Thursday, March 2, 2017

Not the original, but fun to see!

I stumbled upon a short film that was recently uploaded to youtube by the National Archives. It was produced around 1955 and features the director of the U. S. Marine Band, Lt. Col. William F. Santelmann, walking through through the history of that great ensemble.

What interested me the most, as you might imagine, is the appearance of what was thought to be the original Sousaphone, built by C. G. Conn.


The director mentions that, at that time, this historic instrument (although decidedly not the original Sousaphone, as I've clarified in this blog) was on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. I'm wondering if it is actually the horn that ended up at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, which I saw and played back in the summer of 2012:


Here's the full video, which is worth watching all the way through. But the reference to Sousa, and the Sousaphone, begins at around 15:55.