Revisiting the World's Largest Tuba

I recently posted on what I'm pretty sure was "the largest tuba ever built," which was a giant Saxhorn bourdon built by Adolphe Sax and (apparently) featured at the Paris Exposition of 1867 (seen above a number of years later). 

To re-cap, here's the lithograph related to that Exposition, showing not only that enormous Saxhorn (on the right), but also a massive Saxtuba - a helicon-like version where the horn rests on the right shoulder, and the bell points forward:

After finding this image a number of years ago, I just wasn't convinced that these horns actually existed, as they are ridiculously large, and, well, I hadn't heard them mentioned anywhere, or seen either of them in a photograph - whether from that year, or years later. That is, until recently - check this out again, now a little closer up:

Here, in what is reportedly Sax's workshop in Rue de Dunkerque, Paris, stands that glorious monster seen on the right (side note: assuming that the man is about 5'6", the tuba stands about 10-11 feet tall). And that workshop, I'm told, was where Sax conducted business starting in the late 1870s, so my assumption, based on the lithograph, and then this photo, was that his giant Saxhorn bourdon was built for the Paris Exposition of 1867, and then kept in his workshop as a colossal conversation piece!

But now I'm not so sure. I'm thinking that this towering tuba might actually go all the way back to The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. Follow along with me . . .

Bidding on the bourdon

First up is a newspaper report, from late 1877, revealing that Sax, after declaring bankruptcy for the third time in his life, sold at auction his collection of 467 musical instruments, which took him the previous 40 years to assemble. For our purposes, it states that

Perhaps the most amazing of the curiosities brought together by M. Saxe [sic], is the "Sax-horn bourdon." The length of this prodigious affair, when drawn out to its full length, is seventeen metres and a half . . . To give an idea of this enormous thing, it may be added that four men can easily stand together in its tube. And its roar, when sounded, fully justifies its name of "bourdon," which term designates the great deep-toned, booming "big bell" of cathedrals, &c.

That sure sounds like the exact same horn - especially the size of the bell, in which you could stuff four guys!

Related to that report is the catalogue that was created in 1877 to list and describe all of the instruments that were to be auctioned off. Sax scholar Eugenia Mitroulia, who examined that catalogue, shares that

The instrument with entry number 200 is a saxhorn bourdon. It was described as having a total length of seventeen metres, three valves, and diameter of the tubing towards the bell one metre. The particular instrument, which apparently has not survived, [has a] length of seventeen metres [which] would result in a pitch of 52-ft E-Flat.

Here we are provided with a few more details about this monster tuba - that it had three valves, and a bell diameter of about 39-40 inches (one meter), and that it is a 52-ft E-flat tuba. These all match the giant Saxhorn bourdon in the photo above.

And one more detail is revealed in that catalogue. Following the description of the horn, it says, "This instrument is made by Mr. Sax to prove that people of small height can very easily play on big instruments, and that it is not the metal that gives the sound and the timbre" (translated from the French by Mitroulia).

Reports on the auction reveal that Sax's instrument collection was divided up between three buyers (the museums of the Conservatoires of Paris and Brussels, and the private museum of M. Sweck, of Renaix, Belgium) for "the sum of 12,060 francs, barely a quarter of its value." Further, "the famous saxhorn-bourdon, 17 meters in length, [sold for] 410 francs," but we are not told who purchased it - nor do we know what happened to it. This historic horn has apparently not been seen since that time (odd, if it was indeed purchased by a museum).

Lurking in the shadows

The first clue that was brought to my attention that clarified that this massive Saxhorn had been built prior to 1867 is the following lithograph, seen in the July 10, 1864 edition of L'Illustration, Journal Universel:

The caption at the bottom reads, "Audition of new instruments by Sax (Sax Hall, Rue Saint-Georges)," but lurking in the shadows in the back left of the image is our monster, leaning up against the wall. Here's a closer look:

While the instrument appears taller than 10 feet, it may be propped up on something, or the lithographer perhaps exaggerated its height. But it definitely appears to be the giant Saxhorn bourdon, just sitting there in Sax's workshop in Rue de Saint-Georges, which is where he had conducted business since 1843. In fact, here's a lithograph of the exterior of that workshop:

Behold the back row bourdons!

