Music Trade Review

Issue: 1927 Vol. 84 N. 23

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
28
The Music Trade Review
JUNE 4, 1927
child standing on Elkhart welcoming the deal-
ers. Cartoons of dealers coming in from all
parts of the country include Veerkamp, of
Mexico City; Williams, of Toronto; Jeffreys,
Miller and Mullholland, of the Pacific Coast;
Illinois High School Wins Second Leg on National Trophy—Abraham Lincoln High Glen, Patton, Popplar, Hamby, Goggan, Cox,
Coulter, Baskerville, Edgar, Rose, Hunleth,
School, of Council Bluffs, Wins Second Prize
Houck, Price, Caputo, Niemic, Mueller, Kitt,
Henton, McClellan and other busy Conn mer-
Most of the State contests were held under chants.
OUNCIL BLUFFS, IA., May 28.—Twenty-
three of the finest school bands in the coun- the auspices of colleges, universities or school
Another interesting article in this issue is en-
try, each chosen by competition in its own band associations, with the co-operation of the titled "Schools Are Great Unexploited Markets
State and comprising in all 1425 youthful musi- National Bureau for the Advancement of Music for Conn Instruments," and discusses the ways
cians, participated in the National High School and the Committee on Instrumental Affairs of and means whereby the Conn dealer can do his
Band Concert held in this city yesterday and the Music Supervisors' National Conference. C. share in exploiting these markets.
to-day. The bands came from fifteen different M. Tremaine, Director of the Bureau, announced
The latest direct mail suggestions and win-
States, three of them from California, sent at an the winners at the national.
dow display ideas prepared for Conn dealers by
The tabulated results of the contest were as the Conn advertising department are listed and
expense of about $7,000 each.
The national championship was won by the follows:
include a new wrinkle in window trims which
Class A.—Joilet, 111., 93.38; Council Bluffs, la., is sold to dealers by the yard. The sales de-
Joliet, 111., High School band, which took that
honor also at the first national school band 93.31; Modesto, Cal., 90.96; Senn, Chicago, 111., partment shows a new demonstration case to
contest in Fostoria, O., last June, and so has 90.85; Lockport, N. Y., 90.22; Quincy, 111., 89.13; help explain the selling points of Conn instru-
two legs on the national trophy. Second place Marion, Ind., 89.61; Flint, Mich., 87.38; Sterling, ments.
in Class A was won by Abraham Lincoln High Col., 86.92; East H. S., Cleveland, O., 85.53;
School, of Council Bluffs, whose score was only Mansfield, O., 85.38; South H. S., Minneapolis,
four one-hundredths of a point lower than that Minn., 84.02; Kansas City, Kan., 83.30; Colorado
of Joliet. Princeton Joint Union High School, Springs, Col., 82.67; Burlingame, Cal., 82.61;
of California, was the winner in Class B (schools Austin, Tex., 80.53; Albert Lea, Minn., 79.15;
of less than 400 enrollment). This band comes Stillwater, Okla., 78.92, and Pikeville, Ky., 72.84. New Instrument the Result of Three Years of
Class B.—Princeton, Cal., 81.38; Vermillion,
from a school of 103 pupils, drawing from a
Experimenting to Secure Perfection in the
total population of under 3,000, the town of S. D., 79.69; Ida Grove, la., 79.38, and Cleve-
Upper Register—Described in Catalog
land, Okla, 71.46.
Princeton itself having but 100 inhabitants.
From its 103 enrollment the school has been
CLEVELAND, 0., June 1.—The H. N. White Co.
able to organize a band of forty-seven, the one
has announced an addition to the King line of
competing at Council Bluffs, and a second band
band instruments in the form of a new tenor
of thirty, making a total band membership of
saxophone. The new instrument is the result of
seventy-seven. The principal states that the
three years of laboratory study and playing
chief recreation of the school children is the GRAND RAPIDS, MICH., May 31.—Teddy Brown, tests and has been redesigned from tip of
of
the
Cafe
de
Paris
Orchestra,
Paris,
France,
band.
mouthpiece to rim of bell.
One of the features of the contest was the has just added three York saxophones to the
A fault peculiar to tenor saxophones is that
orchestra,
according
to
information
received
excellent playing of nearly all the bands present,
tones in the upper register are hard to get and
reaching high professional standards in many
the White officials claim to have corrected this
cases, and astonishing the judges and the audi-
fault in the new instrument and that the "wolf"
TEDDY BROWN
ence. One result was the closeness of the de-
D is impossible on it. This new instrument is
cisions. The bands each played an assigned
described in the new King saxophone catalog.
CAFE DE PARIS BAND.
number and another number to be selected from
CAFE DE P M U 8 .
a list of twenty. There was also a sight-reading
B. COVENTRY STHEET.
LONDON. W. 1.
test, in which some of the bands made fine
Marcs 7th., 1927.
showings.
