CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHRIDGE

MUSIC IN LOS ANGELES, 1860-1900

A thesis submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in

Special Major

by

Jeannie G. Pool

January 1987 The Thesis of Jeannie G. Pool is approved:

Michael Meyer

California State University, Northridge

ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to acknowledge the assistance of Lance

Bowling of Cambria Records and Publishing Company, Stephen

M. Fry, Music Librarian, University of California, Los

Angeles and Dr. Robert Stevenson, Musicologist, University of California, Los Angeles, Department of Music for their assistance in locating much needed resources.

Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Beverly Grigsby,

Professor of Music, California State University, Northridge, and my husband, Kevin Barker, without whose support this project would have been difficult, if not impossible, to complete.

--Jeannie G. Pool

iii CONTENTS

1\ClCNOvv~El)(;~ENTS ...... iii

ABSTRACT • ....••...•.•..••...... ••...•....•..•...•...•..... v

CHl\PTER I: OVERVIEvv: FRO~ COvv TOvvN Bl\LLl\l)S TO Bic; CITY ~USICl\L LIFE ...... 1

CHAPTER II: CONCERT Hl\LLS 1\Nl) OTHER PERFOR~l\NCE SITES ...... 8

CHl\PTER III: LOCl\L ~USICil\NS ...... 34

CHl\PTER IV: ~USIC IN CHURCHES ...... 48

CHl\PTER V: ~USIC PERFOR~IN(; OR(;l\NIZl\TIONS INCLU!)INc; Bl\Nl)S, ORCHESTRl\S 1\Nl) CHORl\L SOCIETIES ..... 56

CHl\PTER VI: ~USIC ~ERCHl\NTS AND I~PRESARIOS ...... 77

CHAPTER VII: VISITIN(; CELEBRITIES ...... 93

CHAPTER VIII: ~USIC El)UC1\TION ...... 106

CONCLUSION .....•...... 112

BIBLIOc;RAPHY ...... •...... 117

iv ABSTRACT

MUSIC IN LOS ANGELES, 1860-1900

by

Jeannie G. Pool

Master of Arts in Special Major

Los Angeles has a rich musical heritage in the European concert music tradition, beginning in the 1860s. Concert halls were built, concerts given, musical clubs and organizations formed, music schools founded, and musicians from all over the world settled here, bringing their music and musical instruments with them.

This thesis explores the development of Los Angeles' musical heritage through an examination of primary and secondary sources on music and on Los Angeles history.

Primary sources include memoirs, newspapers, city directories, contemporary biographical dictionaries, concert programs, and photographs. Secondary sources include one book and a few articles. Research has been conducted with materials available in the Huntington Library, the Library of California State University, Northridge and the Music

Library of the University of California, Los Angeles, and

v rare materials in the hands of a private collector, Mr.

Lance Bowling.

Los Angeles in 1860 was a cow town with a few traveling minstrel troupes and i couple of local part-time musicians providing what little entertainment there was. By the end of the century, Los Angeles had blossomed into a metropolitan city with operas, symphonies, chamber music and other musical extravaganzas presented throughout the year by an accomplished and committed group of local musicians, and by the most prestigious and world-class ensembles who were willing and eager to perform here. By the end of nineteenth century, a cultured music tradition was well established, providing a firm foundation for the rich, diverse and abundant musical life which unfolds during the first decades of the next century.

vi CHAPTER I

FROM COW TOWN BALLADS TO METROPOLITAN MUSICAL LIFE

Los Angeles was incorporated as a city in 1850 and

during the first two decades, much of the musical life of

the area centered around the popular entertainment offered

in saloons, dancing pavilions together with music performed

in church and in private homes. Los Angeles was Spanish-

speaking and Hispanic cultural traditions dominated the city

until the late 1870s, and much of the music performed

related to the Spanish and Mexican musical traditions or to

the liturgy of the Catholic Church.

John Stephen McGroarty, a California historian writing

in the 1920s, commented on the state of entertainment in Los

Angeles in 1859, the year that John Temple built the first

theater:

When Johnny Temple built a theatre, our list of entertainments was somewhat enlarged. Instead of high-toned 'Horse Shows' like that just held in Pasadena, we sometimes had bear and bull fights, cock fights and frequent horse, mule and donkey races, and occasionally a Spanish circus, or 'maroma,' and at Christmas times we were regaled with the quaint, beautiful characteristically Spanish 'Pastorella,' which was very effectively and charmingly presented by a thoroughly trained company under the direction of Don Antonio Coronel. 1

Music was an integral part of the lives of the original

1 2

Spanish-speaking families living here at the time

Los Angeles was incorporated and California became one of these United States.

When Charles Lummis arrived in Los Angeles, after walking from Cincinnati at a distance of 3,507 miles in 143 days, he became involved in the collection and transcription of Indian and Spanish-American music, publishing his reports in his magazine Out West (originally titled The Land of Sunshine) . He was the leading exponent of the

Indian-Spanish-Mexican heritage of the Southwest and in 1903 founded the Southwest Museum. He was founder of the

Landmarks Club dedicated to the preservation of the missions and to assisting the surviving mission Indians. California historian Kevin Starr described Lummis as the one who

"spearheaded Southern California's turn-of-the-century search for a sustaining ideology: for, that is, a dramatization of what it was--or rather, what it daydreamed 2 it could be." His work in preserving the music of

California's past had little inpact on the contemporary musicians, but his contribution was significant in that he preserved for all time remnants of the "native" cultural heritage of California by making wax cylinder recordings of live performances.

The newly arrived American settlers including the

"Yankee Dons," wrote accounts of certain Spanish traditions of music and dance, for instance, the Fandango, but few could even perform its intricate steps by the end of the 3

century. In January, 1861, the Common Council of Los

Angeles passed a law requiring advance payment for a

one-night license to hold a public dance within the city

limits: the so-called "fandango tax." Leading exponents of

the Fandango in the 1850s included Don Juan Bandini, Antonio

Coronel, Andres Pico, the Lugos and other native Cali-

fornians. It was customary for them to hire a hall and turn

the proceeds over to a church or other charity. Businessman

Marco Newmark recalls in his memoirs:

On such occasions not merely the plain people (always so responsive to music and its accompanying pleasures) were the fandanguero, but the flower of our local society turned out en masse, adding to the affair a high degree of eclat. There was no end, too, of good things to eat and drink, which people managed somehow to pass around; and the enjoyment was not lessened by the fact that every such dance hall was crowded to the walls, and that the atmosphere, relieved by but a narrow door and window or two, was literally thick with both dust and smoke.3

Boyle Workman also confirms that the proceeds of the 4 Fandango would traditionally go to the poor.

Howard Swan points out that it is truly amazing that any music was heard in Los Angeles during the 1860s, given the

"series of misfortunes which for intensity and duration were 5 rivaled only by the plagues of Old Testament times,"

including floods, followed by drought, and an epidemic of

smallpox, not to mention the Civil War. The population of

the county was less than 15,000 in 1865, yet there were some

active musicians here and the community had serious cultural

aspirations. 4

By the 1880s, Los Angeles was a sophisticated musical

city. Historian Henry Splitter stated:

Along in the 1880s it came to be generally recognized that Los Angeles was a musical city. No matter how dull or good business might be, a good opera company was always assured of success. Concerts of all kinds were more largely attended here than in any other city on the coast, and the quality of music heard was generally higher than elsewhere.6

The development of the musical life of Los Angeles parallels

the development of the economic life and during periods of

prosperity, music and musicians flourished. During the

temporary lulls caused by depression and a full scale

"burst", music was not heard and musicians suffered great

economic hardships along with the other laborers.

The boom of the 1880s was matched in intensity by the quantity and quality of the music being performed. The depression of 1893 meant a curtailment of plans for the newly founded Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, which was

revived again in 1897 as the economy recovered and the community was optimistic again about the future prospects of the city.

California historian Kevin Starr, in his much appreciated book, Inventing the Dream, states that:

To be frank, turn-of-the-century Los Angeles had little in the way of formal culture in comparison with, say, fin-de-siecle San Francisco, then in the throes of its era of greatest artistic activity; but there were signs of developing urbanism that fought against the unsophisticated boom-town tone that dominated.7

He goes on to describe some of the hopeful signs: the 5 establishment of Griffith Park, sporadic appearances of opera companies, the founding of the Los Angeles Symphony in

1898, the founding of social and cultural clubs, schools,

and athletic organizations. Apparently, Starr was not aware of the rich and varied musical life of Los Angeles. In the 1890s, touring opera companies which appeared in San

Francisco also appeared in Los Angeles. In fact, the

National Grand Opera Company in 1887 was financially successful in Los Angeles after its San Francisco appearance nearly spelled its final financial disaster.

Starr's lack of information on music in Los Angeles during this period is typical of many California historians.

It is clear from an examination of primary source materials, however, that Los Angeles' musical life was not in any respect inferior to that of San Francisco's, and after 1870s

Angelenos were not dependent on their northern sister city for the development of musical standards and taste. Los

Angeles was the smaller of the two cities until 1910 and therefore had fewer people to call upon as audiences for music, but Los Angeles could boast of a fine group of community musicians and some of the largest audiences for opera and symphonic music found anywhere.

Los Angeles developed from its cow town music into a metropolitan musical life within a few decades. The combination of a few visionaries, some fine European and

East Coast trained musicians who settled here, good financial support from local businessmen and professionals 6

and a community's strong desires and aspirations to have for themselves the best life could offer, worked to create a substantial musical life by the end of the century.

The magnitude of Los Angeles' musical life of the nineteenth century has not been written about or documented, but only suggested by a handful of articles on the subject.

A substantial and full-blown account of the musical activities of Los Angeles• Gilded Age is long overdue. 7

' .

NOTES FOR CHAPTER I

1. Quoted in C.L. Bagley, "History of the Band and Orchestra Business in Los Angeles," 4/19 (January 15, 1925): 1.

2. Kevin Starr, Inventing the Dream, p. 76.

3. Marco Newmark, Sixty Years in Southern California, p. 135.

4. Boyle Workman, The City That Grew, p. 148.

5. Howard Swan, Music in the Southwest, p. 109.

6. Henry Splitter, "Music in Los Angeles," p. 318.

7. Kevin Starr, p. 65. Chapter II

CONCERT HALLS AND OTHER PERFORMANCE SITES

The grandeur, number, seating capacity, and quality of a city's concert halls offers an insight into the community's intensity of commitment to building and sustaining ~ rich and subtantial cultural life. The history of concert halls in Los Angeles, particularly during the last decades of the nineteenth century and the first decade of the twentieth century, reveals a strong desire on the part of a diverse community to be taken seriously as a cultural center. This chapter will describe some of these monuments of music history, specifically those reserved for the presentation of serious music, and will examine their individual histories in the context of Los Angeles' 1 developing cultural identity.

In the earlier days of the music life in Los Angeles music halls, saloons, beer gardens, amusement parks (popular music performance places) and churches were often the locations of musical events. By the late 1880s there were concert halls on college campuses, and by the 1890s several music clubs presented recitals in their own halls. Some of the facilities mentioned here originally were used for music presentations but were replaced by sites with more adequate acoustics, so the old facilities were used for other

8 9

purposes. Most of the concert halls described here have been destroyed long ago to make way for new buildings, but a few still remain as reminders of the rich musical past of this city.

JOHN TEMPLE'S THEATER

Before the first concert halls and opera theaters were established in Los Angeles, music often was performed out of doors. The Plaza was a popular place for entertainment and

Stearns Hall was the only public meeting hall during the early years of ios Angeles. Stearns Hall was actually a

100-foot dancing hall in "El Palacio de Don Abel," the adobe home of Don Abel Stearns, built before 1840.

In 1869 John Temple's Theater was built which could accommodate drama companies and minstrel troupes, located over the City Market. John Temple (1796-1866) was one of the fascinating men of early Los Angeles history.

Originally from Reading, Massachusetts, he came to Los

Angeles in 1827 and set up the first general merchandise 2 store in town. He took a lead in civic affairs, and according to businessman Harris Newmark in his memoirs,

Sixty Years in Southern California, the first vigilance committee met in Temple's store in 1836. Temple was one of the "Yankee Dons," having become a Mexican citizen and having joined the Catholic Church when he married Rafaela

Cota, receiving Rancho Los Cerritos as the dowry. He was six-foot, six-inches in height and was known as "Don Juan 10

3 Largo." By all accounts, his real estate holdings were extensive, and in 1851 it was reported that John Temple had 4 some 20,000 acres of land valued at $79,000.

In 1859 John Temple built the City Market at a cost of

$30,000 on the so-called Temple block, and it was often 5 referred to as the Temple Court House. Temple rented the building to the City. The street level contained stalls for markets. A wine cellar/drinking establishment was located in the basement, and the second floor was an assembly hall.

Newmark describes the creation of the theater in the

Court House as follows:

About the middle of February, John Temple fitted up the large hall over the City Market as a theater, providing for it a stage some forty-five by twenty feet in size--in those days considered an abundance of platform space--and a 'private box' on each side, whose possession became at once the ambition of every Los Angeles gallant.6

The Star, an early Los Angeles newspaper, gave this description of Temple's Theater:

The accommodations for the people are comfortable; the gallery consists of two tiers of raised benches; the parquette to be furnished with arm chairs. From present appearances it will be a very neat and commodious theater.?

John Stark and his company opened the theater in

November of 1860 with a production of MacBeth, supplemented with "original music." The Temple Theater was used for all kinds of assemblies in addition to theatrical and musical performances, including official activities of 11

the city government. The California and the Tanner

Minstrels were two companies which had performed there in 8 the 1860s.

Music in the 1860s could also be heard at Tivoli

Gardens, Charles Kaiser, proprietor, on Wolfskill Road, named for the famous one in Berlin. The 1875 Directory of Los Angeles lists Chas. Borrman as the proprietor 9 and gives the location at First near San Pedro. It was a typical popular pleasure resort where music was provided at least every Sunday afternoon, beginning at two o'clock and the dancing continued into the night. Since there was no 10 charge for admission, there was always a large crowd.

In 1869 Clois F. Henrickson opened a hotel, dancing pavilion, saloon and shooting alley in the Arroyo Seco, then known as Sycamore Grove. John Rumph and his wife later took over the management. The Los Angeles Turnverein, a German social, athletic and music club, held its early public performances at the Grove which included gymnastics, singing 11 and sack-racing.

THE MERCED THEATER (TEATRO MERCED)

The Merced Theater, which opened on New Year's Eve in

1870 with a "grand vocal and instrumental concert," which included the 21st Wilmington Army Band, was built in 1869 adjacent to the Pico House, which was Los Angeles' leading hotel. According to Boyle Workman, in his memoirs, The 12

City That Grew, the Merced was,

... built by William Abbott with the money of his wife, who had been Dona Merced Garcia. She refused to build the theater unless it was higher than the Pico House. When it was completed it topped the old hotel by a cornice and a fire wall.12

William Abbott (d.1879) maintained a cabinet shop on the first floor, and he lived with his family including nine children on the third floor. The basement housed an undertaking establishment and the Directory of Los

Angeles,1875 lists Abbott as an undertaker, at 16 Main, 13 with residence at 21 Main.

The theater, named after Mrs. Abbot-t, was 100 feet long and 25 feet wide with a seating capacity of 400. It included four boxes against either wall, " . with red 14 plush curtains edged with gold fringe." The grand opening was covered in the press and included a speech given by

H.K.S. O'Melveny, later Superior Court Judge of Los 15 Angeles.

Martin Lehman and George P. McLain were the original 16 managers for the theater. The Merced Theater was primarily used for dramatic presentations, particularly

Spanish drama, but music did find a welcome home there.

Bands, placed in the balcony, would serenade the audience before the dramatic presentation began. According to many reports, the acoustics of the Merced were very poor for music. A typical Teatro Merced placard announcing a show for

January 30, 1871, reads: 13

Teatro Merced Los Angeles Lunes, Enero 30, de 1871 Primero Funcio de la Gran Compania Dramatica, de Don Tomas Maguire, El Empresario Veterano de San Francisco, VEINTE Y CUARTRO Artistas de ambos sexos, todos conocidos como ESTRELLA de primera clase.17

The Merced Theater was leased by J.H. Wood in 1876 it and was renamed "Wood's Opera House." It was not used for the presentation of opera, however, and Wood provided the community with boxing and wrestling matches, variety 18 shows and an occasional farce. Ne\~ark made the following observation about the decline of the Merced Theater:

The vanity of things mundane is well illustrated in the degeneration of this center of early histrionic effort, which entered a period of decay in the beginning of the eighties and, as the scene of disreputable dances, before 1890 had been pronounced a nuisance.19

The Merced Theater served as an armory for the Los

Angeles Guards for a few years in the late 1870s and early

1880s. In 1883 it was reopened as the Club Theater for the presentation of variety shows and in 1887 the Los

Angeles Times described a ball given at this theater as 20 a "prostitutes' carnival." The Merced Theater is still standing and is part of El Pueblo de Los Angeles State

Historical Park in downtown Los Angeles. 14

TURNVEREIN HALL

The German-American community in Los Angeles was well

established by 1860 and has been closely linked to the

musical life in Los Angeles. In 1859 a German Society was

formed, called the Teutonia-Concordia Soceity, for the

purpose of advancing the arts. On June 19, 1871, the

Teutonia Concordia merged with the Turnverein-Germania and

their first hall was built on the west side of Spring

Street. It was large enough to seat several hundred 21 people. Translated from German, Turnverein means

gymnastic or athletic club, but such establishments were

used for all kind of community events and activities.

