Souvenirs of a Great Artist - Richard Strauss

 

At first glance this photograph
of a gentleman seated in a handsome wooden armchair
could be mistaken for a formal portrait
of some business executive or prominent dignitary.
 

 But actually it's a memento
of a performance of this man's music.
It's not a program from his concert,
not his latest CD album,
not even a souvenir tee-shirt.
Just a simple postcard of a musician
who is not even identified by a musical instrument.
That's because his name is linked
to every orchestral instrument
and every kind of vocalist.

 

It's a token from an opera performance
of the great German composer and conductor,
Richard Strauss (1864–1949).

 

 Today I present six souvenir postcards
of Richard Strauss,
an artist in music.

 

 

He appears first in this caricature sketch
drawn by Han Boehler. It is captioned:

Dr. Richard Strauss.

In the upper left corner is a small drawing of an ostrich under the name Richard. This is a subtle joke because the German word for ostrich is Strauss.  Since ancient times Strauss has been a common Germanic surname, often connected to medieval merchants  who hung a sign depicting an ostrich outside their shop. However Richard Strauss was not related to another musical Strauss family from Vienna: Johann Strauss Sr.. and his more famous son, Johann Strauss Jr. the so-called waltz king.   

Richard Strauss came from another musical city, München, where he was born in 1864 when it was the capital of the Kingdom of Bavaria. His father was Franz Strauss (1822–1905), a virtuoso horn player employed as solo horn at the Bavarian Court Opera. During his career Franz was celebrated for his connection to the composer Richard Wagner (1813–1883) as he played many of the premieres of Wagner's operas, including Tristan und Isolde, Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, and Parsifal.

Richard Strauss was thus exposed to great music and musicians from the start, and at age four he began his first music lessons on piano, by age six he was composing his first music, and by eight he took up the violin. In this era Munich was considered an important center for Germanic art and culture and Franz Strauss easily found teachers for his precocious son. By the time he was 20 Strauss had already cultivated a wide musical experience as a performer, composer, and a conductor. 

One of Strauss's greatest compositions was his Horn Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major, Op. 11 written when he was just age 18. This piece remains a core standard for all horn players to study, and it was this wonderful music that captured my imagination as a young horn player and introduced me to the music of Richard Strauss.  [Click this LINK to hear one of my favorite versions with hornist Radovan Vlatkovic and the Dutch Radio Filharmonisch Orkest.]

This postcard has a copyright by a German music publishing house, Breitkopf & Härtel, which was founded in 1719 in Leipzig and still continues today as a rental and sales agency for classical composers of our century. This card was intended for the English market as it was printed at its London office on Great Marlborough Street. However it was sent from Munich on 1 September 1910 to Mrs. W. T. Craig of Glasgow, Scotland.

 

Dear Ch.   I thought you might like
this for your collection. Arery(?) and
I have been here (Munich) since
Sat, and move on tomorrow to
Lena von Saffern's(?)  We had beau
tiful weather for Nürnberg and
at the beginning of our stay here
but yesterday and to-day, it
has rained.  I went to Rheingold
on Monday in the Prinz Regenten
theatre.  It was quite an experience
and I just got the ticket by accident.
There isn't another to had.  There is so
much here. I want to do it is e...(?) twice
we went.  I trust(?) you are better. oh. oh. .. A.
Sept 1st  1910

 

The writer refers to going to the Prinz-Regenten-Theater to see Das Rheingold, Wagner's first of four music-dramas in his Ring of the Nibelung cycle of operas.  The theater is a concert and opera hall separate from the Bavarian State Opera's Nationaltheater on Max-Joseph-Platz, though it is used by them occasionally. It was built following Richard Wagner's ideas for theater design and opened in 1901 with a production of his opera Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

 Prinz-Regenten-Theater, Munich, Germany
Source: Wikipedia

Richard Strauss's father, Franz, was noted as a outspoken critic of Wagner's grandiose music, even as he played Wagner's many famous horn solos to great acclaim, often from Wagner himself no less. As a young composer Richard Strauss initially followed his father's more conservative preference for music like that of Mozart and Beethoven, but Richard soon found his own voice in the new form of the symphonic poem. His orchestral works like Aus Italien (1886); Don Juan (1888); Tod und Verklärung (1889); Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche (1895); Also sprach Zarathustra (1896); Don Quixote (1897); and Ein Heldenleben (1898) proved so popular in Germany and other music capitals of Europe and America, that by the end of the 19th century Strauss was recognized by the public as Germany's premier composer. 

