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Topic: Joseph Kekuku School |
Justin Brown
From:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Posted 26 Apr 2017 5:20 am |
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| Does anyone know the location or name of the school Joseph Kekuku ran in Chicago in the 1920s? |
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Michael Lee Allen
From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
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Posted 26 Apr 2017 6:46 am
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Justin...
Here's how you play detective on this one.
One...find a piece of sheet music, numbered arrangement, or folio he put out. That will give you an address, either the studio or home, for the Publishing Co/Copyright.
Two...get to a library that has digital access to old City Directories from that time frame. Check by name, occupation, and type of business.
Three. MOST IMPORTANT, during the twenties many streets were renamed and the house numbering system changed to what it is today. This was to standardize the later "annexed areas". If you don't adjust for this you'll have the wrong place. If you find it the odds are it'll be a new building or a vacant lot at this point. I've done this search for years, factories and residences for instrument makers and blues/jazz history. Honesty what I've found over the years is that less than one in five buildings I've looked for has survived.
Four...your cat looks like she could be my cat's little sister, except mine would never submit to the indignity of a hat.
MLA |
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Stephen Abruzzo
From:
Philly, PA
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Posted 26 Apr 2017 8:24 am
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+1 on everything MLA said.
Once you go through everything MLA said to do....if you are lucky enough to get an approximate neighborhood...go on FB and see about "joining" an "if you were raised in whatever neighborhood" FB group and you might be surprised at some of the pictorial evidence you might uncover.
_________________
Four Pettingills and a Clinesmith Aluminum. Fender Blues Junior. Quilter Mini-101.
Last edited by Stephen Abruzzo on 26 Apr 2017 1:03 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Tucker Jackson
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 26 Apr 2017 12:42 pm
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Per the book, "The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and its Great Hawaiian Musicians" by Lorene Ruymar, I see two schools in Chicago where Kekuku taught.
1) Reids School of Popular Music
2) Langdon Brothers Hawaiian Guitar School. The largest Hawaiian music school in the country. Kekuku taught here for sure 1929-1930, and maybe times earlier and later than that, but at minimum, he was there in those two years. He died in 1932. Jim Carroll of Sparta, MI recalls in the book that it was at 431 Wabash, Chicago, IL.
UPDATED: I found a Polk's City Directory for Chicago from 1928-1929. The address 431 S. Wabash was the Auditorium Building (it's the back of the old Auditorium which fronts on Michigan. The back of the auditorium apparently had offices that fronted on Wabash Ave). For room 401 of that building, it lists "Langdon Bros Hawaiian Studio Inc music tchrs."
This location is now, apparently, the new Roosevelt University Auditorium. So the old school is gone.
For any future historians, I also found that "Langdon Brothers, guitars" was listed as being in the Auditorium Building in room 95. This was earlier, in the 1925-26 "Third Annual Chicago and Midwest Musicians' and Allied Artists' Directory.' It also lists "Harr. 8888." I think that's a phone number. |
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Michael Lee Allen
From:
Portage Park / Irving Park, Chicago, Illinois
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Posted 26 Apr 2017 9:43 pm
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The Auditorium Building frontage on Wabash Avenue would have had retail and showrooms on the ground floor and offices/office suites above. 401 would have been the fourth floor and Harrison 8888 would have been the telephone number. They may have had a small display window on the ground floor. That section of Wabash Avenue used to be known as "Music Row". Ground floor stores were usually the piano and organ variety like Lyon & Healy and Wurlitzer, most of the guitar and violin specialists were on the second or third floors. There were several record stores. The more well known teachers had studios there too.
MLA |
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Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2017 9:22 am
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As one who has a near obsession with history and is saddened by the demise/ destruction/ loss of historical buildings and venues, my hat's off to you guys for the efforts and sharing of this information. The past is a revelation.
_________________
Stop by the Steel Store at: www.markvanallen.com
www.musicfarmstudio.com |
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Justin Brown
From:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Posted 27 Apr 2017 11:12 am
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Thanks for the great info and suggestions, everyone.
Mark, don't worry - the Auditorium Building is still standing (pretty impressive 1889 Louis Sullivan structure and great concert venue). Roosevelt University is in the floors on Wabash so I couldn't get in to look for room 401. Here's the outside today, looking south from under the L tracks:
I'll continue to research this because some sources say Kekuku "ran" a school in Chicago and he was apparently just a teacher at Langdon Brothers. Distinction isn't really important, but suggests there might be more to find out. I'll report back if anything turns up. |
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Tucker Jackson
From:
Portland, Oregon, USA
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Posted 28 Apr 2017 9:43 am
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Good deal, Justin.
The old auditorium itself is there, of course, but my original theory was that the back part with the offices that faced the opposite street was torn down and rebuilt into the Roosevelt U. Auditorium.
I can see now that isn't correct: they've obviously done street renumbering since the 1920's (as MLA suggested earlier).
In that era, 431 S. Wabash was the back of the old Auditorium Building.
But today, that address is a half block down the street from the back side of the old auditorium. There's a new Roosevelt U. auditorium there. The street renumbering threw me off and made me think that was the back of the old building that had been rebuilt (since I'm just looking at this stuff on Google maps "street view"). If I was walking that block, I could see that it doesn't line up --and more importantly, the back of the old building is still there, a half block away.  So it seems like Kekuku's location is still intact, thanks to it being housed in such an impressive Chicago landmark that it will probably be there forever.
Keep us posted on what you find, Justin. |
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Justin Brown
From:
Chicago, Illinois, USA
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Posted 28 Apr 2017 1:03 pm
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Yeah, it's definitely still intact... and the address on the building is still 431 S as it was in the 1928-29 directory ( http://www.chsmedia.org/househistory/polk/Menus/PolkW.pdf) I work downtown and checked it out in person. It looks like Roosevelt just isn't using the Auditorium Bldg doors and has the entrance to 431 S in their new glass building, which is probably connected inside.
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