The Washington Post is the most widely circulated newspaper published in Washington, D.C., and oldest extant in the area, founded in 1877. Located in the capital city of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. Daily editions are printed for the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. The newspaper is published as a broadsheet, with photographs printed both in color and in black and white. In 2008, Marcus Brauchli replaced long-time executive editor Leonard Downie, Jr., serving publisher Katharine Weymouth.^[3]

In the early 1970s, in the best known episode in the recent history of The Post, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal; reporting in the newspaper greatly contributed to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. In years since, its investigations have led to increased review of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.^[4] The newspaper is also known as the namesake of "The Washington Post March", which John Phillip Sousa composed in 1889 while he was leading the United States Marine Band;^[5] it became the standard music to accompany the two-step, a late 19th-century dance craze.^[6]

The Post has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes. This includes six separate Pulitzers awarded in 2008, the second-highest number ever given to a single newspaper in one year.^[7] The Post has also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards, among others.

The newspaper is owned by The Washington Post Company, an education and media company that also owns Kaplan, Inc., and many media ventures besides The Post.

Overview[link]

The Post is generally regarded as one of the leading daily American newspapers,^[8] along with The New York Times, which is known for its general reporting and international coverage, and The Wall Street Journal, which is known for its financial reporting. The Post has distinguished itself through its political reporting on the workings of the White House, Congress, and other aspects of the U.S. government.

Unlike the Times and the Journal, the Post does not print an edition for distribution away from the East Coast. In 2009, the newspaper ceased publication of its "National Weekly Edition", which combined stories from the week's print editions, due to shrinking circulation.^[9] The majority of its newsprint readership is in District of Columbia and its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia.^[10]

The paper's weekday and Saturday printings include the following sections:

• Main section, containing the front page, national and international news, business, politics, and editorials and opinions
• Metro section, containing local news
• Style section, with feature writing on pop culture, politics, fine and performing arts, film, fashion, and gossip, along with advice columns and comics
• Sports section
• Classified advertising

Sunday editions largely include the weekday sections as well as Outlook (opinion), Arts, Travel, Comics, TV Week, and the Washington Post Magazine. The "Sunday Style" section differs slightly from the weekday Style section; it is in a tabloid format, and it houses the reader-written humor contest The Style Invitational.

Additional weekly sections appear on weekdays: Health & Science on Tuesday, Food on Wednesday, Local Living (home and garden) on Thursday, and Weekend, with details about upcoming events in the local area, on Friday. The latter two are in a tabloid format.

The Washington Post headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The Post is one of a few U.S. newspapers with foreign bureaus, located in Baghdad, Bogota, Cairo, Hong Kong, Islamabad, Jerusalem, Kabul, London, Mexico City, Moscow, Nairobi, New Delhi, Paris, Shanghai, Tehran, and Tokyo.^[11] In November 2009, it announced the closure of its U.S. regional bureaus — Chicago, Los Angeles and New York — as part of an increased focus on "political stories and local news coverage in Washington."^[12] The paper has local bureaus in Maryland (Annapolis, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, Southern Maryland) and Virginia (Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun County, Richmond, and Prince William County).^[13]

As of September 2009^[update], its average weekday circulation was 582,844, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, making it the fifth largest newspaper in the country by circulation, behind USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. While its circulation (like that of almost all newspapers) has been slipping, it has one of the highest market-penetration rates of any metropolitan news daily.^[14]

The paper is part of The Washington Post Company, a diversified education and media company that also owns educational services provider Kaplan, Inc., Post-Newsweek Stations, Cable One, the online magazine Slate, The Gazette and Southern Maryland Newspapers, and The Herald, a daily paper in Everett, Washington. The company also distributes the free daily Express newspaper in the D.C. area and runs its own syndication service for its columnists and cartoonists, The Washington Post Writers Group.^[15]

The Post has its main office at 1150 15th St, N.W., and the newspaper has the exclusive ZIP code 20071.^[16]

History[link]

Founding and early period[link]

The paper was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins and in 1880 added a Sunday edition, thus becoming the city's first newspaper to publish seven days a week. In 1889, Hutchins sold the paper to Frank Hatton, a former Postmaster General, and Beriah Wilkins, a former Democratic congressman from Ohio. To promote the paper, the new owners requested the leader of the Marine Band, John Philip Sousa, to compose a march for the newspaper's essay contest awards ceremony. Sousa composed The Washington Post, which remains one of his best-known works. In 1899, during the Spanish–American War, The Post printed Clifford K. Berryman's classic illustration Remember the Maine, which became the battle-cry for American sailors during the War. In 1902, Berryman published another famous cartoon in The Post— "Drawing the Line in Mississippi." This cartoon depicts President Theodore Roosevelt showing compassion for a small bear cub and inspired New York store owner Morris Michtom to create the teddy bear.^[17]

Wilkins acquired Hatton's share of the paper in 1894 at Hatton's death. After Wilkins' death in 1903, his sons John and Robert ran The Post for two years before selling it in 1905 to John Roll McLean, owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer. During the Wilson presidency, The Post was credited with the "most famous newspaper typo" in D.C. history according to Reason magazine; The Post intended to report that President Wilson had been "entertaining" his future-wife Mrs. Galt, but instead wrote that he had been "entering" Mrs. Galt.^[18][19] When John McLean died in 1916, he put the paper in trust, having little faith that his playboy son Edward "Ned" McLean could manage his inheritance. Ned went to court and broke the trust, but, under his management, the paper slumped toward ruin.

Meyer-Graham period[link]

The Washington Post was purchased in a bankruptcy auction in 1933 by a member of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, Eugene Meyer, who restored the paper's health and reputation. In 1946, Meyer was succeeded as publisher by his son-in-law Philip Graham.

In 1954, The Post consolidated its position by acquiring and merging with its last morning rival, the Washington Times-Herald. (The combined paper would officially be named The Washington Post and Times-Herald until 1973, although the Times-Herald portion of the masthead became less and less prominent after the 1950s.) The merger left The Post with two remaining local competitors, the afternoon Washington Star (Evening Star) and The Washington Daily News, which merged in 1972 and folded in 1981. The Washington Times, established in 1982, has been a local rival with a circulation (as of 2005^[update]) about one-seventh that of The Post.^[20]

The Monday, July 21, 1969, edition, with the headline "'The Eagle Has Landed' — Two Men Walk on the Moon."

After Graham's death in 1963, control of The Washington Post Company passed to Katharine Graham, his wife and Meyer's daughter. No woman had ever run a nationally prominent newspaper in the United States. She described her own anxiety and lack of confidence based on her gender in her autobiography, and she did not assign duties to her daughter at the paper as she did to her son. She served as publisher from 1969 to 1979 and headed The Washington Post Company into the early 1990s as chairman of the board and CEO. After 1993, she retained a position as chairman of the executive committee until her death in 2001.

Her tenure is credited with seeing The Post rise in national stature through effective investigative reporting, most notably to ensure that The New York Times did not surpass its Washington reporting of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandal. Executive editor Ben Bradlee put the paper's reputation and resources behind reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who, in a long series of articles, chipped away at the story behind the 1972 burglary of Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate Hotel complex in Washington. The Post's dogged coverage of the story, the outcome of which ultimately played a major role in the resignation of President Richard Nixon, won the paper a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

In 1972, the "Book World" section was introduced with Pulitzer Prize winning critic William McPherson as its first editor.^[21] It featured Pulitzer Prize winning critics such as Jonathan Yardley and Michael Dirda, the latter of whom established his career as a critic at The Post. In 2009, after 37 years, "Book World" as a standalone insert was discontinued, the last issue being Sunday, February 15, 2009.^[22] However, book reviews are still published in the Outlook section on Sundays and in the Style section the rest of the week, as well as online.^[22]

In 1980, The Post published a dramatic story called "Jimmy's World",^[23] describing the life of an eight-year-old heroin addict in Washington, for which reporter Janet Cooke won acclaim and a Pulitzer Prize. Subsequent investigation, however, revealed the story to be a fabrication. The Pulitzer Prize was returned.

Donald Graham, Katharine's son, succeeded her as publisher in 1979 and in the early 1990s became both chief executive officer and chairman of the board. He was succeeded in 2000 as publisher and CEO by Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr., with Graham remaining as chairman.

Post-Graham period[link]

In 1996, the newspaper established a website.^[24]

In 2010, the paper cited its local focus as a reason for running its first-ever front page advertisement: the Capital One ad was being run to draw attention to the rebranding of Chevy Chase Bank, a bank Capital One bought in 2009. According to the Post's vice president of advertising, the page one advertisement is a "very local, useful-information-for-our-readers type of campaign."^[25]

Political stance[link]

This article or section may be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective. (June 2009)

In the mid-1970s, some conservatives called The Washington Post "Pravda on the Potomac" due to its perceived left-wing bias in both reporting and editorials,^[26] This characterization referred to the official newspaper of the Soviet communist party. Since then, the appellation has been used by both liberal and conservative critics of The Post.^[27][28] In 1963, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover reportedly told President Lyndon B. Johnson, "I don't have much influence with The Post because I frankly don't read it. I view it like the Daily Worker."^[29][30]

As Katharine Graham noted in her autobiography Personal History, the paper long had a policy of not making endorsements for political candidates. However, since at least 2000, The Washington Post has occasionally endorsed Republican politicians, such as Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich.^[31] In 2006, it repeated its historic endorsements of every Republican incumbent for Congress in Northern Virginia.^[32] There have also been times when The Post has specifically chosen not to endorse any candidate, such as in the 1988 presidential election when it refused to endorse then Governor Michael Dukakis or then Vice President George H.W. Bush.^[33] On October 17, 2008, The Post endorsed Barack Obama for President of the United States.^[34]

The Post's editorial positions on foreign policy and economic issues have seen a definitively conservative bent: it steadfastly supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, warmed to President George W. Bush's proposal to partially privatize Social Security, opposed a deadline for U.S. withdrawal from the Iraq War, and advocated free trade agreements, including CAFTA.^{[citation needed]}

In "Buying the War" on PBS, Bill Moyers noted 27 editorials supporting George W. Bush's ambitions to invade Iraq. National security correspondent Walter Pincus reported that he had been ordered to cease his reports that were critical of Republican administrations.^[35]

In 1992, the PBS investigative news program Frontline suggested that The Post had moved to the right in response to its smaller, more conservative rival The Washington Times, which is owned by News World Communications, an international media conglomerate owned by the Unification Church which also owns newspapers in South Korea, Japan, and South America. The program quoted Paul Weyrich, one of the founders of the conservative activist organization the Moral Majority, as saying "The Washington Post became very arrogant and they just decided that they would determine what was news and what wasn't news and they wouldn't cover a lot of things that went on. And The Washington Times has forced The Post to cover a lot of things that they wouldn't cover if the Times wasn't in existence."^[36] In 2008, Thomas F. Roeser of the Chicago Daily Observer also mentioned competition from the Washington Times as a factor moving The Post to the right.^[37]

On March 26, 2007, Chris Matthews said on his television program, "Well, The Washington Post is not the liberal newspaper it was, Congressman, let me tell you. I have been reading it for years and it is a neocon newspaper".^[38] It has regularly published an ideological mixture of op-ed columnists, some of them left-leaning (including E.J. Dionne, Ezra Klein, Greg Sargent, and Eugene Robinson), and some on the right (including George Will, Marc Thiessen, Robert Kagan, Robert Samuelson, Michael Gerson, and Charles Krauthammer).

In November 2007, The Post was criticized by independent journalist Robert Parry for reporting on anti-Obama chain e-mails without sufficiently emphasizing to its readers the false nature of the anonymous claims.^[39] In 2009, Parry criticized The Post for its allegedly unfair reporting on liberal politicians, including Vice President Al Gore and President Barack Obama.^[40]

In a November 19, 2008 column, The Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell stated: "I'll bet that most Post journalists voted for Obama. I did. There are centrists at The Post as well. But the conservatives I know here feel so outnumbered that they don't even want to be quoted by name in a memo".^[41] Responding to criticism of the newspaper's coverage during the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, Howell wrote: "The opinion pages have strong conservative voices; the editorial board includes centrists and conservatives; and there were editorials critical of Obama. Yet opinion was still weighted toward Obama. It's not hard to see why conservatives feel disrespected".^[41]

Notable contributors (past and present)[link]

Sources not listed here can be found on the referenced pages

Executive officers and editors (past and present)[link]

This unreferenced section requires citations to ensure verifiability.

Honors and achievements[link]

See also[link]

	District of Columbia portal
	Journalism portal

• Social Reader#Washington Post Reader

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website (Mobile)
• The Washington Post Company official website
• "The Washington Post Company history"
• Scott Sherman, Columbia Journalism Review, May 2002, "Donald Graham's Washington Post" Columbia Journalism Review. September / October 2002.
• Video Interview with then-Baghdad Bureau Chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran
• Jaffe, Harry. "Post Watch: Family Dynasty Continues with Katharine II", Washingtonian, February 26, 2008.

John Philip Sousa
Sousa in 1900; photo by Elmer Chickering
Nickname	The March King
Born	(1854-11-06)November 6, 1854 Washington, D.C.
Died	March 6, 1932(1932-03-06) (aged 77) Reading, Pennsylvania
Place of burial	Congressional Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Allegiance	United States of America
Service/branch	United States Marine Corps United States Navy
Years of service	Marines: 1868–1875, 1880–1892; Navy: 1917–1918
Rank	Warrant Officer (Marines) Lieutenant Commander (Navy)
Commands held	U.S. Marine Band, U.S. Navy Great Lakes Naval Station Band

John Philip Sousa (/ˈsuːsə/;^[1] November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era, known particularly for American military and patriotic marches. Because of his mastery of march composition, he is known as "The March King" or the "American March King" due to his British counterpart Kenneth J. Alford also being known as "The March King". Among his best known marches are "The Washington Post", "Semper Fidelis" (Official March of the United States Marine Corps), and "The Stars and Stripes Forever" (National March of the United States of America).

His father was Portuguese, and his mother of Bavarian ancestry. Sousa began his career playing violin and studying music theory and composition under John Esputa and George Felix Benkert. His father eventually enlisted him in the United States Marine Band as an apprentice in 1868. After departing the band in 1875, Sousa eventually learned to conduct. From 1880 until his death, Sousa began focusing exclusively on conducting and wrote marches during this time. He eventually rejoined the Marine Band and served there for 12 years as director. Upon leaving the Marine Band, Sousa organized his own band. He toured Europe and Australia and also developed the sousaphone, a large brass instrument similar to the tuba. On the outbreak of World War I, Sousa was commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander and led the Naval Reserve Band in Illinois. Following his tenure there, Sousa returned to conduct the Sousa Band until his death in 1932.

Biography[link]

John Philip Sousa was born in Washington, D.C., on November 6, 1854, to John Antonio Sousa and Maria Elisabeth Trinkhaus. He was of Portuguese and Bavarian descent.^[2] Sousa started his music education by playing the violin as a pupil of John Esputa and George Felix Benkert (born 1831) for harmony and musical composition at the age of six. He was found to have absolute pitch. When Sousa reached the age of 13, his father, a trombonist in the Marine Band, enlisted his son in the United States Marine Corps as an apprentice to keep him from joining a circus band.

On December 30, 1879, Sousa married Jane van Middlesworth Bellis (1862–1944). They had three children together: John Philip, Jr. (April 1, 1881 – May 18, 1937), Jane Priscilla (August 7, 1882 – October 28, 1958), and Helen (January 21, 1887 – October 14, 1975). All are buried in the John Philip Sousa plot in the Congressional Cemetery. Wife Jane joined Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) in 1907. Daughters Jane Priscilla and Helen Abert also joined DAR in 1907. Their Patriot was Adam Bellis.

