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64
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
THE EDISON CARAVAN CONVENTION
{Continued from page 63)
mer, Pa.; George Bovard, M. M. Bovard & Son,
Philadelphia, Pa., and E. B. Stillman, O. Still-
nian's, Westerly, R. I.
Finally, the second day of the Edison Dealers'
Caravan Convention wound up in great glee, as
Harry Breen, the vaudeville heaclliner, whose
specialty is spontaneous rhymes and songs, in-
dulged his breezy personality in an act entitled
"Your Virtues and Your Faults in Rhyme." His
hits, directed at those in the audience, were re-
ceived with considerable hilarity.
Those who make a close study of the Cara-
van Convention layout will realize how cleverly
it is mixed of equal parts of business and pleas-
ure. We are inclined to believe that a keen
student of human nature is the god in the ma-
chine.
After the two-day session at the Knicker-
bocker a big banquet and dinner-show was
given in the grand ballroom of the Hotel Com-
modore on the evening of June 10th. The whole
show is to be given in three other cities besides
New York. In New Orleans there is to be a
two-day session at the Tulane Theatre, with a
banquet at the Grunewald Hotel; in Chicago the
program is to be repeated in the Blackstone
Theatre and at the Drake Hotel, and. in Van-
couver, the wind-up of the caravan takes place
at the Avenue Theatre and at the Hotel Van-
couver. Special cars carry the caravan party
from point to point. Those from the Edison
laboratories who make the trip are: Charles
Edison (who takes Mrs. Charles Edison with
him), William Maxwell (who is accompanied by
Mrs. Maxwell and Miss Marian Maxwell), T. J.
Leonard, J. B. Gregg, D. E. Wheeler, E. H.
Philips, D. Babcock, Victor Young, E. Traut-
wein, J. W. Scott, C. S. Gardner and J. J. Calla-
han.
COLUMBIA NEWS GLEANINGS
Geo. W. Hopkins Makes Canadian Trip—Boston
Dealer Visits New York Headquarters
Geo. W. Hopkins, general sales manager of
the Columbia Graphophone Co., spent a few days
last week in Montreal and Toronto, visiting the
Columbia headquarters in these important points.
He found business conditions very satisfactory,
with the dealers optimistic in their comments
anent the future.
Henry Kahn, of Kahn's Music Shops, Boston,
Mass., accompanied by Mrs. Kahn, visited the
Columbia executive offices last week, making a
tour of inspection of the eight floors occupied by
the company in the Gotham National Bank
Building. Mr. Kahn spoke favorably of busi-
ness conditions in New England, stating that
he was making preparations for an active Fall
business.
E. O. Rockwood, general credit manager of
the Columbia Co., spent a few days last week at
the Columbia branches in Boston and Phila-
delphia.
COLUMBIA DIVIDEND DEFERRED
Directors of Columbia Co. Defer Quarterly
Dividend on Preferred Stock
Directors of the Columbia Graphophone
Manufacturing Co. have announced that action
on the preferred dividend due at this time has
been deferred. The company had been paying
at the rate of one and three-quarter per cent. It
was said that "in view of the present business
conditions which are affecting the operations
of this company, in common with practically
all other lines of industry, the drectors de-
ferred the quarterly dividend on the preferred
stock." Earlier in the year the company passed
its dividend on the common.
Consult the universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.
JUNE 11, 1921
ELABORATE PLANS FOR VICTOR JOBBERS' CONVENTION
Annual Meeting of Association at Colorado Springs Next Month to Be Devoted Chiefly to Discus-
sion of Sales Problems—Interesting Entertainment Program Outlined
Plans are being completed rapidly for the
annual convention of the National Association
of Talking Machine Jobbers, which is to be held
at the Hotel Broadmoor, Colorado Springs, on
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, July 11, 12
and 13.
The Eastern jobbers—those located in New
York, Boston and Philadelphia—will travel
westward in special cars over the Pennsyl-
vania railroad, leaving New York on the morn-
ing of July 7. The first stopping-off place will
be Chicago, where local Victor wholesalers have
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side trips and entertainment features. One of
the sessions will be, as usual, turned over to the
Victor Co., when factory officials can present
matters of. importance to the jobbers.
The afternoon schedules call for visits to
Pike's Peak, the Garden of the Gods, the Cave
of the Winds and other points of interest near
Colorado Springs, and the committee is also
arranging for a real Western barbecue and a
thrilling wild-west show, with cowboys, cow-
girls and sharpshooters participating.
