Earliest known mention in the press

Over four years ago I found what was, at that time, the earliest known reference to the Sousaphone in the press. But I just stumbled upon another reference that is over a month earlier, from that same 1896 Sousa Band tour. It's from a detailed article on page 8 in the February 11, 1896 edition of The Helena [MT] Independent:

Here are the title and subtitles of the article:

And here's the relevant section of the article itself:

That "double B flat helicon trooper who was six feet five inches tall" was none other than Herman Conrad, who was indeed "a former member of Gilmore's band," from 1888, shortly after he immigrated to America from Germany, until early 1893, when he joined Sousa's Band a handful of months after Gilmore's death.

The article claims that the new instrument, "known to the profession now as a sousaphone," was created based on "a model furnished by Mr. Sousa himself." This is not quite accurate, from what we know, as Sousa himself recounted years later that he had simply suggested the idea for the modified helicon to J. W. Pepper back in 1895, and Pepper finally produced the new horn for the great bandmaster in 1895.

One curiosity that remains (for me, anyway!) is why I have only been able to find two references to the new instrument in newspapers that reported on that three month cross-country tour of Sousa's peerless band. Granted, it was merely a modified helicon bass, and helicon's were pretty common in those days (including in Sousa's Band for the first few years), but sporting the name "Sousaphone," you would think, would have sparked more interest than it seems to have received on that tour. Hmm.

UPDATE - July 22, 2024: Click here for another reference to Pepper's Sousaphone in 1896.

The first female helicon bass player?

In the course of my research, I often stumble upon some really significant things that I wasn't even looking for, and such was the case this morning.

While trying to find the earliest reference to John Philip Sousa expressing his displeasure with the helicon bass, which is what led to his idea of creating a new instrument that was dubbed a "Sousaphone," I discovered what might be the very first woman to play a helicon professionally.

Her name is Emma Louise Adams, and she was part of the Chelsea Woman's Brass Band, based in the Boston area, which was featured in the February 15, 1903 edition of The Boston Globe:

The band was led by gifted trombonist Lenna Claire Howe, who had been inspired to take up that instrument as a young lady after hearing the great Frederick Innes. Not surprisingly, given the times, her decision did not meet with much support, as she shared in the article that accompanied the photos shown here: "Everyone laughed at me, and I rather fancy I made life miserable for the neighbors. However, I mastered it."

Howe was playing trombone professionally by 1889, and four years later "she was a member of the Boston ladies' symphony which played with Sousa's band at the time of the Columbian festival" and, "After that, she organized one of her own [a ladies' orchestra]."

While I haven't been able to confirm this yet, Howe may have been part of the Boston Ladies' Military Band, which toured the country in 1897-98, and appears to have had at least one woman playing a small tuba (or is that a euphonium, or even, perhaps, that same small helicon shown with Adams above - middle row, on the right, next to the bass drum?):

Regardless, around 1901 (according to the Globe article), Howe formed the Chelsea Woman's Brass Band, which apparently toured the west and northwest shortly after being launched.

Recruiting ladies for her band was said to have been a challenge, especially for certain instruments, like the bass. In the article, it was reported that "the lady who plays the helicon [vowed] that she'd 'play it or bust it,' and she did - played it, of course." And it goes on to say that "the helicon player, Miss Emma Adams, whose home is in Huntington av. is believed to be the only woman in the United States who plays the instrument."

In October of 1903, when the band was touring the northeast and called Howe's Ladies Band and Orchestra, the press made a big deal about Adams, declaring her to be "the only woman helicon soloist in the world" (Oct. 7, 1903 edition of the Montpelier Evening Argus):

But we have to keep in mind that we're talking, what, 117 years ago, when women were still 17 years away from gaining the right to vote, and the idea of women playing professionally, especially in a brass band, was viewed as a novelty at best. The Globe article made that clear, revealing the sexism that was ubiquitous but largely undetected at that time:

Miss Howe has an infixed belief that women are capable of as excellent work with band instruments as ever was credited to the best performers among men. They practice carefully, conscientiously, and are so sensitive to disapproval that they will exert themselves more than men to become proficient. Some of them might achieve fame, but there invariably comes a time of wedding presents, the flinging of rice and old shoes [turns out that was a thing back then!], and then - well, it's all off then. Household cares and tooting a tuba don't jibe.

From Wonderphone Helicon (1908) to Sousaphone Grand (1914)

 In 1908, C. G. Conn created a family of instruments that he called "Wonderphone," where the basses and baritones now featured his newly patented bell-forward design (and, interestingly, nothing was said at that time about the benefit of this design for recording purposes, as per this post):

Conn's Sousaphone, with its upright bell, was by that time a fixture in many bands, having been introduced ten years earlier (1898, with J. W. Pepper having created the very first Sousaphone in 1895), and featured as the centerpiece of Sousa's bass section for that entire time (shown here in 1907, played by Jack Richardson):

Bringing the bell forward on that classic shoulder-borne bass would prove to be revolutionary, with that configuration ultimately overtaking the original Sousaphone design in less than twenty years, with Conn ceasing production on the original bell-up version in 1926.

But the new bass horn wasn't called a "Sousaphone" at first, as that name was already taken. Instead, it was introduced as "The Helicon BBb Bass Wonderphone":

That name, or a variation of it ("Wonderphone Helicon"), seems to have stuck until 1914, when Conn began referring to the instrument as a "Sousaphone Grand" model. Here are the relevant pages from Conn's Band and Instrument catalogs in 1913 and 1914, where the change in name is observed (images are courtesy of Mark Overton's fabulous collection, posted at saxophone.org):

The name "Sousaphone Grand" appears to have been used at least through the 1940s, in reference to the popular 38K and (eventually) 20K models. But around 1930, there appeared in Conn's catalog a new "Lightweight Sousaphone," with the model number 32K, that did not include the "Grand" designation (this horn appears to have been the predecessor to the 14K, but I haven't checked that out yet).

At some point - apparently around the early 1950s - "Grand" was quietly dropped, and Conn Sousaphones were simply referred to as "Sousaphones."

Earl and Hazel - a Sousaphone story

For a while now, I've been researching the men who played Sousaphone in John Philip Sousa's Band, of which there are at least thirty-seven! But one of them became of particular interest to me because of a Sousaphone that he had custom engraved by C. G. Conn in 1924 (special thanks to Robb Stewart for the following two photos):

Here's a close-up of the engraving of the young woman, and what it says below her portrait:

Who exactly was Earl W. Field? And who was this mysterious lady that he had emblazoned on the bell of his brand-new Conn Jumbo Sousaphone Grand? Here's what I've learned - so far!

To begin with, this gorgeous monster of a horn is currently owned by Bryant Duffy, shown here with the instrument in 2009:

The horn is listed in Conn's General Catalog "C" in 1924 as the Jumbo Sousaphone Grand Bass in BBb, model number 46K (three valves), with a bell diameter of 28 inches and a weight of a whopping 40 pounds (Bryant weighed it for me to double-check, and he actually got 43 pounds!).

It has a custom gold finish (which perhaps added to the weight), with special engraving not only on the back of the bell, as shown above, but also around the front rim of the bell (special thanks to Bryant for these great photos!):

And Earl went all out with this special order instrument, having a custom mouthpiece made as well. If you look closely, you'll see additional engraving below the name plate:

So, my goodness, what did it cost Earl to have this horn made for him?! And, again, who was that lady who was so special to him that he essentially "tatooed" her likeness on his expensive new Sousaphone?

Well, what I have begun to piece together is a bit of a shocker, because right around the time this Sousaphone was built, or perhaps shortly thereafter, that lady, whose name was Hazel, became Field's ex-wife - which must have been a huge blow to the Sousaphone star!

Here is a bit of the story of their relationship, and their respective careers, before their marriage ended.

Earl Willard Field was born on December 28, 1882, in Forestville, Iowa. His first known job was as a "barber," at the age of seventeen, but he must have been learning music as well, for by the time he was nineteen, and living in Spokane, Washington, his occupation was listed as "musician."

He lived for a time in Everett (WA) and eventually settled in Seattle, and by 1912 he was married to a woman that we only know as "Hazel." Here's the log from a trip they made from Seattle to Calgary that year:

He is listed as a "Musician," and she his "Wife." By 1915, they had moved to Sacramento, California, where they were both listed as "musicians" - and where we learn that Hazel's middle initial was "V":

In the fall of 1918, Earl had to register for the draft related to the Great War (WWI), and he did so while he and Hazel V. were living in a hotel in San Diego - perhaps both performing with a band or orchestra at that time (his employer is listed as "Melbruhn Tavern"):

By 1920, they had returned to Seattle, where Earl was now playing in the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, apparently using a four-valve Sousaphone that Conn had built for him in 1917. Here's what was revealed about him, and that horn, in the August 1920 edition of C. G. Conn's Musical Truth:

From this brief report, we learn that Earl studied tuba with the great Gus Helleberg, and at some point, before joining the symphony in Seattle, he traveled with Kryl's Band, as well as at least one other band on the East Coast. And here's the accompanying photo, showing him with that four-valve Sousaphone, built for him by Conn in 1917:

What Hazel was doing during these years is currently unknown, but on December 17, 1921, Sousa snatched Earl away from the Seattle Symphony to join his touring concert band. It was big news in the following day's edition of The Seattle Daily Times:

Sousa, if you didn't know, was partial to the original Sousaphone design, with its upright bell, but Earl only had his bell-front Conn shown above, so that horn had to be tolerated for that entire tour, as seen in the following photos - first, in San Francisco later that month (Dec.), with Earl in the middle (he was 6' 4" tall, by the way, which shows here!):

