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!

Could it be that Jesus plays the tuba?!

Jerry Young, one of the former presidents of the International Tuba Euphonium Association, reached out to me recently and asked if I knew anything about the stained glass window shown above. He had heard that it was featured in a church in Pennsylvania, and with me being a pastor in that state, as well as a fellow-tuba player, perhaps I might know something about this curious work of art.

I confessed to Jerry that I had no idea - and I struggled to imagine what would possess a church to commission and display such a window! Don't get me wrong - I loved seeing it, but, I don't know, could it perhaps be just a tad irreverent - or at least rather baffling to worshipers?! I was eager to see if I could track down the story behind the window.

With a little online snooping, I located it. The window is in the entryway of St. John's Episcopal Church in Ithaca, New York. Here's the exterior of that church, from their Facebook page:

As you enter that red door and look up, that window is the first thing you see, crowning the inner doorway to the sanctuary:

Here you can see it way back at the beginning of the center aisle, from the opposite angle, in this photo of the interior of the sanctuary:

But why? What was the story behind this unusual window?

I reached out to the church via their website, but by that time Jerry had tapped a dear friend of his in Ithaca, Art Ostrander, retired director of the School of Music at Ithaca College, and he was able to get the scoop on the window!

Art reached out to one of his former colleagues, Mary Arlin, who is associated with the church, and she shared this with him, which he then shared with Jerry, who then forwarded it to me:

Yes, we have a stained glass window at St. John's that depicts Jesus playing a tuba. The window was commissioned when our long-term rector, Philip Snyder, retired in 2012. [Tony] Serviente won the commission. The window is based on a sermon the rector preached back in 2006.

Mary then included the transcript of the sermon, so here are the relevant portions, providing the story behind the window:

I've sometimes pictured the Holy Spirit as music to uplift and feed the soul, especially in difficult and hostile environments. Hence the music of the Holy Spirit struggles to be heard in the very difficult and hostile environment that we grow up in and live. Often the Spirit has to go through obstacles and filters that seek to frustrate or destroy its message. The Spirit's notes do not come easily to our ears, and yet when they come they under-gird and support our lives. 

Therefore in this brief period between Ascension Day and the gift of the Holy Spirit, I picture the risen and ascended Jesus as taking tuba lessons so that on Pentecost, as a tuba player, with a red face and large fat cheeks, he may puff away, struggling to push a large amount of air through seemingly impassable passageways that curve over and over on them selves, before it comes out as music. For when the tuba is well played with vigor and finesse, its melody lingers with us, and we sense its clear unmistakable presence firmly supporting all the higher sounding instruments. . . . 

Every time when we discern the presence of the Holy Spirit it is like the sound of a strong tuba in an orchestra. We know that we are not alone, and that the joy and protection of the Holy Spirit has the ability to find us, . . . That is why the stained glass window that I've designed depicting Ascension Day and the promise of the Holy Spirit, may indeed show Jesus in glory seated at the right had of God, but the right hand of God will be handing Jesus a large tuba for him to learn to play and to send the music of the Holy Spirit back to us.

Wow - not even slightly irreverent, but rather an intriguing metaphor that helps us to grasp God's passionate desire to be in relationship with us, and to speak comfort and encouragement to us in the challenging circumstances of our lives - something that Jesus makes possible as we trust him with our lives and future. 

I may never listen to the tuba the same way again!

 

Sousaphone-related children's book!

While helping my parents further simplify their lives this past week, I found this book among the six or so boxes of children's books from when my now 88-year-old mother taught pre-school years ago. Most of the books will be donated to libraries or local schools, but this one stays with me, for obvious reasons!

The storyline is about two weasels who steal the Sousaphone and bass drum that were among the instruments a little town had just purchased to form a community brass band. Not a gripping read, but the illustrations are delightful - except you'll notice that the Sousaphone, in most pictures, rests on the right shoulder, which is not how they are configured.

But hey, the big horn is at the heart of the story, so I'll put up with the artistic license!

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

Is that Sousa with Gilmore's Band?!

The other day I stumbled upon the above lithograph, which is in the digital archives of The Huntington Library in San Marino, California (fabulous place, by the way), and which I had never seen before.

It is not dated, but based on the information written on it, it was likely created in 1895 to promote the Sousa Band tour for that year: what is said on the left was true for 1893 and 1894; what is said on the right was true for 1895; plus David Blakely, who is listed as manager, died in 1896.

What caught my eye, at first, was the presence of not one, but two helicon basses (with two standard tubas in between): 

The one on the right I knew all about - that's Herman Conrad (even the face matches), who brought his big BBb helicon with him from Gilmore's Band when he joined Sousa in 1893 (and it was replaced by the J. W. Pepper Sousaphone for the 1896 tour). And while there is some evidence suggesting that Sousa might have briefly tolerated two of these horns in his band, I had not seen any visual proof of it - until now.