 

But as the new century started Strauss turned to writing operas which would establish his greatest  legacy. His early study and conducting of Wagner's numerous operas gave him a special insight into Wagner's idea for "music of the future". Strauss expanded this model by introducing a new 20th century Modernism for musical dramas that would result in 16 operas before his death in 1949. 

 

 

 

In this second caricature postcard, Strauss is once again in conducting mode with a raised baton and serious face. The card is printed in color and it's interesting to see that his hair was shown as a sandy red. The caption reads:

Der Neurosenkavalier.
 

A note from the sender adds:
This is Richard Strauss.

The caption is a pun using the psychiatric term "neurosis", a clinical word for functional mental disorders, to poke fun at Strauss's comic opera, Der Rosenkavalier, his fifth opera, which premiered in January 1911 at the Dresden Opera House.  The story is set in the 1740s during the first years of the reign of Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. The title refers to the Rosenkavalier ~ Knight of the Rose, a gentleman who delivers the traditional silver engagement rose to a prospective bride. The plot is a bit silly not unlike other comic operas but Strauss adds a twist by assigning a female voice, a mezzo-soprano, to a young male protagonist. This kind of "trouser role" was not uncommon in opera where a woman's higher voice was sometimes required for some characters. The music in Der Rosenkavalier contains some of Strauss's most beautiful melodies which made it an immediate triumph and it remains his most popular opera.

 

The postcard was sent on 10 October 1911 from Wien, Austria, where Der Rosenkavalier was first played there in April of 1911, so this joke about Der Neurosenkavalier was still very fresh. Wien was of course the home of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) one of the founders of psychoanalysis, so the humor would be familiar to Austrians. The card was addressed to Alf. Austin Logl(?) of Hove, Sussex, England.

 

 

 Oct. 10th  Darling Papaking
have safely arrived, yesterday
morning, am living under
the  "Eye of God."—Am
very glad I came, as
Frau Dovsky, & I in talking
this morning have thought
of a splendid plan, for the
waltz.—She has gone to
interview a dueela(?), about
it today. Will write details
later.   love Teddie.

 

Some of the words are not entirely clear and I invite anyone with a better interpretation of this message to leave a comment below.  

 

 

 

 

My first photo of Richard Strauss was printed on a standard paper stock but never sent. The back has only the imprint of "Postkarte" in 14 different languages. On the front border beneath the portrait, the name of Richard Strauss is printed, but there is nothing to identify him as a composer except for an annotation written in ink below it. 

"Premiere" of "Salome" — Dresden 9.12.05. 

 

 

The note refers to the first performance of Strauss's third opera, Salome, at the Saxon State Opera in Dresden. This was the theater rebuilt on the site of an older opera house which I featured in my story from November 2013, Feuer in der Oper! Fire at the Opera House!. It's also the home of the Staatskapelle Dresden, one of Germany's great orchestras.

Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley
for the first English edition of Salomé
by Oscar Wilde (1894)
Source: Wikipedia

The story of this opera is based on the short biblical account of Salome, the daughter of Herod II and Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas, the 1st-century ruler of Galilee and Perea. After Herod II was demoted in the line of succession by his father Herod the Great in favor of Herod Antipas, his wife Herodias divorced him and then married Herod Antipas, (who also needed a divorce.)  It was a messy complicated affair which John the Baptist, one of the great prophets of God, publicly condemned. This provoked Herod Antipas to have John the Baptist arrested and imprisoned. I'll let the Gospel of Mark tell the rest of the tale.

But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias's daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, "Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you." And he vowed to her, "Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom." And she went out and said to her mother, "For what should I ask?" And she said, "The head of John the Baptist." And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, "I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter." And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.

Throughout the ages this story of evil, lust, and murder inspired numerous works of art and sculpture depicting Salome with the head of John the Baptist. In 1891, the English writer Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) chose this frightful subject for a one-act tragedy, Salomé, which he wrote in French for Sarah Bernhardt, the leading French actress of the time. The play was to open in London in the 1892 season, but because of its biblical subject the British censors would not allow it to be performed. When it finally had its first performance in Paris in 1896, Oscar Wilde was unable to see it as he was then serving a prison sentence for illegal homosexual activity. 

