Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
42
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
cal. Broad smiles mantle the sombre faces of
the workers and their movements are quickened
Is the Educational Value of the Talking Ma-
to keep time with the weird and peculiar music
chine in the Domain of Music—The Teach-
which reminds them all so pleasantly of their
ing of Vocalism.
happy homes in the Flowery Kingdom.
But Wah is an ingenious fellow and he claims
Paul H. Cromelin, vice-president of the Amer- that his motive in providing music for his em-
ican Graphophone Co., and one of the most en- ployes is wholly benevolent.
thusiastic talking machine men in the country,
"Theater he cost heap money," said the China-
in chatting of the present status of the trade, man in talking of his innovation to a reporter.
said to The World: "The improvements, in rec- "Workee boy he make not very muchee. Grapho-
ord making even in the last year, are marked
phone cost lot, too, but he makee boys have
and show a distinct advance in tone quality. good time."
The aim of the manufacturer now is to repro-
Wah says that some of his graphophone rec-
duce the fine shadings, expression and exquisite
ords are made in Hongkong, although he pur-
coloring, if you please, for home entertainment,
chases them all from a San Francisco firm. He
rather than the loud, brilliant effects heretofore
has comparatively little respect for the Ameri-
aimed to be accomplished. Especially is this
canized Chinese artists who make music for the
true with violin records, difficult of attainment,
records, as compared to that which he enter-
to be sure, but meeting with success at last, and
tains for the musicians who have remained at
the results are not only gratifying, but really
home and kept pace with their art's progress,
marvelous considering the natural obstacles to be
where it is made and cultivated.
overcome, not to mention the variety of true rec-
Many good American citizens are attracted
ord-making talent in this particular branch of
to
the door of Wah Lee's laundry on these pleas-
musical endeavor."
ant evenings when his machine is set to grind-
ing the faithful reproduction of the weird music
of a Chinese band of unspeakable stringed in-
ENTHUSIASTIC MONGOLIAN
struments or splits the astonished atmosphere
Utilizes Talking Machine to Keep His Em- with a song which sounds like—
VALUABLE " TALKING POINTS."
.
ployes Satisfied
Melican Man.
and Happy—Pointer
for
Wah Lee, who runs a laundry on South West
Temple street, is displaying a stroke of enter-
prise which marks him as a fit candidate for ad-
mission to full citizenship, if not to the Society
of Benevolent and Progressive American Busi-
ness Men, says the Salt Lake City Times. In
his place of business, where he employs some
eight or ten boys from the Orient, he has placed
a high-priced graphophone, which is supplied
with an attractive repertoire of Chinese records.
When the men at the ironing board or washtub
show signs of weariness Wah places a ping-
pong song or a heathenish ditty in the talking
machine and turns it loose. The effect is magi-
"Chink-a chink, chink-achunk,
chink, chunk,
Ya-a-a-a-a, yi, yi, y-e-e-ep."
all marks of identification, but it is a question
whether the parties guilty of producing the
spurious goods are not legally liable under the
law of unfair competition. A decision bearing
on this question was rendered October 4, 1904, by
Judge Lacombe, Circuit Court of the United
States, southern district of New York, in the
case of the Victor Talking Machine Co. against
Albert T. Armstrong, trading under the firm
name and style of American Vitaphone Co. The
complainants' motion for a preliminary injunc-
tion was granted, and while the court, conform-
ing to the usual practice, passed only on the mat-
ter directly before it, the judge suggestively re-
marked, however, that the "novel and interest-
ing question as to whether the defendants have
no right to take the disks produced by the plain-
tiff as records of a piece of music specially exec-
uted and reproduce from them duplicates there-
of * * * need not now be discussed." The
fact that Justice Lacombe afforded the Victor
Talking Machine Co. injunctive relief against the
"manufacture and sale of disk records * * *
when the sound recording grooves thereon are
copies of the grooves on complainant's disk rec-
ords" is held to be sufficient to enjoin anyone
manufacturing 'dubs' even if the identifying fac-
tory marks are erased, as the music lines remain
the same.
chink, chink, chunk,
FOR THEIR EXPORT BUSINESS.
The National Phonograph Co. have leased the
And Wah doubtless has his business eye on
the increased trade which is likely to follow in store and basement at 261-263 West Broadway,
the wake of this interest in his efforts to please New York, as a wareroom and shipping place for
their export departments, the office of which still
a discriminating public.
remains, however, at 31 Union Square. The
premises will be used about May 1.
DECISION ON RE=DUPLICATION.
Making "dubs," that is, reduplicating the disk
records manufactured by concerns who origin-
ated the "masters," seems to be quite a business
in itself, though not considered altogether reput-
able, and certainly not legitimate. Care is taken
in turning out these bogus records to eliminate
A week ago the last of their suits, brought by
the American Graphophone Co. against the Na-
tional Phonograph Co., was filed in the United
States Circuit Court at Trenton, N. J. The bills
of complaint charge infringement, of several
patents relating to the composition of record
making material.
S4?TALK-O-PHONE
The Perfect Talkiivg Machine
Herbert .
Brooke .
Ennis.
Clarke .
Sousa.
$18.00
20.00
25.00
30.00
Write for catalogues
40.00
and dealers' discounts.
Our Talk-O-Phones have a better tone—louder, clearer,
richer, truer, a tone that is absolutely natural and reproduces
sound as no o t h e r t a l k i n g machine has ever done.
THE TALft-O-PHONE COMPANY
Pacific Coast Distributing Point
24O-242 W. 23rd St.
NEW YORft CITY
Factory
TOLEDO, OHIO
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL