horn, born 1895. Ben Craven, seated right with cornet, born 1891. And little Pete Yater? Missing. 

Ben and Carl Craven were brothers in an extended family of 12 children. Their step-father, Phillip J. Flautt was a foreman at a planing mill. Two older step-sisters worked in a shirt factory, and another as a cashier at a "Motion Picture Show".

Urban McGonagle's father, John McGonagle was a bookkeeper at the Pike planing mill. One older sister was a milliner and his older brother was a deliveryman for a grocery.

Clarence Lehman had 3 siblings, and his father William J. Lehman was a laborer at the tile factory.

Francis Quinn and William W. (Walter) Hitchcock lived next door to each other. Both their fathers were coal miners. By 1910, Francis, age 16 was a deliveryman for a laundry where his sister worked as a laundress. Walter, now age 18, was listed as a laborer at the tile factory. Interestingly his older brother Clarence Hitchcock, 21, had an occupation of Showman, Circus.



The most elusive name was the mascot band leader, Pete Yater. The surname has a few spelling variants and both are in the Pike census. In this era, children succumbed to so many illnesses and accidents, he may have died before the 1910 census. But with the other names and ages fitting together so well, it seems certain that they all lived in Perry County, Ohio. Working class kids who played together in a brass band. 

The name Pike is popular in Ohio, as it is shared by 8 different townships. The Pike in Perry County had a population of 2559 in 1910. Most of the work was in coal mines, planing mills, tile or insulation factories, and even oil drilling. Today, Perry County is described as one of the poorest counties in Ohio. But in 1908, music was evidently considered important for a boys education. Compare them to another boys band that was only a short distance away in Malta-McConnelsville, Ohio.

Just like in The Music Man, part of this fade for bands was driven by the instrument companies which promoted music to generate more sales. But quite a lot of the bands for boys (and girls too), were established as a way to encourage discipline, teamwork, and civic pride that comes from making live music. These boys had fun and yet learned some important life skills.

This evening as I write, I checked some of my resources on Ancestry.com and noticed that someone yesterday had saved the same 1910 census for McGonagle. I looked into the family tree and discovered more information for Urban S. McGonagle. Seems the young boy with the cornet took up study of the law, and became a judge. He died in 1985.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where the theme this weekend could be a boy's life.

Click the links to scout out more stories from old photographs.

Bearded British Musicians

I have a theory about how old family photos break away from their original relations. In the 19th century when photographs become inexpensive enough for ordinary people to have their portraits taken, it was the usual practice to have multiples made. With the larger families of the time, there was one to keep and the others to give to brothers, sisters, parents, et al.  This meant most photo albums were filled with countless uncles and aunts. The photos of parents and grandparents became heirlooms, but inevitably the photos of distant forgotten relatives got hawked to the local antique dealer. That's why I think the most common subject in a vintage photo is always someone's long lost uncle. 
 
This is Uncle Jim.  He plays the cornet. His full name is neatly written on the back of this carte de visite, Uncle James Pallister. Besides his cornet, he also holds his music as he sits in a relaxed pose for the camera. Though he is not wearing a uniform, his fine tailored suit and splendid beard gives him the distinguished air of a gentleman.

Uncle Jim presumably lived in the town where the photographer kept his studio.
Thomas Spetch
23 Upper Victoria Street,
Bank Top Darlington of County Durham, England did not produce many references but I did find another family Web Album with similar Thomas Spetch photos dated 1879. The rounded corners of this cdv and the relatively simple stylized photographer's logo, compared to those of the later 19th century, would date Uncle Jim to around 1872-1875.

His cornet is a piston valve instrument which was just beginning to become the premier solo instrument of the 19th century. The great French cornet soloist, Jean-Baptiste Arban, had just published his great method book in 1864, and the popularity of this instrument was soon to push the older rotary valve saxhorns and keyed bugles out of the brass bands.






 
So is Uncle Jim a professional musician? I can say from personal experience that it takes real skill to place the mouthpiece correctly under a brush like Jim's. But it is difficult to know for certain, as the name James Pallister turns out to be less than unique. There were over 12 men, age of 30+/-, with this exact name, living in or around Darlington during the census years of 1871 and 1881. Two joiners, a farmer, a grocer, a coal dealer, a butcher, a mason, a games keeper, and a gentleman's coachman among other occupations. Without another reference, Uncle Jim will just have to remain lost.

This next cdv is a musician who comes from Glasgow, a flutist seated in profile with his instrument artfully posed on his thigh. His hair and beard suggest he is more blonde than Uncle Jim's auburn locks. There is a fabric object with a feathered edge on the side table beside him. Perhaps a cloth case for his flute, or even a Tam o'Shanter.

I think his appearance seems very professional but the flute was a gentleman's instrument too, and there were many celebrated amateur flute players who had careers outside of music. His flute, a wooden instrument with ivory rings and silver keys, was the traditional orchestral flute in Britain even into the mid-20th century.

 

The photographer's stamp on the back reads:
Stuart, Photographer
Thistle Bank, Charlotte St.
Helensburgh
Head Establishment
120 Buchanan Street, Glasgow
An excellent website, Glasgow's Victorian Photographers, identifies him as John Stuart and shows a number of his back stamp logos. This one matches cdv photos from around 1867-1870.

I recommend this Glasgow Photographers website if you'd like to learn more about dating this type of early photograph.

This next cdv is of a violinist standing with his violin and bow at his side. It is a very unsophisticated photo with a plain backdrop and a common diamond pattern floor cloth. There is no photographer's name or other markings, but the photo came from England so I think it is almost certainly of British origin.

The gentleman has a formal suit and a neatly trimmed circle beard, perhaps more continental, which again suggests a gentleman, but I think this man was a professional violinist. He has the look of a concertmaster or orchestra leader. The simple style of this cdv, square corners and no borders suggests an earlier date, perhaps 1863-65.

This last British musician's photo is of another flutist, this time from London. He is older than the other musicians, perhaps 60 + years, with muttonchops and Pince-nez spectacles hanging by a ribbon, and wears an older style frock coat. He holds a silver flute which was a relatively new invention in this era. It is likely a Boehm Flute which was introduced by Theobald Boehm in 1847, and slowly became the modern instrument we associate with today's modern flute. The first wooden flute has a conical bore shape but this metal flute was actually cylindrical. More information on the secret mysteries of flute design can be found at Oldflutes.com


The photo's back is marked:
F. York, Photographer, 
Alfred Villa, Lancaster Road,
Notting Hill. W.

along with a name, Recherson, possibly that of the musician. But alas, I can find no one living at this time in all of Britain, let alone London, with this name. Even trying more Germanic spellings does not work. Yet another lost uncle.

The photographer on the other hand, is one of the more documented photographers I have acquired. He is Frederick Arlington Viner York (1823-1903), who first apprenticed as a chemist in Bristol. In 1855 he moved to South Africa for his health and worked as a photographer in Cape Town. He returned to London in 1861 where he opened his first photography studio on Lancaster Road in 1864.

Frederick York

He was respected for his landscapes and traveled with the Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII, on his grand trip to India in 1875 via the newly opened Suez Canal. Many of York's photographs of India and Egypt were later produced as glass magic lantern slides.


Frederick York was a member of the Royal Photographic Society and his name appears many times in the minutes of their meetings. I offer a short excerpt here from the 1876 edition of the British Journal of Photography  to show how photographers in this era were very close to scientists in evaluating the different ways to create an image with a camera. The knowledge of chemistry and understanding of the development processes needed for this trade made it a very complex and even dangerous business. I imagine that these professional meetings could sometimes create intense rivalries and foster some loud disagreements.

