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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
COLUMBIA DEMAND IN CANADA
Is
Constantly
Growing—Rafael
Cabanas
Was a Recent Visitor From Toronto in an
Effort to Get Stock—Other Columbia News.
Rafael Cabanas, general' manager of the Cana-
dian division of the Columbia Graphophone Co.,
with headquarters in Toronto, was a visitor to
New York this week to make urgent efforts to
secure sufficient stock to take care of the demands
of Columbia dealers in Canada. Mr. Cabanas
stated that he was greatly impressed with the
spirit of optimism and confidence which is evident
in all parts of Canada at the present time, par-
ticularly in the agricultural districts.
Columbia dealers throughout the Dominion re-
port the closing of the best year in their history,
and the fact that Mr. Cabanas felt obliged to visit
personally the executive offices to petition for ad-
ditional stock indicates the extent of Columbia
sales in Canada. It is interesting to note that the
Canadian division of the Columbia Co. closed a
larger business in the December just passed than
the entire sales totals of any year prior to 1908.
This record is all the more remarkable when it is
considered that Mr. Cabanas only assumed his
new position a few months ago.
Walter S. Gray, formerly district manager for
the Columbia Co. on the Pacific Coast, arrived in
New York last week. He will be associated with
the sales department in a capacity to be announced
later.
Ernest E. Robinson, of the Columbia export de-
partment, is receiving the congratulations of his
associates upon the arrival at his home of a baby
girl. The newcomer already gives indications of
rivaling Mary Garden, the famous operatic
soprano.
DEATH OF J^JIARRY DODIN.
Weil-Known Talking Machine Man Stricken
While at Work at Gimbel Bros.
J. Harry Dodin, in charge of the Victrola de-
partment of Gimbel Bros., New York, under Man-
ager George W. Morgan, died in the French Hos-
pital last week after being stricken suddenly while
at his work. Mr. Dodin had been in poor health
for some time, and the exertion of the holiday
season was largely responsible for his collapse.
Mr. Dodin had been connected with the talking
machine business in New York for many years,
and joined the Gimbel department when it was
first opened. He had a host of friends both among
his associates and the members of the outside
trade.
Mr. Dodin was thirty-seven years old, and is
survived by a widow and one child. His brother,
Andrew H. Dodin, is connected with the New
York Talking Machine Co.
THE DEMANDS WERE MODEST.
Mail Order House Wanted Machine to Cost $10
and Be Good Value at $37.50 Retail.
In a recent letter to one of the newer local talk-
ing machine manufacturers a Western mail order
house asked for quotations on machines of the
cabinet style, to foe sold on the mail order system,
the letter stating, among other things, that "the
machines must be made to sell at $37.50 retail, and
be good value. They must bear our name, and the
cost to us must not exceed $10." Turning out a ma-
chine to sell wholesale at $10, offer him a profit and
at the same time be worth $37.50 retail was a prob-
lem the manufacturer in question was unable to
solve, and he was therefore compelled to turn down
the order.
If you must boast, it is better to boast of what
you have done than of what you intend to do.
PATHE PHONOGRAPH JOBBERS BUSY.
In
Many Cases a Shortage of Goods Is Re-
ported, Declares R. B. Caldwell, After Recent
Tour of Inspection—Pathe Discs Gaining
Many Friends—Making Plans for Future.
R. B. Caldwell, of the Pathe Freres Phono-
graph Co., New York, returned to New York last
week after a month's visit to the company's job-
bers in the East and West. As this was Mr.
Caldwell's first visit to the Pathe clientele, his im-
pressions of his trip are interesting as indicative
of the marked success of the Pathe products
throughout the country. Mr. Caldwell is experi-
enced in all phases of the talking machine field,
having been connected with the industry for many
years.
"I was greatly impressed with the fact that our
jobbers in all localities were short of goods, not-
withstanding the fact that they had placed large
orders well in advance of the holiday season,"
said Mr. Caldwell in a chat with The Review.
"These orders had all been shipped to the job-
bers' dealers in October and November, but by
the first of December there was a wide shortage
of Pathephones and Pathe discs. This shortage
was general, the higher priced Pathephones selling
equally as well, and in many localities even better,
than the moderate priced models. Pathe discs
have won the praise of musicians and music lovers
in all sections of the country, and the new addi-
tions to our record catalog are meeting with a
ready sale.