According to Howard Swan, because the acoustics were so

bad in the Merced Theater, " ... Los Angeles rejoiced with the

Turners when the 'new' Turnverein Hall far down on Spring

Street between Second and Third was dedicated in September, 22 1872." Jackson M. Graves wrote, in My Seventy Years in

California, that the only place in Los Angeles suitable 23 for a large assembly in 1875 was Turnverein Hall. High

school graduations, concerts, balls, and socials were held

there and until the Grand Opera House was built in 1884,

Turnverein Hall hosted most musical and dramatic groups to visit Los Angeles in the 1870s and early 1880s.

In 1873, soprano Anna Bishop performed in four concerts

at Turnverein Hall as part of a "farewell tour." Ben Truman of the Los Angeles Star wrote of her concerts: "It was

the most fashionable and most dressy audience ever seen 15

' .

24 in Los Angeles." The response to Anna Bishop's concert

appearances was so positive that other performers on United

States tours were encouraged to perform in Los Angeles. The

first complete opera to be presented in Los Angeles was

Don Pasquale in 1874 at the Turnverein Hall. The

society had not only a chorus, but also an orchestra and

they held regular musical extravaganzas in the hall.

In 1887 the Turnverein-Germania sold the Spring Street building to L.J. Rose and J.B. Lankershim. It was destroyed and a $40,000 brick building was erected in its place. The

Society resold the property seven years later for $100,000 to William Perry, owner of the Los Angeles Theater which was next door. The cornerstone for a new Turner Hall at 319-321

South Main Street was laid on August 14, 1887, and during the 1890s the new Turner Hall was one of the most popular 25 concert halls and gathering places in town. The Turnverein contributed greatly to the cultural life of Los Angeles in the late nineteenth century and helped the city forge an

image as a sophisticated musical capital by the late 1880s.

THE WASHINGTON GARDENS AND THE CITY GARDENS

The general public in Los Angeles, however, continued to flock to the pleasure resorts for entertainment in the

1870s and 1880s. Later this chapter will discuss the Garden of Paradise which was established as early as 1858 at the site of the future Hazard's Pavilion. The Washington

Gardens and the City Gardens were the principal places for 16

family entertainment which, of course, included popular music. Newmark provides a detailed description of the

Washington Gardens:

This so-called opera house was nothing more than a typical Western song and dance resort, the gallery being cut up into boxes where actresses, between acts, mingled with the crowd; patrons indulged in drinking and smoking, and the bar in front did a thriving business. A collection of animals in the Gardens--one of which, an escaping monkey, once badly bit Waldron (the owner)-- attracted not only the children, but their elders as well; and charmingly arranged walks, amid trees and bowers afforded innocent and healthful means of recreation.26

The Main Street cars ran directly to the gate of the gardens. On Sundays there was a variety show which secured much of its talent from Wood's Opera House, a typical

Western song and dance resort, located at 410 1/2-412 1/2

North Main Street. The proprietor, Dave V. Waldron, was quite active in politics, serving on the City Council, 27 organizing a movement against municipal ownership.

C.L. Bagley, in his remarkable series of articles on

"The History of the Band and Orchestra Business in Los

Angeles," confirms that much of the entertainment appearing at the Washington Gardens came from Wood's Opera House. He mentions the Bosshard Brothers and Fred Dohs as principal 28 performers. An advertisement which appeared in the

1878 Directory of Los Angeles City describes the

Washington Gardens as a:

Resort for Travelers and Tourists. Finest Place in Los Angeles for Picnics, Parties, etc. 17

Pavilion and dancing floor connected with this establishrnent.29

In 1874 F.X. Eberle and his wife opened an establishment, which later became known as the City Gardens, located at the northeast_corner of Eighth and San Pedro

Streets, which included a saloon, restaurant and dancing pavilion. According to Boyle Workman, the City Gardens also included "bowling alleys, swings, croquet grounds and 30 similar diversions."

MOTT HALL

Mott Hall earned its place in Los Angeles musical history by hosting one performance--the first appearance of the great prima donna, Adelina Patti, on January 20, 1887.

Mott Hall was on the second floor of a building owned by

Thomas D. Mott at 125-29 South Main street and was built in

1886. Mott was an attorney who carne to California during the Gold Rush of 1849 and married the daughter of Don Jose 31 Andres in 1861. The lower floors housed a fruit market, a 32 fish and poultry market, grocery store and delicatessen.

There was no stage and only one exit, but it was the only place in town available for an appearance of the world-famous coloratura, who sang the role of Semirarnide by Rossini. The seating was limited so tickets were sold at outrageous prices ranging from $3.50 to $7.50. A poem was written about the ticket prices: 18

Only to hear you, Patti, Only to hear you squeak. Only to pay seven dollars, 33 And starve the rest of the week!

Gross receipts of the concert were $8,336.50, an astronomical sum in the 1880s for a single concert event.

From all accounts, the streets around the hall were also packed during the performance and someone was stationed at an open window to wave a handkerchief when the prima donna was ready to sing. According to Henry Sutherland, in his important article on early music in Los Angeles, the

"Nev.rspapers reported it as a triumph, and neither Patti nor her audience was distracted by the occasional crowing of 34 roosters from the market below." One reviewer wrote:

"'See Rome and die!!!!' Hear Patti, and pray to live and hear her again. Till one does, he cannot experience the 35 s.ame exquisite pleasure." Boyle Workman's account of this famous concert states that the program was a double bill including Sofia Scalchi (1850-1922), "The world's 36 greatest contralto," whose New York debut was in 1882.

In 1894, the Imperial Music Hall was established in

Mott Hall by Martin Lehman and his associates, with Mr.

Ellinghouse as the house manager, for the purpose of presenting vaudeville shows. It was advertised as "The

Society Vaudeville Theater" and employed an orchestra led by

Charles A. Jones. The whole operation was bought out by the

Orpheum Circuit when it was established in Los Angeles in the Grand Opera House, to eliminate any possible competition 19

37 from the Imperial.

CHILDS GRAND OPERA HOUSE

Ozro William Childs (1824-1890), who came to Los

Angeles in 1850, was one of the original partners in Childs

& Hicks, with a tin shop on Commercial Street. Later a hardware store was added and Childs' share of the business was bought out, and he went into the importing business, selling exotic trees and plants. He claimed to be the pioneer floriculturist of Los Angeles County. In some sources, Childs is given credit for bringing the first hive of bees from San Francisco to Los Angeles, in 1854.

The Childs' home, which was later sold to the Huntingtons, was the scene of many important social gatherings including receptions for famous performers who appeared in Los 38 Angeles. In the 1870s, he ran o.w. Childs' Gardens, 39 located between 11th and 12th Streets.

Childs built his Grand Opera House on Main Street between First and Second, which was then in the center of the city, at a cost was $125,000. This was the former site 40 of the fire house of the Confidence Engine Company No. 2.

Seating capacity was 1200, making it the second largest theater on the Pacific Coast. It opened on May 27, 1884 with the French actress Mlle.-Rhea performing in The

School for Scandal, a performance by the house orchestra led by Peter Engels, and an inaugural address by Mayor 41 Thorn. The theater was described in detail in the opening 20

night program:

Standing at the footlights and looking towards the Auditorium one is struck with the harmony of the whole .... As in the case of a pretty woman, all the separate charms make perfection. The ebony and gold of the railings of the dress circle and gallery contrast harmoniously with the fresoced walls and ceiling, where some sixty cupids upholding a garland of flowers dance along the sky; very properly, likenesses of Shakespeare, Schiller and Goethe have been placed in angles nearest the stage .... Light is supplied by gaslights artistically arranged around the rarling of the gallery and by the chandeliers in front of the four boxes. For obvious reasons electricity cannot be used in the theatre, where it will be · necessary to modulate light, but the gas jets will be lighted electrically .... The stage is one of the most perfect in existence.42

Boyle Workman also described the opening night at

Childs' Opera House:

Everyone who was anybody went to that opening. The sumptuous boxes were filled with ladies in Paris gowns and glittering jewels, and so were the loges, which were back of the orchestra, and the dress circle which was back of the loges.43

Workman further states that Al Levy set up a stand in front of the Opera House to sell his famous California oyster cocktails, a speciality of Los Angeles concert and theater life for many years. Los Angeles finally "arrived" with the opening of the Childs' Opera House. Harris Newmark wrote:

"This, the first theater of real consequence built in Los

Angeles, had a seating capacity of eighteen hundred; and for some time, at least, an entertainment was booked there 44 every night of the week." Appearing there were Lawrence

Barrett, Emma Abbott and her English Opera Company, Madame 21

Modjeska, Emma Nevada, The Tip{ca Orchestra from Mexico

City, Emma Juch and her Opera Company, just to mention a few. It was managed by H.C. Wyatt. Gustave Walter, proprietor of the original Orpheum Theater in San Francisco secured the lease on the Grand Opera House in December 1894 for the purpose of presenting vaudeville shows there and on

December 31, 1894, the Grand Opera House reopened as "The

Orpheum.'' By 1920 it was a_motion picture house catering to 45 the Mexican population.

THE TIVOLI OPERA HOUSE

The Tivoli Opera House was opened in 1887 by McLain and

Lehman on Main Street between Second and Third Streets. It was designed by C.E. Apponyi, an architect who came to the

West Coast in 1870. The Tivoli was a mixture of Egyptian,

East Indian and Romanesque styles in design, and except for the stage of the San Francisco Grand Opera House, the Tivoli

Opera House had the largest stage on the West Coast. There 46 were eight proscenium boxes.

B6yle Workman said of the Tivoli Theater, " ... we considered it decidely European in atmosphere. The auditorium was at the back of the lot and the front section was devoted to gardens where fountains played and where promenades wound through and around an overhanging 47 gallery." 22

@ '

Howard Swan refers to the Tivoli as a "music hall," and mentions that Fay Templeton and her Company had performed there. No programs from the Tivoli Opera House have been located and very little has been found about performances given there in contemporary sources.

THE LOS ANGELES THEATER AND THE BURBANK THEATER

The Los Angeles Theater and the Burbank Theater should be mentioned as the sites of occasional chamber music and orchestral concerts, although both were best known for their theatrical productions. Both theaters maintained unionized theater orchestras.

Mrs. Juana Neal built the Los Angeles Theater in 1888 on Spring Spring between Second and Third to rival Childs 48 Grand Opera House. The Theater opened on December 17,

1888, with the popular actress Jeffries Lewis appearing in a production of Diplomacy. Harley Hamilton was the Music

Director of the theater's orchestra and Harry C. Wyatt was the Manager, also the manager of the Grand Opera House. On opening night, the orchestra played works by Suppe,

Hartmann, Hamilton ("Potpourri-Wise and Otherwise"), Verdi 49 and Weingartner.

In the 1890s Emma Abbott and her famous English Opera

Company appeared there. Lynden Behymer, later an active Los

Angeles impresario, was editor of the program for ·the theater, called the "Mirror." Later he served as the theater's treasurer, and much later, as the press 23

representative. Beginning in 1892, the Theater was owned by

William H. Perry.

The Burbank Theater was built at 548 South Main,

located between Fifth and Sixth Streets, in 1893 by Dr.

David Burbank, a dentist, across the street from his home.

Dr. Burbank is remembered as the founder of the City of 50 Burbank. The Burbank Theater advertised itself as "The

First and Only Theater of the People." By the 1960s, the

Burbank Theater was showing x-rated films and live variety 51 acts under the title, "The New Follies Theater."

Behymer also served as the box office treasurer for the

Burbank Theater. C.L. Bagley has thoroughly documented the activities of these two theaters, listing entire 52 season programs for both houses in the 1880s and 90s.

Some of the original programs are found in the Behymer

Collection at the Huntington Library.

HAZAHD'S PAVILION

Remundo Alexander, once a French sailor, had built a home for his bride on the 300 Block of South Main Street in

1854. The home, inspired by cylindrical stone houses which

Alexander had seen in North Africa, was a two-story adobe and was popularly known as the "Round House." Alexander sold his house to George Lehman, a newly-arrived German

immigrant, and Lehman turned the "Round House" into a German beer garden in 1860, one of the earliest centers for public entertainment in Los Angeles. According to Newmark, Lehman 24

was originally known as George the Baker, but later as

"Round House George." Los Angeles City Directory of

1875 lists George Lehmann as "Prop. Georgetown Bakery, 53 cor. Spring and Sixth."

Lehman developed an elaborate garden which he called the "Garden of Paradise" complete with an Adam and Eve, golden apples and a serpent. Newmark provides a detailed description of the grounds:

An ingenious arrangement of the parterre and a peculiar distribution of some trees, together with a profusion of plants and flowers-- affording cool and shady bowers, somewhat similar to those of a typical beer or wine garden of the Fatherland--gave the place great popularity; while two heroic statues--one of Adam and the other of Eve--with a conglomeration of other curiosities, including the Apple Tree and the Serpent-- all illustrating the world-old story of Eden--and a moving panorama made the Garden unique and rather famous. The balcony of the house provided accommodations for the playing of such music, perhaps discordant, as Los Angeles could then produce .... 54

Some events of the centennial celebration of American

Independence were also held there. Lehman had acquired a considerable amount of property during the years that the beer garden thrived, including the entire block. Apparently he over-extended himself financially and in the end, lost all of his property and died penniless. Newmark provides a detailed description of the auction in·which Lehman's holdings were sold to cover his debts. The garden was sold in 1876 and was used as a school for a few years, and then 55 was demolished in 1880.

On the site of the old beer garden and "Garden of 25

Paradise," Hazard's Pavilion was built by H.T. Hazard and his associate Judge H.K.S. O'Melveny and C.H. Howland, organized as the Exposition Company. Later George W. Pike 56 acquired a large interest in this company. Henry T.

Hazard, the son of Captain A.M. Hazard who came to Los

Angeles on the Overland trail, was the mayor of Los Angeles between 1889-1892.

In 1866 Captain Hazard purchased the western half of the block extending from Hill to Olive Street on Sixth

Street for $9.80 at a city auction. His son-in-law, Harley

Taft bought the other half of the tract (the Eastern side) for a few dollars more. When the Pavilion was built, Henry

Hazard's sister, Mrs. Mary Phelps, still lived at Fifth and

Hill. The rest of the property was used for a horse and mule corral which Hazard and his associates purchased for 57 $20,000. Hazard's Pavilion was 120 feet by 166 feet with a

50 foot ceiling. It had a seating capacity of 4,000 and was 58 built at a cost of $60,000. Sutherland wrote of the

Pavilion:

World War II servicemen would have recognized Hazard's Pavilion. Externally, except for its shuttered windows and cupola-topped square towers flanking the entrance, it resembled the huge, wooden, post theaters built at every military camp and base. But nineteenth century Los Angeles loved it. Carriages ringed the pavilion every night, while waiting teams stamped and switched at hitching posts.59

The Pavilion opened in April, 1887, with a civic flower show and a month later presented the National Opera Company, with 26

300 singers, ballet dancers, and musicians, and "100 tons of baggage." The Pavilion was the site of concerts, lecturers, evangelists, political leaders and agricultural fairs.

Before Hazard's Pavilion, the flower and fruit shows were held in the 1870s and 80s in the old Alameda Street depot and in Horticulture Hall on Temple Street. According to

Howard Swan:

The wooden edifice cost $30,000 to build and its dimensions were 120 feet by 166 feet. It possessed three tiers of arched windows, two tall towers, an 'art gallery' and 'a splendid double door,' and as the Los Angeles Times of October· 22, 1886 remarked, 'was quite ornate.' The arched ceiling was fifty feet high, a gallery ran around three sides of the hall and no pillars obstructed the vision of an audience. Four thousand persons could be accommodated in the Pavilion, which opened for the first time for the annual Flower Festival in April,1887. Until 1905, the building was used for musical presentations, banquets, religious meetings, and prize fights.60

The high point of opera productions at Hazard's

Pavilion were the years during which Lynden Ellsworth

Behymer produced opera there, beginning in 1900, when he presented the New York Metropolitan Opera in its first performance of Puccini's La Boheme with Nellie Melba in the role of "Mimi" and Fritzi Scheff in her American 61 debut as "Musette."

The three-hundred member National Opera Company under the direction of Theodore Thomas performed at Hazard's

Auditorium in May, 1887 for an entire week. They performed

Lakme with Jessie Bartlett Davis in the cast. They also performed Lohengrin, Faust, The Merry Wives of

Windsor, Aida, Martha and Nero (Rubinstein). 27

Also appearing there were Nellie Melba, Emma Calve,

Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Enrico Caruso, Walter Damrosch and the Russian Symphony, Sarah Bernhardt, Helena Modjeska,

President Benjamin Harrison, William Jennings Bryan, Mark

Twain, Booker T. Washington, Henry M. Stanley, Thomas Nast,

Lew Wallace, James Whitcomb Riley,and boxer James J.

Jeffries. John Philip Sousa's band performed at Hazard's

Pavilion at least five times during the 1890s. The Los

Angeles Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Women's

Symphony Orchestra, both under the direction of Harley 62 Hamilton, appeared in Hazard's. There were even a couple of attempts to form a repertory theater group at the

Pavilion, all unsuccessful.

Hazard's Pavilion was torn down in 1904, and the

Temple Auditorium was built on its site. It is not remembered so much in Los Angeles history as a serious theater or concert hall because the stories of the fairs, fruit and flower shows, and political meetings overshadow the reminiscences of the concerts there. The existence of

Hazard's Pavilion however, proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Los Angeles was ready and able to support a major cultural center.

