Left to Right: James H. Johnstone, J Mandobass; Francis Havens, F-5 mandolin; Arthur Crookes, K-5 Mandocello; Lloyd Loar (seated) H-4 Mandola; Walter Kaye Bauer, F-5 mandolin. Inset: Fisher Shipp. Detail from the poster used to promote the concerts of the summer of 1922.
By June 15, 1922, Walter Kaye Bauer and Arthur William Crookes to arrived in Kalamazoo, Michigan. They had left their thriving music school and mandolin orchestra in Hartford, Connecticut, and were ready to begin rehearsals with James “Jazz” Johnstone, Francis Havens and Lloyd Loar. As one of the first orders of business, a promotional photograph was required. Fisher Shipp was still at her mother’s home in Brookfield, Missouri, but was planning to join the troop in time to prepare for the first concert. Therefore, an earlier portrait of Shipp was inset at the top. This now famous poster (or details from it) began appearing on countless advertisement boards and mid-western newspapers as early as mid-July, 1922.
The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, June 30, 1922 · Page 5
Surely Crookes and Bauer were amazed, or even somewhat overwhelmed, with the instrument selection in the stringing room at 225 Parsons Street. Of course, as far as the Gibson Company was concerned the showcase of instruments was the major purpose for launching this band. Consequently, this is the first example of Fisher Shipp receiving anything other than top billing. The Master Model style 5 mandolin family instruments would be at the forefront of this aspect of the campaign, although the new “Mastertone” banjos with the unique “tone projector” will be close behind (more on this in a future episode). Crookes and Bauer were excellent choices for the task, as both moved easily from mandolins to banjos. At least two F-5 mandolins were available for Bauer and Havens, as first and second mandolin; Crookes would be playing a K-5 mandocello; Loar would have to wait another few weeks until his new 10-string mandolin-viola (MV-5) was available, and in those first few concerts and in the promotional photos, he is seen with the 1922 H-4 mandola; Johnstone, another multi-instrumentalist, would provide the low end of the mandolin ensemble with a style J mando bass, and switch to tenor banjo in his alter ego, “Jumping Jazz Jimmie.”
Left to Right: Original Gibson models 1923 F-5, 1923 F-5, 1922 H-4, L-5 (guitar substituted for K-5 mandocello) and 1922 J. (Note: we have used the L-5 guitar as a place holder for the K-5 that was on tour in 1922). (Photo by Tony Williamson, June 14, 2022)
Left to Right: Gibson K-5 mandocello, Gibson H-5 mandola, a matching pair from March 31, 1924. (The K-5 is the rarest of the rare, with only 8 known to be extant; the H-5 mandola appears to be the last Master Model instrument developed during Loar’s tenure at Gibson)
Since this was a Gibson production, not a Lyceum tour, they would not be traveling to Matzene Photography Studios in Chicago, as had been the case on so many of Loar’s previous professional photographs. We suspect this photo was taken at the Johnstone studios. In addition to all his many talents, Johnstone had opened a photography studio in Kalamazoo, serving the mandolin, guitar and banjo community via US Postal Service. An example of this entrepreneurial effort was a notice in the July issue of The Cadenza (see below) offering for sale (at 75 cents each) 8 x 10 glossies of photos taken at the Guild Convention in April of 1922.
Cadenza, July 1922; last line offers prints, ordered from James H. Johnstone in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Most of the studio portraits and all the posters with insets and montages from 1922 that we will be showing this summer probably came from the darkroom of the clever Johnstone. An example of one of Jazz’s montages, another poster of the ’22 Gibsonians, may have been created even earlier. This cut-and-paste poster features headshots and instruments. This appeared in many newspaper advertisements, but all we have been able to locate were poorly reproduced. The search for a fair copy is ongoing.
Top row:, Left to Right: Lloyd Loar, Fisher Shipp, Francis Havens; Bottom row: Walter Kaye Bauer, James H. Johnstone, Arthur W. Crookes. Cameron Sun, Cameron, Missouri, June 22, 1922; This cut-and-paste poster, with various instruments displayed around and behind portraits, appeared with numerous newspaper articles beginning in June of 1922. Several of these images were cut from the big poster).
As the two young musicians from Hartford blend their talents with the mid-western Gibsonites to create a lively program of music, Fisher Shipp and William Jennings Bryan make their travel plans. As far as the public is concerned, who will be the “star of the show?”