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Booklet decodes King dedications

Band leader dedicated music to local residents

-Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Nancy Drommer Olson displays a copy of the booklet she wrote titled "For Dodge, Iowa, Welcomes Karl L. King" recently in the Karl L. King Municipal Band room in the Fort Dodge Public Library.She is standing next to a large photo of the band leader and composer.

While he was the leader of the Fort Dodge municipal band that now bears his name, Karl L. King composed lots of marches and other tunes for the band to play.

He dedicated some of those musical compositions to people he knew.

That dedication would be printed on the sheet music, right above the title of the song.

For example,“The Whippet Race” is dedicated to “Doc Griffen, Supt. of Speed, Iowa State Fair.”

Nancy Drommer Olson, who began playing clarinet in the band under King’s direction when she was 15-years-old, was curious about those dedications.

- Messenger photo by Bill Shea
Nancy Drommer Olson recently completed this booklet, which introduces some of the people to whom band leader and composer Karl L. King dedicated his music.

“How did he select people to write for?” she asked

“He must have admired them,” she said.

About two years ago, Olson, who now maintains the records and history of the band in a designated room in the Fort Dodge Public Library, started working to figure out just who those people were.

The result of her work is a new booklet titled “Fort Dodge, Iowa, Welcomes Karl L. King.” A couple of lines on the cover sum up what readers will find in the booklet. Those lines state “Dedications of music pieces to members of the community by composer and band leader Karl L. King.”

Olson documented 27 dedications by King and wrote brief biographies of each person.

For example, she found that Doc Griffen, the superintendent of speed at the Iowa State Fair, was Dr. F.M. Griffin, a Manson dentist who supervised the harness races that were once held at the state fair.

She said tracking down Griffin was one of the toughest parts of her research.

Olson said another composition was dedicated to someone King labeled as speed king because of his fast driving.

A song named after an astronomer from the Middle Ages, Omar Khayyam, was dedicated to Fort Dodge resident Ed Hinks, who owned a telescope, according to Olson.

None of the people to whom King dedicated songs are still alive, so Olson had to research them using the materials of the Webster County Historical Society and the Webster County Genealogical Society.

“I did a lot of digging,” she said.

For Sale

The booklet “Fort Dodge, Iowa, Welcomes Karl L. King” is available for $10 plus $5 postage. To order a copy, send a check to Karl L. King Municipal Band, Fort Dodge Public Library, 424 Central Ave, Room 146, Fort Dodge, IA 50501

About Karl L. King

King came to Fort Dodge in 1920 to lead the Municipal Band. He was the band leader until 1970.

A native of Ohio, King came to Fort Dodge after playing in and leading various circus bands. He was with the Barnum and Bailey Circus Band from 1917 to 1919.

During his long career, King wrote more than 200 marches and another 100 compositions of other types of music.

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