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MAY 18, 1929
Willard A. Vose Dies
After a Brief Illness
President of Vose & Sons Piano Co., Last of
"Old School" of Piano Makers, Was Seventy-
Eight Years Old
BOSTON, MASS., May 13.— Willard A. Vose, presi-
dent of the Vose & Sons l'iano Co., died early
this mom nit;" ;it his home in Brooklinc. Four
The Late Willard A. Vose
weeks ago he was taken seriously ill and grew
steadily worse until the time of his death. The
funeral will be held on Wednesday afternoon
from the family home with burial at Woodlawn
Cemetery
Mr. Vose, who at the age of seventy-eight
was believed to be the oldest living piano manu-
facturer of the famous "old school" begun near-
ly a century ago, and known as the dean of
piano makers, had actively directed the busi-
ness established by his father until the begin-
ning of his recent illness. Entering the fac-
tory and business of his father, James Whiting
Vose, founder of the company, Willard A. Vose,
at the age of seventeen, showed a business
acumen that developed so rapidly that four
years later he took over the reins of the busi-
ness and financial ends of the company and
brought it to wide recognition. He einbodied
a combination of conservatism and progress in
his business ideals and practices, which eventu-
ally made the name of Vose nationally known.
Up to the time of the death of his father, in
January, 1904, Willard A. Vose was general
manager of the business and treasurer of the
corporation, from which position he succeeded
his father as head of the company.
Willard A. Vose was born in Boston, No-
vember 21, 1851, the same year in which his
father founded the Vose piano business. At
the age of twenty-one he was married to Miss
Emma Bartlett Perley of Boston. Mr. and
Mrs. Vose had two children, George Atherton
Vose, of Brookline, treasurer of the Vose &
Sons Piano Co.; and Mrs. Florence Vose Camp-
bell of New York.
,
In the course of the expansion of the busi-
ness and the need of additional facilities, Mr.
Vose, a few years ago, built the new Vose
plant at Watertown, the present site of the fac-
tory and business offices.
Besides his son and daughter, Mr. Vose is
survived by two grandchildren, Virginia Camp-
bell and Atherton C. Vose; also by two broth-
ers, Irving B. and Julian W. Vose.
New Bing Crosby Records
Bing Crosby, one of Paul Whiteman's three
Rhythm Boys, is now recording for Columbia
records as a soloist, his first record being of
the songs "My Kinda Love" and "Till We
Meet."
The Music Trade Review
Gala Program, Featuring All-Star
Cast, to Be Broadcast by Victor
Notable Concert Will Be Put on Air Friday Evening, May 24, Using Thirty-six Stations
On Coast to Coast Hookup—40,000,000 People Expected to Listen In
\ i r i T H a gala program, an all-star cast of
twenty musical headliners and four great
orchestras, the Victor Talking Machine Co. will
present what is perhaps the most pretentious
microphone entertainment ever put on the air
on Friday evening, May 24. The broadcast will
utilize the complete coast-to-coast facilities of
the National Broadcasting Co. and four of its
largest New York studios will be required to
accommodate the array of talent secured for
the occasion, all Victor artists whose records,
as well as their public appearances, have made
their names household words throughout the
world.
Both Rosario Bourdon and Nathaniel Shil-
kret will wield batons throughout the evening.
Musical selections and accompaniments will be
played by the Victor Concert Orchestra, Vic-
tor Dunce Orchestra, Victor Salon Orchestra
and the Victor Symphony Orchestra. Seven-
teen specially chosen features will include
operatic, classic, popular and old-time numbers.
Milton Cross will be master of ceremonies
and during the evening it is said there will
also be made an announcement of exceptional
importance in connection with modern radio
development.
Arrangements for this nation-wide broadcast
are now being completed by officials of the
Victor Co. and the National Broadcasting Co.
and it is estimated that the entertainment will
be heard by more than 40,000,000 people from
the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada to
the Gulf. In all, thirty-six stations of the NBC
System will put the Victor music on the air.
In addition to the popular maestros, Rosario
Bourdon and Nathaniel Shilkret, the big all-
star cast includes Mischa Elman, Hulda La-
shanska, Gene Austin, Franklyn Baur, Jesse
Crawford, Richard Crooks and Frank Crumit.
