Whistler and His Dog

Arthur Pryor (1869–1942)

Arthur Pryor was the son of bandleader Samuel Pryor. Arthur was considered a prodigy, having mastered the valve trombone by age eleven—possibly motivated because his father would smack him on the head with a violin bow whenever he hit a sour note. He eventually played trombone with the John Phillip Sousa Band, probably the most popular musical aggregation in the U.S. for decades (Sousa wrote “Hail to the Chief,” “Stars and Stripes Forever,” and more marches you probably recognize). At the age of 22, Arthur played the first of his 10,000 solos with them. When they toured Germany, the trombonists in the German military bands were ordered to watch him perform. They didn’t believe anyone could play as well as he did and they took his trombone apart, expecting to find some Yankee trick.