Willie and Johanna Hess

 

A Wunderkind is a German word for "wonder child", a term for a child prodigy who exhibits precocious talents or skills usually acquired only after reaching adult maturity. Though it's not an uncommon German loanword its usage in English has changed in the 21st century to include a much wider variety of activities that children may excel in. Exceptionally bright children are now found in math, science, language, chess, athletics, and more. But in the 19th century a Wunderkind almost always referred to a gifted young musician. A youngster whose phenomenal talent elicited awe from the people who heard them perform. 

The classic example is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) whose musical genius on keyboard and violin was evident at age five when his father began presenting him in concerts to royalty. By the time he became a young adult he had toured Europe as a performer and was celebrated as a rising composer. But Wolfgang had a sister, Maria Anna Mozart, commonly known as Nannerl (1751–1829), who earned a right to be called a Wunderkind, too. Unfortunately her talents were never allowed to develop and she never shared in the great fame that her brother achieved. 

Today I present another brother and sister duo, two musical prodigies who once posed for a camera in Aachen, Germany. Their names were Wilhelm and Johanna Hess. Johanna played piano and Willie played the violin. They were very talented musicians.

Johanna sits on the right with her elbow resting on a piano keyboard. She was the eldest child of Julius and Lina Hess of Mannheim where she was born in 1858. Mannheim was the second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the state capital. Her brother Wilhelm Hess stands on the left wearing a neat velvet jacket and holding his violin. "Willie or Willy"  was born the following year in 1859. Their father Julius Hess was an accomplished musician on violin and viola, and just as Wolfgang's father, Leopold Mozart, had done, Julius naturally became his children's first music teacher.  

In 1866 he took his family, now with five children, to New York City where he found work playing in the Theodore Thomas Orchestra, then one of the best orchestras in the United States. It did not take long before Thomas recognized Johanna and Willie's fantastic talents and arranged to include them in concerts of his orchestra. 

The first was a memorial concert on 21 Nov 1868 for Edmund Remack, music critic and editor of the New York Abend-Zeitung, who had recently died. This benefit concert was presented to raise money for Remack's wife and children. Willie and Johanna played "La Favorite", a duo for piano and violin by Donizetti. A week later on 29 November they played with Theodore Thomas' Orchestra again with Willie playing a solo piece entitled "Fantasie on La petite tambour" by David. The concert was reviewed in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:

    Willie Hess performed a solo on the violin, "Le Petit Tambour." For a boy ten years old he shows wonderful precocity of genius on this instrument.  He plays with the ease, exactness and almost the masterly touch and skill of Ole Bail or Paganini.  He was interrupted with frequent applause.  A delightful feature of the evening, and perhaps the most delightful feature to many, was the appearance of Miss Joanna [sic] (nine years old) and Willie Hess in a duo for the piano and violin on "Themes from La Favorita."  If his performances on the violin betrayed high musical genius so did [her] playing on the piano. [Her] touch had all the delicacy of the maturest cultivation. They were most enthusiastically applauded, as they richly deserved.

Over the next 4 weeks in December 1868 the Hess children participated in a concert each week. On 17 December 1868 Johanna and Willie appeared on the stage of the Brooklyn Academy of Music f or a "Grand Gala Concert" with Theodore Thomas' "unrivalled orchestra."

 

Brooklyn Daily Eagle
17 December 1868

Jenny Twitchell Kempton 
contralto, circa 1860
Source: Wikipedia

 

The program featured Mrs. Jenny Kempton, the "Favorite Prima Donna Contralto". Jenny Twitchell Kempton (1835–1921) was born in Dublin, New Hampshire and at an early age demonstrated an extraordinary vocal range. As a young girl she moved to Boston where in 1850 at age 15 she sang the lead solos in the first American performances of Felix Mendelssohn's oratorios "St. Paul" and "Elijah" with the Handel and Haydn Society. After becoming a very accomplished singer in Boston she moved to New York for further vocal study. There she was engaged as a soloist by Father Kemp's Old Folks Concerts Company and for nearly three years toured the country. By 1868 she had already performed many concerts in New York, San Francisco, and most recently a two year tour of Europe. Having the Hess children share the solo bill on her concert was no mean feat.

