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By Larry Johnson, the band’s last director, October 6, 2018

Gainesville, Texas and the Circus

Gainesville, Texas, was a unique town. The circus billed itself as “The Only Show Of Its Kind In The World.” And it was. No one has ever been able to prove otherwise. There were at that time two small community-type circuses in Russia, but these were small, one-ring shows that couldn’t begin to compare to what Gainesville had. Gainesville stood alone, and the whole town reflected it.

One way the circus’ presence influenced the town was how it affected the music program in the schools. In many schools, the band students view the Jazz Band as the elite because only the best players are selected to play in it. But in Gainesville, the highest musical honor was being asked to play in the Circus Band. Only the players who had reached the required level of proficiency could qualify, and this motivated the kids to practice. That never hurts a music program.

For example, all of the cornet players selected Herbert L. Clarke solos for their contest pieces. “Bride of the Waves,” “From the Shores of the Mighty Pacific,” and Frank Simons’ “Willow Echoes” were especially popular. Other players selected comparable literature. This produced high school students who could play.

Another positive effect of the circus on the high school was that the circus band included all instruments and was therefore open to anyone. Jazz Bands, on the other hand, are far less democratic because they exclude flutes, clarinets, horns, double reeds, baritones, and tubas. So in Gainesville saxophone, cornet and trombone players didn’t practice in order to get good enough to play in the Jazz Band; everybody practiced on all instruments to make it to the Circus Band.

The Gainesville Circus began in 1929 as a fund-raising project to pay off a debt incurred by the Community Theatre. Its history is well documented from that point by the Morton Museum’s collection of scrapbooks, artifacts, and photographs. But the history of the band is murky, and some of it has to be inferred.

In the early part of the 20th Century, Gainesville, like just about everybody else, had a town band. There is an undated photograph of it in a private collection that tells us it was an all male organization of 10 – 12 members and composed mostly of brass instruments. They are wearing uniforms that look suspiciously like those common to the 1890’s. It isn’t known when this band broke up but the fact it once existed establishes that there were brass players in Gainesville. Chances are that it was the remnants of this band that played for the first performances of the circus.

While there are hundreds of photographs of the circus, there are only a few of its band. One of the earliest photos reveals mostly, if not all, adult players. But they are wearing uniforms borrowed from the High School band. To get access to these meant that the high school director also led the circus band, which he did, and/or there were high school players in the band.

The Gainesville Community Circus was just that: A community circus. It’s policies required that all its members live in Gainesville and everyone had to make/furnish their own costumes. The one exception to this rule was the band, which borrowed from the local high school and never had uniforms of its own.

In the mid-1950’s there occurred a series of events which all affected the band negatively. The first of these happened in 1953 when the local high school football team won its District for the first time in nearly a quarter century. Gainesville, being in Texas, went football crazy. As usually happens, funds were taken from the music program and diverted to athletics. The band director left, and in his wake was left an underfunded music program that never again produced players who consistently reached the level they once did. But the football team won District three more times in the next four years, while the music programs steadily grew weaker.

The next year, 1954, a fire, which is still viewed as suspicious, broke out in the circus storage barn and destroyed the big top and much of the circus’ equipment. It was a disaster from which the famed show never fully recovered. Without a tent, sawdust, and all the ambience that went with it, the few adult players still in the band called it quits. The circus band was now reduced to a dozen or so of the best players from a high school whose music program was declining. But that was by no means the end of the band. The students who played in the circus band loved it, and younger students still strove to be in it. But by then the leader was no longer a stand-up conductor. He had “graduated” to being a circus bandleader by playing cornet with one hand and conducting with the other. Gee, did any other circus band leaders ever do that?

By now the group of select high school students that comprised the circus band had played the music enough times that we knew it and played it a little better every show. It didn’t matter if we missed a note — there were plenty more. We learned how to find our place and come back in if we got lost. There was no stopping. We learned by doing, and that included mastering playing in five flats/ After we had played two seasons together we had become familiar with the music and were giving very credible performances.

Then the local school district’s long-time superintendent retired. His replacement, as often happens, wanted to make changes. Trouble was, he didn’t know how things had come to be as they were and he didn’t seem to have any particular goal that his changes were intended to accomplish. One of the things he tried to do was sever the relationship between the circus and the schools. He didn’t realize the circus was the whole town, and his changes were destined to cause problems.

Next Installment, “Larry Becomes the Director”