Mr. J. Elmer Spyglass

 

As with many of my stories,
we begin with an image.
What do we see?

A handsome young man
sits at a concert grand piano.
Dressed in an impeccable formal suit of white tie and tails,

with a carnation, white stockings and opera pump shoes,
he looks direct at the camera lens, confident and relaxed.  
It's the bearing of a professional entertainer.

His photo postcard has no date or message

and was never posted.
Yet it posed a question to me. 

Where did this man perform?
He may be a vocalist of an "international" quality,
but from his dress and demeanor
he did not fit the stereotype of a vaudeville balladeer ,
and clearly considered himself a high-class artist. 
He was also a Black musician. 

His name was:

J. Elmer Spyglass, Tenor—Bariton.
 
International.

For many years my question had no answer.
And then I found another card that only added to the intrigue. 

This second postcard is a copy of the first with the same caption but printed in a lower grade halftone. However in the corner was a rare signature and date that caught my attention. 

Kindest Regards

from

J. Elmer  Spyglass

May 28, 1913

This date placed him in the pre-World War One era. But the back of the card was blank except for the printed word Postkarte—German for postcard, so maybe he was from Germany. But for one obvious reason that seemed unlikely.

And then I found him.

In Pittsburgh. 

Pittsburgh Press
13 October 1901

An illustration of him appeared in the 13 October 1901 edition of the Pittsburgh Press. "Prof. J. Elmer Spyglass, whose cut adorns these columns, will make his final appearance as a chorus director in this city Monday evening, at the valedictory concert [for a retiring pastor] to be given at Bethel A. M. E. Church, corner of Wylie avenue and Elm street.  During his stay in the city Mr. Spyglass has rendered yeoman service in elevating the standard of music among the race, and he will carry away with him the warmest commendations of a host of friends among all classes of people.  The program is almost entirely made up of operatic selections, and a musical treat is in store for all who may attend." 

James Elmer Spyglass was born in Springfield, Ohio on 1 November 1877. In the 1880 census his parents were Augustus Spyglass, age 33 and his wife Elizabeth, age 32. Augustus was a blacksmith but evidently a musician too and he is credited with teaching his son the basics of music and how to play piano and organ at their church. By the age of 12, Elmer, as he was usually called, was singing in the church choir where he formed an ambition to make a career in music. 

In about 1898 after graduating from high school Elmer moved to Toledo, Ohio, about 130 miles north of Springfield, where he found work in various menial jobs with a hope to raise funds for proper music lessons. Toledo was then a very prosperous city with over two dozen bands, orchestras, and choirs, many of them associated with Toledo's large German immigrant community.  

His vocal talents and knack for leadership led him to positions directing church choirs in Springfield, Toledo, and briefly in Pittsburgh where in 1901 he won enough notice to merit a picture in the newspaper. 

In March 1902, J. Elmer Spyglass, age 24, married Mary Alice Stewart, age 23, of Springfield. They set up home in Toledo where Elmer was employed as a shipping clerk at a large jewelry store owned by Mr. Jacob J. Freeman, a prominent businessman of the city. Over the next few years Elmer Spyglass directed musical services at different churches and with amateur choral groups. Most of these programs were of sacred music, something similar to  gospel singing but more like older spirituals, I think. 

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 – 1912)
circa: 1895—1905
Source: Wikimedia

In May 1904 Elmer led a performance of sections of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, a secular cantata by the British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912). The composer, who was Black, a child of an English woman and a Creole man from Sierra Leone, was very popular with African-American communities in the United States. 

This concert of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast in May 1904 was sung by a Coleridge-Taylor Choral Society from Toledo, a group made entirely of black singers. Following the performance the singers presented Elmer with "an adjustable baton" in appreciation of his services. 

Later that year in November Samuel Coleridge-Taylor made his first tour of America. In Washington D.C. he conducted this work with a large choir and the U.S. Marine Band. He was accorded a special honor meeting President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House. 

According to his Wikipedia entry: "Coleridge-Taylor's father Daniel Taylor was descended from African-American slaves who were freed by the British and evacuated from the colonies at the end of the American War of Independence; some 3,000 of these Black Loyalists were resettled in Nova Scotia. Others were resettled in London and the Caribbean. In 1792 some 1200 blacks from Nova Scotia chose to leave what they considered a hostile climate and society, and moved to Sierra Leone, which the British had established as a colony for free blacks." 

While working at Freeman's jewelry store Elmer's singing voice attracted the attention of Bradford Mills, the founder and director of the new Toledo Conservatory of Music. Mills encouraged Elmer to apply to the school and he was accepted. Evidently the school admitted Black students, both men and women, I believe, an opportunity available for African-Americans in Ohio and other northern states but not in southern states which remained segregated up until the 1950s and 1960s.

Wauseon OH Republican
29 July 1904

Mr. Mills, the school's director, also taught singing, one of four courses of study for this small conservatory which included pianoforte, violin, and dramatic art. The conservatory presented regular student recitals and hosted visiting concert artists as well. In 1905 the conservatory engaged an noted Italian tenor, Signor Piero Gheradi to teach opera at the school. Elmer quickly became a favored singer there and was featured in several concerts. Music programs focused on German and Italian opera repertoire and Elmer was a frequent soloist. 

Toledo Conservatory of Music, circa 1905
Source: Wikimedia

In 1906, J. Elmer Spyglass and his wife Mary arranged to travel to Europe to further Elmer's vocal studies. He gave a few benefit concerts and his employer, Mr. Jacob J. Freeman, helped with some financial support. They arranged to stop at several cities on the way to New York where Elmer would sing. 

They set sail on June 19th 1906 for Liverpool. Elmer hoped to meet Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in London and later find a voice teacher in Berlin or Paris. When they arrived they discovered that Europe was nothing like Springfield. 

