Spotted in todays evening newspaper!

[thereallyniceman]

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 1^st 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????

[0mtjp3mimrggp]

Jody, I have had a look at the pictures of your banjo and I think you are indulging in understatement when you say it is "very like". It looks pretty much identical to my eyes. Fantastic. I'm learning a lot all at once. The web seems to have come on a bit since I last searched for these subjects, which admittedly was "some years ago". Your instrument has a maker's mark, but mine has none. Perhaps because of the damage to the headstock.

It's a pleasure to play, by the way.

Jody Stecher said:

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. 

[Jody Stecher]

Martin, where did you see photos of my JE Dallas?  There's a video of me playing it on this website but it's hard to see the details. There are some dim photos on Dave Wade's site that I sent to him:

http://www.zither-banjo.org/pages/jodydallas.htm

Anyway, I think I see a number of small differences but at the very least it does appear that JE Dallas and the maker of your banjo may have had the same suppliers and/or hired the same artisans.

Martin Baxter said:

Jody, I have had a look at the pictures of your banjo and I think you are indulging in understatement when you say it is "very like". It looks pretty much identical to my eyes. Fantastic. I'm learning a lot all at once. The web seems to have come on a bit since I last searched for these subjects, which admittedly was "some years ago". Your instrument has a maker's mark, but mine has none. Perhaps because of the damage to the headstock.

It's a pleasure to play, by the way.

Jody Stecher said:

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. 

[0mtjp3mimrggp]

Yes that URL is the site I looked at, I happened on it by chance, and yes there are differences between the two instruments, so "identical" is putting it a little bit too strong, but overall, there is easily enough similarity that I think most people would assume they have the same origin.

Mine has been damaged and somewhat modified presumably by Eugene Earle, but the foundations of it look pretty much the same as yours. As you say, the types of wood, metals and the general construction, the decorative tooling on the aluminium (or whatever metal it is). The fancy floral wood-carving on the heel is exactly the same design, the inlays in the fretboard follow the same pattern. So I think they are probably siblings.

Does your instrument have a serial number or anything like that?

How do you know which model it is?

Jody Stecher said:

Martin, where did you see photos of my JE Dallas?  There's a video of me playing it on this website but it's hard to see the details. There are some dim photos on Dave Wade's site that I sent to him:

http://www.zither-banjo.org/pages/jodydallas.htm

Anyway, I think I see a number of small differences but at the very least it does appear that JE Dallas and the maker of your banjo may have had the same suppliers and/or hired the same artisans.

Martin Baxter said:

Jody, I have had a look at the pictures of your banjo and I think you are indulging in understatement when you say it is "very like". It looks pretty much identical to my eyes. Fantastic. I'm learning a lot all at once. The web seems to have come on a bit since I last searched for these subjects, which admittedly was "some years ago". Your instrument has a maker's mark, but mine has none. Perhaps because of the damage to the headstock.

It's a pleasure to play, by the way.

[Jody Stecher]

Stamped along the median strip along the back of the peghead and neck is the number 6622. Above it is an address and above that,  it says "J.E. Dallas Maker.  I don't know if there is a model name.

Martin Baxter said:

Yes that URL is the site I looked at, I happened on it by chance, and yes there are differences between the two instruments, so "identical" is putting it a little bit too strong, but overall, there is easily enough similarity that I think most people would assume they have the same origin.

Mine has been damaged and somewhat modified presumably by Eugene Earle, but the foundations of it look pretty much the same as yours. As you say, the types of wood, metals and the general construction, the decorative tooling on the aluminium (or whatever metal it is). The fancy floral wood-carving on the heel is exactly the same design, the inlays in the fretboard follow the same pattern. So I think they are probably siblings.

Does your instrument have a serial number or anything like that?

How do you know which model it is?

Jody Stecher said:

Martin, where did you see photos of my JE Dallas?  There's a video of me playing it on this website but it's hard to see the details. There are some dim photos on Dave Wade's site that I sent to him:

http://www.zither-banjo.org/pages/jodydallas.htm

Anyway, I think I see a number of small differences but at the very least it does appear that JE Dallas and the maker of your banjo may have had the same suppliers and/or hired the same artisans.

Martin Baxter said:

Jody, I have had a look at the pictures of your banjo and I think you are indulging in understatement when you say it is "very like". It looks pretty much identical to my eyes. Fantastic. I'm learning a lot all at once. The web seems to have come on a bit since I last searched for these subjects, which admittedly was "some years ago". Your instrument has a maker's mark, but mine has none. Perhaps because of the damage to the headstock.

It's a pleasure to play, by the way.

[Hal Allert]

I came across Mr. Earle's recording of Banjo Vamp by Emile Grimshaw in my collection. We can add this to the Knowledge Base.

BANJO VAMP by Eugene Earle

[Jocko MacNelly]

After all this I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of playing banjo in a a lion cage. It would certainly be fun to know what his programme was!

[Jody Stecher]

Me too.

Jocko MacNelly said:

After all this I'm still trying to wrap my head around the idea of playing banjo in a a lion cage.