About the Blog
As part of my research project on Taylor and Rose Gordon, I’ve set up this blog to report on my progress on the project and as a means of staying in touch with the many people who have expressed interest in my biography of the Gordons over the past few years. I hope that the blog not only will be informative for those of you who are interested in the story of the Gordon family but will also provide a way of communicating back to me any suggestions, insights, thoughts, you might have about the project.
Please use the comment function to contact me about the the project.
Tracie Brown said,
February 17, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Thank you for posting the ad for the McKanlass Colored Specialty Company. I’ve only found one other, from a Colorado paper, and a glowing review from the same paper.
I’ve been researching W. R. (William Rudolph) McKanlass, who was my father’s piano teacher in Port Huron MI. He is “Master Willie, the smallest Drum Major in the world” and would have been 8 or 9 years old at this time. He went on to be a successful band leader, music teacher and composer in Port Huron.
This is Suzette Bronley’s web page about him (she beat me to the punch with a web page): http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mistcla2/McKanlass.htm
Thanks again for giving my research a boost.
keatsfan said,
February 17, 2009 at 11:35 pm
And thanks for the link to the W. R. McKanlass page. I will add that link to the main entry. Also, I had been somewhat puzzled by the “smallest Drum Major” reference, not realizing that he was small because he was a child. Touring companies that went through White Sulphur Springs, Montana, also often made stops in Helena, so there’s a possibility that the Helena newspapers around that same time might also have ads and reviews. I’ll also check back in my WSS notes and see if I have anything else related to the McKanlass Colored Specialty Company.
Michael Johnson