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.
In 1885 the ambition 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,
"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. Helen May Young, the
daughter, adds that Sousa had come by his name in an amusing manner. "When
he first arrived in this country, he printed on his trunk, "Mr. So. USA." It
was mistaken and was introduced as Mr. Sousa.' He became so enamored with
the name that he had his name legally changed to Sousa. 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 conrnets 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 46 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 HMY
was born and started travelling again 6 weeks after HMY was born.
Timeline
- 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.
- 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 "Admam-less Garden of Musical Eves." He disguised his
gender by signing his name J. Leslie Spahn instead of Jack 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 NYCity at the 1903
Women's Exposition and won first prize.
- 1903 - he 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 190? - - According to Aunt Helen, Mr. Young "disappeared"
(around 1920)
- 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
- and 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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