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Published by The Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
How One Man Sold
$
23,000 Worth of Instruments
Francis G. Dale, a New York lawyer and amateur band organ-
izer in Gold Spring, New York, has trained 143 girls and boys,
out of a total population of 2,500, for the local band and orches-
tra. He estimates that band instruments to the value of $23,000
have been sold. An account of his methods and of their success
By B. BRITTAIN WILSON
LD band and orchestra instruments
which may have been discarded but are
still in playable condition, the services
of a retired band leader with proper
qualifications, and a few hundred dollars to
cover initial expenses, can be made the founda-
tion for the sale of many thousands of dollars'
worth of new band instruments in any com-
munity where there are children and a normal
amount of public spirit.
This is the opinion of Francis C. Dale, an at-
torney of New York City, who bases it upon
his own experience in his home town of Cold
Spring, New York, fifty-two miles from the me-
tropolis and in the Hudson River Valley. In
that town alone with a total population of some
2,500, of whom 500 are children. 143 boys and
O
girls have been trained in band and orchestra
music, and instruments to the value of over
$23,000 have been sold.
It is Mr. Dale's belief that if band instru-
ment sales are not large enough to satisfy man-
ufacturers and dealers, it is in a large measure
their own fault for not being able to visualize
the opportunity of training the children in thou-
sands upon thousands of communities through-
out the country. That such training is possible,
and at a purely nominal cost, he, himself, has
proven.
Mr. Dale's plan can best be illustrated by cit-
ing what he has accomplished in Cold Spring.
As a youngster he had the ambition to become
a professional musician and studied the violin
at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig, with
Hans Sitt, following that with a course in con-
ducting under Arthur Nikisch, which gave him
a playing knowledge of some twenty-two or-
chestral instruments. Various circumstances
turned Mr. Dale from a musical career into in-
surance, real estate, and then to the law, which
he has followed for a number of years.
About seven years ago, with a growing family
about him and a wife who was herself a trained
pianist, Mr. Dale again decided to take up music
in order to teach his children. One boy took
up the trombone and was instructed by his
father, who took an intensive course to refresh
his memory. A six-year-old boy experimented
with several instruments before he finally cen-
tered on the cornet. It was but natural that the
musical accomplishments of these two boys
should incite the envy of the neighborhood chil-
dren, with the result that a number of their
playmates insisted upon learning to play musi-
cal instruments. Mr. Dale encouraged them and
finally conceived the idea of forming a small
orchestra.
The children naturally were willing enough,
but in some cases the parents were doubtful of
their ability, and in other cases too poor to in-
vest in expensive instruments for practice pur-
poses. An age-old practice has been to refer
complex problems to a Philadelphia lawyer, but
in this instance the ingenuity of a New York
(Continued on page 15)