| See the end for additional notes. |
John Cowan was born in St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1874. Little is known of his background there, but there is no indication whatever of any music study.
In 1892, he moved to Boston to study at the Famous School of Expression there. He spent four years as an undergraduate and two in graduate study and must have been a cum laude student because for two years he acted as assistant to Dr. W. S. Curry, President of the School. In 1898, he was sent to the State College of North Carolina to establish a school of expression there. The next year, 1899, he was sent to a theological school to establish a department of expression there also.
In 1900, the Kansas City public school system opened the Manual Training School at 15th and Tracy, and Mr. Cowan was invited to teach public speaking there. In those days the public schools were under complete control of the local board of education and had no state board of education and HEW to tell
them what they could and could not do.
Undoubtedly from the very beginning Cowan intended to have his own school eventually, and by 1905 or early 1906, he had established himself so well that he thought the time had come.
He had printed an announcement which he distributed to all of his students at Manual High and released to the newspapers, all of whom printed the announcement. The announcement follows.
"We wish to announce that the Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Art started on the first year of its career, September 10, 1906. A building is being erected on the lot at the northeast corner of Ilth and Oak Streets for the institution. This building will contain twenty-six music and art studios and an auditorium which will accommodate about 450 persons. Until the Conservatory building is completed, which will be about the first of January, '07, the faculty of the Conservatory will conduct its work in the University Building, New Ridge Building, Hoffman Building and other buildings where studios have been secured.
The temporary office of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Art is with D. H. Baldwin and Co., 114 Walnut Street, where all information concerning the Conservatory may be secured and where all students must register. It is impossible in this brief announcement to set forth the resources of the Conservatory. When the Conservatory building is completed, we will issue our first complete annual catalogue, which will give as concisely as possible the full resources of the institution. We trust that those contemplating the study of Music, Art, Elocution, or Dramatic Art will give us an opportunity to explain more fully the advantages offered by exceptionally strong faculty of the Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Art. All requests for information will receive prompt attention."
Cowan himself was a perfectionist and he put together a music faculty of the highest quality. To head his piano department of nine persons he chose E. Genevieve Lichtenwalter. Miss Lichtenwalter had had a brilliant career after graduation with degrees from the University of Kansas and a graduate school of Columbia University, New York, and had also studied several years abroad, both in Germany and in France.
His vocal department was headed by Percy Hemus, an eminent New York baritone, who had repeatedly appeared with such leading artists as Schumann-eink and Louise Homer.
For his principle violin teacher he selected Francoise Boucher, a French Canadian who had been teaching in the area since 1896. Boucher was assisted by Claude Rader, who was still teaching in Kansas City long after Cowan was no longer connected with the Conservatory. All of the rest of the faculty, both instrumental and theatrical, were of the same quality and, of course, Cowan himself taught elocution and oratory. The institution continued to grow and was very successful but, by the
summer of 1914, Cowan realized that as the city was moving in a southerly direction a location for the school farther south would be better than the downtown buildings, so he arranged to lease and later purchase the old Waldo home at 1515 Linwood and also moved his residence to 3314 Holmes, which was actually within walking distance of the school.
Undoubtedly he knew that Charles Horner was opening a new school of music and art that year, but since he had established an excellent reputation and had an outstanding faculty it is doubtful that it gave him much concern at the time.
His catalogue for 1914 lists for the first time a Board of Musical Directors, five of his faculty members and himself. However, there is no mention of a registrar or any business office personnel. The catalogue lists 30 faculty members and 2 new departments had been added, that of theater and
dance. Since Cowan was no longer teaching in the public schools it was of course necessary for him to draw a living wage from the income of the school and he soon announced that another building adjoining the old home would be built containing an auditorium and several classrooms.
What Cowan failed to recognize was, that in addition to the Horner Institute, Charles Horner was operating the Redpath-Horner Chautauquas, the Redpath-Horner Lyceum Bureau, Premier Productions, the Horner-Witte Concert Bureau and the Midland Lyceum Bureau and that these companies operated in all of the states in the Kansas City trade territory and therefore, the Horner name was constantly before all of the prospective musical students in the area.
When the 1916 catalogue of the Conservatory was released the announcement was made that on July 1, 1916, the ownership of the school had passed to a Board of Trustees consisting of 20 of the most prominent men in Kansas City and it had been incorporated as a non-profit institution under the laws of the state of Missouri. Cowan continued in his position as President and fifteen men and women are listed as "foundation members" and the statement was made that it was now an endowed institution with "unlimited funds." Included in the announcement was the statement that plans for a new building
were being drawn and would be built within a year. Cowan had actually put together an excellent faculty: Ottley Cranston and his wife, Louise Collier Cranston, who had first come to Kansas City with the Savage Opera Company, Mrs. Regina Hall, an excellent theory and history of music teacher from
the New England School of Music and Moses Boguslawski, a top-notch piano teacher. Even with this excellent faculty, Cowan found it harder and harder to compete with the built-in recruiting facilities of all of the Horner organizations performing all over the territory.
It became harder and harder for Cowan to entice competent teachers to his faculty. In several cases, he promised a much higher salary than he could possibly pay and, therefore, many stayed only a year or two, and the Cranston's formed their own music school downtown.
