Presto

15
P R E S T 0-TI M E S
February 12, 1927.
SMALL GOODS, MUSIC ROLLS AND SHEET MUSIC
BAND GOODS PRODUCTION
Its Amazing Growth Since the World War
Due to Stimulative Effects of Circum-
stances on Progressive Manufacturer.
The manufacture of band instruments in the United
States has been stimulated in an amazing way since
the beginning of the World War. Several phases
in the situation created at the beginning of hostili-
ties and subsequently have resulted in a wonderful
production of materials and finished goods. Before
the war the trade here in brass musical instruments
was largely dependent on Germany and France.
Before the war it was a generally accepted fact that
we could not manufacture brass instruments in this
country to compete with the German product. With
their cheap labor and their knowledge of manufac-
turing gained from generations of experience it was
held to be impossible to make an instrument at their
price that would compare at all favorably with the
German instrument in quality and tone; consequently
the bulk of the instruments used in this country were
imported. Germany's exports to us of brass instru-
ments before 1914 amounted annually to about
$1,000,000.
But see the astounding condition today. We now
manufacture the biggest part of the brass instruments
made in the whole world outside of those which the
Germans and Austrians make for their own use. Our
manufacturers have not only conquered all difficulties
but have evolved new methods of manufacture. In
great plants like that of C. G. Conn in Elkhart, Ind.,
new machinery has been devised and made that not
only simplifies processes but also produces perfect
instruments.
The instruments the American band instrument
manufacturers are turning out are of the highest
quality, far excelling the former German product
and are now accepted as the standard of quality
throughout the world, American manufacturers have
won their prominence on merit and on merit they will
keep it. Of course having the largest initial market
in the world is an advantage which our manufac-
turers have over the rest of the world. A large home
consumption makes possible a large production which
is a very material aid in keeping manufacturing costs
down to the minimum and fixed charges at a low
ratio of the total turnover.
A cheering certainty is that the home consumption
will be further increased. The growth of the band
and orchestra spirit is one of the most remarkable
features of the American music trade. It is some-
thing stimulated by the dealers, the manufacturers,
individually and through their national associations
and by every event which has music as a prominent
feature. The band and orchestra business now has an
overwhelming impetus.
MUSICAL MOVING PICTURES
Late Invention Synchronizes Phonograph with Pho-
tograph for Entertainment in the Home.
Musical motion pictures are now available for the
home, following a series of successful experiments in
the combining of moving pictures with the phono-
graph, according to an announcement made here to-
day by J. H. McNabb, President of a Chicago mo-
tion picture apparatus manufacturer. This new process
synchronizes the motion picture and the phonograph
in a new development called the "filmophone." It is
being produced solely for use with 16 millimeter film,
the popular home type of motion picture projector.
Mr. McNabb, whose personal research and activities
in the motion picture world is largely responsible for
this new development, says:
"After months of experimental work we have now
produced a successful method of combining sound
and light for the home motion picture audience. An
important and interesting feature of this new method
is that the phonograph still retains all of its qualities
of sound reproduction and can be used entirely apart
from the filmophone—and, likewise, that the motion
picture projector remains usable in the showing of
pictures apart from the filmophone."
The new device operates as follows: What ap-
pears to be an ordinary motion picture film is placed
in the projector which is focused in the regular man-
ner upon a sheet or screen. At the same time a
record is placed on the phonograph. The two instru-
ments are started together. The result if that figures
on the screen not only move—they talk, sing or actu-
ally play musical instruments as the case may be.
The sound, of course, comes from the record that is
playing in accord with the action on the screen. Yet
the realism is so startling that the first impression
in uncanny. This new method is a remarkable com-
bination of sound, light and action.
NEW CAPITOL WORD ROLLS
Fox-Trots Lead in Number in Fine List of Dance
Music Ready for Dealers.
The Capitol Roll & Record Co., 72 North Kedzie
avenue, Chicago, has issued its new list of music for
playerpianos for February. The rolls are hand-
played, have printed words and extra choruses and
are longer than the usual rolls. Particular care is
taken to provide the best materials obtainable for the
preparations of the rolls which have the enduring
quality that makes the roll customers permanent
ones. The combination of -desirable quality and
alluring price makes the Capitol rolls assured profit-
makers in a roll department. The new rolls for
February are as follows:
A Little Music in the Moonlight, fox trot; Candy
Lips, fox trot; Don't Forget the Pal You Left at
Home, Marimba Waltz; Elsie Schultz-En-Heim, fox
trot; Give Me a Ukulele, fox trot; Gone Again Gal,
fox trot; Knows His Groceries, fox trot; Hello,
Swanee! Hello!, fox trot; How Could Red Riding
Hood?, fox trot; I Don't Mind Being Alone, fox trot;
If Tears Could Brink You Back to Me, fox 'trot;
I'm Tellin' the Birds—Tellin' the Bees, fox trot.
