“The New York Hippodrome” (1915)

The Sousa Band’s longest single engagement, from September 30, 1915, to June 4, 1916, was when it was featured in the Hip Hip Hooray extravaganza at the New York Hippodrome. Sousa wrote this march in commemoration of that engagement, and it was dedicated to Charles B. Dillingham, manager of the famous old theater. In a salute to Sousa on his sixty-first birthday, Dillingham arranged to have over two hundred theater orchestras around the country play the march at precisely the same time. 

Paul E. Bierley, The Works of John Philip Sousa (Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1984), 43. Used by permission.