Topic: CRS Versions
Lynn Rohrbough believed a songbook edited by Olcutt Sanders for World War II conscientious objector camps “was the first of the special edition books” produced by Cooperative Recreation Service (CRS). [1] Sanders was raised in Fort Worth, Texas, and went to the University of Texas where he became active in recreation and music. [2]
It probably was in this period that he became aware of the CRS collections of square dances. He sent Rohrbough a version of the “Needle’s Eye” that was included in a 1940 anthology of play parties. It is reproduced in the post for 12 December 2021.
While he was in Austin, Texas, Sanders became a Quaker. This was not like the late-nineteenth century conversion of followers of Phoebe Palmer who joined the Friends when the Methodist hierarchy proscribed her teachings. As mentioned in the post for 1 March 2020, the ones in Indiana were not pacifists.
Sanders, on the other hand, was against war. He worked for the American Friends Service Committee after he graduated in 1939. [3] In 1942, when Larry Holcomb believes the Pocket Songster was issued, [4] he was supporting the Civilian Public Service camp in Magnolia, Arkansas. [5] It was run by the Brethren Service Committee. [6] The government provided facilities and work, but private groups were responsible for providing meals, medical care, and recreation. [7]
“Special edition” had a particular meaning for Rohrbough. Sanders remembered:
“This is where he expressed the idea of personalizing a book for a local use. In other words, even after we edited a book for the camps across the country (a hundred or more . . .), he would put the number and name of the camp on the front of the book.” [8]
The copy I have is transitional in many ways. The format is the one Rorhbough was using in the 1930s, shown in a reproduction of Handy II in the post for 12 December 2021. This thin cardboard cover is 3 3/4" x 7". The 80 pages are held together by two staples.
Sanders believed Rohrbough was just beginning to realize the potential of “all those plates that he had already published.” [12] On the back cover, above the company name, Rohrbough identifies the Pocket Songster as part of the CRS “custom printed songs” service.
While he had a glimmer of the possibilities, Rohrbough had yet to recognize the need for a uniform style. The songs in the Pocket Songster appear in the formats of their original publications.
It was not just differences in typography. The songs represent different singing traditions. “Shuckin’ of the Corn” is from a Flora McDowell songbook discussed in the post for 12 December 2021. Traditional Appalachian singing is solo singing, or unison if sung by groups at events like play parties. Youth camp singing is group music.
“The Happy Plowman” first appeared in the 1938 Joyful Singing kit mentioned in the post for 26 September 2021. This still is influenced by the arrangements for voice and piano produced by E. C. Schirmer and other music publishers. Few youth camps have pianos, and those that do rarely have people who can accompany informal singing.
Four-part arrangements are more common in hymnals, where instrumental accompaniments are available. Since this collection was intended for conscientious objectors, the interest in religious songs may have been higher than in typical youth camps. Nearly 30% of the songs are hymns, spirituals, or patriotic hymns like “America the Beautiful.” While most use the regular fonts of “The Happy Plowman,” some are compressed to make room for all the verses between the staffs.
“there were a few plates made especially for this books, including some of the more established songs that he really hadn’t included in his own books, but I felt the collection should have some familiar songs that people would respond to as well as the ones that he had collected from less well known sources.” [13]
The largest number of new songs seem to be chanteys. [14] Sanders knew he was working with men in their twenties, and he wanted to provide songs known to be sung by men. He also included cowboy songs.
Once those two genres were publicized by folklorists, outsiders assumed every occupational group had songs about its craft, or, if not, would like them. The Magnolia camp was housed in an old Civilian Conservation Corp camp, and the men worked on local farms. [15] Labor had become scarce in the area after natural gas was discovered in 1938, and industry developed in the town during the war. [16] The illustrated pair of songs is from the section “Men of the Soil.”
When James Olcutt Sanders was drafted, he was assigned to the conscientious objectors’ unit in Norwich State Hospital in Connecticut. Most of the men worked in wards of the mental institution. [17]
After the war, Sanders alternated his interests in music with his commitment to service. He spent two years in Puerto Rico, [18] then married Phyllis Rae Aden in 1947. [19] Her parents were Methodist missionaries in Argentina when she was born, and she had earned a degree in music at Occidental College in 1941. [20] In 1948, they published a collection of Spanish-language songs [21] through CRS as one of the independent anthologies mentioned in the post for 12 December 2021. [22]
While they were living in Austin, he continued to publish articles of square dancing, perhaps in hopes of an advanced degree. [23] By 1949, he was the regional executive director for the American Friends Service Committee, [24] and, in 1954, went to work for the national office in Philadelphia. Next, he spent time between 1960 and 1961 [25] working for Rohrbough, before going to the Quaker’s Wilmington College in Ohio. That led to his work for an interracial theater and arts project in Cleveland in 1963. [26]
The Peace Corps beckoned, and he moved the family to Bogotá, Colombia for two years. [27] In 1969, they returned to the States where he became executive director of the Council for Arts in Westchester County, New York. [28] Sanders developed lymphoma in 1976, and died in 1983. [29] He spent the last three years of his life editing the Friends Journal. [30]
After he died, the Mennonite Central Conference began documenting the conscientious objectors’ camps. In 1990, Paul Wilhelm sent a questionnaire asking former CO’s what they most remembered. One, who had been at Norwich, recalled:
“One evening in a dorm bull session on a variety of topics, it was mentioned that the camp’s Recreation Director, Olcutt Sanders, was a Phi Beta Kappa. The conversation wound down, lights were turned off, there was silence for a few moments. In the dark silence, a new inductee exclaimed, ‘Say, I thought Sanders was a Methodist!’” [31]
Graphics
1. Pocket Songster, edited by J. Olcutt Sanders for Fellowship of Reconciliation. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service, Custom Printed Songs. Personalization from back cover.
2. Front cover design by Phil Galliers.
3. “The Happy Plowman.” Swedish Folk Song, translated by Mrs. Albert Magnuson; copyrighted 1940. Reprinted on page 24.
“Shuckin’ of the Corn.” Tennessee Folk Song, recorded by Mrs. L. L McDowell, 1939. Reprinted on page 25.
4. “America the Beautiful.” Words by Katharine Lee Bates, 1904; music by Samuel A. Ward, 1892. Reprinted on page 19.
5. Olcutt Sanders, around 1958. Photograph courtesy of Donald Davis, Archives, American Friends Service Committee, Philadelphia.
End Notes
1. Olcutt Sanders. Interviewed by Larry Holcomb, 2 June 1972. Quoted in Larry Nial Holcomb. “A History of the Cooperative Recreation Service.” PhD dissertation. University of Michigan, 1972. 105.
2. “The Guest Editor.” motive, Boston University School of Theology, April 1944. 2.
3. motive.
4. Holcomb. 105.
5. Fred Feild. “Square Dancing in the 1800s.” His WordPress website.
6. “Civilian Public Service.” Civilian Public Service website. This was the formal name for conscientious objectors.
7. “Civilian Public Service.” Wikipedia website.
8. Olcutt Sanders. Quoted by Holcomb. 106. This is similar to the personalization done by Carl Edward Zander and Wes Klusmann, [32] but probably was an independent invention. Companies providing promotional materials specialized in this type of name identification.
9. Fellowship of Reconciliation was organized in 1915 by people interested in “peace and justice.” They did not operate camps for conscientious objectors. [33]
10. motive.
11. W. LeRoy Neubrech and Arnold G. Schumacher. “The Pulp and Paper Industry in War and Peace.” 10–18 in Survey of Current Business, December 1942. The freeze order took effect on 1 November 1942. Book paper and newsprint were separate categories with different rules.
12. Olcutt Sanders. Quoted by Holcomb. 106.
13. Olcutt Sanders. Quoted by Holcomb. 106.
14. Eleven were not from Joyful Singing, the Concord group, or songbooks I know were published at the same time. Some may have been in another early songbook I have not seen.
15. “Camp Magnolia.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas website, last updated 1 August 2017.
16. “Magnolia, Arkansas.” Wikipedia website. It is located near the border with Louisiana in the western part of Arkansas.
17. “CPS Camp Number 068.” Civilian Public Service website.
18. Holcomb. 100.
19. “Phyllis Aden Sanders.” 41–42 in Friends Journal, May 2000. 41.
20. “Occidental College Alumni Awards Recipients.” College website.
21. Amigos Candando, edited by Phyllis Aden Sanders and Olcutt Sanders. Delaware, Ohio: Cooperative Recreation Service; copyrighted 15 October 1948. [34]
22. Holcomb. 100.
23. Feild. In October 1946, Olcott told readers of the Southwestern Historical Quarterly that he was planning a book on Texas dance. [35]
24. “Partners To Your Places.” 215–230. In The Sky is My Tipi, edited by Mody C. Boatright. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1948. Last page reproduced on Square Dance History website. “Olcutt Sanders is Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee with headquarters in Austin.”
25. Feild.
26. Item in “Class Corral.” Alcalde, University of Texas, September 1963. 24.
27. Liz Zazzi interview with Olcott’s son, Jay O. Sanders. 6–7 in “I Am a New York Actor.” SAG-AFTRA, Spring 2005. 6.
28. Item. Scarsdale Inquirer, Scarsdale, New York, 17 April 1969.
29. Eleanor B. Webb. “He ‘Dwelt in Possibilities’.” Friends Journal 29:2:August 1/15 1983. Date of cancer calculated from statement he had been fighting it six years.
30. “Former Editors.” Friends Journal, June 1995. 3.
31. Vance E. A. Geier. Quoted by Paul A. Wilhelm. “Civilian Public Servants: A Report on 210 World War II Conscientious Objectors.” Washington, DC: National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors, 1990. Republished by Civilian Public Service website.
32. Zander and Klusmann are discussed in the posts for 28 November 2021, 5 December 2021, 13 March 2022, and 20 March 2022.
33. “Fellowship of Reconciliation (United States).” Wikipedia website. This Fellowship is mentioned in the post 20 March 2022.
34. United States Copyright Office. Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series. 1949. 172.
35. Quoted by Renee J. Laperriere. “The Varsovienne in the Southwestern United States.” Masters thesis. Texas Tech University, May 1955. 45.
No comments:
Post a Comment