Practically all of the Trustees of Cowan's Conservatory were friends also of Charles Horner and had approached him in regard to a merger and Cowan must have known about this. Horner was subsidizing the Horner Institute completely with profits from the Chautauqua and Cowan required, at this point,
contributions from his Board of Trustees. Horner was very reluctant to enter into such an agreement.
In the 1925 catalogue of the Kansas City Conservatory only twenty-nine faculty members were listed and Cowan deemed it necessary to make a statement regarding the Chautauqua and its Lyceum. The statement follows:
"The Kansas City Conservatory of Music does not make a practice of urging students to prepare for the Chautauqua and Lyceum field. It is a broad field, and there are fine artists in it, but it is manifestly not the highest and most remunerative field, and, therefore, it is not the goal the talented pupils of this Conservatory are urged to reach.
Here the talented pupil is encouraged, in every possible way, to let his ambition be satisfied with nothing short of the Concert, the Opera or the Stage. It is easy enough to "step down," but once down it takes the strength of a Samson and the will of a Caesar to climb up again. Few have ever done it.
Literally thousands who have had the natural ability, with hard work, to have reached the top, have paused in their splendid progress to enter the lower fields and there they have stayed. Knowing that the Kansas City Conservatory of Music is founded upon the highest ideals of artistic accomplishment, there has always been a greater demand for its graduates, and even undergraduates, to enter the Chautauqua. Many go and succeed. A few fail. But seldom do any ever come back to work for a higher goal.
All students who contemplate entering the artists' field are urged to reach, if possible, the highest goal as students before they seek to enter the professional fields. Then they may enter the field for which they seem most fitted."
The Trustees of the Conservatory of Music continued during the balance of 1925 to confer with Charles Horner and Earl Rosenberg, his director, regarding a merger of the two institutions and though Horner, reluctant to do so, became convinced that the merger would be in the best interest of the
people of Kansas City, and in the early spring of 1926, the announcment was made that an agreement had been worked out between the Trustees of the Conservatory and Mr. Horner, whereby he would give his school to the Board of Trustees without debt and lease the property at 30th and Troost to them for 10 years on excellent terms. The Conservatory Trustees agreed to pay off the debt of the Kansas City Conservatory and the name to be changed to the Horner-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. Cowan immediately resigned.
After Cowan resigned from the Conservatory he had founded, he served as agent for several life insurance companies from 1927 through 1932, and he probably did very well selling life insurance as he was an excellent salesman. The city directories of 1934 through 1938, shows Cowan as a teacher and
after checking the newspaper ads it is found that the course he was giving was.quite similar to the later Dale Carnegie courses. He continued in this work through 1939, the year in which his wife died. He then moved to California and during World War II served as a personnel director for the Lockheed Aircraft Company. After the war he retired and moved to Naples, Florida, where he died December 23, 1949.
Charles Horner was born August 1, 1878, on a farm near Downsville, Wisconsin, about 40 miles east of St. Paul, Minnesota, but when he was 2 years old they moved from Wisconsin and settled near Correctionville, Iowa, and 6 years later his father bought a farm on the Platee River at Plum Creek, Nebraska[s], but that name was soon changed to Lexington.
Horner's father, William, was a man of strong character and high principles and had what amounted to a passion for books and education and served on local school boards for more than 50 years. Charles' own high school diploma bears the signature of his father.
The school house was on the Horner farm on land donated by William Horner and there was a spendid teacher there who helped William Horner secure boxes of books which Charles' father devoured assiduously and Charles Horner himself was reading adult books by the time he was 8 years old.
As a farm boy Charles had all of the chores that a farm boy of that age would have, caring for the cattle, helping put up the hay and helping with the milking.
Whatever entertainment the pioneers had they had to furnish themselves and there was always a lyceum or a literary society in almost every school house. The participants in the program played a melodeon, a fiddle, a mouth organ or some instrument or recited poems and the prizes were won by those with orginal compositions.
Charles and his brother and sisters walked to a school about two miles away and when the children had received about all of the knowledge they could obtain at a country school, William decided to move to town so they could have the benefit of a high school education and Charles graduated from high school in 1884, when he was 15 years old.
In those times every boy and girl had to try and find a job and Charles chose teaching, but at the age of 15 it was pretty difficult to persuade a school board to give him a chance, but Charles did secure a job in the smallest available school in the county just a few days before school was due to open. The name of the district was called Hardscrabble, located about 16 miles north of Lexington. Most of the residences were built of sod and so was the schoolhouse - the sod wasn't very good either because the structure had been piled together years before and ground squirrels and snakes had made considerable use of it. Charles himself lived in a partial dug-out and sod house about 2 miles from the school. The standard pay for a school teacher in those days was about $30 a month for a 6-month term, but Charles evidently was a successful teacher because the next year he was invited to become principal of the village school for the following year for $50 a month. He had resolved to go to the university and worke d all summer at $1.25 a day, sometimes cutting wild hay on the grazing land and sometimes working for a threshing crew. He began as water boy because by that time the old horse-power threshing machines had given way to straw-burning engines and it was no small job to stoke and water the machines.
During the summer he saved $100 and with that he went to Nebraska University at Lincoln and paid part of his expenses by getting occasional jobs waiting tables or distributing advertising matter. His career at the University was by no means brilliant, he later stated, although he managed to make both the debating and oratorical teams.
