Strictly Oompah: Sousaphones and World War II

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Sousaphones and World War II

The Conn factory in Elkhart, Indiana (postcard from the 1930s)

According to the article titled "Conn" in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (second edition, 2001):

During World War II, C. G. Conn Ltd. retooled the Elkhart plant to manufacture products for the government. No musical instruments were produced for civilian use in 1942-6. The resulting loss of sales, as well as a delayed reconversion of the plant in 1946, caused a serious decline in Conn's status as the leading band instrument manufacturer in the USA.

One has to assume that other companys were similarly diverted from producing musical instruments for the public during those challenging years. But in the January-February 1950 edition of The Instrumentalist (vol. 4, no. 3, p. 8), this brief notice appeared:

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Sousa on the Sousaphone

"The Sousaphone received its name through a suggestion made by me to J. W. Pepper, the instrument manufacturer of Philadelphia, fully 30 odd years ago. At that time, the United States Marine Band of Washington, D. C., of which I was conductor, used a double B-flat bass tuba of circular form know as a 'Helicon.' It was all right enough for street-parade work, but its tone was apt to shoot ahead too prominently and explosively to suit me for concert performances, so I spoke to Mr. Pepper relative to constructing a bass instrument in which the bell would turn upwards and be adjustable for concert purposes. He built one, and grateful to me for the suggestion, called it a Sousaphone. It was immediately taken up by other instrument makers, and is today manufactured in its greatest degree of perfection by the C. G. Conn Company, of Elkhart, Ind." (John Philip Sousa, Christian Science Monitor, August 30, 1922, p. 8)