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In Hot Water: Cultural and Musical Conflict in the American Spa

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Book cover Sounds and the City

Part of the book series: Leisure Studies in a Global Era ((LSGE))

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Abstract

With the construction of railroads in the late nineteenth century, Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas, saw an increase in visitors and development, including the construction of elaborate bathhouses, 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. Through a comparison of the music approved by the national park director with musical offerings in Hot Springs’ many other performance venues, this chapter demonstrates the importance of music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth-century spa experience while also 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.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a discussion of this clash of cultures, see Matthew Davis, “Introduction,” Clash of Cultures in the 1910s and 1920s, Ohio State University, Department of History, https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/clash/default

  2. 2.

    For a detailed discussion of the impact of the phonograph on music, popular culture, and notions of space in the modern era, see Mark Katz, Capturing Sound: How Technology has Changed Music (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010), Peter Doyle, Echo and Reverb: Fabricating Space in Popular Music Recording 1900–1960 (Middletown: Wesleyan, 2005), and William H. Kenney, Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890–1945 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999).

  3. 3.

    For a detailed discussion on the creation and history of the national park system see Richard West Sellars, Preserving Nature in the National Parks: A History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) and Denise D. Meringolo, Museums, Monuments and National Parks: Toward a New Genealogy of Public History (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012).

  4. 4.

    For a detailed history of Hot Springs National Park, see Ron Cockrell, The Hot Springs of Arkansas-America’s First National Park: Administrative History of Hot Springs National Park (Washington: United States Department of the interior/National Park Service, 2014), John Paige and Laura Harrison, Out of the Vapors: A Social and Architectural History of Bath House Row (Washington: United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1987) and Dee Brown, The American Spa: Hot Springs, Arkansas (Carson: Rose Publishing 1982).

  5. 5.

    The hotel and nightlife boom of the twentieth century, largely due to an increase in national park (reserve) tourism, is evident from advertisements printed in local newspapers.

  6. 6.

    For a detailed discussion of the many facilities included in and promoted by the Fordyce Bathhouse, see Carol A. Petravage, Historic Furnishing Report: Hot Springs Fordyce Bathhouse (Washington: United States Department of the Interior/National Park Service, 1987).

  7. 7.

    The sheet music for “Your Eyes Have Told Me So” is available for viewing at the Charles Templeton Digital Sheet Music Collection at the Mississippi State University. http://digital.library.msstate.edu/cdm/ref/collection/SheetMusic/id/30496

  8. 8.

    The Sheet Music for “Crazy Blues,” composed by Perry Bradford, is available for viewing at the New York Library Public Library Digital Collections. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e2-cefa-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99#/?uuid=510d47e2-cef8-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, USA

    Robert W. Fry

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  1. Robert W. Fry
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Correspondence to Robert W. Fry .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Leeds Beckett University, Leeds, UK

    Brett Lashua , Stephen Wagg , Karl Spracklen  & M. Selim Yavuz , ,  & 

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Fry, R.W. (2019). In Hot Water: Cultural and Musical Conflict in the American Spa. In: Lashua, B., Wagg, S., Spracklen, K., Yavuz, M.S. (eds) Sounds and the City. Leisure Studies in a Global Era. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94081-6_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94081-6_16

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-94080-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-94081-6

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