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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
48
FEBRUARY 16, 1918
MEETING OF COLUMBIA DEALERS
EDISON JOBBERS TO CONVENE
RECORD MAKERS SING IN BUFFALO
Held at Columbia Shop on Fifth Avenue on
Friday of This Week Under the Auspices of
Local Wholesale Branch of Columbia Co.
Plans Completed for Annual Gathering to Be
Held at Hotel Knickerbocker February 18—
Birthday Letter Sent to Thomas A. Edison
Group of Popular Recording Artists Give Con-
cert in That City Under Auspices of Local
Association—Capacity Audience
An informal meeting of the Columbia dealers
in the metropolitan district was held yesterday,
Friday, in the recital hall of the Columbia
Shop, 411 Fifth avenue, New York, under the
auspices of the local wholesale branch of the
Columbia Graphophone Co. Lambert Friedl,
manager of this branch is responsible for th's
meeting and as a result of his plans, Columbia
representatives in this territory had an oppor-
tunity to discuss practical problems and hold a
general "pow-wow" regarding merchandising
and sales activities.
Mr. Friedl prepared a program that included
many topics of vital interest to the dealers and
he also balanced the serious part of the program
by arranging for the appearance of several well-
known Columbia artists who rendered a number
of selections during the course of the afternoon
session.
In a chat this week with the World, Mr. Friedl
stated that business had kept up splendidly dur-
ing the past few weeks and commented upon the
fact that the Columbia Co. is leaving nothing
undone to co-operate with the dealers in this
territory. Referring to the difficulties incidental
to securing goods at the present time Mr. Friedl
said: "We are going to almost unreasonable
expense in order to co-operate with the Gov-
ernment as well as our customers. In other
words we are making the Columbia Co. the third
consideration in our business activities at the
present time.
"The other day we paid express charges total-
ing several hundred dollars in order to secure
some machines from the factory, and our dealers
can therefore readily understand that the cost
of doing business has increased tremendously
during the past few months. However, we are
charging this increased expense to patriotism and
loyalty to our dealers."
Plans are now practically completed for the
annual convention of the Edison Disc Jobbers'
Association which will be held at the Hotel
Knickerbocker, New York, on Monday and
Tuesday of next week, February 18 and 19. The
BUFFALO, N. Y., February 11.—An event of
much interest for local talking machine owners,
and likewise for the dealers, was the concert
given on Thursday evening of last week at the
Elmwood Music Hall by the Peerless Record
Makers, an organization of recording favorites,
including Henry Burr, Billy Murray, Arthur Col-
lins, Byron G. Harlan, J. 11. Meyers, Albert
Campbell, Fred Van Epps and Theodore Morse.
The concert was arranged under the auspices
of the Talking Machine Dealers' Association of
Buffalo, and the advertising and ticket sale were
under the direction of committees appointed by
that association. Talking machine owners of
all classes welcomed the opportunity to see their
favorite artists in the flesh, and the result was
a capacity audience that was most enthusiastic.
NOW HANDLING TALKING MACHINES
L. M. Beck Opens New Talking Machine Store
in Ft. Wayne, Ind.
FT. WAYNE, IND., February 9.—L. M. Beck, for
twenty years past a prominent jeweler in this
city, has opened a store at 134 West Main street
to handle his talking machine business which
has outgrown the space afforded it in his jewelry
store. He has greatly increased the stock of
phonographs, and will also add a line of musical
merchandise and supplies. He is featuring the
Clayola talking machine. Mr. Beck has for years
been known as one of the substantial merchants
of Ft. Wayne, and he is just the kind of a man
that the talking machine trade likes to see in
its sacred precincts.
ISSUE FRIEDA HEMPEL FOLDER
Thomas A. Edison, Inc., Announce Recordings
by Famous Singer to Be Ready Soon
Thomas A. Edison, Inc., have just issued an
artistic and impressive folder calling attention
to the fact that Frieda Hempel, the noted Met-
ropolitan opera prima donna, has been added to
the already extensive list of Edison artists, a
fact that has already been announced in the col-
umns of Th.e Review.
