Rescuing a 1925 Pan American 64-K

One of my favorite tuba-related stories is very personal, and goes back eleven years. I was surprised to discover that I hadn't blogged about it before, but then it dawned on me: this was before I stumbled upon the hobby of researching the history of the Sousaphone!

So, finally, here's the story . . .

As a seventh grader, in late November 2011, my son, Jonathan, expressed interest in seeing what it was like to play a Sousaphone. He mentioned that he saw some old Sousaphone pieces high up on a shelf in the instrument storage room at his middle school, where he was playing tuba in the band. So he approached his director about this, and she responded that those instruments hadn't been touched for at least the 23 years she had been there.

Here's that storage room:

His director then surprised him by saying that if he could find anything among those dusty and long-neglected Sousaphone parts that worked, he could keep them, as they had no future there!

Having pulled me in to help with this rescue operation, we rummaged through the remains and found the bell and body for the horn pictured above, which had valves that worked surprisingly well, and only needed a neck, tuning bits, and a good cleaning.

The back of the bell had this engraving on it, identifying it as a Pan American Sousaphone, built in Elkhart, Indiana:

And on the second valve casing was the serial number 44389, suggesting that the Sousaphone was built in 1925, so, when we acquired it (2011), it was 86 years old!

Now, about Pan American: Carl D. Greenleaf, who was president of C. G. Conn, Ltd., from 1915-1949, established the Pan American Band Instrument Company in Elkhart in 1917 to produce a student line of instruments. Presumably, our Sousaphone had been played in our local school(s) for all of its history, until it was tossed on the shelf of the band room at some point (again, at least 23 years before we rescued it).

In the 1928 C. G. Conn, Ltd. Chicago Branch catalog, which was the closest I could find to 1925, the Pan American BBb Sousaphone Grand carried the model number 64-K, as well as this brief description (courtesy of Mark Overton at saxophone.org):

Ours had the "silver gold bell finish," costing $250 in 1928 (perhaps a bit less in 1925), although the finish was heavily worn and tarnished, as you can see from the image at the top of this post.

Based on the look and size, I assumed the horn was essentially a student version of a Conn 14-K - until I later learned that Conn didn't introduce that model until around 1955. However, in 1929, Conn did introduce this lighter weight Sousaphone (again, image courtesy of saxophone.org):

It would appear, then, that the Pan American 64-K was the precursor to the Conn 32-K, with the latter having fancier trim and perhaps more robust bracing to bring it up from 22.5 pounds to 26.

Now, back to late 2011: Jonathan and I took the Sousaphone home and cleaned it up with Tarn-X, baking soda, and silver polish (as per the directions of a Sousaphone expert I had been connected with), and got the horn looking pretty sharp! Here's a before and after photo:

We then inquired with the renowned "Tuba Whisperer" at Dillon Music, Matt Walters, about what could be done to get the instrument into playable shape.

Matt indicated that all it appeared to need was a new tenon soldered on, as well as a neck and bits - all of which would cost about $200. We also asked him to resolder the three loose contact points on the body, to check the alignment of the valves, and to roll out the worst of the dents in the bell (as it had apparently been whapped on the floor numerous times, as well as used as a makeshift cymbal by thoughtless drummers, leaving many dimples).

On December 7, 2011, Jonathan and I drove the horn out to Matt, and he liked what he saw and said he would get to the repair as soon as he could. Then, much to our surprise, he called us at home later that evening and said to me, 

I've made the repairs, and you've got a great sounding horn! In fact, I usually play a horn I've just worked on for no more than 30 seconds, to make sure everything is working and sounding good. But I played yours for about 5 minutes, because it really sounded great! Oh, and one of the guys at the shop here has offered to buy it from you for $500, as he is looking for a decent Sousaphone.

Needless to say, we did not sell it!

It turns out that one instrument dealer (Taylor Music) has overhauled some of these old Pan American Sousaphones, getting them into tip-top shape once again, and selling them for $3,522.00 (back in 2011)!

So, just in time for Christmas that year, we had a fantastic looking and sounding Sousaphone from 1925 (although the gold wash in the bell had mostly worn away):

But now the story really takes off, as far as the Sousaphone finally seeing action again! 

Two years later, when Jonathan entered high school, he enthusiastically joined the marching band, and it turned out that his reconditioned Pan American 64-K sounded much better than the war-torn Kings that the school had. So he was allowed to stand out in the section with his silver Sousaphone:

By 2015, we were able to help his high school purchase, through Lee Stofer, a couple of restored Conn 14-K's to replace those old Kings, bringing a unified sound to the section. Here's one of those "new" 14-K's, after Lee kindly dropped them off for us:

 And here is Jonathan with his 1925 Pan American 64-K that year:

And here's the section that year (note how his cool bell engraving stands out!):

Of course, I had to give the horn a try myself, which I did at TubaChristmas (this is from 2012, but I've now brought it many times in recent years, after Jonathan went to college and now works on the west coast):

We even got my Dad into the action, when he and my Mom were visiting us back in 2013. He played Sousaphone back when he was in high school in the 1940s. I wonder if he may have played a similar horn back then?!

If Jonathan ever has a son (or daughter!) who wants to play the Sousaphone, it would be super cool if this rescued treasure was still available for service. We'll see!