1965 Coca-Cola ad with Sousaphone

Sousa's early visit to Pepper's factory

In 1882, Henry John Distin, along with his son, William Henry Diston, moved from New York to Philadelphia to work with J. W. Pepper in producing band instruments.

Henry Distin, and his son, William (image courtesy of Ray Farr)

Starting in mid-April, they oversaw the construction of a new factory connected to the existing Pepper building on 8th and Locust streets.

If the above image is accurate, the left side of the building, once it was finished, stated, "J. W. Pepper, American Distin Band Instrument Factory, Supervised by the Original Henry Distin from London, Eng." And here's what it looked like on the factory floor:

Shortly before it was opened on June 1, 1883, John Philip Sousa, who had been leading the U. S. Marine Band in Washington, D.C. for the past three years, paid a visit to the new facility. Afterward, Distin asked Sousa for his opinion on the instruments he would be producing there. Here is his response (reproduced in a brand new resource, A Sousa Reader, ed. Bryan Proksch):

Washington, D.C., May 8, 1883

Mr. Henry Distin

Dear Sir:- I will endeavor to reply briefly to your request for my opinion of your celebrated band instruments.
       The name of Henry Distin was always familiar to me as being synonymous with superiority in the manufacture of brass band instruments, and my association with bands and bandsmen assures me of the universal estimation they are held in by discriminating performers.
       On my recent visit to Philadelphia when I inspected the new steam factory erected for you by Mr. J. W. Pepper, I was greatly surprised at the magnitude and completeness of it. It is apparent that there is nothing lacking in its appointments for the production of the very best instruments. I was particularly pleased with your recent inventions for improving the tone and register of brass instruments. I have no doubt your thorough knowledge, both theoretically and practically, of the entire range of brass instruments enables you to produce a class of instruments which are unrivalled.
       With the earnest with that your endeavors will meet with complete success for yourself and Mr. Pepper,

I am, yours sincerely,
John Philip Sousa

While Distin's partnership with Pepper lasted only until early 1886, it is interesting to see Sousa connected with Pepper at this time - now as an instrument maker and not just a music publisher. Could it be that this contributed to Sousa giving Pepper the nod, in 1892, to start playing around with his idea for a modified helicon bass?

We can only speculate, of course, but it was Pepper who produced that first "Sousaphone" in 1895.

Long forgotten poem about the tuba

In the April 1896 edition of The Dominant, an obscure music journal published in Philadelphia way back when, I stumbled upon this rather cheesy poem about the tuba:

Harry Coleman helicon bass - 1897

While slogging through an old microfilm of the obscure music journal The Dominant (published in Philadelphia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries), I came across an ad for Harry Coleman band instruments in the February 1897 edition:

The helicon bass featured is pretty cool looking (as is the uniform of the player!), so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it. Here's a close up. Enjoy!

No question - Pepper built the first!

Toward the end of the 19th century, Arthur A. Clappe started a music journal in Philadelphia called The Dominant. At the end of the July 1896 edition, where he reports on some of the companies advertising in the journal, we find this:

Did you catch it? Here are the last three sentences of that long opening paragraph:

During the last year the members of Sousa's famous band were furnished with instruments from this factory, and among others, Mr. Pepper produced, especially for Mr. Sousa, a monster circular tuba, the lines of construction differing very materially from those of other tubas. To this instrument, made, I understand at Mr. Sousa's suggestion, is given the title of Sousaphone. It is readily distinguishable in the band by its enormous but symmetrically shaped bell, which points upward, instead of forward as it the case with other circular tubas.

This is further confirmation that the very first Sousaphone was:

• built by J. W. Pepper
• in 1895 ("During the last year")
• in his factory on 8th and Locust streets in Philadelphia
• especially for John Philip Sousa
• who had suggested the idea sometime earlier
• and it was a modifed helicon bass ("other circular tubas"), where the "enormous bell points upward."

And all of this is confirmed almost two years before Conn's first Sousaphone appeared. This is now the second reference to Pepper's Sousaphone, prior to 1898, that I have found outside of Pepper publications (here's the first reference). There really is no question that Pepper designed and built the original Sousaphone - although the current C. G. Conn website persists in claiming otherwise:

C. G. Conn also continued on a series of "firsts," building the first American made saxophone and the first sousaphone, built to John Philip Sousa's specifications.