He entered into many activities in Lexington and when his father moved and opened a grocery store he wrote the advertisements, usually in rhyme. The grocery store was not very profitable so Charles started an insurance and real estate business on the side and almost immediately began to build up a profitable business.
Since the time he had entered high school he had been much interested in law and haunted the Court House when Court was in session and during his spare time, especially the winter vaction, he read law in the office of a Captain McNamara and finally opened his own office and joined forces with another lawyer and was soon doing a good business. He also opened an abstract and insurance business along with the various legal jobs.
Charles was into everything of a public nature which was happening in Lexington, and he was elected City Clerk when he was 21 and re-elected the following term.
He was sent as a delegate to most of the political conventions, to the state representatives convention in Lincoln, and to the Fifth Congressional District where he was chosen to make the keynote speech.
In the meantime his business had increased and so had his local civic activities; as representative of the Chamber of Commerce he was sent to Omaha as a delegate early in 1907 and was scheduled to speak at the closing dinner of the Nebraska State Chamber of Commerce.
In the meantime he had gotten into the ranch and cattle business quite extensively and with his brother-in-law had a couple of sizeable places that were operated at a reasonable profit.
He had met a young woman by the name of Jessie Ridgway and their wedding was set for the summer of 1903, but the cattle market had become very bad and his losses were extremely heavy, so it was not until 1904 that their wedding was scheduled for June.
In 1905 business was very good and Horner planned to leave Lexington and go to Lincoln where he would have an opportunity to finish his law course, but the stork interfered and their first child, Kathleen, was born. Since he was unable to attend the university he went to see Dean Roscoe Pound. Pound was one of the most brilliant lawyers in the state, but he was very kind to Horner and invited him to come spend a year in his office and he felt that Horner could easily pass the state bar association exams. For several years prior to this Horner had managed the local lecture course and summer Chautauqua and he wrote to the Redpath Bureau, from which he secured most of the talent, to ascertain if they could give him a part-time employment while he was continuing his law school. He received an immediate answer from Keith Vawter, a Redpath official, asking him to come to Omaha and confer with some of their men. Vawter immediately offered him a job to go on the road booking Chautauqua, so his legal plans were abandoned and he moved to Lincoln with his family.
Horner was so successful in selling Chautauqua contracts that he decided to establish his own business and soon had spread into so many states that it was more convenient to move to Kansas City than to operate from Lincoln. So in 1910 they moved to Kansas City and here again, he began quickly to engage quite extensively in civic and community work. It was Horner's conviction that a good citizen should devote as much time for public work as he could spare over the period of his business activity and Horner estimated that he gave a third of his working days to public duties.
He immediately joined the Chamber of Commerce and became involved with the Helping Hand Institute and was within a few years past president of the Club Presidents Roundtable.
In 1914 he founded the Horner Institute of Fine Arts. This fitted in quitenaturally with his Chautauqua activities. The combination of a music and art school along with Chautauqua was an ideal combination since he would be able to hire teachers on a year-round basis and use them as stage managers for Chautauqua, sometimes also in performing male quartets and chamber music groups.
He first rented a large mansion on Broadway where the Ambassador Hotel now stands. In a few years this proved to be too small and then purchased another, much larger, at Hunter, now Linwood, and Baltimore. In 1919 the building on Baltimore was overcrowded and Horner purchased a large tract on Troost Avenue at 30th Street with a very large home and carriage house and was also able to purchase the property adjoining to the west on Harrison. This gave him control over nearly all of the north one-half of the block between 30th and 31st Harrison to Troost.
The streetcar lines on Troost and 31st Street afforded easy access to parts of the city. The Institute moved there for the opening of the school in September, 1920.
The Chautauqua was also an ideal recruiting method for the Horner School as the Horner name was spread over five or six states and prospective students had the chance to meet and hear faculty members.
He charged the lowest possible tuition for the school and subsidized it to the tune of approximately $30,000 a year from the income of the Chautauqua series.
During the course of his Chautauqua he had become well acquainted with William Jennings Bryan, Sam Rayburn and William G. McAdoo, so in 1916, he was invited to assume the position as Chief of Speakers Bureau when Woodrow
Wilson was candidate and, of course, Wilson was elected. In 1916, when Wilson was elected for the second time, Horner is credited with originating the expression "He kept us out of War."
Despite Wilson's effort, the United States did become involved in the first World War and the Chautauqua movement accomplished a notable part in supporting necessary war measures to its very large public. When the first liberty loan was established, his friend, W. C. McAdoo, who was now Secretary of the Treasury, asked him to come to Washington and establish a Speakers Bureau in the Treasury Department to sell Liberty Bonds.
As director of the Speakers Bureau, he organized the famous "Four Minute Men." Many of the government heads were most cordial in their suport as were a number of movie picture stars, for example, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Charles Chaplin, and Marie Dressier. There was a speaker at every performance of the Chautauqua and the moving picture theaters and regular theaters gave ardent support.
He was also a member of the Speakers Bureau for the American Red Cross - they sent a number of Chautauqua speakers for a tour of the battlefields in Europe so that when they returned to their schedules they spoke of the war at first hand.