Oscar Wilde's work was translated into several other languages and the English version is best known because of the sinister and erotic illustrations provided by the English artist and author, Aubrey Beardsley (1872–1898). However in 1901 a German production of Wilde's play in a translation by Hedwig Lachmann became a great success in Berlin. Richard Strauss saw it there and considered its form and plot very adaptable for an opera. Within two years after its 1905 premiere in Dresden, 50 other opera houses had mounted a production of Strauss's Salome.  

 

 

Poster for 1910 Richard Strauss Festival 
München, Germany 
by Ludwig Hohlwein
Source: Wikimedia

 

   

 

 

 

 

Despite its success, the subject matter of Salome and Strauss's music made it an easy target for humorists. Though this postcard has no postmark, this cartoon of Richard Strauss holding his own head on a platter was clearly drawn around the time of Salome's premiere. Critics were initially divided on the work's merits, many confused by Strauss's dense music which required an orchestra of 120 musicians, and his challenging vocal parts that seemed devoid of any familiar melodic phrases. Staged in one act, Salome typically runs for about 100 minutes.

 

London Daily Telegraph
11 December 1905

This December 1905 review in the London Daily Telegraph gives just a small sense of how critics struggled to understand Strauss's Salome. Most reviews were quite lengthy describing both the story and the unfamiliar music. The difficulty was that Strauss was following Wagner's ideas in using complex musical leitmotifs, or short melodies with symbolic meanings, to describe the emotions and actions of his opera's characters. Some passages are distinctly associated with Salome or Jochanaan (John the Baptist), while others have a more abstract meaning. But most contemporary critics and later musicologists agree that Salome was a revolutionary work, as ingenious as Claude Debussy’s 1902 opera, Pelléas et Melisande, and as radical as Igor Stravinsky's 1913 ballet, Le Sacre du printemps / The Rite of Spring.

 

 

 

This second photo of  Richard Strauss was acquired at the same time as my first postcard. Here the photographer has asked Strauss to direct his gaze toward the camera lens which presents a more flattering portrait. Beneath the printed caption of Strauss's name is another annotation written in English by that same unknown writer.

"Salome" 2nd time  13.1.06  –  still left
the same feeling of horror  —

 

This simple remark left made by an unknown person is a chilling review. It's a pithy comment that only a real music-lover would make. One motivated enough after hearing the first performance of Salome to go back a month later for a second appraisal. I think it captures the effect Strauss intended his music to produce. Horror at the terrible consequences of Herod's depravity and Salome's sin. 

 

Playbill for the premiere of Salome by Richard Strauss
at Semper-Oper Dresden, 9 December 1905
Source: Wilkimedia

 

 

I would like to show a clip of the pivotal scene in Strauss's Salome, the infamous "Dance of the Seven Veils", but because it has a brief moment of artistic nudity, and is really only suitable for a mature audience, I'm not including it on the usual YouTube player.  Salome is portrayed in this production by Maria Ewing (1950–2022) who is also the dancer. This excerpt and the two that follow came from a live performance recorded at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London on 2 June 1992. It's about 5 minutes long, abbreviated from the full dance, and very grainy. The music surprisingly does not sound horrific like a movie soundtrack, nor does it have any oriental exoticism as might be expected, but I recommend watching it to understand the horrible bargain that Salome demands of Herod. 

 Readers who are interested in watching can click this <LINK>. 

 

  

 

What follows Salome's lascivious dance is the gruesome execution of Jochanaan (John the Baptist). His beheading takes place off (or under) stage. But when it is presented on a silver platter to Salome she sings of her ghastly lust for him. This scene I will include in this post. It is also played by Maria Ewing from the same 1992 production. It's about 10 minutes long.

 

 

 

 

Finally I add the final scene where Salome descends into madness, again from the same 1992 performance with Maria Ewing as Salome. This brings the opera to a bloodcurdling end as Strauss masterfully combines music and drama to describe the result of Salome's wicked bargain. At the end even Herod is appalled and orders his guards to kill Salome. The curtain drops as she is crushed by their shields.

 

 

 

Sadly the American soprano, Maria Ewing, died this year in early January at the age of 71. Her obituary in the Guardian pays tribute to her remarkable career, talent, and commitment to the dramatic elements of opera. 

