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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
71
CLOSING BESTjttJSINESS MONTH.
PROMISE TOJIELP EDISON.
VICTOR CO. TO SPEND $1,000,000.
This Is What Assistant General Manager Will-
son Says of the Columbia Co.'s Trade for
December—L. S. Sterling Tells of Activity
in London—Movements of Columbia Men—
Making Records of Entire Opera of "Aida."
Oranges Plan to Build Special Reservoir to
Safeguard His Plant.
Big Talking Machine Company to Extend Plant
in Camden—A $30,000 Restaurant Building
and a Hospital for Employes Among the
Features Planned by the Company.
In order to prevent Thomas A. Edison from
leaving West Orange, N. J., because of the lack of
fire protection there, the officials of West Orange
"We are closing the best month in the history will offer a guarantee of a water supply to the
of our company," said H. L. Willson, assistant gen- inventor, it is said, within the next few days be-
eral manager of the Columbia Graphophone Co., fore he has arrived at a decision regarding the
"exceeding by a large margin our figures of last future site of his plant.
The officials of Orange, which receives as much
December, our previous banner month. The sta-
bility of our industry, was never more significantly benefit from the Edison plant as West Orange,
indicated than during the past year, as, notwith- where it stands, have planned to build, if Edison
standing the unrest caused by the war abroad, our agrees to stay in West Orange, a 50,000,000-gallon
reservoir in the mountains, which will supply the
sales totals, month for month, were far ahead of
plant with a 24-inch main.
the corresponding periods of 1913. Our record
trade has been phenomenal, and even with our
greatly increased manufacturing facilities there has
DEATH OF JJEN SPENCER.
been a shortage of both Columbia machines and
Well-Known Recording Artist of Other Days
records."
Dies Suddenly in New York.
Louis S. Sterling, the recently appointed Euro-
Len. G. Spencer, who in the early days of the
pean general manager of the Columbia Co., who
arrived here a few weeks ago for a conference phonograph was one of the most popular of the
with the company's executive officers, received a recording artists, died suddenly in his office in New
number of letters this week from his headquarters York last week. At the funeral services there
were played several records made years ago by Mr.
in London referring to the satisfactory status of
Columbia business in that country. These letters Spencer for that particular purpose, and which
contained the Lord's Prayer and several Psalms.
state that there is a record shortage in England of
The remains were cremated on Saturday.
more than 100,000 Columbia records, with the
shortage steadily increasing. The record manu-
After several years spent as a recording artist
facturing plant in England was considerably en- for the Edison, Columbia and other concerns, Mr.
larged a short while since, but even this extra space Spencer branched out as a manager of a lyceum bu-
has proved insufficient to take care of the re- reau in New York, providing entertainment for
markable demand, which the war has augmented various occasions, and was fairly successful.
rather than diminished.
H. A. Yerkes, wholesale manager of the Colum-
VOTE FOR ADVERTISING BUILDING.
bia Co., left Friday for a ten days' trip down
At the recent dinner of the Sphinx Club, held
South, upon which he will visit the Columbia deal-
ers in Birmingham and Atlanta, two cities in his in New York, H. C. Brown, president of the asso-
ciation, and by the way, advertising manager of
territory as district manager.
the Victor Talking Machine Co., presided, and
Otis C. Dorian, assistant Canadian manager of
the Columbia Co., with headquarters in Toronto, announced the results of the letter ballots on the
and Arthur C. Erisman, manager of the Boston suggested new advertising building. A total of
137 votes were sent in, of these 133 were affirmative
store of the Columbia Co., were visitors this week
and four opposed. Eighty-one members wrote that
at the executive offices of the company. Both of
these callers expressed their gratification with the they would work actively to help fill the building
business situation in their respective territories, with tenants.
stating that their sales were ahead of last year.
IMPOSING EDISONJ5HOP PUBLICITY.
