Origins still a mystery as late as 1999

Today, I was finally able to see the last time someone weighed in on the origins of the Sousaphone in the ITEA Journal prior to the publication of my articles (the great folks at ITEA have been slowly making past editions of the journal available to members for browsing online).

In the Spring 1999 edition of what was then called the TUBA Journal, Mike Knaack published this:

The subtitle was, "Origins a Mystery, but Its Inspiration Clear," and the content is engagingly written.  The cover of the Journal, as well as the first page of the article features a Conn Sousaphone from 1904:

Toward the end of the first page, Mike wrote, "At this point we get into one of the enduring controversies of the sousaphone: Who made the first sousaphone? Or, more exactly, who made the first one that Sousa really used?"

Mike then shares what he had unearthed at that time about the Pepper claims, as well as the Conn claims, but concluded with this: "Don't look for a resolution any time soon."

Well, the resolution finally came 16 years later, so I guess he was right!

He does, however, pass along some interesting "facts" that are almost surely incorrect. For example, he references Dan Shideler (of UMI) as saying that "the first Conn sousaphone was called 'The Monster' and was a BB-flat model [correct], gold-plated [never heard that before], with a 32- to 34-inch bell [probably not that big] and had four valves [correct]. It had the name 'Sousa' prominently engraved on its bell [correct again], and guesses it could have weighed as much as 75 pounds [yikes! I seriously doubt that!].

Mike goes on to suggest, via a comment by Paul Bierley, that Conn's first horn probably weighed somewhere around 45 pounds, and then adds this: "Regardless, it was large enough that it required a hefty player like [Herman] Conrad (who was about 6 feel 6 inches tall and weighed 275 pounds) to handle it."

Conrad's height is probably accurate, as it is right around the multiple sources that list him as anywhere from 6 feet 4 inches to almost seven feet tall! But 275 pounds? I'm not sure where Mike got that information. Conrad was not overweight in any of the photographs I have seen of him throughout his career (including when we see him with Conn's first Sousaphone in 1898), and 215 pounds is listed as the high end of the normal weight range for a 6 foot 6 inch male. That is, 275 pounds would put him well into the obese range, and he just doesn't look overweight at all.

But those inaccuracies aside, it was great to finally read this article. Thanks, Mike!

Oh, and toward the end of the article, there is a great photograph featuring the two historically significant Conn Sousaphones in the Greenleaf Collection up at the Interlochen Center for the Arts:

The one on the left is the so-called "Original Sousaphone," which dates from around 1905. The one on the right is the richly engraved oversized horn built in 1924 for Conn's 50th anniversary (and that one is indeed burnished in gold, and has at least a 34 inch diameter bell!).