Business had boomed during the war because of the avid interest of the people in public affairs and besides the Horner Institute, he operated the Redpath-Horner Chautauqua, the Redpath-Horner Lyceum Bureau, Premier Productions, which produced touring companies for other circuits and numerous other circuits in America; also the Horner-Witte Concert Bureau and also they bought out the Midland Lyceum Bureau.
During this period of prosperity he also acquired controlling interest in a number of banks in Kansas and Colorado, and stock in others in Kansas City and the building and loan associations in Nebraska.
He also purchased a printing plant in Olathe in order to supply the tons of printed material required for these various enterprises and at the same time purchased a canvas tent factory in Olathe to manufacture the canvas walls and tents for Chautauqua, and besides fulfilling their own needs they sold a great deal of equipment to other circuits of Chautauqua and road shows.
During this period of prosperity he also wrote a number of light operas, all of which were set to music composed by Howard Hansen, Thurlow Lieuance and Lucien Denny.
Since 1914, he had been operating the Horner Institute of Fine Arts supported entirely from his own funds. They had three commodious buildings and operated the school entirely without profit.
In the mid 1920's the Trustees of Cowan's Conservatory of Music of Kansas City, which was in desperate financial trouble urged him to merge the schools and though the idea was quite repugnant, the pressure became so strong from the public spirited citizens that he finally yielded and the schools were merged.
The Kansas City Conservatory owed a considerable debt. The Horner Institute came into the merger owing nothing. The buildings which he owned were leased to the new organization to raise money to erect a new six-story brick structure to be used partly as a dormitory for girls and partly for additional class rooms. They had planned to raise at least $110,000 by public subscriptions but it ended up at only about $40,000, and since a heavy loan was necessary to complete the building, Charles Horner and his wife, owners of the land, had to sign as guarantors. With the merger Mr. Horner was to draw $100 a week as salary but none of it was ever paid. Also, at about this time the Chautauqua and Lyceum business had begun to suffer from a waning public interest and he sold the Chautauqua circuits after the close of the 1920 season. In 1929 came the big crash and times became so hard that outside students coming from several states began to diminish very sharply. In spite of this decline Horner continued with his plans to establish the Horner Junior College. The Horner Conservatory was a charter member of the National Association of Schools of Music which had been founded in 1924 and which established the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. In these degrees, however, it was necessary to have a minimum of 18 hours of liberal arts subjects and he wished to provide these courses for his pupils.
The debts continued to increase and without the income from his private business he did not have the funds to give to the Kansas City-Horner Conservatory.
In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was nominated and elected President and his friend McAdoo had been elected as a senator from California and very shortly he received a telegram asking for him to come to Washington to assist in the organization of some of the new deal plans.
He consulted with the Board of Trustees of the Conservatory and they unanimously urged him to accept.
He sold his home in Mission Hills and departed for Washington with his family and bought a home in Chevy Chase, Maryland. He helped organize the National Recovery Act and remained with that organization until it was declared illegal by the Supreme Court, but he was immediately asked by Senator McAdoo, who was an ardent flyer and had been elected President of the National Aeronautics Association, to come into that organization as Executive Assistant and since he owed him that much he consented.
He remained with the National Aeronautics Association five years and would not consent for re-election. In 1939 a meeting was called in Chicago, attended by representatives from all over the nation. The idea was to build up support for a heavy increase in our nation's air forces. The meeting advocated the immediate acquisition of 15,000 planes.
At a public meeting in West Virgina soon afterwards, he explained the action of his speech and stressed the call for the increase in planes. Congressmen from the West Virgnia district asked him to permit the publication of his speech in the Congressional Record. The idea of 15,000 planes seemed fantastic to aviation leaders and to Congressmen that a compromise was made for the number of 10,000 planes.
He was then asked to organize the drive for infantile paralysis while attending a birthday party for President Roosevelt in New York.
Then General Hugh Johnson told him that he, Johnson, had been asked to become Chairman of the campaign, but he couldn't do it unless Horner would become Vice President and since the General was a most persuasive man, Horner consented. Shortly after that the Works Progress Administration was formed and General Johnson persuaded him to assist in the organization of this enterprise. When Roosevelt was elected to his third term, of which Horner did not approve, he received a telephone call from Herbert Hoover, former President, who asked Horner to come to New York to discuss a proposition which he had to offer, so of course, he responded.
Mr. Hoover advised him he was going to try and form an organization to acquire and distribute food to the starving people of the small democracies of Europe. It must be remembered that European nations were fighting a battle for life with the Nazi's. Without waste of time, Hoover informed him that in the preliminary work he had done, he knew where food could be acquired and that he had already made some tentative arrangements for shipping from neutral nations so that the United States would suffer no loss.
Mr. Hoover asked Horner to head up the movement and offered him a adequate salary for the time he might be employed. Horner was truly in need of, money by this time and was 62 years old and, therefore, knew he did not have too much time to recoup his modest resources and it was finally agreed that he would pay his own expenses of living in New York and receive a salry of $15,000 a year.
Horner moved into the headquarters of the organization and embarked upon the building-up of a national organization. Before the campaign had gone too far and with the aid of many of the best known men in America, he had succeeded in securing resolutions from over 30,000 organizations such as the Christian Endeavor Society, the National American Legion, and from many state legislators and Churches of all denominations.