Then will come the popular Highhatters, and
Johnny Marvin. George Olsen has chosen
"Dream Mother" as his selection and Jack
Smith's famous tenor will whisper "I Kiss
Your Hand, Madame." Rudy Vallee will set
his listeners' feet shuffling with "Deep Night."
Laurence Tibbett, of the Metropolitan Oper-i
Co., will have a baritone solo and Aileen Stan-
ley is to sing also.
The Victor program will be launched over
WJZ at 10.30 p. m. New York Daylight Saving
Time, on Friday evening, May 24, and the con-
cert will end at midnight. The stations in the
hook-up include WBZA, Boston; WBZ, Spring-
field; KDKA, Pittsburgh; WBAL, Baltimore;
WHAM, Rochester; WJR, Detroit; WLW,
Cincinnati; WRVA, Richmond; WBT, Char-
lotte; WJAX, Jacksonville; WIOD, Miami;
KWK, St. Louis; WREN, Kansas City; KSTP,
Minneapolis; WTMJ, Milwaukee; WEBC, Du-
luth-Superior; WAPI, Birmingham; WSMB,
New Orleans; WHAS, Louisville; WSM, Nash-
ville; WMC, Memphis; WSB, Atlanta; KTHS,
Hot Springs; KVOO, Tulsa; WKY, Oklahoma
City; WFAA, Dallas-Forth Worth; KPRC,
Houston; WOAI, San Antonio; KOA, Denver;
KPO, San Francisco; KFI, Los Angeles; KGW,
Portland; KOMO, Seattle, and KHQ, Spokane.
Trade Members Speak at
Business Houses Interested
Acoustical Society Meeting
in "Music in Industry"
Among the speakers at the first meeting of
the recently organized Acoustical Society of
America held in New York last week was
Dayton C. Miller, the noted scientist, who spoke
on "The Science of Musical Sounds"; Charles
Fuller Stoddard, of the American Piano Co.,
who talked on and demonstrated the Ampico
method of recording piano playing; John Red-
field, who discussed scales, and William Braid
White, technical editor of The Review, who
talked on "The "Human Factor in Piano Tone
Production." The sessions were held in the
auditorium of the Bell Telephone Laboratories,
and will be followed by others in the near
future.
J. O. Adams Music Go. Now
Adams-Bennett Music Go.
The Adams-Bennett Music Co. is the new
name of The J. O. Adams Music Co., in
Wichita, Kans. The change is a tribute to
Merle K. Bennett, treasurer and general man-
ager, who has actively managed the business
for the past eight years. This concern is one
of the outstanding music firms in the South-
west handling everything in music. There is
no change in the stockholders, and the policy
of the firms remain unchanged.
Recording for Brunswick
"Red" Nichols and His Five Pennies, a clever
orchestra that has won a wide reputation play-
ing in vaudeville, at hotels, etc., has signed an
exclusive contract to make Brunswick records.
The Blakestad Music Co., an old-established
music house of Minneapolis, has moved to new
quarters at 23 Eighth street, South, that city.
Heavy Demand for Volume by Kenneth S.
Clark From Prominent Concerns in Many
Lines of Business
Business houses have manifested great in-
terest in the book, "Music in Industry," by
Kenneth S. Clark and recently published by the
National Bureau for the Advancement of
Music, after a survey which continued during
two years. The Pennsylvania Railroad Co.,
through its Personnel Department, has ordered
fifteen copies of the book for distribution to its
workers interested in employe relations. Orders
for the book in quantities have also been re-
ceived from other organizations represented by
a report therein, such as Larkin Co., Inc., the
Delaware & Hudson Co., the Standard Oil Co.
of Louisiana, and the American Rolling Mill
Co., besides a large number of orders in single
copies from other firms. Some of the musical
instrument manufacturers have purchased
copies of the book for distribution among their
branches and dealers. Other purchases of the
book have been those by colleges for their
schools of business, and by various libraries.
A great number of reviews of the book have
recently appeared, such as those in the Boston
Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, New York-
Sun and the Worcester Telegram. A listing
of the book appeared in a large number of
papers including the New York Times, Herald
Tribune, Denver News, Portland Oregonian,
Chicago Post and many others. The Syracuse
Standard ran a long editorial on the book, and
the Cincinnati Star ran an article of more than
half a column.
The Boolan Music Store, Mangum, Okla.,
was destroyed in a fire which recently caused
$300,000 damage in the business section of that
town.