So, I posted this wonderful discovery on Facebook, to see what responses I might get, and Mark Heter made a fascinating observation: "It appears as though the engravers may have cut some corners on this one, superimposing Sousa on a previous band (Gilmore's?). I've never seen a photo of Sousa's Band where the musicians are dressed this way. Interesting curiosity."

"Interesting curiosity," indeed!

While the lithograph clearly says, "Sousa's Band at Manhattan Beach," directly below Sousa's green platform, a closer look at the band reveals that Mark may be right!

Exhibit A: Those Antoniophones in the front row!

If you look at the two instruments in the front row, to the right of Sousa, those are clearly Antoniophones (or Orpheons, as Steve Dillon says they are more properly called):

In 1889, Gilmore's Band apparently featured a quintet of Antoniophones, a photograph of which was included in a special supplement to the September 28 edition of Harper's Weekly:

A year later, in 1890, a handwritten list of the members of Gilmore's Band noted that Harry Whittier was playing an Orpheon, and Eldon Baker the bass Antoniophone:

So, these unusual instruments were a thing, at least for a while, in Gilmore's Band. But there is no record that I am aware of that suggests that they were ever used in Sousa's Band.

Exhibit B: Those band uniforms

Mark was right - there is no extant photo of Sousa's Band that shows them in uniforms as depicted in the lithograph. But they do match what we see in Gilmore's Band in 1892. Check out this photo from Madison Square Garden in June of that year:

Even from this distance, you can see that many of the coats are open, showing the shirts underneath, just like we see in the lithograph. I'll zoom in so you can see what I mean:

Plus, in a lithograph from 1892, featuring that same band of one hundred, we see a bit of the detail of the stitching or piping on the jackets. Here's what I mean:

Granted, the coats are buttoned up here, but compare the stitching with what the lithographer of the 1895 image reveals - it's very similar (although, granted, not identical);

Exhibit C: Back to those two helicons

While we don't have any visual confirmation of Sousa's Band having more than one helicon bass, we do see two of those horns in Gilmore's Band in 1892, as you might have already noticed. I'll zoom in even more on those, from that photo at Madison Square Garden (that's Conrad again, on the right, with the big BBb helicon that he brought with him to Sousa's Band a year later):

So, is this lithograph showing Sousa inserted onto an older image of Gilmore's Band? It sure seems like it! Even the number of band members perhaps suggests this is the case, as it seems that Sousa used around 50 band members in the early years, and there are 62 shown here.

But this also might not be the only time a lithographer got lazy. Here is yet another poster of Sousa's Band, reportedly from 1895, showing yet again a band with (slightly) open coats, and a whopping 79 musicians:

As the old saying goes, I guess we shouldn't always believe what we see - at least when it's a lithograph!

The very latest in King basses (1934)

While exchanging emails with a fellow-music history buff this week, I was introduced to a rather striking tuba that I had never seen before. It is the King Rotary Valve Symphony Model Orchestra Bass (No. 1280).

It was apparently introduced by H. N. White in 1934, and it seems to have been discontinued a mere five years later, in 1939 (at least I could no longer find any listing for it in that year, or any year after). Here's the promotional page for this unique instrument from White Way News No. 7 (1934), and pulled from Mark Overton's fabulous online museum at Saxophone.org:

As you can perhaps see, in the upper right corner of the page, it was endorsed by the great Bill Bell, who claimed that "It is just what the Bass players have long been looking for." And the description, in the left-hand column, states that "the instrument has the same impressive appearance in an orchestra as a Sousaphone but is more convenient for players changing from the stringed Bass to the wind instrument" (as shown below). You'll also notice above that it required three cases - one for the body, one for the bell, and one for the stand!

The specifications for this slender giant are as follows:

Built in BBb, four valve model. Diameter of bell, 22". Size of bore: Medium bore .687 or can be furnished in the large bore .750. Weight 22 lbs. Height overall 66" Width across instrument at valve section 14 1/4". Length from bottom bow to mouthpiece position 37 1/2". Furnished complete with stand as standard equipment.

The cost for the instrument ranged from $290 for the brass finish with nickel silver trimmings, to $690 for the "Artists Special, Heavily Gold Plated, Bright Hand Burnished all over." The three cases added an extra $70 to the cost.

The horn was enthusiastically endorsed by Hollywood studio musician Jack Barsby, as can be seen in his December 27, 1934 letter to the H. N. White company (again, courtesy of Mark Overton):

Despite this stellar review (and note the last line in the commentary, which says, "Surely his opinion is sound and worth considering"), it appears that this model didn't really live up to the hopes that H. N. White had for it. As I said above, a mere five years later, it was gone from their catalog.

But at least one of these unusual horns can be seen today, in the V. & E. Simonetti Historic Tuba Collection, which also provided the photo of Barsby at the top of this post.

The first Sousaphonist in full color!

 
I recently discovered that Ancestry.com now has a photo colorizing feature, and I had to try it out on Conrad. He's looking pretty sharp in 1898 above, with Conn's first Sousaphone. And here is his portrait with Sousa's Band a few years earlier: