My Latest eBay Finds

I’ve been having too much fun lately buying items on eBay that relate to my book project. Within the past week, I’ve become the owner of two photos and one concert program. G. Oliver Riggs and his bands aren’t featured in any of the items, but all three items are from the time period in which the St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ band was well-known.

It’s easier to show and tell, instead of just tell, so here goes:

Item No. 1: a 1928 photo of the Lincoln Junior High School girls’ band of Minneapolis

Lincoln Junior High School Girls’ Band; credit Norton & Peel Commercial Photography, Minneapolis

The back of the photo says: This band was a prize winner in the Minnesota school band contest of 1927, taking first place among competing bands from junior high schools, grammar schools and other public and private schools below senior high age. The girl musicians will again compete at the Minnesota School Band Contest to be held in Minneapolis May 12-18 under the auspices of the University of Minnesota, and if they repeat their success of last year they will take part in the National School Band Contest to be held at Joliet, Illinois, May 24-26.

This raises some questions for me, including: When did Minnesota start holding school band contests? School band programs were still pretty new in 1927 – that’s one of the years that G. Oliver worked for C. G. Conn, helping organize school bands in Minnesota and other states. Other questions: Did the school also have a boys’ band? How many bands competed? How did the Lincoln girls do? Did they go to nationals? If not, which band or bands did?

Also, I can’t help but wonder – did the French horn player in the center of the front row feel bad that she wore the wrong color of pantyhose? It makes me think of Louisa’s first band concert in middle school, when she showed up wearing the wrong color of shirt. As I recall, she decided it was my fault for not knowing the appropriate dress code. It did make it easier to spot her among the other French horn players, though!

Item No. 2: a 1938 photo of an unnamed, non-Native American band marching in a parade wearing headdresses and fringed costumes

Costumed band performing in St. Paul, September 1938; credit Acme News Pictures, New York City

I am curious about this band, and this parade. Where were the members from, and why were they wearing these costumes? I will have to see if I can find mention of this event in one of the St. Paul newspapers.

The parade took place seven years before G. Oliver organized the first band at Red Lake High School, on the Red Lake reservation, made up of both Ojibwe and white boys and girls. So far, I’ve not been able to locate any photos of that band. I’m not sure one was ever taken. But who knows – maybe eBay will come through for me.

Item No. 3: a 1924 program from the State Association of County Attorneys luncheon at the State Reformatory in St. Cloud

Page 3 of the program, which lists the songs played by the prison band and orchestra

This four-page program is from a Jan. 18, 1924 event at the prison, and it cracks me up because it is sprinkled with quotes from Shakespeare, Tennyson and names I don’t even recognize. The items on the menu are apparently named after attorneys and include fried fillet of pike, stuffed roast young duck, spiny lobster salad and pineapple pie with whipped cream. Was prison food way better then, or was the event catered?

Music was provided by the reformatory band and orchestra, directed by Francis Gonnella. I had read somewhere that Gonnella formed the prison band in 1924, but he must have formed it earlier than that, going by the date of this ambitious concert program.

Like most of the band-related things I find online, these items will inspire me to do further research. And that’s a mostly good thing — although there are days when I wish I could buy all the answers on eBay.