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Maurice Levy: This is Maurice Levy, speaking to Dorothy Demmler for the
Oral History of Music in Pittsburgh project. It's August the 8th, 1991.
When did you when was your first contact with music? Did you learn to play
piano as a child? Is that what you did?
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Dorothy Demmler: Well, a little. My father was one of the first music
supervisors in Allegheny County, so we had music in our home. I grew up
with with music, and I even remember going to the old Pittsburgh
Exposition. I couldn't tell you what I heard there, but I remember that I
was there. That was on.
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Levy: The north side. Yes.
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Demmler: Approximately where the stadium is now, I think.
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Levy: I'm sure there was Exposition Park. Yes. Is where the original
Pirates played ball over there. Yes, yes.
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Demmler: And while I was going to public school, I can remember going to
the Saturday concerts at the Syria Mosque. That was for school children
and. I don't know how many years we did that, but but see, my father was
interested in our having that contact with good music, and so he got us the
tickets to the a Saturday concerts.
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Levy: With the symphony. Uh, were there other concerts?
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Demmler: There were various. Uh, sometimes they could have been. I don't
know whether some of them were the visiting symphonies at that time,
because when I was going to. Public school. That was when the Pittsburgh
Symphony was in hiatus. There was no Pittsburgh Symphony until a little bit
later.
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Levy: Yeah, that's after Victor Herbert left.
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Demmler: Victor Herbert and Emil Paur. And before Herbert there was
Archer. But. No. There was no Pittsburgh Symphony as such until later after
my school days were over. And. But you asked if I studied piano. My dad
started all of us on piano. Uh. But I was switched over to violin because
my dad, as a supervisor, was organizing a class for violin, and I happened
to be the one that was just the right age to put in the violin class. So I
didn't. I didn't have to continue with piano. If I was going to study
violin, and I'm sorry that he didn't insist on that, because I wish I could
sit down by the piano now, but I can't. But I had a sister and two
brothers. And we were all started by my father on piano, but for my sister.
She was interested enough to continue. She, she she didn't play
exceptionally well, but she she could play read music. My one brother
always wanted to blow something. He didn't want to play the piano. And he
did switch over to the cornet and the trumpet and. Eventually. That's
another story. But he eventually became a public school bandmaster and one
of the best in the country. And his name is William J. McElroy. My father
was James McElroy. As I said, one of the music supervisors. Then my younger
brother, uh, decided he'd rather be in the percussion section than to have
anything to do with the piano. So he was in high school and college bands.
But. That was the extent of the.
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Levy: Well, then your family, you had a rich musical background.
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Demmler: Very much so. And my father's brothers and sisters, my aunts and
uncles, all, uh, just as amateurs did something in music. There were, in
fact, uh, well, two of the ladies also became music supervisors and
teachers, so that, yes, there was a lot of music in the in the connection.
And. Well that then I continued with the violin after the class. Then I did
start to take with a private teacher, Gwen Trazer. But people today
probably don't remember her. She. Well, I died prematurely. I think it was
cancer, but she was a marvelous teacher. And she started a group called the
Pittsburgh Women's String Sinfonietta. And they were mostly her, her
pupils. And then she enlisted some people that played cello to and viola to
round out the, the ensemble.
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Levy: And this was in the city of Pittsburgh right here. Do you live in
the city? Are you?
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Demmler: My father brought the family to Carrick, which is now part of the
city, in 1917. And I never lived in any other house until I came over here
a little over two years ago. That means over 71 years. So when.
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Levy: You got married, you went to Oscar.
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Demmler: To live where I was, because we already had the household set up
there with my sister, who could not be, uh, by herself. She had a physical
problem that it was necessary that someone be there. And Oscar was willing
to come and join our household. We did have a housekeeper at that time, but
just for a few years. After we were married and then we were all on our
own. But I lived in that same house for over 71 years.
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Levy: So the Sinfonietta was a it was a Pittsburgh organization. Was it
mostly people from that, uh, south part of town, Carrick, or was it
citywide? The city citywide organization.
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Demmler: My my teacher at that time was teaching at the Fillion Studios,
which is out of the Fifth and Aiken. And, uh, there her students could be
from anywhere. So it was had nothing to do with the south end of
Pittsburgh. I may I may have been the only one that came from the South.
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Levy: So you commuted to be part of this?
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Demmler: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. By and by and by streetcar. At that time, all
my traveling was was by streetcar.
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Levy: So this group, uh, she organized it. It played public concerts.
Yeah.
