Helen May Butler was born in
on a farm in Keene, N. H., May 17 1866, when the lifestyle was extremely
proper and decorum was the guidepost.
Her parents were Lucius M. Butler and Esther L. Butler, the former an
engineer on the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad, eventually being
elevated being elevated to the position of purchaser. He remained to invest
and design some of the earliest Pullman cars.
Helen May's penchant for music showed at an early age which prompted her to
study the violin under the concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
It was from his private collection that she purchased her first "good"
violin which was of the same vintage as the Stradivarius.
The ambitious young director formed the Talma Ladies Orchestra and
she and they were on their way up.
The girls performed for many functions in the homes of the socially
and financially "great" including the Heinz family. But Helen May was
dissatisfied. She wanted to direct an all ladies brass or concert band.
That's when her troubles began. She was of the opinion that no one should be
excluded from a field if she were talented just because she was a female.
But in those days, female band directors, or females in any traditionally
male role were unheard of.
She enrolled in a directing class and her teacher asked a male band leader
if she could merely sit in for the experience. Came an immediate and
decisive "NO". Added was "One of these days women will be taking our jobs
away from us." [Poor guy was clairvoyant!]
Finally, she organized a band of 20 to 40 women, fluid in numbers, depending
on the engagement requirement. Helen May Butler's daughter relates with glee
an ironic incident that occurred a number of years later when band contests
were staged at Madison Square Gardens in New York. According to Helen May
Young:
"There were from 6 to 8 bands and the
elimination was down to 2. Mother's band was at one end and a man's band
was at the opposite end. The director was the same who had refused
to allow her to learn through his band. Mother's band captured top
honors and she was presented a gold bar set with a diamond and forom the
pin was a golden harp bangle. This proved to be a diamond studded night
for Helen May Butler and her band!"
Helen May Butler's name appeared with circa
band greats, including Creatore and John Phillip Sousa. She was often
referred to as "The Female Sousa", because they were both very forceful
directors. It was during one of Sousa's engagements in Cincinnati
that he noted Helen May in the audience and invited her to come to the
platform and direct a number."
After her first retirement in 1912,
she was requested to form a band and play for the season at the lagoon
amusement park in Ludlow. Her daughter recalled reminiscences of her mother.
"It was fun as well as work. Each day the band departed from Cincinnati in
open street cars and all rides were five cents."
After her second
retirement she was called into action again by Barnum Bailey Circus and
described the experience as "Wonderful."
Helen May Butler's place in
the Smithsonian exhibit includes one of her prized cornets used in her
favorite closing "Semper Fidelis" which brought down the house as a silk
American flag emerged when the cornet opened. It also includes a beautiful
large hat she wore at the World's fair.
Helen May Young reports that
her mother was very strict with her girls, many of them from wealthy
families who permitted their daughters to perform with her because they
would be "safe" since she was so highly recommended.
Helen May Butler spent 20 of her years in
Cincinnati before moving to Kentucky when she lived in Dayton and in
Covington many years before she died in 1957.
Helen May Young described herself as a
"trunk baby", explaining, "I spent the first 3 years of my life going to
sleep behind the stage to the music of from 20 to 40 bands. Mother
travelled until about a month before Helen May Young was born and started
travelling again 6 weeks after Helen May Young was born.
Timeline
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Born May
17,1867 in Keene, NH to
Lucius Marshall
Butler and
Esther L. Abbott (or
1866 or maybe even earlier!)
-
Moved to
Providence as a small child.
-
Learned music
under the tutelage of Bernard Listerman, concertmaster of the Boston
Symphony.
-
1891, Formed
the Talma Ladies' Orchestra, part of the a local social club, the Talma
Ladies' club.
-
Picked up the
cornet and formed a Ladies' brass band.
-
Her first
cousin, Harlan Fiske Stone,
became chief justice of the US Supreme Court. He credits her for
getting a second chance at college after being expelled from Massachusetts
Agricultural College.
-
A very
interesting crazy quilt with her initials (N.B.) and dated 1885 can be
viewed
here. (PDF)
-
1898, she
began conducting the core group of players who were later to become the
twenty-five to thirty-five member U. S. Talma Ladies Military Band, also
known as Helen May Butler’s Ladies Band. Dressed in sharp military-like
uniforms, the band played at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New
York in 1901
-
J A Bartlett,
composer at a Boston band competition, in 18?? wrote a march "Miss Sousa,
Jr." and dedicated it to her.
-
About 1895 -
Article in the paper, concert at HMB's parent's home when her uncle,
Winthrop Stone, then VP of Purdue University was visiting. HMB and her
cousin (not sister as stated in the article) gave a violin concert.
(Bessie died in 1897). Article mentions various attendees, mostly
relatives.
-
J. Leslie
Spahn "discovered" the band, renaming it "Helen May Butler and her Ladies'
Military Band" and promoted them as an "Adam-less Garden of Musical
Eves." He disguised his gender by signing his name J. Leslie Spahn.
-
Official band
of the 1902 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, where President
McKinley was killed.
-
Married to
John Leslie Spahn 11-5-1902
-
Performed for
president Teddy Roosevelt at the White House in 1902. Became one of
TR's favorite bands.
-
1902 -
performed at the South Carolina Interstate and West Indian Exposition.
-
1903 - played
in NY City at the 1903 Women's Exposition and won first prize.
-
1903 - the
band played sometimes twice a day, touring the East Coast and the South
for a total of thirteen months.
-
Gave birth to
daughter Helen May Spahn (Young) December 1903
-
C. G. CONN
instruments were played on and endorsed by Helen and many of her soloists.
As a result, C. G. CONN gave all of the members of the band CONN
instruments at their performance at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.
Her band performed the same music as Sousa and all of the other bands led
by outstanding male bandmasters, all of the pieces being contemporary band
classics of the time. The band also performed music by Butler. Published
in 1904 by Ingram, and arranged by Richter, her
Cosmopolitan America March became so popular that it became the
official march of the National Republican Party during Theodore
Roosevelt’s Presidential Campaign of 1904.
-
Performed at
the Republican National Convention, 1904,
-
Gave birth to
son Leslie Spahn (Young) October 1905
-
Divorced first
husband Spahn
-
Married James
Herbert Young June 1911
-
First
retirement - band broke up - c1912
-
Officially
retired from show business 1914 to raise her family near Cincinnati.
1510 Woodburn ave, Covington, KY
-
Was a
member of the Eastern Star, the Auxiliary of the Independent Order of Odd
Fellows, the White Shrine of Jerusalem, and the August Willich Relief
Corps.
-
She was a
member of the Mt. Auburn Methodist Church in Cincinnati, raised two
children and continued to teach and play solos on her cornet (Hazen and
Hazen 1987, 186-9)
-
Ran a boarding
house 1920-1950 in Covington, KY.
-
Died 6-16-1957
in Covington, KY buried in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati
-
uniforms and
other memorabilia was given to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington,
D. C.
-
Inducted into
the Women Band Directors Hall of
Fame, 1995
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