23
P R E S T O-T I M E S
May, 1930
WOMAN WRITES BOOK ON
BAND AND ORCHESTRA WORK
Corinna Melville, Band and Orchestra Organizer,
Expects to See It in Print Soon.
Mrs. M. Corrina Melville, of the Tri-State Band
and Orchestra School of Music, Memphis, Tenn., is
now in Chicago for an indefinite period of time to
organize some bands for a local firm.
Mrs. Melville has been in the South for about three
years, where she was organizing bands and orchestras
and all kinds of music groups. She was employed
GRETSCH CHICAGO HEADQUARTERS.
The Fred Gretsch Mfg. Co., of Brooklyn, N. Y.,
which recently opened Chicago headquarters at 226
South Wabash avenue, Chicago, and where Philip
Nash, the vice-president of the company, can be found,
is announcing the Gretsch Tenor-Guitar in genuine
mahogany. The fingerboard, bridge and headpiece
are of selected rosewood. The Eagle brand har-
monicas which this company is now advertising are
German-made instruments, and every drummer knows
the trade-mark of the genuine K. Zildjian Cymbals,
"made according to the secret Zildjian formula dis-
covered more than 300 years ago." Piano accordions
are meeting with a good sale at this Chicago head-
quarters. These instruments are suitable to home use
and make a splendid line for any piano dealer to
handle. E. E. Strong, advertising manager of the
Fred Gretsch Mfg. Co., 60 Broadway, Brooklyn, is
busy these days preparing some very interesting ads.
for the spring trade.
PRODUCING NEW MUSICAL SOUNDS.
A musical instrument in which beams of light and
a photo-electric cell have been utilized to produce
entirely new musical sounds has been developed at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cam-
bridge, Mass. The instrument, which has not yet
been named, is played in the manner of a piano, and
the first experimental model, which has a three-
octave keyboard, was designed to stimulate the deep,
resonant tones of an organ. This sound was synthe-
sized from the analysis of the tone of a large pipe
organ. By slight changes, however, the instrument
can be made to reproduce the sound of almost any
instrument, such as a violin, clarinet or oboe. Musi-
cians who have heard the instrument believe it opens
a new field for musical expression.
M. CORINNA MELVILLE.
for C. G. Conn, Ltd., of Elkhart, Ind , as one of
their official organizers and made her headquarters
at the O. K. Houck Piano Co. and at the Tri-State
Band and Orchestra School.
Mrs. Melville has had unusual success as a pro-
moter and organizer of various organizations. Some
of the outstanding bands and orchestras organized
by her are the Dixie Peaches, Silver Moon Serena-
ders, Melody Maids, Twentieth Century Young Men's
Orchestra, Memphis Madrigal Club, American Le-
gion Band of Mark Tree, Arkansas, Indianola Town
Band, Indianola, Miss., DeSoto County Agricultural
School.
Mrs. Melville was with the Conn National School
of Music, the Conn Chicago Co., Tom Brown Band
and Orchestra School, Rankin School of Music, Chi-
cago, 111.
Some of the outstanding industrial bands of Chi-
cago and vicinity organized by Mrs. Melville were the
Bell-Zoller Band of Zeigler, 111., Horder Stationery
Co., of Chicago. She has had the honor of having
a personal mention in musical circles throughout the
North and South.
Mrs. Melville is now getting a book out, entitled
"A Woman's Way," on band and orchestra organ-
izing and promotional work, which is directed to
music stores and dealers, music schools and music
associations and she is expecting one of the large
manufacturers to publish this book at an early date.
Some of the noted musical artists of the present date
are included in the review of this book.
BANDS PREPARE FOR CONTEST.
The National Band Contest is to be held on May
23, 24 and 25 at Flint, Mich. Illinois entrants were
selected from among 27 high school bands and 150
soloists who competed for three days at Urbana,
beginning April 24. Paul E. Morrison of Quincy is
president of the Illinois Bandmasters' Association.
GERMAN DRUM MAKER COMING.
Otto Link, president of the big drum factory at
Weissenfels, Germany, is planning to make an exten-
sive trip in the United States the coming July. This
house, established in 1875, has an international repu-
tation for its prepared skins and leather for drum
making. Mr. Link will sail on the Steamship Colum-
bus, arriving at New York on July 11, and will visit
some of the large drum manufacturing firms of this
country.
CAMP ENROLLMENT NEARS 200.