At this distance in time, it's unclear how long Elmer and Mary stayed in England. We don't know if Elmer ever met Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who tragically died of pneumonia in September 1912 at age 37.  The Spyglasses did send word back to Ohio of their safe arrival in Liverpool but their next destination was Berlin, arguably the center of music for aspiring American vocalists of the time. 

Cleveland Gazette
11 May 1907

In April 1907 Elmer wrote to the Cleveland Gazette, an African American newspaper, that he had "an engagement to sing Dom Pedro in Meyerbeer's grand opera "Africanerin" next October in the Lortzing theatre, Berlin.  I am told that this honor has never been  accorded a Negro."  Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791–1864) was a German composer and his L'Africaine (The African Woman) was the last of his 19 operas. It was originally written in 1837 but later revised to tell a fictional account of the life of Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama. The full score to the revised opera was copied just the day before Meyerbeer died in 1864. It premiered in 1865 at the Paris opera house.

Toledo Blade
2 May 1907

The Toledo Blade newspaper, having reported so many times before on J. Elmer Spyglass's talent ran a longer article on this special honor he received to sing in grand opera. They even ran a new photo. It noted that he was now at "Frankfort-on-the-Main where he writes enthusiastically of his musical studies and the progress he has made."

Later that summer it was reported that Mary, and presumably Elmer, were in Paris. But that Fall there were no follow-up reports or reviews from Berlin.  

+ + +

Instead Elmer took to the music hall stage. In February 1908 he wrote to the Toledo Blade:  
"I find it more profitable to sing in vaudeville, and that is why I have abandoned the idea of appearing in grand opera in Berlin.  I have met with considerable success and expect to remain in Germany for some time,  possibly making a brief visit to America this summer.  I have sung every night for more than a year and am glad to say my voice has grown better every day, for which I owe much to Hen. Julius Lieban, of Berlin, and Jean De Reske, of Paris." 

 J. Elmer Spyglass
International lyric Baritone
Repertoire: English, Deutsch, Français, Italiano.
Treedt voor de eerste maal op in Rotterdam,
Concert en Variete=Lokaal "Scala"

~
Appearing for the first time in Rotterdam,
at the Concert and Variety Hall "Scala".

This postcard of J. Elmer Spyglass is the same photo that the Toledo newspaper used in 1907. He is dressed in a European formal suit with one hand in a pocket to display a medal pinned to his waistcoat. It also has a signature of quick initials and date in the corner:  

Rt (Rotterdam) 18/12 08 JES. 

The postcard was send on 18 December 1908 from Rotterdam to someone in 

Vianen, a city in the central Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht. 

                    Klaasnu 18 December 1908.

    

            Lieve zus,

            Naar aanleiding van uw jongste schrijven heb
            ik de eer U te berichten dat ik

            a.s. Donderdag te 1.18 Greenwich
            tijd aan het Centraal Station te

            Utrecht hoop aan te komen.

            Stallencourt zal wel niet meegaan,
            denk ik; hij schijnt niet
            goed meer te durven aangezien
            hij nu al 2× bij ons geweest is.

            In ieder geval schrijf ik nog
            zodra de beslissing gevallen is.

            Na hartelijk groet van allen,

                            [unreadable]

                                    ~

                    Klaasnu, 18 December 1908.

            Dear sister,

            In response to your latest letter,
            I have the honor of informing you that I

            hope to arrive next Thursday
            at 1:18 Greenwich time
            at the Central Station

            in Utrecht.

            Stallencourt will probably not come along,
            I think; he seems no longer

            to dare, since he has already been with us twice.

            In any case, I will write again as soon
            as the decision has been made.

            Warm greetings from everyone,

                            [signature unreadable]

This transcription of Dutch handwriting

and translation into English

was made using ChatGPT.
It "read" an image file of the message
and produced a text file in 10 seconds.

In the spring of 1909, Elmer Spyglass announced that he and his wife would return to America that summer. His success was certainly not on the stage that he originally hoped for, but it was a success just the same. When they were finally back in Toledo, Elmer gave a recital at the Warren A.M.E. Church on 16 June 1909. He sang "The Toreador from Carmen; the Serenade from Gounod; Der Lenz by Hekdach; Abend Sterne from Tannhauser, and Greeting." He said he "had been booked for engagements abroad until 1912, having forty weeks' engagements in England."

A month later in July, Elmer's former employer Mr. Jacob J. Freeman and his wife  hosted a private musicale at their home. Elmer's program began with opera arias by Bizet, Wagner, Leoncavello. The second part were five folk songs including Old Black Joe, My Way to Heav'n, and My Old Kentucky Home. The third part were all German lieder. "In rooms prettily trimmed with pink roses and asters, and on the spacious veranda, which was gay with Japanese lanterns, sixty guests enjoyed the affair."

J. Elmer Spyglass, Lyrischer Bariton.
Zweite Tournee in Europa.
Repertoir: English,  English, Français, Deutsch, Italiano

My fourth photo postcard shows Elmer Spyglass in another handsome 3/4 standing portrait. Like the first postcards he is wearing white tie and tails. There is no piano but he holds white gloves, another mark of a high class gentleman. Unlike the previous card which was in Dutch, this caption is in German. The card was never posted but it shares qualities with the others to date it around 1908-1910.

By the fall of 1909 Elmer was back in England, but without his wife Mary. It seems their marriage could not hold under the stress of Elmer building his career as an international entertainer, especially in such strange foreign cultures. I could not determine if Mary Spyglass had any musical talent to accompany her husband on stage. It seems likely though that she found languages a big obstacle while traveling around Europe. And of course as a Black woman, her interaction with European bigotry, racism, and sexism would have been very different than Elmer's. Such personal details will always remain private but whatever the reason, after 1910 Mary disappears from J. Elmer Spyglass life.  

 

London Daily Record & Mail
19 September 1910

Elmer must have had an agency help with his bookings, as over the next year he had a lot of engagements in Britain.  He appeared in music hall theaters in Ireland, Wales, the Midlands, and London. In September 1910 he played at London's Empire Theatre, one step down from the headliner, Serene Nord, the Diving Venus. Serene was an American too, from California, and readers may remember my story on her in  The Special Swimsuit Edition. 