Frederick York lived not far from the London Zoological gardens in Regent's Park. One of his projects was to photograph the animals at the London Zoo, and Scrabble players the world over owe him a debt of gratitude for taking the photo of the very last Quagga in 1870. This animal is now an extinct sub-species of the Zebra and was found in South Africa. Perhaps Mr. York even knew of it when he was living there.

Quagga, London Zoo c. 1870 photo by F. York

Notting Hill is a short walk west of Regent's Park, and along the way is the Royal Academy of Music.  Founded in 1822, it is the oldest music conservatoire in Britain and would be just the place for a photographer to drop a business card. Could Recherson be a flute professor from the RAM?

His name is still elusive but I would bet he is at least someone's lost uncle too.

This is my hirsute contribution to Sepia Saturday
where the theme this weekend is hairy men.

Click the link for even more fuzziness. 

The Janietz Elite Damen Blas Orchester

Musical groups have always needed to find new ways to stay in the public eye if they are to be  successful. A hit song or a fancy costume might help, but self promotion was often more important in building a fan base and swaying the fickle taste of public opinion. One hundred years ago the postcard was the favorite way to sell a band, and the Janietz Elite Damen Blas Orchester, literally "Janietz Elite Ladies Blowing Orchestra" was a group that certainly posed for a lot of photos.

They first appeared as part of my post last October, Postcards of German Ladies Orchestras but this ensemble made so many postcards, that this weekend I devote a showcase just for them.

The Janietz Orchestra numbers varied from around 10 to 12 women and 5 to 7 men. Most of the cards feature just brass instruments, primarily rotary valve instruments, but there are also saxophones and several percussion shown too. The most striking instruments are a kind of valved Alphorn that stretches across the front of the ensemble. Herr Janietz the leader, appears seated here on the right with a cornet and the ubiquitous Kaiser Wilhelm mustache.

The back of the card has an obscured postmark, but I believe it is from around 1908. The printer is Wittenbecher of Leipzig.

Here four women trumpeters and a tympanist stand at the ready for a fanfare. These herald trumpets, a type of bugle, were featured in many German and Austrian Ladies bands of this period. The Janietz Fraulein costumes are clearly an imitation of Scottish fashion with tartan dresses, sashes, and feathered Tam o'Shanters. But their wearing of a Sporran is a major mistranslation of this specialized Scotsman's accessory. Perhaps this odd tartan-mania uniform was a reflection of the Kaiser's supposed admiration of British culture. Or maybe they just liked fur and plaid.

This card was sent in October 1910 to Mr. William Dickmann in Brooklyn, NY.  He is found in the 1910 Census, age 33, wife Gertrude, son George, occupation - Butcher.

Dear Friend, Spending a couple of days in Dresdon (sic). Today it is raining that stop our fun. Will see you next week. Regards to all. Herman (?)

An optimistic travel schedule for 1910, even with a fast ship.

The next two photographs were not colorized and are in a subdued sepia but the cards produce an interesting game of "Spot the Difference. Can you?

The 16 musicians were clearly a versatile bunch playing not only brass instruments of every kind, but string instruments too, as indicated in the added Streich Orchester. There is also a glockenspiel on the right foreground and another xylophone type instrument on the left that appears often in photos of German bands of this era. Such a novelty may have been a special sound attached to specific popular dances or songs. There is also a woman flute player and two women horn players.

The last postcard was sent Feld-Post on 17 April 1915. This postcard from the front required no stamp for the soldier sending it. The German handwriting is beyond my skills so I leave it to more talented readers to work this one out.

Here the Janietz Elite Damen Blas und Streich Orchester have reached their largest number with 20 musicians, 12 women and 8 men. They have a bassoonist now and three large suspended percussion instruments. There are tubular orchestral bells on the right, and rare soprano tubular bells on the left, but I am unsure of the instrument in the back center. I believe it is a kind of tuned wooden clapper.  It's quite possible that this is an extended family of brothers, sisters, wives and husbands. I imagine them filling an entire train car with their cases and bags, taking all the seats.

