[78-L] Fred Van Eps

[Stewart, Joseph R]

I just found out that the father of one of my wife's best friends was a banjo protégé of Fred Van Eps.  As a young guy ca.1950 Howard Weilmuenster from around the St.Louis area was a big fan of Eps' playing, collected a lot of his 78s and cylinders.  Howard sent Fred a fan letter--and received an invitation to come meet him at his home in New Jersey. They remained good friends for the rest of Van Eps's life. Howard later taught Fred's (and I would suppose, by extension, Vess Ossman's) century-old banjo technique to Bob Ault, who makes the rounds of the ragtime festivals to this day as a member of the Rhythmia string trio out of Kansas City. (Howard didn't play professionally-he's a retired sign painter.)  We were having dinner with Howard's daughter last night and all this just came up in casual conversation-she says he almost certainly still has the 78s and cylinders. (Needless to say, he also has a collection of Van Eps-built/designed instruments.) People like Max Morath were frequent houseguests when she was growing up.  She never knew Van Eps himself, as he died in 1960, the year before she was born.  (Howard has also hand-cut more than a 100 piano rolls....)  I just thought this was pretty cool-and it certainly has 78rpm relevance!

Randy Stewart
Arts Producer
KSMU
901 S. National
Springfield MO 65897