Sousa sighting?

Poem recounting renowned bandmaster playing at Tent City stuff of legend, not facts

By GINA PETRONE

The rumor started with a 1948 poem by Doris Skinner Treadwell, who dedicated her piece to “all of the old employees whose loyalty over the many years made possible Hotel del Coronado.” The poem gives a chronology of the hotel, its activities, staff and includes Tent City where John Philip “Sousa played there in nineteen ten.”

Treadwell had lived at The Del in her youth from 1907 to 1927 and returned to the resort frequently. She was the wife of Edward Treadwell, a prominent San Francisco-area attorney, state assemblyman and one-time mayor of Burlingame in Northern California. Her poem was found in the Hotel Del archives.

Sousa was the leader of the U.S. Marine Band and had developed a strong reputation as a bandmaster by

1892 when he came to San Diego to play at the Fisher Opera House on April 10. By the end of July that year, Sousa was ready to try something new and resigned his position to form his own band.

The Sousa Band, which performed to sold-out audiences across the country and the world, combined elements from brass bands, military bands, beer hall bands and symphony orchestras; it remained successful for 40 years. As its conductor, Sousa became one of the most well-known musicians of his time. He died on March 3, 1932, at the age of 77.

Sousa returned to San Diego with his band four times between April 1894 and March 1899, always playing at the Fisher Opera House and staying at the upscale Horton House or Hotel Brewster. Records show that during his April 1894 visit, Sousa journeyed to Coronado by carriage and visited the Hotel Del.

In 1900, Tent City opened in Coronado, and Henry Ohlmeyer organized and conducted the popular Tent City Band. Ohlmeyer began his career in San Francisco, then in Riverside teaching violin and leading the orchestra at the Loring Opera House and the Mission Inn.

He knew Sousa personally and, in tribute, started an annual “Sousa Night” in 1900, which drew crowds to Tent City second only in popularity to the Fourth of

July over the years.

Sousa and his band toured across the U.S. and Europe from 1900 to 1905. In 1905, Franz Helle, a flugelhorn soloist who had been with the Sousa band since 1896, joined Ohlmeyer at Tent City. Other Sousa musicians followed including Alice Raymond (cornetist), Nicholas Oeconomacos, (clarinetist) and Herbert Clarke (cornetist). Tent City only operated between June and August, so musicians could play for Ohlmeyer, then rejoin Sousa.

Ohlmeyer would often write Sousa, asking to extend a musician’s stay and Sousa would oblige.

In October 1909, Sousa and his band returned to San Diego and played at the Garrick Theatre, which had opened at Sixth Avenue and B Street in 1907 and quickly became the choice of big touring shows.

Throughout 1910, Sousa traveled the throughout the country leading concerts. He checked into a sanitarium in November for a rest, then began a world tour in December 1910.

So how did Treadwell come to believe Sousa had played at Tent City in 1910? Sousa was world famous, and his movements were tracked meticulously through newspapers.

“Sousa Night” in 1910 was a large, well-publicized event. It took place on

Tuesday, July 26 and drew thousands dressed in gala patriotic attire. There were colored lights, electric flags, a large crown and Sousa’s portrait framed in lights over the band shell.

Both Helle and Clarke (who was also assistant director to Sousa) were featured soloists that evening. There was no mention in the papers of Sousa being there nor does he appear in The Del’s historic records.

It was such a spectacular event that perhaps the 13-year-old Treadwell believed that Sousa himself was there, and it eventually became Hotel Del legend.

Ohlmeyer left Tent City at the end of the

1914 season and returned to the Mission Inn. “Sousa Nights” continued in Coronado until the 1918 season, but by 1924, the Tent City Band had dissolved.

Sousa, meanwhile, continued touring and returned to San Diego in 1922, 1924, 1926 and 1928, performing at the Spreckels Theater and staying at the U.S. Grant Hotel.

Aside from that brief visit to The Del in April 1894, there is no evidence he ever returned to Coronado, much less conducted the Tent City Band. ■