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Demmler: Every once in a while, we'd give a program and some I can
remember playing in in the Frick School auditorium. That one of these
programs. And some of them were right at the at the Fillion Studios. I
can't just. Oh yes. We also played in I think we also played in Foster
Memorial. I think we, you know. So. And then when I. After I was married. I
was interested in daytime activities where the other group had met in the
evening. Of course, when I worked full time with the board, then I could
only be in something that was in the evening, but after I was married. When
Oscar's work took him out to many evenings to school programs and things
like that, and we'd go to those together. I didn't want to have a regular
evening rehearsal, and I was invited to come in to the Tuesday Musical
String Ensemble, which I did, and I've been a member of that ever since.
And when I first started there. I expect it to be the last person in the
viola section. And when I got there, there weren't any other viola
players.
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Levy: You became first chair.
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Demmler: I was the one for most of that season. I was the only viola
player. And when we were ready to give a program, then we enlisted some
good students. I think she was at. He may still have been at Allderdice
High School and then later went to Tech. Florence. Cooper. I think that's
Florence Cooper. Go go go. Well, anyway, she came in and helped out. To
bolster up the section. But and the strange thing is that at the present
time. They have. Had more violas. Then they needed to balance the violins,
so they asked me to switch back to violin. So at the present time, I'm
playing violin.
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Levy: So you're still playing with this ensemble?
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Demmler: Musical ensemble? Yes. Mhm. Yeah. Well, in time wise we're
jumping ahead a little bit. But when. In. During my high school days. I
started out with one year at Schenley High School, and I played in the
orchestra there under Ethel Reeder. She later became Ethel Reeder Jones,
and she before I got into it, she led the Tuesday Musical Ensemble. But I
was working for Doctor Earhart at that time, and I couldn't go to a daytime
rehearsal. But I did have the experience of being in the Schenley High
Orchestra. And while I was there one day. Doctor Will Earhart came to
observe the orchestra. And little did I know that someday I'd be working
for him later on. But then. And the I told you about my sister and because
of her physical problems.
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Levy: Infirmity, she.
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Demmler: She had had one year at Schenley. And then the year that I was at
Schenley, she was out of school altogether, but she was permitted to go
back to school. But not to take that long trip. See, we took two street
cars to get from Carrick over to Schenley.
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Levy: It must have been over an hour. Ride?
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Demmler: Just about. Yes. So? So I transferred with her to Knoxville
Union. That was a high school because Knoxville was still a borough and had
their own very small school, but we could walk to it. We didn't have to use
any public transportation. And there they had a very, very small orchestra.
It was a very small school, and we practiced in, um, one of the students
homes. It wasn't even the rehearsals weren't even at school. And in fact,
there's one, uh. This one student. More or less directed the orchestra,
although we had a we had a music teacher, Dorothy Wigman Myer, who. Who
came occasionally, but I don't recall that she actually directed our
orchestra, but I knew and it was John Slater. You've heard of the Slater
Funeral Home? Yes. Well, John was a at that time a high school student, but
he was from that family. And later he was involved in the funeral home
service. But anyway, John Slater and his brother Arthur were in this
orchestra. So I didn't have too much. Experience in a group while I was in
high school, but then when I later on. I was in Mr. Fillion's String
Orchestra. He called it, I think, the Pittsburgh. Oh. Excuse me. I
mentioned Mr. Fillion's, uh, string group, and I played with them on
violin. Then in 1932. I had an opportunity to go up to the Eastern Music
Camp in Maine, but on condition that I would play viola. So. Shortly before
it was time to go, Miss Treasure coached me a little bit on viola and
showed me what how to read the viola clef. And so for eight weeks I was up
there in Maine and playing in the in the orchestra. I got my initiation in
viola on Breitkopf and Hartel music. The overtures and the symphonies and
everything under people like Walter Damrosch and Howard Hanson. And really,
they they came as guest conductors, uh, to the camp and. Then when I came
back, Mr. Fillion said, will you play viola in my group if I lend you a
viola? So that I did.
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Levy: What do you remember of Mr. Fillion? I know the name Fillion.
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Demmler: Uh. He was. I thought he was an excellent string player. He was a
fine. I never had him as a teacher, but. At the rehearsals. It was almost
like getting a lesson if you paid attention to what he told the different
player people as the different sections were rehearsing and. He was a very
good.
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Levy: And he had a large the large. Uh, how many students would you
guess?
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Demmler: I, I wouldn't make a guess, but.
