Sunday, September 12, 1999
Cincinnati's notable music men (and one dog)
BY JANELLE GELFAND
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Cincinnati's band tradition has created colorful musical memories. Here are four Cincinnati march kings — and one famous dog:
• Bandmaster Henry Fillmore (1881-1956) became known as “America's March King” after the death of John Philip Sousa in 1932. He composed more than 400 band pieces, but was best known as the leader of the Fillmore Band. The band played at the Cincinnati Zoo and city parks and made weekly broadcasts on WLW radio in the 1920s and 1930s.
The family business, Fillmore Brothers Co. on Elm Street, was a prominent publisher of band music.
Mr. Fillmore also led the Syrian Temple Shrine Band and initiated Shrine circuses in Cincinnati. In 1923 he took the Shrine Band to Washington, D.C., where it performed on the White House lawn for President Warren G. Harding, a fellow Ohio Shriner.
After he moved to Miami, he became renowned as conductor of the Orange Bowl Band.
• Mike the Radio Hound was Henry Fillmore's favorite soloist. The talented dog barked on cue in time to the music in local band concerts and on weekly WLW radio broadcasts, gaining fans around the world.
Mr. Fillmore composed many works for Mike, who was a card-carrying member of Cincinnati Musicians Association Local 1.
But in 1932, tragedy struck: Mike the Radio Hound died after eating a poisonous substance. Mr. Fillmore buried his beloved dog with his jeweled collar on a farm in Harrison, Ohio.
• Middletown's Frank Simon (1890-1967) is considered the last of the bandmasters in the great tradition of Sousa. A cornet virtuoso, he spent seven years as cornet soloist and assistant conductor for Sousa's band. During those years, Mr. Simon discovered jazz trumpeter Al Hirt, flutist Meredith Willson (who later wrote The Music Man) and former CSO principal trumpeter Eugene Blee.
Mr. Simon was also a composer; his “Willow Echoes” was written for the Sousa band.
He's most remembered for founding Middletown's Armco Band in 1920. Sponsored by the Middletown-based steel company, it became one of the greatest concert bands in the country. By 1922, the band played weekly summer concerts for 10,000-12,000 people. The Armco Band reached national fame for its weekly broadcasts (1929-39) on the NBC Radio Network.
In 1932, Mr. Simon founded the band department at Cincinnati's Conservatory of Music, where he taught for 20 years.
• Herbert A. Tiemeyer (1901-90) of Springfield Township, played first trumpet in Mr. Simon's Armco Band, 1936-44. He was also a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (1922-66) and played under Fritz Reiner and Arturo Toscanini.
Mr. Tiemeyer founded three bands in YMCA's throughout Cincinnati and conducted them for more than 40 years. He also founded a youth band, where one of his teen clarinetists was future superstar Richard Stoltzman.
His bands gave free concerts in city parks, sponsored by the Cincinnati Park Board and the Cincinnati Musicians' Association.
• “Smittie's Band” is a Cincinnati institution. George G. “Smittie” Smith IV (1910-85) was the third generation of bandleaders in his family. In the early 1890s, George G. Smith Jr. founded the first “Smittie's Band,” which played at the inaugurations of presidents William McKinley, William H. Taft and Warren Harding.
George G. Smith III conducted until 1930, when George G. Smith IV, then a 19-year-old trumpet player with his own “Smittie's Band,” com bined the two into one.
The last “Smittie,” who lived in Wyoming, led concerts in parks for more than 50 years. Mr. Smith was band director at Withrow High School, where he founded the Withrow Minstrels. He directed the Syrian Temple Shrine Band for 30 years.
The Smittie Band was the official band of the Cincinnati Reds when the team played at Crosley Field. It also played for state fairs, accompanying stars such as Roy Rogers and Bob Hope, ice shows and circuses.
Mr. Smith died on July 3, the night before his popular July Fourth concert in Ault Park.
“He played for every star that came to Cincinnati,” says his son, Richard Smith of Wyoming. “In his will, he wanted to be driven through all the city parks. During the concert (a few nights later) in Burnet Woods, the hearse drove right through while Marian Spelman was singing. Everyone saw it.”
The Smittie Memorial Concert Green in Ault Park was dedicated in 1987.
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