The band has played on for decades
By John Quinlan, Journal staff writer | Posted: Sunday, July 27, 2008
Al Tasker, left, and Bob Hansen try to determine the date of an old photo while talking about the Monahan American Legion Post Band recently at the Sioux City Monahan Post building. (Photo by Tim Hynds)
SIOUX CITY -- Before Saturday in the Park, there was the Municipal Band Concert, also at Grandview Park. And before the Municipal Band, there was the Monahan Post 64 American Legion Band. Thus it can be said that Monahan begat Municipal which begat SITP.
That's the thinking anyway of some Legionnaires from various wars who recalled the colorful history of the award-winning band, sort of as a prelude to Grandview Park's 100th birthday celebration today at the last Municipal Band concert of the season.
It only seems there's always been music in the air at Grandview Park.
The Monahan Post started on April 18, 1919, said Al Tasker, the post's unofficial historian. That's four months after the Armistice was signed ending World War I, Legionnaire Bob Hansen added.
The post was named after Edward Monahan, 22, who died after being wounded on patrol March 31, 1918. He was wounded by bullets on his upper left arm and by a grenade in the left leg. "Nowadays, a wound in the arm and the leg, they undoubtedly would survive it unless it was so severe and traumatic right when it happened that you bled to death instantly," said Legionnaire Dick Matousek.
"The year 1921 was the first time that the Monahan Post Band paraded, and that was the first year they had get-togethers for the First World War," Tasker said. It was a year of firsts. In 1921, West Virginia became the first state to enact a sales tax, Margaret Gorman became the first Miss America and the World Series was broadcast over the radio for the first time. "And they marched in a parade in Kansas City, and they just marched. They didn't know that they were being judged. They were just having a good time marching, and they came in third place out of 50 bands."
The next year, the bandsmen decided to see how well they could do if they really tried. To that end, they hired a buck sergeant war vet to whip them into shape.
"So they marched without instruments, regular marching drills," he said. "And after they got real good with that, then they could carry their instruments. And then when they got good with that, they could march and play. And when they got good at that, the sergeant says, 'Well I've worked myself out of a job. You guys are too good for me.' So he quit."
One lusty laugh later, Tasker said the story is true as can be. "This was all in newsprint," he said.
Times change
By 1948, when the Monahan Post Band officially became the Sioux City Municipal Band, none of the original members were still playing with the band, Hansen said. And none are alive today. The last surviving band member, conductor James C. Melichar, died in 1994 at age 97. Leo Kucinski, the conductor of the Legion band since 1929, succeeding Melichar, continued his duties with the Municipal Band until his retirement in 1980.
Colorful evangelist Billy Sunday had a hand in raising money for that first Legion Band trip to the national convention in Kansas City, passing the plate twice on a Sunday and cajoling his parishioners to support the band.
When the band went to the convention in Paris in 1927, the members ran out of money before they could return home, but some sponsoring government agency bailed them out, Hansen said. As Iowa's showpiece band, it had friends in high places.
The Monahan Post Band was declared the Official American Legion Band of the U.S. by the National Executive Committee in New Orleans in 1922, retaining that title for six consecutive years and regaining it at Chicago in 1939.
Because the band had taken first-place national honors at the Legion conventions the year before, it got to lead the parade down the Champs Elysee and through the Arch of Triumph in Paris, followed by 54 other bands in tough competition that was eventually whittled down to two bands. Sioux City edged Columbus, Ohio after five hours of deliberations, the deciding factor being that the Iowa band played without sheet music. In every other way, they were judged equal, Tasker said.
This came just four months after Charles Lindbergh became the toast of Paris after arriving in the Spirit of St. Louis.
Matousek and Hansen worked to preserve the band's early recorded music on a CD which is available at the post and may be used as a prelude to today's Municipal Band Concert, they said.
The Monahan Post isn't quite as lively as it used to be. Membership is down to about 600 from a post-war high of nearly 5,000 in 1948, Hansen said.
The young vets today simply don't join service organizations like their fathers and grandfathers did, he noted. Matousek said there are many other things to keep them occupied these days. And Tasker noted family obligations today are more time-consuming, with the varied sports and other extracurricular activities of their kids and grandchildren keeping vets busy.
