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"The Silly Myth of J.P. So"
The following is a popular myth about John Phillip Sousa. It certainly sounds quite stirring, but is completely false, and a little research can prove it. There may have been a J.P.So, but it wasn't Mr. Sousa! As for the rest, well, some is true and some isn't. You decide. Have a good chuckle!
J.P. So
He wrote a piece of music that has been recorded more times than any other work in history. And he is an American.
J.P. So was born of Spanish immigrants on November 6, 1854. He used to say he was born
in the shadow of the capital dome in Washington DC. His father played the trombone in the
Marine Band and accompanied President Lincoln to Gettysburg for his infamous address. The
night Lincoln was shot, the assassin, John Wilkes Booth, dashed past J.P.’s
Washington home.
This child of Spanish immigrants loved music and he loved America, because it gave his
family the opportunity to rise from humble beginnings to greatness. An associate once said
that J.P. So would "greet a scrub lady with the tilt of his hat as though she were
the Queen of England."
He put together quite a band around 1910. They travelled the world representing America
for almost 40 straight years.
J.P.’s most famous work is a national treasure. The original manuscript, created
at Christmas time, now housed in the Library of Congress, bears the inscription, J.P.S.
Xmas 1896. This work was so loved, that audiences used to stand when they heard it
performed.
As you may have guessed, the Spanish immigrant J.P. So did change his name. He so loved
his country that he added the letters USA to his own name, making him forever John Phillip
Sousa, composer of The Stars and Stripes Forever.