Elmer was the class act, though as a Black performer, he was also exotic, too. His specialty was as an interpreter of "Negro Spirituals", though he likely added national songs familiar to his audiences. I've not found any reference that he toured with an accompanist. He probably depended on a house pianist or orchestra in most theaters. It's also likely that he played the piano himself as he sang. 

Illustrirtes Wiener Extrablatt
1 April 1914
Source: Wikimedia

At many other theatres he was just one of a dozen acts that included jugglers, acrobats, trained dogs, comedians, instrumentalists, and dancers. From Berlin to Paris to Rotterdam to Dublin there may have been some national differences to these variety shows but for J. Elmer Spyglass there was one big difference from the vaudeville in the United States. Here he was treated as an equal and given respect. 

That was an experience shared by many Black Americans artists in the early 20th century who left their homeland to make a life in Europe. I've written about them before in my stories The Jenkins Orphanage Band (recently updated with new photos) and The King of Cornets. All of these African-Americans were contemporary performers with J. Elmer Spyglass and likely played the same venues. Though I don't doubt that Elmer and the other Black entertainers endured discrimination, bigotry, insults, and even violence while living in Europe, at least it was not the intrenched intolerance and hatred of America's racism.   

+ + +

In April 1915 Elmer returned to Ohio after learning of the death of his mother. The brief report said that his father Augustus Spyglass would accompany him when he went back to Frankfurt, Germany. This was in the second year of World War One, but the United States was still neutral and Americans were still relatively free to travel in Europe. Apparently Elmer found sufficient work performing in theaters and cabarets in Central Europe, though not in Britain or France.   

Elmer survived the war even though by 1917, when President Wilson declared war on Germany, he was technically an enemy alien. However when the war ended in 1918 Elmer needed to renew his passport. This process was made more complicated because there were millions of displaced people in Europe contending with new European borders created by the dissolution of the Russian, German, and Austrian-Hungarian empires. 

In June 1920 James Elmer Spyglass completed an application at the American Legation at The Hague, Netherlands for an Affidavit To Explain Protracted Foreign Residence And To Overcome Presumption Of Expatriation. He swore and oath that since the 7th May 1915 he had resided in Germany and then Holland from July 1915. In neat typewritten lines he recorded: 

my reasons for such residence being as follows:   I went to Europe to study. I had no intention to do so at this stage and intended to remain abroad for two years. I first stopped in England two months from June until August 1906, then I went to Belgium and stayed in Antwerp until November and then went to Germany (Barmen). I studied there and received singing lessons from Julius Lieonitz who obtained engagements for me in some theatres. In 1910 I left Germany for America with my wife and remained in America for two or three months then I again went to Germany to sing and during the following three years visited England Belgium and Germany. In June 1913 I returned to America for a visit of two months and then came back to Germany without my wife from whom I was separated at that time. In 1915 I again went to America to bury my mother. I came back to Europe on July 1st, 1915, first remaining in Germany for a few months and after the latter part of 1915 have always resided in Holland, since.

In April 1923 Elmer made a second application for a U. S. Passport. He had to fill out the same affidavit. This time he was more clear and honest about why he was living abroad:

The fact that I am colored helps me very much in my stage
business here where I do not find so much prejudice against
me as in the United State.  I expect to stay in Europe
as long as business permits, and I do not have at present
any prospect of going back to America.  

Since leaving for Europe in 1906 he wrote: "I have made the following visits to the United States, two or three months in 1910, two months in 1913, a few weeks in 1915.

"I do not know when I shall go back to America to reside permanently." 

Europe was vastly different now, but America's old bigotry was the same.  

Two years later in February 1925 Elmer made a third passport application. He repeated the same reasons for living abroad as in 1923 but added another caveat. He might return to the United States—"If I can afford it." In 1925 Germany was recovering from a horrific hyperinflation crisis. In November 1923, one US dollar was worth 4.2105 trillion German marks. A loaf of bread in Berlin that cost around 160 marks at the end of 1922 cost 200 billion marks by late 1923. [Source: Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic]   

In the 1920s Elmer continued to perform, but popular music in Europe, as in America, was changing due to a new kind of rhythmic style created by African-Americans—Jazz. This was not the kind of music Elmer grew up with in Springfield or studied in Toledo and Berlin. When jazz was introduced to the world during WW1 it must have seemed as strange a musical language to him as it did to European audiences. But for a talented musician like Mr. Spyglass he undoubtedly picked up this new styling and adapted it to his repertoire.

Elmer performed in France, Germany, Austria and other countries, but it was in the Netherlands that he was especially popular, booked most often in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Scheveningen and The Hague. In 1915 he even traveled to the Dutch Indies (now Indonesia). During the post-war years he made his home in Rotterdam where he opened a hat shop and lived with a Dutch woman. 

At this point in J. Elmer Spyglass's life
his story might have faded away
as just an account of an unusual entertainer
performing in unlikely places.

But Mr. Spyglass had one more encore to sing. 

J. Elmer Spyglass, 1947
Source: Wikimedia

In 1932 Elmer Spyglass retired from the stage and moved to Sachsenhausen, a suburb of Frankfurt, Germany which he considered a friendly and welcoming place. He found a life partner, a German woman named Helene Patt, and settled into a quiet peaceful community. As the Nazi party took over Germany's government and society, somehow Elmer, a Black American, was spared or overlooked and allowed to live freely in Frankfurt. In 1944 his house in Sachsenhausen was destroyed by bombing so he moved to Schwalbach am Taunus, a small suburb of Frankfurt am Main. 

As American troops entered this part of Germany during the final days of the war, they were surprised to meet an American who for obvious reasons should not have been there. During the war Elmer helped clear debris and recover the dead in his town. Now as American forces occupied this region of Germany he offered English lessons to his neighbors, free to children. At one point he had around 200 students.   