I have no clue as to Herr Janietz's full name. He was one of hundreds of band leaders, each impresario with a marvelous waxed mustache, that formed ladies bands to perform over the vast German and Austrian-Hungarian Empires. The large number of professional women brass musicians at this time is amazing and given the German emigration to America in the early 20th century, it surely must have influenced the formation of similar ladies brass bands in the United States.

Back in November, I participated in a performance of Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony. Listening to some of his imaginative effects for ranks of brass, wind and percussion instruments, I was reminded of the instruments shown in these photos. Mahler's orchestrations are wonderful but he may have been using a musical vocabulary that was more common than we can appreciate now. When these women played they must have made a great noise.

UPDATE:

One more postcard of the Janietz Elite Damen to add. This one is postmarked 1919 and is another game of "Spot the Differences."  Given this period of the the Great War, one wonders how such a band coped with the challenges of a wartime economy. Travel, food and accommodation must have been difficult for a touring with a big ensemble. And what about the musicians called up for military service? I also believe that during the years 1914-18 many brass instruments were destroyed as the brass was recycled into munition shell casings. 

But perhaps this is only a left over card, posted some years after Herr Janietz broke up his Elite Damen Orchester.

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where the photo theme this weekend is Korean ladies
smoking and playing the game of Go.

Click the link to Go for more.

The Fort Madison Prison Orchestra

One of the qualities that I look for in a photograph is rarity. This photo image has two things that make it exceptional. The first is that it shows an orchestra made up of inmates from the Fort Madison, Iowa Penitentiary, and the second is that it shows black musicians playing with white musicians.

This glass slide of the Prison Orchestra Fort Madison, Iowa dates from 3-11-1914, as marked on the left side along with initials L.P.  The ensemble of 16 men in plain band uniforms includes 4 African-American men playing violin, string bass, cello, and trombone.  The other men play cornets, clarinet, alto saxophone, flutes (showing both the silver and wooden variety of flutes) and two men without instruments who likely played piano and drums. The slide is similar to other projector slides intended for cinemas to use as a filler during the era of early silent movies. It could have been shown between the feature films or even for a Chautauqua style lecture.
UPDATE: Since writing this post yesterday I have discovered that the prison did engage various performers and lecturers for its own Chautauqua series, beginning around 1908. So perhaps this slide was used for that purpose in the prison.

Fort Madison is a town in the lower southeast corner of Iowa, and was the site of the first US military base on the upper Mississippi. This maximum security prison, now know as the Iowa State Penitentiary, was established in 1838. This postcard of the State Prison, Fort Madison, Iowa has a cryptic date written on the back, perhaps Aug 1914, and a message.

A14

This place has about 1400 inmates. it is getting
too Small. They treat the prisoners well and feed them good here.
They have movie shows! Opera house Band. Orchestra Church and Sunday School

Andy E



In 1920 the Iowa board of control for prisons listed 462  inmates for Fort Madison, so the writer may have been exaggerating for effect. One of the many progressive movements in the first decades of the 20th century was prison reform, and Fort Madison was fortunate to engage the services of Warden James C. Sanders (1865-1922). For ten years, beginning in 1908, Warden Sanders instituted changes in the prison. He abolished the lock step and degrading uniforms of convicts, established an orchestra and a band; and allowed recreational sports for the prisoners with teams in baseball and basketball. He was also opposed to the death penalty, and believed that a penitentiary should be a place of reform and correction.

The February 1915 edition of  The American Magazine, page 60, carried a profile on this innovative warden. Sanders was an experienced educator and also a gifted amateur musician on the cornet. There should be music everywhere he insisted, and so free that none could avoid hearing it. "Why,  I wouldn't run a dog fight without music," said Sanders. He followed a motto of "treating men as men" which was a very liberal attitude for a prison governor in this era.

