Frank and John: The Musical Banta Brothers

In the world of 19th century theater, there were many siblings who made their success by performing together. As the phonograph became a legitimate medium of entertainment and employment, some siblings jumped in together. It was rare, especially in the acoustic era (before 1925) for more than one sibling to join in the recording business, as very few people saw it as a reasonable occupation to have. It is always interesting to see what phonograph people stated their line of work was in the censuses between 1900 and 1920. There was still not an occupational name for most of these people. The idea of a “recording artist” and “recording engineer” did not exist yet. What might come as a surprise to some (certainly to the author), was that the pianist Frank P. Banta had an older brother. Often we can come across very interesting tangents while researching one person or event, and end up finding something else that equally sparks our interest. Frank was actually one of five children. He had three older siblings and one younger. The two oldest unfortunately died very young, as was a common occurrence parents faced in the 19th century and before. The sibling Frank was closest to however was his brother John. He was almost two years older, born in 1868. John was named after his father, John Wiert Banta, who, unusually for the time, was in his mid-40s when Junior was born. Considering