On this concert Willie Hess played a violin solo entitled "La Petit Tambour" with the orchestra, and later a Grand Duet for Piano and Violin (William Tell) by Osborn and Beriot. Two days later on a Saturday afternoon they performed at Steinway Hall, a 2,500 seat concert hall and showrooms for Steinway & Sons pianos. Recently completed in October 1866 it was already establishing a reputation, in the words of one critic, as "the cradle of classical music in this country".

A reviewer for the Buffalo, NY Commercial newspaper wrote a review:

    

        NEW YORK, Dec. 21st.

    On Saturday afternoon, Dec. 19, the Hess children gave a matinee at Steinway Hall, and were assisted by-F. Bergner ('cello), Mme. Gazzaniga and Julius Hess (violin). The programme was a short one, and included the lst movement from one of Mozart's string quartets: In it these talented children appeared to better advantage than in any other selection; Miss Joanna—in particular—was very accurate as regards time, and she also exhibited some taste and an attempt at shading. I must repeat the opinion that it is unwise to bring prodigies before the public. It is my honest belief that such a course—in most cases—does incalculable injury to the advancement of the innocent victims, while the performance is productive of but little pleasure to the public. Let Mr. Hess take warning and discontinue the forcing process.

The website Music in Gotham provides a timeline of Willie and Johanna's performances in New York. Over the next four years they played over 19 concerts in the city with many more on tour to Philadelphia and around the northeast. Their programs featured more ambitious music of Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and other early Romantic era composers. Reviewers praised their accomplishments but cautioned their father Julius Hess against pushing them too hard. In this era there were, as yet, no laws concerning child labor and many cities were beginning to see increasing public complaints about exploitation of child entertainers and exhibiting them in unsavory and noisome theaters at late hours. 

However in the summer of 1872 Julius Hess decided to avoid that situation and take Willie and Johanna back to the Old World for better musical study. Their first stop was Amsterdam followed by Leipzig, Germany where they performed at the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus. Johanna was age 15 and Willie was 14, though the newspapers knocked a year off each of them to earn every Wunderkind day. 

A correspondent for London's Musical Standard newspaper wrote a review of Willie's and Johanna's debut concert at the Gewandhaus, an event the reviewer noted as highly unusual for having two juvenile artists from America play for Leipzig's highly critical patrons. On 9 July 1873 he wrote:

    The reputation they had already made in the United States and in Holland had naturally raised great expectations in the minds of the critics of this good city, and it is most gratifying to be able to state that in no respect were these expectations disappointed; for the performance of the young lady upon the piano, and of her brother upon the violin, were most praiseworthy.  Not only do they excel in solos, but also in trios, quartets, &c.  For instance, Mozart's trio in Es dur was most artistically rendered by the brother and sister, assisted by one of the best second violins of Leipzig. 

    Johanna Hess is gifted with a most delicate and caressing touch which, joined to great taste for the art to which her young existence is now wedded, went far towards securing for her the sympathies of the audience.  The boy displayed considerable technical skill, in his artistical manipulation of his violin; and as he is, likewise, keenly alive to the beauties contained in the works which he undertakes to render, he carried all before him.  Many an older violinist. would lack the ease and faultless precision with which he gave the staccatos and arpeggios.  And what a soft and expressive way he has of interpreting an adagio movement; for a display of his facility in this direction Spohr's ninth concerto for the violin afforded him a most favourable opportunity.

