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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
COLUMBIA NEWS GLEANINGS
THOS. A. EDISON GETS LL.D. BY PHONE
RECEIVERS^OR REX CO.
Record-Breaking Business Reported—Valuable
Booklet Sent Out—A Visitor From London—
Notable Artists in the November List
President of University of State of New York
Confers Degree While the Inventor Was
Busy in His Laboratory at Orange
Talking Machine Manufacturers in Financial
Trouble—But It Is Announced That Opera-
tions Will Continue and Machines Be Made
"A record-breaking record business is the
statement of the great majority of Columbia
dealers," said Edmund F. Sause, of the United
States sales manager's office of the Columbia
Graphophone Co., referring to a recent visit he
had made to the Columbia clientele in the East.
"The recent Columbia supplements have met
with great favor everywhere, and what is par-
ticularly gratifying is the fact that it is the
better class of records which are showing the
greatest gains in sales over any preceding year.
The Lazaro records are achieving remarkable
success, and Columbia representatives are en-
thusiastic in their praises of the advertising
campaign, which we have instituted in behalf
of these records."
W. A. Willson, business manager of the edu-
cational division of the Columbia Graphophone
Co., sent out to Columbia dealers this week a
valuable booklet containing a classified list of
the thirty most popular and best selling Colum-
bia school records. In a letter to the trade
Mr. Willson referred to the fact that the Co-
lumbia educational department advertising
starts in the October issues of all the leading
educational journals, and that the new edition
of "School Room Music" will be off the press
very shortly.
Louis Sterling, general manager of the Euro-
pean interests of the Columbia Co., and W. C.
P'uhri, United States sales manager, are making
a trip through the West, and will call upon
the Columbia wholesale divisions as far as Den-
ver.
The November list of Columbia records is
being prominently featured in the daily news-
papers, and this supplement is sufficiently di-
versified to enable Columbia dealers to cater
to all classes of music lovers. Among the
artists represented in this list are Lazaro, Louis
Graveure, Leopold Godowsky, Carl Braun, Mor-
gan Kingston, Otto Goritz, Florence Macbeth,
Lucy Gates and many others.
The October 21 issue of the Saturday Eve-
ning Post contained a striking back cover ad-
vertisement in colors featuring Lazaro, the fa-
mous tenor, whose first recordings have just
been announced by the Columbia Co. This
advertisement was artistic in design and lay-
out, reflecting the quality character of Columbia
publicity.
James P. Bradt, general sales manager of the
Columbia Co., is spending a week or two at At-
lantic City.
WILMINGTON, DEL., Oct. 23.—Upon application of
David J. Reinhardt, counsel for Gustave Mayer,
of New York, before Judge Woolley in United
States District Court Saturday a receivership
was granted for the Rex Talking Machine Cor-
poration. Mr. Mayer averred that the corpora-
tion owed him $15,300. James B. Stevens, of
Newark, N. J., and Paul E. Haessler, of this
city, were appointed receivers. They gave
bond in the sum of $10,000.
Bankruptcy petitions were filed against the
Rex Talking Machine Corporation last Monday
by the creditors. The company, which oper-
ates a plant on Vandever avenue, will continue
to manufacture machines, the receivers to oper-
ate the plant until further orders are given by
the court.
PLEASED WITHJHE OUTLOOK
The honorary degree of Doctor of Laws was
conferred over the telephone at 10.20 on last
Friday night on Thos. A. Edison by the Uni-
versity of the State of New York. It was the
twentieth honorary degree given by the Uni-
versity since 1792 and the second one of Doctor
of Laws since 1850, the other recipient being
Elihu Root who received the degree a year ago.
The ceremony concluded the fifty-second con-
vocation of the university. The session which
led up to it took for its general subject "The
Spoken Word," and was in recognition of the
great invention of the transmission of electric
current by Professor Joseph Henry, and of the
achievement of Thomas A. Edison.
Every seat in the auditorium of the State
Education Building had been fitted with an in-
dividual receiver, and five-minute remarks from
Chancellor Sexton, at Palmyra; Governor W T hit-
man, at Troy; President Benjamin I. Wheeler,
at Berkeley, Cal., and Theodore N. Vail, at New
York City, were listened to. Then Dr. John H.
Finley, president of the university, called up Mr.
Edison, who was in his laboratory in Orange,
N. J., and conferred the degree in this language:
"On behalf of the University of the State of
New York, which is itself endowed with power
by the State to express its educational purposes
within its own boundaries, I, sitting in a hall
nearly 200 miles from you, a hall lighted by the
glowing filaments which you invented, employ
an instrument which you had a part in perfect-
ing, to express to you the congratulations and
gratitude of this State for what you have done
in making it possible to remember, to reproduce,
and to transmit the spoken word, not only be-
tween neighbors but between peoples separated
by mountains or seas, to turn darkness into light,
and to make vibrations reproduce their moving
images in places as far from each other as the
antipodes.
"On behalf of the university representing this
State I have the honor to notify you that the
regents have unanimously voted to bestow upon
you its highest degree, a degree conferred by
universities since mediaeval times, a degree
which the greatest universities of to-day have
desired to bestow upon you, a degree of this uni-
versity which was conferred upon Joseph Henry,
but is held by only one living man, a degree
which, for the first time in the history of uni-
versities is conferred by means of that instru-
ment whose worldwide use you have yourself
made possible, the degree of doctor of laws, con-
ferred upon you, not in absentia, but merely in
loco remote."
C. F. Bruno Returns From Visit to New York
State and Reports Splendid Conditions
WORKING FOR THE STEPHENS BILL
C. F. Bruno, of C. Bruno & Son, Inc., New
York, Victor distributors, returned last week
from a visit to the Victor dealers in New York
State, and his reports of conditions in this ter-
ritory indicate that in both Victrolas and Vic-
tor records, Victor representatives are closing
a banner business. Record sales, in particular
have been unusually gratifying, and Victor deal-
ers have apparently found it beneficial to con-
centrate a considerable portion of their activ-
ities on their record departments. A shortage
of Victrolas is generally reported, particularly
in the $75 and $100 types, for which there is a
tremendous demand.
FRAAD CO.J^EASES LOFT
The Fraad Talking Machine Co., of this
city, has leased the third floor loft at 226 West
Twenty-sixth street for the manufacture and
display of Fraad talking machines.
Fred P. Oliver, vice-president of the Black-
man Talking Machine Co., New York, Victor
distributor, returned Monday from a trip
through the northern part of New York State,
Connecticut and Rhode Island. Mr. Oliver
made this trip in behalf of the interests of the
Stephens bill, representing the National Asso-
ciation of Talking Machine Jobbers.
Mr. Oliver conferred with more than a dozen
Congressmen in the States he visited, and also
succeeded in interviewing two United States
Senators. He was gratified to learn that there
is a general sentiment favoring the Stephens
bill, which seems to be gaining strength daily,
and those members of Congress who consented
to commit themselves declared their advocacy
of the Stephens bill and the principles it em-
bodied.
The Edison Diamond Disc Studio, of Ed-
miston, N. Y., was opened last week.
AN ENTERPRISING PATHE DEALER
W. E. Drey Uses Novel Methods for Swelling
Sale of Records
The accompanying photograph shows the
establishment of Walter E. Drey & Co., 1358 St.
Nicholas avenue, New York. Mr. Drey is one
of the most active Pathe dealers in this sec-
tion, and states that the demand for Pathe rec-
ords and Pathephones is almost phenomenal,
Show Window of W. E. Drey & Co.
considering the short lime he lias been doing
business in his locality.
Mr. Drey ascribes his success in part to the
intensive effort he has personally put behind
his business. lie does not wait for sales to
come to him, but goes after them!
One of his plans is to have his salesmen call
upon his principal customer at frequent inter-
vals to "inspect" their instruments. Sometimes
the "inspector" finds a condition which needs
attention, and he always carries a few of the
latest records for "testing" purposes.
The customer is, of course, pleased with the
service being rendered, and it is not surprising,
therefore, that the inspector-salesman very
often gets an order for the new records he has
with him. Mr. Drey figures that in this way
he is paid several times over for the salesman's
absence from the store, which he times to oc-
cur the dullest part of the day, when there is
not much business anyhow.
REPORTS DEMAND FOR GRAFONOLAS
The W. F. Minck Co., 1131 North High street,
Columbus, O., reports a very active demand for
Vose, Steger, Lester, Poole, Reed & Sons pianos
and Columbia Grafonolas, which they are fea-
turing with great success these days. Mr. Minck
has been identified with the piano business in
Columbus for thirty-three years.