Three Brass Duos

 

Sometimes it's not the instruments
but the hats and mustaches that persuade
me to add a musician's photo to my collection.

Likewise band uniforms
more than individual instruments
can affect my decision to buy a photo.

And then when I realize
I've acquired musical photos 

that share some attribute
like an instrument combination
or a mix of hats and uniforms
I start looking for similar photos.

Today I present three photos
of pairs of vintage bandsmen
who played cornet and euphonium. 

My first duo are two men wearing dapper bowler hats and sporting tightly twisted mustaches, which, I believe, required a lot of wax. Both have long suit coats though of different lengths. On the left the cornet player's coat is cut at standard business length but has an elegant velvet collar which must have cost extra. The coat on the euphonium player is longer, hemmed at his ankles, and comes with a short cape for foul weather. They have a style that suggests they are members of a professional band like a minstrel show troupe as those ensembles favored long duster style coats. But minstrel  band musicians usually wore top hats not bowlers, so these fellows may just be mates in a local town band.

The photographer of this cabinet card photograph was C. Anson Goodhart of 16 South Railroad St. in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. On the back is written: 

 B. N. Palmer on Right 

In the Ancestry.com archive I found a Bernard N. Palmer, born 1868, living in Belfast, Pennsylvania, a small township roughly 50 miles west of Shippensburg. In the 1900 census Bernard listed his occupation as "school teacher" and I found his name mentioned as B. N. Palmer in  several county newspapers. However none connected him to a band, much less a euphonium, so this identification is still speculation until I find more clues. Yet I do think the man on the right does look like a teacher.   

* * *

My second cornet euphonium duo are definitely bandsmen as they wear proper uniforms with fancy embroidery. The cornet player on the right seems to have suffered a wardrobe malfunction as his jacket is missing some braid. They are standing outside in front of a heavy canvas wall, presumably a tent. Their caps have a name that unfortunately is too blurred to decipher the letters. It looks like the last three letters are STO which looks Italian and the euphonium player's mustache certainly has an Italian curl. So I can easily imagine they are members of an Italian band featured in a traveling circus or carnival show.  The postcard was not posted but is printed on American paper so I believe it dates from around 1910-1920. 

* * *

My third and final cornet and euphonium duo are the most interesting pair. Two men in formal military dress uniforms pose outdoors at the front of  a canvas tent. Across their chests is a braided cord fastened at the left shoulder with two knotted circular tassels that, I believe, is called a fourragère, not to be confused with a similar cord with metal tips called an aiguillette. I'm not sure why this cord accoutrement appear on military band uniforms but it's a feature that appears in a lot of my photos. (Perhaps one day I'll put together a special story just on uniform ornaments.) In any case these two bandsmen look overdressed for sitting around a campfire. 

The peak of the tent has letters N. G. which are a clue that this is a national guard tent and presumably the men are members of a guard band. But that does not mean they were enlisted soldiers. In earlier times state guard units would go to their annual two week encampment with a hired professional band to play parade marches and provide entertainment. Check out my story from February 2019 The Band at the Old Campground about photos of another euphonium player who was a member of the Washington National Guard band. (Looking back at that story reminds me that I could do a story just on musicians standing in front of tents, too.) 

The back of this unmailed photo postcard are two notes: 

Herb? Long on left
2nd Regiment Marine
Band
A.Town

At first I thought they might actually be bandsmen in the United States Marine Corps. But national guard units in this era were not marines. It took a little more digging in the internet mines to learn they were actually members of the Marine Band of Allentown, Pennsylvania. The band was first organized by local "A.Town" Allentown musicians in January 1903 as a "military" style band, influenced by the popularity of the U. S. Marine Band, the President's Own, and its famous leader John Philip Sousa (1854–1932). In its first year the band presented 131 concerts, almost one every other day, and established a reputation in the region for superior music. In 1907 it formed a connection to a fraternal society The Sons of Veterans Reserve, now known as the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, and became the 2nd Regiment Band, S.V.R. 

I'm not sure how this national society functioned as a state guard, but before the First World War the Allentown S.V.R. along with the Marine Band went to annual "encampments" like in 1907, Scranton; 1908, Walnutport; 1910, Wilkes-Barre; 1911, Mauch Chunk; 1912, Reading; 1913, Gettysburg; 1914, Sunbury; 1915, Gloucester, N. J.; and 1916, Lehighton. 

After the United States joined the war in 1917, the Allentown Marine Band performed for recruiting drives and promotion for war bonds. By the end of the year 22 members of the band enlisted, most joining army bands. According to a history of the Allentown Marine Band published 20 January 1924 by the Allentown Morning Call, one musician "paid the supreme sacrifice.  Henry Herlickler, known as 'Happy', was killed while trumpeting a charge before Sedan in France the day before the armistice, November 10, 1918. He was a member of the 79th Division.  Four other members of the band were gassed or wounded:  Harry Nitz, wounded;  Arthur Stoneback, gassed; Earl Hersh, gassed;  Irwin Boyer, gassed." 

Today the Allentown Marine Band is still in operation and performing concerts in Allentown, though with a new generation of musicians, of course. In March 1972 the Allentown Morning Call published another piece on the organization and included an old undated  photo of the band. Here the Marine Band stands in front of a building, I'm guessing either the city armory or maybe the Sons of Veterans lodge. The band's uniforms are different from what my cornet euphonium duo wear, more military like with jodhpurs and leggings. There are around 40 or more musicians, and I think my cornet player is standing in the front row, fifth from left. I don't see the euphonium player's face, but he might be in the group cut off on the right.

The Allentown Marine Band
Allentown PA Morning Call
11 March 1972

The earlier 1924 history of the Allentown Marine Band included some individual photos of its bandsmen. This picture of Solon Boyer, valve trombonist, charter member, and treasurer of the organization, shows him wearing a uniform identical to that of my cornet and euphonium players. With luck I may be able to track down their names and learn the date and location of my photo. 

Allentown PA Morning Call
20 January 1924

What is remarkable about Allentown's musical heritage is that the 2nd Regiment Marine Band was just one ensemble in a long list of the city's concert bands. Today in 2025 Allentown still enjoys concerts by the Allentown Band, established in 1828; the Pioneer Band of Allentown, established in 1889; the Municipal Band of Allentown, established as a police band in 1923; as well as the Allentown Marine Band, established in 1903. And I've also written two stories about Allentown's Young America boys' band, Two Brothers in Music;  and its Good Shepherd Home for Children orphanage band, Clover the Horse and the Boys Band.  I can't think of any place in North America that can beat a louder drum for music. I wonder, do they ever perform together? 

In earlier times the brilliant sound of a cornet
made it the premier solo instrument of a brass band.
But the sonorous euphonium is equally
a solo instrument in the tenor/baritone range.

So demonstrate the beautiful musical quality
of a cornet and euphonium combination
here is David Koch (Cookie's Music)
playing both instruments, (though not simultaneous!)
 in "A Londonderry Jig" a duet that might easily have been played
by the bandsmen in my three photos.

And as a treat for my Sepia Saturday friends
here is photo of my maternal grandmother,
Blanche Dobbin, before she was married
and was just Blanche Shaw,
sitting on a motorcycle with her cousin Robbie
in Washington, D.C. sometime around 1922.

And yours truly, Mister Mike
sitting on my Yamaha SR500 thumper
in Virginia Beach, circa 1979.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where some folk have pretty sweet rides.