LOWE'S PASADENA GRAND OPERA HOUSE

The Lowe's Pasadena Grand Opera House opened February

13, 1889 with a production of "Mynheer Jan" or "The Queen's

Lace Handkerchief." It had an orchestra under the direction 28

of Bryon M. Brockway. According to C.L. Bagley, "It was a

very nice theatre but unfortunately built too far away from

the business section of the city and had to suffer the

inevitable eclipse occasioned by new structures closer in.

A few years ago the building was converted into a storage

warehouse and was about February of this year torn down 63 (1925) ."

THE LOS ANGELES Y.M.C.A.

The Y.M.C.A., which was organized in 1882, opened a new

building at 207-211 South Broadway on October 6, 1891 with

an excellent auditorium which was used for concerts.

Its publication Association Record, included regular

reports on the concerts given there. Some local musicians

also had studios there, including Harley Hamilton and W.H.

Mead. The Opening of the Y.M.C.A. was marked by the

performance of the Quintette Club including Harley Hamilton,

violin, Mrs. W.D. Larrabee, piano, Bernhardt Bierlich, 64 cello, C.W. Reinhardt, clarinet and w.c. McQuillen, flute.

A number of clubs and organizations were founded at or held meetings at the Y.M.C.A. including the Guitar, Banjo and

Mandolin Club active in the 1890s.

The Official Souvenir Program Booklet from La

Fiesta de Los Angeles of 1895 included a directory of

"Theatres and Halls" of the city. The list included:

Orpheum, Burbank Theatre, Los Angeles Theatre, Chamber of

Commerce, Knights of Pythias Hall, Friday Morning Club 29

@ '

Hall--Women's Exchange, Armory Hall--Seventh Regiment Armory

(Matt's Hall), A.o.u.w. Hall, Elks Hall. G.A.R. Hall,

Hazard's Pavilion, Illinois Hall, Masonic Hall, Odd Fellows 65 Hall, Turn-Verein Hall and the Y.M.C.A. Auditorium. In a relative short time span of 35 years, an impressive abundance of theaters and halls were built, many of which were sites for music events. The Los Angeles community had demonstrated its serious intentions to creating a rich and varied cultural life. 30

NOTES FOR CHAPTER 2

1. There is no account of these early concert halls in a single source, therefore to the best of my knowledge, this effort is the first attempt to provide a comprehensive survey of this topic.

2. Newmark, p. 66.

3. John Stephen McGroarty, compiler. The California Plutarch, I: 26-28.

4. John Stephen McGroarty. Los Angeles From the Mountains to The Sea. I: 74.

5. Ibid., I: 193. McGroarty claims original cost was $40,000.

6. Newmark, pp. 263-4.

7. Howard Swan, p. 111. He quotes from The Star of November 10, 1860.

8. Ibid.; C.L. Bagley wrote: "The 'I'emple theater had a very short history as such. It was sold after completion to the County of Los Angeles and used as a Court House until 1892. So the Pueblo was again without a real playhouse for many years." [4/19 (January 15, 1925): 1.]

9. Directory of Los Angeles 1875, p. 19.

10. Newmark, p.273.

11. Ibid. I p. 402.

12. Workman, p. 193.

13. Directory of Los Angeles 1875, p. 5.

14. Swan, p. 120. He is quoting from Lois Ann Woodward's The Merced Theater. (Berkeley: California Historical Landmarks Series, ed., V.A. Neasham, 1936.)

15. Ibid., p. 120; also Newmark, p. 422.

16. Workman, p.194.

17. Bagley, 4/22 (March 1, 1925): 1. Translated: January 30, 1871, The Finest Entertainment of the Grand Dramatic Company of Tomas Maquire, the Accomplished Impresario of San Francisco. Twenty-Four Performers, both Men and Women, all well-known Stars of the First Class. 31

18. Hen~y A. Sutherland, "Requiem for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Auditorium," p. 308.

19. Newmark, p. 186.

20. Sutterland, p.308; confirmed by Bagley, 5/6(July 1, 1925): 7.

21. Swan, p. 122. For more on the Turnverein, see Ne'l'.vmark and Chapter V of this thesis. Bagley mentions that in 1871 "Downs and Bent opened a roller skating rink during February in the Teutonia Hall. As stated before the exact location of this hall is a mystery though I think it was in the Arcadia Block." [4/22 (March 1, 1925): 1.] Bagley may be referring to the earlier home of the Teutonia. -

22. Swan, p. 122.

23. Jackson M. Graves, My 70 Yea_rs in California, p.128.

24. As quoted in Swan, pp. 128-9, from The Star, October 19, 1873.

25. Newmark, p. 584.

26. Newmark, p. 463.

27. Workman, p. 134.

28. Bagley, 4/23 (March 15, 1925): 1.

29. 1878 Directory of LffiAngeles City.

30. Bagley, Ibid; Workman, p.133~

31. Newmark, pp. 72-3.

32. Sutherland, p. 310.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. The Los Angeles Herald, January 21, 1887.

36. Workman, p. 192.

37. Bagley, 16/10 (September 1, 1926): 6.

38. For more information on Childs, see McGroarty, II: 19-20. Includes extensive biography and photograph.

39. 1875 Los Angeles Directory, p.55. 32

40. Newmark, p. 464.

41. Newmark, p. 543 gives the date of May 24, 1884. The concert program is in the Behymer Collection at the Huntington Library.

42. As quoted in Swan, p. 152.

43. Workman, p. 192.

44. Newmark, p. 543.

45. Bagley, 6/13 (November 26, 1925): 13.

46 Newmark, p. 560.

47. Workman, p. 194.

48. No biographical information on Juana Neal has been found.

49. Bagley, 5/5 (June 15, 1925): 4. For more details on the performances presented there, see Chapter of this paper. In the 1920s this theater was called "The Lyric."

50. Newmark, p. 170, 578.

51. Sutherland, p. 311.

52. Bagley, 5/5 (June 15, 1925): 4.

53 Newmark, p. 193. Workman incorrectly states that Lehman built the Round House, p. 133. See 1875 Directory of Los Angeles.

54. Nevnnark, p. 193.

55. Sutherland, pp. 303-6: Newmark, p. 523.

56. Newmark, p. 590.

57. Sutherland, p. 309.

58. This is detailed on p. 179 of the History of L.A. County, including biographical material on Henry T. Hazard (d. 1921).

59. Sutherland, p. 310.

60. Swan, p. 187.

61. See Howard Swan's extensive chapters on Behymer. Behymer papers are at the Huntington Library and ·are an 33

incredible source for the study of Los Angeles musical life. See Chapter VI of this study for some discussion of his career.

62. For more details on the activities held at Hazard's Pavilion, see Sutherland, p. 312-317.

63. Bagley, 5/6 (July 1, 1925): 5.

64. Ibid.

65. La Fiesta de Los Angeles Official Souvenir Program Booklet, 1895, Huntington Library Rare Books Collection. CHAPTER III

LOCAL MUSICIANS

Hundreds of musicians settled in Los Angeles in the late nineteenth century, musicians with a wide range of musical tastes and abilities. Many of them were well-trained musicians from Europe and from major U.S. musical cities like Boston, New York, _Philadelphia, and Chicago. Some had studied with some of the finest teachers of the day and some played under the batons of the famous conductors, including

Liszt, Wagner, 7heodore Thomas, Damrosch and Carl Zerrahn.

There is no exhaustive list of musicians active in Los

Angeles during the period, like a biographical dictionary of musicians, but several sources are available which provide information on the musicians, including city directories, concert programs, biographical dictionaries, musicians' union records, newspaper articles and memoirs. This chapter surveys some of the most prominent musicians of the period and relies on bits and pieces of information provided in a variety of sources. Musicians, generally, are not considered to be the foremost citizens of a particular community, and in California, the heroes of the late nineteenth century were the businessmen and the entrepreneurs, whose life stories dominate the biographical dictionaries of the era.

That some of these musicians are remembered at all is almost

34 35 ' .

1 an accident of history.

One of the earliest was A. Jacobi, a violinist who came to Los Angeles in the late 1840s. He \vas a Los Angeles

Councilman in 1853 and according to Newmark, "had fiddled himself into the affections of his neighbors." He was a

Mason, an organization which included several musicians in its earliest days and throughout its history in the nineteenth century. Jacobi left Los Angeles in 1853 or 1854 2 "with a snug fortune."

The German settlement at Anaheim drew many

German-speaking musicians to the Los Angeles area, beginning in the late 1850s, and they played leadership roles in the development of a European concert music tradition. One of these musicians is Hermann Reinsch (d. 1883), a native of

Prussia, who came to Los Angeles in 1857. He was in the harness and saddlery business, although he was a well-trained musician, who received music instruction in 3 Germany and was active in the Turnverein.

Mendel Meyers, the younger brother of Sam Meyer, a well-known Los Angeles businessman, was a violinist who 4 came to Los Angeles in the late 1850s. A dwarf named

Anastacio Cardenas came to Los Angeles in 1867 and appeared often in public as a singer and dancer. He carried a sword 5 and was called "The General."

Newmark and Workman describe in their memoirs a couple of street musicians active in Los Angeles. Newmark wrote about Pinikahti, an Indian flute player who made his own 36

instruments from reed which grew from along the river bank.

According to Newmark:

He always played weird tunes and danced strange Indian dances; and through these crude gifts he became, as I have said, sufficiently popular to enjoy some immunity. Nevertheless, he was a professional beggar; and whatever he did to afford amusement, was done, after all for money .... One day Pinikahti drank a glass too much and this brought about such a severance of his ties with beautiful Los Angeles that his absorption of one spirit released, at last, the other.6

Workman remembered organ grinders and monkeys performed also on the streets of Los Angeles in those early days and he recalls a Professor Chevallier, also a street musician, who played in front saloons and other gathering places and audiences would toss him coins.

7hat man could draw sweet strains of music from a gourd, a cigar box or anything else he could string .... No one knew his antecedents, but those who are familiar with good music declared that he was an artist of undoubted technique.?

Another well-known musician of the 1870s was Fred Dohs, who came to Los Angeles from Germany at age twenty-three. In the 1870s, he had a barbershop near the Downey Block. He conducted a string band, and Bagley remembered that Dohs' 8 band played most of the dances in the 1870s. According to

Newmark, "the barber-musician furnished the music for most of the local dances and entertainments, at the same time (or or until prices began to be cut) maintaining his shop, where he charged two bits for a shave and four bits for a 37

hair-cut. During his prosperity, Dohs acquired property, 9 principally on East First Street."

Boyle Workman mentions Mary E. Hoyt, active in the

1870s, "for many years the town's best known music teacher."

She conducted a private school across from the Methodist

Church on Fort Street (later renamed Broadway), in a location which formerly had been Dr. Vincent Gelcich's 10 apothecary. Guitarist Miguel s. Arevalo was born in Guadalajara,

Mexico in 1843, and studied in Mexico and taught in San

Francisco for two years before coming to Los Angeles in

1871. He served as music director of the Los Angeles

Musical Association, a newly formed organization. According to Robert Stevenson, "For three decades he was a leading concert performer, composer, and teacher, as well as a founder of La cr6nica, a bilingual newspaper. He helped the area's Mexican culture withstand the pressure of German and Anglo-American musical influences that resulted from 11 waves of immigration in the 1880s." The Arevalo Guitar

Club was active into the 1890s.

Arriving in Los Angeles in 1877, Charles Edmund Day

(born Port Jackson, New York, July 1, 1846, d. Los Angeles,

November 4, 1902), a chorus leader, was active in church and music community activites until the turn of the century.

He was a pupil of German-American conductor Carl Zerrahn of

Boston, conductor of the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston

1854-96, and of the American composer and publisher, George 38

Frederick Root, active in Chicago. Day organized a three-day

Jubilee Festival held June 4-6, 1878, in a tent on Spring

Street. The program included the Messiah, The

Creation, among other works and concluded with the Anvil

Chorus from Il trovatore, employing anvils and and a cannon. According to Howard Swan, "Day was to become by successive stages a piano salesman to all of southern

California, a real estate agent during the boom days, a touring impresario, the proprietor of a well-equipped music 12 store, and a respected member of the Board of Education."

One of Los Angeles' earliest musical celebrities was

Miss Mamie Perry, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Perry.

William Perry was one of the outstanding businessmen of Los

Angeles during the second half of the nineteenth century.

In 1880 Mamie Perry went to Italy to study with Antonio

Sangiovanni (1831-1892) of the Milan Conservatory, and in

September 1881 she made her debut in Milan, Mantua, and

Bologna, singing the title role to Petrella's opera,

Contessa d'Arnalfi. In 1883 she returned to Los Angeles and soon married Dr. Charles W. Davis, who died in 1889. A farewell musicale was given in Turnverein Hall on April 22,

1889, upon her return to Italy. Later she returned to Los

A.11geles and married Charles Modini Wood, a tenor. Both she and her husband were much in demand in Los Angeles as singers, particularly in the local churches.

In the 1880s, some of the well-known local musicians included Charles Cramer, cornet; C.E. Pemberton, violin, 39

and composer; Louis Heine, cello, violin, viola, piano and flute; Will Sargeant, violin, alto; v. Hurka, clarinet; E.C.

Kammermeyer, violin; J.F. Willey, piano; e.G. Natsky, violin and trombone; The Connor Brothers, Thomas and Charles; bass, cornet and drums, respectively; Carl Freese, violin and alto, leader at Pasadena Grand Opera House and of the Crown

City Band; Prof. A. Loeb, pianist and teacher (father of

Matilee Loeb, cornetist) .

A.G. Bartlett, born in 1850 in Devonshire, England, came to California in 1875, first settling in Ventura and later moving to Los Angeles. He played the cornet and sang tenor roles in Gilbert & Sullivan Operas. His band was very popular in Los Angeles and toured St. Louis and San

Francisco among other places, accompanying "the Grand Army 13 and Masonic organizations." He was an owner of Bartlett

Brothers Music Store and also led the Seventh Infantry Band between 1886 and 1894. He was.an impresario, bringing

Adelina Patti to Los Angeles in 1887. In 1889 he began teaching band instruments at the University of Southern

California. As a member of the Board of Education he was involved in the establishment of a public school music program. His daughter, Bessie Bartlett (later Mrs. Cecil

Frankel) became a major music community leader in the twentieth century.

Among the orchestral conductors active in Los Angeles during the last two decades of the century, Harley Hamilton,

A.J. Stamm, and Adolph Willhartitz should be mentioned. 40

Harley Hamilton was a very influential musician in Los

Angeles from the 1880s until his death in 1933. He was born in Oneida, New York in 1861 and he studied at the Musical

College from which he graduated in 1882. He later studied in Boston with Bernhard Listemann, in London performed under the baton of Sir Henry Wood in the Queen's Hall Orchestra, under Ferdinand Loewe in Munich and under Felix Mottl in the

Wagner Festival of 1910. He played in the orchestras of

Theodore Thomas and Carl Zerrahn in Boston, London, Berlin and Munich. He came to Los Angeles in 1887 and worked as a violinist and teacher. In the 1880s he was conductor of the

Seventh Regiment Band.

Soon after his arrival, Hamilton became the conductor of the Los Angeles Grand Opera House and soon thereafter, conductor of the Los Angeles Theater orchestra. His students gave regular recitals throughout the 1890s. In 1898 he helped to revive the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra, and was its director for 18 years, when he had to retire due to a loss of hearing. He founded the Los Angeles Women's - Symphony Orchestra in 1893. Harley Hamilton was also the first president of the first musicians' union in Los 14 Angeles, the Musical Protective Association.

Bernhardt-Bierlich, at age 51, arrived in Los Angeles in 1889. A cellist, violinist, violist and trombonist, he had played under Liszt, Wagner, Thomas, Seidle and both

Damrosches, and also with the Metropolitan Opera House

Orchestra. For more than 30 years he was an important 41

player and teacher of cello in Los Angeles. He died at age

85 on February 9, 1923. He was the father of Julius

Bierlich and Elsa Von Grofe Menasco, two musicians active in 15 Los Angeles.

A.J. Stamm (b. January 27, 1849) was a church organist,

conductor, composer and chamber music player. He organized

perhaps the first Los Angeles string quartet which played

regularly in his home. He was Principal of a German music

school in Los Angeles, and was founder and conductor of the

Los Angeles Symphony organized in 1892. He was still active

in Los Angeles in 1926.

Adolph Willhartitz was an effective force in creating

an atmosphere for symphonic music in Los Angeles. He was the

first person to conduct Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoff- man, in the United States, in St. Louis in 1862, and in

1887 he organized a Philharmonic Society and Orchestra in

Los Angeles, which presented Haydn's The Creation. He

also produced light opera including Pinafore,

Mikado, The Bohemian Girl, and The Chimes of

Normandy, making use of the young local talent emerging 16 from Los Angeles' early music schools.

THE MUSICIANS' UNION

The Los Angeles Musical Protective Association was

formed April 1, 1888, the first attempt at organizing a musicians' union. It should be remembered that 1888 was the year of the great "burst" with the bottom falling out of the 42

real estate market in Los Angeles. With the coming of hard times, the musicians were the first to suffer and many were laid off or fired.