    The concert was not a crowded one at all, but nobody expects a full room in the summer months as everybody of note being out of town during June, July, and August.  The applause which fell to the lot of the two young artistes was of a most encouraging nature, however, and they must have been satisfied with the comparatively brilliant success they gained.  Whether their future will be as bright as the present predicts it to be it is difficult to say, but it can he safely asserted that should they only continue to be as proficient as they now are they will ever command the attention of the public. 

In the following year of 1874 the Hess family made several visits to the city of Aachen, a spa city near Germany’s borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, about halfway between Brussels and Bonn. They gave several concerts in Aachen that year, usually described as "aus New York" or from "Amerika". It was here that Johanna and Willie posed for their carte de visite photo at the studio of Carl Billotte of 24 Theaterstrasse in Aachen. On the back someone wrote their names in ink:

Johanna &

Willie Hess

This photo of Johanna and Willie resembles many other souvenir photos sold to promote professional concert artistes and theatrical entertainers, though I'm sure it still made their grandparents proud. If I am correct about the date then Johanna would be age 16 and Willie age 15, just beginning young adulthood and leaving their Wunderkind years. 

Zweibrücken, Germany
Pfälzische Blätter
15 October 1874

Besides Leipzig and Aachen I also found notices of their concerts in several cities in Germany, Belgium, France and even in Wien, Austria, too. 

In October 1874 Willie and Johanna played an Instrumental-Concert at the Stadthaus Salle in Zweibrücken, Germany. Both played individual solos and also in chamber music with their Vater Julius Hess on viola, and their younger brother Friedrich Hess on cello. There was music by Mozart, Vieuxtemps, Rubenstein, Beethoven, and Spohr.

The Hess family surely did not perform for free but they seem to have deliberately avoided the music hall circuits played by other family bands of this era. Julius Hess helped his children find the good teachers for their instruments and both Johanna and Willie benefited from advanced study with some of the best musicians of this era.  

In 1876 Willie Hess traveled to Berlin where he became a student of the great Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim (1831–1907) who brought Willie's musicianship to its highest standards. After two years in Berlin he was hired as principal leader and first violinist with the Oper Frankfurt. While there Willie Hess married Ida Sophie Johanna Traut in 1885. 

In 1886 he left that post to assume a violin professorship at the Rotterdam Conservatorium which he held for two years. 

Willie Hess, circa 1890
Source: Wikimedia

In 1888 Willie Hess crossed the English Channel to become leader of The Hallé Orchestra in Manchester where he also became the principal professor of violin at the Royal Manchester College of Music. In 1895 he moved again for an appointment as principal professor of violin at the Conservatorium der Musik in Cologne, Germany. While there he led a string quartet, a chamber ensemble form that Joachim had help make popular for public concerts.

Guerzenich String Quartet from Cologne:
Willy Hess (1st violin), Friedrich Grützmacher Younger (cello),
Josef Schwartz (viola), Willy Seibert (2nd violin)
circa 1895—1899
Source: Wikimedia

I interrupt this story to explain that Hess' proper German forename—Wilhelm—does not seem to have been used much during his career as either an adult or young boy. In America and England he was usually Master Willy Hess in his early years, but the spelling was not consistent, sometimes Willy or Willie. Since the annotation on the back of the photo has Willie Hess, and the German press used that spelling, that is the form I've used for this story, even though his Wikipedia entry uses "Willy Hess".  I'm sure he found this a constant nuisance during his lifetime. Perhaps this nickname confusion was something he shared with Kaiser Wilhelm besides the mustache.

Boston Herald
19 June 1904

In 1904 Willie Hess was invited by Wilhelm Gericke (1845–1925) the music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra to become its new concertmaster. Willie accepted and moved to Boston where he held the position for six seasons and also taught violin at Harvard University. However as the orchestra's concert season was only for a few months each year, his schedule allowed for travel back to Europe to play other concert engagements. It seems that Willie's  wife chose to stay in Germany during his time in Boston. Sadly she died in February 1909 while he was away in America. This may have influenced his decision to leave the Boston Symphony Orchestra and return to Berlin in 1910. There he was appointed premier violin instructor at the Royal Academy of Music (Königliche Akademische Hochschule für ausübende Tonkunst), the same teaching position of his teacher Joseph Joachim. 

