Going to the Theatre in Omaha

A theatre is all about illusion.

Even from outside at night
its bright lights attract our curiosity
and invite us in to see something unique,
something stimulating, something amusing.
It might be in Paris or London or New York,
or even in Omaha, Nebraska,

but the promise is the same.
Come and be entertained.

This postcard of the
Empress Theatre by Night, Omaha, Neb
was addressed to
 Miss Ruth L. Phillips of Alliance, Nebraska,
 c/o  St. Agnes Academy.
The writer flipped her message and,
as is still the habit in modern times, ran out of space on the card.

Omaha, Mar 13

                                                             My Dear Ruth:-

                                                             How are you.  I am well

                                                             & hope you are the same

                                                             Mrs. A, Grandma, & Gusta

                                                       & little Florence &

                                                       I all went to the Empress

                                                       yesterday afternoon it

                                                       was real good, & to

                                                       day Grandma & I &

                                                       Mrs. Anderson are going

                                                       to the matinee at Brandies (sic)

                                                       to see Eva Tanguay.

                                                       They want me to come

                                                       after Gusta now

                                                       stay so I will go up

                                                       there for Papa may come

                                                       anytime so address

                                                       my letter to Gusta's

                                                       2420 Hamilton St.

                                                       love  your Mama

Omaha NE Daily Bee
8 March 1914

Mrs. Phillips and her little group first went to the Empress Theatre for it's vaudeville variety show. It was located at 15th Street and Douglas Street in Omaha, Nebraska. On the week they were there the show opened with the Metropole Four, classy harmony singers, followed by the Anker Brothers, a pair of gymnastic sailors; Wolf and Zadella, "Odd Antics"; the Grace and Rose Ayres Trio, novelty roller skaters; and "the best of photoplays, always first run."  There were four shows daily at 2:00, 3:, 7;30 and 9:00. Admission was 10¢, reserved seats, 10¢ extra. 

In March 1914 the Empress Theatre had been in business for only fourteen months, having opened in January 1913. The management boasted that its building's construction of reinforced concrete, steel, and brick with 17 exits made it absolutely fireproof. The  theater was also equipped with an elevator that could take patrons from the ground floor to the mezzanine and balcony floors. Tickets for all 1,492 seats were the same price, though for popular shows getting reserved seats was probably worth the extra premium. 

There was a "first class orchestra" that played "high grade music" and accompanied the "pictures", i.e. silent movies, as well as the vaudeville acts. The orchestra was augmented with a "Cathedral organ" too. During weekdays shows were continuous from noon until 11 at night, so patrons could enter at any time. The Empress management claimed, "Nothing but the cleanest of acts will be presented They will be of high quality and please the most fastidious. We guarantee the moral tone of our entertainment and cater especially to ladies and children."  

Just a month earlier in February 1914, the theater opened the Empress Gardens Cafe & Delicatessen located in an immense two-level space beneath the theatre ground floor. On the menu were "oysters, broiled and boiled lobster, Welsh rarebits, broiled spring chicken, macaroni Au Gratin, spaghetti Italienne, salads, sandwiches, cold meat" and "complete soda fountain service". A buffet luncheon cost 25¢. a Table d'Hote dinner was 50¢.

_ _ _

Omaha NE Daily Bee
15 February 1914

Omaha NE Daily News
8 March 1914

No doubt Mrs. Phillips and her company  heard about a thrilling mishap at the Empress that occurred just a week before. During an evening performance Peter Taylor, a lion tamer, was injured by one of his eight lions which suddenly leaped at him just as he was leaving the cage, slamming the door with such force that the man was nearly knocked unconscious. Evidently Taylor was accustomed to the risk and he returned the following afternoon, though he did not venture so close to his animals.  

_ _ _

Omaha is situated on the western side of the Missouri River which separates Nebraska from Iowa. In 1910 it was a sizable city with a population of 124,096 citizens. The Empress Theatre on Douglas St. was just two blocks away from a notorious area of the city called the "Sporting District" where various establishments offering gambling, drinking and prostitution were controlled by a racketeer and political boss named Tom Dennison. In 1910 it was estimated that this red-light district had over 100 "houses of questionable character" and by 1918 at least 1,600 prostitutes working there. 

Opened in 1905 the Gayety Theatre, "Omaha's Fun Center", was in this district and though it originally presented "advanced vaudeville" when it was first known as the Burwood Theatre, by 1914 it was booking mainly burlesque acts, "nudge nudge, know what I mean?" In the Gayety's ad under the Empress' notice, Gertrude Hayes and her four dancing Brick Tops was probably an unsuitable entertainment for refined women like Mrs. Phillips. 

