My working assumption was that Gilmore had summoned him from Europe to join his band, as he was in need of a new bass player and had heard that young Herman (just 20 years old when he left for America), was already viewed as one of the best tubists in the world.
And while that may perhaps still be the case, here's what we know from the records that I have been able to track down:
- Conrad sailed on board the S. S. Rhein, from Bremen, around September 20, 1887, and arrived in Baltimore on either October 3 or 6 (there is a discrepancy in the records).
- He is listed in the Detroit directory for 1888 as living with his parents, who had emigrated to America on June 8, 1886. The listing says, "Wonderland, bds e s Clark av 5 n of Dix av." and identifies him as a "musician."
- Wonderland, as it turns out, was a theater in the heart of Detroit's entertainment district (80 Woodward Ave.) that opened on Christmas Day, 1886. Here it is a few years later, on the far right, when it was called the Avenue Theater:
And here is the location of Wonderland in center city Detroit (refer to the yellow dot on this 1897 map):
And here is one notice in the Detroit Free Press, dated June 11, 1887, that reveals what all was going on at the Wonderland at that time:
It appears that Conrad started playing at the Wonderland shortly after he arrived in Detroit, and it was while he was working there that he was recruited by Gilmore, according to the June 16, 1888 edition of The New York Clipper:
It appears that Conrad started playing at the Wonderland shortly after he arrived in Detroit, and it was while he was working there that he was recruited by Gilmore, according to the June 16, 1888 edition of The New York Clipper:
The Gilmore Band tour that was in progress was heading toward the Midwest at that time (June), having been in the South the previous month, so perhaps Conrad jumped right in when they were nearby. Or maybe he joined them for their time in Manhattan Beach later that summer. But either way, he was now part of the best band in the world - and he had just turned 21 that Spring!
Thanks for the research about Herman Conrad.
ReplyDeleteWould he have brought his own tuba on board the ship from Europe, or would either the Wonderland theater or Gilmore have supplied him with a horn? If so, what model would he have been playing at that time?
Hi Steve - I get so few comments on this blog, that sometimes I don't notice when I do! But this is a great question, and one that we can only speculate regarding the answer.
DeleteAs a 20 year old, having been in the Prussian army, and with his parents already in America, I would doubt he had his own horn. But perhaps he did - we just don't know.
What we do know is that the earliest image we have of him playing with Gilmore shows him with the large, BBb Sudre helicon that had apparently already been played in the band prior to his joining it.
It is that horn that we see Conrad with all the way through his earliest years with Sousa - until 1896, when he starts playing the Pepper Sousaphone, and then, in 1898, the Conn Sousaphone.
Hope this helps!
Dave