In several articles I have written about performers whose siblings got into recording, this seemed to have been a more common pattern than expected. To some it appears that the phonograph was so attractive that other family members had to get involved. It is quite an interesting phenomenon. Here I will highlight three stories.
While studying Frank P. Banta and his brother John, I was wondering about their sister. Frank and John had a younger sister named Katherine, who surprisingly, was also involved in recording. Katherine was born in 1880, so she was quite a bit younger than her brothers. Frank and John got into recording by 1893, and not long after Katherine followed them in an unusual way. While Frank and John were playing accompaniments, Katherine eloped with a small time engineer/repairman.
Around 1896-97 she met a gentleman named Frank Remig. It is difficult to know exactly which company he was working for, but it was most likely Edison, as he was living in New Jersey when they married. By the end of 1897, Katherine and Frank were married. They had two children together, but by 1903 they were split. After this Katherine moved on to a man who hadn’t anything to do with recording. Her new husband was Arthur Mestrand, who was working as a press photographer at the time. This marriage was the one that lasted.
Arthur ended up having a distinguished career as a press photographer and journalist. Katherine lived until 1955, and of the 50 years she was married to Arthur, she rarely stayed in the United States for more than a few years. Most often the two of them were traveling all over the world. As for Frank Remig, he remained in recording into the 1920s and ’30s. By then he had moved more into radio as many older phonograph workers had. Although he and Katherine weren’t married long, it is fascinating how they most likely met in the same environment that her brothers worked.
Previously I did an article about the engineer George Cheney, and how he made out to be one of the more scandalous men in the studios in the acoustic era. Cheney had been working in recording since around 1897, but within a few years of his beginning there he met Fred Hager’s younger sister Georgiana. Georgie (as she was sometimes called) married in 1900, but living so close to her brothers Fred and Jimmy, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that she also eloped with one of their recording friends.
The extended Hager family all lived in the Morrisania neighborhood in the Bronx, and were generally tight knit. Somehow, Georgie was able to have an affair with Cheney during the time she was married to her husband. She didn’t marry Cheney until 1929 but she certainly would have known him for at least 15 years by then. By 1910, her brother Fred was spending a lot of time recording and partying with Cheney in Boston. She may not have wanted to be involved with the phonograph crowd, but she was. Her involvement wasn’t forced, however. Including Jimmy in recording was Fred’s intention from as early an age as possible, despite Jimmy being much younger.
There was also a fourth Hager sibling, Lena, but she unfortunately has proven to be very difficult to track. Lena was the second born, about three years younger than Fred. I was only able to find a record of her marriage in 1909. If she was somehow involved in recording, that wouldn’t be unexpected. It is also important to note that the siblings’ father Melvin ran his own orchestra later on in his life. When they were younger he worked as a railroad engineer, but as the kids matured, he moved more into music along with his sons.
A similar story can be found with Arthur Pryor’s brothers. Arthur Pryor had several siblings, most of which became musicians. His older brother Walter can be seen in many photos with the Sousa band. When the boys were young, the family traveled all over Missouri, Kansas, and Nebraska, and during this time the boys often played shows. It was from these performances that Arthur really proved to be the most unusually talented. Despite this, Walter continued to be an accomplished cornetist.
In 1879, nearly a decade after Arthur’s birth, they welcomed their youngest, Sam. He ended up working as a percussionist with the brothers later in his teens. While Arthur did indeed become very well known for recording, Sam became a background figure who seemed to be ever-present, much like Jimmy Hager. But thankfully for him, Sam wasn’t pulled out of schooling to play gigs, or at least not in such an urgent way like Jimmy.
If you listen to early Victor records, Sam is most likely on many of them. He was featured in a few Victor supplements, one in particular mentions him along with his brother Walter as playing in the newly-formed Victor house orchestra (before 1903 Victor didn’t necessarily have an official studio orchestra). In addition to that, he did play percussion on most of his brother’s band records in the early years. Sam is featured quite loudly on the earliest ones hitting a bass drum. He likely stayed in Victor’s orchestra into the early 1910s.
By 1915 or so, he had moved back to the Midwest. By the time of his World War I draft card, he was living in Kansas City. From here he continued to work in theaters as a percussionist. At a certain point he worked for the Kansas City symphony, it is known that he worked there until his death. He did remain close to Arthur for the rest of his life. Iit is rumored that some of his gear remains in use in symphonic orchestras in the area today.
The phonograph may have been a very foreign contraption to many at the beginning, but it was so attractive to some that performers had to bring along their relatives to witness it. There are many other siblings I could highlight here, but I will save them for other entries.
R. S. Baker has appeared at several Ragtime festivals as a pianist and lecturer. Her particular interest lies in the brown wax cylinder era of the recording industry, and in the study of the earliest studio pianists, such as Fred Hylands, Frank P. Banta, and Frederick W. Hager.
