Seeing Sousaphones at Disneyland!

This past week my family, along with my wife's family, converged on Disneyland for a few days. While I've been there many times, I had yet to see the new Disneyland Band in action, so it was great to catch them a couple of times throughout the day:

What was even more fun was discovering that one of the new collectible pins for 2016 featured Donald Duck with a Sousaphone! I love it (and yes, I bought it!):

Conrad with the Victor Orchestra

In a little Victor publication, about the size of an iPhone and titled New Victor Records February 1906, we learn about the recently formed Victor Orchestra, of which Herman Conrad was a founding member. As far as I can tell, Conrad did not play Sousaphone with this long-standing Victor "house band," but opted for standard upright tubas (more on that shortly). But he stayed with Victor, after leaving the Sousa Band in 1903, until his death in 1920.

Here are the relevant pages, courtesy of Michael Khanchalian, who has a fabulous collection of items from the early years of the recording industry: