MARCH 1-9, 1916
The saying, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb,” was just how Mrs. Kate Roosevelt welcomed the month that would usher in spring and, her young widowed daughter, Dorothy Roosevelt Geer, was caught up in the same gust of comings and goings. Symphonies, concerts and theater, it seemed the mother and daughter never stopped socializing, and never stayed home long enough to take care of two little boys, Langdon and Shippen Geer. Once again, relying on Miss Gowans, the governess, to provide both maternal and paternal love for two “poor little rich boys,” mother and daughter were free to pursue their love of all the city had to offer.
Just back from her short honeymoon after marrying the family chauffeur, Louis Bourke, Miss Gowans was ready as always to allow Dorothy time to lunch with her cousin, Laura Davis, at the Davis home located at 125 East 72nd Street and then onto the Symphony Society Concert at the Waldorf.
Music played a big role in the lives of Kate and Dorothy and they rarely missed an opening night or an encore performance. As the widow of the world-famous organ inventor, Hilborne Roosevelt, Kate felt it her duty to honor her husband’s legacy and his prestigious standing in the world of music.
I was thinking that it was time for the dynamic duo, Kate and Dorothy, to have some down-time or to maybe even go on a budget. I was surprised to read in Kate Roosevelt’s diary, for the first time, a mention of money. The two women had taken a round-trip taxi ride downtown to visit a mutual friend. Kate’s entry for March 5th 1916 read, “Taxi to Maria Major’s, there and back. Cost $1.70, Dorothy owes me 85 cents!”
Ignace Paderewski
Quite possibly the debt was forgotten the next afternoon when Kate and Dorothy went to see Ignace Paderewski at Carnegie Hall. There were probably tickets waiting at the box office, left there by Kate’s niece, Ruth, who was married to Theodore Steinway, a member of the piano-making dynasty.
Ignace Paderewski
Ignace Paderewski was born in Poland in 1860 and by 1891 was a European sensation, so much so that William Steinway sponsored his immigration to the United States. When he arrived in New York City, an agent of the piano manufacturer Charles Tretbar met the musician at the dock and was less than welcoming. He told the young pianist, “You might have had brilliant success in London and Paris, but let me tell you, Mr. Paderewski, you need not expect anything like that here in America. We are not easily pleased here.”
The discouraging words were soon “eaten” by the not-so-nice Steinway employee. By 1892 Paderewski was playing to packed houses made up mostly of enamored women. One newspaper dubbed the phenomenon, “Paddymania.” He was more than a great piano player. He was a mass-marketing wonder who inspired advertising campaigns for shampoo, candy, soap and toys. Women were even embroidering his name on their silk stockings. That was quite a labor of love, given the non-phonetic Polish spelling of his last name.
Steinway Grand Piano
When he played at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, his fierce loyalty to the Steinways was evident. He was taking no fee, but still refused to perform until a Steinway Grand Piano was put at his disposal. The musical masterpiece is now in the collection of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
He regularly played to packed houses swamped with swooning women. The always prim and proper Kate Roosevelt never fainted but she was among his most ardent admirers as confirmed in her diary. “Dorothy and I to Paderewski concert. The hall was packed and most enthusiastic. Paderewski seemed very nervous at first, but by the end of the afternoon he was quite back in his best form. He seems much older, his playing has the same depth, tenderness and marvelous tempo, but the dash of youth has gone. He is still the greatest pianist in the world.”
Kate Roosevelt might have been smitten by the pianist, Paderewski, but her husband Hilborne and his many inventions were her first loves and the next day she was reminded of his genius when she read the obituary of an acquaintance.
Richard Aldrich McCurdy
Richard Aldrich McCurdy’s obituary appeared in the New York Times and listed his many accomplishments as attorney, business executive, banker, President of the Mutual Life Insurance Company, a founder of the National Geographic Society and a board member of the American Museum of Natural History, founded by Kate Roosevelt’s cousin, Theodore Roosevelt’s father, Theodore Roosevelt, Sr. McCurdy was also president of the Bell Telephone Company, an entity that had its foundation in the inventions of Hilborne Roosevelt, Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.
Richard McCurdy’s sister, Gertrude, married Boston lawyer, Gardiner Green Hubbard. Their daughter, Mabel, married Alexander Graham Bell. Ironically, Mable contracted scarlet fever when she was five years-old. The disease left her deaf for life. Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish immigrant was her speech therapist and the rest is romantic history.
Throughout their life, Mabel encouraged his scientific nature and while still his fiancée, surprised Bell with a ticket to Philadelphia to exhibit his newly-invented telephone at the 1876 Exposition.
Kate’s husband, Hilborne Roosevelt was an exhibitor also. He won a first prize for his invention, the world’s first electric pipe organ.
Soon after, Thomas Edison, Hilborne Roosevelt, and Alexander Graham Bell joined experimental forces to produce the world’s first telephone.
Mabel and Alexander Graham Bell at the dock from which many of the Bell-Baldwin hydrofoil experiments were launched.
The telephone was a concept that attracted many inventors in the nineteenth-century. Alexander Graham Bell claimed credit for the invention after he presented the barely audible telephone at the 1876 Centennial. It might have been overlooked if it wasn’t for the visiting Emperor of Brazil, who recognized Bell from meeting him earlier in Boston at a lecture on sign language for the deaf. The chance meeting created instant celebrity for the young inventor and an opportunity for Hilborne Roosevelt to collaborate.
Hilborne Roosevelt
In February, 1877, a Roosevelt family friend, Charles Cheever, traveled to see Bell in Boston with the idea of forming a company to promote the telephone in the New York City area. Hilborne Roosevelt followed-up with a letter to Bell with the same proposition. This led to the formation of the first telephone company in New York City. It was in connection with the telephone that Hilborne Roosevelt first met Thomas Edison, who was also pursuing perfecting the elusive telephone. Roosevelt and his company could only foresee the telephone as a more rapid form of telegraph between offices with a limited range. At the time there was no system to transmit voices. With this thought in mind, Edison undertook the invention of the phonograph.
In 1877, Thomas Edison conducted his first successful trial of the phonograph. The next year, Hilborne Roosevelt, Charles Cheever, Gardiner Hubbard (Richard McCurdy’s brother-in-law and Alexander Graham Bell’s father-in-law) and Uriah Painter obtained an agreement from Edison allowing them to manufacture the phonograph for a payment of $10,000 and a 20 percent royalty on the actual selling price of the units that would soon allow voices to be heard through the thread of wires invented by Hilborne Roosevelt.
McCurdy Mansion, Morristown, New Jersey
The usually astute inventor and businessman, Hilborne Roosevelt didn’t see a future in the telephone and sold his shares in the company. Gardiner Hubbard hung onto his stock and his daughter and son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell reaped the benefits.
Richard McCurdy’s funeral was held in Morristown, New Jersey and I could picture Kate Roosevelt, with her chauffeur behind the wheel, driving up to the family’s stone mansion to pay her respects while rehearsing what she would say to her husband’s former business-partner, Alexander Graham Bell and counting up the money she could have been making.
Sharon Hazard’s Dowager’s Diary appears on Thursday.
Photo One:
Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel
National Geographic Society
Photo Two:
Ignace Paderewski
Portrait by Larence Alma Tadema
wiki
Photo Three:
Ignace Paderewski
wiki
Photo Four:
Steinway Grand Piano
Smithsonian Institute
Photo Five:
Richard Aldrich McCurdy
Portrait by John Singer Sargent
Winter Park, Charles Morse Museum
Photo Six:
Alexander Graham Bell and Family
National Geographic Society
Photo Seven:
Hilborne Roosevelt, Theodore Roosevelt’s Cousin
Courtesy: Noel Geer Seifert
Photo Eight:
McCurdy Mansion, Morristown, New Jersey
North Jersey Genealogical Society
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