This claim has been made by Conn since at least the early 1920s, and perhaps even earlier than that. But it just isn't true, as we have seen.

Finally, just for fun, here is the full page Pepper ad featured in The Dominant at that time (starting with the June 1896 edition):

Of particular interest are the musicians who were supposedly playing or endorsing Pepper instruments at that time. Included is Herman Conrad, who was playing the Pepper Sousaphone in Sousa's Band that year. Here's a closer look at that paragraph:

Merry TubaChristmas, 2017!

I meant to post these last Sunday, but we had a great turnout for TubaChristmas that day in Lansdale, PA. Seventy-five horns showed up, and we sounded, well, very tuba-y! Here we are rehearsing at the local fire station:

And here I am after the concert, with the 1927 Pan American Sousaphone that my son and I rescued from a local middle school a number of years ago (he just performed at TubaChristmas out at State College today):

Kid's books and Sousaphone history

I accompanied my wife to our local library one day, and thought I'd peruse the children's book section to see what I could learn about Sousaphone history. It turns out that kids are getting a lot of bad information. Here are a few samples:

First up, from 1964 (above), is the often-mentioned falsehood that the Sousaphone "was first used . . . in  marching band."

The same falsehood appears in this book, but also note the backwards facing bell in the drawing above.

Yeah, I didn't know that, because 1910 is 15 years after the fact. And the first Sousaphone was not quite that tall. I've held it and played it.

And here are some fun comics from a book on Sousa:

Finally, and this was not at our local library, but in a kid's book I found in The Creamery up at Penn State, where my son is enjoying his second year. Check out the ergonomics on that Sousaphone!

For a children's resource that does get Sousaphone history right, click here.

Veteran's Day (cartoon) Sousaphone!

My Mom likes to send our family these online "live" greeting cards, and the one she just sent for Veteran's Day is right up my alley!

Not surprisingly, this little bear band is playing Sousa's "Stars & Stripes Forever" when you let the card do it's thing. Happy Veteran's Day to you all!

More Blue Band highlights (Sept 30)

Me, our son, Jonathan, and my wife, Kim

The parade from the band building to the stadium

"Snailing" along the way!

Pregame, during the "floating LION"

Halftime, playing "Star Wars"!

My all-time favorite Onion post!

This was posted by The Onion ten years ago, but I ran across it again today and figured I had to post it here for posterity. Click here for the full article!

The college tradition continues!

Yesterday was my son's first game in the Penn State Blue Band - almost exactly thirty-eight years after my first game in the USC Trojan Marching Band (although, frankly, he's a much better player than I was at his age). I still bleed cardinal and gold, but you can already see a blue tinge starting to appear! I love it!

Here are a few shots of him in action on a rather rainy, but wonderful day:

And here's a photo of my favorite tailgate flag on gameday!

Finally, if you'd like to watch the pregame show from yesterday, here it is:

Okay, so it really is in my blood!

According to my parents, I became fascinated with the tuba back in 1965-66, when I was 4-5 years old and our family was living in Germany while my Dad taught there.

When we returned to America, and a few years later I reached the age where I could choose an instrument to play in the school band, I was adamant about the tuba. But my elementary school didn't have a small horn for a little guy like me to play, so I was set up with a Sousaphone that was sitting on a special chair in which I crawled into in order to play.

What I don't recall ever hearing back then, although he probably told me, is that my Dad played the Sousaphone when he was in high school. I remember hearing about that later, when I played in high school, and then in college, but I had never seen a photo of my Dad with a horn. That is, until now.

Here's what he discovered a few days ago in the 1947 Tucson High School yearbook, which he then enlarged the best he could and documented for me:

How cool is that?! And here's my son, his grandson, who also played the Sousaphone in high school - and just this week made it into the Penn State Blue Band (stay tuned for more on that)!

Add me in the middle, and that is three generations of Detwiler men holding down the bass line in marching band!

Band books and Sousaphone facts

As a follow up to my previous post, it turns out that the year the first Sousaphone was built is equally all over the place in general books about the history of bands in America.