It was necessary, of course, to secure the proper action of the federal and state senates and houses, and with Horner's organizational ability and the personal testimony of Mr. Hoover, both houses of Congress passed a resolution favoring the project. While still engaged in the project, came the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and the Declaration of War by the United States so he and Hoover had to close up shop. Next he was pressed into Chairmanship of the General Relief Committee for our allies and he accepted the position for a short time, but the family decided they should return to Kansas City and they sold their home in Chevy Chase and they departed for Kansas City where they took up residence at the Rockhill Manor until they could secure a permanent home.
When Horner first went to Washinton in 1933, he had expected to remain there only a few months, but almost 10 years to the day passed before they returned to Kansas City and his finances were in bad shape. The real estate lease he had obtained from the Trustees of the Conservatory had been renewed from 1935 until:1936. But, he found that the Trustees had abandoned his property and moved the school to the C. W. Armour mansion at Armour and Walnut. His property was then put back on the tax rolls, and he owed over $10;000 and that $105,000 was still due on the mortgage. The orginial mansion in which Horner had started the school was in deplorable condition, and the roof had leaked so much that all of Horner's records and correspondence was destroyed as well as the early records of the Conservatory.
While nominally retired he had been fortunate in certain business transactions so that he was able to re-habilitate the property and pay the entire sum within the next ten years or so.
Horner was a man who never seemed to hold a grudge against anyone regardless of the circumstances. When he first visited the new Conservatory building (Grant Hall) after his return from Washington, he seemed very proud of the progress of the Conservatory and knowing that Daniel McMorris had painted a portrait of him, I asked if he could donate it to hang in the new Grant Hall and it was shortly delivered and now hangs on the stairway landing of the west end of the building. I informed him of my efforts at a merger of the Conservatory with the University of Kansas City and he approved very much of this plan. He visited the Conservatory only once more that I can remember and that was after the merger and after his portrait had been hung in the stairwell.
His death occurred February 5, 1967, at the age of 89 and he certainly would have died a multi-millionaire had it not been for his generosity with both time and money.
Part III
The Conservatory of Music of Kansas City
By the middle of the 1930's the country was deep in depression and the Trustees of the Horner Kansas City Conservatory were unable to pay any rent to Horner nor were they able to maintain the buildings and the Main building at 30th and Troost was in desperate need of a new roof and general repairs. The Trustees then decided to place the School in voluntary receivership which of course precluded any chance of payment to its creditors, the lease on the property was cancelled which placed it back on the tax list.
The Trustees then reorganized the school under a variation of the orginal name, changing it to the Conservatory of Music of Kansas City and located a building at Armour and Walnut which had belonged to the C. W. Armour family, a large house with a large carriage house which was in good shape and needed very little repairs so they made arrangements with A. Watson Armour, who had interited the building to take title to the property thus stopping the taxes and to pay Armour a very reasonable amount per year. The move was made to the Armour location in 1936. No remodeling was needed on the main house except to build practice rooms in the basement. The first floor of the Carriage House was remodeled into a dance floor with a small stage at one end to produce an auditorium and the second floor of the Carriage House was converted to studios. Earl Rosenberg had resigned and moved to San Diego, California, on the advice of his physicians in the belief that that climate would be much better for his health.
There Earl Rosenberg established a voice studio on Broadway and began a whole new career. He was minister of music at some the largest churches in San Diego and La Jolla, and created a civic chorus which gave performances at Balboa Park for a number of years preceeding his death. After the departure of Earl Rosenberg, John Thompson became music director of the Conservatory, but by 1937 he was heavily involved in writing his series called Teaching Little Fingers to Play and although remaining as director he brought Wiktor Labunski to take over most of his teaching load. By 1941 he had become so involved in the publishing that he resigned as director and Wiktor Labunski was promoted to that office.
Enrollment remained stable and there were many homes in the neighborhood that were willing to rent to the students of the Conservatory. The buildings were in such good shape that very little money was necessary for upkeep.
The in 1941 came the war and the draft and very soon it became practically a girls school.
In February, 1943, this writer, who had been in the engineering and construction business for some thirteen years had just completed a highway job in Springifield, Missouri which had been bid prior to Pearl Harbor. I had come to Kansas City at the request of the Labor Department who offered me a job as an inspector on cost-plus government contracts to ascertain if the government was being overcharged.
I knew that this practice was going on for I had seen it both at Fort Wood and at Camp Crowder and knew that the job would entail considerable travel and probably even danger to any inspector. It is very easy for some "accident" to happen to such a person and besides the salary they offered was rather low. I told them I would think it over and return.
I went to lunch that day rather early at the Muehlebach Hotel and had a table by myself when I saw Mr. W. D. Grant come in. I knew Mr. Grant by sight having seen him at a number of orchestra and Fritschy Concerts so I spoke to him and as any insurance man would do immediately, he spoke to me and knowing that he had seen me some place, asked if I was alone and if he might have lunch with me. I told him I would be glad for him to join me.
During the conversation he asked many questions about me probably trying to trace where he had seen me before and after I had told him the entire story he told me that he was very interested in and chairman of the Board of the Conservatory of Music of Kansas City and that their business manager and accountant was about to be drafted and would I be interested in such a job.