Several years after serving his apprenticeship, Sousa joined a theatrical (pit) orchestra where he learned to conduct. He returned to the U.S. Marine Band as its head in 1880 and remained as its conductor until 1892. Sousa led "The President's Own" band under five presidents from Rutherford B. Hayes to Benjamin Harrison. Sousa's band played at two Inaugural Balls, those of James A. Garfield in 1881, and Benjamin Harrison in 1889.^[3][4]

	The Washington Post The United States Marine Band performs The Washington Post, which is one of Sousa's most famous marches
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Sousa organized his own band the year he left the Marine Band. The Sousa Band toured from 1892–1931, performing at 15,623 concerts.^[5] In 1900, his band represented the United States at the Paris Exposition before touring Europe. In Paris, the Sousa Band marched through the streets including the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe – one of only eight parades the band marched in over its forty years. ^[6] In 1911 they went to Australia and performed in Sydney and Melbourne (then the national capital).

The marching brass bass, or sousaphone, a modified helicon, was created by J. W. Pepper – a Philadelphia instrument maker who created the instrument in 1893 at Sousa’s request using several of his suggestions in its design. He wanted a tuba that could sound upward and over the band whether its player was seated or marching. The sousaphone was re-created in 1898 by C.G. Conn and this was the model that Sousa preferred to use.

~ John Philip Sousa~ US Postage, Issue of 1940

Sousa lived in Sands Point, New York.^[when?] A school (John Philip Sousa Elementary) and a band shell are named after him and there is also a memorial tree planted in nearby Port Washington. Wild Bank, his seaside house on Hicks Lane, has been designated a National Historic Landmark, although it remains a private home and is not open to the public.^[7]

Sousa died of heart failure at the age of 77 on March 6, 1932, in his room at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel in Reading, Pennsylvania. He had conducted a rehearsal of "The Stars and Stripes Forever" the previous day with the Ringgold Band. He is buried in Washington, D.C.'s Congressional Cemetery.^[8]

Military service[link]

Sousa served in the U.S. Marine Corps, first from 1868 to 1875 as an apprentice musician, and then as the head of the Marine Band from 1880 to 1892; he was a Sergeant Major for most of his second period of Marine service and was a Warrant Officer at the time he resigned.

During World War I, he was commissioned a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve and led the Navy Band at the Great Lakes Naval Station near Chicago, Illinois. Being independently wealthy, he donated his entire naval salary minus one dollar a year to the Sailors' and Marines' Relief Fund. After returning to his own band at the end of the war, he continued to wear his naval uniform for most of his concerts and other public appearances.

Music[link]

	"Semper Fidelis" Sousa's "Semper Fidelis", the official march of the United States Marine Corps, performed by the U.S. Marine Band in June 1909. "The Stars and Stripes Forever" The United States Marine Band performs "The Stars and Stripes Forever", The national march of the United States
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Marches[link]

Sousa wrote 136 marches, published by the Sam Fox Publishing Company beginning in 1917 and continuing until his death.^[9] Some of his most popular and notable are:

The Gladiator March The Gladiator March, Sousa's first hit. King Cotton "King Cotton", a 1895 Sousa military march. The Gallant Seventh "The Gallant Seventh", was Sousa's most popular march in the 1920s and is distinguished as his only march with two breakstrains. The Thunderer Sousa's The Thunderer (1889), performed in 1896 by the United States Marine Band Manhattan Beach "Manhattan Beach", a commemorative march by John Philip Sousa. Hands Across the Sea Sousa's Hands Across the Sea (1899), performed by the United States Navy Band The Fairest of the Fair Sousa's Fairest of the Fair (1908), performed by the United States Navy Band

