Music at the Coliseum

"Say there, Bill. Isn't that Miss Annie from finance?"

"Mother, do you think the band might play
'Violette' if Father asked the director?"

"Waiter! Where's my soup?"

"Oh, Judith,  you should have been here
in May for the flower show."

"What's that? I can't hear over the band."

"Waiter, this is the wrong soup.
I ordered the green turtle!"

"Tuesday I'm off to Kalamazoo, Wednesday is Ann Arbor,
Thursday Detroit, and then if sales go well,
back to Toledo on Friday."

"Yeah, this band's okay if you like that Italian opera stuff.
But give me Sousa any day."

"Waiter, this soup is cold!"

Exchanges like these must have been heard a million times in the Chicago Coliseum. It was a big place in the heart of bustling great city, only a short walk from Chicago's train stations, and close to its business and theater districts. For many people, both natives and visitors, postcards of its crenelated castle walls were a popular means of communicating that they'd been to the Windy City, "be home soon."

The Coliseum was the largest venue of its type in Chicago. It was built in 1899 by Charles F. Gunther (1837-1920) a German-American confectioner whose caramel candy made him a very rich man. Gunther used his wealth to indulge a hobby of collecting Civil War memorabilia.

In 1889 he purchased the infamous Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, which was used to house hundreds of Union Army officers during the war. Gunther had this old warehouse building, 140 feet wide and 100 feet deep, disassembled brick-by-brick, shipped to Chicago on 132 railroad cars, and then rebuilt to house his museum of the Civil War. Though his collection included the table where General Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and President Lincoln's deathbed, he exhibited many other curiosities unrelated to the war. By 1897 the public's fascination with the war and the weird had waned, so Gunther decided to take down his prison museum and build on the site a  new convention arena for Chicago. He was also exploiting a terrible fire that in 1897 destroyed an earlier Chicago Coliseum located in another part of the city.

Libby Prison ,1865, Richmond, VA
Source: Wikimedia

The first colorized image shows the arena's interior when set up as the Coliseum Gardens. Hundreds of people sit around tables with waiters hovering nearby. A water fountain splashes in the center and along the far wall is a band stand dressed up as a Grecian temple. Along the message border is a caption.

Largest in the World Under Roof,
Seats for Six Thousand.
Chicago ___Oct 17___ 1906
Coliseum Garden,
Where Ellery's Royal Italian Band = Ferullo, Leader
Gave a twelve week's Season of Concerts.
I heard them five or six times

It was sent to Miss Louisa K. Antrim
of Merchantville, New York
but has no stamp or cancellation.

With different seating arrangements the old Chicago Coliseum could go from 6,000 to 12,000 patrons. Many sporting events were held in the Coliseum. And countless trade shows took over its floor space displaying the latest industrial equipment, the newest automobiles, or the future of household appliances. Beginning in 1904 it hosted five consecutive Republican Party National Conventions.

Interior of Chicago Coliseum
during 1912 Republican National Convention
Source: LOC

The castle walls were the only part of Gunther's Civil War museum to remain in the new structure which was scheduled to open in 1900. It's penitentiary-like appearance led to a mistaken belief that the huge Coliseum had once actually imprisoned Union soldiers. Spreading fake news is nothing new. My second image came from another postcard showing off the Coliseum's distinctive facade.

The message reads:
Dear Annie –
The place where I was at
last Sunday to hear Ellery Band

find (?) 676 East 63rd Place
 

Miss Weber
Write me soon
as I may go to
California.

The postcard was sent on September 14, 1904
to Miss Annie Marie P. Bundy
c/o the Piano Studio of Topeka, Kansas.

It's rare to get ephemera with a trail of provenance.
As stamped on the back,
years later Annie donated her postcard
to the Topeka Public Library.
When the library no longer wanted it in their collection,
an antique dealer picked it up, leaving a note of its topics,
and then sold it to me on eBay.
The rest is history.