Two years earlier, in 1862, we get the earliest known glimpse of the giant Saxhorn bourdon, along with its slightly shorter and more slender siblings, in this lithograph showing the display case that Sax featured at the International Exhibition in London (found in the January 3, 1863 edition of Le Monde Illustre):

This case appears identical to the one in Sax Hall in the 1864 lithograph above (minus the fancy top decor - perhaps because it didn't' fit?), as well as the 1867 lithograph (a dead-ringer in that case), suggesting that Sax simply took the whole thing home to Paris after the Exhibition of 1862. But in London, the giant Saxhorn bourdon was featured in the case itself, as we can see here.

But there are indeed a few other oversized Saxhorns to its left (our right), as well as a few Saxtubas hanging from the upper part of the case. I've colored them in to help identify everything:

 

The two Saxtubas are in blue (and you'll remember that there was apparently an even larger Saxtuba featured in the Paris Exposition of 1867, as seen toward the top of this post); the giant Saxhorn bourdon is in green; then there are two very tall Saxhorns (perhaps contrabass?) next to the giant - one that is just slightly shorter, shown in orange, and one that is two or three feet shorter, shown in yellow. We'll see those two again, I'm pretty sure, in a photograph from 1851 below. And then the two saxhorns in pink may be contrabass instruments, and perhaps one of them is the 26-ft E-flat from 1855, mentioned below.

But here we have clear proof (assuming the lithograph reflects reality!) that the giant Saxhorn bourdon existed at least as early as 1862. What about earlier than that?

See you in the funny papers!

Seven years earlier, for the Paris Exposition of 1855, Sax built and exhibited a 26-ft E-flat contrabass Saxhorn bourdon which survives to this day in the Henri Selmer collection in Paris:

Based on this photograph (which, I'm told, shows Joseph Brousse [1864-1937], tuba player for the Paris Opera, standing next to it), this horn is significantly smaller than the giant Saxhorn bourdon above. This one appears to be about 6 feet tall, and the bell diameter is said to be 22 inches so about half the size of the giant's bell (but, hey, it's still an enormous tuba!).

What's significant is that a number of cartoons that are connected with that 1855 Exposition poke fun at Sax's giant tuba, and I'm just wondering, based on the size shown in these illustrations, if the artist is perhaps referring to the larger horn (what I've been calling the giant Saxhorn bourdon), which may have made an appearance at that Exposition as well. Check these out, all of which appear in editions of Le Charivari in late 1855 - this one dated October 21:

The caption reads, "The musician for whom Mr. Sax made his new trumpet [tuba]." But notice what appears to be a second, smaller over-sized tuba bell on the left. Does this account for both the 26-ft E-flat and the 52-ft E-flat Saxhorn bourdons? The next cartoon is from October 28:

The caption here reads, "What will inevitably happen the day Mr. Sax blows a little too hard in his new trumpet [tuba]." It clearly imagines a massive horn! Then, there are two cartoons in the November 4 edition:

The caption for this one reads, "The audience visiting Mr. Sax's trumpet [tuba]," which, again, imagines a horn like the larger Saxhorn bourdon. And then the second cartoon in this edition has a little fun with Rossini:

The caption reads, "Rossini at the Exposition. The illustrious Rossini taking Mr. Sax's trumpet [tuba] for a steam engine." (And notice again that there appear to be smaller, but still large, saxhorns in the background - one on either side of the massive one dogging Rossini!

Again, all of these cartoons seem to be imagining the larger, 52-ft E-flat, Saxhorn bourdon, but can we find any evidence of this massive horn before 1855?

What does the Crystal Palace reveal?

For the Great Exhibition of 1851, held in the stunning Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, Sax featured 85 of his instruments in this beautiful display case:

In the back of the case, in the center and on the left, are two rather tall instruments that are probably stretched-out versions of contrabass (or subcontrabass?) Saxhorns - perhaps the very horns next to the giant Saxhorn bourdon in the lithograph from 1862 above (and maybe even the two seen in the background of the last of the cartoons above). 