It was a great financial tragedy. Innumerable persons, instead of acquiring only such property as they could pay for, had bought many properties, paying down a part of the purchase price on each and assuming heavy indebtedness, in the speculative hope of making quick turns and proportionate profits. The brass bands ceased to exercise their charm--real estate sales stopped--building operations came to a standstill--and the bottom dropped out of the wild orgy that had been going on .... The music business suffered accordingly.17

A union was needed to fight unemployment. It was known as

Local No. 19 of the National League of Musicians of the

United States. The stated purpose of the group was "to unite the musical profession for the protection and better regulation of its members, to promote the cultivation of the

Art of Music. Harley Hamilton was the President; W.C. Stone,

Vice President; Max Lenzberg, Treasurer; R.E. Lander,

Secretary; Louis Heine, Martin Knowll, J.W.A. Campbell, H.C.

Alger, W.H. Brown, Trustees.

Writing about the need for a Musicians• Union, J.K.

Wallace gives a glimpse of the musical life in Los Angeles in the 1890s:

When the 90s first began to be gay, dancing as a public pastime was being accepted by society. The world wanted to dance, further to demonstrate its gaiety. A new type of music was created; a new type of musician was born ... The trumpet, the trombone, and the tuba came out of the bandstand and the violin, the piano and the woodwind came out of the concert hall, both to make simple, rhythmic sounds to stimulate single, rhythmic feet. 43

p •

The calibre of men who hired these new musicians for their hotels and theaters and restaurants differed greatly then, as it does now, from the less financial­ minded men who hired them for the concert hall and for the bandstand in the public square.

He could hire them, fire them, kick them; favor some, fleece others. He was the law. Something had to be done.18

This first attempt at forming a union failed by 1891, but a

second attempt to organize a union in 1893 was successful • and this organization still functions today as Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians, chartered on October 19 30, 1894, including 75 founding members.

Louis Heine was reputed to be an outstanding musician in the late 1880s and early 1890s. According to Bagley,

Not only was he for a generation the premier 'cellist of the United States, but he was skillful with the violin, viola, piano and flute. It is related that at one time he acted as a substitute for five consecutive nights in the same theatre and each night played a different instrument in a highly acceptable manner.20

The Berth Family Orchestra arrived in Los Angeles in

September 1891 and had quite an impact on the local music scene. The family included Marguerite Berth, leader and first violin; Sophie Berth, first violin; Julia Berth, cello; Theodore Berth, Sr. cornet; Theodore Berth, Jr., piano; Emith Berth, second cornet; and joining later was the youngest daughter, Lydia, as violinist and leader. While in

Los Angeles, they added A. Koenig, bass player. Theodore

Berth, Sr. came to the u.s. in 1872 with the

Guarde-Republicaine Band of Paris. He had studied at the 44

French Conservatory and was quite an accomplished musician.

The family worked at the Vienna Buffet on Court Street

nightly for their first year. They went to San Francisco

for nine months and returned to the Vienna Buffet in the 21 fall of 1893.

William Piutti was a prominant concert pianist and

teacher in Los Angeles in the late 1880s and early 1890s.

He arrived here in the fall of 1887 and was an instructor in music at Chaffee College in Ontario and gave lectures in Los

Angeles on music hi&tory. His String Quartet was given

several performances. He gave entire concerts of Chopin and

Schumann when the audience was used to piano solos being

buried in a program of vocal and other instrumental music.

His recital of February 4, 1888 at Bartlett's Hall included

Bach, Beethoven, Liszt, Schumann and Chopin, fourteen works

in all. He left Los Angeles in 1896 to accept a position as

Dean of the Music School at the University of the Pacific in 22 San Jose.

Paul Colberg, a local composer and founder of a

conservatory, organized a concert of his own compositions in

Turner Hall on March 10, 1892. This was probably the first

concert of works by a Los Angeles composer, but Colberg

left the area because he was "convinced that no national 23 reputation could accrue to one of its inhabitants."

According to Robert Stevenson, Preston Ware Orem

(1865-1938), a composer, organist and pianist who lived in 24 L.A. from 1889 to 1897, left for the same reason. 45

There were hundreds of musicians working in Los Angeles by the end of the century, enough of them to create a major symphony orchestra, theater orchestras in several major houses, and music in most restaurants, hotels and beer gardens. The caliber of the musicians is attested to by the fact of the high quality repertoire they performed and the support of the community which they received. 46

NOTES FOR CHAPTER III

1. The church musicians are covered in Chapter IV. It is understood that this paper focuses on Los Angeles after California became one of the United States. This paper does not take up the early Mexican musicians or Indian music except as it relates to the music of the newly arrived "Anglo" settlers.

2. Newmark, pp. 28-29.

3. Newmark, pp. 213-214.

4. Newmark, p. 233.

5. Newmark, p. 372

6. Newmark, pp. 277-278. Bagley repeats this story in his article, 4/23 (March 15, 1925): 1.

7. Workman, p. 141.

8. Bagley, 4/22 (March 1, 1925): 1.

9. Newmark, p. 412.

10. Workman, p. 118.

11. Robert Stevenson, "Los Angeles," p. 108.

12. Swan, p. 137.

13. McGroarty, Los Angeles from the Mountains to the Seas, III: 452.

14. Who's Who in Music in California, p. 72. See below for more information on the Musicians' union, and Chapter V for details on some of the orchestras that Hamilton conducted in Los Angeles.

15. Bagley, 5/6 (July 1, 1925): 1.

16. Carolyn Estes Smith, The Philharmonic Orchestra of Los Angeles, pp. 15-6.

17. Bagley, 5/4 (June 1, 1925): 1.

18. J. K. Wallace, "The Musicians' Union," in Music and Dance in California, p. 74.

19. For more information on the founding of the second union organization see the Wallace article mentioned above.

20. Bagley 5/6 (July 1925): 7. 47

21. Ibid.

22. Swan, pp. 182-183; Bagley, 5/10 (September 1, 1925): 5. Some sources have misspelled Piutti and Puitti.

23. Stevenson, p. 109; Swan, p. 184 states that Orem was here between 1889-1895.

24. Stevenson, p. 109. CHAPTER IV

MUSIC IN CHURCHES

Much of the music heard in Los Angeles in the

nineteenth century was heard in churches. Among the sacred

music sung in Los Angeles in the early days is the mission

music of San Gabriel Mission and in other Catholic Churches.

The Coronel collection contains sheets of parchment on which

are hand-printed the words and accompanying musical notes of

certain church services, believed to have been copied by the 1 Indian neophytes of the mission.

The first Protestant church established in Los Angeles was the African Methodist Episcopal Church, founded in 1854

by Biddy Mason, a former Georgia slave. Mason crossed the

plains in 1851 with her three daughters, driving a herd of

sheep behind her master's wagon train. After legally

ob·taining her freedom, she worked for a Lo~ Angeles physician as a midwife and nurse. She invested $250 in real estate in 1887 and the value of the land reached $200,000

by her death in 1891. Her home was a refuge for the poor

and she used her money to support a Black nursery school and aid to Black families. It can be assumed that music was an

integral part o~ the Church service, but little has been 2 written about this early Los Angeles congregation.

In 1855 Blas Roho (1806-62) came to Los Angeles to be

48 49

the priest of Our Lady of the Angeles Church. There he installed a new organ and organized a choir to perform 3 there. In 1857 and 1858, the Sisters of Charity organized a girls' choir at their school to perform sacred music.

Boyle Workman tells a story in his memoirs about how the Protestants in 1858 in Los Angeles were finally convinced to buy an organ. There had been several attempts to establish a Protestant Church. The Reverend William E.

Boardman organized The First Protestant Society of Los

Angeles, later known as the Community Church. The

Methodists believed that using an organ in church was "a concession to the devil," so they blocked every effort to purchase one for the Protestant Society. Workman claims that the poor quality of the singing of one Mrs. C.G.

DuBois, a Baptist, finally convinced the congregation to buy an organ. Workman is not clear about whether or not this group actually purchased an organ or if they just made a resolve to purchase one. In any case, the group soon 4 disbanded.

In 1865 Episcopalians began holding regular services in a Main Street storeroom. Their first church, St. Athanasius

(later St. Paul's) was on Olive Street, opposite the Sixth

Street Park. Protestant churches, however, were not well 5 established in Los Angeles until the 1870s. In 1871, the first series of Sunday School concerts were held at the

Congregational Church, drawing an audience of 250 to hear a 6 choir of children. 50

By the 1870s and 80s, pipe organs were heard in most

churches in Los Angeles and the music performed there was discussed in detail in the local press. The Congregational

Church was the first to have a pipe organ, installed in 7 1872, a gift of Jotham Bixby. The 7rustees in accepting the gift proclaimed: "Would that God would put it into the hearts of our wealthy men thus to honor with their 8 substance Him 'from whom all blessings flow.'"

A new pipe organ was installed at the Fort Street

Methodist Church and inaugurated on November 18, 1882. The program included performances by Prof. Knell, organist of the Los Angeles Catholic Cathedral, Prof. Foss, former organist of the Tremont Street Church in Boston, Madame

Fisk, ·former organist of the Congregational church at

Natiche, and Miss Badeau, formerly of the Wabash Avenue

Church In Chicago. The program included vocal solos by

Mesdames Beeson, Barnett (Rachel Edelman) and Messrs. Lock,

Booth and Prof. Fott, plus a duet by Mr. Pomeroy and Mr.

Booth. A chorus of 16 voices, accompanied by the new organ, sang ''The Heavens Are Telling," from The Creation as the grand finale. Admission was 50 cents and reserved seats 9 were available for 75 cents.

This grand inauguration was followed on the next

Tuesday night with an organ recital including an organ solo by Mrs. Dr. Nellis, a bass solo by Prof. W.C. Stone and an instrumental trio including Beatrice Francisco and her two brothers performing an "Adagio and Presto" of Haydn. Gracie 51

Smith played a violin solo and Annie L. Peabody performed an organ solo. A male vocal quartet performed as did piano, 10 violin and contralto soloists. Admission was 50 cents.

In the 1870s there were many reports in the newspapers about Sunday school programs in the city which included recitations, dialogues, and songs. Sometimes churches 11 presented cantatas and oratorios, featuring local singers.

In January 1878, the Fort Street Methodist Church was the scene of a concert of choral music given by the church choir, accompanied by two organs, two violins and bass. The program included vocal quartets, a trio, the audience participated in the singing of several songs, including "Gregorian Chant," "Duke Street," "Hebron," 12 "Zion," "Toplady," "Coronation," and "Old Hundred."

One bass soloist, who performed at the Catholic

Cathedral, Dr. Fernandez was lauded in the local press in a story about his special techniques:

Dr. Fernandez is not only one of the most accomplished musicians on the American continent, but he is also possessed of a phenomenally fine basso voice. Only the fact that he is a devout Catholic induces him to sing at all publicly. Having a sepulchrally fine and deep basso, he sometimes sees, a page ahead, passages so high that to carry them out literally, with his cellar-drawn voice, would result in a downright bray. So thorough is is mastery of music that as he approaches these passages he improvises a score adapted to his superb voice, the organist and his fellow choristers looking on in dumb surprise the while.13

In the 1880s church choirs grew in numbers, size and capabilities. St. Paul's Episcopal Church (formerly St. 52

Athanasius') had a boys choir. The Cathedral of St. Vibiana used an orchestra sometimes to accompany the choir and in

1882 presented Beethoven's Mass in C for Easter. New churches were built in the 1880s and new organs were purchased and installed. The Methodist organ was dedicated

November 18, 1882 and the Congregational organ on November

28, 1883.

Composer Morton F. Mason, who studied in Boston with

John Knowles Paine, A.K. Knowlton and Homer Norris, was organist for four years in the early 1890s at Immanu~l

Church and in 1895 moved to the First Presbyterian Church in

Pasadena where he remained for more than 25 years. His sacred music was performed often throughout the Los Angeles area.

The Congregational Church was for many years the scene of many concerts of classical music. For example, on

November 4, 1892, Harley Hamilton conducted an orchestra of

20 players there. A contralto, Mrs. W.D. Bloodgood, and the Euterpean Quartet, and a duet by Walter

McQuillen and C.W. Reinhardt for flute and clarinet called 14 "Lo! Hear the Gentlelark" was heard. This was typical programming practice at the time and not peculiar to Los

Angeles.

In 1896, a new pipe organ was installed at the First

Congregational church with 2,000 speaking pipes and multiplying devices, eight combination pedals and thirteen combination stops, and costing $8,000. The organist was 53

15 Wilhelm Middleschultz.

C.S. Cornell, music director at the First Methodist

Church in 1896 initiated antiphonal singing with a grand chorus of a hundred voices placed in the rear gallery and the regular chorus of 40 voices in the front of the 16 church.

During the 1897-98 season, the Sunday School orchestra of the First Congregational Church presented a series of seven concerts. The orchestra, involving men and women players included eleven violins, a viola, a violoncello, two basses, one clarinet, oboe, bassoon, three cornets, a French 17 horn, two trombones, a set of drums and a piano.

In 1899 an article was published in the Western

Graphic describing the organ to be built at the First

Methodist Church of Los Angeles by Murray M. Harris,

Southern California's first organ builder. The organ was to cost $7,500 and would be a magnificent three manual organ which will be 30 per cent larger than any organ in the

Southwest

... The furnishings will be of quartered white oak of Romanesque design composed of elaborately carved grillwork, the open panels filled in with handsomely decorated pipes. Its dimensions are: width 26 feet; depth 20 feet and height, 35 feet. There will be 46 stops, a total of 2212 pipes, 13 composition pedals and two swell boxes.18

Preston Orem worked in Los Angeles between 1889 and

1895 as organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's Church.

According to Swan, " ... his groups not only performed 54

selections of a standard not heard elsewhere in town, but 19 sang also his own service selections." He composed songs, piano pieces, an American Indian Rhapsody for orchestra, and was author of a beginning-level harmony book.

J.D. Knell was an accomplished pianist, organist and choirmaster who worked in various Catholic churches for nearly 25 years. A.J. Stamm was well-known as a church organist in the area. Outstanding local vocalists included

Mamie Perry, Adel Levy, Mrs. M.L. Beeson, Mamie Lester, Otto von Ploennies and W.G. Gogswell, often in demand to sing at the local churches.

By 1899 Los Angeles had 154 churches for its 100,000 inhabitants and the number of organs, choirs, orchestras involved with the performance of sacred music was impressiVe 20 and of a high quality. 55

NOTES FOR CHAPTER IV

1. Splitter, p. 310. Some of the music can be found in the Los Angeles County Museum Collection of Manuscripts.

2. Stevenson, p. 109; Andrew Rolle, pp. 61-2.

3. Stevenson, p. 107.

4. Workman, pp. 154-5.

5. Ibid.

6. Swan, p. 115.

7. Ibid. p. 117.

8. Los Angeles News, September 18, 1872.

9. Los Angeles Express, November 14, 1882, p. 2 col. 5.

10. Los Angeles Herald, November 16, 1882, p. 2 col. 5

11. Splitter, p. 313.

12. Los Angeles Express, January 14, 1878, p. 3 col. 3.

13. Herald, January 28, 1879.

14. Bagley, 5/23 (March 15, 1926): 8.

15. Who's Who in Music in Californ;ia, (1920), p. 94.

16. Herald, January 12, 1896, p. 14 col. 1.

17. Herald, February 6, 1898.

18. The Great Methodist Organ.

19. Swan, p. 18 4.

20. Swan, p. 170. CHAPTER V

MUSIC PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS INCLUDING ORCHESTRAS, BANDS AND CHORAL SOCIETIES

BANDS

Among the earliest and most popular performing ensembles in Los Angeles during the nineeteenth century in

Los Angeles were the military bands. They played at every major occasion including political speeches, parades, dedication ceremonies, real estate promotions, charity benefits, agricultural fairs and festivals. One of the best known was the Band of the First Dragoons of Fort 1 Tejon, active in the 1860s, led by William Joy.

According to Newmark, on October 26, 1869, there was a band performing at the opening of the San P~dro Railroad

Company and the musicians performed in the depot which had 2 been cleared and decorated for a ball.

There was on-going competition among the area's bands, and each town had one which performed at the big festivals held in Los Angeles, representing their towns. Howard Swan relates the story of a band contest held in 1876 in conjunction with the Horticultural Fair. The prize was $150 and the rules were as follows: 1. Only bands from counties south of Fresno were eligible; 2. each band must have at

least eight mouth pieces; 3. the committee of judges would

56 57

be screened, and; 4. each band would play twice before winners were selected. Only two bands decided to compete, the City Band of Los Angeles and the Hefferman Band of San

Francsico, so the rules were suspended to allow the San

Francisco group to compete. The Los Angeles group was selected and the San Francisco band declared that the judges were prejudice against them. The public, however, favored the San Francisco band, and much about the outcome was discussed in the local press. The Herald wrote: "We should be very sorry indeed to have our visitors go back to

San Francisco after their first trip to the Orange Grove city, with a feeling that they had been treated unjustly 3 rankling in their breasts."

There were so many bands active in the 1870s, 1880s and

1890s that it would d~fficult to list them, but many are mentioned in C.L. Bagley's series of articles, "The History 4 of the Band and Orchestra Business in Los Angeles." In some cases, he lists the names of every player of some organizations and given sample concert programs. To give one an idea of how many bands there were, an examination of the "Official Program" of the La Fiesta celebration of 1895 reveals that the following area bands performed on opening day, April 15: Grand Army Band, Drum Corps, Concord

Band, Military Band, Foxley's Band, San Diego Band, Orange

Band, Santa Ana Band, Chino Band, Santa Barbara Band,

Pasadena Band, Fullerton Band, Compton Band, San Fernando

Band, Long Beach Band, Ontario Band, Burbank Band, and the 58

5 Catalina Island Band.

ORCHESTRAS

Classical orchestras, on the other hand, were not heard in Los Angeles until the 1880s, when a number of string players arrived in the area who had orchestral training and experience. Small orchestras played in opera productions and in theaters, but the first attempt to formally organize a symphony orchestra took place in 1887. The Los Angeles

Philharmonic Society was initiat~d in June, 1887 and was revitalized in 1888, at the height of the economic boom. It gave four concerts during the 1888-9 season under conductor

Adolph Willhartitz (1836-1915). The officers included: Gen.