Instead she planned to see something more outrageous at the Brandeis. 

Omaha NE Daily Bee
8 March 1914

The Brandeis Theater was a block away from the Empress at 17th Street and Douglas Street. It was part of a large development in Omaha made by the Brandeis Department Store. Founded in Omaha by Jonas L. Brandeis in 1881, his company eventually operated fifteen chain stores in Nebraska. The theater was just a small addition to its nearby headquarters building. With 1,500 seats and a very large stage, the Brandeis catered to more sophisticated acts.  

Patrons at the previous week's shows saw  Montgomery and Stone in the musical fantasy The Lady of the Slipper, a three-act operetta with music by Victor Herbert. This show was based on the fairytale of Cinderella  and had premiered on Broadway on 28 October 1912 closing after 232 performances on 17 May 1913. It starred two comic actors, David C. Montgomery (1870–1917) and Fred A. Stone (1873–1959) who had a partnership that lasted 22 years performing in minstrel shows, vaudeville, musicals and operettas. Their most famous work was in a 1902 production of The Wizard of Oz where Montgomery played the Tin Man and Stone was Scarecrow.

It was followed by a play entitled Kismet, an Arabian Night by Edward Knoblauch and starring Otis Skinner.  This three-act play first opened in London in April 1911 and ran for 330 performances. Like many theatrical productions that played well in London this show was staged in New York for later that year. It opened on Christmas Day 1911 with the American actor, Otis Skinner (1858–1942) as Hajj the beggar. Skinner had such success with this role that he played it many times on stage and made both a silent film in 1920 and a sound movie in 1930.    

Meanwhile for those people who liked classical music there was a recital by the young Ukrainian violin virtuoso, Mischa Elman (1891–1967).  Those tickets were 50¢ to $2.00.  Elman was a child prodigy and began his concert career at a young age. He  is considered one of the great masters of the violin. 

But Mrs. Phillips was looking forward to seeing "the greatest drawing card known to the amusement world", the "dynamic, cyclonic" Eva Tanguay and her own "volcanic vaudeville". Ticket prices for her shows, matinees and evenings, ranged from 25¢, to 50¢, 75¢, $1.00, and $1.50.

_ _ _

Fred A. Stone as Scarecrow
and David C. Montgomery as the Tin Woodman
in the 1902 stage extravaganza The Wizard of Oz
Source: Wikipedia

Elsie Janis as Cinderella
with David C. Montgomery (left) as Punks and Fred A. Stone (right) as Spooks,
in Victor Herbert’s musical play, The Lady of the Slipper,
produced at the Globe Theatre, New York, 28 October 1912
Source: Wikipedia

1915 portrait of Mischa Elman (1891–1967)
Source: Wikipedia

Despite what this postcard's caption says, the Brandeis Theatre was on the corner of Douglas and Seventeenth Streets in Omaha. In this illustration of the imposing building at night it seems to outshine the moon. The theatre was across the street from the Brandeis department store and an underground tunnel below the street connected the two buildings. The theatre only occupied a part of the building, the ground floor and other floors offered retail and office space. It opened on 3 March 1910 as a theater for large stage productions. In 1933 it was taken over by the RKO corporation and converted into a cinema for motion pictures. It closed in April 1959 and was demolished by the end of that year.

This postcard was has no postmark but is addressed to
Miss Mai Marsh of Altoona, Pennsylvania.
The reference to the theatre in the message
leads me to believe it was written in 1910.

                                                 This Theatre was opened

                                                        March 3rd.  It is not so very

                                                        large but the furnishings

                                                        are costly & elegant –its

                                                        the finest in this part of the

                                                        country.

J R McFaren
1120 No 17th
Omaha

Omaha NE Daily News
8 March 1914

Considering that its population in 1914 was only around 150,000 residents, Omaha had an astonishing number of newspapers, some publishing both a morning and evening edition. There was the Omaha Daily News; the Omaha Daily Bee; the Omaha World Herald; the Omaha Excelsior; the Bohemian Osveta Americka; the Danish Danske Pioneer; the Swedish Omaha Posten; and the German Tägliche Omaha Tribüne, just to name a few. Entertainment news sold newspapers so reports on Omaha's theaters often included splendid montages of photos of the stars like this example from the 8 March 1914 edition of the Omaha Daily News. Wearing a huge feathered hat Eva Tanguay is on the left; Otis Skinner in his costume for Kismet is on the right; a closeup of Gertrude Hayes is squeezed in between them; and at the lower center is Mae Phelps, the ingénue in a vaudeville skit at the Orpheum theatre. 