 

 

 

 

My final souvenir postcard of Strauss is a picture of him in about his 83rd year. His curly red hair is now gone, replaced by a halo of white fuzz, and his mustache has lost its wispy wings.  But his expression still has the same serious outlook, eyes directed upward as if watching a singer take her entrance on stage. This photo was published for an Italian market as the simple caption reads:

 Riccardo Strauss 

 

The postmark is dated 6 XI 1947 from Alessandria, a city and commune in Piedmont, Italy. It was sent to a Maria Grazia Bussi of Udine in far northeast Italy with a single word message, Lelele (?) 6/11. Though I can't be certain, I do know that Strauss was in Switzerland in 1947, possibly in Lugano which is very close to the Italian border. So it's not impossible that the writer saw him at a music festival or heard his music on a radio broadcast. In any case the card demonstrates how Strauss even at age of 80+ was still a very well known musical figure. Richard Strauss died in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, West Germany in the Bavarian Alps on 8 September 1949.

 

Richard Strauss had the great good fortune to live a long and productive life. His music catalog lists 298 compositions ranging from juvenilia composed in the 1870s to songs, chamber music, and concertos written in the last few years before his death. During his lifetime the artistry and originality  of his music was celebrated the world over and Richard Strauss's works will continue to give joy to future generations of musicians and listeners.

Yet the world he knew in 1905 was shattered by the Great Wars of 1914-18, and then again in 1939-45. When Salome was premiered in 1905 the opera house was the pinnacle of the musical and theatrical arts. On his death in 1949, that high peak was becoming crowded with competing mediums like film, radio, and recordings, all vying for the public's attention. The position of a so-called  "classical" composer was not the same anymore. 

These six postcards fascinate me because at the time when they were produced there was an assumption that everyone would know who Richard Strauss was. The publishers didn't think a picture of him conducting an orchestra or sitting thoughtfully at a piano was necessary to identify such a distinguished composer and conductor. That's a very unusual level of public recognition. 

Of course this kind of celebrity advertisement was not reserved for just Richard Strauss. There are many similar postcards from this early 20th century era of conductors, opera singers, and concert artists that demonstrate how publicity and self-promotion were used in the higher levels of show business. But these postcards of Richard Strauss were preserved for a reason. They honored someone's memory of a truly great artist.

1999 Stamp from Deutsche Post AG
released on the 50th anniversary of the death of Richard Strauss
Source: Wikimedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where every chair is the best seat in the house.

The Boys' Brass Band of Jacksonville, Florida

 The first postcards
were a medium made for tourism.
After arriving at an exotic vacation destination
travelers always felt a need to write to the folks back home.
"Weather is too wet/dry/cold/hot as Hades."
"Place is incredibly beautiful/horrible/dull as dirt."
"Having a wonderful/okay/miserable time."
"Here's a picture of something funny/pretty/unusual that we saw!"

 

 

 

For many far-off places its local street musicians
served as suitable scenic subjects for a vacation postcard.
Musicians like the Italian bagpiper player on an 1898 card,
or the postcard set of Parisian ballad singers from 1901.

And on the streets of Jacksonville, Florida in 1913
it was a brass band of twelve African-American boys.

They may have had their picture taken
for a holiday visitor's postcard
but it's quite possible they were tourists too.

This is a story about a postcard photo puzzle.

 

 

The group of young black musicians stand outside the veranda of a large stuccoed house or hotel. Behind them are a few white children and adults partly hidden in the shade from the porch. It's a typical 12 piece brass band with cornets, slide trombones, alto horns, and tubas and two drummers. The boys' ages range from around 8 to 16. An older man, perhaps 30ish and wearing a bowler hat, stands at the back along with a younger man in cap and bow tie who holds a cornet. The boys are dressed in blousey knee pants, and most have uniform coats trimmed with fancy button braid. All wear either caps or cadet hats. The people on the veranda are smiling but the boys in the band mostly show a serious expression.

 

 

It's a small photo printed on standard postcard stock with a wide border where someone has written a caption in ink.

Scott's Dixie Band  Jacksonville Fla

 

In the upper right in faded ink is Mr & Mrs Scott with a slash directed into the photo. In the upper left corner is a date 1913 written with a ballpoint pen, probably by the dealer I bought it from. The back of the card shows that it is correct as the postmark is from Jacksonville, Fl on February 11, 1913 at 5:30 PM.  The card is addressed to Mr. Frank Longman of Packard St., Ann Arbor, Mich.

 

 

Still on deck
but waiting for
the clouds to
roll by.  Best wishes
to your wife & Mr
& Mrs. Eberbach in
which Mrs Scott joins
Yours  Evart

 

With so many dates, names, and places this postcard doesn't seem like much of a puzzle. Except that the writer gave the boys' group a name, Scott's Dixie Band, which was actually not their real name. To prove that will require some photo detective analysis.   

 

I'll begin with the recipient of the postcard.

 

In the 1910 US Census, Frank C. Longman, age 27, was living with his wife Edythe N. Longman, 28, on Packard Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was the home of Edythe's parents, Edward H. Eberbach, age 61, and his wife, Mattie Eberbach, 60. Mr. Eberbach's occupation was listed as Retail Merchant in Hardware. In the Ann Arbor city directory this proved to be a large firm dealing with brass, copper, and galvanized iron sheet metal work. His son-in-law, Frank Longman, worked as an Attorney-at-law in General Practice.

 

1910 US Census, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ordinarily that might be all the research needed, but postcards like this get saved for a reason so I was curious if there was anything more to connect Frank to this postcard. It turned out that there was. 

 

Football.

 

 

Frank Chandler "Shorty" Longman
(December 7, 1882 – April 4, 1928)
1903 Michigan Wolverines football team photo
 Source: Wikipedia

Frank Chandler "Shorty" Longman was born 7 December 1882 in rural Kalamazoo County, Michigan. In 1903 he entered the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and became a star fullback with the  Wolverines football team for three seasons. Following his graduation in 1906 Longman took up coaching, first at the University of Arkansas, then at the College of Wooster, Ohio where he accomplished the supposedly impossible by defeating Ohio State. In 1909 he became head coach at Notre Dame and in his two seasons there set a winning record which included an 11 to 3 victory by the Fighting Irish over his alma mater, the Michigan Wolverines, which was still led by his former coach, the celebrated Fielding H. Yost. The legendary Notre Dame football star Knute Rockne played as a freshman on Longman's 1910 team. Rockne would go on to coach the Fighting Irish from 1918 to 1930.

 

It seems unlikely that Frank Longman found time to get a law degree while at Notre Dame, so I suspect his occupation recorded in the 1910 census is an error. In later documents, like his 1918 draft card and the 1920 census, under employment he listed paving contractor which in this era probably paid much more than football coaching did. Tragically, Longman died in April 1928 of tuberculosis at the young age of 45.

 

 

 

1913 Ann Arbor, Michigan city directory

The sender of the postcard was a bit more challenging to identify, mainly due to bits of old black album paper stuck on the postcard covered his signature which required careful removal. The reason it was sent to someone in Ann Arbor was because he lived in Ann Arbor too. Evart Henry Scott was born in Ohio in August 1850 and married to Sarah E. Scott. In February 1913, Evart, not yet age 63, ran his own fruit farm in Ann Arbor. His name was associated with a local Ann Arbor agricultural association, which in 1910 may have sent him to Tampa, Florida acting as a representative for Michigan's fruit growers. In the 1913 city directory for Ann Arbor his business is listed as Real Estate, but his occupation in the census was Farmer. Evidently his fruit did alright as his name appeared in reports on civic activities in Ann Arbor and at the University of Michigan.

 

 

Detroit Free Press
3 November 1902

 

 

 

 

 

 

The reason Mr. Scott was sending a postcard to Frank Longman was that Evart was a BIG fan of football. Specifically his hometown team, the Michigan Wolverines.  In November 1902, the year before Frank started his freshman year at the University of Michigan, Evart captured some unexpected fame reported in newspapers around the country from Los Angeles to Boston. 

 

Following an important game with Michigan's rival, the Wisconsin Badgers, Evart was celebrating the Michigan victory at swank Chicago hotel. Challenged or inspired by his companions, Evart suddenly dove into a large Italianate water fountain. After a futile effort to swim in the three-foot deep pool and catch goldfish in his hat, he began to sing "Oh, ain't it great, just simply great. To wipe Wisconsin off the slate."  Pulled from the water by his brother and several friends, he was promptly taken off to bed.