I told him that I might very well be interested and he made some appointments for me to see the Conservatory and meet several of the Trustees. Nothing else being available and a reasonable salary offered I accepted the position, which carried the title of Business Manager and Treasurer for the Conservatory. In my own mind, however, it was only for the duration of the war.
Mr. John Drotts, who had held the position for several years had been drafted and I only had about two days orientation with him before he had to leave.
It was really quite an interesting situation--the college enrollment was 80 girls and 4 boys. One of the boys was blind. One had a six-inch iron riser on the bottom of one shoe. One was very obese with some coronary problems and the other had a withered right arm.
Many times during the next year or two,I would find one of the girls sitting quietly crying in the Lounge or on the steps of the staircase. When I asked the problem, they could give me no answer, I was quite sure it was just complete frustration as there were no dates available.
I found the property in very good condition with few exceptions, but did change the accounting system somewhat to give a better picture of the financial situation to the Trustees.
When the war ended, I had expected to go back into the engineering and construction field, but realized I had no capital to buy construction machinery. As I had designed many projects, both storm and sanitary sewers, curbs, gutters, and pavement that were built by the WPA, I felt that this was probably the way to go.
Very shortly the Congress passed a bill generally known as the GI Bill and appropriated the money to pay the tuition and a cost of living stipend to any of the veterans of the war who wished to finish their education at an accredited institution. Very soon a considerable number of these veterans were admitted to the Conservatory to complete their musical education which had been interrupted by their induction into the military.
Many of the veterans had problems and they sought me out for advice.
More and more of my time was spent in counseling these young men and I gave up the idea of reentering the engineering business.
Dr. Clarence Decker was president of the University of Kansas City at this time and had added a department of music as a part of the University.
By that time the Kansas City-Western Dental College had become an integral part of the University as had the Kansas City College of Pharmacy and the Kansas City School of Law. All three of these schools became a part of the University not as schools, but as departments. It is quite indicative of Decker's attitude toward professional education and it was not until there was outside pressure from Judge Otis, who was on the Board of Trustees, in the case of the law, and from the American Council on Pharmaceutical Education in the case of pharmacy, that these professional schools were recognized as schools and not as departments, and their heads as deans.
Shortly after Decker had established the music department, I was visiting with him at some social function and suggested a merger of the Conservatory of Music into the University. He laughed at me stating that the Conservatory faculty would never agree to become a department with rotating chairmen. Besides there was no room on the campus for a large music department and it was much too far from the Conservatory's buildings on Armour to the Volker campus for this to be practical.
I explained that in my opinion that the property on Armour could be sold at a price that would enable the Trustee's to build a suitable music building on or near the University campus, but he was not interested.
During this period the University enrollment also grew very rapidly and it was still the opinion of the Conservatory Executive Committee that there should be a merger between the two institutions; that it was also realized that the 2f mile distance from the Armour Conservatory campus to the University was a detriment to any type of merger.
It turned out there were three properties within a reasonable distance. They were: the home built by W. R. Nelson for his daughter Laura Nelson Kirkwood, now the Rockhill Tennis Club; the Shukert property, which stood where Oak Hall is now built and the former S. B. Armour home at 45th and Warwick.
It was also a necessity that any property purchased have enough land to build another building when and if necessary.
After inspecting the three buildings throughly, it was found that the former S. B. Armour home at 4420 Warwick was much more suitable for conversion to Conservatory uses than the other two, so the Armour Boulevard properties were offered for sale and was sold to the Elks organization and the house immediately to the south was sold to be used for a nursing home.
The purchase of the S. B. Armour home at 4420 Warwick was soon consumated and the move was made during August of 1951.
A third floor closet was converted to a restroom, about 20 or 25 practice roams were built in the basement and the floor of the carriage house, which was of course used as a garage, was rebuilt for the dance department.
The large drawing room of the house was almost ideal for office space and the sun porch was adequate for the library at that time. The bedrooms made almost perfect private teaching studios and the two butler's pantries, by removing a partition and leveling the floor, made an excellent classroom. Even the kitchen required very little work to be used as a studio.
This now placed the Conservatory campus within 3/4 of a mile of the University campus and directly across the street from the Kansas City Art Institute.
In 1952 storm clouds began within the University and in February of 1952, President Decker was granted a leaveof absence to accept a position as Assistant Director of the Far East in the Mutual Security Agency. During his absence Vice President Mortvedt was named acting President, and therefore shortly was provided with a detailed analysis of enrollment figures, income and faculty salaries. He was quite shocked at what he saw and reluctantly presented to the Board a forthright report which revealed a declining enrollment in the heart of the University, that is the College of Liberal Arts, a declining income and faculty salaries so low that it would be impossible to retain quality. When Decker returned to the University in September, 1952, Doctors and Deans Mortvedt, Royall, Dietrich and Barnett resigned from their administrative duties and there were votes of "no confidence" in President Decker by faculties and students. His resignation as President was accepted by the Board February 23, 1953.
On May 24, 1953, the Board appointed Dr. Poy J. Rinehart, Dean of the Dental School as Chief Executive Administrator of the University until such time as a new president could be selected.
