Arthur Pryor's "A Coon Band Contest"

[Ed Berlin]

This is a sheet music question.
I have a copy of Pryor's "A Coon Band Contest" that was published in
1918, copyrighted by the publisher Emil Ascher that year. It also
has an earlier copyright, 1899, in Pryor's name. (It was recorded
by Sousa in 1898.)
Does anyone know if Pryor *published* the music when it was
copyrighted in 1899, or is Asher's publication the first in sheet
music form. (Pryor could have copyrighted the music by submitting
the manuscript.)
The cover, judging by the ethnic caricatures, is in the style of
1899. But there are also things on the cover that could not have
been from 1899: the words "jazz fox-trot," & a picture of a dancing
couple in 1918 style clothing. These, though, could have been
added to an older cover.
That is what I'm trying to determine: whether the cover is originally
from 1899. Has anyone seen the cover on a pre-1918 publication?

Ed Berlin

[DVanAlst]

Ed,

I have what I believe to be an 1899 edition of "A Coon Band Contest"
published by The Bell Music Co., 34 east 14th Street, New York. The cover
is red and white and has a picture of a black felow with a large trombone.
Prominently displayed in the upper right hand corner is a photograph of a
man in his early 20s with the capition "ARTHUR PRYOR, Assistant Director,
Sousa's Band." The copyright is to Arthur Pryor, 1899. There is no text
of any kind on the back cover or the inside front cover, but on the back
of the last page of music there is an advertisement for a song version of
the piece, also copyrighted 1899, called "A Coon Band Contest, or The Tune
That Won The Ham For That Coon Band."

Would you like a copy of this edition? Send me your snail-mail address --

Fred Brodie

dvan...@aol.com (home)

(this is being copied to the newsgroup, and anyone else who needs a copy
of this piece should e-mail me)