John C. Fremont, President; W.H. Workman, Vice-President;

E.F. Kubel, Secretary; F.M. Hotchkis, Librarian; H.J.

Hanchetts, Treasurer. Directors included Judge Gottschalk,

Messrs. Bock, Marble, Szigethy, Drs. Green and Griffith, 6 Mrs. Valentine and Miss Long.

Bartlett's Musical and Horne Journal of September

1888 carried a report on the progress of the Philharmonic

Society.

Rehearsals are well attended and all members are taking an active interest in their work. The public are (sic) beginning to be interested in the first concert, which takes place the 27th inst., and it is plainly to be seen that we now have what has been needed so long, a good live musical organization prpperly officered, not only for one concert alone, but a society having in view the advancement of rnusic.7 59

The article includes a list of players.

Carolyn Estes Smith, in her book, The Philharmonic

Orchestra of Los Angeles, acknowledges Willhartitz's

Philharmonic Society and Orchestra as the first symphony orchestra in Los Angeles' music history, but she includes very little information on the group except that it included

120 in the chorus and 40 in the orchestra and "It was 8 composed wholly of amateurs." From examining the list of players as published in Bartlett's, many of the musicians can be confirmed as being among the top professionals working in L.A. at the time. It was hardly an amateur orchestra, although we can assume that the chorus members were amateurs. Perhaps Smith considered them amateurs because they were not paid for their performances with the Philharmonic.

Howard Swan describes Willhartitz's Philharmonic as the most ambitious attempt to organize an amateur orchestra. He reports that monthly "Soiree musicales" were presented at

A.G. Gardner's music hall and four concerts were performed during the 1888-89 season. According to Swan, this

Philharmonic gave Los Angeles' first performance of

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the Mozart Concerto 9 No.17 for two pianos.

Carolyn Smith claims that Ralph Klages organized an orchestra which was known as the Y.M.C.A. Orchestra which included players who were members of or directed other local ensembles. Howard Swan however claims that the Y.M.C.A. 60

10 orchestra was organized in 1887 by Louis Heine.

In 1890 The First Congregational Church Orchestra gave its first concert in June with Harley Hamilton conducting.

In 1897 W.H. Mead took over as conductor, a post which he 11 held for 22 years.

According to Carolyn Smith, in 1890 Professor Ludomir

Tomaszewicz founded the Lute Orchestra which disbanded the 12 following year. Howard Swan, on the other hand states that Tomaszewic, a local violinist, founded an orchestral ensemble which presented two concerts in the summer of 1892 including Mozart's Overture to Don Juan, Grieg's

Peer Gynt Suite and the Farewell Symphony of Haydn.

Tomaszewic presen·ted his aunt, Helena Modjeska, as guest artist and "attendance was so poor that this latest 13 venture was hastily abandoned." C.L. Bagley states that

Tomaszewicz, organizer of the 25-member "Orchestral Society

Lute," conducted its first concert on June 15, 1892 at

Simpson Auditorium. Tomaszewicz was introduced to Los

Angeles in a public concert at the home of Mrs. J.D. Cole.

In 1892 he conducted a production of The Chimes of

Normandy at the Los Angeles Theater with an orchestra of

20 players. According to Bagley,

Mr. Tomaszewicz remained in Los Angeles only two or three years and then went to New York City where he was for a long time engaged in composing and making orchestra·tions and other arrangements, principally for Carl Fischer, under the name of Ludomir Thomas.14

These attempts by Willhartitz and Tomaszewicz paved the way 61

for the first full scale professional orchestra in Los

Angeles.

LOS ANGELES SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

An article in the Los Angeles Express of October

28, 1892 announced A.J. Stamm's orchestra:

The large orchestra of forty of the best musicians of Los Angeles, organized by Prof. A.J. Stamm, is continuing its rehearsals steadily and fine results are looked for. It is the intention to give during the coming season a series of philharmonic concerts similar to those given in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Chicago under direction of Thomas, Damrosch and Seidl.15

August J. Stamm's orchestra opened a four-concert season on January 9, 1893 at the Grand Opera House with a 35 piece orchestra, mostly theater musicians. The concert cleared $700 dollars over expenses. Miss Augustine Berger was piano soloist and Mrs. J.S. (Minnie Hance Owens) Owens sang. Stamm was the acting organist at St. Vibiana's

Cathedral and had his own music school in the 1890s. He was born in Germany, where his father was a violin maker and dealer of musical instruments. According to Carolyn Smith,

Stamm had to teach many of the men in his orchestra how to play orchestral instruments, particularly oboe and bassoon and, as a matter of fact, he bought the instruments, and then taught the men to use them. Not satisfied with the old instruments which were high in pitch, he bought new ones.

These, he soon discovered, would not synchronize with the 62

old, so that all had to be lengthened or shortened to meet the requirements, "What was worse, the men again had to 16 learn how to play them." Howard Swan proclaims Stamm "the man who gave to Los Angeles its first professional 17 symphony orchestra." Harley Hamilton was the Concert

Master in Stamm's orchestra. The orchestra continued through two seasons, managing to pay the bills, but according to

Smith, did not continue into the 1895-96 season, probably because of the depression.

A composite photograph which includes portraits of all the orchestra members, many shown with their instruments, is republished in the Smith volume, and includes 37 players and the conductor, A.J. Stamm. This photograph is quite significant in that some of the portraits are the only ones which exist of many of the individual musicians. Included are prominent Los Angeles musicians mentioned in this thesis, like the Musso Brothers, C.L. Bagley, Adolph 18 Lewinsky and Ralph w. Klages.

The first concert included works by Rossini, Wagner, de

Koven, Kretschmer, Mendelssohn, Thomas, Strauss, Nevin,

Rubinstein and Meyerbeer. The piano was provided by 19 Barlett's Music Company. A review from the Los Angeles

Express described the opening concert as follows:

The music at the Grand Opera House last night was homemade, all wool and a yard wide. It was the first Philharmonic concert and by far the best ever given by strictly local talent. It demonstrated beyond doubt that the city has the material for a permanent high class musical organization worthy of the steady 63

patronage of the public. By home talent is not meant amateurs, for most of the players are professionals and rank with any in other and larger cities.20

Apparently Stamm not only served as music director for the orchestra, but also sold tickets, handled the advertising, and did fundraising. For the second season, he secured $1,000 each from John M.C. Marble, President of the

National Bank of California, Albert G. Bartlett of the

Bartlett Music Company, and William H. Perry. In announcing the second season, Professor Stamm proclaimed that

... the carefully considered plans for the season's work provide for a system of thorough rehearsals, that the personnel of the orchestra has been improved, important instruments added, and the complete original orchestration of the principal compositions have been procured, thus insuring even better work in the concerts of 1893-94.21

22 Due to the depression, a third season was canceled.

LOS ANGELES WOMEN'S SYMPHONY

One of the earliest of the symphony orchestras in Los

Angeles was the Los Angeles Women's Symphony, founded in

1892-93, which existed until 1961. An article in The

Los Angeles Express, of November 29, 1893, described the scene following a rehearsal of the Los Angeles Women's

Symphony:

Yesterday morning a troop of young women came down the steps of Lawrence Hall, on Fifth_Street, with a peculiarly rapt and uplifted expression on each fine face. In their hands they carried music, and also many musical instruments, trombone, cornet, violin, 'cello, which for the last two hours had been filling the neighborhood of Fifth Street with notable music.23 64

The article goes on to describe the founding of the organization which originated with Mrs. M. Larrabee and Mrs.

L. Loeb who recruited 25 women players. They rehearsed every Tuesday in Lawrence Hall at 9:30. According to documents found in the Ruth Haroldson scrapbooks, the orchestra made its official debut on December 17, 1894.

The original group include the following instrumentation: thirteen violins, two violas, three cellos, two basses, two flutes, one clarinet, two cornets and one trombone. The names of the players are recognizable as possibly being family members of some prominent men musicians and daughters of Los Angeles' most socially 24 prominent families.

In her book on the history of the Los Angeles

Philharmonic, Carolyn Estes Smith concurs on the date of the

Women's Orchestra's first concert:

The first program of the Woman's Orchestra, under the direction of Mr. H.E. Hamilton was given in the Congregational Church, corner of Sixth and Hill Streets on Monday evening, December 17, 1894, at eight o'clock.25

Program selections were:

Part I.

1. Overture--Fairy Queen ...... Tabain 2. Selections from Lucrezia Borgia ...... Donizetti 3. Tenor Solo-Aria, M'appari ...... Flotow Mr. James Martin 4. Waltz--Artist's Life ...... Strauss 5. Flute Solo-Eulalie ...... Clinton Mrs. E. J. Roller 65

Part II.

6. Song Without Words ...... Thea. Moses 7. Sixth Symphony in G major (Surprise) .Jos. Haydn Adagio Cantabile Vivace assai, Andante, Menuetto, Allegro di molto 8. Tenor Solo--But One ...... Bevan 9. Overture--Barber of Seville ...... Rossini26

However, C.L. Bagley states that the Woman's Symphony was- formed during November of 1893 by Mrs. M. Larrabee and

Mrs. E. Loeb, and he lists a roster of the players. This list of players is th~ same as the list published in the publicity materials distributed by the orchestra as part of its 53rd anniversary celebration as the performers on the first concert reported to have taken place on December 17, 27 1894.

Bagley reports that the first concert of the Woman's

Orchestra was May 9, 1894:

The 9th of May brought the first public appearance of the Woman's Orchestra at the Grand Opera House in a concert for the benefit of Associated Charities. The stage was beautifully decorated with roses and a fair sized audience was present. Harley Hamilton conducted and the soloists were Winfield Black (baritone) and Miss Augustine Berger (pianist) . I cannot give the order of the program but it contained Tannhauser March (Wagner); Babbillage (Gillette); Overture "La Dame Blanch" (Boidieu); Immontelen Waltzes (Gungle); Gavotte "Bijou" (Moses); Danse "Neapolitan" (Tobani) ; Overture "Martha" (Flotow); and the Finale from Haydn's Sixth Symphony.28

Bagley lists the first and last names of the 29 players and states that "The orchestra was well received and merited approving press comments." 66

According to Howard Swan, the Los Angele's Women's

Symphony Orchestra began "public rehearsals" in December

1893 and "in April the next year presented its first concert in the Grand Opera House." The Times reported that the orchestra lacked force,' a criticism which was probably justified, since conductor Hamilton attempted to.balance twelve violins with two violas and an equal number of cellos, four 'cornets,' and a single bass, flute, clarinet, 29 and trombone!"

A brief notice in the Pacific Coast Musician dated

July 29, 1933, entitled "Birthdays," corrects the date of the founding of the Los Angeles Woman's Symphony Orchestra as reported in Etude Magazine. "As a matter of fact,

Conductor Hamilton founded this then unique and still 30 vigorously active organization in 1892." Etude had reported the beginning date as 1897.

In 1938, another article in the Pacific Coast

Musician quarreled with a recent issue of "an Eastern musical journal" which detailed the founding of the Woman's

Symphony. The Eastern journal referred to a November 29,

1894 article from the Los Angeles Examiner detailing the founding of the orchestra. In its rebuttal, the

Pacific Coast Musician points out that there was no

Los Angeles Examiner in 1893; it was established in

1903. "Moreover, a published biographical sketch of Mr.

Hamilton gives the year of the foundiHg of the Los Angeles

Woman's Orchestra as 1892. Bruno David Ussher's Who's 67

Who in Music and Dance gives the year as 1894. "Be that as it may, the orchestra's first public concert took place

December 17, 1894, in proof of which Mr. Ussher has a photograph of the program showing this date. Of course, the orchestra could have been organized earlier in 1894, or one or two years prior to that, as the date of the debut need 31 not necessarily indiciate the year of its establishment."

C.L. Bagley reports a story about an early experience of the orchestra which is of interest, when in 1896,

Hamilton took the Woman's Orchestra to Santa Ana to give a concert.

The hall was brilliantly decorated for this occasion and the feminine artists were in charming attire--all was in readiness but there were many more people in the orchestra than in the audience.

Competition could be heard in the street below where at frequent intervals during the afternoon someone played vigorously on a guitar and 'fiddle." The audience which had been expected upstairs surrounded a crude wagon in the street where it was discovered that a painless 'tooth puller' was conducting a hastily improvised dental office with his chair and other paraphrenalia in the wagon, and every time a patient had a tooth ext~acted there were vociferous shouts and loud applause by the spectators while the itinerant musicians whanged away in happy celebration.32

Despite the less-than-perfect circumstances, the Los Angeles

Woman's Symphony continued the pursuit of its goals until

1961.

LA FIESTA ORCHESTRA AND CHORUS

It should also be mentioned that during the 1890s, the 68

La Fiesta de Los Angeles program always included a major concert of the La Fiesta orchestra and chorus. In 1895, the program stated:

In no feature of the plans for 1895 was the broad idea of the celebration more clearly marked than in the music to be fitted into the mosaic. It was decided to make it an epoch in the musical evolution of Southern California. In furtherance of this design the entire section was drawn upon in the organization of an immense chorus and orchestra, for the presentation of some of the choicist productions of musical genius. The preparation for these grand concerts has been beset with difficulties, but those in charge of the work have persevered through all obstacles and musical art has been distinctly benefitted, receiving an impetus which will lead to greater achievements.33

Opening night included Harley Hamilton conducting a performance of The Messiah with an orchestra of 25 players at Simpson's Tabernacle and simultaneously at the

Los Angeles Theater, an entertainment sponsored by the L.A. 34 Athletic Club, with Howard G. Aylesworth, music director.

In 1896 the orchestra of La Fiesta was also conducted by Harley Hamilton and included "a trained orchestra of 50 35 and a grand chorus of 300." In 1897 the The Grand Fiesta

T. 1:1 Chorus and Orchestra was directed by ...... L • Gottschalk with 36 J. Bond Francisco, concert master.

A REVIVED LOS ANGELES SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

In 1898 Harley Hamilton successfully revived A.J.

Stamm's original efforts to create a Los Angeles Symphony

Orchestra. Players came from the local theater orchestras and from the Seventh Regiment Band which Hamilton also 69

conducted. During his first season, the orchestra had 33

players, but by it 1900 had doubled in size.

C.L. Bagley was a member of the orchestra during the

first season of its revival under Hamilton's baton and

recalls that "It had no financial backers and the plan was

to first pay expenses and then divide equally among the 37 musicians whatever remained."

The first concert was given on February first and each player received fifty cents. The program included

Beethoven's Symphony No. 1 in C Major, and works by

Schubert, Mendelssohn, Piene, Mascagni and Rossini. Bagley mentions that it included the same players at Stamm's orchestra, but lacked the needed oboes, bassoons and French 38 horns.

The second concert was held February 15, featuring

Schubert's Unfinished Symphony in B Minor, and the musicians each received $1.50. The third concert was given

March 1 and featured Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 of Grieg and

Brahms' Hungarian Fantasie and the musicians were paid

$3.00 each. By the fourth concert, H. Bond Francisco was the concert master and the orchestra performed Rubenstein's

First Concerto for Piano in E Minor. The players again received $3.00. The fifth concert was April 5 and featured

Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the final concert

featured Beethoven's Second Symphony. This orchestra 39 continued under Hamilton's baton until 1913. 70

LOCAL OPERA PRODUCTIONS

There were several early attempts at launching local opera productions. On December 1, 1892, Madame

Fabri-Mueller presented the Amateur Opera Club at the Grand

Opera House in excerpts from Il Trovatore and

Carmen, complete with with ballet directed by Henry J. 40 Kramer, a local ballet master.

On November 28, 1892, A.J. Stamm conducted Weber's opera Der Freisch~tz, at the Grand Opera House, with local talent, under the stage direction of Herr Joseph Rube, a grand opera singer, who had originally visited Los Angeles while on tour with a major company. He settled here as a teacher. The performances was so successful that it was repeated on December 19. Many of the instrumentalists were then rehearsing with Stamm for the Philharmonic, including

Hamilton, Romandy, Tomaszewicz, McQuillen, Reinhardt, to 41 mention a few.

In 1894, Charles M. Pike produced a season of light opera at the Los Angeles Theater with conductor George

Mulford and local talent. The season included The

Queen's Lace Handkerchief and Bluff King Hal,

Chimes of Normandy, and La Mascotte, but was a 42 financial failure.

MUSIC CLUBS

One of the most long-lasting Los Angeles area music organization was the Turnverein. Part of the Turnverein is 71

always a singing group, and Los Angeles' Turnverein was no exception. On December 31, 1859 it was organized with 11 members following a few meetings in the office of Dr. Joseph

Kurtz. It was originally called the Teutonia Verein. The members included Dr. Kurts, Ed. Preuss, Lorenzo Leek, Philip and Henry Stoll, Jake Kuhrts, Fred Morsch, C.C. Lips and

Isaac Cohen. Dr. Kurtz was elected President. They met at

Frau Wiebecks' Gardens on the west side of Alameda near

First Street, where they drank beer and wine and ''gratified 43 their love of music and song." They rented a barn from

Kalisher and Wartenberg on Alameda Street between Ducommun and First for gymnastics. They also held affairs at Kiln

Messer's on First Street between Alameda and the river, another garden which was popular at the time.