After those many years singing German songs, Elmer had developed a good ear for German dialects. His linguistic skills also proved useful to the Americans who came to Germany in the post-war years. The US consulate in Frankfurt hired him to act as an interpreter and receptionist. He was known as Mr. Spyglass or sometimes 'General' Spyglass.  

In the November 3, 1947 edition of LIFE magazine on page four, squeezed in between advertisements of Al Capp's cartoon Li'l Abner selling instant cream of wheat and Groucho Marx promoting razor blades, was a story by Will Lang. 

J. Elmer Spyglass
Ex-cabaret singer helps teach Germans
about the U. S. and its democracy.

LIFE
3 November 1947

                                                                                                                             FRANKFURT 

   The best salesman for American democracy in Germany today is an aged Negro who has not lived in his native U.S. for 41 years.  He is J. Elmer Spyglass, a man whose career is as unusual as his name.  A singer, Mr. Spyglass retired in 1930 after two decades of concert and music hall successes all over Europe.  Now, 70 years of age and unmarried, he has decided to spend his remaining years serving his country as a receptionist at the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt.  

   The Frankfurt consulate is one of the busiest in Europe.  Tending American interests in the whole of western Germany, it is visited by thousands of Germans seeking news and help from American relatives; it has repatriated hundreds of Americans trapped in Germany during the war, and it hears the pleas of innumerable displaced persons who hope somehow to reach America.  

   Mr. Spyglass sees them all.  His pleasant, coffee-colored face greets everyone who comes to do business with the U.S. Even the most excitable person is disarmed and charmed by the gracious receptionist who can speak to visitors in any of five languages.  Mr. Spyglass often answers their queries himself, thus sparing the small and hardworking consular staff.  When he cannot, he steers the visitors to the proper office in the consulate.  He manages to preside over his bustling way station with the poise of a veteran actor.  He considers it his function not only to be cordial to visitors but to keep the show moving.  

   Consul General Sydney B. Redecker says of Spyglass: "We have only 15 officers to handle all of this business, and Elmer relieves us all by the way he handles visitors.  More important, he is a wonderful ambassador of democracy, especially with the Germans."  Mr. Redecker is one of few who address the colored man as "Elmer."  To others he is known respectfully as "Mr. Spyglass." 

   The tricks learned on the European stage are useful to Mr. Spyglass in dealing with the daily traffic of consulate visitors.  Many Germans are apt to be nonplussed when stopped by a Negro receptionist speaking flawless German.  But Mr. Spyglass has met this situation in innumerable cabarets and supper clubs during his career.  Using such old-fashioned, courtly phrases as "Dear lady" or "Pray be seated," he flatters the most excitable into the nearest chairs, after which they calm down and tell their stories.  

   The Germans who confide in Mr. Spyglass would exasperate anyone with less patience.  Many, wishing to write to relatives in America, come to the consulate to find the important street addresses and cities where those relatives live.  

   "There are more than 25 million German-Americans living in the U.S.," Mr. Spyglass reminds them. "Yes, but our relatives live in America. You are the American consulate. You should know where they live!" the Germans insist. 

   At this point Mr. Spyglass is kind but firm.  "I'm very sorry, but we're not allowed to search for such things," he says and directs them to the Red Cross.  Many Germans who once lived in the U.S. now want to re-emigrate. "To those who lived in America only a short time, not long enough to take out citizenship papers," Spyglass says, "I give some hope of getting back.  But to those who lived there for 10 or 15 years without bothering to apply for papers I don't give much hope.  Of course no one has ever given me any instructions for dealing with them; those are just my feelings." 

   This is the reasoning to be expected of an ambassador rather than a receptionist, but Mr. Spyglass is on safe ground; the present U.S. quota for German immigration is 26,000 a year, but in these postwar years only "petition cases" are accepted—husbands and wives, fiancées, dependent children or parents of American citizens in the U.S.  

   For a long while last year American soldiers wanting to take their German fiancées or brides to the U.S. added considerably to Spyglass's problems.  He became adept at spotting the fraternizers—GIs who loitered bashfully in the lobby if the reception room was full or who stammered awkwardly when Mr. Spyglass invited them inside: 

   "I wanna see the consul!" the soldier blurts.  

   "What about?" asks Mr. Spyglass.  

   An agonizing silence, then the soldier says weakly "I wanna take my girl home."  

   On these occasions Mr. Spyglass exuded an atmosphere as intimate as the confessional booth.  "When they come so bashfully, I know what they're after," he says.  "But sometimes I just have to pull the words out of their mouths." 

  Mr. Spyglass claims Yellow Springs, Ohio as his home town.  His blacksmith father had some Spanish blood, which may explain the unusual name.  A choir boy in Yellow Springs, young Elmer went to Europe in 1906 to continue his voice studies.  He had already graduated from the Toledo Conservatory of Music and was the first Negro to conduct in the Carnegie Music Hall, in Pittsburgh.  Friends had raised $400 to send him abroad. That was a lot of money in those days, but it proved not enough to pay for expensive European teachers.  Mr. Spyglass soon turned to music halls and cabarets and struck success with his first engagement.  With a repertoire of American and European songs he toured France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Germany, where he established a home in Frankfurt am Main. 

   During the war the Nazis caused him no trouble, despite his membership in an "inferior race." Mr. Spyglass is still not sure why.  "Perhaps it was because I had lived there off and on since 1907," he says.  "I knew all of old Frankfurt, from the bank directors down to the police. And I never mixed in politics." 

   The "ambassadorial" work of the receptionist is not confined to his desk in the consulate.  From his apartment in Schwalbach, a village within commuting distance of Frankfurt, Mr. Spyglass has attacked the "German problem" in his own way.  Shortly after the armistice many Germans came and asked him for English lessons.  While it was obvious that most of them wanted to equip themselves for jobs with the Americans, Mr. Spyglass saw beyond the obvious and willingly shouldered the job. At one time he was teaching as many as 200 German adults from the nearby villages; he still conducts two classes in English each evening. "I think that the more people know about English, the more of a help it is to my country," he says.  