Based on the length of the clarinet in the center of the case, which would have been about 2 feet, the case appears to be about 9 feet tall, suggesting that the contrabass Saxhorn on the left was close to that height (we can't see the top of it), and the one in the middle a foot or two shorter than the first one.

But the earliest reference I have found to a giant Saxhorn at that Exhibition is from the July 5, 1851 edition of Washington D. C.'s Weekly National Intelligencer, which says, "Sax has provided eighty-five instruments, (wind,) most of them invented or perfected by himself. The most remarkable in size is a Sax-horn bourdon, three yards high, and of not less than forty-eight feet of tube."

Is that referring to the slender Saxhorn in the back of the case on the left? Or is it referring to an even larger horn that is not in the photo? The dimensions given, "three yards high, and of not less than forty-eight feet of tube," are pretty close to the 52-ft E-flat Saxhorn bourdon that stands an impressive 10-11 feet tall - the very horn under consideration in this post.

About a month after that initial report, a more delightfully descriptive one came out in the August 10, 1851 edition of Le Pionnier de l'Assomption, out of Napoleonville, Louisiana (translated from the French by Google):

The Sax-horn bourdon, three meters high, forty-eight feet of tube development, monster instrument, the last of the family invented by the famous Belgian, a real trumpet of Jericho, which one would think  destined to the breath of some gigantic Boreas [the Greek god of the north wind], and which resounds in a formidable way, by the mere displacement of the air under the vibration of the lips.

"This one is the giant bass"

A decade later, in 1861, the great French musicologist Pontecoulant referred back to a spectacular horn featured by Sax at the Great Exhibition of 1851, describing it as (again, with translation help from Google)

the sax-horn-bourdon, descending to the extra B flat [which is about as low as a subcontrabass Eb instrument can go], whose development is 48 feet in length [probably 52], and whose height is 3 meters. This one is the giant bass. At its appearance, one would think that no human lung could be sufficient for the insufflation necessary for this gigantic instrument; yet its proportions are so well regulated, its contours so soft, the play of its pistons is so easy, that it could easily be played before the jury of the exhibition by a person who had never touched it.

In considering the size, height, and the description, declaring that "this one is the giant bass," and referring to this "gigantic instrument," it seems likely that Pontecoulant has in mind the massive Saxhorn bourdon under consideration here.

But, alas, I have not yet found any photo of this giant tuba at the Exhibition of 1851, so we can't say for sure. However, it's hard to be confident in a different conclusion in light of all of the evidence above. But feel free to prove me wrong!

What we can say for sure at this point, based on my research of giant tubas over the past few years, is that this horn stands as "the world's largest tuba." At least nine other subcontrabass tubas have appeared since the creation of this one, but none are anywhere close to its size.

[Special thanks to Doug Yeo and Eugenia Mitroulia for corresponding with me about this amazing instrument!]

No Sousaphone Solo? C'mon, Man!

Check out the second-to-the-last paragraph of this report of a Sousa Band concert in Baltimore in early 1922:

The soloist on "the huge bass tuba," which would have been one of the four (or possibly five) Sousaphone players that made up the tuba section at that time, would have probably been Sousa's young hot-shot on the bass horn, Bill Bell, seen here a week earlier on the far right:

While Sousa chose not to feature Bell at this concert, he did feature him at times during the years Bell was in the band (1921-24).

Interestingly, one player who was featured at that concert was flutist Meredith Willson, who went on to write the book, music, and lyrics of the iconic 1957 musical, The Music Man.

Even more interestingly, Willson chose to leave out the bass horns in the lyrics to his famous song, "Seventy-Six Trombones." The closest we get are "double bell euphoniums and big bassoons"! Granted, it says "there were horns of every shape and size," but no explicit mention of a tuba or a Sousaphone. C'mon, man!

Here are the full lyrics:

Seventy six trombones led the big parade,
With a hundred & ten cornets close at hand.
They were followed by rows and rows,
Of the finest virtuosos,
The cream of every famous band.

