STRIKES AND BLUE LAWS
Sousa Band Tribulations in a Bygone Era

By Jack Kopstein

Two of the most interesting stories that appear in Paul Bierley’s book The Incredible Band of John Philip Sousa concern the band strike of 1920 and the Blue Laws in Binghamton New York. The band, which ran for over forty years, had never had an occasion to strike, but such an occasion did become public.  Further, the band apparently caused uproar for playing a concert on a Sunday in Binghamton, New York in November 1922.

The Sousa band was on the road during their 1919-1920 tour and was scheduled to play in Winston -Salem North Carolina on January 5th, 1920. They had played on the Saturday prior to their Monday concert in Nashville, Tennessee and their sleeper train left after their performance headed for Winston-Salem. The train arrived in Ashville, North Carolina early on Sunday, and because of a short turnover to catch their next train, they were unable to get breakfast. Now they discovered their connection had been cancelled, and they had to endure a slow train run to Winston-Salem behind a slow moving freight train with no dining car service available.

They did not arrive in Winston-Salem until 3:00 AM, there were no hotel rooms available, and many of them had to sleep on coaches and chairs in the lobby while Sousa and the soloists, including trumpet soloist Frank Simon, did have rooms.  However, Simon shared his room with some of the band members. The next morning the band had a meeting and several of them decided to show their displeasure for the inadequate arrangements by not appearing for the afternoon performance.

When Sousa arrived for the concert, he was met by a concert stage that contained thirty-eight empty chairs. Nineteen band members had decided to carry “on with the show”. Sousa was absolutely furious but continued on with the concert with the caveat that anyone who wanted a refund had to go to the box office. Surprisingly no one ever did. All the band members appeared for the evening concert. The afternoon concert was in shambles with players trying to play cues for the missing instrumentalists with the band sounding very ordinary.

Sousa said later that he would not stand for musicians missing a concert regardless of the circumstances, and he immediately discharged twenty-eight musicians including trumpet soloist Frank Simon, whom Sousa designated as the ringleader. Many of the musicians had been Sousa band members for several years, and they were devastated. Sousa felt that the men lacked sincerity and for him that spelled a lack of commitment. He summarily dismissed the musicians, easily replacing all of them for his next tour.

In another development that took place in the 1920’s Sousa was confronted with an angry crowd of ministers in Binghamton, New York. The concert was scheduled for Sunday November 12th, 1922 and was sponsored by the Endicott-Johnson Corporation as a gift to their twelve thousand employees. The tickets for the concert were normally $2.50, but the employee tickets were to be only .25 cents. Charging admission for a Sunday concert ran contrary to the ordinances governing the observance of Sunday.

The Binghamton Ministerial Association lodged a complaint, and the police stepped in and arrested the Recreation Director of Endicott- Johnson. The New York Times headline on November 13th screamed “ARRESTED FOR HOLDING SUNDAY SOUSA CONCERT”. Following the arrest, according to the article, Endicott-Johnson announced, “they were prepared to fight the so-called Sunday Blue Laws to a finish in the courts.”

Sousa answered his Blue Law critics by issuing a statement in which he declared, “there was more inspiration in the marches he has written than in the sermons of some of the ministers who objected to the concert”. The Endicott-Johnson Company was America’s largest manufacturer of footwear. In addition, twelve thousand employees lived in the Binghampton area. There is no record of this case ever going to trial.

You can read more about the INCREDIBLE BAND OF JOHN PHILIP SOUSA in Paul Bierley’s book.
Bierley’s book is a marvelous compendium of the band of John Philip Sousa and may be obtained from ALTISSIMO Recordings.