  

LIFE
3 November 1947

    J. Elmer Spyglass has become the symbol of American democracy in Schwalbach and the surrounding countryside.  At his birthday last year almost the entire town sent flowers to his apartment.  Flowers filled the tables and most of the floor, and bouquets were pinned all over the walls and lace curtains.  Dozens of German children, his students, trooped in with modest presents of fruit and vegetables.  The Kinder then sang songs in English that the old man had taught them.  There, far away from the U.S., they greeted his birthday with Sweet and Low, Home, Sweet Home, My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean and My Old Kentucky Home. 

_ _ _

In 1954 J. Elmer Spyglass was given another honor that again merited a lot of notice in American newspapers. 

Montgomery Alabama Tribune
17 December 1954 

On November 9, 1954, Spyglass was made an honorary citizen of Schwalbach, his adopted hometown. A photo of the occasion was printed in many newspapers in the U.S.  In December 1957 the Toledo Blade ran a report that at age 79 Elmer was not yet ready to retire and still worked at the U. S. Consulate in Frankfurt. It included another photo portrait of him and a long account of his life going back to the days when he worked at Freeman's jewelry store.

On 16 February 1957, J. Elmer Spyglass died of heart failure in his apartment in Schwalbach am Taunus. He was 79. His ashes were sent back to Ohio where he was buried next to his mother at a cemetery in Yelow Springs.  

In 1994 the city of Schwalbach established the James Elmer Spyglass Prize which has been awarded to individuals who promote intercultural understanding in Schwalbach.

What does it mean to love your country? Do we lose our nationality if we leave our native land? Is it possible to be the citizen of two countries?

The life of James Elmer Spyglass asks those questions and more. I found the answer to my opening question but I don't know if I have answers to these. I've waited several years to write Elmer's story and I find that circumstances of our current world changed how I first thought I would present his life. 

The way Elmer chose to make his career in Europe was a reaction to the constraints that bound all African-Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century. America's institutionalized segregation prevented many Black people from reaching their full potential. Likewise the demeaning bigotry of America's dominant white society diminished the achievements of all people of color. Mr. Spyglass's story as an emigrant from his homeland to Europe seems a heroic tale of overcoming such intolerance. Yet he had remarkable good fortune to have talents that allowed him to do that. Many other Black folk of his generation endured far harsher challenges by staying in the United States. They were the people who fought for civil rights and struggled to change American society.  

What sets Mr. Spyglass apart is that instead he helped to change another country, a nation that was responsible for some of the most heinous atrocities the world has ever seen. After the war it took several years to sort out the monstrous crimes of Hitler and the Nazi party. I would expect that Elmer Spyglass was as horrified as many Americans were to learn of the horrors of the Holocaust. Except that he knew Germans as friends and neighbors, ordinary people trapped in the giant totalitarian machines of war. 

His story is as much about becoming an American-German as it is about losing his identity as an African-American. Though we can't know his full character or all the details of his personal life I feel that we can still appreciate a man who, in a way, became a good citizen to two countries. 

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where practice makes perfect.

Keeping Count at the Majestic

Most of the photos in my collection, maybe 98%, are of static people, posing motionless for a camera that is usually secluded in a photographer's studio. Therefore this outdoor photo is, for me anyway, a rare exception. It's a quick snapshot of an urban scene. A few dozen people have stopped along a city sidewalk to listen to a band. The bandsmen stand in a circle and actually seem to be playing music. The moment has a little added tension as a car approaches and the band looks like it is blocking traffic. 

The camera was unable to get everything in clear focus and the sepia tones have the usual faded contrast which I improved. There is also no caption or postmark to identify location or date. On the back of the postcard are some numbers, a couple of sums written down by someone likely figuring out a price totaling 14.86, the $ sign being assumed. 

The cardstock has a NOKO stamp box which indicated a brand of photo paper. The NOKO company used four different stamp box designs and according to a catalog on the now-defunct Playle's postcard website this version was popular from 1907 to 1929.

But there is a subtle clue in the automobile partly visible on the right. 

The car's wheels are a simple spoke design, like an old horse-drawn wagon wheel. The fender has a broad open curve that connects to a running board. The motor compartment is a coffin-like box and behind it are lantern sidelights. All are features of an early automobile manufactured in the 1905-1918 era. I found a good example in a 1909 auto trade journal report about the new models being released by the Oldsmobile company.  

1909 Oldsmobile Advert
Source: 1909 Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal, v. 13

There is too little of the car in the photo to make a positive match but I think the style is close enough to say that the photo could not have been taken any earlier than around 1908. Since there is another similar car wheel on the left of the street, that suggests this picture is closer to 1908 than 1928. Another clue is that the street appears to be unpaved. This is a small town, not a metropolis.

In the background on the right is a storefront with tall glass windows. Stenciled on one is Steam Laundry and hanging on the other side of the doorway a circular sign. But despite my efforts to digitally sharpen the image and contrast I can't make out anything except for a few letters. It's tantalizing to be so close to reading it, but who knows, maybe it was just an advertisement for laundry starch. 

But the best clue was the sign on the next building: 

Majestic   

Special          To
Feature        Night

Clearly it's a theater, or theatre, to use the fancier term, but the name is unhelpful as Majestic was once one of the most common names for a theater/theatre in America. There were hundreds of them in big cities and large towns that genuinely deserved to be named Majestic as they were built with multiple floors, grand entrances, and opulent interiors that could seat thousands. This theater with just a ground floor and a narrow width, maybe just 20 feet, is smaller than the laundry next door. Its archway entrance looks a bit decorative, if not exotic, but the remaining brickwork is plain and looks hastily constructed. That is a pretty low rung on the ladder of majesty. 