And here he is again, in the back row of the left side of this photo, taken on March 5, 1922, at the New York Hippodrome, where you can see his front-facing bell as he rests the horn on the ground:

Earl must have enjoyed the 1921-22 tour, for he returned for the 1922 tour, which started less than four months later (July 19). And when that tour ended (Nov. 18), the next we hear of Earl is that he is living with his wife, Hazel, in Santa Monica, California. What she was doing, we still don't know, but Earl joined the Los Angeles-based Burtnett-Miller Orchestra at that time, which played in San Francisco the following May (1923):

Here we learn that Earl was gifted as a jazz musician as well as a classical tuba player - and even contributed to the comedy act of this orchestra! The article about it states that the ten men in the group "were selected from the best jazz orchestras of the East," but that doesn't seem to apply to Earl. But he was able to hang with them - at least for a while:

However, by July, Sousa came calling again, and Earl jumped back in for the 1923-24 tour. Here he is toward the beginning of that tour, finally, with a proper upright bell Sousaphone:

Now, here's where that 1924 Conn Jumbo Sousaphone Grand finally enters the story - the horn that got this long blog post started! According to the 1923-24 Conn Bass catalog, Earl had recently placed the order for that special three-valve instrument (not sure why, as I assume he still had that fantastic four-valve Conn Sousaphone). By mid 1924, after the Sousa tour had finished, Conn reported this in their Musical Truth journal:

Okay, so he now had this beautifully engraved, probably rather expensive, Conn Sousaphone, and he took it home to show Hazel - but wait, what had Hazel been doing while Earl was on tour with Sousa?

Finally, after finding absolutely nothing about her up to this point, other than that she was also a "musician," like her husband, we discover that she was a very gifted artist. Here's what was reported in the November 26, 1923 edition of The San Francisco Examiner, while Earl was busy traveling the country with Sousa:

And here she is, featured in various papers around the country in early 1924:

And here is yet another feature, in the December 5, 1924 edition of The San Francisco Examiner, months after Earl would have been home from touring with Sousa (he did not go on the 1924 tour):

"Harmonious Hazel." But wait, are we sure this is the same Hazel that was Earl's wife? It is curious that she went by "Miss Hazel Field," rather than "Mrs." And the last we heard, they were living in Santa Monica, not San Francisco (although the band Earl had played with in May of 1923 did perform in San Francisco). So is it possible that this is a different Hazel Field?

Well, this brings us back to that engraving on the bell of Earl's brand-new Sousaphone. Check this out:

This confirms that this Hazel is indeed Earl's wife of at least the last twelve years. The dead giveaway are the bangs, which thin out, with the hair spread apart a bit, directly above her right eye (the eye on the left to us). It matches almost hair-for-hair! This has to be the photo that was used for the engraving.

So, was she excited to see the Sousaphone, with her image engraved on it? We simply don't know. 

What we do know is that in 1924, Hazel was living in San Francisco, and the address book only lists her, and not her husband. And in 1925, Earl is listed as living in Santa Monica, and his wife is listed not as Hazel, but "Virginia":

Of course, it could be a typo, but perhaps not. For while Earl was performing in Santa Monica, Hazel remained busy up north, leading a band in the Sacramento area in 1925:

It would appear that their respective careers, and probably the traveling with Sousa on Earl's part, led to an increasingly distant relationship. But I have not yet found any official record of divorce.

However, for his part, by 1927, Earl had joined the orchestra playing at the brand-new beach resort in Santa Monica called Club Casa Del Mar - and this time, his wife is listed as "Maud," although I have been unable to confirm anything about Earl marrying either a Virginia or a Maud:

And, by the way, here's what that beach resort looked like. It must have been a pretty cool gig for Earl, performing just steps from the ocean!

We don't know much about either Earl or Hazel from this point on. The 1930 census lists Earl as married and living in Los Angeles. But there is no name recorded for his wife on the document. Meanwhile, Hazel remained active as a musician up north.

On February 15, 1936, Earl married Rose Ellen Lacour, a widow, so he was clearly divorced by that point. Earl was still active as a musician when they married, although a few years later, it appears he became a business owner as well (possibly running a cafe, according to one source).

There seems to be nothing left to tell, except that Earl died on June 28, 1952. Here's his obituary in The Los Angeles Times a few days later:

For her part, Hazel remains a bit of a mystery, as I have been unable to learn much of anything about her other than what I shared above. In particular, I don't know anything about her birth family (other than one document that says she was born in Nebraska), nor do I know her maiden name, or whether she married again, or anything related to her death.

But this wonderfully gifted mystery woman lives on, anonymously, on the bell of one of the most stunning Sousaphones in existence!