In 1869 another German society merged with the original group and together called themselves Germania Turnverein and in 1870 they built a hall on Spring Street, "one of the largest and finest halls south of San Francisco. It has a 44 well-equipped gymnasium and the best stage in the city."

By 1880 they had 120 members. In the Directory of

Los Angeles City 1878, there is an announcement under the heading "Turnverein" that "Germania meets every first 45 and third Wednesday in each month."

The Turners sponsored many socials, but also some events of special significance in Los Angeles music history like a concert given on December 5, 1891 at the "Centenary

Celebration of W.A. Mozart's Death," with Ellen Beach Yaw, 72

@ '

Madames Ines Fabri-Mueller, Minnie Hance Owens, Mrs. Mr.

Masac, J. Bond Francisco, Adolph Willhartitz and the Arevalo~ 46 Guitar Club performing.

A program from November 2, 1929 reveals that the Gesang

Section of the Turnverein Germania of Los Angeles was still

active and gave a performance with the Woman's Symphony

Orchestra of Los Angeles, Fred Mehr and Henry Schoenefeld,

Directors. The concert was given in the T.V.G. Auditorium

then located at 936 West Washington Street. In 1946 the

Turnverein celebrated 75 years of activity with a publication, Diamond Jubilee, 1871-1946: Los Angeles 47 Turners. The History of the Turners in Los Angeles.

Among the other music clubs, one should mention that

in the 1880s there were several Los Angeles chapters of the

Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle meeting on a

regular basis and music was an important part of the 48 program. The Students Musical Club, called the S.M. Club, under the direction of Mrs. J.D. Cole, was formed in 1888 and existed through 1894. The object of the organization was to study the work and lives of important composers, past and present. According to Howard Swan, the membership was

"composed of nearly every professional musician in the city." In 1890 they studied the music of Arthur Foote,

Ethelbert Nevin, and George Chadwick; in 1891, the works of

Edward MacDowell, J. Knowles Paine, Horatio Parker and 49 Edgar Stillman Kelley.

There were many singing societies during the last two 73

decades of the nineteenth century, but the most important

was the Ellis Club, a male chorus of 100 voices, organized

in April 1888 by Judge Charles J. Ellis. The stated purpose

of the organization was "study of music for male voices, and

for the culture and development of a refined musical taste 50 in its membership and the community at large." The membership included mostly business and professional men for whom the "one great pleasure of singing together for the

love and study of music" as the only compensation. The

Ebell Club, a similar organization for women, -was founded in . 1894 by Harriet William Russell.

The performing ensembles of Los Angeles in the

nineteenth century ranged from professional bands and

orchestras to amateur clubs and singing societies. There were "ad hoc" performing ensembles, organized for specific

occasions and attempts at forming a permanent philharmonic

orchestra. Although there was a great love for grand opera

expressed by local audiences at the performances of visiting

opera companies, attempts to create a permanent Los Angeles

grand opera company before 1900 were unsuccessful. 74

NOTES FOR CHAPTER V

1. Bagley, 4/20 (February 1, 1925): 1.

2. Newmark, pp. 403-3.

3. Bagley, 4/20 (February 1, 1925): 1 ..

4. La Fiesta Program, 1895, unnumbered pages.

5. Horowitz, p. 44.

6. Bartlett's Musical and Home Journal V/6 (September 1888): 9.

7. Ibid. See Chapter III of this thesis for more details on individual musicians.

8. Smith, p. 16.

9. Swan, p. 177.

10. Smith, p. 16.

11. Swan, pp. 176-7.

12. Smith, p. 17.

13. Swan, p. 177.

14. Smith, p. 18.

15. Ibid. pp. 17-8.

16. Ibid.

17. Swan, p. 178.

18. See photograph of the orchestra members reprinted in Smith volume on unnumbered page which has each player identified.

19. Concert program reproduced in the Smith volume and available at Huntington Library.

20. Los Angeles Express, January 10, 1893.

21. Bagley 6/4 (June 1, 1926) : 9.

22. Ibid. There is some dispute about whether or not there was a third season. There was a concert given April 2, 1895.

23. As reprinted in Carolyn Estes Smith, The Philhar- 75

monic Orchestra of Los Angeles, p. 21.

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid., pp. 21-4.

26. Ibid. .. 27. Bagley, August 1' 1926, pp. 13-4. 28. Ibid.

29. Swan, p. 178.

30. "Birthdays," Pacific Coast Musician July 29, 1933, p. 4.

31. "L.A. Woman's Symphony Oldest," Pacific Coast Musician August 6, 1938, p. 10.

32. Reprinted from a document in the Ruth Haroldson Scrapbooks entitled, "Some Historical Data on the Los Angeles Women's Symphony Orchestra," CSUN Music Department Archive.

33. La Fiesta Program, 1895.

34. Bagley, (August 1 I 1926): 13-4.

35. La Fies-ta Program, 1896.

36. La Fiesta Program, 1897.

37. Bagley 7/5 (September 1927): 3-5.

38. Ibid.

39. Ibid.

40. Bagley 6/9 (August 15, 1926): 7.

41. Bagley 5/23 (March 151 1926): 9.

42. Bagley 6/9 (August 15, 1926): 7.

43. Newmark, p. 409.

44. Thompson and West, P· 122. 45. Directory of Los Angeles City 1878.

46. Bagley 5/15 (November 15, 1925): 5.

47. Reference found at Huntington Library, Main Catalog, but 76

item cannot be located.

48. Swan, p. 162.

49. Swan, p. 185.

50. Who's Who in Music and Dance in California (1933), p. 129. CHAPTER VI:

MUSIC MERCHAN~S AND IMPRESARIOS

Before 1867, Angelenos were forced to order music from

San Francisco because it was not being sold in Los Angeles.

In the late 1860s, Sam Hellman and H.W. Hellman began carrying musical instruments and music books. As Boyle

Workman put it, "you could buy anything from a needle to an organ" at Hellman's variety store, located at 95 Main Street 1 and 8 Spring Street. Their advertisement in the 1872

Directory claims, "New Music and Books Received by Every 2 Steamer."

F.D. Knell began selling music here upon his arrival in the late 1860s. w. J. Broderick in 1870 became Los Angeles' first music merchant and in 1873 Armstrong and Shaw became 3 agents for Chickering pianos and Estey organs.

The Los Angeles City Directory of 1875 carries an advertisement for s. Hellman, "Books, Stationery, Sheet Music, Musical Instruments and Fancy Goods, etc., etc." and for M.W. Perry, Book binder, "Books of all kinds, such as

Magazines, Pamphlets, Music Library, etc., corner of Temple and New High Streets." Under ''Musical Instruments Dealers" there is A.H. Havell, Lewis Lewin and J.D. Patrick. Havell had a display advertisement on page 1 which reads:

Again Victorious!

77 78

Glorious News! Crowning Triumph! The Hallet Davis PIANOS Again Ahead of All Others At the State Fair!

Also the New York Com. Piano, Fall Square Grand, The Little Diamond, by Arlington Organs, by George Wood, in great variety.

Pianos, organs, etc., promptly Tuned, Regulated or Repaired. A.H. Havell, D.M. Teacher of Piano, Organ and Singing. 4 Sole Agent for Southern California on the Above Pianos

On page 162, there is an advertisement for G. Rudolf &

Co., "Importer & Dealers and Manufacturers of Pianos. Piano

Warerooms Nos. 4 and 6 Fifth Street, near Market, San

Francisco," which indicates that Angelenos were still purchasing their pianos and organs from San Francisco and having them shipped by steamer to Los Angeles.

In 1874 The Golden Songster for the Land of Sun- shine and Flowers and Memorandum Book was compiled by

R.S. Lawrence, a statistical reporter of the Daily

Press. It was published and distributed compliments of

Stevens & Tilley of Santa Barbara. This 47-page publication has been mentioned in some sources as the first music to be published in the Southland. It is not, however, a music publication but a songster typical of the era, containing only the lyrics of popular songs. Composers and lyricists are not credited except for a song entitled "Santa Barbara" with lyrics by Fannie Gaylord, and even then, no composer's name is given. It may be presumed that some of the songs 79

popular in Santa Barbara were also heard in Los Angeles 5 during the same period.

Every other page of the songster contains advertisements for Santa Barbara businesses, including A.W.

Froom & Co., an "extensive book and music store" which carries "pianos, organs, melodeons, accordeons (sic), guitars, violins, and other musical instruments, together with sheet music, music books, etc." The Library Bookstore also has an ad which states they also sell music books in

Santa Barbara. The Directory of Los Angeles City 1878 compiled by Aaron Smith mentions Louis Lewin & Co., booksellers, stationers and music dealers at 14 Spring 6 Street and Wangernan Bros., Music store, 46 Spring Street.

In the 1880 "Business Directories" of the Thompson and

West volume on L.A. County, H. Wangernan is listed as owner of a music store. It states that he was originally from

Ohio and carne to California in 1877. In the same Directory,

"Jno. W. Gardner" is listed as a "Music Dealer'' from

Michigan, doing business in Santa Ana Township. He arrived 7 here in 1879 and was the owner of 20 acres. In the

Los Angeles City and County Directory, 1886-87 he is listed as a:

Dealer in all the standard instruments, both pianos and organs. Tuning and Repairing. Sells for cash or on installments. Piano packed and moved. All instruments warranted. 30 South Spring Street.

An article in the 1933 edition of Who's Who in

Music and Dance in Southern California mentions that 80

the Southern California Music Co. began 53 years earlier.

In 1933 it was located at 806 South Broadway with Edward H.

Uhl, president. References to this company have not been located in contemporary sources, but it is suspected that it 8 may have been founded under a different name.

Albert G. Bartlett and Charles G. Bartlett started a jewelry and music business in Ventura in 1875 called

Bartlett Brothers. In 1878 Albert Bartlett formed an opera company which presented Gilbert and Sullivan operas in Los

Angeles, San Francisco and in other cities in California.

He moved to Los Angeles in 1882 to establish Bartlett

Brothers at 18 West First Street, in the Nadeau block, also for the sale of music and jewelry. In 1887 Asahel H. Clark acquired an interest in the business and the name changed to

Bartlett Brothers and Clark. During the same year they gave up the jewelry portion of the business and concentrated on selling pianos and organs. An advertisement in the Los

Angeles City and County Directory, 1886-7 describes the business as "dealers in pianos and organs of all the best manufacturers. They carry a full line of wind and string instruments, sheet music, etc."

There was a publication called Bartlett's Musical

& Horne Journal published by Bartlett Brothers, 18 West

First Street in 1888. Only one copy of the journal,

September, 1888 has been located and it is numbered No. V,

No. 6. It contains a number of musical briefs and it claims to contain "$2.50 worth of music in each number." It 81

contains an article on the progress of the Philharmonic

Society under the direction of Prof. A. Willhartitz, and

listing the players of the orchestra. There is an article about William Piutti's piano recital at Bartlett's Music

Hall on September 1, 1888. There is a "Band Department" and an article on the "History of Music" by Wm. Piutti, and of course, a number of advertisements for published music and 9 local music teachers.

In 1890 the Bartlett business moved to 129 North

Spring Street, and in 1891 to 103 North Spring Street. At this location there was a small recital hall which was later known as Some's Music Hall. In 1891 Clark sold out to his partners and the name Bartlett Brothers was again used. In

1896, they moved to 233 South Spring Street and in 1900 they incorporated as Bartlett Music Company with Albert as

President.

Another advertisement in the Los Angeles City and

County Directory, 1886-87 proclaims Day & Brown as the

"largest music store in Southern California; keep sheet music, music books and small musical instruments. Also a very fine stock of staple and fancy stationery; 11 North

Spring Street, opposite Postoffice." The same Directory carried an advertisement for "Day's Music Store," with the same address as Day & Brown, "Pianos and organs from all the best makers kept on hand. The Decker piano and the Chase organ are specialties. Instruments for rent, or sold on easy installments." This Day is Charles Edmund Day, 82

10 well-known as a local musician.

Harry C. Wyatt came to Los Angeles in 1884 with the

Wyatt, Arlington and Girard Minstrels which gave performances at a building on Spring Street between Second and Third, later to be called the Palm Garden. The minstrel troupe "went broke" and Wyatt, Arlington and Girard opened another show in the same hall. Fred Elser, Sr. was· the violinist and leader of the new show and his son, Fred u.

Elser played with him. According to C.L. Bagley, this theater later became known as the Tivoli Opera House, but that is doubtful, given the fact that the Tivoli was located on Main street. Wyatt remained in Los Angeles and became one of the foremost theater managers in town, until his death

July 25, 1910, at which time he was the lessee and manager 11 of the Mason Opera House.

Wyatt had been a drummer in a Virginia infantry regiment which was a part of Kemper's Brigade in Pickett's

Division which made "the immortal but unsuccessful charge

July 3, 1863 against the Union at the Bgttle of Gettysburg, 12 where he lost his left arm. He was also a producer from time-to-time presenting events like the Cake Walk Carnival 13 and Colored Jubilee at Hazard's Paviiion in 1892.

In Maxwell's Directory of Los Angeles City and

County for 1887-8, the following Music Dealers are listed: W.H. _Barsby & Co, 48 N. Spring; Bartlett Brothers,

18 W. First; J.B. Brown, 11 N. Spring; B.F. Day, 8 N. Spring; and, B.S. Stoneman, 8 N. Spring. Under Pianos and Organs, 83

the following are listed: W.H. Barsby & Co., 48 N. Spring;

Bartlett Bros. & Clark, 18 W. First; Clark & Blanchard, 18 w.

First; B.F. Day, 8 N. Spring; J.W. Gardner, 212 S. Spring;

A.C. Potter, 633 S. Pearl; Haskell Powell & Company, 11 N.

Spring; S.M. Steen, 220 S. Spring. J.W. Gardner's Music

Store ran regular ads in the Grand Opera House programs of the late 1880s, as a seller of Steinway, Steck and Hardman pianos. B.S. Stoneman also was a regular advertiser in the late 1880s Grand Opera House programs as a seller of Sheet music, books and instruments. An ad in 1891 stated that he would move to 220 South Broadway on December 1. An ad in a

Grand Opera House program in 1889 states that J. Gardner, at

212 South Spring Street sells Steinway pianos, tuning and repairing, sheet music and musical merchandize.

Frederick w. Blanchard arrived in Los Angeles in 1886 and formed a partnership with Asakel N. Clark who was a member of Bartlett Brothers and Clark. Under the name of

Clark and Blanchard they sold pianos, organs and Caligraph typewriters. They were located at 18 West First Street and in 1890 moved to 129 South Spring Street and in 1891 moved to 103 North Spring Street. Clark died in 1892 and the firm's name became Frederick w. Blanchard.

Blanchard and Fitzgerald promoted some significant musical events in Los Angeles in the early 1890s. In 1895 they had a large ad covering the city which read, "Do You

Want Ysay~ To Come to Los Angeles?" They sponsored appearances of Mr. and Mrs. George Henschel, Ellen Beach Yaw 84

and the Sousa Band.

In 1892 James T. Fitzgerald, who came to Los Angeles in

1891, started a music store at 121-123 North Spring Street.

A partnership was formed between Blanchard and Fitzgerald which operated at 103 North Spring Street until 1896. Then

Fitzgerald started the Fitzgerald Music Company at 113 South

Spring Street and Blanchard opened the Blanchard Music and

Piano Company at 103 South Spring Street, and a few months later, Blanchard moved to 235 South Broadway.

Once the partnership between Blanchard and Fitzgerald was dissolved, Fitzgerald also became the promoter of Paloma

Schramm, a child prodigy pianist. Blanchard presented Nellie

Melba and Moriz Rosenthal. An article appeared in the

Los Angeles Times of April 27, 1892 announcing the opening of Fitzgerald Music and Piano House:

J.7. Fitzgerald, an energetic young man for some time past with Edwin T. Cook (bookseller and stationer) has purchased the Day and Fisher Music Company's entire stock of sheet music, guitars, banjos, violins, mandolins and such musical merchandise and will succeed them in that line of business, occupying the North side of their store, corner of Spring and Franklin Streets.14

The Los Angeles Blue Book 1894-5 lists the two music dealers: Gardner & Zellner, Chickering & Sons',

Steck, Krell & Kingbury Pianos, Story & Clark and Chicago

Cottage Organs, 213 South Broadway; and Kohler and Chase,

"the largest importers of pianos and organs on the Pacific

Coast," 233 South Spring Street, including Becker Bros. 85

pianos, J. & C. Fischer, A.B. Chase, New England, Blasius &

Sons, Mason & Hamlin, Strand, Trowbridge, Sherwood pianos and Mason & Hamlin, A.B. Chase & Weaver organs." Angelenos could buy the best of any pianos and organs manufactured during the 1890s in Los Angeles.

Just as Behymer was getting started in Los Angeles as a promoter, Blanchard set up Blanchard and Venter Management to present local musicians in a winter series of concert.

Blanchard and Venter were Behymer's only competition. They presented the "People's Courses," musical and lecture events, which were given as benefits to local charitable groups. Blanchard presented the Sousa Band, Ellen Beach

Yawi Nellie Melba and Moriz Rosenthal.

Blanchard retired in 1900 to become involved in municipal government. He was the business manager of the

Los Angeles Symphony during the 1916-17 season. Fitzgerald was still active in the music business in the 1940s.