Otis C. Dorian is a son of Marion Dorian, treas-
urer of the Columbia Co., who recently returned
The Edison Shop, 473 Fifth avenue, New York,
from a trip to the coast incidental to completing carried a large advertisement in the Sunday news-
arrangements for the Columbia Co.'s Exposition papers to feature the Edison diamond-disc phono-
exhibit.
graph as a suitable holiday gift. A feature of this
The Columbia foreign record department has advertisement was the listing of Edison diamond
announced the recording of.two acts of the popular disc dealers in New York, Brooklyn, Staten Island,
opera "Aida" by a prominent group of Italian artists. Long Island, New York State, Pennsylvania and
These records will be issued at the very moderate New Jersey.
price of seventy-five cents apiece (double disc),
and the complete opera will be ready in a short
ELECTRIC SIGN FOR BLACKMAN CO.
while.
The Blackman Talking Machine Co., 97 Cham-
bers street, New York, Victor distributer, installed
TALKING MACHINE EXPORTS.
this week an expensive and attractive electric sign
The Figures for October Presented—Exports that is visible from quite a distance. This sign
features the famous Victor trade-mark, with the
Show Falling Off for the Month.
word Victor in large letters. An electric clock ar-
(Special to The Review.)
rangement adds to the practicability of the sign.
WASHINGTON, D. C, December 19.—In the sum- The background of the sign is multi-colored, with
mary of the exports and imports of the commerce red and white lights for the flasher effect.
of the United States for the month of October (the
latest period for which it has been compiled),
NUTTING TO HANDLE "TALKERS."
which has just been issued by the Bureau of Sta-
(Special to The Review.)
tistics of the Department of Commerce and Labor,
MANCHESTER, N. H., December 19.—W. L. Nut-
the following interesting figures relating to talking
ting, of this city, who has a well-equipped piano
machines and supplies are set forth:
The total exports of talking machines for Octo- store at 4 Temple street, has decided to get into
ber, 1914, amounted in value to $50,644, while rec- the talking machine game and he has taken on the
ords and supplies for October, 1914, amounted in Edison diamond disc line. Although having it but
a short time, he has been able to interest a great
value to $81,032.
many people in the proposition.
Any member of the music trade can forward
to this office a Want Advertisement and it will
Many a man's ship never "came in" because it
be inserted free of charge.
was submarined by an overlooked opportunity.
(Special to The Review.)
PHILADELPHIA, PA., December 18.—The Victor
Talking Machine Co., according to Louis F. Geiss-
ler, its general manager, is about to let contracts
for a $1,000,000 extension to its plant in Camden,
N. J. A $30,000 restaurant and a hospital building,
representing part of $1,000,000 already placed under
contract this year, are nearing completion.
The restaurant will be for the convenience of
the officials of the company and heads of depart-
ments. The hospital is to be thoroughly equipped
for the treatment and care of any of the 6,200
employes.
The big plant is now operating twenty-four hours
daily. To increase its capacity one of the new
contracts provides for a power house and addi-
tional machinery which will add 2,000 horsepower,
at an estimated cost of about $150,000.
TO OCCUPY LARGER QUARTERS.
Wholesale Branch of the Columbia Grapho-
phone Co. Will Move on February 1 from
No. 89 to No. 83 Chambers Street, New York.
The local wholesale branch of the Columbia
Graphophone Co. will move on February 1 from 89
Chambers street, where it is now located, to 83
Chambers street. Arrangements to this end were
completed this week, and Manager Bolton is now
busily engaged in making plans for the furnishing
and decorations of the new store.
The company will have twice as much room in
its new store as it now has, r.s it will occupy the
store, basement, sub-basement and first floor. On
the first day of May the local division of the Dicta-
phone department will also remove from 261
Broadway, where it is now located, to the building
at 83 Chambers street, occupying a part of the first
floor. In its new home the Columbia Co. will have
ample facilities for expansion and will not be han-
dicapped for any lack of space, which has hindered
it in its growth the past year.
DICTAPHONE PROMOTIONS.
N. F. Milnor, for the past two years New York
sales manager of the Dictaphone division of the
Columbia Graphophone Co., has been appointed
sales manager of the general Dictaphone business,
with headquarters at the executive offices in the
Woolworth building. John C. Button, principal as-
sistant for several years to General Manager
Frank Dorian, of the Dictaphone division, has been
appointed New York sales manager to succeed Mr.
Milnor. John S. Baker, assistant New York sales
manager, has been promoted to the executive offices
to assist Mr. Dorian in various capacities. These
men are all "live wire" Dictaphone promoters.
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