{"id":8403,"date":"2015-01-20T06:56:44","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T11:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=8403"},"modified":"2015-01-21T09:15:39","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T14:15:39","slug":"taking-to-the-streets-with-the-philadelphia-police-singing-and-dancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2015\/01\/taking-to-the-streets-with-the-philadelphia-police-singing-and-dancing\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking to the Streets with the Philadelphia Police (Singing and Dancing)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Police<\/a>
Police Band in Philadelphia Ball Park [Baker Bowl, Broad and Huntingdon Streets], 1912 (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>Philly’s Finest<\/a> got into the big band business while the getting was good. Only three years after 1912, when bandmaster Lieutenant Joseph Kiefer (formerly of the U. S. Navy) started up his talented squad, he expanded its ranks to 72 musicians. He then spent the better part of the next decade riding the rising tide of American popular music.<\/p>\n

In its first ten years, Kiefer\u2019s band raised enough to cover their expenses and<\/i> to pay $200,000 into the Police Pension Fund Association. There were the annual ticketed benefits, but the majority of the Police Band concerts were free. That unlikely business model had been in effect since 1917, when the City brought in Kiefer\u2019s group to replace another band, whose contract officials let expire. \u201cThe Philadelphia Police Band will hold a series of open-air concerts on the northeast plaza of City Hall,\u201d read the announcement. The new concerts would also inaugurate community singing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOver night the project has taken on gigantic propositions,\u201d project leaders bragged. I all, more than 50,000 attended to hear the Police Band\u2019s brass quartette give a brief concert before the Community Singing Association \u201chelped to ring out the patriotic hymns and familiar songs which make up the nightly programme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philadelphia\u2019s Fire Department jumped aboard the bandwagon starting up their own group<\/a> with 27 players and Kiefer moonlighting as leader. It \u201cbids fair to become vigorous rival of celebrated police institution,\u201d teased the Inquirer<\/i>. But Kiefer\u2019s main focus remained with the Police Band, which grew ever-busier raising funds for pensions while performing a full schedule of free concerts.<\/p>\n

How did they do it? Whenever and wherever they played\u2014in neighborhoods throughout the city, at the Baker Bowl at Broad and Huntingdon Streets, at the bandstand<\/a> north of City Hall, or helping Philadelphians singing in the New Year on City Hall\u2019s south apron\u2014audiences<\/i> already knew the music, they knew the words to the songs<\/i>. The listening public was familiar with the Police Band\u2019s music, and their greater repertoire having already bought, played repeatedly and memorized popular music.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/a>
Joseph Kiefer and the Police Band, July 25, 1921. Detail. (Temple University, Special Collections Research Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Philadelphians owned phonographs\u2014record players. And on them they spun copies of Kiefer\u2019s compositions in Vocalian red-vinyl: On the Campus<\/a> and Comrades of the Legion<\/a>. From Aeolian (Vocalian\u2019s parent company) they played his Buckeye State<\/a> and The Iron Division March<\/a> (dedicated to the Pennsylvania-based division nicknamed by General Pershing for valorous service in World War I.)<\/p>\n

Kiefer and company also included in their repertoire longtime classics, also available as records: F.W. Meacham\u2019s \u00a0popular American Patrol<\/a> (1885); W. H. Myddleton\u2019s Down South. American Sketch<\/a> (1901). And they performed the more contemporary, and no less antiquated, Swanee River Moon<\/a>. For young folks wanting to dance a lively Fox Trot, they included Dan Sullivan\u2019s Stealing<\/a> (the chorus of which, \u201cStealing, stealing with your eyes appealing\u2026Stealing, stealing, at your shrine I\u2019m kneeling,\u201d made clear this was not a song about pickpockets.)<\/p>\n

In 1921, the City added free weekly dances on the Parkway to the long-popular sing alongs and concerts. These Thursday evening soirees turned out to be a smashing success. For the inaugural dance, July\u2019s muggy weather didn\u2019t deter 15,000 from turning out on the stretch of the Parkway between 17th and 18th, still decorated as a \u201cCourt of Honor<\/a>\u201d for an Odd Fellow convention.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo Dance on the Parkway,\u201d read the headline after the first magical evening. Philadelphians danced to Police Band tunes and transformed themselves into \u201cone jostling, swaying mass of sweltering humanity.\u201d Young dancers wanted nothing to do with the \u201cold style Virginia reel by four couples in rural garb\u201d intended to show \u201cdancers what they have been missing.\u201d They wanted live jazz, just like the recordings they owned and danced to at home.<\/p>\n

Kiefer and the Police Band accommodated everyone as best they could throughout the free Parkway dances, performing \u201ceverything in [their] repertory, from a sedate waltz for the benefit of the older folk to the latest jazz turn for the enjoyment of the flappers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not everyone would be as tolerant.<\/p>\n

(Articles in The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em> consulted: \u201cPolice Band Will Give Daily Concerts,\u201d August 26, 1917; \u201c’Sing’ at City Hall to Attract Many,\u201d September, 2, 1917; \u201cPolice Band to Give Concerts on Plaza,\u201d September 2, 1917; \u201cGreat Community Sing Will be Held Tonight,\u201d September 15, 1917; \u00a0\u201cFiremen’s Band out for Laurels,\u201d September 23, 1917; \u201cConcert Series Will Aid Police,\u201d March 10, 1918; \u201cTo Sing New Year In,\u201d December 31, 1918; \u201cTo Dance on Parkway, June 14, 1921; \u201c15,000 Crowd at First Dance on Parkway,\u201d July 8, 1921; \u201cPolice Band Concerts,\u201d May 16, 1922.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philly’s Finest got into the big band business while the getting was good. Only three years after 1912, when bandmaster Lieutenant Joseph Kiefer (formerly of the U. S. Navy) started up his talented squad, he expanded its ranks to 72 musicians. He then spent the better part of the next decade riding the rising tide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}