Otis Skinner as Hajj in Kismet, 1912
Source: Library of Congress

Otis Skinner (1858–1942) was one of the great American stage actors of his era, appearing in Shakespearean roles like Shylock, Hamlet, Richard III and Romeo as well as playing numerous dramatic and comic roles in American plays. However it was his portrayal of Hajj the beggar in Kismet that made brought him the most acclaim. Otis Skinner appeared in a silent film version of Kismet in 1920, available on YouTube, where from the opening scene he commands attention to the story. In many ways this 1911 play became America's first introduction to Islamic culture. I think it is responsible for many of the romantic cliches of the Middle East which still persist in the 21st century.

Eva Tanguay (1878–1947)
in The Wild Girl, 1919
Source: The Internet

In 1914, Eva Tanguay (1878–1947) was a theatrical superstar like no other of her era. This Canadian singer with ginger hair became "The Queen of Vaudeville" attaining a level of popularity that made her one of the best known and highest paid entertainers in the 1900s. Born in Quebec but raised in Holyoke, Massachusetts, Eva began her stage career as a child actor in a touring production of Frances Hodgson Burnett's popular novel Little Lord Fauntleroy. Though her voice was of only average quality, it was her enthusiastic over-the-top style that caught audiences' attention. She developed a solo act that used brash suggestive songs that became great hits in this age when American music was evolving from sentimental romance to ragtime and eventually jazz.

Her celebrated song titles included "It's All Been Done Before but Not the Way I Do It", "I Want Someone to Go Wild with Me", "Go as Far as You Like", "That's Why They Call Me Tabasco", and her signature song from 1904, "I Don't Care". Eva Tanguay appeared as the headliner in Ziegfeld Follies and at the height of her career was earning $3,500 a week ($109,925 in 2022 dollars).  

Omaha NE World Herald
12 March 1914

As the result of business disputes with theater agencies, Tanguay set up her own company which is what she brought to Omaha. She took out a half-page advert for her variety show which had nine "Big Acts" which included comic dancer Johnny Ford who had recently become her husband in 1913. (The marriage did not last as they divorced in 1917.) 

In this show Eva came out three times singing and dancing in "The Waltz", a "Tango a-la-Tanguay" and, most audacious, an  interpretation of "Salome". This biblical character was made famous, or notorious, in Oscar Wilde's play and Richard Strauss's 1905 opera of the same name. I wrote about Strauss's Salome in my story from April 2022, Souvenirs of a Great Artist - Richard Strauss. Since then, Salome's infamous "Dance of the Seven Veils"  had been imitated by many burlesque dancers, though presumably never with Strauss' music. Tanguay's version was perhaps not as revealing as some, but still more titillating than anything the people of Omaha had seen in Otis Skinner's Kismet.

Eva Tanguay (1878–1947)
as Salome, 1913
Source: New York Public Library

A reviewer in the Omaha World-Herald wrote of Tanguay's show:
   "It was Eva's own particular vaudeville company, and it had a dash of her ginger vim all through it.  But even Johnny Ford couldn't turn out the super-abundance of energy—nervous, physical and every other kind—that Eva Tanguay managed to put over the footlights.  Age may have made Eva slightly less of a tireless jumping-jack, but the accent is on the "slightly", it isn't enough to be noticed.  She dance, she kicks, she sings, she shouts, she waves her arms and her feet and all the rest of her with a riotous abandon that is her own specialty, and, apparently, there is no need of a copyright, for none are able to quite duplicate it. 
   "'It's all been done before, but not as I'll do it, and before I'm done you'll agree with me."  So she sang in her opening number, and so it proved.  For instance, she did "Salome." Shades of Mary Garden!  It was a "Salome" all right, but it was more Eva Tanguay than anything elece.  Also, she tangoed.  The steps were the steps of the tango, but the ginger was Eva Tanguay's own, and none other's.
   "...Just what makes her funny is an unanswered question; it's too much of a conglomerate combination to enable exact analysis.  It is partly her smile, partly the toss of her head, partly the kick of her feet, partly her waving arms, partly her supple twisting body, but somewhere, back of it all, there is a suspicion that the actress really enjoys being foolish.  She doesn't take herself too seriously, and therefore it comes natural that other should do likewise."   

[Mary Garden (1874–1967) was a Scottish-American opera singer who performed Richard Strauss's Salome in Paris in its first French translation and sang it again in New York in 1909. During that performance she kissed the severed head of John the Baptist with such lust that it shocked the audience even more than her Dance of the Seven Veils which she performed in a bodystocking.]

