J. W. Pepper Built the World's First!

Most people in America have seen a Sousaphone before, even if they didn't know it by that name. This enormous horn shows up, often in large numbers, in high school and college marching bands each fall during football season. For example, here are more than 20 in the Penn State Blue Band in 2019, when my son was a member:

But that’s about where the familiarity ends. Very few people today know that the Sousaphone originally had a bell that pointed straight up; or that it was created not for marching, but for use in a concert band; or that it was named after a bandmaster who would quickly become the most popular entertainer of the day—John Philip Sousa (“Who?” I’m often asked).

But what almost no one knew for the better part of a century was that the very first Sousaphone was built by J. W. Pepper of Philadelphia in 1895.

Sousa Sets the Record Straight

Since around 1921, the C. G. Conn Company has proudly claimed to have created the original Sousaphone, and for good reason—their new horn was announced to the world in the January 22, 1898, edition of The Music Trade Review, as if such an instrument had never been seen before:

But tucked away in the August 30, 1922, edition of the Christian Science Monitor, there is an article in which Sousa himself recounted this:

The Sousaphone received its name through a suggestion made by me to J. W. Pepper, the instrument manufacturer of Philadelphia, fully 30 odd years ago. At that time, the United States Marine Band, of Washington, D. C., of which I was conductor, used a double B-flat bass tuba of circular form known as a “Helicon.” It was all right enough for street-parade work, but its tone was apt to shoot ahead too prominently and explosively to suit me for concert performances, so I spoke to Mr. Pepper relative to constructing a bass instrument in which the bell would turn upwards and be adjustable for concert purposes. He built one, and grateful to me for the suggestion, called it a Sousaphone. It was immediately taken up by other instrument makers, and is today manufactured in its greatest degree of perfection by the C. G. Conn Company, of Elkhart, Ind.

Here we learn that: 

• Sousa himself came up with the idea for the horn.
• This was while he was still leading the Marine Band (1892, his last year with that unit).
• It was built by Pepper, not Conn, although Sousa came to prefer Conn Sousaphones.
• It was created for concert purposes, not marching.
• Mr. Pepper honored Sousa by calling it a “Sousaphone.”

It took Pepper a few years to produce the horn, but by late 1895 he was ready to introduce it to the world, using the very announcement seen at the top of this post. And by January 1, 1896, if not earlier, it was indeed "played by Herman Conrad" and “used daily in Sousa’s Peerless Concert Band.”

Touring the Country with Sousa’s Band

This great ensemble spent the first three months of 1896 giving concerts from coast to coast. At the end of the tour, one newspaper took notice of the strange modified helicon, writing that “the large double bass played by Mr. Conrad is the largest bass horn in existence. It is called the ‘Sousaphone’.”

March 30, 1896, edition of The Allentown Daily Leader, n.p.

A few weeks earlier in that cross-country tour, while in Salt Lake City, someone took a photograph of the band in concert, in which the faint image of Pepper’s Sousaphone can be seen just above the head of the first chair clarinetist:

Concert at the Mormon Tabernacle, March 7, 1896

Curiously, following that tour, there seem to be no more photographs of, or reports about, this historic horn. Pepper’s Sousaphone just quietly disappears, while, less than two years later, Conn’s first Sousaphone appears in Sousa’s Band: 

Herman Conrad with C. G. Conn's first Sousaphone in 1898

Sousa used Conn Sousaphones in his band exclusively from 1898 until he passed away in 1932, featuring one in his bass section from 1898-1915, two from 1915-1921, and all Sousaphones in the section from that point on - sometimes as many as six!

Sousa's bass section for the 1925-26 tour (courtesy of Mark Jones)

The Long-lost Horn Resurfaces!

The story of how the original Sousaphone resurfaced in recent years is almost too good to be true. On a quiet Sunday afternoon in the spring of 1973, John Bailey, a 24-year-old tuba player and recent graduate of West Chester State College, joined his mother and sister for an outing to Renningers Flea Market in Adamstown, Pennsylvania. John had moved back home to Wernersville, near Reading, where he began teaching and occasionally subbing with the Ringgold Band—yes, the band that holds the distinction of being the very last one that Sousa conducted before he died.

John wasn’t looking to buy anything that day, but he noticed a vintage three-valve “raincatcher” Sousaphone, heavily tarnished and covered with dust, hanging upside-down from the rafters by a single loop of binder twine! When he was told that it cost only $50, he raced home to get the money. His plan was to get it into playable shape and have an interesting horn for use in parades.

John Bailey before selling the original Sousaphone back to J. W. Pepper in 1991

In cleaning up the Sousaphone, John discovered that it was unfinished, that is, just raw brass. He also found that the front of the bell featured some beautiful and highly significant engravings.

At the top, barely visible, is a portrait of Sousa wearing the uniform that was first used in 1894, and so the horn could not have been created before that year (unless, of course, the engraving was added later, but that seems unlikely). Below that is a twirling ribbon that contains, separately, the words “Sousa” and “Phone”—the name Pepper chose for this special instrument. Next are the words “Highest Medal & Diploma Chicago 1893,” referring to an award won at the World’s Columbian Exposition. This has led many to conclude that the horn was built in that year, but we just ruled that out. Plus, many Pepper instruments made later than this Sousaphone boast of this award on their bells, and that’s all that is going on here—a little boasting of recent accolades.

Finally, it says “Premier J. W. Pepper Maker Philadelphia and Chicago,” and then gives the serial number, 8800 (also found on the second valve casing), which supports what we already know—that the instrument was built in 1895.

For almost 20 years, John Bailey kept that historic horn in storage, collecting dust once again. Along the way, he received confirmation from experts that he had something special, but he never got around to having it restored and displayed. But then, in August 1991, John gladly sold the horn back to its maker, the J. W. Pepper company, who proceeded to have it restored, including adding a lacquer finish. Finally, after 96 years, the first Sousaphone was ready to go public again!

The author, with the original Sousaphone at J. W. Pepper in Exton, PA, in 2014

A One-of-a-kind Treasure

As far as we can tell, Pepper never made another horn like this one. It truly is a one-of-a-kind treasure. In fact, it wasn’t until late 1905—a decade later—that Pepper finally tried his hand at selling Sousaphones. But at that point, he chose to import, rather than build, a very different BBb Sousaphone, along with something never before seen in America—an Eb Sousaphone:

Page from J. W. Pepper's Musical Times and Band Journal, vol. 19, no. 222 (1905)

But even by that time the popular view of Sousaphone history had few people remembering that J. W. Pepper had anything to do with the new instrument. In promoting his imported Sousaphones in 1905, he urges his readers to “remember that we are the sole originators of this style of basses, and all others are imitations of these magnificent large proportioned monsters.”

There is no doubt about it. This historic horn—with a bore of 0.730 inches, a bell diameter of 24 inches, a height of 4 feet, 5 inches, and a weight of 24.9 pounds—is the very first Sousaphone, and it was created by J. W. Pepper in 1895.

For earlier posts on the original Sousaphone, click here. And for links to the overall history of the Sousaphone, click here. Enjoy!