The photo of a prison orchestra is unusual, but the truly remarkable part of this image is seeing black and white musicians together. This was 1914, an era when racial segregation was the law or custom in nearly every community and state. The Jim Crow Laws of Southern states placed such severe restrictions on African-Americans that it prevented them from sharing public life with white citizens. And the era's horrific violence perpetrated on people of color has left an indelible stain on America history.

Of course at this time, there were bands and orchestras of black musicians. But they almost never appear in photographs with white musicians. In professional orchestras and bands, black musicians were not accepted until the late 1960's and 70's. The professional prejudice even segregated them in the musicians union into "separate but equal" locals.

The black population of Iowa in the first decades of the 20th century was quite small with around 15,000 in 1910 or only 0.67% of the total population of 2,224,771. The state had a long history in the early 19th century of black immigration as it was the first Northern free state on the Mississippi. The Great Migration of blacks from the rural South to the urban North, began during WWI and continued into the 1970's, but most black immigrants chose the larger city centers instead of Iowa.

In December 1909, the Le Mars, Iowa Weekly ran a series on Warden Sander's prison reforms and featured one report on the music. It includes a photo of the orchestra, and despite the grainy reproduction, one can make out at least one black man, the violinist seated center right. It describes how Sanders led the first orchestra as solo cornet, and started a tradition of having the orchestra perform for the prison's noon meal. The inmates had to attend regular rehearsals and keep up their instrument. One imagines that the cell blocks sounded more like a music conservatory than a prison.

The man standing in the back row of the glass slide is not Warden Sanders, then 49, when it is compared to the other photos of him. It is more likely Mr. Stevenson, the Assistant Deputy Warden, who is described in this article as a former bugler of the Nebraska 1st Regiment and solo cornet with the Ringling Bros. Circus Band. 

In July 1911, The Des Moines, Iowa Daily News sent a young woman, Miss Sue McNamara to report on the improving effects of reform for the penitentiary and its inmates. She describes the joyful sound of music coming from the prison chapel, that runs contrary to her expectations for such an institution. The oppressive conditions in the prison have changed. The warden has taken away the guard's policeman clubs and replaced them with heavy canes. The cells are now more sanitary, and the humane treatment along with recreation time has given the convicts a better morale.

{for the Sepia Saturday readership, please note the advertisement for Arnant's Beautiful Shoes, saving you that rent money by selling from the 4th floor.}

Recently I acquired another unusual photo, a postcard never mailed and with no identification on it except the photographer's caption - ASSEMBLY, in the lower left corner. It shows a large group of men standing in lines in an open area of a factory or institution. In the foreground there is a group of musicians in band uniforms. On the bass drum are the words Concert Band.

The men are assembled in lines, and are uniformly dressed in white shirts, trousers and military type caps. Several are black, including a few men in the band. At the head of the lines are other men wearing dark trousers and holding canes. At the top of the gathering, one man in a suit seems to be reading an announcement. Something is about to happen.

The band is quiet for the moment, but two musicians have no music lyre on their instruments and instead have men dressed in baseball uniforms to hold their music. There is a baseball diamond behind the bass drummer.

Could this be a prison yard? Could it be Fort Madison Penitentiary?

This image was taken from a 1900 article on the history of the Fort Madison Penitentiary in The Bulletin of Iowa Institutions. It shows the same building as in the postcard. Compare the windows and the high wall at the back left. And in fact, it is a kind of factory - the New Shop Building,  where inmates worked at several industries including furniture making.

The men are preparing for a baseball game, In other contemporary references on the Fort Madison Prison, there were reports that even the musicians had their own Orchestra team. They played against the Blue Jays .

In 1920, there were 8 men scheduled to hang which was twice the number of all executions since the Iowa prison was first established in 1838. This was a place of incarceration. All the inmates had been convicted of serious crimes and sentenced to do prison time in atonement. They were sinners and not saints, but they were also men who nonetheless deserved some dignity. 