Omaha NE Daily News
13 March 1914

The review in the Omaha Daily News came with a cartoon illustrating Eva Tanguay dancing and singing at the Brandeis Theatre along with her husband Johnny Ford (and another figure I'll get to in a minute.) The reviewer in this paper was a bit more critical.

   "If you don't like the Eva Tanguay brand of entertainment Eva doesn't care, for she has salted down a cool half million American dollars just to keep away the prowling wolf, and people are willing to pay more yearly to see her than they do to the chief executive of the country for holding down his job.
   "Miss Tanguay is not afraid of egotism, either.  The greater part of her songs consists in assuring you she is not as crazy as she appears to be, that she may have imitators, but they don' count, not to mention modest reference to the half million.  Miss Tanguay admits that her singing isn't musical, to which even her ardent admirers must agree.
   "But what matters it if she is in danger of rupturing a throat vessel or if she prances about the stage like the victim of the St. Vitus' dance? "there is method in my madness," sings Eva, and it all brings rapturous applause from audiences, Omaha providing its share on Thursday.
   "Outside of all idiosyncrasies, Miss Tanguay is plump and pretty, with a childlike and engaging smile.  She must also have the courage of her convictions, for she recently left the vaudeville stage because Ethel Barrymore was receiving a salary equal to hers, and the present tour under her own auspices is the result.
   "In addition to songs and a tango dance, Miss Tanguay does a  "Salome" scene with the head of John the Baptist that is as energetic as the rest of her work." 

[Ethel Barrymore (1879–1959) was an American actress and a member of the Barrymore family of actors. She starred in stage, screen and radio productions in a career that spanned six decades. Ethel Barrymore was regarded as "The First Lady of the American Theatre"]

In another report of Eva Tanguay's "interpretation" of Salome, the reviewer revealed that there was a surprise, perhaps a direct reference to Mary Garden's performance in the opera, where the severed head of John the Baptist came alive, no doubt terrifying and hilarious at the same time.  

Eva tried acting in silent films, appearing in two short films, first in 1916 and then 1917, but without sound the movies could not convey her wild and irrepressible energy. In the Wall Street crash of 1929, she lost a fortune, around $2,000,000 and retired from show business shortly after that. She became ill and lost her sight to cataracts. Eva Tanguay died in Hollywood on January 11, 1947, aged 68. 

Eva may not be remembered now a century later, but readers can probably recognize several female entertainers of more recent time whose personal style resembles Eva Tanguay's. We take it for granted that some stage and screen artists are eccentric, wild and crazy people, but Eva was one of the first entertainers who used her natural excitement to became a household name in show business. 

And surely Mrs. Phillips came away with a story, if not a postcard too, to tell her family of that time she saw Eva Tanguay at the Brandeis Theatre in Omaha.

In 1922 Eva Tanguay made the only recording in her career
and it was of her hit song, "I Don't Care." 
Here is a YouTube video of the recording with pictures of Eva.

* * *

At the top of the Omaha Daily News cartoon is a sketch of one of the other cast members of Eva Tanguay's show. It shows a man blowing into a long horn with the caption: "M Gouget is certainly not wind broken." This attracted my attention because I have several French postcards of two instrumentalists, a husband and wife duo, that I featured in a story in September 2020 entitled, Les Gougets - The Fantastic Horn Duo. 

After searching for more reports on Eva Tanguay and the Gougets, I found enough references to them as a European act that I'm now convinced these unusual musical performers came to America in 1913-14 and joined Eva on her tour. Monsieur and Madam Gouget played a number of brass instruments, including several stretched out horns like the one in the sketch. M. Gouget was also adept at playing two trumpets or hunting horns simultaneously and could even play a long horn balanced vertically on his lips. This chance discovery now makes me wonder if in August 1914 they stayed in America or returned to France at the onset of the Great War.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where the best stories are told after it's dark.

The Racket

 

Long before the internet,
before television, movies,
radio, and record players,
music required real musicians to play it live.
It was an artform intended to be shared with people.
So if you heard the sound of a band
it attracted your attention
because you knew
something special was happening

 

 

The Wellsville band,  Decoration Day.

 

 

 

 This postcard was postmarked from Wellsville, Kansas on August 4, 1908

(the stamp imprint was smudged and it looks like 1998)

and addressed to:

 

Mr. & Mrs. Ed McGill

Erie L.

Pa.

No. 15 Hickory St.

