This was a widely circulated photo of the Baby Orchestra. Front row, left to right: Stanley Widness, Dorothy Wade, James Boyias, Shirley Richardson, Richard Norman, Bill Lima. Second row. Jack Thompson, Gloria Moore, Arne Leskinen, Geneviève Ganson. Jack Lima, Brigitta Leskinen. Third row, June Gassaway, Joyce Haggard, Russell Running, Betty Russell, Violet Marsh, Blossom Fairchild, Norma Halvorsen. Back row, Norma Widness, Karl Moldren, instructor, and June Wade. Norma and June took turns as pianists and directors of the group. Photo via Humboldt Historian.
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The Historian has mentioned Eureka’s famous Baby Orchestra in previous issues, but the material was short and lacking any interesting details.
Thanks to Arne Leskinen, a former member of the orchestra now retired to Eureka after a career in sales, we were able to gather more information about a group that was once the talk of the town.
In gathering data about the orchestra, Arne had the help of Norma (Widness) Myrland, another member of the group who now lives in Mesa, Arizona.
The orchestra, consisting of 19 little musicians, from 2 1/2 to 7 years old, was founded in 1929 under the direction of Karl Moldrem and was called the Sherman Thompson Baby Orchestra. It immediately gained attention locally as the children played in churches and for various other groups and community functions. Within a year, the orchestra attracted national attention through an RKO Pathe newsreel filmed in the Garden Court of the Eureka Inn, and photographs of the orchestra appeared in newspapers in the United States and Canada.
The Literary overviewa popular national publication of the time, had a Humboldt times main story about the orchestra, complete with a photo. That story follows:
Not content with Yehudi Menuhin and Ruggiero Ricci, two violin prodigies, California is producing an entire orchestra of young players.
Some of our readers may have already met these musicians through the Pathe Sound News. They are seen as the possible salvation of domestic music, silenced by the radio and the gramophone. Eureka, California, is the known home of the organization, and The Humboldt timespublished there, resembles a worldwide imitation.
About twelve months ago, SH Thompson and GW Thompson of Eureka, with the help of Karl Moldrem, violinist and teacher, conceived the idea of creating a baby orchestra to interest parents in giving their children a musical education.
Today, this group of nineteen little instrumentalists, ranging in age from two and a half to seven years old, has brought Eureka international fame. Hundreds of letters from music teachers, music schools, chambers of commerce in eastern cities and nationally known magazines have come to Eureka with questions about the little musicians. They are in demand at afternoon teas, lodge meetings, churches and lunch clubs.
Recently, the Pathe News company made a special trip to Eureka and produced a sound film, which is expected to be shown in all parts of the world. The photo of the orchestra appears daily in newspapers in the United States, Canada, England and other countries. The enthusiasm created by their performance has become so great that numerous cities are considering the organization of such groups, and parents are eager for their children to learn to play a particular instrument.
Although the idea of teaching ordinary babies to play a musical instrument, and organizing a group of them to play together, was quite risky, the Thompsons ordered a pair of small violins. They realized that it was very important that the baby violins were of the highest quality and material, and felt it necessary to have them made in Europe. When the small instruments arrived, they selected a group of young people to begin lessons.
Not a single one of the nineteen could “read” or read music when they started practicing. The hardest part of the whole effort was teaching the babies the first seven letters of the alphabet to identify the notes on the scale, and the first four numbers that allowed them to count, according to Moldrem, their instructor. These basics are necessary before music reading can begin.
Music critics who have heard and seen the orchestra play here, or seen them featured in Pathe News, have marveled at their teamwork.
The intonation and uniformity of bowing that the babies demonstrate arouse wonder.
Although all the babies show remarkable development, three of them have become particularly adept at their solo work. These are Dorothy Wade, James Boyias and Shirley Richards. June Wade, nine years old, and Norma Widness, eleven, alternate as pianist and conductor of the orchestra so that the entire program can be presented by children.
Arne Leskinen remembers traveling through Humboldt County with the orchestra. One trip took him to Crannell Town Hall and close to a child who would become his wife in later years. Mrs. Leskinen, then six-year-old Lois Emenegger, was locked in her home in Crannell when she would not allow her mother to pull a loose tooth as a condition of attending the orchestra program. She remembers shedding tears and hearing the music drifting down the river from City Hall.
Arne noted that the instructor had charisma, especially among the ladies, and was well liked. “Many cried when he left for Hollywood in 1930-31.” While at Hollywood Studios, he worked on music for children and later moved to New York City, where he was involved in publishing violin instructional materials.
Special pianists for the orchestra were Norma Widness, 11, and June Wade, 9.
Arne has provided the following information about some other orchestra members:
Dorothy Wade: Became a musician in the Los Angeles area and a studio violinist.
James Boyias: adopted the stage name Demetrius and became the most famous orchestra member. He moved to Berkeley in 1932-33 for college and toured South America on a concert tour at age 12. In 1941 he came back to Eureka and gave a benefit concert. Arne saw him in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1942, after he left the Air Force. He played semi-professional baseball in Montana for a while and then went to New York for a year to study music. He spent two years on a concert tour of the US and earned enough money to reimburse his adoptive parents for expenses on his behalf.
He returned to Eureka and worked for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad and later the Eureka Police Department before going into car sales. In 1955 he reenlisted in the air force.
Brigitta and Arne Leskinen: She and Arne were cousins and the two played violin duets. She studied music at San Jose State College and then went to Washington, DC, where she became a concert mistress. She died in 1963. Arne, at the age of 10 or 12, gave concerts at the old State Theater, now occupied by Daly’s store, and at the Eureka Inn. He played until he was fifteen and later made a career in sales. He was born in Berkeley and came to Eureka when four years old.
Jack and Bill Lima: Jack is a retired professor at Humboldt State University living in Trinidad and Bill, the younger brother, is deceased.
Jack Thompson: Entered the insurance and real estate industry in Eureka. He died in a car accident on Myrtle Ave about ten years ago.
June Gassaway Manfredda: Became an accomplished singer and lives in Arcata.
Stanley Widness, cousin of Norma Widness, lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
After Moldrem, the orchestra director, left, his assistant, Ralph Owen, took over and led the orchestra. Arne names three people from that group as Guy Keith, a businessman in the oil sector in Texas; Ted Hash, a longshoreman from Eureka, now deceased; and Helen Mattila Barnett, who operated Ducks Market with her husband. Owen later organized a baby orchestra in the Dunsmuir area.
Others in the Eureka orchestra included Shirley Richards, Norma Halvorson, Gloria Moore, Geneviève Ganson, Joyce Haggard, Russell Running, Betty Russell, Violet March, Blossom Fairchild, Jack Madden and Millicent Human.
Apparently the need was felt for a second baby orchestra in Eureka and this group was organized on October 13, 1931 under the direction of Professor E. J. Bonner. The Bonner Orchestra was featured in the January-February 1981 issue of the Historian. Additional data on baby orchestras appeared in the March-April 1981 issue of the Historian.
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Ed. comment (from the Outpost): Moldrem went on to found baby orchestras across the country, particularly in Los Angeles and New York City, which earned him an article in both Time And the New Yorker.
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The above story is from the May-June 1987 issue of the Humboldt historiana magazine of the Humboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission. The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to archiving, preserving and sharing the rich history of Humboldt County. You can become a member and receive new issues for a year from The Humboldt Historian on this link.