Go back to Young Henry.
Henry clearly thought of himself, first and foremost, as a musician. We have seen him spending his teen-age years playing the mandolin on the Lyceum circuit, and taking every chance he could in college to perform. As with many Sulcers who followed him, he faced the struggle to have a creative, musical career but still needed to pay the bills.
After graduating from the University, he developed a new goal: to become an opera singer. While supporting himself with a job in the ad department of the Chicago Tribune, he sang professionally whenever he could: local events, serious church recitals, and even grand opera. Charlotte – a kindred soul from Englewood, an assertive young woman who was also a vocal teacher, aspiring singer and composer in her own right, and as passionate about church music as he was – was a natural fit for him.
A critic who heard him sing selections from Bizet’s famous opera Carmen was impressed:
Henry Sulcer sang the ‘Escamillo’ music splendidly, and in the ‘Toreador Song’ added a touch of dramatic fire which took the house by storm and brought a rousing recall. With Mr. Litkowsky he sang the great duet in the third act in a way that certainly would have aroused great enthusiasm in a much larger place than that where the concert was given.
By 1909, fate intervened when his day job opened another opportunity for him. The Tribune, rapidly expanding its influence to become a major national paper, sent him to work in the Eastern division in New York City. At that time, as now, New York was the center of fine arts in the country. and Henry saw a chance to study opera with the best. He and his mother Mary Jane took a train to New York City, where he started work in the famous Flatiron building on Fifth Avenue.
We can imagine mother and son arriving at Grand Central Depot, marveling at the crowds of Times Square, gawking at the enormous electrical sign with an animated chariot race (inspired by a best-selling book of the time, Ben Hur) complete with dynamically changing advertising messages written in light, the first of its kind. Trains were everywhere, crisscrossing over and under the Manhattan streets, a marvel of the age. Perhaps they went to the Hippodrome Theater on 6th Avenue where they could have seen “lavish spectacles complete with circus animals, diving horses, opulent sets, and 500-member choruses”.
Henry did indeed take advantage of the proximity of great opera training, and even studied with one of the best-known teacher at the Met, Oscar Saenger. We have some fragments of his training today – it’s likely that Saenger instructed Henry with this:
Picture to yourself a beautiful tone, and sing it on the vowel “ah”. Sing the “ah” with the same expression that you would use if you stood in rapture be- fore a beautiful scene, and uttered the expression, “Ah, how beautiful!” Producing the beautiful ah, however, depends on the proper conditions. First, breath control. Second, perfect freedom of the throat. Third, correct focus of the tone…
Oscar Saenger
Saenger, who also trained Charlotte, later went on to pioneer recorded musical instruction, in partnership with the world’s first record company, the Victor Talking Company. Thanks to this we can actually hear Saenger’s voice today still giving his lessons on YouTube.
Henry returned a year later to the Chicago office of the Tribune, and promptly married Charlotte. It would be interesting to know if they had considered starting their married life in New York instead of Chicago – but their Englewood Chicago neighborhood was clearly still the center of existence for them.
Go on to read about Henry’s career as a pioneer in the advertising business.
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Sources
- “Chuckman’s Photos on WordPress: Chicago Nostalgia and Memorabilia”. Available at http://chuckmanchicagonostalgia.wordpress.com/2010/08/27/university-of- chicago-lexington-ave-mithcell-tower-reynolds-club-bartlett-gymnasium/postcard-chicago- university-of-chicago-lexington-ave-mithcell-tower-reynolds-club-bartlett-gymnasium/ on 26 May 2014
- “H.D. Sulcer Coming to Visit City Beautiful”, Riverside Daily Press, 5 August 1909
- The University of Chicago magazine, Volume 1 (Google eBook), University of Chicago, Alumni Association, 1909
- “Marriage Licenses”, Los Angeles Herald, 13 January 1910:37:104:14
- Kubrick, “The chariot race sign in a young Herald Square”, ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com, 24 April 2011
- Available at http://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2011/04/24/the-chariot-race-sign-in-a- young-herald-square/ on 3 March 2013
- “New York Hippodrome” available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Hippodrome on 3 March 2013
- Riverside Daily Press, op. cit.
- “Training Singers in Yankeeland”, Idaho Statesman, 9 May 1910;
- Shigo, Daniel James, “Oscar Saenger and the Gramaphone”
- Available at http://www.voice-talk.net/2011/02/oscar-saenger-and-gramophone.html on 27 July 2014
- Saenger, Oscar, The Oscar Saenger Course in Vocal Training: A Complete Course of Vocal Study for the Tenor Voice on Victor Records : Vocalization, Victor Talking Machine Company, Camden, NJ, 1916.
- Available at http://books.google.com/books?id=coEyAQAAMAAJ on 27 July 2014
- “Resumed Voice Teaching – Mrs. Charlotte Thearle-Sulcer”, Englewood Times, 30 September 1910
- “Oscar Saenger Singing Lesson No. 20 for Tenors ~ Vocalise (1915)” – audio recording. Available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRpYjE9mbqM on 27 July 2014