Seventy six trombones caught the morning sun,
With a hundred & ten cornets right behind.
There were over a thousand reeds,
Springing up like weeds,
There were horns of every shape & size.

There were copper bottom timpani in horse platoons,
Thundering, thundering, all along the way.
Double bell euphoniums and big bassoons,
Each bassoon having its big fat say.

There were fifty mounted cannons in the battery,
Thundering, thundering, louder than before.
Clarinets of every size,
And trumpets who'd improvise
A full octave higher than the score!

Seventy six trombones hit the counterpoint,
While a hundred and ten cornets blazed away.
To the rhythm of Harch! Harch! Harch!
All the kids began to march,
And they're marching still right today!

In the 1962 movie, where the song is featured during the closing credits, there are five Sousaphones shown briefly at one point (with Buddy Hackett playing one of them), but I didn't get a sense of how many were in the band overall. Given that there were, uhm, seventy-six trombones, I would think there would have been a truckload of tubas as well!

But hey, there is that one (detachable) upright bell tuba in the small band indoors, before the magical transformation, where the player's mother blurts out, "That's my Barney! That tuba's my Barney!" Absolutely awful playing, of course (and even worse acting as far as looking like he was playing that horn), but a great scene!

Here's the whole thing - enjoy!

The Largest Tuba Ever Built? (1867)

 About a year and a half ago, I created a rather lengthy post about giant tubas because, well, why not?! Tubas are already the largest brass horns used in a band or orchestra, but over the years some instrument makers have enjoyed creating massive one-offs, probably more as a spectacle than for actual use in an ensemble.

And that begs the question, which horn owns the title of "the largest tuba ever built"? There are, of course, clarifications to this accolade, such as "Is it fully functional?" (some are essentially giant bugles with phony valves) and "Does it still exist?" (many have been lost to the ravages of time).

In my search for the winner over the past couple of years, I came across the following lithograph in the August 10, 1867 edition of Le Monde Illustre:

The caption at the bottom of the image says, "International Exposition - Musical instruments exhibited by Mr. Adolphe Sax," and that seems to suggest that these ridiculously oversized saxhorns could actually be seen in Paris that year. But the accompanying article says nothing about these giants, and I wasn't convinced that horns that big really existed.

I mean, come on, the shoulder-borne one on the left (referred to as a saxtuba in some sources) - wouldn't that essentially crush the player with its weight?! Sax did make horns with that exact design, where it rests on the right shoulder (unlike the helicon bass, which rested on the left shoulder, as would Sousaphones years later). But this monstrous version would surely be unwieldly after a few seconds!

And the one on the right, looking like a standard tuba, just seems way too big to be anything but a funny cartoon. Besides, I was not able to find any photo confirming that either of these enormous saxhorns actually existed, nor did I find anything in writing from that year that talked about these spectacles.

That is, until now.

As happens from time to time, those who know of my research interests sometimes send me relevant tips or items, and that happened yesterday. A reader of this blog (good to know I actually have those - I wasn't sure!) from Oslo, Norway, sent me the following photo:

Granted, it's only the giant saxhorn on the right in the lithograph, but dang! There it is, the real thing, right in the middle of Sax's workshop on Dunkerque Street in Paris! And go figure - the inventor of the Saxophone also built the world's largest tuba!

Here is a side-by-side comparison, showing that it is most definitely that cartoonish monster in the lithograph:

Given the size of the man standing next to it (as well as those above), and knowing what I do about giant tubas, this is now far-and-away the largest tuba ever built. Of course, I'm not sure yet whether it was fully-functional (and we may never know). But I assume it is lost, as there is no visual record of it, to my knowledge, beyond 1867 (assuming the photo shown here is from that year).

However, if you look close, you'll notice that it is fitted with something like a standard tuba mouthpiece, so it appears one could at least blow into the instrument. But those three valves (Berliner valves?) - we're they operational? Again, we simply don't know.