But what drew my attention to this postcard is, of course, the band. This ensemble has around 17-18 men with an instrumentation of brass, drums and a few clarinets. The men are dressed in white military-style uniforms, not unlike those of laundry deliverymen, I suppose, that is typical for many small town bands of this probable era of 1908-1920. Except for one thing. Their uniforms accentuates the contrast of their face and hand complexion. This is a band of African-American musicians. In the American newspaper parlance of the early 20th century they were a "colored band". As demeaning as that phrase is in the 21st century, it does make for a convenient expression when doing historical research. 

The automobile and the small theater are consistent with the era of live vaudeville entertainers and a time when cinema films were still silent and of short duration. The Majestic's "Special Feature" might have been a new silent comedy or western. Or it could have been a variety show troupe touring the vaudeville circuit. And this band of Black musicians might be one of the few professional African-American touring shows. 

Or not. 

Maybe they really were an amateur band of workers at the steam laundry. I truly don't know. The only facts are what we see in the photo.

But I couldn't help but look for a connection between "Majestic Theater/Theatre" and "colored band". The archive found a medium long list which I could filter by limiting the time frame and location, mainly to the southern states. (I tried including "steam laundry" too, but that only added more false trails.)

Marion KY Crittenden Record-Press
13 July 1911

In Marion, Kentucky a weekly county newspaper, the Crittenden Record-Press, ran regular notices of the town's Majestic theatre. In July 1911 it promoted the appearance of a "Troupe of 30 colored people band and orchestra "Black Diamond Aristocracy" two nights July 15th and 17th. At the majestic theatre." 

Marion is the county seat of Crittenden County situated in western Kentucky about 10 miles south of the Ohio River, In 1910 it had a population of 1,627. Its Majestic theatre gave regular performances of touring dramas, comedies, and musical revues typical of the lower level vaudeville circuits. Unfortunately I could not find any address for the Majestic. It seems to have operated only from about 1910 to 1912. 

But I did find a better report on the "Black Diamond Aristocracy" in a Greenfield, Indiana newspaper. Greenfield is about 300 miles north of Marion.

Greenfield IN Daily Reporter
13 June 1911

                            

Jubilee Troupe

   The Black Diamond Aristocracy Company will give a concert at the Rogers opera house Monday evening, June 19th. This is a regular colored jubilee troupe. Its members are selected by the President of the Southern Indiana Institute, and the entertainments are being given for the purpose of raising money to buy a farm where colored boys and girls may receive free industrial training.
   The troupe includes thirty people. The Pickaninny Band is a popular feature. The program includes "Down in Louisiana." "The Suwanee River." "Buck, Ben and Bald." "Just Barely Living and That is All." "Jubilee Whoop and Gospel Train." "Loving Joe." "the Old Kentucky Home." "Teach Our Baby That I am Dead." and many other Southern plantation melodies.

I make no claim for a connection between my photo postcard and the Majestic theatre of Marion, Kentucky other than it is purely a coincidence and it was possible. But my larger point is that here are two examples of how African-Americans found work in the entertainment industry of the early 20th century, despite enduring institutional discrimination, ignorant bigotry, and overt violent racism. It is a history that deserves to be remembered for the talent, determination, and tremendous influence these musicians had on our American musical culture.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where shows are half-price all weekend.

Notes from a Time Traveler

 

I am a time traveler. Nearly every day I set off on a journey to meet people in some far-off place in the infinite dimensions of history. However my span of infinity is actually pretty narrow as modern time transport technology has strict limitations. Generally it's some date between 1845 and 1945, though occasionally I'll end up somewhere during my lifetime. 

Most of my encounters with people of the past are very brief, only lasting a split second really. Sometimes we might be properly introduced, but typically they remain nameless. And, due to the fleeting brevity of this moment, I am invisible to their eyes, so they never know that I can see them. I tend to seek out musicians, though once in a while I'll be attracted to other showbiz occupations like dancers, singers, or comedians. Lately I've become fascinated by aviators and artists. 

When I do learn who these vintage people are I like to ask questions about their life, their family, and in the case of musicians, their instruments and musical ensembles. Unfortunately in that blink of an eye that we connect they don't talk much, so it's a real challenge to get answers. In fact the time goes by so fast that I'm lucky if I can determine a location or a decade of when I first make their acquaintance. 

Today, in honor of the special 750th weekend of the Sepia Saturday Club (more about that later), I thought I would present a few of my antique friends whom I've renewed contact with on my time travel adventures in just the last few weeks. They should be familiar to longtime readers as I have already featured  them  in previous stories here on my blog. One is the gentleman that begins this post. He is the celebrated Norwegian violinist Ole Bull. I've grown so found of him that I often set the controls on my time machine to go visit him. But first I'll bring back a new souvenir of one of my favorite child performers.

I first introduced these three boys in July 2022 in my story The Little Vernon Brothers. They are Sidney Clyde Vernon, the tallest boy holding a violin, born 1878 in Elgin, Ontario, Canada; Howard Alexander Vernon, the boy with a piccolo, born 1881 in Marshalltown, Iowa; and Percival Lessington Vernon, the youngest with the long blond hair and a cello, born 1884, also in Marshalltown.  The three brothers are accompanied in this picture by their mother, Mary Jerusha Vernon, who is seated at a reed organ.  

This cabinet card was produced by the Holdridge studio of Trenton, New Jersey, at 223 East  State Street. The other four photos I have of the "little" Vernon brothers were taken by photographers in Marshalltown, Iowa; Beloit, Wisconsin; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That photo is of the whole family with their mother Mary and their father, Edward H. Vernon, an accountant who evidently was successful enough to support moving his family around the country. 

This photo from New Jersey shows Sidney at his tallest so based on my previous research I think it was taken around 1895-96. This photo was also the only one that came with a caption for the "Little Vernon Brothers" so it was clearly intended to be a promotional photo for their performances. Unlike a troupe of vaudeville theater entertainers, the Vernon family played at churches and society halls. Their repertoire was designed to appeal to a family audience with an emphasis on Christian songs, hymn tunes, and wholesome folk tunes, interspersed with recitations of poetry. This review from 1895 describes one of their concerts in Goshen, New York.

Goshen NY Democrat
14 March 1895

The entertainment in the Presbyterian church last Friday evening was a success.  It was well attended, considering the condition of the roads.  The Little Vernon Brothers are all they are recommended to be.  Sidney, the eldest, who plays the violin, has a very fine touch; Howard, the next, plays the piccolo well; and Percy, the child who plays the violincello, is a prodigy, is natural and homelike on the stage, plays his part perfectly and sings just as well.  His childish movements on the stage are a strong hold on the public. 

_ _ _

The Vernon brothers began performing in 1889 in Marshalltown, Iowa and continued giving regular concerts around the country until about 1899 when they were not so little anymore. By the turn of the century the Vernon family was living in Detroit and the boys were beginning higher education. What I find remarkable is that all three brothers entered seminaries and became ordained ministers, two in Baptist churches and one in a Presbyterian. Reader's can find out more in my original story of the Vernon brothers. 

* * *

One genre of postcards that I regularly search for is "orphan bands". I few weeks ago I spotted this one and recognized it as a picture of a children's band that I featured on this blog back in 2018. There are 14 boys and girls holding musical instruments, mostly brass, and dressed in nice Sunday best. They called themselves "The Jolly Entertainers". I told their story in two parts, The Children's Home Band of Des Moines, Washington and Mr. Draper's Children's Home Band of of Des Moines, Washington. This "Children's Industrial Home" was established and run by Mr. Herman M. Draper, seen here seated center holding a cornet. A native of Canada, Draper was born in Ontario in 1857, but immigrated to the United States in 1882. As a young man he pursued a career as a music teacher, specifically for chorus and voice using a music education technique called Solfège which uses syllables for the musical scale pitches, i.e. Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti. 

In 1887 he taught music in several Nebraska public schools where he developed his own methods for teaching elementary music. Ten years later in 1897 he moved to Calumet, Michigan where he was employed as a superintendent of an orphanage of about 50 children. In 1906 after a dispute with the orphanage's board of governors Draper and his wife left Calumet and "took" six children with them to Seattle where he decided they could operate a smaller but more compassionate orphanage in the Pacific Northwest. After a couple of years in Seattle, in 1908 the orphanage moved to Des Moines, a small village on Puget Sound named by its first settlers after the much larger Des Moines, Iowa.

Draper wanted it to be a self-supported private orphanage so he trained his young charges in various practical trades including music and printing. I have two other postcards with the same image that date from the summer of 1910, but this one has a notice on the back that is not on the others. It reads:

Help us pay for

OUR HOME

We own a complete printing outfit and

our boys are printers;  send us an order

for cards, letter heads, bill heads, etc.

We guarantee satisfaction   and

We need your help.

But there is a message too, which cliched the sale for me. 

Geo. saw these
children as he
came from     
Seattle the    
other day.     
He wanted the
little girl marked
X  but they would
not let her      
go.               

The message is a bit ambiguous since the writer is not identified and we don't know if Geo(rge) is age six or sixty.  So it is both charming or creepy depending on ones interpretation. But the X mark is actually on the back just above the U in OUR. It corresponds to the little girl seated right with an alto horn. 

This postcard was produced at a time when Mr. Draper was beginning to take his children on short tours in the region. He had some success so purchased a small bus and organized more trips to Oregon and California. In 1925 he undertook the biggest adventure taking 22 children on a year-long tour of the United States playing benefit concerts everywhere they could. It made the pages of newspapers all across the nation.

Sadly Mrs. Annie Draper died on 13 April 1927. Four days later just before her funeral, her husband followed her, tragically succumbing to a heart condition. Herman M. "Daddy" Draper was 70 years old. He and his wife had cared for over 300 children at their orphanage. It's an inspiring story of perseverance, dedication, and love. Here's the link to part one.

* * *

We met this handsome violinist in my three part series Ole Bull, Adventures in America, part 1, part 2, part 3. He is Ole Bornemann Bull (1810–1880) a Norwegian violin virtuoso who was one of the first violinists in the early 19th century to create a successful career as a concert soloist. By 1837 Ole Bull was performing hundreds of concerts each season in Europe that established him as the equal of other Romantic musical artists like his contemporaries: Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847), Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849), Robert Schumann (1810–1856), Franz Liszt (1811–1886) and the great Italian violinist  Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840), whom he tried to emulate as a violinist and composer,  too. But no concert artist of his time ever covered as much distance in traveling the world as Ole Bull. 

My series on Ole Bull focused on a set of carte de visite photos that were produced by a Chicago photographer in the winter of 1867-68. This was during his third tour of America just after the end of the Civil War. He made his first tour in 1843-45 and his second tour in 1852-57. This happened to be when photography was just becoming popular as a new portrait art form. However early photographs like daguerreotypes and ferrotypes of the 1840s and 1850s were each singular positive images and could not be easily duplicated. In the 1860s when the carte de visite, or cdv, were introduced the process used a negative image on a glass plate which allowed multiple copies to be printed quickly and cheaply. It was the perfect medium for an entertainer who wanted pictures to promote themselves. In 1867 Ole Bull clearly recognized the value of cdvs as souvenirs for devoted fans. 

Since publishing my Ole Bull series in January 2021, I've acquired even more photos of him, including more cdvs from Chicago, a ferrotype–tintype, and recently last month a couple of larger cabinet card photographs. The first one shows Ole Bull seated in a relaxed pose. His hair is long but now quite white. The photographer was S. W. Felt of Chicago, a different photographer than the one who made the cdvs in 1867-68. This photograph could have been taken during Ole Bull's fourth appearance in America in 1871-72 when he played Chicago in March 1872. That was just  five months after the Great Chicago Fire destroyed the city center's theater district where he had last performed. But I think this image fits better with his fifth tour from 1876-77 when reviewers took note of the "snow in his hair." The photograph print is a bit soiled and abraded but I like that his name is written in pencil on the front. I'm not certain yet, as the simplicity of his name makes it easy to reproduce, but I think it might be Ole Bull's real signature. 

