14
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
the body was cremated and Mrs. Fa-hrney will place
the urn containing the ashes upon her mother's grave
in Graceland Cemetery, Chicago.
The family sent out the following card:
The Family of
Mr. Isaac Newton Rice
deeply appreciate your
kindly expression of sympathy.
December 15, 1929
HONORABLE CAREER
OF THE LATE I. N. RICE
LOS ANGELES
COMMUNITY MUSIC
Distinguished Piano Man Who Passed Away
in Los Angeles December 1 Was Widely
Known as Manufacturer and Dealer and
Had Hosts of Friends.
Nearly Two Million People Participated in
Its Musical Activities During
the Year.
In the death of I. N. Rice on the night of Decem-
ber 1 at his home, 419 South Grainercy place, Los
Angeles, Calif., the piano trade of the United States
lost one of its most distinguished and active members.
JOHN B. THIERY DIES
AT HARTFORD, CONN.
Former Head of J. B. Thiery Piano Company, Mil-
waukee, Was Once Kimball Retail Manager.
John B. Thiery, former head of the J. B. Thiery
Piano Company, Third and Wisconsin avenue, Mil-
waukee, died on Monday, December 2, at Hartford,
Conn.
Mr. Thiery was a native of Germany and estab-
lished his Milwaukee music house in 1886. He is a
descendant of the family from which Chateau Thiery,
the famous battlefield in France, takes its name. He
left Milwaukee about ten or twelve years ago.
The funeral was held in Hartford. Mr. Thiery is
survived by his widow, Anna, and two children, Ed-
ward and Gladys K. Thiery.
Mr. Thiery was for some time retail manager at
Chicago for the W. W. Kimball Company. After
leaving Chicago he located at Milwaukee where he
established the J. B. Thiery Piano Company, which
ran a long career, but was closed out when he went
East.
OTHER DEATHS.
T. x.
RICE.
Death was attributed to apoplexy. He had the first
stroke about two years ago which forced his retire-
ment from active business. He was 82 years of age.
The funeral services were conducted at the Little
Church of the Flowers, Glendale, on December 4.
Mr. Rice was one of the best-liked men in the piano
business, a branch of service he understood in its
many phases. Jovial, pleasant, friendly, entertain-
ing, he was a man who made and held many friends.
Very few in the trade can remember Mr. Rice when
in the 70's of the last century he was manager of a
dry goods business at Afton and Osceola, Iowa, the
headquarters of the house being at Keokuk, Iowa.
As a side line, he took the agency for Estey organs.
The organ business prospered and grew, and later
we find him in Des Moines in the '80s conducting a
prosperous piano business. In the '90s we find him
in Chicago, where, having formed the acquaintance of
a moneyed man and backer, Mr. Macy, the Rice-Macy
Piano Company was formed and began manufactur-
ing pianos.
Later, the Macy-Rice-Hinze Piano Company was
formed. This manufacturing business was transferred
to other interests and now form integral parts of other
manufacturers' lines.
Mr. Rice was among the pioneers in piano manu-
facturing in Chicago. After discontinuing manufac-
turing, he engaged in wholesale and retail enterprises.,
and for some ten or fifteen years gave his attention
to traveling, paying particular attention to the Pacific
Coast trade. Having disposed of his home in Des
Plaines, 111., and his valuable farm near that city for
a good price, he took up his residence in California.
For several years the annual home gathering at the
I. N. Rice beautiful home in Des Plaines, 111., were
events of much enjoyment. As host at these parties
Mr. Rice was at his best.
Among the manufacturing concerns with which Mr.
Rice was connected were Reed & Sons, which was
associated with the house of Stcger, and W. P. Haines
& Co., New York.
His wife died some six or seven years ago, and
some two or three years later he married again. This
lady survives him, as does also two sons, John Rice
and Dr. F. T. Rice, retired army surgeon, and one
daughter, Mrs. Elna Fahrney, who makes her home at
the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. A brother,
Thomas Rice, lives at Osceola, Iowa.
During his illness many friends called upon Mrs.
Fahrney, his daughter, and his wife. They furnished
a large spray of flowers at the funeral.
Mr. Rice's funeral was conducted with Masonic
honors. -He was a Knight Templar, a member of
Apollo Commandery, No. 1, Chicago, and of Medinah
Shrine. The song, "Lay My Head Beneath a Rose,"
w r as sung by Grant Falkenstein, of Falkenstein Music
Company, Fresno, Calif., a friend of Mr. Rice of many
years' standing. Carrying out a wish of the deceased,
While playing at a reception following a fashion-
able wedding in Evanston, 111., recently, Leonard
Vertuno, a musician, dropped dead of heart disease.
The Rev. Dr. Elisha A. Hoffman, aged 90 years,
writer of hymns that have been sung all over the
world, died in Chicago on November 25.
Mieczyslaw Soltys, director of the Society of
Music, composer and orchestra leader, died on Novem-
ber 15 at Lwow, Poland.
Charles Carpenter Brady, widely known musician
and band leader, aged 60 years, died at his home in
Middletown, N. Y., on November 13.
Duvergne Henry Barnard, 62, composer of "Whis-
per and I Shall Hear" and many other ballads, died
in London, England, on November 27.
P. M. Oyler, well-known piano man of Harrisburg,
Pa., died recently.
TALKIES IN ONE LANGUAGE.
The changes that are following one another so
rapidly in many departments of human progress have
upset a score or two of steady lines of business.
While many upsets may be charged directly to
radio, the accessory inventions growing out of radio
have upset more than straight radio. For example,
the one-language talkies are threatening to kill the
immense foreign business of American producers.
