Music man

the long version

This is the biography - written with the full cooperation of his family and of leading personalities in the world of concert and marching bands - of one of the most significant figures in the American band movement: Frank Simon. In the days when the name John Philip Sousa conjured up the rousing patriotism of 'The Stars and Stripes Forever' and other marches, Frank Simon was right there with him as Sousa's assistant conductor and cornet soloist. In the 1930s and 1940s, he took over Sousa's mantle. He became one of America's most popular radio personalities and then one of its principal music educators, honored by his profession and by universities throughout the nation. More than that, however, Frank Simon was a charming, funny, sometimes difficult personality. As his younger son, Joseph Simon, told the author Michael Freedland: 'He was not without his faults. The worst one? He didn't live long enough.'. This is his story: the warm, homespun story of the son of poor immigrant parents from Middletown, Ohio - as typical as US small town as anything featured in The Saturday Evening Post - who became one of the most important names in American music.