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Levy: A large number.
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Demmler: I thought that Fillion Studio had a very, very good reputation,
and, uh, there were some fine people.
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Levy: It's a name that you see when you read about Pittsburgh music. That
name comes up quite, quite often. Yes.
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Demmler: And. Evidently his wife. I'm not sure. I think she was a pianist.
She probably taught there also. But. And then they had a son, Paul, who was
a pretty good little violinist. I don't know what happened to him. But
mentioning the Eastern Music Camp. Liam Lockhart. Was a special supervisor
of instrumental music in the high schools here in Pittsburgh from 1929 to
1937. And he was one of the ones who was. Interested and instrumental in
forming that Eastern Music Camp, and he was the band director at the camp.
So he got a number of Pittsburgh students interested in going up there. And
they were there in 1931. And when they came back with these glowing tales
of what a wonderful summer they'd had, that's what made me ask if they
could, if he could find a place for me up there, because I only had a ten
month position just the same as the schools. So I had my two months of July
and August to try to do something else with and. Shortly before it was time
to go. Just a matter of a couple of weeks, I guess, that I really got the
word that. Yes. They could use me as a as a secretary. At the camp. And.
But I would get my my board and room and the all the activities and be in
these, uh, playing groups. Uh, but that was wonderful for me at the time. I
mean, that to have a summer like that. Without any expense. But I didn't
get any remuneration for for my services other than to be there.
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Demmler: But that was all right with me. So I did that for three summers
32, 33 and 34. And then, sad to say, the whole camp went out of business
because it was a depression and they just they just couldn't keep it going.
They tried to keep the standards high. And they would give scholarships to
to good students who couldn't pay all the fee. And the gradually they just
didn't have the money to support that. And it. Collapsed. But after one
year, another group got together and made it more of a recreational as well
as a music camp, and they called it the New England Music Camp. And as far
as I know, it's still going now. But, uh, but that that was a wonderful
experience. And oh, and then another thing that Mr. Lockhart did while he
was here. He had classes. For people beginning on an instrument. Even if
you had taken played another instrument before, and if you wanted to try a
new instrument, he was interested in writing a course for class. Class.
Work in teaching. Even heterogeneous instruments at the same time. And. To
show this why he he invited some music teachers or anybody at the at the
board to come into this class. And so I had a stab at several other
instruments just for fun. I tried the French horn and clarinet and flute,
and when I was up at the music camp, I played French horn in the band under
Edwin Franko Goldman. Really? I didn't play very well, but I was there.
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Levy: That's. That's exciting to think that you.
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Demmler: That Mr. Lockhart, he published this course then that he devised
for for teaching instruments and he had quite a. He was quite creative. He
got the idea of starting a band in the summer camps. You know, Maine is
just filled with recreational camps. And they're there for 6 to 8 weeks.
And. He organized a group of. I guess they were all young men at that time
to teach in these camps. And they would supply the instruments. And they
would go from one camp to another, maybe go to two or 3 or 4 camps in one
day, and each camper would have her his or her own mouthpiece. But the
instruments would go from one camp to the other. And he guaranteed at the
end of the time they'd give a little a program. They'd play an ensemble.
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Levy: He was a Pittsburgher.
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Demmler: Well, he came he was a Pittsburgher for those eight years that he
was here. Doctor Earhart brought him from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to become
the special supervisor of instrumental music here.
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Levy: And that's in the Pittsburgh Public Schools.
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Demmler: Public schools. And by the way. Doctor Earhart. Would have liked.
To have had Oscar as that in that position. But Oscar didn't have his
degree at that time. And so he had to. Doctor Earhart had to get somebody
else. Oscar had a. He had his bachelors degree, but he didn't have a
master's. And Dr. Ben Graham, new superintendent of school. Said the person
that becomes a special supervisor should have a master's degree. So that's
why Doctor Earhart had to go. Look elsewhere for this special supervisor.
That's when he got Leigh Lockhart. As I said, Leigh Lockhart was here for
eight years within that time. Oscar did get his master's degree from.
Carnegie, it was Carnegie Tech at that time he had gotten his bachelors
his original bachelor degree from Pitt. Using a lot of credits that he got
at PMI.
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Levy: What is PMI?
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Demmler: Pittsburgh Musical Institute, and that's where Eileen Boyd,
Hutchinson's father, was one of the Charles.
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Levy: N. Boyd.