 Vacation days are

over,  back in harness
temp. 100° in shade
W. L. Upham 

Wellsville KS Globe
29 May 1908

The writer with the neat penmanship hand was Mr. W. L. Upham, the manager of The Racket, a dry goods store on Main St. in Wellsville, Kansas, a small town in Franklin County, Kansas, about 45 miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Upham advertised regularly in the Wellsville Globe, a weekly newspaper, offering stylish clothing for men and boys with custom tailoring too. No doubt it was Mr. Upham who took this cockeyed, slightly fuzzy photo, and understandably he tried to focus his camera more on the name of his store than on the bandsmen. 

His full name was Wilbur Lincoln Upsham and he was born in Pennsylvania in 1860. His store was one of a small chain of haberdasheries owned by Mr. F. J. Miller that were scattered in towns around the county. Next to it was Mr. W. R. Holman's meat market, and next to it was Mr. A. P. Van Meter's grocery. Wellsville's current population is around 1,953 but in 1910 it only had 648 residents. But since it was on a railway line connecting big cities north, south, east, and west, The Racket catered to a lot of traveling businessmen passing through Wellsville. 

In 1908, Decoration Day, also known as Memorial Day, was observed on May 30th. It was a time Americans traditionally honored and remembered those who had died while serving in the U.S. military. In 1908 this meant primarily men who had fought in the terrible Civil War of 1861–1865.

Wellsville KS Globe
29 May 1908

The band pictured on the postcard is preparing to lead a procession to Wellsville's cemetery where a ceremony was scheduled for that afternoon. The Globe reported on the participants in the event which included an outpost of the Grand Army of the Republic, the veterans organization for former soldiers and sailors of the Union Army, who would help with decorating the graves of  their comrades in arms. A pastor from Ottawa, the seat of Franklin County, would deliver the address and another minister from Baldwin, a nearby town, would speak on behalf of the ladies' circle. It was now 43 years after the end of the war and there were now fewer veterans and more widows than in previous years. 

Wellsville KS Globe
12 June 1908

The following week the Globe reported on how well the citizens of Wellsville conducted themselves that day. Practically every business was closed until the end of the service. Many stores and residences were decorated with patriotic colors. "The procession to the grounds was the largest that had followed the veterans for years. The boys of the Midcontinent band took part in both the morning and afternoon exercises, a feature that added to the interest of the day's program.  The Globe is glad to be able to say thar the day was fittingly observed here and that there were no amusements or desecrations of the day permitted, or even planned."



In May 1915, the editor of the Wellsville Globe, Mr. Asa F. Converse, took advantage of his in-house writing talent by publishing a poem that his wife, May Frink Converse wrote for Decoration Day. Though it is written in a sentimental style rarely seen in our century, I think it still conveys the way many people feel about preserving the memory of our ancestors and commemorating their sacrifice for our country.

Decoration Day.

                My grandpa came to live with us, right after grandma died;
                He grew to be so fond of me—called me his pet and pride,
                While I though more of him than I did anybody else—
                It seemed to me that no one was as nice as Grandpa Belts.
                He made all sorts of things for me, a wagon and a sled,
                And a hobby-horse whose mane and tail he took from our old Ned;
                A jumping-jack, and whistles that make a funny sound,
                And the cutest little windmill that goes around and round.
                He'd tell me lots of stories, 'bout when he was a boy,
                And how much fun he used to have with his big brother Roy;
                And how, when he was just sixteen, they went away to war,—
                To help save their country, was what they fighted for.
                They had all sorts of 'speriences, and then, one dreadful night,
                His brother Roy was shot and killed, beside him in a fight,
                And he was put in prison, 'till at last the war was done'
                And North and South united, and the nation kept as one.
                So Grandpa said that I must love my country and its flag,
                And never, never in the dust to let its colors drag.
                But Decoration Day I liked the very best of all;
                He'd let me march along with him beside the soldiers tall,
                And we would carry wreathes of flowers to decorate each grave
                Where sleep the soldiers who had helped their country dear to save;
                The band would play, the flags would wave, and everything be grand;
                And then, when all was over, we'd come home hand in hand.
                It's Decoration Day again—I just can't help but cry,
                For somehow I had never thought, my own grandpa would die.

                                                                                    —May Frink Converse

Wellsville, Kansas, Main Street c.2020
Source: The Internet

Today the buildings seen in Mr. Upham's photo are still standing, but the businesses have changed. The A. P. Van Meter grocery is now a wedding and event venue. Mr. Holman's meat market has been, until recently, Smokey's BBQ, but since covid time it has closed and not reopened. And The Racket is now a tax and accounting firm.

