Why a Notable Ithacan Got a Shout-Out in ‘Seventy-Six Trombones’

A formative influence on the music programs at both Cornell and I.C., bandleader Pat Conway was a famous name in his era

By Corey Ryan Earle ’07

Set in a sleepy Iowa town in 1912, The Music Man focuses on con man Harold Hill, who convinces townspeople to buy instruments for a nonexistent band.

“You’ll feel something akin to the electric thrill I once enjoyed,” Hill tells them in the intro to the show-stopper “Seventy-Six Trombones,” “when Gilmore, Liberati, Pat Conway, the Great Creatore, W.C. Handy, and John Phillip Sousa all came to town on the very same historic day!”

You’ll feel something akin to the electric thrill I once enjoyed when Gilmore, Liberati, Pat Conway, the Great Creatore, W.C. Handy, and John Phillip Sousa all came to town on the very same historic day!

Harold Hill, The Music Man

While you might recognize Sousa as the composer of patriotic marches like “The Stars and Stripes Forever,” the other names comprise a Mount Rushmore of popular bandleaders of the era.

The turn of the 20th century was the golden age of community bands, and these leaders were akin to modern pop stars.

In an era of limited mass media—before film, radio, and television—community bands were a major source of entertainment, with their performances at conventions, parades, competitions, and fairs often attracting crowds of 10,000 to 25,000.

And at the genre’s center were Pat Conway and his Ithaca Band.

Conway was born in Troy, NY, in 1865, within months of the University’s founding. Growing up in a small village outside Ithaca, he joined the Homer Cornet Band and then took charge of the Cortland Band—both considered particularly talented regional ensembles.

As its first non-student leader, Conway expanded the ensemble’s repertoire and reach, taking it on the road for concerts in Elmira and Owego. On campus, the band became a regular at pep rallies, leading parades to send athletic teams off to away games.

But it was actually Conway’s community band that became a fixture in the Cornell social scene.

As the first non-student leader of the Cornell Cadet Band, Conway expanded its repertoire and reach, taking it on the road for concerts in Elmira and Owego.

The Ithaca Band played at baseball and football games, crew regattas, dances, carnivals, and other events. It also performed regularly at Ithaca’s Renwick Park, a private lakeside venue that the city later purchased and reopened as Stewart Park.

The band began to be billed as “Conway’s Band” or “Patrick Conway and His Famous Band,” and in 1908 its growing fame forced its leader to stop conducting the cadet band.

Conway’s band toured nationally, performing at state fairs, the St. Louis World’s Fair, the Cincinnati Zoo, the Canadian National Exhibition, South Dakota’s Corn Palace, the Pan-American Exposition, New York Giants baseball games, and more—as his Ithaca appearances became more like celebrity visits home.

When World War I broke out, Conway was commissioned to lead music for the U.S. Army Air Service at Waco, TX, organizing the first band program for what would evolve into the Air Force.

Conway’s band toured nationally, performing at state fairs, the St. Louis World’s Fair, the Cincinnati Zoo, the Canadian National Exhibition, and more—as his Ithaca appearances became more like celebrity visits home.

By the 1920s, bands’ glory days were waning; Conway slowed his touring schedule and launched the Conway Military Band School, affiliated with the Ithaca Conservatory.

Among the first schools of its kind, it graduated several notable performers and conductors of the era. Conway led it for seven years—until his death at age 63—and it was later absorbed into the new Ithaca College.

“Mr. Conway enjoyed the respect of everybody in his profession,” the famed Sousa wrote of his passing, “and his loss will not be easy to replace.”

Although Conway may not be as well-known as Sousa today, he left a legacy at Cornell, I.C., and beyond.

And when the National Band Association’s Hall of Fame of Distinguished Conductors was established in 1980, he and Sousa were named inaugural members.

An expert on Big Red lore, Corey Ryan Earle ’07 teaches “The First American University,” a wildly popular spring semester course on Cornell history.

Top: Conway (center) and students of his military band school in Ithaca’s downtown Dewitt Park. (All images provided, unless otherwise indicated.)

Published April XX, 2026

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