When I decided to move Inez Stannert, the protagonist of my Silver Rush historical mystery series, from 1880 Leadville, Colorado, to 1881 San Francisco, California, I knew it would be a whole new game. For one, Inez needed a new position now that she was settled in the city by the bay. After some cogitation and research, I made her the manager of a music store. From this decision, I wandered some more, looking for information and accounts that would help me visualize what was going on in the city’s musical world in the timeframe I was writing about. This eventually led to me exploring the labor activities and formation of music unions in San Francisco—a subject which became the inspiration or “spark” that led to me writing A Dying Note, the sixth book in my series.
Regarding the labor movement in general, the Workingmen’s Party came to the fore in San Francisco after the silver crash of 1875 and gained strength throughout the rest of the 1870s. However, the musical world had its struggles from the very start, when it came to organizing. In 1850, San Francisco’s musicians demanded a wage increase before they would perform in the event celebrating California’s new-found status as a U.S. state. Their demands were ignored, and the celebration went forward without music. In 1869, they attempted to organize a trade union and failed. They tried again in 1874, and again failed. Finally in 1885, they succeeded in forming the Musician’s Mutual Protective Union, Local 10, which was chartered by the National League of Musicians. Eventually this organization would become the current day Musicians Local 6.
Information is sparse about the pre-1885 efforts. On website for Local 6, a brief history of Local 6 notes that all the records were burned in the fire following the 1906 earthquake. However, I did ferret out bits and pieces here and there. According to the paper A History of the Musicians Union Local 6, American Federation of Musicians, by Steven Meicke, when the 1874 union disbanded, “[its] failure was attributed to political competition among the potential leaders of a would-be musicians union. It was believed that the ‘abortive efforts of various rival organizations’ thwarted the formation of a legitimate union, and that some of the leaders sought to ‘obtain control for the furtherance of private and selfish ends.’” (In this quote, Meicke references an April 29, 1917, article in the San Francisco Chronicle titled “Musicians’ Local, No. 6, Has Had Years of Activity Advance Cause of Good Music; Beginnings in 1885.”)
Hmmmm… Rival organizations? Political competition? To my mind, the situation sounded like good fodder for fiction, and the wheels began turning in my imagination.
And that is why Inez Stannert, who only desires to lose herself and her past and start a new life as manager of the (wholly fictional) D & S House of Music and Curiosities, finds herself investigating the death of a young musician whose body washes up on the shores of San Francisco Bay…
Ann Parker, May 7, 2018
