John Philip Sousa and Walter Damrosch, woman not positively identified but may be Jane Sousa.
Approximate Running Time: Five Minutes
In 2014, USIANA acquired a group of early 35mm nitrate motion picture reels directly from a descendant of Emil Mix. The material had remained within the Mix family until that transfer. In 2015, the reels were professionally inspected and documented by a film laboratory under the project designation “Sousa.”
Following inspection, the surviving footage — approximately five minutes in duration — was professionally digitized by the studio to ensure preservation and study access.
The inspection report includes handwritten content descriptions referencing specific dates and locations, including:
“2nd April 1911 – Cinderella Goldmine – (Zulu Dances)”
“Sousa Band … Diamond Mine”
“Edwardian Street Scene – British Policeman”
“Edwardian Carriages + Band”
Subsequent research confirms that these annotations correspond to documented events during the 1910–1911 world tour of John Philip Sousa and his band, specifically the South African segment in March and April 1911.
Historical Context
The Sousa Band toured South Africa in the spring of 1911. Contemporary records confirm that on April 2, 1911, the band visited the Cinderella Gold Mine near Johannesburg. Accounts from tour participants describe a reception organized by mine officials, including dance performances by Zulu workers.
The inspection notation — “2nd April 1911 – Cinderella Goldmine – (Zulu Dances)” — aligns directly with this documented visit. Additional references to diamond mines, Edwardian street scenes, carriages, and a British policeman are consistent with South African urban and mining environments under British administration at the time.
The dated annotation provides a clear historical anchor for the footage.
Emil Mix
Emil Mix was a professional musician and tuba player. He was married to Nicoline Zedeler, a violinist who performed with the Sousa Band. As a musician traveling within the band’s circle, Mix would have had direct access to tour events beyond formal concerts.
Photographic documentation from the 1910–1911 world tour is attributed to Mix in institutional collections. The survival of this five-minute motion picture record suggests that he also documented portions of the journey on film.
The reels remained within the Mix family until their acquisition in 2014, establishing a continuous private provenance from 1911 to the present.
Description of the Film
The archive consists of 35mm full-aperture black-and-white nitrate film. The 2015 laboratory inspection recorded age-related wear typical of nitrate stock, including shrinkage, scratching, perforation damage, and localized decomposition. Shrinkage in certain sections approaches approximately 3%.
The surviving footage includes:
- Edwardian urban street scenes with horse-drawn carriages and tramways
- British colonial policemen
- Mining-region environments and railway activity
- Public gatherings and civic receptions
- Zulu dance performances in compound settings
- Members of the Sousa Band near trains and mining installations
The visual content corresponds closely to the descriptions recorded in the inspection report.
Archival Position and Preservation
While photographs from Sousa’s world tour are well represented in institutional archives, motion picture material from the South African segment does not appear prominently indexed under standard catalog searches in major public film repositories.
The combination of:
- A documented April 2, 1911 visit to the Cinderella Gold Mine
- Inspection titles matching that event
- Surviving five-minute nitrate film
- Continuous family provenance
- Professional inspection and digitization
places this material in a distinct archival position as an early moving-image record tied to a specific historical event.
The studio digitization ensures that the footage is preserved in a stable format for research, exhibition, and further study, while the original nitrate elements remain carefully maintained.
The Emil Mix / John Philip Sousa South Africa Film Archive constitutes a five-minute moving-image record from April 1911, associated with the Sousa Band’s documented visit to South Africa, preserved within the filmmaker’s family for more than a century before its acquisition in 2014 and subsequent professional digitization.