 

 

_ _ _

 

 

 

 

 

With that level of enthusiasm for football, it's no surprise that Evart would have a friendship with a college football star like Frank Longman. I bet after returning to Ann Arbor he even brought back a couple cases of oranges for Frank and his wife. And the story also suggests Evart Scott enjoyed a good joke on himself which I think explains his fanciful caption on the postcard, Scott's Dixie Band. In the context of a traveler writing to a close friend, it's clear he was using an old minstrel show phrase to make a little jest and show friends back home a bit of Florida's peculiar attractions.

 

 

 

My collection has dozens of postcards and photographs of boys' brass bands. Most are from the United States but many come from around the world too. Beginning from the 1870s teaching boys a musical instrument was promoted as a way to focus their attention, keep them pointed toward a positive lifestyle, and give them training at a useful trade—music making. Many communities considered it a valuable social assistance for disadvantaged youth. However for orphaned or abandoned children membership in a band was beneficial as a refuge from hardship and as a pathway to an education and a better life. This was especially true for African-American children in the shameful Jim Crow era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.   

The boys pictured in this small postcard from Jacksonville were clearly not from rich families if they had any family at all. Their deadpan demeanor is, I think, the result of living at a time when American society, particularly in a southern state like Florida, operated under racist rules and oppressive laws that were very different than those applied to the white folk standing behind them. These boys were not allowed to come onto the porch. No one gave them a glass of lemonade or snack from the hotel's kitchen. After their concert, Evart Scott got a souvenir picture of them, but the boys in the band likely never saw a copy of their photo.  They were very aware of that invisible red line that bigotry and discrimination drew between their performance on the pavement and the white folk listening on the shady veranda.

 

It is because of this harsh history and much more that photographs of African-American culture from this period are very rare. Mr. Scott made up a name for the boys' band probably because he never learned what they called themselves, so even with a date and location they remain anonymous. 

 

Or do they?

 

 

 

 

The postcard photo was taken in February 1913. In the following summer of 1914, I believe that a few of these boys were members of a larger band that traveled from Charleston, South Carolina to London, England. A century later I featured their postcard in my story entitled The Jenkins Orphanage Band.

  

 

 

 

This was not a British navy band but an American boys' band from Charleston, South Carolina. They were all inmates, as the census labeled them, of the Jenkins Orphanage. It 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 boys huddled in a boxcar. Hungry and homeless, these small 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 considered 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.

 

 

In 1914 Rev. Jenkins arranged for his orphanage's boys' band, called "The Famous Piccaninny Band", to perform in London at the Anglo-American Exposition. In May 1914 Rev. Jenkins, his wife, and a band of 23 young men and boys booked 3rd class passage to Liverpool and arrived just in time for the exposition's opening on May 14th. The show promised spectacular exhibits about the Grand Canyon, the new Panama Canal, and a "six acre realistic replica of Greater New York City with its hundreds of skyscrapers". There was also the 101 Ranch Wild West Show from Oklahoma and "hordes of other startling novelties" of which the Jenkins Orphanage Band would play a small part. The exposition was expected to run all summer and draw large crowds at its park located in Shepard's Bush. 

 

Unfortunately, a war intervened. At the beginning of August, when Austria mobilized its army against Serbia, which mobilized Russia's military, which set Germany to invade Belgium , which activated the allied forces of France and Britain, the public's attention shifted away from world fairs to warfare. Rev. Jenkins and his family managed to quickly secure a return ticket, but his boys' band was stuck and was unable to get back to Charleston until mid-September. My full story about them is at The Jenkins Orphanage Band so I won't repeat it here.

 

 

 

What's important to this story on the Jacksonville boys' band is that by 1913 the Jenkins Orphanage Band was already a veteran touring act. For many years, mainly during the summer months, the boys band regularly traveled to events at 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 supposedly marched in President Taft's 1909 inauguration parade. The proceeds from their band concerts became a major source of income for the orphanage, so Rev. Jenkins soon hired another band leader for a second band. Eventually there would be as many as four musical groups on tour. They would often stay at the YMCA, the Young Men's Christian Association, like the one pictured above in St. Petersburg, Florida - The Sunshine City which date from the 1920s.

For much of the early 20th century, St. Petersburg was the most popular tourist destination in Florida, and the height of its season was during the wintertime when people from up north, like Michigan, traveled south for the relative warmer climate. Since the Jenkins Orphanage had a connection with Florida, I wondered if I could find any reference to a tour in February 1913.

