1. Bohumir Kryl was a Czech-American financial executive and art collector who is most famous as a cornetist, bandleader, and pioneer recording artist, for both his solo work and as a leader of popular and Bohemian bands.
28 Facts About Bohumir Kryl
1. 2.
Bohumir Kryl was one of the major creative figures in the era of American music known as the "Golden Age of the Bands".
3.
Bohumir Kryl was born on May 3,1875, at Horice 230, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary.
4.
Bohumir Kryl spent time performing both the violin and the cornet for a circus band in Prague.
5.
Bohumir Kryl performed as an aerialist acrobat with the Rentz Circus in Germany, but an accident in 1886 ended this line of work.
6.
Bohumir Kryl's father was a sculptor, and Bohumir studied this art.
7.
Bohumir Kryl emigrated to the United States in 1889, paying the fare in part by performing with the ship's orchestra.
8.
Bohumir Kryl then joined Thomas Preston Brooke's Chicago Marine Band, where he spent the next two years.
9.
Bohumir Kryl became acquainted with Joseph Jiran, who owned a Czechoslovak music store in Chicago.
10.
Bohumir Kryl earned the distinction of the first Czech musician to record on phonograph cylinders.
11.
Bohumir Kryl built a bandshell on his property and would give numerous concerts each year.
12.
Bohumir Kryl was a victim of an extortion attempt in 1929, but the perpetrator was caught and sentenced to prison.
13.
Bohumir Kryl later formed a "Women's Symphony Orchestra" that featured daughter Josephine on violin and daughter Marie on piano.
14.
Bohumir Kryl formed and conducted the "Kryl Symphony Orchestra", which featured soloists such as Florian ZaBach and vocalist Mary McCormic.
15.
Bohumir Kryl's touring included many small towns such as Albany, Oregon and Bend, Oregon, where his orchestra was the first appearance by any symphony orchestra.
16.
Bohumir Kryl later formed booking agency and a music bureau.
17.
Bohumir Kryl died at his summer home in Wilmington, New York, on August 7,1961, leaving an estate valued at over 1 million dollars.
18.
Bohumir Kryl was interred at Masaryk Memorial Mausoleum in Bohemian National Cemetery in Chicago.
19.
Bohumir Kryl's widow was Mary Jerabek Kryl, originally of Vienna.
20.
Bohumir Kryl was one of the few musicians who enjoyed successful dual careers as a mainstream musical artist and as an ethnic recording artist.
21.
Bohumir Kryl transitioned from a star soloist with the Sousa outfit to a leader of ethnic Czech music, and made the transition back to the broader national audience.
22.
Bohumir Kryl was a master of producing pedal tones and the technique of multiphonic effects.
23.
Bohumir Kryl would hold a high note for a duration of one minute.
24.
Bohumir Kryl became known as the "robber baron of the music field" because of his business talent and frugality.
25.
Bohumir Kryl offered each $100,000 if they were to remain single until the age of 30, so that their careers would not be stalled by the distractions of romance.
26.
Josephine Kryl, a pupil of Eugene Ysaye, spurned this offer in order to marry Dr Paul White, director of the Rochester Civic Orchestra, in 1924, even though Bohumir managed to delay the wedding twice.
27.
Bohumir Kryl's band furthered the career of many Czech musicians, including Vlasta Sedlovska, Jaroslav Cimera on trombone, Leo Zelenka-Lerando on harp, Frantisek Kuchynka on double-bass, J Frnkla on French horn, Jaroslav Kocian on violin, and multi-instrumentalist Alois Bohumil Hrabak.
28.
At one point, Bohumir Kryl was considered to have one of the best private art collections in the United States.