The judges of the contest were Taylor Bran-
son, director of the U. S. Marine Band of
GROTON, CONN., June 1.—Fred Bacon, president
Washington, D. C; Herbert L. Clark, director
of the Bacon Banjo Co. and wearer of the
of the Municipal Band of Long Beach, Cal., and
crown of "King of the Old Time Banjoists,"
Osbourne McConathy, formerly president of the
returned last week from a trip during which he
Toe "tonal quality" or "York" lostrunenta la
In ay opinion, of auch outetaadlng auperlorlty '
Music Supervisors' National Conference and a
that I hare baen bound to chooee "York" becauee
demonstrated the B. & D. Silver Bell banjos at
I can only arrord to hate t&o "beat-.
leader in the development of school instrumental
leading music houses in a number of cities. Mr.
only ara -fork- euophon
y bt r
music. The judge of the sight-reading test was
Bacon demonstrated at several of the stores in
J. E. Maddy, chairman of the Committee on In-
o too alrontfly recoauuad you
the Landay Bros, chain in the East, this com-
to "particular ' luelcla
strumental Affairs of the Music Supervisors'
pany being an active Bacon agent.
National Conference.
The Bacon Co. shipped a special instrument
A number of cities put in bids for the 1928 na-
this week to Roy Smeck, the famous Vitaphonc
tional contest, which was awarded to Joliet.
Carol ao r u m .
banjo soloist who is appearing in Indianapolis
Telegrams were received from Governor Don-
and who has been appearing in leading music
ahey of Ohio and from the mayor and president
houses throughout the West.
of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce invit- from Mr. Brown by Karl B. Shinkman, sales
ing the contest to that city next year.
manager of the York Band Instrument Co.
"The fact that so prominent a European mu-
sician has adopted York instruments should be
CLEVELAND, O., June 1.—The Goldsmith Musical
a matter of news interest to the American Instrument Co. opened last month in the sales-
trade," Mr. Shinkman said to-day, "so I am pub- rooms of the Starr Piano Co., 1220 Huron Road,
lishing his letter which may be read in the where this company has leased space for a
illustration."
musical instrument department. Jerry Gold-
smith is the proprietor of this company. He
has been in charge of the children's orchestra
at the Euclid Avenue Temple for two years.
Joliet, 111., High School Band Wins
First Prize in National Band Contest
C
New Tenor Saxophone
Added to the King Line
More York Saxophones for
Gafe de Paris Orchestra
Fred Bacon Returns
From Demonstrating Trip
4 , 7, *
L0MDOH
ian throa Bu Bop
a f
New Cleveland Department
"Conn-Tact" Announces
Annual Conn Meeting
Dealers Hold Convention at Headquarters of
C. G. Conn, Ltd., in Elkhaxt, Ind., This Week
—Value of Schools as a Market
ELKHART, IND., June 1.—The June issue of
"Conn-Tact," the monthly dealer house organ
of C. G. Conn, Ltd., manufacturer of Conn saxo-
phones and band instruments, features the an-
nual convention of Conn dealers opening here
to-day.
A clever and attractive cover design shows a
map of the United States with pen and ink
sketches of Messrs. Greenleaf, Boyer and Fair*-
Banjo and Drum Heads
Genuine Rogers "Quality brands"
were given Medal and highest
awards over all others.
Five grades to select from, cheapest
to the very best.
v
White calf in thin, medium and
heavy.
Joseph Rogers, Jr., & Son
Farmingdal*, N. J.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
TECHNICALANDSUPPIY
DEPARTMENT
William BraidWhitefafinical Editor
What the National Technicians Have
Accomplished Since Their Organization
Interchange of Technical Knowledge Among the Technicians of the Piano Industry
One of the Great Forward Steps in the Advance of the Piano
T
H E coming of the third annual convention
of the National Piano Technicians Asso-
.
ciation moves me to some consideration
of the work which this group of practical men
has set itself to do. It is not so long since an
atmosphere of suspicion and jealousy was uni-
versal throughout piano factories, so that every
shop which had any reason to take pride in its
accomplishments maintained an attitude of con-
stant aloofness, refusing either to admit strange
visitors to its work floors or to give out any
information of any kind to tuners and other
technical inquirers.
This attitude has now definitely passed out of
existence. The first attempt to dissipate the
fog of unfriendly feelings was made thirty
years ago, when the National Piano Manufac-
turers Association was formed. Ten years later
I had the pleasure of organizing and conducting
a class of piano factory superintendents and
foremen at the Union Branch of the Y. M. C. A.,
in New York, during which were discussed all
the then available knowledge of piano construc-
tion. Attending that class were men represent-
ing all the best shops of New York, without
exception, and the results attained, although
they were tentative and to a large extent vague,
Remember Us
Our lane stock is vary seldom
depleted, and. your order, whether
l a m or small, will receive imme-
diate attention. la addition, you
fet the very beat of
Felts— Cloths— Hammers —
Purtchings — Music Wire —
Tuning Pins—Player P a r t s -
Hinges, etc
We haye In stock a full line of
materials for Pianos and Organs.