 

 

 

 

 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday
where there's always service with a smile.

A Band Over Here and Over There

 

Their names may be unknown
but their musical instruments can say a lot
about each man's personality.
Drummers, for instance, define a band's tempo.
It fosters relentless determination
and persistence to keep the beat tight.  

On the other hand, a double-bell euphonium
takes a lot of practice to master.
It has such an imposing sound
that it encourages the show-off,
the soloist with confidence
to play the biggest melodies. 

And then there is the saxophone,

an instrument that can snarl and bark

like a surprised Rottweiler.
They tend to run in noisy packs
with a brash enthusiasm for notes
no one else can hear.
  

And finally there is the trombone,
the tenor voice in a band's chorus of instruments.
Never on the top line, they're happiest as accompanists.
It cultivates steadfast loyalty and 
dedicated reliability. 
 

Today I present a photograph
of an unknown African-American band
from some undetermined location. 

Yet there is still a story hidden in this picture.

This band of 18 African-American musicians and its director stand on a dirt street and rough sidewalk along a tall stone wall. The photograph is a large print about 6" x 9½" mounted on 10" x 14" cardstock that is now cracked and broken. There are some cracks in the photo too which I've fixed digitally as well as correcting the contrast. Written just below the musician on the right is "Wallace Photo" but there is no location nor any marks on the back.

Most of the men wear a fancy uniform in a medium color fabric, perhaps red or green, with a bright contrasting wide piping in white or yellow. Two men, the band's director on the left and the double-bell euphonium player on the right, are in darker more traditional band uniforms. And in the back row just behind the bass drummer is a trombonist dressed in a U. S. Army fatigue uniform of World War One, complete with an overseas cap and puttee legging wraps. He looks directly into the lens and I judge his age as late twenties, maybe early thirties. 

Since all the men have lyres on their instruments to hold their music folders, I think they have just finished marching in a parade. Or maybe they are about to head out. In any case they have a nice complement for a wind band with 4 saxophones, three altos and one tenor; two clarinets; a helicon; a double-bell euphonium, a soloist brass instrument; two trombones; a mellophone; two trumpets and one, maybe two, cornets; and two drummers, a field drum and a bass drum. 

But it is the trombonist soldier that draws our attention. Unfortunately because of his position we can't see any collar insignia or shoulder patch on his tunic. But there is a large medal pinned to his left pocket. Zooming in with high contrast it looks like a vaguely five point star shape attached to a tricolor ribbon and bar.

I had high hopes that this might be a rare medal for distinguished valor in combat. But alas, I think it is far more common and not even issued  by the United States military command. 

In a hunt for similar shaped American service medals listed on eBay, I found quite a few that matched. They were commemorative medals for "patriotic" military service in the 1917-1918 World War issued by local county governments to veterans. The ones pictured here, going clockwise from top left, are from Sewickley, Pennsylvania; Lancaster, New York; Carnegie, Pennsylvania; and Jamestown, Rhode Island. The backs have a place for a soldier's name but most I found were unmarked. Clearly they were created by the same manufacturer varied by a simple change of the eagle clutching either a shield or a state seal. Other varieties I found used the same red, white, and blue ribbons but with different shape medallions. Sadly, for many veterans this medal was all they received in acknowledgement of their military service. Soldiers and sailors got no pension from active duty in the war. The so-called "Soldiers Bonus" promised by politicians before the war became a political football that was never fully implemented until 1933.  

The trombonist soldier is surely a recent veteran, one of 380,000 African-Americans who served in the U.S. Army during World War I, according to the National Archives. Of those Black soldiers over 200,000 were sent to Europe, though most were assigned to labor and stevedore battalions that constructed roads, bridges, and trenches in support of the American Expeditionary Force.

The photographer's name, Wallace, is the only clue as to the location of this photo. When I searched newspaper archives for "Wallace Photo" within a timeframe of 1919-1925, I got several possibilities but the most numerous matches were for a "Wallace Photo" that had photos printed in newspapers from Evansville, Indiana. I couldn't find a direct match of this photo, but there was a Wallace & Son photography studio in Evansville at 618½ Main St. 

The next question was, "How large was the African-American community in Evansville?" Apparently large enough to celebrate Emancipation Day. 