 

 

Miami FL News
28 February 1913

The Daytona Beach Daily News reported that the Jenkins Orphanage Band was in the city on 13 February 1913. This is only 90 miles south from Jacksonville. Then in the 28 February edition of the Miami News, a society column from the Hotel Halcyon made note that "A band of youngsters from the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, S.C., entertained the guests of the Halcyon for a time last evening, the program consisting of instrumental music, negro melodies and dancing." Mr. and Mrs. Scott are not mentioned in the list of guests, but everyone is identified with their hometown and there are several people from Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. Miami was, of course, the shipping port used for travelers going to Cuba, Puerto Rico, and other tropical places in the Caribbean. What went unmentioned in the report is that the colored boys of the Jenkins Orphanage Band were not allowed to stay at the Hotel Halcyon.

 

 

Indianapolis IN Freeman
30 August 1913

Later that year in August 1913, the The Freeman, an Illustrated Colored Newspaper, published in Indianapolis for a national African-American readership, ran a short notice about a vaudeville trio called the Whitman Sisters. The report mentioned "Prof. Eugene Mikell formerly leader of the Globe Theater orchestra in Jacksonville, Florida and his band of thirty-five orphan boys ... known as (the) Jenkins Orphan Band." This was an exciting connection because Eugene Mikell was once the star musician of the first band organized by Rev. Jenkins.

 

 

1913 Jacksonville FL city directory

The 1913 city directory for Jacksonville, FL lists a "*Eugene F. Mikell (m), musician, h 1218 E Duval". {The asterisk* before his name denotes "colored" and was applied not just to names but to all the businesses, churches, societies, and city parks in Jacksonville.}

 

 

New York Age
30 January 1932

 

 

 

Francis Eugene Mikell, (1880-1932) was a very talented musician who played both violin and cornet. In 1917 he was appointed bandmaster to the 15th New York National Guard and later lead the 369th Infantry Regiment Band during and after World War One. He and his fellow bandleader,  James Reese Europe (1881–1919) are credited with helping to first introduce America's jazz music to Europe through this extraordinary band which was made up of the best black musicians in America. Lt. Eugene Mikell died in 1932 at age 51.

Mikell's background is not yet in Wikipedia, though it deserves to be, as he organized or played in dozens of bands for vaudeville theaters, minstrel shows, schools, and most importantly in the Jenkins Orphanage Band as both a young musician and later as a leader. Since he was living and working in Jacksonville, Florida in 1913 it seems very likely that a traveling unit of Rev. Jenkins' orphan band would stop there to play and maybe collect donations from the nice people of Michigan. 

 

 

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Jenkins Orphanage Band
circa 1930s
Source: The Internet

 

After Rev. Jenkins' death in 1937 his orphanage closed the facility at 20 Franklin Street in Charleston in 1939 and moved to North Charleston where his work continues today as the Jenkins Institute for Children. Recently I discovered a photo taken in the 1930s which shows the band in sharp modern band uniforms. On the left is a pastor, not Rev. Daniel Jenkins but a different man, who looks very like the man in the bowler hat in Mr. Scott's postcard. On the right another man holds a dark banner that reads "Jenkins Orphanage Band representing a Worthy Home for Children". 

 

 

 

Until a day ago I had not noticed that the man in the bowler hat is holding a furled banner which has lettering. Could this be a banner of the Jenkins Orphanage Band?

 

It's all very circumstantial evidence. At this distance in time there is no one alive who was there that day. All we have is Mr. Scott's wiseguy caption, and I think I've proved Evart was making a joke. I won't belabor this story with how many false trails I've followed searching for a black man in Jacksonville named Scott who might have led a boys' brass band. Suffice it to say, there isn't one.

 

Maybe the band's banner was not opened when Mr. Scott first heard the boys play. Maybe it says something else. Maybe I have it wrong and this is another boys' band unconnected to either Rev. Daniel Jenkins or Prof. Eugene Mikell. Maybe it's all just conjecture.

 

 

But then again maybe it's right. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Over the many years Rev. Jenkins that campaigned for his foster children, boys and girls, he developed the talents of thousands of young musicians, both amateur and professional. In 1913 the term "Jazz" or "Jass" was not yet recognized as a musical term. However the music that the Jenkins Orphan Band played was a Charleston synthesis of ragtime, blues, and older African forms that had a strong influence on other centers of African-American music like New Orleans and Chicago. Many scholars of music believe Charleston's Jenkins Orphanage deserves a place as one of the originators of jazz music. Several of its "alumni", like trumpeters William "Cat" Anderson and Jabbo Smith; pianist and singer, Tom Delaney; and guitarist, Freddie Green, became celebrated jazz artists.