The American Piano Supply Co.,
were nevertheless fundamentally sound. What
was more important, the contacts thus set up
among men who previously had never known
each other and had hardly ever been in each
other's factories save casually in the course of
their bench-working days, when they worked
first in one shop and then in another, was very
fruitful.
A Beginning
When Frank Morton, backed by the Ameri-
can Steel & Wire Co., undertook ten years
ago to bring together the leading technicians
of the Western States, and later did the same
thing in New York, another step was taken to
the end of removing forever the once universal
atmosphere of suspicion and jealousy. Mr. Mor-
ton's conferences brought together more fac-
tory men and supply experts than had ever be-
fore been gathered together. At these round-
table discussions men learned to know each
other, they discovered that most of their sup-
posed individual "secrets" were not secrets at
all, they found that each of them had some
knowledge which the other needed and that
every one could get back as much as he put
into the common fund of information. They
learned, moreover, to take the broad view of
piano design and construction, to realize that
there is such a thing as a standard of tone, that
the law of nature cannot forever be violated
with impunity, and that scientific knowledge is
not a mere armchair activity unfitted for the
consideration of practical men. They learned
that the piano industry had become stag-
nated, that it needed a thorough awakening and
that a new era of improvement must be brought
about if it were to live.
The New Era
With the ending of the Morton campaigns
came the organization of the Superintendents
Club of New York, which was in fact directly
the fruit of the Morton conferences held in
New York during 1919. The discussions of
standards which had taken place during these
conferences led to the formation of a group of
the leading factory superintendents, for the pur-
pose of studying further all the questions in-
volved in elimination of waste by adoption of
standard measurements and patterns where such
standardization seemed desirable and useful.
Magic Scratch Remover
110-112 East 13th St.
Campbell's Magic Scratch Remover in-
stantly eradicates scratches and scars
from wood finishes. Highly valuable—
in fact, indispensable, wherever furniture
or musical instruments are handled. Used
by any employee. Quick, effective—and
very economical.
The cost of Magic Scratch Remover is
very small, indeed. Housewives gladly
pay a good price.
New York City
Your price, 14 doz., $2.00: dos.,
$3.50. Postpaid: Sent on approval.
THE M. L. CAMPBELL COMPANY
1008 West Eighth Street
Punching*
Washers
Bridle Straps
5814.37th AT*.
George W. BraunsdorC, Inc.
Direct Manufacturers of
TUNERS' TRADE SOLICITED
Kansas City, Mo.
William Braid White
Associate, American Society of Mechanical
Engineers; Chairman, Wood Industries
Division, A. S. M. E.; Member, American
Physical Society; Member, National Piano
Technicians' Association.
Consulting Engineer to
the Piano Industry
Taaally aat Machaaically Carract Sealaa
Tamil am* Tecaalcal Sorraya af Praftuet
Tamil Bettarmamt Wark la Factorlaa
Kafarameaa to ataaufaeturen *f uaauaatlaaai
tastttea la i a t u t n r
Fmr pmrlieulmrt, mddrtu
209 Sou* State Street, CHICAGO
Piano
Alio—Felt* and
Cloths, Famished
In Any Quantity
WoocUide, L. I., N. Y.
29
And then, three years ago, these New York
superintendents went a step further. Some
among them realized that what is good for New
York should be good also for Chicago, Boston
and Philadelphia. So they organized them-
selves into the National Piano Technicians
Association, and invited technical men from
everywhere to join them and build up the tech-
nical side of the industry along sane and scien-
tific lines.
The move was bold, and for some time the
response to it was anything but enthusiastic.
The mid-Western technical men for the first
year held themselves aloof, but during the year
1925, after the trade convention of that year held
in Chicago, when the National Piano Technicians
Association was able to have its first annual
gathering, the mid-Western technical men began
to show signs of life. Correspondence and dis-
cussion went on during the Winter, and in
March, 1926, a preliminary meeting was held in
Chicago at which most of the leading Western
factories were represented. The Western division
of the N. P. T. A. was there and then formally
constituted and steps were taken to formulate a
program of work, including investigation, experi-
ments, papers and discussions of every phase of
piano and player design and construction. Since
then the proceedings of the N. P. T. A. have
been the common property of the trade, for the
transactions have been made public and volumes
will appear from time to time containing ab-
stracts of all papers and of all discussions.
What Can They Do?
So much for history. What can these men ac-
complish? What indeed ought they to set them-
selves out to accomplish? And how best can
they direct their efforts to whatever objectives
they set before them? These are important
questions, for upon the answers to them must
depend the future of the piano industry.
The piano industry in fact is what its tech-
nical men make it. Only just now is this fact
being understood, for only just now has the in-
dustry, in the persons of its executives, come
to know that pianos must have musical merit,
that their day as furniture is almost ended and
that in future they will be sold for their tone
and their mechanical accuracy. I say that only
now is this coming to happen, but in saying this
(Continued on page 31)
Tuners
and
Technicians
are in demand. The trad* needa tunara, reru-
latora and rapalrman. Practical Shop School.
Send for Catalog M
Y. M. C. A. Piano Technician* School
1421 Arch St.
Philadelphia, Pa.

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