GCHS topic on ‘Musical Conflict’ in Hot Springs
The Garland County Historical Society will present “In Hot Water: Musical Conflict in the American Spa,” a program by Robert Fry, at noon Tuesday at the Garland Library. The public is welcome.
With the construction of railroads in the late 19th century, Hot Springs saw an increase in visitors and development, including the construction of elaborate bath houses, hotels, and performance and gambling establishments. Soon, leisure activities became as important as the waters themselves in attracting visitors and music became a crucial element of the overall spa experience.
Performance venues featured the most popular musicians of the era, including blues and jazz musicians, illustrating an expanding musical presence in Hot Spring during the early years of the 20th century. However, music was not formally introduced to the bathing experience until the opening of Buckstaff Bathhouse (1912) and Fordyce Bathhouse (1915), which included music rooms in the building plans, but forbade the “new” sounds of jazz. The music performed in the bath houses was strictly regulated, requiring submission to and approval by the director of the National Park Service, as documented by permission requests written to the director by bathhouse owners and managers, revealing a tension between old and new culture that was rooted in racial and gender constructs of the early 20th century.
Through a comparison of the music approved by the director to the jazz being performed in Hot Springs’ many other venues, Fry’s presentation demonstrates the importance of music in the late 19th and early 20th century spa experience, while illustrating the ways musical sound reflected and shaped an ongoing tension between the developing tourist city’s desired image and that preferred by the newly established National Park Service. In so doing, he explores the idea of geography of place as reflected and documented in the soundscape and landscape of a transforming American city and in the preservation of America’s natural wonders.
Fry is a senior lecturer in music history and literature at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he teaches courses in global music, jazz, popular music, blues, music in the American South, and music tourism. He is a graduate of Lake Hamilton High School, Henderson State University, Ohio University and Florida State University.