Fiberglass Sousaphones arrive in 1961

In 1961, the Conn Corporation of Elkhart, Indiana, introduced perhaps the most significant innovation for the Sousaphone since the bell came forward way back in 1908: "the featherweight, super-strong fiber glass sousaphone," as it was described in the advertisement above, from the September 1961 edition of The Instrumentalist.

Two months later, in that same journal, Conn placed this advertisement, poking fun at the previous month's cover, which showed an exhausted band member who had collapsed on the curb after schlepping a standard brass Sousaphone on the parade route:

Here's the clever blurb that was provided to the right of the photo above:

The following month (December), also in The Instrumentalist, Conn ran this more formal ad about their stunning white, but remarkably light, monster . . .

. . . which included the following information:

I have yet to locate a copy of that "Research Report 36-K," but I have been able to piece together a bit of the earliest history of the fiberglass Sousaphone.

From what I can tell, this innovative new Sousaphone made its first public appearance on January 2, 1961, for the Tournament of Roses Parade and Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California.

The day after the game, an obscure New York newspaper (Newsday of Melville, NY) ran this passing comment, which got my attention:

Did you catch the rather snooty question? "Really, does anyone care that one of the bands featured nine Sousaphones made of fiberglass?" Well, yes, everyone should care, for this had never been seen before - plastic tubas on national TV!

Now, which band outfitted their bass section with these unusual horns? I had to find out, and I didn't have to look far. The May 3, 1962 edition of The Daily Times of Davenport, Iowa, ran this advertisement - check out the end of the last full paragraph:

I've reached out to the University of Washington band to see what they might know about this little slice of Sousaphone history. But in the meantime, I can confirm that they did indeed march with fiberglass Sousaphones in the 1961 Rose Bowl. In this 1-minute video, for just a split-second at both the front end and the tail end, those distinctive white horns can be seen in the band:

It wasn't until six months after this game that I came across the next reference to fiberglass Sousaphones in the news: The Marshfield High School Golden Pirates Band of Coos Bay, Oregon marched with three of them as the honor band for the Portland Rose Festival. Conn had loaned them to the band for the event, which makes me wonder if Conn had also only loaned prototype horns to the University of Washington band at the beginning of the year. Perhaps these were "test drives" of sorts?

Regardless, by July, at the NAMM convention in Chicago, the fiberglass cat was officially out of the bag, as reported in the July 25, 1961 edition of Variety:

A month later, we find the first news report of a band purchasing fiberglass Sousaphones for their entire bass section (the Madison Heights band of Anderson, Indiana):

Later that same month (September 1961), we read of Purdue University adding fiberglass Sousaphones to their stable of basses:

The October 26, 1961 edition of the Journal and Courier of Lafayette, Indiana, reported that Purdue's upcoming Homecoming game "will be the first appearance in mass of the new fiberglass Sousaphones," and added that "Games Slayter, recognized as the 'father of fiberglass' and a Purdue graduate in the Class of 1921, will appear on the field with one of the new lightweight bass horns and will be joined by 10 of the bandsmen playing the new multi-colored instruments. Slayter was a bass horn player with the Purdue band during his college days."

So make note of that: The man who developed fiberglass, and who was at that time, 1961, the Vice-President for Research and Development of the Owens Corning Fiberglas Company, was honored by his alma mater by joining the tuba section once again - this time holding (and playing?!) one of the new fiberglass Sousaphones!

But if you look closely at the horn in the photo above, you'll see that it is not a Conn instrument (notice how the brass part of the third branch goes beyond where it rests on the shoulder), which reminds us that other makers quickly followed Conn in offering fiberglass Sousaphones. Purdue appears to have gone with the RMC/Reynolds Contempora SU-14, which was first advertised in mid-1961 - the same time that Conn first advertised its fiberglass Sousaphone:

By 1963, the Reynolds catalog featured their brass-colored fiberglass Sousaphone on its cover, along with a fun photo in the catalog itself (images used with permission of ElShaddai Edwards of Contempora Corner):

Here's how their version is described in the catalog:

In late 1963, the H. N. White Company introduced its King 1280 fiberglass Sousaphone, which sold for $760.00, and was promoted by William Bell, the "Dean of American tuba players," as the full-page ad put it:

Other instrument companies followed with their own versions - I remember playing an F. E. Olds fiberglass Sousaphone in high school - but the Conn 36-K was the pioneer, setting the standard for what would be the preferred type of Sousaphone for many junior high, senior high, and college bands, from that point on.

APPENDIX: Conn fiberglass Sousaphones

36-K, built from 1961 to sometime recently?

• The fiberglass equivalent of the 14-K
• ABS polymer bell and fiberglass body
• Extra lightweight construction
• 16lbs 13oz (compared to 14-K, which was 23lbs)
• 3 standard piston valves
• Cylindrical bore: .734
• Bell diameter: 24in
• Cost in 1964: $795 without case

22-K, built from 1964 to 1986, it seems

• The fiberglass equivalent of the 20-K
• ABS polymer  bell and fiberglass body
• Lightweight construction
• 23lbs (compared to 20-K, which is 30lbs)
• 3 short action valves
• Cylindrical bore: .734
• Bell diameter: 26in
• Cost in 1964: $895 without case