Classic-Banjo
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Spotted in todays evening newspaper!
In my collection of scores I came across a 2nd Banjo part by a composer called Eugene Earle along with a publicity photograph of him.
There was no 1st banjo but I noticed that Earle lived in Preston, which is only a few miles from where I live. I knew nothing of Mr. Earle, until tonight when an article appeared in our local paper. It seems that Mr. Earle was quite an intrepid soul!
Entertainer who took on a lion armed only with a banjo!
Entertainer Eugene
Global minstrel, radio pioneer and multi-talented musician Eugene Earle became a household name in Lancashire during the first half of the last century.
John Eugene Richards Earle was born around 1878, possibly in South Wales, though his exact origins are difficult to trace.
Eugene Earle with his accordion
He had a good singing voice and from an early age showed a real aptitude for music, especially the banjo, ukulele, guitar, saxophone and lute.
By his late teens he was beginning a career as a professional musician. Around the turn of the century he decided to use his talents to travel the world which saw him travel to China and to spend 15 years in South Africa where he even experimented playing his banjo in a lion’s cage to see whether music really did "soothe the savage beast".
Eugene Earle and his Harmony Boys pictured in 1947
In the 1920s he returned to Britain and his name starts appearing in the early radio broadcasts. He began with the very early Manchester radio station, 2ZY, which broadcast from a cramped hut in the Trafford Park grounds of the Metropolitan-Vickers electricity company, before radio was taken under the wing of the BBC in 1927 and divided into regions.
He gathered a fine banjo band together for these broadcasts and, as with the earlier lion’s cage performance, experimented with various locations.
Eugene Earle Accordion Band at the New Victoria Cinema in Preston
In December 1935 he performed from a cavern underneath the Clow Bridge reservoir between Burnley and Rawtenstall, with the addition of sound effect bells.
A Lancashire Daily Post reporter quoted him at length: “The echo is absolutely astonishing. It goes on for about half a minute, amplifying the sound to a tremendous degree.
“I shall be playing in the dark. The place is very dark and very, very cold. I’m sure Santa Claus lives there.”
In the mid-1930s he opened a shop in Cannon Street, Preston, selling stage make-up and effects, and that was where he based his music school. He also made records and recorded both himself and his students and his skills extended to making stringed instruments.
He seemed to be fascinated by various styles of music and his orchestra underwent frequent changes of identity: they were known variously as his Gypsy Orchestra, his Hawaiian Orchestra, his Piano-Accordion Band and his Harmony Boys.
Whatever the band name, he was a stickler for discipline and his instructions involved liberal use of capitals for emphasis.
A sample of his rules includes:
Always pay strict attention to the INSTRUCTOR and DO NOT PLAY A NOTE until asked for by Mr Earle.
STRICT DISCIPLINE MUST BE ADHERED TO. The COMMITTEE reserve the right to REPORT to MR EUGENE EARLE who is OUR INSTRUCTOR, any MEMBER not applying to these rules, and they will be dismissed without further warning.
Same applies on leaving the practice room leave quietly and on entering the street. Don’t congregate around the DOOR of MR EARLE, or commence playing your instruments, but leave like Gentlemen and a WELL-DISCIPLINED BAND.
Despite the rather strict, severe character suggested by these rules, at the time of his death in 1960, Eugene Earle was held in high regard by show business celebrities and the many people he taught to play.
I think we should have some rules like this on Classic-Banjo.Ning
... a bit of discipline never hurt anyone
... So the flogging will continue until moral improves ;-)
Anyone know any more about Eugene Earle????
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Jody Stecher on
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So did the banjo soothe the lions or not?
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Permalink Reply by marc dalmasso on
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I have this 2nd part , too ; the size of the score is 34,5 cm x 25,5 cm ;
it was in the case of a Windsor ' Banjo i used to buy ;
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Permalink Reply by thereallyniceman on
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I guess he must have escaped and by reading the last part of the article it maybe that "his bark was worse than their bite"!
;-)
Jody Stecher said:So did the banjo soothe the lions or not?
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I am supposed to be the owner of this Windsor banjo played at the BBC ; true or not ; i don 't know
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Permalink Reply by Richard William Ineson on
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Here's a little bit of information about Eugene, looks like he was a bit of a swanker.
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Very interesting Richard! There are so many great UK players who have slipped into obscurity.. now many more? ... and who were the ones from the USA?
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Permalink Reply by Hal Allert on
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I wonder if he was related to Burt Earle?
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Permalink Reply by 0mtjp3mimrggp on
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hello,
When I saw this post I was delighted. I had long wanted to find out more about Eugene Earle. I signed up here mainly so I could add a comment.
The reason for my interest is that I own Eugene Earle's banjo. The same one that's shown in the publicity photo at the top of the page. Here is a picture of it:
I bought it in the nineteen eighties, I think, from Hobgoblin Music at the Cambridge Folk festival. I knew it had belonged to Eugene Earle, but didn't know anything about him other than he was a classic banjo player (the salesman told me this) and also what was printed on the sleeve of the record (Banjo Vamp/Desert Breeze) that came with it.
The banjo itself seems to have been assembled from parts in his workshop, perhaps he made some of it himself. I think the neck was taken from a repair job. The headstock has a metal plate on the back to reinforce it. At some point it suffered damage.
On back, what I take to be a monogram of "EE" is worked into part of the metalwork.
I believe this is the same banjo shown in the brown-toned photo above as well. Although that doesn't have the outer hoop around the pot, it looks to have some sort of padding instead, the hoop was clearly added some time after the banjo was made. It has a velvet pad at one point, I think to make it easier to maintain the playing angle. The pad would be in the right place if the banjo rested between the seated player's thighs, and would then provide friction with the left thigh.
One other tantalising thing about this instrument is that inside the pot a number of signatures can be made out, perhaps of friends or band-members, I can't actually read them though. If I ever have to replace the head I will be sure to investigate.
So finally, my very warm thanks go to the poster of this information, which I will print and keep with the banjo so that whoever has it after me will know its history.
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The engraved metal parts and the (bird's eye maple?) back , the engraving on the heel and what I can see of the headstock look very much like the equivalent parts on my JE Dallas zither-banjo.
Martin Baxter said:hello,
When I saw this post I was delighted. I had long wanted to find out more about Eugene Earle. I signed up here mainly so I could add a comment.
The reason for my interest is that I own Eugene Earle's banjo. The same one that's shown in the publicity photo at the top of the page. Here is a picture of it:
On back, what I take to be a monogram of "EE" is worked into part of the metalwork.
One other tantalising thing about this instrument is that inside the pot a number of signatures can be made out, perhaps of friends or band-members, I can't actually read them though. If I ever have to replace the head I will be sure to investigate.
So finally, my very warm thanks go to the poster of this information, which I will print and keep with the banjo so that whoever has it after me will know its history.
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