The Edison phonograph monthly (Jan-Dec 1916)

14 EDISON PHONOGRAPH MONTHLY, SEPTEMBER, 1916 season at Atlantic City as tenor soloist with the concert bands playing there. While Mr. Chick is a superb singer, his musical talents also include the gift of composition and he has written several songs of the popular variety. There are few people who will not recollect the hit made by "My Dream of the U. S. A.," the song sensation of 1908-09. Mr. Chick was the author of that song as well as the writer of "Your Barney's Coming Home," an Irish march song which won for him the highest honors in a song and singing contest held in New York in 1914. On this occasion the majority of the leading song writers of this country appeared and sang their own songs. The judges decided that Mr. Chick had the best song and that his vocal abilities were superior to those of his competitors. His gifts as a song writer and a singer naturally led him into vaudeville engagements, and for the past eight years much of his time has been spent on the stage. He is particularly well known and admired in the South, where his vaudeville tours have taken him for five consecutive years. JAMES HARROD, TENOR James Harrod, the young tenor who has come into prominence through his splendid work during the past few seasons, is a graduate of the College of Music of Cincinnati, and it was in that institution that he laid the foundation of a career that has been remarkably successful in the past and that promises great things for the future. Graduating from the Cincinnati Conservatory in 1911, he immediately went to Europe, following the advice of Frank Van Der Stucken, the wellknown vocal authority. He located in Paris and became a pupil of the noted Jean de Reszke, his efforts being directed toward fitting himself for an operatic career. Gifted with a superb voice and having the temperament that is so essential to success on the stage, he soon proved himself capable of the highest class of work and, at the time the European war broke out, was preparing to fill an engagement with the Covent Garden Opera in London. The war, however, made necessary his return to America, where his ability brought him immediate recognition. Andreas Dippel, the widely known impresario, engaged Mr. Harrod for a season of Opera Comique, and this brought him into further prominence. Going into concert work, he found a strong demand for his services, and during the season of 1915-1916 he appeared at many of the largest music festivals of the country. His appearances almost invariably are followed by requests for return engagements. NEW CONCRETE ADDITION TO ORANGE PLANT THE rapid increase in the demand for Edison phonographs and records that has developed in the past few months has made imperative the expansion of the manufacturing and storage facilities at the Orange factories, and it recently was announced by the management that arrangements for the erection of an additional building have been completed. The proposed structure will be used for record storing and shipping purposes and it will relieve the congestion that has developed in other buildings because of the lack of adequate storage room. It will be of cement and steel construction, three stories in height, sixty-nine feet wide by two hundred and twenty-one feet long. The contract calls for the completion of the work about October 15, The new building will replace a one-story structure erected after the fire of December, 1915, and which was adequate for the purpose it was designed for until a few months ago, when constantly increasing business reached a point where it became absolutely inadequate. SAYS AMBEROLA LINE IS MORE ACTIVE THAN DISC TAKING on the Amberola line in order t supplement the Edison Disc line, the G. E\ Hain Company, of Fremont, Mich., have found that the demand for Amberola instruments and Blue Amberol records exceeds the demand for Edison Disc instruments and records within their zone of operations. "In reply to your letter regarding our taking on the Amberola line," states a letter from R. C. Hain, secretary and treasurer of the G. E. Hain Company, "we were induced to do this because of the demand for cheaper instruments than we could furnish in the Edison Disc line. We are situated in a community where the interest of our customers mostly is centered in farming, and we find that a majority of our trade look for Edison instruments and records of the Amberol type because of their low price. "The Amberola line seems to be more active for us than the Disc line." PHONOGRAPH MUSIC FOR PLAGUE SUFFERERS A powerful recommendation of the phonograph as a diverting and entertaining instrument was that recently made by Dr. Haven Emerson, Commissioner of Health of New York City, when he issued an appeal for the donation or loan of instruments to be used for the benefit of sufferers from infantile paralysis. The hundreds of little patients in the hospitals of the Metropolis had no means of amusement and it was decided that the phonograph would afford the best form of diversion. The response on the part of the public was immediate and generous and the phonograph played an important part in alleviating the tedious hours that many of the little sufferers spent in confinement.