Formation of the U. S. Navy Band
With the Navy Band at 75 members strong, 1925 came the moment that Bandmaster Benter had dreamed of. On March 4, 1925, the 68th Congress passed Public Law 611, Title 34, Section 596, which ordained "That hereafter the band now stationed at the Navy Yard...and known as the Navy Yard Band, shall be designated as the United States Navy Band..." President Coolidge did, on the day he was inaugurated as President, sign the bill into law. Bandmaster Benter was authorized by the same bill to receive the pay and allowances of a Lieutenant in the Navy. Also that year President Coolidge authorized the band to make national concert tours, and on October 12, 1925, the Navy Band departed Washington by train on its first tour, a swing through the Southern states that lasted eight weeks.
Delighted with its newly endowed congressional permanence, the Navy Band of the late 1920s gained national recognition and was a presidential favorite. Lieutenant Benter often led the band aboard the presidential yacht, Mayflower, as well as at important functions at the White House, and prominent local clubs and hotels. Benter became a member of the National Press Club in 1926 and received an honorary Doctor of Music Degree from Columbus University in Washington, D.C. in 1927. Benter, along with such musical luminaries as John Philip Sousa and Edwin Franko Goldman, was one of the original founders of the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. The Navy Band was very much a part of world events during this period as they welcomed back Charles Lindbergh to the Navy Yard after his historic, solo flight across the Atlantic and Admiral Richard Byrd after he successfully journeyed to the South Pole. In 1927, Arthur Godfrey, announcer for the Hour of Memories program on NBC radio, was featured along with the Navy Band.
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Anchors Aweigh (1929 acetate recording)under the baton of Lt. Charles Benter. |