Evansville IN Courier
21 September 1921 

In America the celebration of the emancipation of slavery by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 was never a consistent date. Sometimes called Juneteenth, the day June 19th was made a federal holiday in 2021, but for decades it was observed at different times in different parts of the country. In Evansville, a city in southern Indiana on the Ohio river across from Kentucky, the Black folk there chose to commemorate September 22, the date in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln first announced that his Emancipation Proclamation would start on January 1, 1863, giving freedom to enslaved people in all of the rebellious parts of Southern states of the Confederacy including Texas.

In Evansville in 1921 it was still an important occasion and between 2,000 and 3,000 people were expected to attend from around the region. It would begin with a big parade with numerous groups representing the African-American community including the "Evansville colored band" and the band from Frederick Douglass high school. The marchers would finish at Bosse Field, a new public baseball and recreational park. There would be refreshments sold on the grounds and a baseball game between the "colored teams" from Boonville and Evansville. There would also be singing through the day as well as public speakers from both Indiana and Kentucky. Another celebration was to be held at Barnett's grove under the auspices of the G. A. R. post [Grand Army of the Republic, a Union army veteran group] and the "World War Veterans and the War Mothers." Among the speakers was Lieut. V. Young of Frederick Douglass High School. 

Was my photograph a picture of the Evansville "colored band"? Could the trombonist soldier be Lieut. Young? I really can't say. It's only speculation based on circumstance and coincidence.

But look at the stone wall behind the band. Those are not square quarried rocks but mostly round stones, the kind created by tumbling in a strong river. Like the Ohio River. I may be completely wrong and these musicians may be standing somewhere very far from Evansville, but I think they understood why Emancipation Day was a day to remember. I think they knew that one musician was entitled to proudly wear the uniform he wore in service to his country. And I think they all knew about the contributions made by one regiment in particular. 

The 369th Infantry Regiment, commonly referred to as the Harlem Hellfighters.

Soldiers of the 369th U. S. Infantry Regt. (15th N.Y.), 
awarded the French Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action, 1919.
L to R, front row: Pvt. Ed Williams, Herbert Taylor, Pvt. Leon Fraitor, Pvt. Ralph Hawkins.
back row: Sgt. H. D. Prinas, Sgt. Dan Storms, Pvt. Joe Williams, Pvt. Alfred Hanley, Cpl. T. W. Taylor
Source: Wikipedia

This unit, originally formed as the 15th New York National Guard Regiment and then renamed the 369th Infantry Regt., was one of two segregated African-American regiments, along with the 370th Infantry, that served with the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. Though trained for combat at Camp Wadsworth in Spartanburg, South Carolina, when the 369th arrived in France in early January 1918 it was not sent to the front lines but assigned to labor duty. 

The commander of the AEF, General Pershing, was under great pressure to send American troops to supplement British and French forces. So he relented and moved the 369th regiment to the French 15th Division which was made up of Senegalese troops from France's African colony. The Black American soldiers were surprised that French commanders and soldiers treated them with fairness and without the prejudice and bigotry they experienced from white American officers and soldiers. 

The 369th earned the name Harlem Hellfighters because during its time on the front lines it set a record of 191 continuous days under fire. It fought in several major battles and suffered 1,500 casualties, the highest of any U.S. regiment. In recognition for valor and gallantry in action many of its soldiers were awarded the Croix de Guerre medal, France's highest honor. In the photo above you can see the medal pinned on the tunics of eight soldiers of the 369th. 

When the war ended in November 1918, the 369th Infantry Regiment was the first New York unit to return to the United States. So on 17 February 1919 when the troops of the 369th marched up Fifth Avenue from the Washington Square Park Arch to their armory in Harlem, they were led by their famous 369th infantry band. A few months later the Hellfighters band played a concert in Evansville, Indiana.

Evansville IN Courier
10 April 1919

In April 1919 the 369th band was arguably the most well known military band in America, if not the world. Under the leadership of its talented director, Lieut. James Reese Europe, the band amazed the people of France with its syncopated style and loose ragtime beat. The band had not only the best Black musicians from America, but also bandsmen from Puerto Rica, Cuba, and other Caribbean islands. The band's music, arranged by James Europe and other members of the band, introduced France to African-American musical culture that was exciting and unlike traditional European military music. When he returned to America, James Europe said, "I have come from France more firmly convinced than ever that Negros should write Negro music. We have our own racial feeling and if we try to copy whites we will make bad copies ... We won France by playing music which was ours and not a pale imitation of others, and if we are to develop in America we must develop along our own lines."

Evansville IN Courier
18 April 1919

The following week the Evansville Courier & Press ran a review of the 369th band's concert. It's so good that I include it here. Bear in mind that the word "Jazz" was not yet a common musical term recognized by the general public. There are also racial words that would not be used today. 