Dr. Earl J. McGrath had just resigned as U. S. Commissioner of Education and the Board persuaded him to accept an appointment as the third President of the University. Although all of the wounds of the previous administration had not healed--opimism ran high. At this time, Mr. Henry C. Haskell was a member of the Executive Committee of the Conservatory and of the University of Kansas City, and had been from the beginning a supporter of a merger between the two institutions.
Mr. Haskell, therefore, was in a position to speak to Dr. McGrath regarding the possible merger of the conservatory with the University and an appointment was made for Dr. McGrath to meet with Mr. Haskell and me at 4 o'clock one afternoon.
I arrived at the Haskell home fairly early and as we sat in the library waiting for 4 o'clock to come--no Or. McGrath. At 4:30 the doorbell rang and Mr. Haskell went to the door expecting to find Dr. McGrath--soon he came back into the study with an envelope in his hand looking rather stunned. He opened the envelope and read the message from Dr. McGrath aloud in which he stated that although he favored the merger, it should be postponed until other necessary reorganization of the University was completed.
The purpose of the educational philosophy of the University shifted very drastically under President McGrath. During the three years of his administration the School of Business Administration was established and several new degree programs were initiated. Dr. Richard M. Drake was appointed Vice President of the University.
Enrollment at the new Conservatory grew very rapidly and by January, 1953 the decision was made by the Board of Trustees to build a new building expecially for the needs of the Conservatory to the south of the present building at 4420 Warwick.
On Tuesday, Janaury 25, 1954 theBoard interviewed several architects who had been invited to submit preliminary plans and the plans as submitted by Dan R. Sanford and Sons, who were well known as builders of school houses, seemed to be the most usable and they were employed to continue with the operation.
Mr. Fred Jenkins, Chairman of the Board at that time, estimated that the new building would cost $250,000 to $350,000 with the probability of obtaining a loan of $120,000.
At this point a problem arose. Mrs. Voorhman and Mrs. Strauss, who inherited the property, held a mortgage on the property which contained a restriction that the loan could not be paid off in any way except the required monthly payments set up in the documents.
They would not allow full payment nor would they subordinate it to a second mortgage, but Mr. Haskell was able to convince them to sell him the mortgage at a premium.
He then subordinated the mortgage to a second so that a first could be obtained.
When the final plans of Sanford and Sons had been accepted, seven contractors were invited to bid on the building and on September 24th of 1954 the bid of the Phil Weeks and Associates firm of $246,000 was accepted and the Cunniford Organization was employed to do the final fund raising, although Mr. Grant had already committed the first $100,000.
In a Trustee meeting held that fall it was announced by Mr. Powell Groner, then Chairman of the Board, that the building was to be named for Mr. Grant and called Grant Hall. In the meantime, several fund raisers were visiting with Mrs. Russell Stover to convince her that she should build an auditorium attached to Grant Hall in honor of Russell Stover, her deceased husband.
At the meeting where it was announced that the building was to be named Grant Hall, Mr. Grant had a severe heart attack and died shortly thereafter.
In the fall of 1955, Grant Hall was occupied and the house was converted into a girls dormitory.
By 1955 a grant from the federal housing authority had been obtained by the University for the erection of a dormitory, intercollegiate athletics wereinaugurated, and finally fraternities and sororities of national status, having no discriminary charter provisions, were invited to the campus. The title of the chief administrative officer was changed from President to Chancellor.
The governing practices were revised very considerably and gave to the school's faculty considerable autonomy in conduct of their own affairs. This was approved in May 1956 and at that meeting President McGrath submitted his resignation. McGrath had great ambition to expand the University, but the Trustees had not provided the financial support necessary and he saw no hope for adequate support.
Dr/ Richard M. Drake was immediately appointed acting Chancellor. In the fall of 1957 Dr. Drake was appointed Chancellor.
I had met Dr. Drake at some function after he was named Vice President. He knew of the movement to merge the Conservatory of Music into the University. When we met again he had become Chancellor, he told me that he knew of the previous attempts, had been giving it some thought, and had become convinced that it was the proper thing to do. He suggested that we,have lunch soon. Within a few weeks I received a call from Dr. Drake suggesting that we have lunch together. He immediately stated that it was his belief that both theConservatory and the University would be strengthened by a merger. At this meeting we also agreed that no one presently on the faculties of the Conservatory or the University music department should be named as dean.
A new dean, highly respected nationally, should be selected to weld the two faculties together. We agreed that both of us would attempt to make a list of men who we thought might be recruited as dean of the Conservatory of Music of the University, if an agreement could be made between the Boards of Trustees of the two schools for the merger.
By this time both Boards were convinced that an agreement could be worked out and Mr. W. D. Grant was chairman of the Board of the Conservatory. Since Dr. Witkor Labunski had been director of the Conservatory since 1941, he was violently opposed to the idea of a merger and was soon asked to resign that position to devotefull time to teaching. I was then appointed acting director in order to work closely with Dr. Drake on the details of a merger.
Early in 1959, Dr. Drake asked Dr. John Barnett, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Jack Murphy, Administrative Assistant to the Chancellor, and Everett Hendricks, Chairman of the University Music Department, to make a study of specific problems, if any, of merging the Department of Music of the Univeristy with the Conservatory of Music.
