Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
March 20, 1820
Primary Source Reference:
Poulson’s American Daily Advertiser (Philadelphia), 20 Mar 1820
Notes:
"In 1820, the 'Pandean Band,' consisting of a single performer, an Italian named Signor Helene, who played on five different instruments at the same time, was engaged. He was certainly a living curiosity, if not a 'natural' one, for by using his hands, elbows, and knees, he managed to play on the Italian viola, the Turkish cymbals, and the tenor drum, while he blew into a set of pandean pipes thrust into his waistcoat, and by wagging his head tinkled the Chinese bells fixed thereon as a sort of helmet, presenting a grotesque rather than artistic appearance. The 'orchestra-man' has long ceased to be a curiosity, but at that time he drew well." J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, 3 vols. (Philadelphia, 1884), 2: 947
