Our Past Is Present July 24, 2018

July 24, 2018

            This is “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.

            We have been sharing information about John Phillips Sousa and his performance at the Opera House in 1904.  Remember Sousa had been here for a previous performance in 1902.  He and his band members spent a night at the city’s most prestigious hotel, the Bartell House, on the corner of Sixth and Washington Streets in Junction City. 

            In 1904 the plan was to arrive by train, play the concert at the Opera House and then leave immediately for Salina.  However, let’s go back a few years when Sousa was still the director of the Marine Band.  He had served under five presidents and composed many of his most famous marches while with the band. 

            David Blakely, who was a promoter convinced Sousa to leave the Marines after Sousa and his band completed two successful tours.  So, he left the Marines in 1892 and formed his own concert band.  It was on the return voyage from Europe in 1896 that Sousa wrote his famous march “The Stars and Stripes Forever.” 

            When the United States entered WWI, Sousa was 62 years old.  He joined the Naval Reserve as musical director.  He received the rank of Lieutenant Commander and was paid $1.00 per month to conduct concerts throughout the country on behalf of Liberty Loan drives.

            He was known as the “March King” and died in 1932.  And is buried in Arlington Cemetery near the city of his birth. 

            When Sousa and his band came to Junction City for their performance at the Opera House in 1904, the town’s merchants and businessmen announced they would be closed during the hours of the afternoon concert “to give those who desire an opportunity to hear Sousa’s band.”  This was done in spite of the fact that the business district was full of out of town shoppers.  The next day the “Union” newspaper summed it all up with the following statement.  “Sousa gave a matinee concert in the Opera House Friday afternoon that will long be remembered by all who heard it.  There was not a vacant seat in the house and most of the people who came in from surrounding towns and the post were disappointed, for they thought they would get to hear Sousa on the streets.”

            And that’s today’s story on “Our Past Is Present” from the Geary County Historical Society.