In 1929 the much larger Chicago Stadium was built with 18,000 seats to handle sporting events like hockey and basketball. Then in 1934 the 9,000 seat International Amphitheater opened for conventions, hosting both Democratic and Republican presidential conventions from 1952 to 1968. This diminished the bookings at the old Coliseum, and the district around the arena became rundown. In the 60s and early 70s it became the Chicago concert venue for rock bands. Finally in March 1971, the Coliseum was closed for fire code violations. It never reopened for public shows and in 1982 was slated for redevelopment and partially demolished. However parts of the original exterior battlements remained until the 1990s when a section of Gunther's Libby Prison facade was preserved for the Chicago History Museum.

Yet in its golden years of the first two decades of the 20th century the Chicago Coliseum was THE PLACE to to go for events of all kinds, especially concerts of wind bands not utilizing electric amplification. And one band in particular got its name advertised on many Coliseum postcards from this era—The Ellery Band.

The postmark is unclear,
September 15, maybe 1906-08?
Sent from Wisconsin
to Miss Helen Bobolz (?)
in Chicago

Dear Helen
Ma wants you to
come home Saturday
night. We are
very busy in the corn
and want you to
come home. Don't
forget to bring
me something home
Brother Erich

The Coliseum Gardens were always cool and delightful, as advertised in the Chicago newspapers. In August 1905 the Ellery Band under Band Director Ferullo performed two concerts daily. In the afternoon the band played overtures to "Poet and Peasant" and "Faust"; music from "Boehian Girl" and "Manon Lescaut"; Chopin's Funeral March; etc.  In the evening it was Mozart's "Gloria"; "Organ Offertory"; and "Hymn to the Sun".  Admission was 25 cents. No higher. Catering by Edelweiss Garden Management.

Chicago Tribune
6 August 1905

The Ellery Band's director was a handsome Italian musician named Signor Francesco Ferullo. His photo made a dashing advertisement of the band.

Appleton WI Post Crescent
12 October 1904

A native of Naples, Italy, Ferullo trained as an oboist at the famous Naples Royal Conservatoire. At age 18 he joined the San Carlo Opera orchestra where he played for 3 years before being recruited in 1901 to play solo oboe in the Ellery Royal Italian Band. After his arrival in America he toured with the band for hundreds of concerts, often being listed as oboe soloist for tunes taken from popular Italian operas.

In 1904 the band director then, Maestro Chiaffarelli, resigned due to ill health. Trading his oboe for a baton, the young Francesco Ferullo took over the duties of band leader. Despite a small stature, his musical gyrations and animated, often gymnastic, movements on the podium proved a big hit and the Ellery Band became celebrated across the country for its exciting renditions of music from Italian, German, and French operas. The band had over 50 musicians and performed in nearly every major city on both the east and west coasts, as well as a 10 to 12 week run at the Chicago Coliseum.

In the summer of 1905, his Ellery Band was competing with the Imperial Italian Band of Emilio Rivela performing at nearby Rivinia Park in Chicago. Maestro Rivela was another Italian band leader hired to lead the Ellery Band before Chiaffarelli. The band actually had several directors and every one had a splendid mustache.  Rivela's was reputed to be over 12 inches long uncurled.

Chicago Inter Ocean
7 August 1905

Ferullo's band was sometimes called the Royal Italian Band as all the bandsmen were indeed Italian, but the "royal" part was made up and had nothing to do with the King of Italy. More often it was called the Ellery Band, or just Ellery's Band, both linked to Channing Ellery, an American music impresario who loved Italian music and musicians. From 1895 until his death in 1917, Channing Ellery imported hundreds of Italian band musicians to play in a band of his own creation. Though he studied to be an opera singer, Ellery's only musical talent was as a whistler. He did not play any band instrument. Instead he used an inherited personal fortune that allowed him to finance a musical organization that would introduce America to the music he most admired, the music of the great Italian composers, Donizetti, Verdi, Puccini, etc.

Albuquerque NM Journal
24 March 1906

For more details on Channing Ellery
and his many Italian bandmasters,
please check out my post from August 2019.
An Atlantic City Love Story, part 2.  

1906 proved to be a big year
in the career of Francesco Ferullo.
For one thing he got married in June. 

Albuquerque NM Citizen
14 June 1906

His bride was a beauty from Kansas City, Missouri.
Her father was a wealthy businessman.

The announcement made all the newspapers.

It was a familiar story.

Stay tuned for more about
Mr. and Mrs. Ferullo.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where everyone is still waiting for the check.