In November 1928 Fox Movietone News produced a short sound film of the Jenkins Orphanage Band to play at its movie theaters. The Moving Image Research Collection at the University of South Carolina has restored the film as the Jenkins Orphanage Band - Outtakes . The full 11 minute video has several out-takes of the band repeating one tune. Skip to about 3:07 and the camera moves for some great closeups of the individual musicians. There is even some dancing at the end to demonstrate the origins of the Charleston dance craze. It's not sophisticated or even polished music, just raw youthful energy, but it's still authentic entertainment. It's a band worthy enough to be on a picture postcard to send to the folks back home.

 

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This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where the street fair is on all weekend.

Music for the Fourth

It's the classic setting for countless stories in American folklore and history.
For rural communities it was the center of commerce;
the meeting place for friends, family, and strangers;
and the social hub for all kinds of local events.

 

It was the old country store,
and occasionally it was also a venue
for music concerts like this brass band

 pictured outside a typical general store.
Eleven bandsmen dressed in ill fitting uniforms
stand on a rough dirt road playing
for a small group of people
gathered on the store's entrance porch.

 

 

  

 

 To one side, leaning on the hitching rail,
a few more boys and young men listen to the music.
It's a prosperous looking establishment
with two stories, a lower basement, and brick construction.
 

Fortunately the photographer added a caption
with the store's name and location.

Kenyon Store,
Gilmanton, Wis.

 

 

 

 This house is
our dance
hall in
Gilmanton
only you
cant see
all of it
thereis
where we
have high
old times
once in
a while

 

 

The town of Gilmanton, Wisconsin is in Buffalo County in west central Wisconsin about 50 miles southeast of Minneapolis / St. Paul, Minnesota. Its current population is around 450, but in 1910 there were 834 people counted in the federal census. Mr. Elmer Kenyon, (1870 – 1922), was the proprietor of the store. He also managed a farm, operated a creamery, became associated with banking and telephone businesses, served as postmaster and town clerk, and in 1921 won a seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Sadly he died on March 11, 1922 while still in office following an appendicitis operation. I think the man dressed in black vest and white shirt standing left behind the band has the look of a store keeper, so he may be Elmer Kenyon.

 

The postcard was addressed to Miss Mary Yost of Alma, Wisconsin, the county seat about 19 miles southwest of Gilmanton. Alma is situated on the upper Mississippi River which separates Minnesota and Wisconsin. In 1910 it had a population of  1,011 though now it has diminished to about 720 citizens.

 

 

Hello there. well how
you was enyhow ment
to send you a postal long
ago but never get so far
did you have a good time at
Tell. tell you I had a dandy
time was buming all day
news years & all night.
Say the picture on the other
side of this card is our bigest
store in Gilmanton. ans soon  In care of M. Leanhardy.
Your lovingly  Hattie

 

The postmark date is 8 January 1909 from Mondovi, a larger town about 9 miles north of Gilmanton. Tell is the name of an unincorporated community about halfway between Gilmanton and Alma.The writer, Hattie, is describing celebrations for the new year but the photo of the Kenyon Store is clearly not a picture of wintertime in Wisconsin. In fact there is a very good clue that helps identify the date o the photo. The flag hanging above the band and small group of townspeople is neatly caught by a breeze to reveal all of the stars on the banner. There are 46. 

 

 

 

46 Star Flag of the United States (1908–1912)

 

The 46 star flag of the United States was a new version that replaced the 45 star flag (1896–1908) to mark the entry of the new state of Oklahoma on July 4th, 1908. Even people in Wisconsin thought this was something worth celebrating.

A lot has changed in 114 years, but sometimes solid buildings survive. Though I am not 100% certain, when you look up Gilmanton on Google Maps the first image offered is a building that looks like the  21st century descendant of the Kenyon Store. The porch is gone, the side and back yard are filled in, and the brick is covered in siding, but the general dimensions and windows line up and the front roof soffit is identical. I think it's the same building.

 

 

 

 It's now called LeeBo's Bar & Grill.
and gets pretty good reviews
for its pizza and burgers.
I wonder if it ever has a brass band
play on the 4th of July?

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where there's an "All you can eat"
special on fish this weekend.