Of course the whole world of music was turned upside down by the onslaught of World War One. In Britain and France many German and Austrian musicians were ostracized and Germanic music was banned. In Boston the German-born conductor Karl Muck (1859–1940), who in 1906 succeeded Wilhelm Gericke as music director of the Boston Symphony, was falsely accused of disloyalty as the United States entered the Great War in 1917. Despite having a valid Swiss passport Muck was arrested and from March 1918 until August 1919 he was interned in a prison camp in Georgia as an enemy alien. Upon his release in 1919 Karl Muck and his wife were immediately deported from the United States. 

Fortunately Willie Hess was able to avoid such harsh circumstance and he retained his position at the Berlin Academy for several more years after the war. In 1919 he married Anna Katharina Hilgers.  

During his time in Berlin Willie Hess premiered several musical works written for him, including some for viola. Considering that he was a violin professor in the Netherlands, England, America, and Germany, his influence as a teacher was very broad and many of his violin students went on to successful careers as concert artists.

 

Willie Hess died in Berlin on 17 February 1939 at age 79.

But this is a story about two Wunderkinder.

Willie's sister Johanna Hess was clearly an equal partner in their early development as musical artists even though her instrument was very different. While her brother naturally concentrated on violin due to their father's instrument, Johanna's training on piano was clearly not neglected. She was always given equal promotion on their concerts with just as many solo opportunities. When Willie went to Berlin she came too to study with Waldemar Bargiel. There she had the privilege to continue as piano accompanist for him, his fellow students, and even for Joseph Joachim, himself. As she matured she began taking engagements as an accompanist for other instrumentalists and vocalists.  

In November 1885 the Hess family ensemble split up when Johanna Hess married Albert Henry Burr of Chicago. Albert was a physician who trained at Chicago Medical College and served as an attending physician at Provident Hospital. He was a lecturer on Rhinology and Laryngology at the Post-Graduate Medical School of Chicago and an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He later became Medical Inspector for the Chicago Board of Education.

Unlike most women of this era who gave up their professional careers upon marriage, Johanna continued to work as a music teacher and piano accompanist in Chicago. In the 1890s a new metropolis was rising out of the ashes of Chicago's Great Fire of 1871. With the influx of new immigrants it was rapidly becoming an important center for opera, theater, and musical arts of all kinds. Johanna must have been pleased when in 1891 the conductor Theodore Thomas, who had first introduced her and her brother to New York audiences, moved to Chicago to start a new orchestra that would eventually be the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 

Her professional name became Mrs. Johanna Hess-Burr and she developed a specialty in training vocalists. Her name became connected to several prominent opera singers whom she accompanied at private recitals, a popular entertainment in America's Gilded Age society. 

In the first weeks of December 1895 Johanna Hess-Burr was a very busy pianist. On Friday, December 6, she traveled 300 miles to Dayton, Ohio to accompany a soprano in a recital at the Women's Christian Association Auditorium. The following Monday, December 9, she was one of seven soloists listed for a "Grand Military Band Concert" presented by the First Regiment Band at Chicago's huge municipal auditorium. On Tuesday, December 10, she played another recital in Chicago for two opera singers, a soprano and a baritone. It would be repeated two days later on Thursday, December 12. 

In between on Wednesday, December 11, she presented her own recital at Chicago's new Steinway Hall on East Van Buren Street. She would accompany Mr. George W. Fergusson, baritone, and Mr. Max Bendix, the concertmaster of Theodore Thomas's Orchestra.            

  

The reviewer for Chicago's Inter-Ocean newspaper wrote one of most succinct descriptions of the role an accompanist plays in music. He also praised Mrs. Johanna Hess-Burr in a way that lets us appreciate her talent even though we were not there.  