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• "The Gladiator March" (1886)
• "Semper Fidelis" (1888) (Official March of the United States Marine Corps)
• "The Washington Post" (1889)
• "The Thunderer" (1889)
• "High School Cadets" (1890)
• "The Liberty Bell" (1893) (credits theme for Monty Python's Flying Circus)
• "Manhattan Beach March" (1893)
• "King Cotton" (1895)
• "Stars and Stripes Forever" (1896) (National March of the United States)^[10]
• "El Capitan" (1896)
• "Hands Across the Sea" (dedicated to the band of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets – the Highty-Tighties) (1899)
• "Hail to the Spirit of Liberty" March (1900)
• "Invincible Eagle" (1901) (Dedicated to Pan-American Buffalo Exposition)
• "Fairest of the Fair" (1908)
• "Glory of the Yankee Navy" (1909)
• "U.S. Field Artillery" (1917) (Modified version The Army Goes Rolling Along is the official song of the U.S. Army)^[11]
• "Who's Who in Navy Blue" (1920)
• "The Gallant Seventh" (1922)
• "Nobles of the Mystic Shrine" (1923)
• "The Black Horse Troop" (1924) (Written in honor of Troop A, 107th Cavalry, Ohio National Guard.^[12]
• "Pride of the Wolverines" (1926)
• "Minnesota March" (1927)
• "New Mexico March" (1928)
• "Salvation Army March" (1930) (dedicated to The Salvation Army's 50th anniversary in the USA)

Sousa wrote marches for several American universities, including University of Illinois, University of Nebraska, Kansas State University, Marquette University, and University of Minnesota.^{[citation needed]}

Operettas[link]

• The Smugglers (1882)
• Désirée (1883)
• The Queen of Hearts (1885), also known as Royalty and Roguery
• El Capitan (1896)
• The Bride Elect (1897), libretto by Sousa.
• The Charlatan (1898), also known as The Mystical Miss, lyrics by Sousa^[13]
• Chris and the Wonderful Lamp (1899)
• The Free Lance (1905)
• The American Maid (1909), also known as The Glass Blowers.

These operettas which Gervase Hughes calls "notable" (1) also show a variety of French, Viennese and British influences. (In his younger days, Sousa made an orchestration of H.M.S. Pinafore and played the first violin on the American tour of Jacques Offenbach.) The music of these operettas is light and cheerful. The Glass Blowers and Desirée have had revivals, the latter having been released on CD like El Capitan, the best known of them. El Capitan has been in production somewhere in the world ever since it was written and makes fun of false heroes. Still more outspoken against militarism is The Free Lance, the story of two kingdoms becoming united, which found its way to Germany (as "Der Feldhauptmann") by the time the Berlin Wall came down.

Sheet music cover, 1896

Marches and waltzes have been derived from many of these stage-works. Sousa also composed the music for six operettas that were either unfinished or not produced: The Devils' Deputy, Florine, The Irish Dragoon, Katherine, The Victory, and The Wolf.

In addition, Sousa wrote a march based on themes from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera The Mikado, the elegant overture Our Flirtations, a number of musical suites, etc.^[14] He also frequently added Sullivan opera overtures or other Sullivan pieces to his concerts.^[15] He is also widely quoted saying, "My religion lies in my composition."^[16]

Other writing, skills, and interests[link]

Sousa exhibited many talents aside from music. He wrote three novels – The Fifth String, Pipetown Sandy, and The Transit of Venus – as well as a full-length autobiography, Marching Along and a great number of articles and letters-to-the-editor on a variety of subjects.

As a trapshooter, he ranks as one of the all-time greats, and he is enshrined in the Trapshooting Hall of Fame.^[17] He even organized the first national trapshooting organization, a forerunner to today's Amateur Trapshooting Association. Sousa remained active in the fledgling ATA for some time after its formation. Some credit Sousa as the father of organized trapshooting in America. Sousa also wrote numerous articles about trapshooting.