For example, in 1951 Alberta Powell Graham, in Great Bands of America, wrote, "While he was with the Great Lakes Band, Sousa designed a new band instrument - a mellow-toned horn to replace the Helicon tuba with its harsh sound. This Sousaphone is in use in all large bands today" (p. 67) That would be, let's see, 1917!

Six years later (1957), in his wonderfully engaging book, Bands of America, H. W. Schwartz revealed that a number of bandmasters (Brooke and Innes) had a giant tuba constructed at one time as a spectacle for their bands, and then adds that

Even Sousa became infected with the "bigger" virus, for in 1898 he placed an order with an instrument maker to build for his band a bass tuba, large in bore and surmounted with a big bell opening upward. Sousa did not claim that his instrument was bigger than others, but it was a spectacular instrument, both in performance and in appearance, especially when held and played by the military giant Herman Conrad. In time this instrument proved its merit as a musical instrument and became known as the sousaphone (p. 183).

Schwartz, as it turns out, worked as an executive for C. G. Conn, Ltd, so he appears to be perpetuating the claim that Conn built the first Sousaphone in 1898 (although, strangely, he doesn't name Conn!). But what was built in 1898 (or early 1897) was Conn's first Sousaphone. Pepper built the original Sousaphone 2-3 years earlier - and it was called a "Sousaphone" from the start, even when Conn created his version.

But hey, Schwartz mentions Conrad, and he does so four different times in his book, and that got me excited! Conrad wasn't yet a "forgotten giant" in the late 1950s. But he is now, and I am hoping to rectify that with my upcoming article.

Finally, Richard Hansen, in his 2005 book, The American Wind Band: A Cultural History, mentions on his timeline that in 1899 "The sousaphone is developed and named for John Philip Sousa" (p. 241). Nope - not 1899, not 1898, and certainly not 1917!

Once again, it seems that over the decades no one knew, or remembered, that J. W. Pepper built the first Sousaphone in 1895. That fact had somehow gotten lost early on.

Sousa books and Sousaphone facts

In preparation for writing on Herman Conrad's life and career, I immersed myself once again in the history of the Sousa Band. But in so doing, I realized that the truth about the first Sousaphone really has been a long time coming.

For example, in Ann Lingg's biography of Sousa, published in 1954, she writes the following on page 135:

To improve the sound of his band he even turned inventor. He found that the Helicon Tuba (that brass giant curling around the marcher's body, with the weight resting on his shoulders and a large bell blaring music far ahead) was not well suited for the indoors; its frontal attack was too powerful. So Sousa suggested a new type whose bell could be turned up, so that, as he said, "the sound would diffuse over the entire band like the frosting on a cake." The firm of Wurlitzer & Company made the instrument to his specifications and called it the Sousaphone.

She's on the right track, although the helicon was used as a concert instrument by Conrad - both in Gilmore's Band, and for the first few years in Sousa's Band, until Sousa came up with the modified helicon dubbed the "Sousaphone." But Wurlitzer & Company?

Let's move on to Kenneth Berger's work on Sousa, which came out three years later (1957). On page 29, he writes this:

To many who are not musicians, the name Sousa is remembered primarily in connection with the sousaphone. He is often credited with inventing this instrument; however, the transformation from the old circular helicon (bass) to the sousaphone is more of a slightly evolutionary change than a stroke of inventive genius. Actually Sousa did not claim to have invented the new musical instrument (for which no patents were taken out, which should prove it to be a modest development), and he did not take any credit for this project. In 1898, he made some suggestions regarding the improvement of the helicon, and the first Sousaphone - called the Sousaphone Grand - was built by Ted Pounder, an instrument maker with the C. G. Conn Company, of Elkhart, Indiana.

Okay, so it wasn't Wurlitzer, but Conn who made the first Sousaphone - and in 1898? Actually, Ted Pounder did make Conn's first Sousaphone that year (or more likely in late 1897), but it was not the very first Sousaphone to appear. And it wasn't called a "Sousaphone Grand" (that name wasn't used until 1913, five years after Conn pointed the bell forward); it was called a "Monster Sousaphone"!

And did Sousa really "not take any credit for this project"? I think not - see this post, and this post!

