give me some facts and information about him.
2007-10-17 15:33:12 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Theater & Acting
yeah i did
i was just doing some homework about him :/
so boring !
2007-10-18 12:11:57 · update #1
His original name was john Phillipso or filipso,. An Italian immigrant, he wanted it known he was true american - wrote those (jingoistic?) military marches and americanized his name by changing it to John Phillip Sousa.Get it - John Phillip(soUSA). Honest!.
(You knew that, didn't you?)
2007-10-17 16:50:29 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932 and he was in fact born in America, Washington DC to be exact. He was not an Italian immigrant as the other answerer stated. His parents were refugees from Portugal and they were of Portuguese, Spanish and Bavarian (German) descent.
He was called the March King - He wrote 136 marches
At the mention of his name in "The Music Man" Harold Hill has the townspeople in his grasp.
He was found to have absolute pitch
Sousa refused to conduct his band on the radio, fearing a lack of personal contact with the audience until they finally got him to do it in 1929 and became a hit!
There's also a movie about him called Stars and Stripes Forever (1952) starring Clifton Webb as Sousa and also a young Robert Wagner as his favorite Sousaphone player. The JPS website says the films is entertaining but full of inaccuracies. http://www.dws.org/sousa/faqs/hollywood.htm
Marianne
2007-10-18 02:35:38 · answer #2 · answered by Marianne D 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