This second cabinet card of Ole Bull is very clear and well preserved, requiring little correction of contrast. It shows a 3/4 view of him with his violin and bow in playing position. The photographer was J. P. Moore of Meriden, Connecticut. Ole Bull's face and expression resembles his other photo, so I think this may date from 1876-77 too. 

Bull returned to America once more in 1878 but reports describe him as diminished,  no longer fit as a fiddle as some might say. He did play a final concert in Chicago in May 1880, but concern over his poor health forced him to return to his home in Bergen, Norway where he died on 17 August 1880. Readers can read about the exciting adventures of Ole Bull's 1867-68 tour by starting at this link.

Most of the musicians I meet in my time machine are mute, their stories and biographies locked away in the secret vaults of history. Ole Bull is a rare exception as there are literally thousands of newspaper reports, letters, and books on his life. It makes it much easier to know the man, but more difficult to puzzle out exactly when his photos were taken. I'm planning a reprise story on Ole Bull so I can display these two photos alongside the other new photos I've found. Stay tuned.

* * *

My final photo is a postcard that just arrived in the post a few days ago. It's obviously not a picture of a musical group but, as the caption says. it's a track team from E.P.H.S. Those initials stand for East Palestine High School and some of these boys appeared in my three part series The Glee Club of East Palestine, Ohio - part 1, part 2, part 3. 

East Palestine, Ohio is another place I frequently check out in my time machine, specifically during the period from 1906 to 1910 when one young man in particular was a student there. Here he is seated on the floor in front, one of ten members of the track team and the only one with a dark African complexion. His name is James Aaron Washington and I'm rather proud to have figured out who he was, as he did not grow up in Ohio but in Asheville, North Carolina, the city where I now live. 

This photo was taken in 1909, either in the spring or maybe the previous fall of 1908. In 2024 this picture is not unlike thousands of similar high school team photos. But in 1909 it was exceptionally rare to see a Black student sitting as an equal with fellow White students. America's terrible legacy of slavery continued in the post-Civil War era with society strictly divided by race using countless harsh laws to enforce racial segregation. How James Washington came to be in eastern Ohio was the first question I asked in part 1 of his story.  Certainly in 1909 North Carolina a young African-American man would never be accepted as a member of a high school athletic team, much less photographed with one. There are still many questions I want to ask but may never get an answer. 

This postcard is also an example of when I get to hear someone from the past speak across the vastness of the spacetime continuum. It was sent to Mrs. C. E. Oliver of Pittsburg, Pa. on 19 May 1909, perhaps care of Mercy Hospital.

Will be up Saturday
if my head gets
well.  I will have to
jump against the
same fellows that I
jumped against Saturday

The boys competed in springtime track meets against other high school teams in the region. A year later in May 1910 there was an all-county contest with four schools and the East Palestine Reveille Echo reported that Washington placed second in the 220 yard dash and Oliver got third in the running broad jump. But their rivals as Lisbon High still took the most points to win the championship leaving East Palestine to settle for a 2nd place. 

If you look closely some of the boys have medals pinned to their shirts. James has one and the boy behind  him on the right has six. The boy to the left is the same boy in the E.P.H.S. Glee Club photos wearing a top hat. I believe his name is Cecil Oliver. He and James sang duets in the Glee Club concerts. Could he be the son of Mrs. Oliver writing for some sympathy on this postcard? Yet another question that may go unanswered. 

This is actually the second photo postcard I've found of the E.P,H.S. track team with young James Washington. The other one is dated 1908 and is even more remarkable because James is not the only Black athlete in the group. That photo is in the Postscript at the end of  part 3.   

James Aaron Washington's story took another surprising turn when I discovered that after high school he returned to North Carolina; attended Shaw College in Raleigh; got married in Asheville, raised a family there; and then in the 1920s moved to Washington, D. C. where he worked for the U. S. Post Office. That's all explained in part 2.  

But the biggest surprise was to learn that his son, James Aaron Washington Jr. became a noted civil rights attorney, a law professor and dean at  Howard University in D. C., and later a judge to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia appointed in 1971 by President Richard Nixon. But more significant was that Professor James Washington Jr., the son of the young man in East Palestine High School's Glee Club and track team, was also one of the advisors who helped to craft the 1954 case of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka which became a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that U. S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools were unconstitutional, even if the segregated schools were otherwise equal in quality. That's a real story of bending the arc of justice.

I am a time traveler.
Even just a glimpse of a moment in time
can contain millions of threads of history.
Some lead backwards and some forward,
but they all weave into an amazing fabric of time.
That's why I keep alert when I'm in my time machine.
You never know when you might meet an old friend.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where everyone is celebrating

the art of vintage photos.

This is my 724th post on my blog TempoSenzaTempo — Time Without Time. I first joined the Sepia Saturday club hub pub on January 8, 2011, number 56. I submitted A Mystery Band which seems incredibly brief compared to my usual output (like this one) in 2024. It took me a few more weekends before I settled into the idea of following Alan's theme image, but since February 2011 I have participated in nearly every Sepia Saturday, which makes about 690 weekends. That's a lot of postcards and photos.

I never expected that my hobby of collecting vintage musician photos would become the passion it is today. (Some people, like my dear wife, think it might be an illness.) But the inspiration really came from meeting fellow time travelers who shared my interest in telling stories about old photographs. It's sad to say that many of those bloggers have faded away into the Sepia Mists. But I am very grateful for all that I learned from reading each blogger's stories and gaining a different perspective on writing, collecting, analyzing, research, and presentation on this wonderful medium of the internet. I continue to delight in every blogger's contribution to Sepia Saturday. Thank you, Alan, for keeping the Sepia Saturday club pub going and offering up a fascinating image every week. I look forward to Number 1000. I'm pretty sure I'll still have enough photos in my collection to make a good match.