The irony is that in Fort Madison's Prison Orchestra they enjoyed a level of equality and freedom that they could not have experienced in the outside world of 1914. When I look at their faces I do not see hardened criminals, I see confident musicians who took pride in their musical accomplishments.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where the theme this weekend is ladies' shoes.
My post from last October, A Vaudeville Girl
fits very nicely with feminine footwear, otherwise click the link if you want to see more.

The Verdi Sextette

One of the first commercial uses of photography was in making promotional photos of theatrical and musical groups. They were primarily sent out to agents and theater managers, since a picture, then as now, was often the best way of conveying charisma and talent in the show business world.

This set of three 8" x 10" photographs were taken at the DeHaven Studios in Chicago, also known as David Hyman Bloom and younger brother Samuel Bloom, the same photographers that took the first photo in my October post on A Vaudeville Girl. This musical ensemble of three men and three women, performing on two mandolins, guitar, cello, piano, and a single rose are clearly a professional group. They have similar theatrical dress with wide bow ties around their collars and neat stage slippers.

The only clue as to the name or  year for these musicians was penciled onto the back of just one photo.

Verdi Sextette

Imperial May 1-2-3

Not very much to go on, but interesting keywords for a search. Unfortunately it meant sifting through an enormous number of hits on concert programs that always seemed to include an opera excerpt by Verdi followed by the Sextette from Lucia di Lammermor by Donizetti. That made for hundreds of mistaken combinations of Verdi - Sextette.













On June 29, 1916, there was a notice in the Omaha World Herald of various amusements available that week to Nebraska citizens. Playing at the Empress, with continuous Vaudeville and Photoplays was the "Verdi Sextette" - High Class Vocalists and Instrumentalists.

The Empress was only one of 8 theaters in Omaha advertising their features, like the Gayety, "Where Everybody Goes", and the Monroe, "The Comfy Theater, Where Your Dime Works Overtime". Show business was all about real competition in a  time when entertainment was always a public event, unlike today's solitary activities of radio, television and internet.




The Verdi Sextette probably played a mix of operatic excerpts, no doubt from Italian operas along with traditional Italian popular songs. In the early 20th century, the mandolin enjoyed a popularity that rivaled the banjo, with many groups using the instrument for accompaniment. This was an age of immigrants and voices of the old country had a strong appeal. Though I expected to find their name linked to the Chautauqua movement which emphasized classical and educational music, this sextet seems to have found work on the vaudeville circuits.

The next month in 1916 there was an ad in the Hutchinson, Kansas News for a performance at the Riverside Park on July 21st. The program listed:
Whitney's Dolls (4 people)
Three Genettes (Dog Act)
Verdi Sextette (6 people)
Bell & Haywood (Double)

This was a big transition period for theaters. The cinema was still a novelty and films, besides being silent, were short. To make a full entertainment value for patrons, most theaters combined live performances of vaudeville acts with films or photoplays as they were sometimes called. The public was also just beginning to create a demand for national celebrities, like in the ad for the latest Charlie Chaplin movie, "The Fireman."








Another search turned up the mention of the Verdi Sextette in a trade newspaper review in the New York Dramatic Mirror of the latest acts touring Kansas City theaters in July 1916.
UPDATE:   I've added a postcard view of the Empress Theater from 1912 which was part of my post last month on A Theater Orchestra

The terse writing style in the descriptions of the variety acts would give a theater manager a good idea of whether it was profitable to engage a group. You can almost hear performers groaning after reading the adjective attached to their names.

New York Dramatic Mirror
1916 JUL 15

HOT TIME IN KANSAS CITY

KANSAS CITY (Special) — Kansas City is experiencing the hottest weather (July 3) It has been called on to endure in the past two years and, though holding up fairly well, the few theaters remaining open are showing the effects of the extreme temperature.

