Railroad concert just the ticket for holiday

The First Annual Trees and Trains concert was held at the Hill City Center Dec 15. The program was part history, part performance.
Rick Mills, curator of the South Dakota State Railroad Museum (SDSRM) in Hill City, told the audience to enjoy themselves and the community, family and culture of the afternoon. SDSRM put on the event as a fundraiser to help support the museum and all its year-round activities.
Frank Van Nuys began the afternoon with a poem from a book by his grandmother, Laura Bower, “The Family Band; from the Missouri to the Black Hills, 1881-1900.”
He then gave a historical account of his family. His great-grandparents moved to South Dakota from Lodi, Wis. In 1885 the family moved from Vermillion to the Black Hills, homesteading on Battle and French creeks.
Frank examined each member of the family band, including his grandmother Laura, who Frank says played a horn larger than she was.  
Laura  taught school and worked at a library before marrying Claude Van Nuys,  a South Dakota School of Mines  physics professor, in 1910.
She moved with her husband to New York City where she published music compositions and served the war efforts. After her divorce from  Van Nuys she moved back to the Black Hills and began to write about her family. Her first manuscript submission to the University of Nebraska Press was rejected but her 1961 manuscript was accepted and in 1963 the rights for a movie account of the book were sold to Disney. Frank gave a brief glance at the cast members of the movie which included a 16-year-old Kurt  Russell and a bit part as a “giggly girl” that went to Goldie Hawn.
This was the first meeting of the pair who would eventually become a lifelong couple. The film, entitled “The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band,” was a $4 million production in March 1967 and premiered at Radio City Music Hall. It was not well received.
Frank remembers getting flown out to Los Angeles to visit the set as well as watching his grandmother appearing on an LA morning TV show where she was handed a banjo. Frank said it became part of the family lore because no one had ever seen her hold a banjo  let alone play one.
The film premiered in Rapid City at three theaters, the Elks, the Rapid and the State. Tickets were $10.
The day was celebrated with a  parade with Laura as grand marshall. Frank  recalls he was upset that day because he had no instrument to play while his  brother James played the trombone.
Following a brief intermission audience members were treated to Frank and James performing songs the Bower family band played in the late 1800s. The family did not perform any original music.
“The Slide Waltz” was written by  Herbert J Ellis, likely as an instructional piece. It was played at a concert in Custer in 1886. The indoor show was advertised noting the band would play 30 different instruments including an  imitation calliope which they built as well as guitar, kazoos and banjos.
The brothers also played “We’ll have to Mortgage the Farm,” a witty song from 1869 about how easily  children spend money to stay in style.
James says the Bower Family Band would have gotten their music as sheet music.
“They worked pretty hard to teach themselves to play music,” he notes.
James then picked up a guitar tuned to a D chord to perform “Sebastopol” by Henry Worrall
James thinks Worrall may have invented this tuning modification used extensively in blues tunes. The last Bower Family Band piece was “Ivanhoe Commandery” by Charles D Blake. It was listed in a  program from March 1888.
James joked that although he was “railroaded” into the afternoon Hill City Center performance by Mills he learned a lot about the Bower Family Band by performing the songs.
The afternoon of music concluded with several Christmas songs and original tunes.
James  played “Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,” a tune he remembers his grandmother humming. The song first appeared as a poem entitled “Lilly’s Secret” in The Little Corporal Magazine.
James found a genealogical connection between the composer of the song and his own family.
He also played an original song,  “When the world was Black and White,” which he introduced by joking that he will get paid for the day’s performance since the song made a reference to trains.
Mills thanked everyone who attended the presentation and concert and warmly appreciated  the audience support of the SDSRM. He encourages people to check out the SDSRM Trees and Trains exhibit which he says is the best one in the 15-year history of the display. The exhibit runs 11 a.m. to 4:30  p.m. weekends through the end of the year as well as Dec. 23-24.