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Arthur Pryor

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A New Jersey music store has a trombone for sale that belonged to St. Joseph native Arthur Pryor, and the asking price is just $250,000.

Today the name Arthur Pryor means nothing to most people in St. Joseph, but during the first third of the 20th century, he was an international music sensation, said Steve Dillon, owner of Dillon Music in New Jersey.

Arthur Pryor was born Sept. 22, 1870, in the old Lyceum Theater, which stood on the southwest corner of Fifth and Jules streets.

“He had more facets than people realize,” Mr. Dillon said.

The talented musician would become the world’s greatest trombone artist, a composer, a band leader, a recording pioneer, a teacher and a musical innovator.

He was the person bringing the trombone into the modern age, Mr. Dillon said.

Mr. Pryor’s father, Samuel Pryor, was a well-known musician around St. Joseph who had his own band that played during the last half of the 19th century. The father taught his son, and by age 15 the boy mastered the slide trombone and lots of other instruments. His father rewarded him with a chair in Pryor’s Military Band.

By 1892 Mr. Pryor’s fame had grown. The march king John Philip Sousa invited him to join his band. He quickly became a solo artist for Mr. Sousa and went on to become assistant conductor of the Sousa Band.

He also taught the Sousa Band how to play ragtime and wrote a number of ragtime tunes, Mr. Dillon said. And in 1894, the C. G. Conn Co. made the trombone for Mr. Pryor, he said. The trombone was created by Jake Burkle and engraved by Jim Gardner, two master artisans of the Conn Co., Mr. Dillon said. Mr. Pryor started his own band in 1903, he said.

In 1905, Mr. Pryor wrote his most famous song “The Whistler and his Dog.” Mr. Pryor is known to have written about 300 musical numbers and to have arranged hundreds of musical compositions. In 1909, Mr. Pryor quit touring. About the same time, Mr. Pryor became conductor and arranger for the Victor Talking Machine Co., which would become a part of RCA in 1929.

He still holds the record for recorded trombone solos — 225, Mr. Dillon said. And musicians still play some of them, he said. His band made over 3,200 records, Mr. Dillon said.

Mr. Pryor retired in 1933 and died at home on June 18, 1942.

“There are photographs of this trombone hung over the mantel piece in Mr. Pryor’s New Jersey home,” Mr. Dillon said. “A gentleman in Indiana bought the trombone from Mr. Pryor’s son Roger, and I bought it from him about 16 years ago.”

For those who’d like to learn more about this trombone, go to www.dillonmusic.com/Arthur_pryor_tbone/APryor_Trombone.htm.

Marshall White can be reached at

mashall@npgco.com.