"Soccer moms," Matousek said.
The others nodded.
And the band plays on.
That's the thinking anyway of some Legionnaires from various wars who recalled the colorful history of the award-winning band, sort of as a prelude to Grandview Park's 100th birthday celebration today at the last Municipal Band concert of the season.
It only seems there's always been music in the air at Grandview Park.
The Monahan Post started on April 18, 1919, said Al Tasker, the post's unofficial historian. That's four months after the Armistice was signed ending World War I, Legionnaire Bob Hansen added.
The post was named after Edward Monahan, 22, who died after being wounded on patrol March 31, 1918. He was wounded by bullets on his upper left arm and by a grenade in the left leg. "Nowadays, a wound in the arm and the leg, they undoubtedly would survive it unless it was so severe and traumatic right when it happened that you bled to death instantly," said Legionnaire Dick Matousek.
"The year 1921 was the first time that the Monahan Post Band paraded, and that was the first year they had get-togethers for the First World War," Tasker said. It was a year of firsts. In 1921, West Virginia became the first state to enact a sales tax, Margaret Gorman became the first Miss America and the World Series was broadcast over the radio for the first time. "And they marched in a parade in Kansas City, and they just marched. They didn't know that they were being judged. They were just having a good time marching, and they came in third place out of 50 bands."
The next year, the bandsmen decided to see how well they could do if they really tried. To that end, they hired a buck sergeant war vet to whip them into shape.
"So they marched without instruments, regular marching drills," he said. "And after they got real good with that, then they could carry their instruments. And then when they got good with that, they could march and play. And when they got good at that, the sergeant says, 'Well I've worked myself out of a job. You guys are too good for me.' So he quit."
One lusty laugh later, Tasker said the story is true as can be. "This was all in newsprint," he said.
Times change
By 1948, when the Monahan Post Band officially became the Sioux City Municipal Band, none of the original members were still playing with the band, Hansen said. And none are alive today. The last surviving band member, conductor James C. Melichar, died in 1994 at age 97. Leo Kucinski, the conductor of the Legion band since 1929, succeeding Melichar, continued his duties with the Municipal Band until his retirement in 1980.
Colorful evangelist Billy Sunday had a hand in raising money for that first Legion Band trip to the national convention in Kansas City, passing the plate twice on a Sunday and cajoling his parishioners to support the band.
When the band went to the convention in Paris in 1927, the members ran out of money before they could return home, but some sponsoring government agency bailed them out, Hansen said. As Iowa's showpiece band, it had friends in high places.
The Monahan Post Band was declared the Official American Legion Band of the U.S. by the National Executive Committee in New Orleans in 1922, retaining that title for six consecutive years and regaining it at Chicago in 1939.
Because the band had taken first-place national honors at the Legion conventions the year before, it got to lead the parade down the Champs Elysee and through the Arch of Triumph in Paris, followed by 54 other bands in tough competition that was eventually whittled down to two bands. Sioux City edged Columbus, Ohio after five hours of deliberations, the deciding factor being that the Iowa band played without sheet music. In every other way, they were judged equal, Tasker said.
This came just four months after Charles Lindbergh became the toast of Paris after arriving in the Spirit of St. Louis.
Matousek and Hansen worked to preserve the band's early recorded music on a CD which is available at the post and may be used as a prelude to today's Municipal Band Concert, they said.
The Monahan Post isn't quite as lively as it used to be. Membership is down to about 600 from a post-war high of nearly 5,000 in 1948, Hansen said.
The young vets today simply don't join service organizations like their fathers and grandfathers did, he noted. Matousek said there are many other things to keep them occupied these days. And Tasker noted family obligations today are more time-consuming, with the varied sports and other extracurricular activities of their kids and grandchildren keeping vets busy.
"Soccer moms," Matousek said.
The others nodded.
And the band plays on.
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Barbara Garlow wrote on Jul 28, 2008 8:38 AM:
Peter Neenan wrote on Jul 27, 2008 7:17 PM:
Anyone know how to buy the cd mentioned in the story? I had a 78 recording of the band, but alas it broke years ago.
Peter Neenan "