Friday, April 20, 2018

Conrad: A giant nearly 7 feet tall!

A good friend of mine just sent me the image below, which is the only known photograph of Herman Conrad that I didn't yet possess. It is from the November 1903 edition of C. G. Conn's Truth (vol. 5, no. 7, p. 3), and above the photo it says, "The Long and Short of It."


The accompanying article has this to say:
It is claimed  that if the [Sousa] band was formed up in line with men and instruments classified, commencing with the Piccolo on the right and the Sousaphone on the left, that the stature of the men would conform so perfectly to the size of the instruments, that the shoulder line would make an even upward incline from right to left. 
For instance Mr. Marshall Lufsky, the Flute player is 5 feet 4 inches in height, while Mr. Herman Conrad with the Wonder Monster Sousaphone is a giant nearly 7 feet tall. . . . While Mr. Conrad is a fairly good Flute player, Mr. Lufsky does not claim to be a great artist on the Bass.
Sources are not in agreement as to Conrad's height - one says he was 6 feet 4 inches, another 6 feet 6 inches, and yet another 6 feet 8 inches. But he was truly a giant, and in more ways than one!