It Made You Happy When You Made Me Cry,
fox trot; I've Got the Girl, fox trot; My Baby Knows
How, fox trot; My Girl Has Eye Trouble, fox trot;
Oh, How She Could Play a Ukulele, fox trot; Orig-
inal Black Bottom Dance; She's Still My Baby, fox
trot; Sidewalk Blues; Susie's Feller, fox trot; To-
night You Belong to Me, waltz; Trail of Dreams,
waltz; When I First Met Mary, fox trot; When I'm
in Your Arms, fox trot; Within the Prison of My
Dreams, fox trot.
APPOINTS JAZZ ARBITER.
The founders of the National Association of Or-
chestra Leaders, which last week appointed Julian
T. Abeles arbiter of jazz at a salary of $25,000 a year,
are Paul Whiteman, Vincent Lopez, Ben Bernie,
George Olsen, Roger Wolfe Kahn, Fred Rich, B. A.
Rolfe and Ernie Golden. The members are pledged
not to bid away one another's star performers
and will make reasonable rules to avoid cutthroat
competition in making phonograph music and in other
forms of reproduced music.
U. S. RIGHTS TO MUSIC ROYALTIES.
In a decision handed down recently, the United
States Court of Appeals held that the alien property
owner is the owner of the music copyrights involved
in the hearing. The decision confirms the U. S.
alien property custodian in the right to recover
royalties for the use of German owned music seized
during the war as enemy-owned property.
C. G. CONN, Ltd., Elkhart, Ind.
C. D. GREENLEAF, Pres.
J. F. BOYER, Sec'y
World's largest manufacturers of High Grade Band and Orchestra Instruments. Employs 1,009
expert workmen.
AH of the most celebrated Artists use and endorse Conn Instruments.
Famous Bandmasters and Orchestra Directors highly endorse and recommend the use of the
Conn Instruments in their organizations.
Conn Instruments are noted for their sase of playing, light and reliable valve or key action;
quick response, rich tonal quality, perfect intonation, tone carrying quality, artisticness of design,
beautiful finish and reliable construction.
Conn Instruments are sent to any point in th U. S. subject to ten days free trial. Branch store
or agencies will be found in all large cities. Write for catalogues, prices, etc.
C. G. CONN, Ltd.
DEPT. MS.
ELKHART, IND.
ROLL AIDS PIANO'S CAUSE
Ability of Player Roll to Demonstrate Fine
Piano Music Strong Agency in Piano
Promotion Plans.
It makes the piano man feel in the veteran class
if he can hark his memory back to the time when
the critics first began to acknowledge the player-
piano's real influence on music. It had come about
after a period in which the instrument was regarded
as too "mechanical" to deserve serious considera-
tion. Gradually the critics and pianists grew into the
thought that the playerpiano was more than a ma-
chine and that instead of being designed to supplant
the piano and the piano teacher, it was a valuable
ally.
In time, too, the manufacturers of music rolls put
the roll on the same footing as a piece of printed
music in its need for publicity by means of the
review. Then the trade stopped making excuses for
the playerpiano when it was acknowledged that
through the aid of the rolls it was familiarizing people
with a vast quantity of music that otherwise would
be a sealed book to them. Today it is the general
belief that the knowledge of the less featured high
class music is greater among the owners of player-
pianos and reproducing pianos than among profes-
sional musicians.
"I have frequently been surprised to find that peo-
ple who cannot play the piano at all by hand are
familiar with numbers of new works ?.bout which
the ordinary piano teacher or piano student know
nothing," said a prominent music critic recently in
Chicago. "They are playerpiano owners."
The belief of the music critic is by no means rare
and the facts suggested are arguments for the player
music roll as a potent aid in the promotion of the
piano. The roll presents the most convenient way
in which the beauties of the piano may be demon-
strated. The music roll is one of the great agencies
on which the world relies today for its general
knowledge of new music, that is new music of the
finer kind. Without the playerpiano, the reproducing
piano and the music roll the gulf between the com-
poser of fine piano music and the public is bound to
widen as the years go by.
MUSIC MEN ELECT.
At the annual meeting last week of the Association
of Music Men composed of retail salesmen of publish-
ing houses in 'the metropolitan area of New York, the
following were elected as officers: Charles Schloz,
president; Joe Fischer, vice-president; Herman Trink,
treasurer; Theodore Heimeman, corresponding sec-
retary, and Joe Dunn, recording secretary.
JOBBING OFFICE HELD UP.
Two armed thugs held up the offices of the Fred
Gretsch Mfg. Co., 60 Broadway, Brooklyn, N. Y., last
week and took $1,100 from the cashier. Fred Gretsch,
president of the musical merchandise jobbing house,
said the loss was completely covered by insurance.
THE FAMOUS
CLARK
ORCHESTRA ROLLS
of De Kalb, Illinois
The Best for Automatic Playing Pianos
Organs and Orchestrions
Whether you sell automatic playing in-
struments or not, it will pay you to
handle and be able to furnish
CLARK ORCHESTRA ROLLS
Monthly bulletins of new records. Write
for lists, folders and FULL PARTICU-
LARS.
Clark Orchestra Roll Company
Manufacturers — Originators — Patentees
De Kalb, Illinois
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