Mrs. John Philip Sousa c. 1905

John Philip Sousa, 1911

Sousa's grave at Congressional Cemetery

Perhaps a quote from his Trapshooting Hall of Fame biography says it best: "Let me say that just about the sweetest music to me is when I call, ‘pull,’ the old gun barks, and the referee in perfect key announces, ‘dead’."^[17]

In his 1902 novel The Fifth String a young violinist makes a deal with the Devil for a magic violin with five strings. The strings can excite the emotions of Pity, Hope, Love and Joy – the fifth string is Death and can be played only once before causing the player's own death. He has a brilliant career, but cannot win the love of the woman he desires. At a final concert, he plays upon the death string.

In 1905, Sousa published the book Pipetown Sandy, which included a satirical poem titled "The Feast of the Monkeys". The poem describes a lavish party attended by a variety of animals, but overshadowed by the King of Beasts, the lion…who allows the muttering guests the privilege of watching him eat the entire feast. At the end of his gluttony, the lion explains, "Come all rejoice, You’ve seen your monarch dine."

In 1920, he wrote another work called The Transit of Venus, a 40,000-word story. It is about a group of misogynists called the Alimony Club who, as a way of temporarily escaping the society of women, embark on a sea voyage to observe the transit of Venus. The captain's niece, however, has stowed away on board and soon wins over the men.^[18]

Sousa held a very low opinion of the emerging and upstart recording industry. In a submission to a congressional hearing in 1906, he argued:

These talking machines are going to ruin the artistic development of music in this country. When I was a boy...in front of every house in the summer evenings, you would find young people together singing the songs of the day or old songs. Today you hear these infernal machines going night and day. We will not have a vocal cord left. The vocal cord will be eliminated by a process of evolution, as was the tail of man when he came from the ape.

Law professor Lawrence Lessig cited this passage^[19] to argue that in creating a system of copyrights in which control of music is in the hands of record labels, Sousa was essentially correct. Sousa also was credited with referring to records as "canned music," referring to the fact that cylinder records were sold in cans.

Sousa's antipathy to recording was such that he often refused to conduct his band if it was being recorded. Nevertheless, Sousa's band made numerous recordings, the earliest being issued on cylinders by several companies, followed by many recordings on discs by the Berliner Gramophone Company and its successor, the Victor Talking Machine Company (later RCA Victor). The Berliner recordings were conducted by Henry Higgins^{[disambiguation needed ]} (one of Sousa's cornet soloists) and Arthur Pryor (Sousa's trombone soloist and assistant conductor), with Sousa quoted as saying,^[20] "I have never been in the gramophone company's office in my life." A handful of the Victor recordings were actually conducted by Sousa, but most were conducted by Pryor, Herbert L. Clarke, Edwin H. Clarke, or by four of Victor's most prolific house musicians: Walter B. Rogers (who had also been a cornet soloist with Sousa), Rosario Bourdon, Josef Pasternack, and Nathaniel Shilkret.^[20] Details of the Victor recordings are available in the external link below to the EDVR.

Sousa also appeared with his band in newsreels and on radio broadcasts (beginning with a 1929 nationwide broadcast on NBC). In 1999, Legacy Records released some of Sousa's historic recordings on CD.^[21]

In 1922, he accepted the invitation of the national chapter to become an honorary member of Kappa Kappa Psi, the national honorary band fraternity. Later, in 1925, he was initiated as an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, the national fraternity for men in music, by the fraternity's Alpha Xi chapter at the University of Illinois.

In 1952, 20th Century Fox honored Sousa in their Technicolor feature film Stars and Stripes Forever with Clifton Webb portraying the composer. Fox music director Alfred Newman arranged the music and conducted the studio orchestra for the soundtrack. It was loosely based on Sousa's memoirs, Marching Along.

Sousa also wrote "A manual for trumpet and drum" an excellent booklet, published by the Ludwig drum company, with fine advice for the playing of the drum and trumpet. An early version of the trumpet solo to "Semper Fidelis" is included in this volume.

See also[link]

Biography portal

• Academy of Music/Riviera Theatre
• William Bell (tuba player)

Notes[link]