Moving to 1971, we encounter Sousa's greatest biographer - Paul E. Bierley. In the 2001 revised edition of his treatment of Sousa, he writes this on page 16:

The musical instrument know as the sousaphone was, of course, named after Sousa. The first one was built to his specifications, but who actually constructed it is debatable. According to one of Sousa's few references to it [again, see this post], it was built by J. W. Pepper, a Philadelphia instrument manufacturer and music publisher. Another story comes from the Conn Corporation, whose instruments Sousa endorsed for many years. They claim credit for building the first sousaphone. The Pepper sousaphone, allegedly built around 1892, was evidently used very little and was not widely publicized. Conn's first sousaphone was built in 1898 and was widely promoted.

Now we're really close! Not Wurlitzer, and not Conn, but Pepper - but "around 1892" is actually 1895, as I've clarified in my research. And that Sousaphone, while it didn't last long in Sousa's Band, was played on tour in the early months of 1896.

Possible Conrad sighting at Victor!

I came across this photo of a recording session at the Victor Talking Machine Company. It's apparently from 1910 (I'm seeking confirmation on that presently).

Featured, I presume, are members of the Victor Orchestra doing their thing. But if you look at the far right, next to and behind the tall chair upon which the cellist is sitting, you can see a tuba player. Here's a close-up of that portion of the photo:

Compare that with the photo below, which shows Conrad in a Victor poster that was produced in 1918 for use in schools. It appears to be the exact type of chair that we see being used in the studio. And is it just me, or does that look like the same shoes in the photos as well?!

Is a Sousaphone really that strange?

In the October 12, 1902 edition of The Sunday Call (San Francisco, CA), there is a full page article, written by John Philip Sousa himself, titled . . .

Just what Sousa is doing hanging out with those curvy gals is a fair question, but such is the life of the celebrated bandmaster!

Among "the strange instruments of the military band" is, of course, the Sousaphone. But here's the whole paragraph that talks about the Sousaphone as a member of the tuba family . . .

Later in the article, Sousa reveals that a Sousaphone, in 1902, cost from $300-350. Hows that for a deal?!

Is that his real hair, or is it a toupee?!

While searching The New York Times archives this morning, I came across this unusual fact about Sousa's Band in the November 14, 1901 edition:

Whether Sousa held to this throughout his career is unknown. But I'm pretty sure that Conrad had a full head of hair - and it was his own - so no problem there for the famous Sousaphonist!

Did Sousa only recruit big men?!

Found this in the April 20, 1919 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer Sun:

An early three-valve Conn Monster

I dropped in on Dillon Music this afternoon to chat with Steve Dillon and to check out a vintage Conn Sousaphone that they have on consignment. Matt Walters, the world-class tuba technician at Dillon, graciously let me spend some quality time with this enormous old beast:

The first thing I noticed about this horn was how much bigger the bell and bell throat appeared in comparison to the original Sousaphone built by J. W. Pepper. And then I picked it up - yikes! I asked Matt if we could weigh it, and the scale put it right at 33 pounds - the exact weight of Conn's first Sousaphone (which had four valves), according to one newspaper report from 1901.

The serial number - 91790 - suggests that this Monster was built in 1905, or perhaps 1906 - about three years after Conn first created and started selling a three-valve Sousaphone. But this one seems larger than the standard model (compare where my head is in relation to the bell vs. what can be seen in the ad from 1902 in the link above).

Here are more photos of this great old Sousaphone. If it had a model number, I'm not sure what it would have been at this early stage. There was nothing on the horn itself that suggested anything.

The bell diameter is 24 inches; the bell throat is 7 1/8 inches; and the bore is .773 inches. And as I mentioned earlier, the weight is a shoulder-crushing 33 pounds - which is what Conrad had to deal with during his time with the Sousa Band. I can't imagine shouldering a horn of that size and weight for an entire concert!

Sadly, and quite surprisingly, this particular Sousaphone didn't sound all that great. I was expecting a much clearer and deeper sound, but it felt stuffy, and not nearly as boomy as my 1927 Pan American 64K Sousaphone (= Conn 14K), which is considerably smaller and lighter.

But it would be fun to learn where this old Conn raincatcher has been over the past 112 years!