The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1908)

8 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. Heavy Rains Most Beneficial to Crop Prospects and Business Is Improving — IVlany Musical Events — Tetrazzini Records Selling Rapidly — Some Recent Changes — F. C. Deino Resigns Management of Exton Co. Has Been Succeeded by Earl Sparks — Other Items. (Special to The Talking Machine World.) Los Angeles Cal., Jan. 29, 1908. Regardless of heavy rains whicli lasted for six days business has heen very good and promises to be better. The ground is thoroughly soaked and the sunshine and warmth will greatly benefit the crops and flowers. Many musical events have taken place, among which are the concerts of Witherspoon and Kubelik, while "Mme. Butterfly" is soon to be played at the Mason. Several dealers are .making specialties of these artists and also of the opera, advertising concerts with selections from the same. The new list of records from "The Merry Widow," issued by the Zonophone Co., will doubtlessly be a great attraction to talking machine owners as all the selections heretofore listed have met with great success. The records of Tetrazzini have been selling very rapidly. This new star was pronounced a wonder some two or three years ago by critics of Old Mexico and California, where she has appeared a great number of times, hence her success has not been wondered at. Wm. Campbell, who has been with Sherman, Clay & Co. for several years and who recently left here to go to San Francisco, has returned to this city "never to leave again," as he says although Mr. Campbell is a native of San Francisco he has a warm spot in his heart for Los Angeles. Chas. Borgum, who has made several trips in the interest of the Southern California Music Co., has joined the ranks of D. S. Johnston, Co., of Seattle, Wash. His successor has not been named. The Southern California Music Co. have done considerable business ih Enserada, Baja, as a result of another trip of Janun Fhiente, to that place when he gave a concert in Spanish and demonstrated the Victrola to most the entire population of the little Mexican village. The employees of the Southern California Music Co. gathered at Levy's cafe for dinner last week. About forty chairs were filled, including fourteen from the talker department. A very merry evening was spent and everyone was called on to give a toast, ending with a short talk from the president of the company. This company have just made extensive improvements in their talker salesroom by adding glass doors and more recordrack space, also repainting. F. C. Delno, who has had the management of the Exton Music Co.'s talking machine department, has resigned that position and will shortly return to San Francisco. While Mr. Delno was in charge of that department he added the Edison and Star lines to their Victor and Zonophone and fitted up an additional room to house the Edison line. Earl Sparks, who has been in the trade for a number of years in this city, will succeed him. The J. B. Brown Music Co. are remodeling their show windows to enable them to make a better display. The Bartlett Music Co. have closed out their entire small goods stock, but still maintain the "talker" department. MELODY CURE_FOR STAMMERING. Interesting Results Which Have Followed the Experiments of Dr. E. W. Scripture. A cure for stuttering which, for simplicity and promptness in results, seems to surpass any of those hitherto known, has been discovered within the last two months by Dr. E. W. Scripture of this city. It was first announced by him in an address before the New York County Medical Society on December 23 last. Since then inquiries have poured in on him from this and other cities and it may be predicted that before long doctors all over the country will take up the new cure. Dr. Scripture has for years made a specialty of the study of the speaking voice. Recently the results of his investigations in phonetics were published by the Carnegie Institution of Washington. It was in the course of these investigations two months ago that he hit on the idea for his cure for stammerers. Normal voices, he found in his researches, rise and fall in speaking even the most ordinary phrases. In saying "Good morning," for instance, there is a decided rise and fall. But stutterers in nine cases out of ten do all their talking on one tone, owing to the fact that their laryngeal muscles are tight closed as an effect of their ailment. In view of this fact. Dr. Scripture started experiments for the purpose of introducing melody into the voices of stutterers. Stuttering being purely a nervous affliction, he saw that if the mind of the sufferer were taken off his trouble in a simple and easy way, the trouble ought to disappear. To get the stutterers to speak in a way different from their ordinary way. Dr. Scripture argued, would remove their fixed idea about stuttering, and consequently work a cure. If his patient is not particularly intelligent, he first has him sing sentences of some familiar melody. In this way the patient gets the idea that his voice must go up and down. Then he is taught to speak sentences in which he again has to slide his voice. In the first lessons this sliding of the voice is made excessive, in order to get away more completely and quickly from the ordinary monotonous speech of the sufferer. The patient is taught to say ".Good morning." "How do you do?" "Please give me a glass of water," etc., all with excessive melody. Finally, he is taught to introduce melody into all his conversation. At present Dr. Scripture is busy studying, by methods of his own devising, the voices of great singers, among them that of Caniso. His experiments with the melody cure are being conducted by him three times weekly in the Vanderbilt clinic, at Tenth avenue and Sixtieth street, where they have been successful in every way. RECORDS TRADE MARK WON'T BREAK WON'T WEAR OUT Louder and Longer Records BEST IN EVERY WAY 33 Cents Each MR. DEALER: If you have not already put in a line of these wonderful records — GET IN LINE AT ONCE. DON'T WAIT until some live dealer in your neighborhood who knows a good thing when he sees it, gets in ahead of you. ORDER NOW and establish yourself in this line and you will do a larger and more profitable business. There is MONEY TO BE MADE in INDESTRUCTIBLE RECORDS. That is what you are in business for. Write lor Circular and Full Inlormation and send Orders to American Talking Machine Company S86 F^ultoiT Street BROOKLYN, ISF. Y. CITY