“Mister, can you tell me where the circus lot is?” asked the tall lanky
eighteen-year-old Karl King.
“Yep, it’s right down that road, son. But if you’re looking for the
show, it left a week ago--where it went I don’t know,” answered the old
man as he walked on down the street.
Karl, laying his baritone horn carefully on the ground, sank wearily to
the curb. Taking a crumpled letter from his pocket, he read it again.
“Yes, the Yankee Robinson Show bandmaster did say that I was to report
here in Emporia, Kansas, today for a job,” he said to himself. “And
here I am with just eighty-seven cents in my pocket, and the circus has
left town.”
Fortunately for him a circus follower, who had been left behind, came
along the street and stopped to question the dejected-looking young man:
“The Yankee Robinson Shows? Come on with me. I’m following them too.
They went off without me, but we’ll catch them.”
With his help Karl caught up with the circus a few days later and began
a career that has made history.
Karl King, a true Midwesterner, was born in Paintersville, Ohio,
February 21, 1891 to Sandusky L. and Anna King. Before he could walk,
Karl’s parents noticed his fascination for music, and when very young
he began to study music. He sold papers on the streets of Canton to
make money to buy his first horn.
Karl’s urge for writing and composing was the talk of the neighborhood.
His first march written at fourteen was sold three years later for ten
dollars. Shortly after this a road show piano player gave him a lesson
in harmony and taught him to play chords on the piano, and that was the
only technical instruction he was to have outside of his own study.
Like Herbert Clarke, Karl King is a self-educated musician.
He became baritone soloist with Thayer Military Academy Band of Canton,
Ohio, at sixteen. Other similar jobs followed with such organizations
as Weddemeyer’s Band of Columbus, Ohio, and the Soldier’s Home Band of
Danville, Illinois.
This was work he enjoyed, but it was necessary for him to help support
himself. At the age of thirteen he began setting type and doing other
odd jobs for the newspaper, the Canton, Ohio, _Repository_, even trying
his hand at reporting.
Then at eighteen came the exciting letter offering him a job with the
Yankee Robinson Circus. That changed the pattern of his life and he
began trouping.
The combined Sells-Floto and Buffalo Bill Wild West Show owner soon
heard about this young musician and hired him for their bandmaster. His
fame spread, and at the age of twenty-three he was directing the Barnum
and Bailey Circus Band, the youngest man ever to hold that position.
As the circus traveled from one place to another, Karl would find a
quiet corner where he could compose music. He knew that better music
was needed for the circus, and he wrote original and catchy marches and
waltzes which were very popular with the performers.
While the circus was at Madison Garden in New York City, Lillian
Leitzel, the great woman aerialist, asked him to write some special
music for her act as she had never liked her music. King, inspired by
her beauty and grace, wrote a special waltz for her act. The melody and
rhythm gave her wings she insisted, and for the rest of her life she
refused to have any change made in her musical accompaniment.
“In 1918,” said King, “I thought I should settle down and devote more
time to my composing.” So he left the circus life and returned to
Canton, Ohio, where he became the conductor of the famous Grand Army
Band.
Two years later Karl King went to Fort Dodge, Iowa, to lead their
municipal band, “the premier concert band of Iowa.” He established
there the Karl King Publishing Company which he still owns and manages.
In spite of his colorful career, Karl King, a handsome, six-foot-four-inch
giant with piercing dark eyes, is noted for his modesty and unassuming
manners.
But he has reason to boast about many things. He has numerous devoted
friends in the musical world who realize what he has done. He is past
president of the American Bandmasters’ Association and of the Iowa
Bandmasters’ Association. For years this militant and enthusiastic
champion of bands and band music has been a guest conductor of massed
band festivals in nearly every state in the Union.
Karl King has written more than 200 compositions, some of which most
people have heard in various places or over the radio. Among the
college marches he wrote are: _Hawkeye Glory_ for the University of
Iowa; _Mighty Minnesota_ for the University of Minnesota; _The War
March of the Tartars_ for Wayne University; and _Pride of the Illini_
for the University of Illinois; and _Michigan on Parade_ for University
of Michigan. _Ponderoso_, _Barnum and Bailey Favorite March_ and
_Moonlight on the Nile_ waltz are also favorites.
Maestro King is married and has one son, Karl Jr. Their home and
business is in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and he is proud to direct the hometown
band. Fort Dodge is proud of Karl King who, since 1920, has advertised
their town the country over with one of the few big bands that has had
a continuous existence of many years.