In 1895 Murray M. Harris established "the only complete

Organ Factory in the West," in Los Angeles. He was born in

Illionis in 1866 and moved to California in 1883. In 1903 he sold the business to the Los Angeles Art Organ Company, after over extending his financial resources.

The Official Souvenir Program of La Fiesta de Los

Angeles, 1894 carries an ad for J.B. Brown, 111 So.

Spring Street, as a seller of musical instruments, music books and sheet music. The 1897 Official Souvenir Program carries an ad for Bartlett's Music House at 233 Spring 86

Street, selling "Everything in Music," and Williamson Bros.,

327 s. Spring Street, as a seller of pianos, Hoffman

Bicycles and Standard Sewing Machines.

LYNDON ELLSWORTH BEHYMER: THE MYTH AND THE REALITY

In the twentieth century, Lyndon Behymer earned a reputation as the outstanding impresario of Los Angeles.

John Stephen McGroarty, a California hi~torian, who was also a good friend of Behymer described Behymer in the following way:

No honest record of musical Los Angeles can possibly be made without taking into account one great human figure who has been the heart and soul of things musical here for many a year, and whose genius at the present day dominates the whole field of that art. This man is L.E. Behymer, through whose courage, faith and persistence and long personal sacrifices Los Angeles has had brought to its gates, and within its gates, the very best that music has to give.

Whenever the word "music" is mentioned in Los Angeles one must think of L.E. Behymer. And, happily, the high esteem in which he is held in his own community, and the deep love and affection which that community has for him, is the best reward of his long and tireless efforts in behalf of the art of music which has been throughout his whole life as the breath of his nostrils. Los Angeles well knows what Mr. Behymer has done for her, and it is not an ungrateful city.15

By far, one of the most influencial impresario in Los

Angeles• history, "Bee" as he was known, came to Los Angeles in 1886 from Hyde County, Dakota. There he had a mercantile business, but lost all of his possessions in a cyclone. He was born in New Palestine, Ohio on November 5, 1862. He 87

received his early education in the public schools of

Shelbyville, Illinois where he graduated from high school in

May 1881. He married Miss MeNettie Sparkes in Highmore 1

Dakota. She as a native of Fredonia, Chautauqua County, New

York, where she was born May 8, 1866.

There are many inaccuracies in Behymer's own account of his early days in Los Angeles. His entry in Who's Who in

Music and Dance, published in 1933 lists him as literary editor for the Daily and states that he joined the Grand

Opera House in 1887, that he worked also at the same time at the Los Angeles Theatre. It states that he presented The

National Grand Opera in October 1888 with Theodore Thomas,

Adelina Patti at Matt's Hall in November 1888 and Sarah

Bernhardt at the Grand Opera House in March 1888, among other activities in the 1880s and 90s. There is some doubt 16 about Behymer being the "presenter" of these events.

He is not listed in Quinn's History of California from 1907, which seems odd if he were so prominant in the

1890s. In the 1921 edition of McGroarty's Los Angeles

From The Mountains to the Sea, Behymer is listed as

"president of the Gamut Club and the great guiding spirit of 17 the Philharmonic Orchestra." Elsewhere in the lengthy history, it states that "In the fall of 1886 he assisted in bringing the first important operatic organization to the city, the National Grand Opera Company, with Theodore Thomas 18 as conductor." It states that: 88

In 1887 he was instrumental in bringing Adelina Patti to Los Angeles, and she sang in Matt's Hall, over the Mott Market, on Main Street. Early in 1888, under the same management, Henry M. Stanley delivered his famous lecture, "In Darkest Africa," and Sarah Bernhardt presented "La Tosca." At that time Mr. Behymer was by no means a wealthy man, and it was often at much sacrifice of his limited personal means that he devoted himself so strenuously to the artistic side of Los Angeles. He soon became associated with Manager H.C. Wyatt, then of the Grand Opera House, at First and Main street, and with McLain and Lehmann, managers of Hazard's Pavilion in capacities as press agent, house manager, treasurer, assistant and acting manager. 19

There are enough discrepancies in the various accounts of Behymer's early years in Los Angeles as to intimate some stretching of the truth, some exaggeration of Behymer's real role in the 1880s and 1890s. First of all, the Grand Opera

Company under Theodore Thomas appeared in Los Angeles in May

1887. Twenty-thousand dollars was advanced by Otto G. Weyse, of Los Angeles, an attorney and state legislator, to guaran- tee the Los Angeles performances.

According to Howard Swan's lengthy biographical section on Behymer in Music in the Southwest, Behymer came to

Los Angeles in June 1886 with nineteen dollars in his pocket. He worked as a common laborer at the Los Angeles

Storage, Mill and Lumber Company where he shoveled lime and piled lumber. Later he got a job with Stoll and Thayer and

Berry bookstores as salesman-bookkeper. He entered the theatrical business by "scalping" tickets for the opera house. According to Swan, the scheme worked as follows: "He hired two boys who were always first in line when the box office opened each morning. The 100 tickets which they 89

purchased were resold that evening by Behymer to late arrivals for a ten-cent fee." The manager seeing Behymer's enterprise hired him and his boys to seat and supervise the balcony and a program from September 11, 1888, lists "Len 20 Behymer" as assistant usher on the staff.

In the 1890s Behymer began to write book reviews for the Los Angeles Herald and soon after he began working as a self-styled "press-agent'', selling pictures of performers throughout the theater. In February 1893 the opera house announced that Behymer had been contracted to publish the playbill for the opera house. Later he contracted to provide the same service to the Burbank

Theater where he was also given the concession for refreshments and souvenirs. In 1894 he was contracted to publish the "Mirror" for the Los Angeles Theater and by 1897 he was appointed Head Usher at the Los Angeles Theater, and was publisher of the official program for all of the Fiesta events.

There is no evidence that he was involved as a producer or impresario of any events in Los Angeles until 1897 when he may have been involved in sponsoring the Fiske Jubilee 21 Singers. In 1900 he contracted to bring the Maurice Grau

Metropolitan Opera Company to Los Angeles for performances 22 at Hazard's Pavilion.

It seems clear that Behymer, the fine press agent that he was, manufactured a little material to promote himself, exaggerating his early days in Los Angeles. There seems to 90

be little evidence that he was a significant force in the musical life in nineteenth-century Los Angeles. Merle

Armitage, a very successful and influential impresario, who came to Los Angeles in 1920 referred to Beyhmer in his memoirs Accent on Life, as inept and described him as follows:

This old posuer had made his way up from an assistant box-office man and could not distinguish a tenor from a coloratura or, more pointedly, a bassoon from a cello. 23

Behymer's one contribution to the music history of nineteenth-century Los Angeles may be his collection of concert programs and clippings which were donated by his wife to the Huntington Library following his death in 1947.

These materials represent the most substantial body of information of Los Angeles concert life of the period currently available to scholars.

In the late nineteenth century, Los Angeles had a good selection of music and musical instruments for sale by a number of competitive merchants. Although there wasn't a piano factory in Southern California, every major brand of piano was represented by at least one local dealer. Los

Angeles had its share of energetic impresarios, presenting world-renown celebrity artists as well as local talent in concert, including Wyatt, Bartlett, Blanchard and Day, from whom Lynden Behymer learned the skills needed to make himself into the leading impresario in the twentieth century. 91

NOTES FOR CHAPTER VI

1. Workman, p. 127.

2. The First Los Angeles City and County Directory 1872, Advertising Dept., XXXiii.

3 . Swan, p . 11 9 .

4. Los Angeles City Directory of 1875, inside front cover.

5. A copy is in the Rare Books Collection of the Huntington Library.

6. Louis Lewin is listed on page 69; Wangeman Bros. on page 115.

7. Thompson and West, p. 188.

8. Who's Who in Music and Dance in California, p. 250.

9. The only copy of this journal located thus far is in the hands of private collector Lance Bowling.

10. See Chapter III for more details on Day's activities in Los Angeles.

11. Bagley, 5/2 (May 1, 1925): 4.

12. Ibid.

13. Bagley, 5/19 (January 15, 1926): 5.

14 . Ibid. I p. 6 .

15. McGroarty, Los Angeles from the Mountains to the Seas I: 382.

16. Who's Who in Music and Dance in California, p. 168-69. Albert G. Bartlett was instrumental in bringing Adelina Patti to Los Angeles (See McGroarty, Los Angeles from the Mountains to the Seas, III: 452.

17. McGroarty, Los Angeles from the Mountains to the Seas, I: 3 8 2.

18. Ibid., II: 360.

19. Ibid.

20. S\van, p. 199-200. The manager was Wyatt.

21. Swan, p. 201. 92

@ •

22. Swan, p. 202.

23. Merle Armitage, p. 259. CHAPTER VII

VISITING CELEBRITIES

As Los Angeles struggled to establish its cultural identity, a number of traveling musicians carne to Los

Angeles to perform, each making a mark on the region's cultural consciousness. Even in the 1860s, a number minstrel troupe s and drama companies appeared in Los

Angeles. Before San Francisco and Los Angeles were connected by railroad (September 5, 1876) singers and instrumentalists traveled between the two cities by steamer. Sometimes local amateurs were called upon to assist the visiting celebrity performers.

In 1856 the six-member California Minstrels, which included Lew Rattler and Henry Hallett, visited Los Angeles.

~hey returned, performing at Jesus Dominguez's ranch at the

Nichols saloon in 1858, and at Stearns Hall in 1859, and at

Temple Theater in 1865. Frank Hussey's Minstrels and the

Metropolitan Minstrels performed at the Temple Theater in

1861. According to Robert Stevenson, at least 33 minstrel performances were given in Los Angeles in the 1860s. ~he

Gerardo Lopez del Castillo Spanish Company from Mexico City appeared on November 21 and 23, 1865 at Temple Theater, performing Verdi's Attila between acts of La trenza 1 de sus Cabellos by Tomas Rodriguez Rubi.

93 94

In March, 1872 Signorina Adelina Frenchel and Signor

Albert Frenchel, soprano and pianist appeared in Los

Angeles, in a performance of excerpts from well-known nineteenth century operas including Elixir de Amour,

Ernani, Lucretia Borgia, Norma, Semiramus, and Carmen. The program also included some "Popular

Spanish Songs" performed by Curito de Carmona and Irish

Diamonds, and a piano solo performed by a Mrs. Weldon. A local violinist Mr. J. Stelitz, (a tailor) performed an 2 "Operatic Medley" as part of the program. A second recital given by the Frenchels included performed by Mrs. Weldon,

Mr. Mendel Meyer, Mrs. DeWitt C. Lawrance, and Mr. and Mrs. 3 Strelitz.

The London-born soprano, Anna Bishop, made one of her many "farewell" appearances in Los Angeles in October 1873 at Turnverein Hall. Born in London in 1810, she came to New

York in 1847 making her American debut. She made several world tours, including appearances in Australia and she died in March 1884 in New York. She was assisted in her Los

Angeles performance by "Mr. Alfred Wilkie, English tenor; and L. Gottschalk, a local baritone of reputation; and Frank

Gilder, a pianist of celebrity." The program included "John

Anderson My Jo," "The Last Rose of Summer," "The Harp That

Once Through Tara's Halls," and the aria "Infelice" from 4 Ernani.

English pianist Arabella Goddard (1936-1922) performed in Los Angeles in April, 1875, at Turnverein Hall on her own 95

Steinway grand piano brought from San Francisco. She was assisted by two local musicians, Franzini Marra, a singing teacher, and A.H. Havell, a piano teacher and music store owner.

In June and July, 1875, Venezuelan pianist and composer, Teresa Carre~o (1853-1917) and her husband, violinist Emile Sauret (whom she had married in June, 1873, and divorced in 1875) gave four concerts at ~urnverein Hall, assisted by the local guitarist Miguel Artvalo. They were on a transcontinental trip to California as supporting artists in a troupe headed by Croatian soprano Ilma di Murska. They recruited Ida Valerga, Bay area local singer and Nathaniel

Cohen, to accompany them to Los Angeles and Anaheim, without di Murska. They performed on June 25, 26, 26, 28 and two concerts on July 3 at the ~urnverein Hall on Spring Street, between Third and Fourth. CarrenoN played a Sherman Hyde

Knabe piano, shipped from San Francisco. A review in the

Los Angeles Daily Evening Express stated:

The Sauret troupe wil give their opening concert in Turnverein Hall to-morrow night .... Mme. Carreffo­ Sauret is a pianiste of marvelous power, and a woman of great physical beauty. Her husband, Mr. Sauret, is considered by the critics the best violinist of the period. Signora Valerga, a splendid soprano, and Mr. N.Cohen, a pleasing tenor, form the leading voices of the troup.5

Tickets were sold at Louis Lewin's Popular Book Store in the

Temple Block. The Los Angeles Daily Express of Saturday,

June 27, 1875 reported: 96

The Sauret Concert troupe as a whole is probably the best that has ever come to Los Angeles. Monsieur Sauret as a violinist is simply a marvel, while his charming and beautiful wife has few equals in the world of a pianiste.6

Unfortunately, the article but did not list the repertoire for the performance. Performing with Carre~o-Sauret was local guitarist, Senor Artvalo. On June 26, 1875 they performed in Anaheim at Kroeger's Hall and then they returned to Los Angeles for their last two Los Angeles

Concerts. They took a stagecoach north, performing in 6 Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

In the Fall of 1876, "Mr. Espinosa, an eminent pianist, who took the first prize at the Paris Conservatory, has arrived at Los Angeles. He comes to our city under the 7 auspices of the French consul, Mr. Meerenhout."

In 1876 the famous Polish actress Madame Modjeska made her first visit to Los Angeles, which later became her home.

With her husband, Charles Bozenta Chlapowski, she settled in a Polish colony at a bee ranch of J.E. Pleasants in Santiago

Canyon. According to Newmark, "disaster of one kind or another soon overtook the idealists who found 'roughing it' in primitive California suggested a nightmare rather than a 8 pleasant dream." She made her debut as Adrienne

Lecourvreur in July 1877 in San Francisco and soon was appearing with Booth. She and her husband later built a home called "Forest of Arden,'' near the site of their previous residence and later she lived near Newport. 9 Modjeska Avenue is named after her. 97

In 1879, Madame Jaffa, a pianist, performed in Los

Angeles August and the Herald referred to her as pianist 10 "whose reputation is v.rorld-wide," but no other biographical information has been found on this pianist.

The most popular entertainments to be presented in Los

Angeles in the 1870s and 1880s were the minstrel shows. The

Jubilee Singers, came in January 1876 and gave a concert of

"Old South Negro hymns and songs." The concert was reviewed:

The entertainment was unique, and only those who have witnessed the slave in his home and at camp meeting in the olden time could have experienced any parallel. It was funny and pathetic wild and weird, altogether inimitable. No white company could have sung those songs with the same effect. One old colored lady who sat near us, with smiles and tears blended on her face, would now and then join in the choruses, quite forgetful that she was not back in the old cabin home. 11

In 1880 German violinist August Wilhelmj, the Tyrolean

Alpine Singers and the Fabbri-Muller Opera Company made appearances in Los Angeles. The Mendelssohn Quintette Club of Boston, founded in 1849, came to Los Angeles in 1881 and then went on to Australia, New Zealand and Honolulu.

Upon their return, they toured the U.S. and Canada.

According to the Los Angeles Express, the~r performance

"touched responsive chords, long latent, in every breast. It was a revel of harmony, delighting the learned as well as 12 the unlearned in music." They returned to Los Angeles on a yearly basis between 1889 and 1895.

Emma Abbott's English Opera Company visited Los Angeles in 1885, 1887, 1889 and 1890. Emma Abbott (1850-1891), a 98

Chicago-born soprano, made her operatic debut in London after studying in Milan and Paris. She had refused to appear in La traviata because she felt it was immoral, and her contract was cancelled in London. She made her New

York debut in February 1877 and was welcomed, but the critics did not approve the liberties she took in presenting music, like interpolating Lowell Mason hymns into operas of

Bellini or Donizetti. In 1878 she and her husband, Eugene

Wetherell, founded an opera company which did much to popularize opera and operetta throughout the United States.

Her company is credited with having opened some 35 new opera houses between 1878 and 1890, mostly in the Western states. 13 The repertory was also performed in English.

In February, 1885 Abbott's company performed

Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Flotow's Martha, and La Traviata. In 1889 they performed Gilbert and 14 Sullivan's The Yeoman of the Guard. According to the Times, she: " ... sang Mignon's Song 'Knowest thou that dear land, where the orange trees grow,' with an expressive meaning that showed she had been captivated by 15 her visits to the orange groves of Los Angeles."

Beginning December 24, 1888, Emma Abbott's company presented nine evening and three matinee performances at the Grand

Opera House.

The National Grand Opera Company performed in Los

Angeles May 16 to 19, 1887. The company was founded in 1885 as the American Opera Company, by Jeannette Thurber, to 99

feature American singers and grand operas in English.

Theodore Thomas was appointed Music Director and the company's first performance was January 4, 1886. After its first season, the company reincorporated as the National

Opera Company with Thomas as President. The Company failed in June 1887 while on tour in Buffalo and Thomas left the group. It had a few performances in 1887-88 with different 16 directors.

Its performance in Los Angeles under Theodore Thomas and Gustave Heinrich, took place just before the company failed in Buffalo, only a few weeks before. Apparently they had nearly failed in San Francisco, with terrible financial losses. Twenty-thousand dollars was advanced by O.G. Weyse 17 of Los Angeles.