This was aptly illustrated in a cartoon in the Chicago
Tribune, the upper half of the picture showing men
of many nationalities enjoying the silent films in their
various languages, the lower half showing one lone
man in a. foreign movie theater enjoying a talkie in
English. Here is a great obstacle—how to get a
costly talkie into 25 or 30 different languages. Ameri-
can talkies are having a hard time in foreign lands.
SYRACUSE MAN FOR PRESIDENT.
H. L. Butler, dean of the Syracuse School of Fine
Arts, was elected president of the National Associa-
tion of Music Schools at the close of the organiza-
tion's fifth annual conference in the Stevens Hotel,
Chicago, on November 30. B. C. Tuthill, Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music, was elected secretary and
C. N. Boyd, Pittsburgh Musical Institute, treasurer.
Mrs. F. B. Sanders. Cleveland Institute of Music;
William Mayforth, Converse School of Music, Spauld-
ing, N. C ; Earl Rosenberg, Kansas City Horner Con-
servatory, and J. J. Landsbury, University of Oregon
School of Music, were elected vice-presidents. Chicago
schools of music represented were Northwestern Uni-
versity, American Conservatory of Music, Bush Con-
servatory, Chicago Musical College, Columbia School
of Music, Cosmopolitan, and the Glenn Dillard Gunn
School.
KNABE CELEBRATES 92ND YEAR.
To celebrate Knabe's 92 years' glorious contribu-
tion to musical art, eight new Knabe and Knabe-Am-
pico Baby Grand designs have been created. These
range from designs of chaste simplicity to the more
elaborate hand-carved French styles.
They are
Knabe's finest achievement—their finest value—in 92
years! Period models are offered in Queen Anne,
Adam, William & Mary, Louis XVI and Hepplewhite
designs.
That Los Angeles is rapidly becoming a city of
music lovers, as well as sport enthusiasts, is the con-
clusion which may be drawn from the report of the
City Playground and Recreation Department showing
that close to two million people enjoyed recreational
musical activities organized and sponsored by Glenn
M. Tiudall, supervisor of music in the department,
during the fiscal year ending June 1. The huge total
of 1,988, 610 people included both the persons who
participated in musical activities and those who de-
rived their recreation by listening.
Most encouraging of all is the figure given for actual
participants. A total of 613,463 persons took part in
the various musical groups developed in other depart-
mental musical activities. These groups included
bands, ukulele orchestras, toy symphony orchestras,
community sings, harmonica bands, and many other
types of participating organizations. Something of
interest was provided for all ages.
For the smallest children, too young to understand
or participate in a more advanced type of musical
activity, the "toy symphony'' has been organized at
the various city playgrounds. Each child, who is a
member of a toy symphony, is given a tambourine, a
drum, a bell, a cymbal, or any other object with which
he can keep time and he is then taught to maintain
the rhythm of simple musical selections.
For the older child, numerous harmonica bands
and ukulele orchestras have been developed. The
harmonica especially has been found an excellent in-
strument with which to introduce boys and girls
to the fundamentals of music. Starting with simple
pieces, the players rapidly acquire a mastery of this
homely instrument and soon are able to play selec-
tions from grand opera. Youthful harmonica players
often acquire an interest in more advanced instru-
ments also.
Orchestras organized by the Playground and Recre-
ation Department arc usually of the community type.
These are developed at the municipal recreation cen-
ters and offer the opportunity for any one sufficiently
proficient in playing an orchestra instrument to join.
Outstanding examples of successful community or-
chestras so organized, are the San Pedro Civic Or-
chestra, which plays standard classics and symphonic
works, the Watts Symphony Orchestra, and many
others. A new orchestra of this kind is now being
organized at the Exposition Community Club House.
Through the medium of community singing, thou-
sands of other persons, not necessarily familiar with
any musical instrument or acquainted with funda-
mentals of music, are able to take part in real musi-
cal recreation. Community sin-ging groups are de-
veloped at the city's recreation centers and other
places and the popularity of this form of play is amply
demonstrated by the total of 250,000 persons esti-
mated to have taken part during the past year.
Musical enterprises of a city-wide nature have also
given many thousands a real enjoyment of music.
Such was the great "Festival of Music" held in the
Hollywood Bowl last year in connection with the
World Sunday-School Convention and the Christmas
carol program of last year which resulted in 15.000
persons singing Yuletide songs upon the city's streets.
The latter program, on a larger scale, will be repeated
this Christmas.
WURLITZER DAYTON STORE BUSY.
The Wurlitzer Company's store at Dayton, Ohio,
is now handling the new Victor radio, which is avail-
able to the public with or without Electrola. A com-
plete line of these remarkable new receivers is car-
ried. General Manager Clifford J. Morgan points
out that for years—and particularly during the past
two years—Victor has been engaged in developing
a superior radio receiver. One cannot know the
wonderful beauty, power, color and realism of an
Orthophonic Victor record until he hears it on the
new radio with Electrola. Even records one is fa-
miliar with sound new, doubly brilliant, rich, sono-
rous and thrilling. High, low or medium tones may
be produced as the hearer desires, while the new
full-vision tuning device is proving equally as
popular.
MUSICIAN SAVED BY SON.
Whitney J. Godfrey, 38-year-old orchestra leader,
was buried by a cave-in of a sewer he was digging
at his home, Benton Harbor, Mich., on November 30,
and was rescued by his son, Whitney, Jr., and two
young boys. He emerged from his freezing grave
none the worse for his experience.
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