Distinctly Montana Magazine

67 w w w. d i s t i n c t l y m o n t a n a . c o m brownstone mansion owned by the Elks. They gave dai- ly open-air concerts from its wraparound porch. They made big news by stopping at William Jennings Bryan's Nebraska home on the way back to give him a midnight serenade. Interestingly, Clark led only one Democratic delegation from Montana. Daly sup- porters came as a separate faction. The party had to decide which Montana delegation to recognize as legitimate. When they chose Clark's, the band played a "hilarious" victory par- ty at the Midland Hotel lobby. They kicked off the night with "Hot Time in the Town Tonight." Anti-Clark papers portrayed the celebration as salacious, citing drunkenness, interracial dancing to ragtime music, and gunfire from horseback riders accompanied by prostitutes. *** Daly, near the end of his life, merged his Anaconda company with eastern capitalists tied to the megalithic corporation Stan- dard Oil — an unpopular decision. Clark's anti-Standard Oil position, bolstered through his alliance with Heinze, in part won him the election. Clark did not have to bribe for his U.S. Senate seat. In 1900, Daly passed away at 58. Clark took office in 1901 and served a full term. Clark no longer needed the band and stopped paying and promoting them. His days of throwing parades in the name of political ingratiation were over. He abandoned Heinze, too, and any other ally who no longer proved useful. He even sold his mines to his purported Standard Oil-em- broiled enemies. The Elks took the place of Clark for the band's national exposure. They competed in big-city Elks band contests and won several. Through World War I, they played for America's patriotic movement. In addition to other world leaders, they performed for almost every U.S. President in the first half of the twentieth century. John Philip Sousa, the band music king, numbered among their countless fans. They persisted into World War II, but old age caught up with Treloar. The draft took many band members overseas. Butte made wartime cuts to its civic enter- tainment budget. In the 1940s, people were swing dancing in- stead of foxtrotting or polkaing at Columbia Gardens, which booked new touring bands led by the likes of Benny Goodman or Tommy Dorsey. Both Clark and Treloar lived into their eighties. Clark died in 1925 in New York City and Treloar in 1951 in Los Angeles. Al- though the two were not personally close, their careers could not have unfolded as they did without each other. When it mattered, Treloar and the band made Clark look good. Clark did the same for them. They had a special way of legitimizing each other. This alliance gave the B&M Band a huge audience — and a first-row ticket to decades of momentous historical events.

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