Enrollments for the 1930 National High School
Orchestra and Band Camp, Interlochen, Mich., are
Hearing the 200 mark, reports Prof. J. E. Maddy of
the University of Michigan, musical director of the
camp. Michigan and Illinois are leading in enroll-
ments, with Ohio, Minnesota, Indiana and Wiscon-
sin not far behind. The total enrollment of the camp
is limited to 300. Dates of the camp this year are
June 30 to Aug. 23.
"JAZZERS" MAY BE SENT HOME.
A dispatch from London to the Chicago Tribune
says that many American jazz band musicians are
likely to be deported to the United States because
their employers are violating the alien labor permits
in hiring them.
AN HISTORIC VIOLIN.
A. J. Broderick and George Calvert, oil operators
of Fort Worth, Tex., own an historic violin known as
the "White House Violin." It is said that President
Lincoln attempted to play it, but making poor success,
abandoned his ambition to become a violinist. The
former owner, Col. William H. Crook, once played
it for the entertainment of President Roosevelt.
The Hyatt Electrical Corporation plans to locate
its portable radio plant at Woodstock, 111.
MR. FREUND'S COMMENTS
Editor Presto-Times.
Dear Sir:
Young America gave forth a grand and glorious
expression of its splendid spirit of young manhood
and young womanhood at the Second Biennial Meet-
ing of the Music Supervisors' National Conference
held at the Hotel Stevens and at the public concerts
at the Auditorium recently.
It was most inspiring to watch and hear the young
people from practically every state in the Union per-
form on wind and stringed instruments, to listen to
their youthful, harmonious voices in the chorus, to
see the bright, intelligent faces, sparkling eyes, joy
of life, natural buoyancy, good manners; and all intent
on executing in their best style, well-trained perform-
ance on their instruments or in choral selections.
What could be more elevating or more beneficial
for the future of America's manhood and womanhood
than the active participation of the youth of both
sexes in music? Youth must blow off steam, and
young America can do this to his entire satisfaction
by playing wind instruments which develop his physi-
cal well being and his keener perception through the
necessity for very active functioning of hearing and
seeing.
The outstanding stars among these boys and girls
have already shown surprising ability on their respec-
tive instruments, far superior to many of our past and
present day artists when they were of the same age.
This proves clearly that the national musical move-
ment has taken hold on Young America and in the
most marked manner has already aided in the develop-
ment of the younger generation in the finest sense.
HARRY EDWARD FREUND.
Chicago.
RESENT CUTTING OF DISCOUNTS.
The Talking Machine & Radio Journal came out
with an editorial signed by Glad Henderson, editor,
in the April number strongly in favor of the radio
manufacturers as touching the discounts they allow
the radio dealers. However injudicious it may be
for a trade paper to give wholesale prices which
some of the general public may read, it seems just
as imprudent to particularize the figures in discounts.
Anyway, several prominent radio dealers have voiced
resentment about the position taken by the trade
paper referred to and one of them said to a Presto-
Times representative: "Every music dealer knows
that it costs not far from 25 per cent in overhead to
conduct a radio retail business, so that the 40 per cent
mentioned as the radio discount isn't any more than
the dealer ought to have. We used to get a 40 per
cent discount on phonographs, .and you know phono-
graphs require a modicum of service as compared to
the service that the buyer of a radio set expects from
the store-keeper. In addition to the 40 per cent
discount for cash on phonographs, the manufacturers
used to give us a percentage allowance on the cost of
our local advertising, which helped us to sustain our
overhead expenses. So, as 40 per cent is barely
enough, we resent any suggestion to cut below that
figure."
Earl Frazier, from the Charles E. Wells Co , Den-
ver, Colo., and M. Leffingwell, of Elkhart, Ind., took
an order last week at Laramic, Wyo., for new band
instruments for the Laramie Union Pacific Band, of
which H. B. Pope is director.
Paul
and is
station
month
Shirley, who plays a violin with 14 strings
making a name for himself with broadcasting
WNAC, was given a pictorial write-up last
in the Rockford, 111., Gazette.
The Stranburg Music Co. has renewed its lease for
another year at Oil City, Pa. J. W. Russell is man-
ager. The business is 31 years old.
New Edition for 1930 Now In Press
PRESTO BUYERS' GUIDE
Will Contain Full Lists with Concise Classification and Description of all
American Pianos, Players and Reproducing Pianos, with Sketches of their
Makers. Essential to All Salemen. Price 50 cents, post paid.
NO PIANO DEALER OR PROSPECT CAN AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT IT.
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
417 S. Dearborn St., CHICAGO
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