The folder, which is produced in two colors,
contains an excellent portrait of Miss Hempel,
together with something about her career in
opera, and the announcement that the Edison
Re-Creations of her voice will soon be available
for music-lovers.
HELPS MUSICAL APPRECIATION
The Important Part Played by the Talking Ma-
chine in Stimulating a Love for Music Forms
Subject of Editorial in Munsey's Magazine
Walter E. Kipp
convention is entirely under the management
of the jobbers themselves, although officials of
the Edison Co. will take some part in the ses-
sions on the second day. The program will not
be so elaborate as on previous years, and it is
the plan to have a real get-together meeting.
The president of the association is Walter E.
Kipp, of the Kipp Phonograph Co., Indianapolis,
Ind., with L. N. Bloom, of the Phonograph Co.,
Cleveland, vice-president; Frank E. Bolway, of
Frank E. Bolway & Son, Inc., Syracuse, N. Y.,
secretary, and H. H. Blish, Jr., Harger & Blish,
Des Moines, treasurer.
The Edison Disc Jobbers' Association recently
sent the following letter to Thomas A. Edison, in
commemoration of his seventy-first birthday:
"Indianapolis, Ind., February 1, 1918.
"Mr. Thomas Alva Edison:
"Greetings and congratulations to you on
your seventy-first birthday.
"The Edison Disc Jobbers' Association, repre-
senting the entire body of distributors of the
Amberola and Edison Diamond Disc phono-
graph products in the United States of America
and the Dominion of Canada, unite in extending
to you a warm greeting on this, your seventy-
first birthday. Our association with the name
of Edison is always the source of great personal
satisfaction to each and every one of us, but as
we extend our greetings to you, sir, on this,
your seventy-first birthday, we bring with them
a deep sense of gratitude for your untiring de-
votion to your country and the cause of democ-
racy throughout the world.
"We are proud of you, Mr. Edison, and while
you are throwing your great energy into the
fight against the brutal autocracy that threatens
the future of every liberty-loving people of the
earth, please accept our pledge of unswerving
loyalty to you and yours, through each trying
hour of the task you have so nobly and cheer-
fully undertaken for mankind. We will try to
profit by your splendid example and courage,
and we wish you many, many happy returns of
of the day."
In a recent issue of Munsey's there was
an excellent editorial in which the importance
of the talking machine and the player-piano as
factors in musical development and apprecia-
tion was dwelt upon in a very sympathetic way.
These two instruments were estimated as among
the most notable inventions of the age, and it
was pointed out that the true musical artist
neither feels nor affects contempt for the talk-
ing machine or the player-piano. In this con-
nection the writer says:
"He (the artist) knows that the roll of per-
forated paper can sound chords which the fingers
of Paderewski cannot compass; that the earliest
appreciation of musical timbre and orchestral
coloring may be derived from half a dozen black
discs.
"In music, as in every other art, the first
requisite to the development of a sound and
cultivated taste is frequent contact with the
work of artists. A person of sufficiently acute
mind, hearing music and more music and more
music of all kinds, could conceivably end by de-
ducing for himself every principle on which
music is based. A person of merely average
intelligence who will use it as he listens will, if
opportunity to hear music comes often, arrive
eventually at a fair understanding of what con-
stitutes good music. More than that, he will
have some inkling why it is good, and will ap-
preciate what he hears at somewhat near its
actual worth.
"The case for vocal music is even stronger.
We shall have an unusual lot of it this winter,
and the reference is not to concert platforms, but
to chorus-singing in the home, in the church,
in the camp. The chorus is a community enter-
prise hitherto undeveloped in America, but less
likely to suffer neglect in the future. Interest
in choral singing has been powerfully stimulated
by the plans of Major-General Franklin Bell
and others to make the American soldier a sing-
ing soldier because, as General Bell rightly de-
clares, a singing soldier makes a fighting sol-
dier. Choral singing is capable of developing
more enthusiasm than any other form of the
musical art. It can progress to the heights of
Parnassus, and it carries the singer with it.
"The secret does not lie in the artistic knowl-
edge and appreciation acquired, but in the kin-
dling of generous emotions, their liberation or
'motor discharge,' as psychologists would say;
above all in the creation of that contagious fel-
lowship and general good-will which are vital
to the success of an army."