"The class of jobbers handling the Pathephone
line is well worth mention, as the men represent-
ing our company are prominent industrially in
their respective cities and possessed of ability and
aggressiveness. These jobbers are one and all
enthusiastic in their predictions for 1916, as they
are confident that the next twelve months will
witness a country-wide prosperity boom with a
commensurate increase in popularity of Pathe-
phones and Pathe discs."
IN TOUCH WITH THE MUSICAL WORLD
Notwithstanding that his cabin is located many
miles distant from any residential or business
community, the owner of this cabin at Lost Cabin,
Wyo., has at his command the same varied musical
entertainment as the inhabitants of the large cities.
When the accompanying photograph was snapped
Schubert's "Serenade," played on a Columbia
graphophone, was providing the entertainment for
the cabin owner and his visitors, who are to all
TONE TESTS BRING RESULTS.
What Many Dealers Report—Broadside of Tele-
grams and Letters to Thos. A. Edison, Inc.,
Sent to the Trade—Make Interesting Book.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Orange, N. J., have
just issued a broadside to dealers made up of tele-
grams, night letters and reports from Edison job-
bers and dealers expressing their enthusiasm over
the tone test recitals held in their cities. These
tests consisted of having concert and operatic
artists stand side by side with the Edison Diamond
Disc phonograph and sing in direct comparison
with their re-created voices. In some instances
the phonograph and the singer would sing in
unison, then alternate. Then the singer would sing
a second part to that on the phonograph, the artist
thus actually singing a duet with herself.
Musicians, music lovers and prominent critics
have attended these tone test recitals, armed with
all the skepticism they could command and with
their trained ears sharpened to catch the faintest
deviation in tone quality or enunciation in the re-
created voice. To their astonishment they say
they found Edison's re-creation absolutely flawless
in tone, timbre and artistry.
As evidence that these tone test recitals are pro-
ducing concrete results, one dealer in a small town
reported that he sold seven Diamond Discs in the
two days following his recital, all directly trace-
able to the demonstration given at that time. An-
other small town dealer reported that he sold two
instruments before he left the auditorium where
his recital was held and four more immediately
after. One happy dealer had the mayor of his
city drop in right after his tone test recital and
purchase a new Edison Diamond Disc phonograph,
thereby setting his fellow townsmen a good
example.
A WRITING TALKING MACHINE!
Novel Combination of Edison Phonograph and
Telautograph
Attracts Crowds in Kansas
City—Clever Idea of Manager M. Blackman.
(Special to The Review.)
KANSAS CITY, MO., January 2. — Manager M.
Blackman, of the Kansas City Edison Shop, head-
quarters for the Diamond Disc machine, devised a
novel window attraction for the recent holiday
crowds. He secured a telautograph and mounted
it on an Edison phonograph, the wires running
down into the body of the machine and through
the window-floor out of sight. An operator, hid-
den from view, watched the crowds passing and
wrote pertinent messages to them on the machine,
so that a man with a brilliant necktie or a lady
shopper with her arms full of bundles would stop
in front of the window and suddenly see a mes-
sage addressed to them personally appear on the
roll of paper in the machine. So completely was
the illusion carried out that some spectators seemed
to have the idea that the machine was actually a
part of a new talking machine that could tran-
scribe whatever was on a record! While this idea
Enjoying the Columbia Graphophone.
may seem fantastic, still it is not without the range
appearances deeply impressed with the grapho- of possibility that some day a machine may be per-
phone's musical qualities. The owner of this Co- fected which will put into written or printed notes
whatever may be spoken into it.
lumbia graphophone possesses a good-sized library
of Columbia records, which aid him considerably
in making life in this far-away point something
DAMAGE IN UNPACKING.
more than a lonely existence. Thus the value of
the talking machine is again exemplified.
In an interesting letter sent to Victor dealers
recently W. R. Fulghum, manager of the Vic-
TAKES OVER THE MERMOD BUSINESS. tor Talking Machine Co.'s order department, called
attention to the advisability of the dealers carefully
The business of the late Marc K. Mermod, 810 following the packing instructions which accom-
Broad street, Newark, N. J., has been taken over pany the cabinet Victrolas. It is pointed out that
by Mermod & Co., 505 Fifth avenue, New York, in many instances dealers have damaged one of the
which will in future handle the motor and talking posts of the Victrola through unpacking the in-
machine specialties trade of the former.
struments in a careless manner.