Globe (Cyrus Jacobs, manager) : Julia Glfford still clinging to " the former Mrs. Bob Fitsslmmons," headlined last week at this theater and revealed a rather pleasing voice and some pretty gowns. A police sketch. " The Cop," last seen here at the Orpheum, was also shown with much merit on the same bill, which also included Mondanne Phillips and Willson and Sherwood. Otto and Olivia were painful, but the Camille Trio were very funny in a knockabout aerial act. The bill opening Sunday at 2, pleased immensely. Powder and Capman, two good-looking chaps with nimble feet, Gaylord and Langston, girl blackface comediennes, and Judson Cole, card manipulator, presented acts of merit. Olivette, Moffet and Claire offered Hawaiian music and some fast society dancing—their Castllllane dance being especially good. The Curtis Trio and Ed. Price completed the bill.

 
Empress (Daniel McCoy, manager): Topping the bill at this theater last week was one of the best magic and juggling novelty acts ever seen here, being presented by the Choy Heg Wa Troupe. Astane, in a table and chair act, and Florence and  Briggs. in a comedy sketch, both pleased. Bryan and Parker and the Penn City Trio were also on the bill. " The Beauty Doctors," a miniature musical comedy teeming with songs, pretty gowns, and handsome girls, and numbering several well-known musical comedy people, occupy first place on the current bill. The Verdi Sextette, " A Day in Dogville," and the Novelty Trio  secure results in their efforts to please. Taylor and Howard are the original nuts from Brazil, and are full of laughs. Electric and Fairmount Parks continue to draw enormous crowds.  JACK MCCLEE

After 1916 the Verdi Sextette seems to have disappeared. The Great War in Europe  expanded to America in 1917 and the public's tastes in music changed dramatically. Musicians changed their names, pulled politically incorrect music from their repertoire, and added patriotic songs to their act. And of course the cinema - the movies became a bigger business that forced all the theaters to change. The stage no longer had room for small ensembles like the Verdi Sextette.

They were such a handsome bunch, I like to think they might have moved to the west coast anyway and found work in the first era of Hollywood films. But then they would have lost their voices, so perhaps not.

This is my second contribution to  Sepia Saturday

where the theme this weekend is a picture of Claude Raines from 1912.

My first contribution is from an earlier post on Werner Fuetterer
which is about a rare portrayal of a horn player on screen.

Click the next link for more photos and stories about stage and screen.

A Tuba Player from Lowville, New York

One of life's great pleasures is relaxing next to a fire in a comfortable chair and reading ... tuba music. The gentleman in this photograph seems to have taken a break from some serious practice on his tuba. With his instrument turned upside down for a good arm rest, he has a wire stand to hold his music, even though his tuba has a music lyre, and around his feet are strewn even more tuba parts. Just beside him on an ornately carved table, lies his bowler hat and a framed photo, perhaps of his sweetheart.

The instrument is a distinctive Courtois silver plated E-flat tuba that can be identified by its arrangement of three valves for the right hand and a single diagonal valve for the left hand. It is made by Antoine Courtois, the famous French musical instrument company established in 1789 and still manufacturing brass instruments today.

The photographer is George W. Carter of Lowville, New York. The large cabinet card has gold edges to date it around 1885 but there is no other identification. The furnishings suggest a parlor in a home but I think the mantle, window, and curtain are painted backdrops in Mr. Carter's studio. The additional appointments create a very clever illusion. Carter was described in a Lowville newspaper of 1871 as a landscape photographer, and the painting on the back wall could even be his artwork. He was born in 1848 and at age 19 was listed in the 1870 census as working in a photo gallery. He and his wife, Ida E. Carter continued to live in Lowville running a photography studio until sometime after 1920.

Lowville is in Lewis County in upstate New York, situated in the Black River valley of the Adirondack Mountains, just east of Lake Ontario. This past Memorial Day, I featured a 1908 postcard of the Lowville Band, and I also have another photograph contemporary with Mr. Carter's, of a cornet player named Frank Thompson, who was the leader of the band from 1883 to 1904. His biography initially started my research on the history of this wonderful small town and I plan to feature his tragic story in an upcoming post. Two online archives of newspapers from Lewis County at Northern New York Newspapers and for other parts of New York at Fultonhistory.com have been veritable mother lodes of historic trivia allowing me to find more clues than would be possible with other photographs.

One detail that caught my attention was the camera's focus on the gentleman's left hand. I magnified it and it appears he has a signet ring. The initial looks to be the letter D in a calligraphy type set into a dark rectangle.

On October 12, 1882 the Lowville Times carried a short report on a two new musicians to join the band. A solo B-flat cornet player from Utica and Hallie Durez from Ogdensburg, NY who would play the tuba horn.

{Click the image to read the tragic end of a squirrel hunter.}

Hallie was actually Haley Duruz, born in New York in 1861. His father was Leon Duruz who was a wagon and carriage maker. Leon was Swiss but emigrated to New York as a boy and during the Civil War served in an Union Artillery Regiment from New York as a bugler.  In 1883 the Lowville Band performed a concert and along with some lavish praise the members were listed in the Lowville Democrat. Leon is playing baritone alongside his son.




The Boonville Herald speaks of the serenade given by our village band in that place last week Tuesday evening, and also of its music at the Gouverneur fair, as follows:

"The Lowville band is a musical organization composed of eighteen young men of eminent musical talent and of a high order of discipline. They are favorites of their village neighbors and are assisted in a very liberal way in their excursions and enterprises. They are tastily uniformed and equipped with instruments of the finest quality for tone and finish.
The excursion yesterday was for their benefit, and was engineered by the indefatigable and ubiquitous George Sherwood, without whom Lowvllle would soon become extinct or of little influence among her sister villages. The personnel of the band organization is as follows:
C. L. Brown, drum major; Prof. R. McCrossen, leader and solo Bb cornet; W. J. Smith, 1st Bb cornet; Frank R. Smith, 2d Bb cornet; C. K. Doig, Eb clarinet; Don Warren, 1st Bb clarinet; Garey Warren, 2d Bb clarinet; E. T. Davies solo alto; Amos Bliss, 1st alto; A. E. Davis, 2d alto; Will Taylor, trombone; Frank Stoddard, 1st tenor; Frank Cook, 2d tenor; Leon Duruz, baritone; Hally Duruz, tuba; George Hutchins, 2d tuba; Hiram Cook, tenor drum, and Geo. Goutremout, bass drum."

On December 26, 1883, the Lowville Democrat carried a report that The Lowville Band had recently raised $160 for a new tuba. Could the shiny Courtois be that instrument?

{Click the image to read about the risk of winter  temperatures at -28º F.}























Evidently Hally Duruz was an accomplished musician as in January 1884 he was invited to join the Kingsford Band in Oswego, NY for a trial engagement. This was a larger band that offered a yearly salary.

{Click the image to read about a failed suicide and more dangerous drunks.}

In May 1885, another brief report noted that D.C. Barry, an experienced tuba player from Chester, Connecticut had arrived to play a season with the Lowville Silver Band. Did Haley move to Oswego and beyond? There were dozens of small bands throughout upstate New York. Many villages like Lowville were very proud of their musical culture and quite competitive. They often exchanged band concerts, sending their "boys" to play in neighboring towns. And civic sponsors regularly brought in professional musicians to augment and improve their band's musicianship.











Haley Duruz shows up back in Lowville in the 1905 New York Census, living with his parents and without a wife. Was he still playing tuba? That wasn't recorded.

Of course the design on the ring could be a different letter or even a picture of a duck. And there is nothing at all to connect it to Hallie aka Hally, Haley Duruz.  The photo is not a typical pose for a musician from this era and I like it because it shows a young man proud of his musical talent and fond of a good joke. I'll bet he played a solid bass line on every march.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where the theme this weekend is a gentleman
perusing a book nearly as heavy as a tuba.

Follow the link for more stories about vintage photographs and books.