The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1916)

EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY, MAY, 1916 13 INDIAtNS delight in making OWN RECORDS ANEW trait has been discovered in the American Indian as a result of the invention of the phonograph. The redman is the egotist supreme if his conduct in relation to the voice-reproducer is accepted as providing a true insight into his character. For he delights in making his own records and in handing down his song and speech to posterity. Some of the Osage Indians, according to a letter received from the Ryder Music Company, Edison agents in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, have as many as two or three large trunks full of their own records. In order to make so many records the purchases of blanks necessarily must be large and the Indians buy as many as fifty at a time of these. The Ryder Company is located in the heart of he Indian country and those at the head of che concern have evidently made every effort to familiarize themselves with the likes and dislikes of their Indian patrons. "As record buyers," the letter states, "our Indians are a very staunch part of our come-back trade, and when they have the money they spend it freely on the pleasures of life. They love to be entertained, and the Edison phonograph fills that want with them. The Indian buys mostly the rag band records and rag songs and some of the higher classes of songs. Opera never enters their heads, although we have two local Indians in the East who are now studying for the grand opera stage." Mr. Ryder, in his letter, states that among the records that are particularly popular with the Indians are "Casey Jones," "Sailing Down the Chesapeake Bay," "Under the Double Eagle March," "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee," and all of the Indian songs of the type of "Silver Bell," "Red Wing," etc. The details of the interesting letter show that the Indians are fond of music, generous with their money, and possessed of many other good characteristics in spite of the fact that they are inordinately fond of listening to their own voices. Copyright, Geoffrey O'Hara Indians Making Records for Geoffrey O'Hara SELLING BLUE AMBEROLS BY PARCEL POST THE parcel post and the telephone are both used by W. E. Bailey, Edison dealer in Grand Ledge, Mich., in pushing the sales of Blue Amberol records. In a letter Mr. Bailey speaks with enthusiasm of the splendid business that he does in repairing phonographs, and states that he finds it profitable to spend much of his own time in the department where mechanical difficulties are adjusted and repairs made. Mr. Bailey is also finding that the Blue Amberol record business is active, but, according to his own phraseology, "a dealer has to go after them." "I have 175 phonograph users whom I call on or 'phone to, and many of them let me send them an assortment of records by parcel post each month. When I send a box of six or a dozen records, the people who get them often keep the whole assortment. If you waited for these people to come to your store when they had to shovel their way through snowdrifts they would not come very often. The improvement that was made in January in the Blue Amberol records is being noticed by all the trade around here." It is dealers like Mr. Bailey — dealers who recognize the fact that you can not get and keep customers unless you "go after them" who are selling Diamond Amberolas and Blue Amberol records, and who are making nice profits on their trans