Blakely, David, 1834-1896

David Blakely (1834-1896) was a journalist and businessman whose interest in music led to his career as manager of the Gilmore and Sousa bands of the 1880s and 1890s. As founder of the Blakely Syndicate he oversaw a network of interrelated operations which included the Blakely Printing Company as well as management of various concert bands and orchestras.

Little has been written concerning the early life and career of David Blakely.

One time secretary of state of Minnesota, president of the Minneapolis Philharmonic, editor/owner of a Minneapolis newspaper and founder of the Blakely Printing Company, David Blakely combined all these skills to head one of the most successful concert artist management firms in history. His clients included P.S. Gilmore, Theodore Thomas, Eduard Strauss and John Philip Sousa.

Blakely had managed Gilmore and Thomas in the 1880's with much success. In 1890, Blakely was chosen by the U.S. Navy Dept. to manage a nationwide tour by the U.S. Marine Band and its director John Philip Sousa. This tour of 1891 was so successful that Blakely decided to try forming a major U.S. band with a prominent band leader exclusively under his management. It would be modeled after the great bands of Europe.

His reasons for wanting a popular attraction were many: the “ladies orchestra” project had failed because they could not assemble a sufficient woodwind section, and the Eduard Strauss tour of 1891 was almost concelled because of a Congressional bill preventing foreign musical “competition” on American soil. In addition, the U.S. Marine Band was under governmental jurisdiction and therefore outside of Blakely's exclusive managerial control.

He travelled to Europe looking for an established military man to lead a U.S. band. He tried to sign up Wettge from France and Komzak from Austria, but neither could obtain sufficient leave to come to the U.S.

Finally Blakely saw that his desire for a great American Band of his own could be realized in J.P. Sousa. After Blakely had arranged the second tour of the U.S. Marine Band, its enormous success prompted Blakely to ask Sousa if he would consider leaving Washington to form the “New Marine Band” to be based in Chicago. With Sousa's consent, preparations began.

During the summer and fall of 1892 the band was formed by contracting and auditioning well-known musicians. The band was called the “New Marine Band,” changed to “Sousa's Peerless Concert Band,” and finally just “Sousa's Band.”

The first tour of the group culminated in the dedication of the new buildings of the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The nine-week tour of the Midwest and New England was enough of a success to establish Sousa and Blakely as the premiere team in the popular music field.

About the time that Blakely and Sousa were forming the new band, P.S. Gilmore, the prominent bandleader who Blakely had once managed, died suddenly. A new director for the Gilmore band was chosen, one Dan Reeves. Under Reeves' direction the Gilmore band experienced increasing dissention and desertion from its ranks until 1893 when Reeves apparently sough to take the matter to what he felt to be its logical source of irritation.

An open letter appeared in the Musical Courier of March 15, 1893 accusing a certain manager of forming a new band for the sole purpose of eliminating the Gilmore outfit from the scene. In the end the former members of Gilmore's Band (now Sousa members) spoke up against the letter and the matter was summarily ended.

From 1893-96 Blakely managed the Sousa Band with its yearly tours and concert schedules and summers at the Manhattan Beach Resort. Blakely was at the height of his career when he died of a heart attack on November 7, 1896 in his New York office.

After Blakely's death Sousa began to break with the concert contract until a suit was brought against him by Mrs. Blakely. Through this “Blakely vs. Sousa” case it was found that the relationship between Blakely and Sousa was such that much of their contract was of a verbal rather than of a written nature; nevertheless Sousa was forced to finish out the contract. When the State of Pennsylvania rendered its final decision in 1900, all Sousa's compositions written under the Blakely contracts became the common property of both himself and the Blakely Estate.