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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
8
TAKE MOTION PICTURE^F SPECIAL COMMUNITY SING
New Film Taken Under the Direction of National Bureau for the Advancement of Music to Be
Shown in Over 5,000 Theatres Throughout the United States as Propaganda
The National Bureau for the Advancement of
Music of the Music Industries Chamber of Com-
merce has arranged for the production in the
movies of one of Robert Lawrence's Neighbor-
hood Service "sings" in a congested street of
New York's East Side. Through the medium
of the Fox News millions of persons in the
United States, England, Canada and Cuba will
have visualized for them during the next six
weeks this picturesque phase of the work of
the service. The film, released on Wednesday
of this week to 5,000 theatres in the United
States, will be shown later in England, Canada
and Cuba.
By an arrangement made by the National Bu-
reau with the Fox News a special afternoon sing
was conducted in Elizabeth street, between
Prince wind Houston streets, recently by Mr.
Lawrence, founder of the Neighborhood Service
and connected in an advisory capacity with the
Bureau. The Bureau proposed that pictures be
taken of one of the regular weekly sings which
the Neighborhood Service conducts in Eliza-
beth street one evening each week. The light
not being of a good quality for photography in
the evening a special sing was staged in mid-
.afternoon.
With the whole-hearted co-operation of the
police a film that will have a beneficial effect
wherever shown was made. With a small up-
right piano on an automobile truck equipped
with a contrivance at the side for displaying the
words of the music to' be sung, Mr. Lawrence
drove into Elizabeth street, which was lined on
one side with push carts. Riding on the run-
ning board of the truck he came into the street
lustily ringing a bell such as the milkman for-
merly utilized to arouse the neighborhood with.
Instantly the scene, up to that moment one of
intense commercialism, was transformed into the
background for a festival of music. Half-closed
bargains were abandoned and both buyer and
A.F.Co.
seller, forgetting that such a thing as garlic
existed, turned their undivided attention to the
music. What is still more to the point, the
boys dropped their baseball and the girls their
jumping ropes to add their voices to the chorus.
As the truck moved along to the middle of
the block the children followed it from the end at
which it entered and flocked to it from the other
in response to the call of the bell. By the time
the truck was backed up to the curb on the side
of the street opposite the line of push carts and
the piano hauled out upon a platfornr at the
rear practically every child in the neighborhood
had squeezed into the crowd about the piano and
all of the windows and fire escapes on both sides
of the street were filled with their elders.
For half an hour the children and the grown-
ups, accompanied by the piano and directed by
the song leader on the truck, sang to their
hearts' content, while the movie machine,
"planted" on a fire escape, made a record of the
scene. .The words of each song were displayed
in large type on a canvas at the side of the
truck. When the National Anthem was sung at
the end and the Stars and Stripes displayed by
the leader there was an instant doffing of caps
and the singing was fervent.
In the opinion of the Bureau this film will
be of special interest at this time in view of the
coming campaign of music which Mr. Lawrence
is to conduct in Little Rock, Ark., through the
efforts of Col. F. B. T. Hollenberg.
Dun's Review Notes Great Increase in Assets
and Liabilities of Embarrassed Concerns—
Unusual Number of Large Reverses
Economy and Protection in the
Service We Give
Our technical service insures you against the pur-
chase of a higher grade of felt than many uses require
—hence we save you money.
This service also guarantees you the exact texture
and quality you require for special uses—hence we
protect your product.
American Felt
Company
100 Summer Street
Boston
1920
MANY FAILURES REPORTED IN JUNE
A 'highly specialized
technical service for
Piano, Player Piano
and Action Manufac-
turers.
TRADE,
JULY 17,
MARK
114 East 13th Street
New York
325 South Market Street
Chicago
Despite the fact that the number of commer-
cial failures during the first half of 1920 was
the smallest for any corresponding period since
1881, there was substantial increase in assets
and liabilities of embarrassed concerns. In com-
menting on this situation, in its survey of the
half year, Dun's Review says, in part:
"The tendency toward increase in failures that
has lately developed in various sections of the
country finds rather sharp reflection in the in-
solvency statement for the six months just
ended, 3,352 commercial defaults, with aggre-
gate liabilities of $86,743,876, being reported to
R. G. Dun & Co. during that period. While the
number of reverses is the smallest for the first
half of any year since 1881, yet the margin of
decrease from the figures of earlier years has
narrowed appreciably, and a decided enlarge-
ment of amount of indebtedness, now appears.
Comparing with the remarkably favorable ex-
hibit of 1919, which discloses only 3,463 failures
for the half year, a numerical reduction of 3.2
per cent is revealed; but this year's liabilities
are 26.2 per cent in excess of last year's total
of $68,710,886, and are little more than 1 per
cent below those of the first six months of 1918.
The half yearly returns, moreover, do not pre-
sent an exact picture of the change in the busi-
ness mortality, for the increase in failures has
been mainly of recent occurrence, and it is only
by examining the June statistics that a true
insight into existing conditions is obtained.
"From month to month this year, the number
of defaults has varied considerably, rising in
one month and declining in the next, but June
brought 674 insolvencies, which is the highest
number of any month at all in a year and a
half, and the indebtedness was swelled to about
$33,000,000. An unusual number of large re-
verses accounts for the pronounced expansion
in the liabilities, the amount not only being
some 248 per cent greater than that of June.
1919, but the heaviest of any month back to
April, 1915, and the largest for June since 1914."
A FOREIGN VISITOR
Max Fuchs, of Graslitz, Czecho-SIovakia, ar-
rived in New York City on the steamship
"Noordam" last week. Mr. Fuchs is connected
with the house of Bohland & Fuchs, the Aus-
trian musical merchandise manufacturers.