Here's a larger version of the photo for you to get the best look at this beast:

With this new revelation, and knowing that the horn is referred to as a "Saxhorn bourdon en si b," I did a fresh search for newspaper accounts of this giant. Here's what I found, tucked away in the February 9, 1878 edition of The Sydney Morning Herald, which reprinted a report from Paris dated November 30, 1877 - just over ten years after that Paris Exposition that featured these ridiculously large instruments:

According to this report, Sax, who had just turned 63, was selling his collection of over 500 musical instruments for reasons that are not stated. But one of the horns on the auction block was what sounds like this very instrument. After all, here we learn that:

• It had somewhere around 75 total feet of tubing!
• It could hold four men in its bell (did they try that?!)
• And it sounded awesome - like a cathedral bell!

So, where did this massive "Sax-horn bourdon" end up? Who bought it at the auction? How much did it go for? And where is it today? Often old relics are found in dark corners of attics, but I don't think you could even get a monster like this up in an attic - or even haul it through a typical door! Anyway, lots more to explore regarding this amazing instrument, so stay tuned!

But now, about that funky shoulder-borne version: Keep your eye out for a photo of that one!

UPDATE: Click here for additional information about this historic instrument.

[Special thanks to Timothee Reyrolle for letting me know about this historically significant photo.]

Evolution of Conn's first Sousaphone

About two years after J. W. Pepper created the first Sousaphone and delivered it to Sousa, C. G. Conn produced his own Sousaphone - at which time he supplied the entire band with beautiful new Conn instruments. Here's the notice about this, in the January 22, 1898 edition of The Music Trade Review:

The announcement makes it sound like Conn both created and named this new instrument, which suggests that either the reporter wasn't aware that Pepper had already done that, or that the journal just printed what Conn had supplied, which was perhaps a tad misleading! (Both Pepper and Conn were known to stretch the truth in some of their advertising back in those days.)

But Pepper's Sousaphone did indeed exist, and even went on tour with Sousa's Band in 1896. But then it seems to disappear. The next time we see a Sousaphone in that great band, it's Conn's first one, which was most likely built in late 1897.

From the notice above, we can safely assume that Conn's new horn was silver-plated. But what did it look like? Below is a visual history of this important instrument, which reveals that it evolved through at least three slightly different versions.

1898 - Conn's first version

Once his Sousaphone was built, and Herman Conrad, the "Primo Basso" of Sousa's Band, was available for a photo session, this wonderful image was created:

The instrument has four valves (Pepper's Sousaphone only has three), although the tubing is rather odd, going in different angles, and with a good bit of it buried where we can't see it. Further, notice that the lead pipe extends over from the top of the second branch of the main coil of the body. And it looks like the neck is custom-fitted for Conrad, as no tuning bits are evident.

The engraving at the bass of the bell shows the capital letters "S O U S," with an "A" almost certainly around the curve. And then there is a more elaborate engraving above that, the details of which are virtually impossible to make out. But it must have looked spectacular!

Here's the earliest known photo of this instrument in the context of the band, which was taken in St. Louis in September of 1898:

While the angle of the horn in this photo, in comparison with the studio photo, might explain this, the loop of the upper part of the tubing that leads down to the main tuning slide seems more pronounced in the photo above (looking much like all later Conn Sousaphones). Was that possibly a tweak before the Sousaphone went on the road? Who knows. But we know that one major tweak was eventually made.

1899 - Conn's second version

Almost exactly a year after the above photo was taken, an illustration of Conn's Sousaphone appeared in The Pittsburgh Post (Sept. 17, 1899), and the valve cluster is significantly different:

Now the fourth valve tubing is in the open, extending out with a larger loop, and laying over the middle of the second branch. And the lead pipe emerges not from the top of the second branch, as in version one, but from within what I assume is the top loop of the main tuning slide.