Jim Europe's Band

A Melodious Crew

______________

Colored Musicians in Highly Colored Music
Entertain Large-Sized Audiences

______________

    It won't be "Alexander's Rag Time Band" anymore—for when one wants to speak of a colored band it will be "Europe's Jazzy Band."  Lieut. Jim Europe brought his band, the band of the 369th U. S. infantry to Evansville yesterday and at the Coliseum played to two audiences that voted Jim's band "Some Band."

    A large-sized audience was on hand for the evening concert and a good sized one at the matinee performance.  No band or musical organization has ever played to an Evansville audience in a more delightful and entertaining way. The success of this organization is in their manner and make up of programs.  Europe knows how to arrange a program to suit every taste and one that makes the enjoyment the more pleasing by the snap and generosity of their offerings.  The applause but fairly gets started, following a rendition of a classical or popular selection, when Jim turns, takes one modest bow, whirls about and starts the players into some syncopated jazz number that sets every pair of feet in the audience moving.  Then right into the next number.

    Europe has a splendid style of directing and his every movement brings forth the desired results.  The aggregation of colored musicians is well assembled, around sixty men with the proper blending of instruments that create music that satisfies.  The brasses are particularly good, with a sufficient array of reeds and with two cellos and bass violins and double traps that lend to the melody.

Play Local Man's Piece.

    Towards the close of the evening program Lieut. Europe had his band play a new fox trot "Zanzibar" written by John Hall Woos of The Courier editorial staff.  Europe took the time between the matinee and evening performance to arrange the number for his band and it proved a real cat dry piece of peppy, oriental flavor.  Mrs. Woods is writing the words for the piece which will shortly be placed on the market.

    Not alone has Europe assembled a fine band but he has added specialty numbers that help to make his entertainment the more of a success.  Lieut. [Noble] Sissle with a fine tenor voice was a riot.  His singing of "On Patrol In No Man's Land" written by Europe and himself was a revelation, a descriptive number of the men over there going into No Man's Land.  The sextette of southern singers in typical darkey numbers was a big hit as was also the various pieces in which the clarinet, trombone, saxaphone (sic) and other pieces were featured.  Creighton Thompson sang songs like unto Al Jolson and took his audience by storm.  A cello and violin number "Negro Spirituals" was splendid.  The two diminutive snare drummers drummed a bombardment that was immense.  Al Johns at the piano offered a specialty and Sergt. Smith with a sweet-toned cornet was a favorite. 

    Europe piled harmony upon harmony, jazzed classical numbers as well as playing them straight, included several of his own compositions and by their playing demonstrated how they kept the doughboys in France inspired and entertained while the band was over there for eighteen months.

Lt. James Reese Europe (left)
and the 369th U. S. Infantry Regiment Band
Source: Wikipedia

Here is "On Patrol In No Man's Land" by James Reese Europe
as recorded for Pathé Frères Phonograph Co.
by the 369th Infantry "Hell Fighters" Band 
with vocalist Lieut. Noble Sissle.

Just three weeks after the 369th band played in Evansville on 17 April 1919, they were in Boston for a set of concerts at Boston's Mechanics Hall. During an intermission at a concert on 9 May 1919, Lieut. Europe took two of his drummers aside to reprimand them for their unprofessional behavior during the performance. An argument broke out and one man, Herbert Wright, became very angry, threw down his drumsticks, and attacked Europe with a penknife, stabbing him in the neck. Though at first the wound seemed superficial he was taken to hospital where doctors were unable to stop the bleeding. James Reese Europe, one of the leading talents of American music in the early 20th century, died at age 38, a victim of one of his own musicians. The recording of "On Patrol In No Man's Land" was made the day before he was killed. Presumably Europe's attacker was playing that day too.

There is no connection between my photograph of an unknown African-American band and Lieut. James Reese Europe and his famous 369th Infantry band, or for that matter, the "colored bands" of Evansville, Indiana. But there is, I think, a shared history of how Black musicians shaped American musical culture in this era. World War One was terribly destructive and its outcome overturned century old institutions and redrew national boundaries around the world. But it was Black American musicians who introduced Europeans, exhausted from years of horrific warfare, to snappy music with shifted rhythms, brassy chords, and ragged drum beats. Soon the word "Jazz" would be understood in every language and the world of music would never be the same.

I finish with a short film of Lt. James Reese Europe
and his 369th U. S. Infantry Band
playing the Memphis Blues by W. C. Handy.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where everyone is streetwise.