JOHANNA HESS-BURR CONCERT. 

    In spite of the inclement weather, the friends of Mrs. Johanna Hess-Burr gathered in force at Steinway Hall Wednesday evening, the occasion being a concert, where the name of the talented piano accompanist headed the list of artists. instead of, as usual, having a modest position below the others.  Those assisting were George W. Ferguson, barytone. and Max Bendix, violinist. 

    Frequenters of the concert-room do not appreciate the subtle beauties of skillful accompaniment; becoming accustomed to its presence. they take it as a matter of course.  But the artists know how rare is the ability to follow and to lead, as the case may require, giving to the caprice of the virtuoso the earnest attention that he reserves for his composer alone.  It is a delicate task. requiring a peculiarly adaptable temperament, with sympathy, refinement of feeling, and above all, perception, both quick and keen.  Mrs. Hess-Burr possesses these requirements at their best and has used them so well that her reputation has crossed the Atlantic. 

    The selections given last evening were such as to enable the player to set forth her varied abilities, although not once did she intrude her tone over that of the soloist.  She was accompanying.  Enough is said about Mr. Bendix and the handsome young barytone on other occasions to warrant on this no more than the mention of their names; suffice it, their work was up to the high standard they aim to sustain.  Let it be written of last evening's concert that the sympathetic accompaniments of Mrs. Hess-Burr were helped to great effectiveness by the efforts of the soloists.  The sonata for piano and violin provided a larger opportunity.  Unquestionably the pianist would have achieved distinction as a concert soloist had she chosen this field. 

Johann Hess Burr died at her home in Dixon, Illinois on 8 April 1928 after a long illness. She was age 70. She was survived by her husband, Dr. Albert H. Burr; a daughter, Mrs. Burr-Benson of New York; and a son, Walter A. burr of Evanston, Illinois. 

* * *

My photo of Johanna and Willie Hess is a charming portrait of two talented siblings. Vintage photographs of young violinists from 1860-1890 are pretty ordinary but photos of pianists from this era with their instrument are uncommon. Though the second half of the 19th century became an exciting time in music when the piano became the premier solo instrument, thank Mr. Steinway, and soloists became true concert hall celebrities, I've rarely encountered a photo like this, even if it's just a glimpse of a keyboard.

But without that simple annotation I might never have discovered Johanna's and Willie's identity or their remarkable history as musicians. Unlike many other family ensembles of this time the Hess children evidently had very capable parents, especially their father, Julius Hess, who provided all his children, eight in total, with instrumental training and artistic inspiration. Younger brothers Friedrich Hess, a cellist, and Alfred Hesse, a violinist, both became noted principal players in major orchestras. 

Though I was impressed with Willie's achievements as a concertmaster and teacher, it was Johanna's career path that most surprised me. According to her obituary she accompanied a long list of celebrated singers and violinists including "Melba, Nordica, Eames, Brema, Schumann-Heink, Bispham, Campanari, Ysaye, Manteau, Sauret, and many others." Great soloists know that their success depends on the finetuned artistry and wide expertise of their music partners. Undoubtedly that was something Willie learned to appreciate in Johanna when he placed his hand on her shoulder that day in Aachen.

This story needs some music
to illustrate the idea of a Wunderkind.
Here is Jinxuan Zhang, Violin, 12 Years Old
playing a Scherzo and Tarantella.
I suspect his mother is accompanying him on piano.

It was published on YouTube in 2021.

And here is the Breshears String Quartet playing
Beethoven's String Quartet No. 1, Op. 18, mvts. 3 & 4.

They are called the Stars Aligned Siblings (ages 8, 11, 12, 13)

Dustin Breshears, violin I

Valery Breshears, violin II

Colin Breshears, viola

Starla Breshears, cello
The video was released in October 2020.

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where brothers and sisters are always special

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.