Here's an undated photo of Conrad with this version of the Sousaphone (and those straps are curious; had Conn just replaced the valve cluster with the newer version?). The bell appears to be identical to the one seen in version one:

And here is that same version of Conn's Sousaphone in Hamburg, Germany, in late May or early June 1900, when the Sousa Band was touring Europe for the first time:

And just to be clear on the differences between the valve clusters in version one and version two, here is a side-by-side comparison:

Version two of Conn's Sousaphone returned to Europe in 1901 (just England and Scotland this time), as evidenced by this photo in London's Illustrated Mail, dated October 2 of that year:

1903 - Conn's third version

But Conn still wasn't done tinkering with his Sousaphone. For while we don't know exactly when version three was created, our first glimpse of it comes in this photograph when Sousa's Band was performing in London in early 1903:

Before examining the new layout of the valve cluster, it's worth noting the bell engravings - to the extent we can make anything out! Is it the same bell as in versions one and two? I'm not sure, although it seems possible to detect, however faintly, where the "S O U S A" might be on the lower part of the bell. But perhaps I'm imaging things!

Regardless, the third valve tubing now runs the length of the valve cluster, with the longest part positioned below the fourth valve - something we hadn't seen before. And the lead pipe appears a bit lower, more in line with the valves, and, based on later photos, apparently curls up and around the upper part of the main tuning slide tube, rather than right through the middle of that upper loop, as it did in version two.

This is the version that we see Jack Richardson playing with Sousa, after he replaced Conrad, who left the band in August 1903. Here's the earliest known image of Richardson with Sousa, at Willow Grove Park in 1905:

Again, just to be clear, here are all three versions of the valve clusters side-by-side. They are clearly different:

And here's a better look at version three from the Conn Sousaphone that is in the Greenleaf Collection at the Interlochen Center for the Arts, whose serial number (88983) suggests that it was built in 1905 - just a few years after Conn's third and final version appeared (and yes, that's me!):

The layout of the valve cluster in this horn appears identical to the one in 1903. Conn seems to have landed on a configuration that needed no further tweaking for his monster four-valve Sousaphone. For even as late as 1924, C. G. Conn Ltd. was still producing this exact model, as seen in this Sousaphone which resides in the Sousa Archives at the University of Illinois (serial number 208098):

Where did Conn's first Sousaphone(s) go?

Thankfully, the original Sousaphone, built by Pepper, has survived the ravages of time. But what about any of the three versions of Conn's first Sousaphone? We simply don't know if one of them still exists.

However, version two appeared in an artistic rendering of a photo of Jack Richardson that I found in a 1913 edition of Conn's Musical Truth:

Whether the photo was taken that year, or it was from years earlier, we simply don't know. But if it is from 1913, that means it didn't perish in the Conn factory fire of 1910, which means it's entirely possible that this version is still out there somewhere.

And version one? Well, if only the valve cluster was changed out, the rest of it would exist in version two. And version three? Perhaps the same issue. Although if it was an altogether new Sousaphone, which seems more likely, given the photo of Richardson with version two, it might possibly still be out there somewhere. But it's almost certainly not the Interlochen Sousaphone, as has been claimed for years, as the serial number seems to date it a bit too late for that.

So, keep your eyes open! That's what I'm doing!

Feast your eyes on this great photo!

As I shared in the previous post, one of my favorite things to have happen when I engage in research is to stumble upon something I wasn't even looking for, and that happened again the other day!

While researching Warren G. Harding, and his history as a helicon player, I found the original photo of Herman Conrad posing with the very first Conn Sousaphone back in 1898 (or perhaps late 1897). The source of the photo had no idea who was in it, or when it was taken (and why it showed up in a search for Harding is a mystery to me!).

Conn used this photo in his publications for a few years, but the newsprint version, which is all I had up to this point, is pretty grainy. Now we can see Conrad, and this first version of Conn's Sousaphone, in glorious detail. Take particular note of the valve cluster, as that is what Conn replaced pretty quickly with version two, a year or so later.

Enjoy!

The helicon - presidential, war hero!

I love stumbling upon things in my research. Here's a wonderful little article I came across today, from the April 7, 1927 edition of the Lincoln Journal Star, that talks about Warren G. Harding's history with the helicon bass (the forerunner to the Sousaphone), and an episode where a helicon took on shrapnel in the Great War, but kept on tootin'! As the writer put it in the last line, "All hell can't stop a helicon." Enjoy!

The Most Wonderful Endorsement?

