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Monday 15 February 2016

Behind the Photo: Railway Porters' Band of Winnipeg (1922)

© 2021, Christian Cassidy

Often, I will see an old photo or ad and spend time digging into its back story. Sometimes I find a great story, sometimes not. Either way, I learn a few things about the city's history. Here's my latest attempt:

Railway Porters' Band of Winnipeg

This photo is of the Railway Porters' Band of Winnipeg. It was taken in 1922 outside of the Bank of Montreal Building at Portage and Main by photographer L. B. Foote. (Archives of Manitoba, N1891.)

The band was created in August 1921 by George Blair, a porter with the CPR, primarily to play at Black community events in theatres and halls in the North End. It welcomed musicians and singers from all of the city's railways.

For its first few months, the band had just ten members but in January 1922 that increased to more than 40. It was considered the largest "coloured band" in Western Canada.

Its first bandleader was William Plumridge, a well-known local military bandleader who was white.


February 11, 2922, Winnipeg Tribune

On February 14, 1922, just weeks after its expansion, the band held its biggest event: a concert and dance held at the Winnipeg Board of Trade auditorium on Main Street. 

The evening was organized and emceed by Vic Rodgers, a well-known Black entertainer, bandleader, and show organizer from Alberta, though it appears that in 1922 he was residing in Winnipeg.

http://www.gov.mb.ca/rearview/gee/bot_auditorium.html
Board of Trade Auditorium, Archives of Manitoba

The Railway Porters' Band provided most of the musical entertainment, but there were others in the lineup as well, including members of the Walker Theatre Orchestra, the Porters Quartet, and the Golden Trio (H. Bouldan, J. A. Collins and J. Williams). There were also vocal performances by Mrs. A. Daniel, Miss Binns and Miss Standeve. Others performed comedy sketches and recitals.

The band and the concert got good reviews in the Free Press, but it doesn't appear that  there was a repeat of an event on that scale again.

February 17, 1922, Winnipeg Free Press

The Railway Porters Band of Winnipeg didn't advertise in the daily papers or have a formal office space which makes it difficult to tell how long they were in operation. It likely lasted for just a year.

The last mentions I can find of the band is a brief passage in an April 1922 Winnipeg Tribune story that noted they were playing every evening in the Dominion Theatre at Portage and Main. The Western Canada Pictorial Index has a photo of their August 1922 picnic in their archival collection.



There's little doubt that members of the band also performed with other groups in the North End's vibrant music scene.

Vic Rodgers hosted shows in places like Steiman's Hall, (Merchant's Hotel), on Selkirk Avenue between 1922 and 1924, featuring orchestras usually not mentioned by name in newspaper ads. His 1922 Porters' New Year's Ball at Minuk's Hall on Dufferin Avenue, though, featured the "CPR Jazz Orchestra".

George W. Blair, who initially organized the Railway Porters Band of Winnipeg, worked as a porter from 1922 until his retirement in 1949. He died in Chicago in 1952.


For more of my blog posts celebrating the history of Manitoba's Black community.

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