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Demmler: Started the PMI. Yes. He and Dallmeyer Russell and William
Oetting. Those were the three men that started Pittsburgh Musical
Institute. But. Their credits. The work that was done there was recognized
by Pitt. So when see when Oscar started to teach. Now we're going backwards
again.
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Levy: Oscar was so we can the people who listened to the tape. Oscar was a
a music teacher in the schools. Is that right? Where was he teaching?
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Demmler: Let me tell you about how he got into that. Because Doctor Boyd
figures in this too. When Oscar was a boy at home. There was a violin
brought into the house because his brother, the artist, was going to paint
a still life with a violin in it. And while it was there, Oscar would pick
it up and kind of fool around with it. And his father said, Oscar, would
you like to study the violin? And Oscar said, yes, I would. So that's how
he got started. He was in high school at the time. I mean, most people that
go on for a career would have started earlier, but he he was in high school
and so that's what got him started in the musical bent. And. He was only
out of high school. 2 or 3 years. When Doctor Earhart was brought to
Pittsburgh. To be the Director of Music over this newly formed school
district. It used to be every little community had their own school.
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Levy: District, unified the district, and.
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Demmler: 1912 was when that was done for Pittsburgh. And Doctor Earhart
came from Richmond, Indiana to be the director of music. But he lived on
Lothrop Street, where the Boyds lived. And he got acquainted with Doctor
Boyd and. He was asking Doctor Boyd's advice of how to help him get people
to come and teach in the schools. And according to something that Oscar
told, I have a tape that has Oscar telling this. The professional musicians
rather looked down on the idea of music in the schools. They Dr. Earhart
couldn't get them interested in coming to teach. In the schools. They
wanted to stay as private teachers and not have anything to do with the
public schools. So Doctor Boyd recommended Oscar and who was playing in
Doctor Boyd's Orchestra that he had over at the North Avenue Methodist
Church. It was symphony sized orchestra was called the Sunday School
Orchestra from that church. And. That's where. Where Oscar got to know
Doctor Boyd. So he went and had an interview with Doctor Earhart. Doctor. I
told him what was wanted and he said, well, would you? Would you like to
have the position? And Oscar said, well, I'd certainly like to have a job.
I don't have any now, but I really don't know anything about teaching music
in the high school. Doctor says neither does anyone else, so. He had Oscar,
so he was like on the job training. He didn't have any certificate or any
teacher certificate or degree or anything like that at the time. And he
taught. Appreciation and harmony and and led the choral and the orchestra
school.
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Levy: What school was this in?
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Demmler: Fifth Avenue High School. And so he was there from 1913. Until.
1936. When he was when Doctor Earhart.
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Levy: That means that he probably had. Oscar Levant. Yes.
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Demmler: Oh, yes. Definitely. Oh, he told me stories about him, too. Uh,
then Oscar had one year at Perry. And at that time, I guess nobody knew
that Mr. Lockhart was going to leave. But after Oscar was one year at Perry
when Mr. Lockhart resigned, and that left the opening. And I told you that
by this time Oscar had his master's degree. So Doctor Earhart was able to
place him in that position. And that same year, Doctor Earhart got his wish
to have a special supervisor in vocal music also, and that was Jacob
Evanson. And. So for three years while Doctor Earhart was still here. And
those two men were special supervisors of their field in the high schools.
Then when Doctor Earhart retired in 1940. Those two men were put jointly in
charge of the music department. You may have heard me say this before, I
think that was a mistake. They should have had one person at the head, even
if they had had to go outside and bring somebody in like they did Doctor
Earhart. But anyway, Oscar was then the director of instrumental music in
the all the schools. Mr. Evanson was director of vocal music in all the
schools. But there were. So many things that. It should have been working
together that the.
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Levy: It just works to cross-purposes.
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Demmler: It didn't. It didn't fit. They had different, uh, well, different
philosophical outlooks on how you handled the music in the schools. And it
all there was to it. But then.
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Demmler: Yeah.
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Demmler: In general of other music in the in Pittsburgh. Some of the
things that I recall, for instance the May Beegle concerts, she brought so
many good artists, that wonderful series that she had, and the visiting
orchestras. When Pittsburgh didn't have an orchestra, they didn't. They
call it the Pittsburgh Orchestra Association, something like that brought.
All the time visiting orchestras to give concerts at the Syria Mosque. And
I think they were managed by May Beegle, as well as her own recital series.
And somewhere along in here, while I was working at the board, I had the
opportunity to start to usher over at the Syria Mosque. So I got to hear
all these wonderful programs by by ushering. And I did that for quite a few
years.