 Sousa regularly enjoyed a good cigar, but in 1912 a friend introduced him to Tuxedo Tobacco, and he added the pipe to his smoking repertoire. He also began showing up in advertisements for that brand in newspapers around the country. Here, for example, is what appeared in the September 6, 1912 edition of the St. Joseph News Press Gazette:

Magazines were in on this as well, as seen here, a few weeks later:

As the ad put it, "The live, virile men who make this country what it is, recognize the relaxation from nervous and mental strain, the restfulness - that comes from smoking Tuxedo Tobacco." 

For the next year, that brand was being endorsed by such "live, virile men" as athletes, trapshooters, authors, explorers, millionaires, and even opera singers! Check this out, from the January 29, 1914 edition of The Evening Journal, out of Wilmington, Delaware:

Wow. Who knew that smoking a pipe could help you in your singing career?!

Not surprisingly, by early 1914, newspapers featured such headlines as this one, from the February 16, 1914 edition of The Evening Mail, out of Stockton, California:

A year later, Tuxedo Tobacco went back to featuring Sousa on his own to sell their product, as seen here in the January 14, 1915 edition of The Kenosha [Wisconsin] Evening News (and, once again, the touted benefits of smoking a pipe are truly amazing!):

But then Tuxedo Tobacco, or Sousa, or both, pulled off something almost unbelievable, leading to "The Most Wonderful Endorsement Ever Given Any Product." This headline began appearing on the back covers of popular magazines in late 1915, and eventually made it into newspapers as well, as seen here in the December 29, 1915 edition of The North Adams [MA] Transcript:

The key paragraph says this: "Mr. Sousa has been a smoker of Tuxedo Tobacco for years. Recently, at the Panama-Pacific Exposition [in San Francisco, where his band played from May 22 through July 23, 1915], a newspaper representative made the discovery that every member of Sousa's Band is also a Tuxedo smoker!"

Now, what are the chances of that?! Or is the truth being stretched a bit here? Well, the ad goes on to say, "Whereupon, the following endorsement of Tuxedo was gladly given and signed by Mr. Sousa and the sixty-six members of his Band. Read it - as sure-fire and convincing as a Sousa March. . . . No other product has ever received such a remarkable endorsement as this."

And here are those sixty-six signatures - a real rarity, identifying every member of the band on that cross-country tour, which started on April 5 and ended on September 26, as well as the instrument they were playing (the list varies in how it is edited on each version of the ad, but here are the four columns put together) :

Of course, of greatest interest to me are the six bass players, who appear in the list as follows:

1. "John M. Kuhn, Sousaphone" (third from the top)
2. "Arthur Storch, Tubaist" (ninth from the top)
3. "J. W. Richardson, Sousa Phone" (twelfth from the top)
4. "O. R. Cott, Tuba" (eighteenth from the top)
5. "Oscar S. Peterson, Tuba" (twenty-first from the top)
6. "Emil M. Weber, Tuba" (thirteenth from the bottom)

There are a number of things worth noting here:

• To my knowledge, the bass section had never been that large before, featuring six players. And given the players, the section must have sounded awesome!
• Kuhn, according to one report, was discovered by Sousa at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, and added to the band at that time. I'm still trying to confirm that, but at the very least, we know he hadn't played with Sousa prior to the 1915 cross-country tour.
• This is also the first time we see two Sousaphones in the band instead of just one. By late 1921, Sousa went with all Sousaphones for his bass section.
• Note that Kuhn calls his instrument a "Sousaphone," and Richardson, a "Sousa Phone." Either way, the "S" is capitalized, which makes sense, given that the name is based on a person, "Sousa."
• Note also that Storch refers to himself as a "Tubaist." I've found this term used of a tuba player as early as 1871, although it is no longer used today, as we've gone with "Tubist."
• Emil M. Weber was the father of both Herbert Weber, who played Sousaphone with Sousa in 1924 and 1926, and Albert Weber, who played Sousaphone with Sousa in 1926.

Okay, put all of that in your pipe and smoke it! (Sorry, I couldn't resist!)

[Special thanks to Doug Yeo who shared the band ad with me earlier today, which really intrigued me, resulting in the post above!]

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.