On Monday evening the wholesalers will be
"•^^P'^B
The Hotel Broadmoor,
arranged an elaborate one-day program of en-
tertainment, which includes an automobile tour
of the city, luncheon at the Country Club, a ball
game in the afternoon and finally a dinner at the
Drake Hotel in the evening. The Chicago job-
bers will then travel with the Easterners on a
special train over the Santa Fe to Kansas City,
where local jobbers have also arranged a pro-
gram of entertainment for the visitors on Sat-
urday, July 9. From Kansas City the special
train will carry the jobbers on the last leg of the
journey to Colorado Springs, where they will
arrive on Sunday morning in plenty of time to
rest up before the first session on Monday.
The program calls for a distinctly practical
convention, with the question of selling the chief
matter of discussion, both by the jobbers them-
selves and representatives of the Victor Co.
There will be a business sessipn on each of the
three mornings, leaving the afternoons free for
Colorado Springs, Col.
the guests of the Victor Co. at a dinner dance,
the music being furnished by Paul Whiteman
and his famous Ambassador Orchestra, which
organization, through the courtesy of the Vic-
tor Co, will remain at Colorado Springs
throughout the period of the convention. In
addition to the Victor Co.'s dinner dance the
jobbers themselves plan informal affairs for the
other evenings.
On Thursday, July 14, following the con-
vention, there will be held the annual golf tour-
nament, under the auspices of Joseph C. Roush,
of Pittsburgh. There will be a number of elab-
orate prizes to spur on the contestants.
The arrangements for the convention are
tinder the direction of an active committee, con-
sisting of Charles K. Bennett, Cleveland, as chair-
man; Lloyd L. Spencer and Fred P. Oliver, New
York; P. A. Ware, Peoria, 111., and V. W.
Moody, Buffalo, N. Y.
BLACKMAN FORCES DINE
RADIO MUSIC AROUSES OBJECTION
Twelfth Annual Banquet of Blackman Talking
Machine Co. Staff Held Last Week Follow-
ing a Theatre Party—Bonuses Distributed
What Union Musicians on the Coast Would
Have Done to Dr. Parker Is Easy to Guess
The twelfth annual banquet of the employes
of the Blackmail Talking Machine Co., New
York, Victor wholesaler, was held Saturday,
June 4, at the Hotel McAlpin, New York.
The banquet was preceded by a theatre party
at the Palace Theatre, and the employes thor-
oughly enjoyed the program which was pre-
pared for their entertainment.
As usual, one of the features of the banquet
was the presentation of bonuses to all employes
who were in the service of the company for the
fiscal year starting May 1, 1920, and ending
April 30, 1921. J. Newcomb Blackman, presi-
dent of the company, instituted this profit-
sharing plan some twelve years ago, and it has
proven a signal success. Fifteen employes re-
ceived bonus envelopes this year, and six stock-
holders, some of whom are employes, received
dividend checks. Subsequent to the banquet
dancing was the order of the day, and Mr.
Blackman was congratulated upon the spirit of
good fellowship and good feeling which exists
in every department of his organization.
The Grafonola Co., of Louisville, Ky., has
lately increased its capital from $25,000 to $50,-
000 and changed its name to the Louisville
Music Co.
The dissemination of music by radio is a re-
cent scientific idea that has aroused the ire of
union musicians on the Pacific Coast, who
charge that it is a fast-growing source of un-
employment for their fellow professionals. Ac-
cording to their protest, radio music is slowly
but surely doing away with the necessity for
.so many orchestras.
If these objectors to the modern practice of
carrying music waves to countless thousands
who either haven't the price of a concert ad-
mission or the multiple physicality which would
permit them being in two plac.es at the same
time had been on the scene at a recent concert
given in Brooklyn, N. Y., they would have
doubtless broken it up.
At this concert nearly 10,000 amateur wireless
devotees, sitting at their stations, within a
radius of 250 miles of New York, listened to a
program given in the home of Dr. De Witt
Parker, who is the possessor of a complete
amateur wireless outfit. Taking part in the con-
cert were a soprano, a contralto, a tenor and a
violinist. The singers and the instrumentalist
sang directly into a big megaphone placed in
front of the wireless telephone transmitter and
the latter carried their musical airs to the out-
lying stations with their hosts of listeners. The
music was also carried to ships out at sea.