[78-L] Fred Van Eps

[Craig Ventresco]

Please tell Howard hi from me and if he wants it give him my e-mail
address...He's an old friend from when I used to play at the Scott Joplin
festival...He's an awesome guy!

On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 1:16 PM, Stewart, Joseph R <
RandyStewart at missouristate.edu> wrote:

> 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
>
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