The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1906)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. 13 TRADE NOTES FROM THE WEST. Healy Music Co. Expansion — Herriman With Columbia Co. — Cable Company to Handle Talking IVI ach i nes— G. W. Nisbett Still Fighting for Lower Freight Rates. (Special to The Ueview.) World Office, 195 Wabasli avenue, Chicago, 111., March 10, 1906. The announcement that the Victor Talking Machine Co. had retired from the premium machine business is causing real rejoicing among many of the friends of the company and its product here, as they feel that it simply furnishes renewed evidence of the chronic highgradism of the great corporation in every respect. The Healy Music Co. have not only added a full line of American recoras but will also exploit the new Hawthorne-Sheble specialties as well. One of the most perfect and delightful violin records on the market, according to one of our local dealers, is the Traumerei record of the American Record Co. Hillman's department store will shortly have a greatly increased talking machine department, and moreover will go into the instalment plan of selling goods which they have not attempted before. Moreover they are going to handle the Columbia graphophones and records very extensively and will job them as well. A. R. Tearney, the manager of the department, is an experienced, capable talking machine man, and people in the trade predict great things for Hillman's as soon as the larger plans are placed fully into effect. A. D. Herriman, formerly with Siegel, Cooper & Co., and Rothschilds, is now in charge of the retail department at the Columbia main office here, which is a distinct step up for the handsome young talking machine man. O. J. Junge, whom Mr. Herriman succeeds, has returned to his old home, Omaha, to take charge of the business of his father, who is in ill health. J. \V. Bentley, a young man of wide business experience, is now assistant to O. W. Eckland, manager of the Columbia's Chicago instalment department. G. S. Hobb, 11033 Michigan avenue, which is in Roseland, one of Chicago's southern suburbs, is doing a wonderfully successful talking machine business, handling all machines and constantly carrying a stock of 10,000 or 12,000 records. John H. Dorian, assistant general manager of the Columbia Phonograph Co., and E. C. Plume, who manages their wholesale depart ment here in Chicago, are both Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and will join the pilgrimage of that organization to Los Angeles, Cal., in May. They will also take advantage of the opportunity to visit the company's Pacific Coast branches. R. M. Townsend, manager of the order department of the Columbia's branch here, has returned from a visit to Texas, where he acted as best man at his brother's wedding. W. W. Parsons is arranging for an especially fine display of Columbia Commercial dictation graphophones at the Office Appliance and Business System Show which opens at the Coliseum on March 17. C. W. Noyes, secretary of the Hawthorne & Sheble Mfg. Co., and western representative of the American Record Co., has returned from a visit to the factories at Philadelphia and Springfield, and is again greeting his friends at his office and salesrooms at 205-207 American Express building, 185 Dearborn street. By the way, the Hawthorne & Sheble Mfg. Co. have made arrangements for a factory within a block of the American Graphophone Co., at Bridgeport, Conn. In this factory they will make horns and accessories for the American Graphophone Co. only. It is a four-story building and equipped in a modern manner throughout. The news of the month in talking machine circles is that the Cable Company have definitely decided to embark in the talking machine business. This is the most important step of this kind that has been announced for a long while, inasmuch as the prestige enjoyed in the music trade by the Cable Company, and their remarkably well organized distributive system, as well as their perfectly managed retail department, will serve to make them a power in the trade. It is a little early to talk about the lines to be handled, although it is believed that on his recent visit to the East, Retail Manager Joseph T. Leimert arranged for the Victor and Edison machines and records. The American records will also be handled. The talking machine department will occupy handsomely fitted up quarters, with special record rooms, etc., on the third floor of the great Cable building at the southeast corner of Jackson boulevard and Wabash avenue, and will be in the immediate charge of J. W. Harrison, a well known and experienced talking machine man, formerly manager of the Columbia Phonograph Co.'s branch at Indianapolis, and for the past year in charge of the Cable Company's electric piano department. The new department will open in something like sixty days, and from the fact that Mr. Leimert is reported to have just placed or TA LKING MA CHINE DEA LERS! Do you want your stock to be attractive and keep that bright, clean appearance that pleases customers and MAKES MONEY FOR YOU? '*CLEAPOU" DOES THE TRICK Cleans and polishes all Metals, Glass, etc. Contains no acid or injurious ingredients. Does not scratch or damage in the least. Sold under positive guarantee. Send for sample and particulars. THE CUEAROU COMRAINV 388 Springfielci A.ve. INEWA-RK, IV. «J. ders for a couple of commercial automobiles, which will not be of a character adapted to pianos, it may be predicted that a special delivery service which will be an eye-opener to the talking machine business will be inaugurated. Arthur D. Geissler, manager of the Talking Machine Co., has been suddenly called to New York on account of the death of his mother, the wife of Louis F. Geissler, manager of the Victor Co. G. W. Nisbett, manager of the National Phonograph Co., is now in St. Louis attending the meeting of one of the freight classifying committees arguing in the interests of reduced freight rates for the entire talking machine industry. C. L. Hibbard, general superintendent of the commercial department of the Edison National Phonograph Co., in New York, has come to Chicago to exploit the Edison commercial dictation machine at this end. This has been a wonderful year with the Edison machines, and the inventory just completed by the Chicago office of the National Phonograph Co. shows the biggest business in the history of the company. Lyon & Healy are having a. remarkable business in their talking machine department, and also on their now famous "Softertone" needles. JAMES F. COX'S INVENTION^ A Talking IVlachine That Will Work in Unison With a Moving Picture Machine — His Description of the Device. James Fillimore Cox recently gave an exhibition at the Hotel Hudson, Nyack, N. Y., of a recent invention of his — a talking machine which is so arranged that it can work in unison with a moving picture machine and run without attention on the part of the operators. After producing a print on which was a plan of his machine in actual size, the inventor described it in a comprehensive manner. To his machine there is attached what Mr. Cox calls a repeater, so that one can hear the same selection played as often as the request is made to the operator, while trying to entertain a house party, only in this case there is no operator, as a baby may start it and the machine will continue to play and change the time and speed to suit the selection being played. This Mr. Cox accomplishes by means of a magazine on which a dozen standard records are placed. Any ordinary Columbia or Edison record will fit this machine, as it is made standard, and therefore avoiding any trouble whatever in securing new selections at any time and place. The magazine is so arranged as to have only one record revolve at once, and immediately after this selection has been finished the machine can very easily make an electrical contact at this point and cause an instantaneous change of selection without the machine even stopping. The question was put to Mr. Cox as to whether there was a similar machine on the market, to which he answered in the affirmative, but said that they have met with no success. The reason for this is that they possess such intricate parts and are so complicated that they have lacked in merit, and this has naturally brought the price very high. "I would like to have it understood." said he. "that my machine is the result of a second attempt, as I first built what I term an automatic electric phonograph, which was also too complicated and too near like my predecessor's. I quickly convinced myself that I would have to advance on new and different lines of construction, which I immediately did." In last month's issue of The World referencs was made to the dismissal by Judge Piatt of the suit of the National Phonograph Co. against the American Gramophone Co., in which it was stated that the costs of the suit were assessed on the defendant company. This is an error, for as a matter of fact the costs were taxed against and paid by the National Phonograph Co. The Healy Music Co., Chicago, have put in a talking machine department. They are handling the Zon-O'phone.