The Express reported on the success of the com- pany's appearance in Los Angeles:

During the past week the largest audience that ever greeted grand opera in California was assembled in this city. It was an audience that might be expected to be seen in London or Paris, but seldom this side of those great cities. Every evening the Pavilion has been the scene of splendor. Losses that befell the management in San Francisco have been more than replenished in Los Angeles. That thousands of people should nightly crowd so vast an auditorium to attend so expensive an entertainment is something indeed remarkable in a city no larger than ours.18

The operas heard at the newly-opened Hazard's Pavilion included Faust, Delibes' Lakme, Nicolai's The

Merry Wives of Windsor, Verdi's Aida, Wagner's

Lohengrin and Der fliegende Hollander, Anton 100

Rubinstein's Nero and Delibes' ballet, Coppelia.

Emma Juch (1863-1939) and her Grand English Opera company appeared at the Grand Opera House several times between 1890 and 1892. The Austrian-born soprano grew up in

Detroit where she studied with Adeline Murio-Celli. She performed for three seasons in London and gave her American debut in 1881 at the Academy of Music, New York. She was the principal soprano with the American Opera Company (later reorganized as the National Opera Company) and presumedly had appeared in Los Angeles with the National Opera Company, under the direction of Theodore Thomas. She organized her opera company in 1889 which traveled extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. She also was an 19 advocate of opera in English. She retired in 1894.

Her L.A. season beginning December 27, 1890, January 6-11,

1891 and January 29-31, 1891 included:

The Huguenots Faust Rigoletto Lohengrin The Flying Dutchman Kalahaua, King of Hawaii Faust Il Trovatore Carmen Postilion of Longjumeau Mignon The Bohemian Girl The Freischlitz

C.L. Bagley recalled that in April 1892 the company performed a return engagement of three nights at the Grand

Opera House. "Shortly afterward, the company became involved 101 in litigation, its property was attached and members 20 stranded here."

In 1892 the Arcaraz Spanish Grand Opera Company performed at the Grand Opera House, works by Bizet, Suppe

(Boccaccio and Donna Juanita), Ruperto Chapi (La tempestad), and Federico Chueca (La gran via). The

Allessandro Salvini Company performed Mascagni's L'amico

Fritz on November 18, 1892, before it was heard in New

York. The Del Conte Italian Opera Company presented

America's first performance of Puccini's La Boheme on 21 October 14, 1897 at the Los Angeles Theater.

John Philip Sousa made several appearances in the Los

Angeles in the 1890s. In 1892 he performed with the U.S.

Marine Band and in 1894 and 1896 with his own band, at

Hazard's Pavilion. The performances were so popular that the Santa.Fe Railroad ran special trains to accommodate the crowds. C.L. Bagley remembered the 1892 performance of

Sousa's band:

The audience was enthusiatic and lavish in their praises of Sousa and his men. Mr. Sousa was even then compared favorably~with Gilmore, Cappa, Thomas and other great conductors though he was but a little over 35 years old. As for my own opinion, I had never heard so large a band before, and it was the best in the world.22

Also appearing in the Grand Opera House in the 1880s and 1890s were the Emerson's Minstrels and Chaley Reed, Lew

Johnson's Old Original Tennessee Jubilee and Plantation

Singers, Royal Spanish Opera Boufe Company, Fay Templeton,

Original Nashville Students, the M.S.G .. Opera Company, the 103

Haverly's United European-American Minstrels with the Cragg

Family, the Carleton Opera Company, The Campobello Grand

Society Concert Co., The Great Zarzuela, W.S. Cleveland's

Colossal Colored Carnival Minstreals (sic), and The Famous

Mexican Band, directed by Capt. E. Payen. The Columbia

Opera Company performed at the Los Angeles Theater during 23 the 1891 season.

The concert pianist Ignace Jan Paderewski (1860-1941) first performed in Los Angeles on February 7 and 8, 1896 at the new Los Angeles Theater at 241 South Spring Street. An unidentified newspaper clipping contained a detailed description of his arrival at the Arcade depot after 43 hours of travel from San Antonio, Texas, in his private car, the Haslemer which contained a Steinway "cottage" piano. He traveled with his manager-in-chief, Mr. Garlitz, assisted by

Mr. Fry. A private secretary, a valet, a chef and a porter completed the entourage. It was said that he also had two

Steinway Concert grands, one which traveled with him, and one which is shipped in advance, and for the exclusive use . 24 of Steinway pianos, Paderewski was paid $150,000 a season.

Los Angeles was a fashionable and profitable place for touring concert artists to appear and many did in the nineteenth century. By the early twentieth century, dozens of artists and performing troups appeared in Los Angeles to some of the largest audiences available to them anywhere in the world. 104

NOTES FOR CHAPTER VII

1. Stevenson, "Los Angeles, II p. 108.

2 . Los Angeles News, March 20, 1872.

3. Los Angeles News, March 24, 1872.

4. Los Angeles Express, October 11, 1873.

5. June 24, 1875, p. 3 col. 2.

6. Stevenson, "Carre~o's 1875 California Appearances." Inter-American Music Review 5/2 (Spring-Summer 1983): 9-15.

7. Herald, September 13, 1876.

8. Newmark, p. 494.

9. Newmark, pp. 494-5; confirmed by Boyle Workamn, p. 246. One must assume it was not in the opera of the same name but in the play written by Scibe and Legouve".

10. Herald, August 7, 1879.

11. Herald, January 27, 1876.

12. June 16, 1881.

13. Hitchcock, H. Wiley. "Emma Abbott." The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, I: 1. See also 0. Thompson, The American Singer (New York, 1927).

14. Programs are found at the Huntington Library.

15. January 5, 1887.

16. See entry on "American Opera Company" in The Ne•.v Grove Dictionary of American Music I: 38-39.

17. Splitter, Ibid., p. 324.

18. Los Angeles Express, May 20, 1887.

19. Rosenthal, Harold, "Emma Juch," 'l'he New Grove Dictionary of American Music II: 600-1.

20. C.L. Bagley, 5/19 (January 15, 1926), p. 5.

21. Robert Stevenson, "Los Angeles," The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, p. 109. 105

22. C.L. Bagley, Ibid., 5/19 (January 15, 1926), p. 5.

23. Swan, Ibid., p. 188.

24. Hazard's Pavilion 1/1 (Summer 1986). Q '

CHAP7ER VIII

MUSIC EDUCATION

Los Angeles attracted its share of music teachers from its earliest days, and by the 1880s major schools of music were established, some, like the University of Southern

California School of Music, which have continued to have outstanding reputations for music education up to the present day.

During the early days of Los Angeles, as musicians settled here, they took ads out in the local papers, announcing that they were available to give private music

lessons. For example, the Los Angeles Star May 26, 1860 carried the following announcement:

Musical Tuition The undersigned has the honor to announce to the public of Los Angeles, that he will give lessons in Vocal and Instrumental Music. Instructions given in Instruments of all kinds. Persons desiring to learn music will please call on HENRY ·KULL Teacher of vocal and instrumental Music. Address--H. Schmidt, 1st. Street, between Spring and Fort Streets.

Henry Kull was one of the earliest of the German i~~igrant 1 musicians who chose Los Angeles for a horne.

Besides private music lessons, local music students had the option of taking music instruction at St. Vincent's

College, founded in 1855 by the Roman Catholics. In 1869

106 107

F.A. Maynard, a Royal Academy of Music graduate, was appointed to the faculty of St. Vincent's College, for the purpose of organizing a brass band among the college's students.

The 1872" Directory of Los Angeles contains an advertisement for St. Vincent's College, Rev. James McGill,

C.M., President. Under "Terms," i.t lists:

For Piano and use of Instruments, per month $8.00 For Violin, Guitar, Flute, & c., each, per month 6.00

Those who take music lessons will have the privilege of using a brass instrument free of charge, otherwise there will be a charge of $3 per month. 2

A similar advertisement appears in the Los Angeles City

Directory of 1875, which also carries an ad for the

Orphan Asylum and School of the Sisters of Charity, Alameda

Street, Los Angeles, operated by the Sisters of St. Vincent of Paul. Under "Extras," it offers "Piano and Melodeon, with use of instruments, $6.50 per month, $65.00 per year; Guitar 3 per month, $8.00, $80.00 per year."

In the Directory of Los Angeles City 1878 J.

Caldwell is listed as a guitar instructor and musician, res.

164 1/4 Fort ; J.D. Knell is listed as a Professor of Music, at 41 First Street; Mrs. C. Rene is listed at the Musical

Institute, 5 Third Street.

In the 1880s there developed an interest in having music as part of the regular curriculum in the public schools, and in 1885 a part-time music teacher was appointed 108

for the High School, and Mrs. J.P. Rice became the first full-time teacher for the grammar and high grades alike in 4 1890.

The Los Angeles City and Country Directory, 1886-87 included a long list of Music Teachers and their addresses, some names which are recognizable as prominant Los Angeles

; performers, including Miguel Arevalo, J. Bond Francisco and

A.J. Stamm.

The same directory contains a description of the USC

College of Music, which reads much like today's School of

Music brochure:

The Course of Instruction embraces History and Theory of Music, a complete course of Voice Culture, Organ, Piano, and all Orchestral and Band Instruments. The course will also embrace two years of French or German, and will extend through a period of four years. When students complete the whole four years' course they will be entitled to the degree of Bachelor of Music. The faculty consists of ten professorships, and embraces some of the best musical instructors in the country. The School of Music is opened to any student who may apply for admission, though they do not take the regular course in the College of Letters. Students will find opportunity here to pursue any line of work to the extent they may choose.5

A private institution, the University of Southern California

(USC) was founded in 1880 and music instruction was offered begining with the 1883-84 school year. The Music School's first directors were Mrs. C.S. Nellis (1883-87), Lucy H.

Stagg (1887-95) and Frederick Albert Bacon (1895-8). Walter

Fischer Skeel, an organist, assumed leadership of the music school in 1898, a post he held until 1933. USC maintained an 109

agricultural branch in Ontario, California, which had a music program between 1887 and 1896 directed by William

Ludwig Piutti, a graduate of the Stuttgart Conservatory who 6 had studied with Liszt, William Speidel, and Joachim Raff.

Piutti left Los Angeles in 1896 to become Dean of the Music 7 School of the University of the Pacific.

In 1882 a branch of San Jose Normal School was opened in Los Angeles on Normal Hill (now the site of the Los

Angeles Public Library, Fifth and Grand) , later to be renamed Los Angeles Normal School in 1887 (in 1924

University of California, Los Angeles). Beginning in 1883 vocal instruction was offered. Among its music faculty were

Emily J. Valentine (1883-1885), R.L. Kent (1885-1893), and

Juliet P. Rice, beginning in 1893. Rice was music supervisor in the Los Angeles city schools from 1890 and was an organizer of choral groups and a Philharmonic Society

(1894) and the Normal School Glee Club (1897). In 1898 she resigned to become the supervisor of public school music in

Santa Barbara. William Mead, a local flute player, directed 9 the school orchestra which was founded in 1897.

The 1886-87 Directory also includes a description of a

"Singing School," as follows:

Mr. Alfred J.F. McKiernan, Precentor of the Choir of St. Paul's Church, pupil of Mr. Vandeleur Lee of London; Sig. Bellini, of Rome; Sig. Caraccilo, of Naples, and Sig. Lamperti, of Milar; will be happy to to meet ladies or gentlemen who may be desirous of taking singing lessons at his residence, No. 215 Olive street, or at the school of the Episcopal Church, on Olive street.9 110

The Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, founded in

1880, is described as follows:

This excellent institution is located at No. 406 North Main Street, an excellent corps of instructors are employed in teaching all branches of musical culture, the artists being all familiar with the methods taught ·in European conservatories.10

It states that Mrs. E. Valentine was the President.

In the 1890s there also was a Pasadena Conservatory of

Music and Professor A. J. Stamm's Music School. Music lessons were also available in the 1890s at the Y.M.C.A., through its Educational Department, including lessons in banjo, mandolin and vocal music.

By the end of the nineteenth century, Angelenos had several institutions, both public and private, for the study of music from the university level to the amateur level, and for all ages. The public school program, began in the 1880s blossomed into one of the finest public school music programs in the United States during the first decades of the twentieth century, providing a model for similar programs in other parts of the country. By the 1890s Los

Angeles had its first full crop of locally trained musicians to draw upon for personnel in the various bands and orchestras in the area and music students from other Western states began to come to Los Angeles for instruction. 111

NOTES FOR CHAPTER VIII

1 . Swan, p. 1 0 8.

2. Advertising Department, pg. xxxix.

3. Directory of Los Angeles City, 1875, p. 1.

4. Swan, p. 18 5.

5. Los Angeles City and County Directory, 1886-87, p. 39.

6. Stevenson, "Los Angeles," pp. 113-4.

7 . Swan, p . 18 4 .

8. Stevenson, "Los Angeles," p. 113.

9. Los Angeles City and County Directory, 1886-87, p. 53.

10. Ibid. CONCLUSION

Los Angeles' music life in the 1860s essentially revolved around the Catholic church and performances of traveling minstrel troupes passing through town. Before

Temple's Theater was built in 1869, Stearns Hall, a dancing hall in the home of Abel Stearns, the Church and the Plaza were the popular places where music was heard.

The touring musicians who performed in Los Angeles came here by stage coach or steamer, until 1876 when Los Angeles and San Francisco were connected by railroad. With the railroad came many other opportunities for Angelenos to hear performances of traveling opera and dramatic troupes, and new theaters were constructed to accommodate the performances, including the Merced Theater and Child's Grand

Opera House. The Turnverein Hall, the center of the

German-American community's social and cultural life, also served as a popular site for concerts of serious music.

Later in the century, The Los Angeles and the Burbank

Theaters were built as was Hazard's Pavilion which served both the needs of large audiences for grand opera performances and the horticultural fairs. Many smaller recital halls were built in music stores and as club rooms for local social organizations. The Y.M.C.A. 's new

112 113

building had a large auditorium used for music and the "v".L was a center of musical activities for many years and included the teaching studios of many local musicians.

Many of the early musicians who settled in Los Angeles in the 1850s and 1860s were of German birth and they brought with them the European concert traditions and European-made musical instruments. Many of the musicians who came to Los

Angeles were very highly skilled, having been trained in some of the finest conservatories in Europe and the United

States and having played under the batons of the some of the great condtlctors. Many of them survived financially in Los

Angeles by giving private music lessons and performing a wide variety of music, everything from chamber music and marching band music, to church music and saloon dance music.

With this musicianship, they were able to forge a vision for a high-quality musical life in their new home on the West

Coast, and a few like Hamilton, Willhartitz and Stamm systematically set out to create the musical life by recruiting the necessary community support and by educating potential audiences.

Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, the music performed in the churches of Los Angeles was rich and abundant, varying from simple hymns played on piano and organ to full orchestras accompanying large choirs in cantatas and oratorios. Many of the local musicians managed to supplement their income quite handsomely with fees from church performances, and musicians who were concerned about 114

raising the quality of the music performed in Los Angeles managed to recruit and train new musicians through church-sponsored music programs.

Very popular in Los Angeles, as throughout the United

States, were the military-style bands. Every town and city in the Southland had one, ranging from six to sixty players, and they often vied in public competitions for cash prizes.

These bands played for all public events, including charity events, political rallies, parades, real estate sales, agricultural fairs, dedication ceremonies and the like.

In the 1880s a number of accomplished string players arrived in Los Angeles and began to organize efforts to create a symphony orchestra. The earliest attempt was in

1887, but it wasn't until 1898 that Los Angeles had a full-scale professional symphony orchestra with a regular seasons. The semi-professional Los Angeles Women's Symphony was one of the earliest orchestras and certainly the longest-lasting one, founded in 1892 and continuing until

1961.

There were several attempts at organizing local opera productions, but all were short-lived. There was much grand opera and light opera (mostly Gilbert and Sullivan) heard in

Los Angeles particularly during the 1880s and 1890s, but most often presented by traveling opera troupes, including some of the finest available to U.S. audiences.

In the early days of Los Angeles, music and musical instruments had to be ordered from San Francisco and shipped 115

by steamer. However, by the 1870s, Los Angeles had several music and music instrument dealers, and by the 1890s, dozens

of music merchants did business in L.A. Although there was

no piano manufacturer here in the late nineteenth century,

virtually every piano manufactured in those days was

represented by at least one local merchant.

Some of the music merchants were among the earliest Los

Angeles impresarios including Wyatt, Blanchard, Bartlett,

Day, among others. Lynden Behymer, one of the most

influencial impresarios of the twentieth century on the West

Coast, learned his trade from this group of music producers who were involved in all aspects of the music community,

from performance to theater management.

Major artists of the day performed in Los Angeles--it

was an obligatory tour stop once the railroad had connected

Los Angeles to San Francisco--and such performances were

often quite lucrative for the touring companies. Los

Angeles often turned out the largest audiences available to

the performing groups anywhere in the United

States.

Private music lessons were available from musicians who

settled here, and by the 1880s a number of private and

public music schools had been established, offering local

music students plenty of opportunities for good solid music

instruction. In fact, music students from other Western

states began to come to Los Angeles for instruction by the

1890s. The foundation for a public school music program 116

was built in the nineteenth century, so that during the

early decades of the twentieth century Los Angeles public

schools had one of the finest music programs in the country.

By the turn of the century, all of the ingredients necessary for a rich and varied community life existed and

flourished in Los Angeles, making it one of the cultural

capitals of the United States, able to stand proudly among

the ranks of musical cities like Boston, Philadelphia, New

York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, St. Louis and San

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