On February 9, 1959, they made their report to Dr. Drake recommending the merger. By May of 1959 the agreement between the University of Kansas City Trustees and the Trustees of the Conservatory of Music was consummated, providing for the merger to become effective on September 1, 1959.
At this point, Dr. Drake began to go over lists of men who might be named as Dean of the Conservatory of Music of the University of Kansas City. We both agreed that Dr. Archie M. Jones, Chairman of the Music Education Department of the School of Music of the University of Texas, would be an ideal choice. We realized, however, that he had been there nearly 20 years, and'with much tenure he might not want to change.
We asked Dr. Branyan, Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs, to serve as chairman of that committee on curriculum of which I was also to be a member.
I was quite certain that there would be problems in getting the faculty members from the University and the Conservatory to agree and suggested to Dr. Drake that, if the University could find the money, we might bring Dr. Jones in as consultant on the curriculum, and with this experience he might be persuaded to accept the position as Dean.
Dr. Jones did accept the invitation to come to Kansas City and spent nearly two weeks meeting with the curriculum committee. He was actually the catalyst that brought about approval of the final curriculum. After Dr. Jones had returned to Austin, Dr. Drake wrote to him and offered him the position of Dean, which he did accept. He told me later the reason he accepted was that the challenge was the same as starting a brand new school, and he could not resist. Dr. Jones named me as Associate Dean and we had a very pleasant working relationship before our retirements.
It is my belief that this merger did accomplish what was predicted by Doctors Barnett, Murphy, and Hendricks in their report to the Chairmen of February, 1959.
None of us at that time would have believed that in less than five years the University of Kansas City would become the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
These notes were taken during a visit with Lyle when he was in the hospital on September 18, 1982. Many statements are included at the end of a short history of music in Kansas City since they deal more with personalities and events not connected with the Conservatory. The order is rather random since Lyle simply shared thoughts as he rememberd them.
Homer Wadwsorth gave a speech sometime in 1961-62 which suggested a merger of the University of Kansas City with the University of Missouri. Hillary Bush was the Lieutenant Governor in 1962, and wanted to run for Governor. Wadsworth's speech have Bush some ideas for his platform. Bush used this speech [or the ideas therein] to get the Missouri Legislative Committee to work on the merger.
Bush announced his candidacy at the National Meeting of the YWCA [at Union Station?] [It's possible that Frances Bush, Hillary's wife, was president of the local YWCA during this time.]
Horner told Lyle that young Howard Hansen came to Kansas City and stayed at the Horner home to compose. No one knew Hansen was in town or what he was doing here.
Friends of Horner urged him to take over Cowen's operation. Cowen was forced out of the business, more or less. [Lyle did not say by whom.] Horner took over the music school.
Horner really ran the NRA [during World War II], he also set up the WPA [during the depression.]
1926 the school was reorganized into the Conservatory of Music of Kansas City and moved to [15 East] Armour Boulevard.
When the move to 4420 Warwick Boulevard was to take place, the Armour Home and the Barracks Building were sold to the Elks. The house used for the Preparatory School was sold to someone who made it into a convelescent home.
Possession of 4420 Warwick was on August 1, 1951. School started in September. The cost of the 4420 Warwick property was $50,000. All alterations were accomplished in a month and a few days.
Rosenberg, Horner, and Howard Hansen grew up together in Nebraska.
Horner told Lyle that "somebody" suggested to Horner that that the Chautauqa and a school of fine arts could be combined.
Stanley Deacon [long-time voice faculty member at the Conservatory] was hired as a member of a male quartet for Horner's chautauqa. Even Archie Jones [first Dean of the Conservatory of Music when it became part of the state system] sang in a male quartet for Horner.
Horner brought Rosenberg to Kansas City. In 1936, Stanley Deacon, Forrest Schultz and John Thompson really directed the school due to the illness of Rosenberg. Rosenberg was big in San Diego. Lyle said that many records exist in San Diego indicating how important Rosenberg was after leaving Kansas City.
John Thompson may have taught for Cowen.
In 1941, Thompson resigned and left. Wiktor Labunski was named director in 1941. There was a "battle" for the directorship between Labunski and Deacon.
The secretary to the Board of Trustees at the time was involved in preventing Deacon from becoming Director.
After Labunski was no longer director, four faculty, Catherine Farley, Eugene Stoia, Walter Cook and LeRoy Pogemiller were elected by the faculty to run the school during the summer of 1957. In the fall, only three faculty, Farley, Cook and Stoia sort of represented the faculty. Lyle was appointed Acting Director during this time.
Lyle felt the Women's Committee of the Conservatory had been omitted from some of the histories published about the Conservatory. He knew that the group was in existance in 1941.
[In 1950, the Conservatory began to present Puppet Opera.] Lyle said that he and others made marionettes in Lolly Haskel's basement. The productions lasted two years. Lyle's papers about the Puppet Opera will soon be turned over to the University Achives.
Van Vactor came in as Assistant Conductor of the Kansas City Philharmonic, but he didn't get enough directing. Labunski, who was teaching piano and composition, hired Van Vactor to conduct the Conservatory orchestra. The remarks are not complete, but there was something about someone didn't want the Conservatory Orchestra to be named the Allied Arts Orchestra.