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Old 01-15-2011, 12:39 PM
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Default music production during WWI

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Smith View Post
... I doubt the day the war ended this bass was made and shipped. It might have taken a year or two to get things made, find customers like B&J and make new business arrangements.
Ken--I thought of your comment above when I came across this quote by Samuel Buegeleisen (the B of B&J @ 113-115 University Place, NYC). I found this in a 1915 edition of the Music Trade Review:
"Even should the war end to-morrow, there is no question but that there will be a tremendous scarcity of musical merchandise this fall. When hostilities cease there will be a necessary readjustment of all conditions, due to the loss of so many workmen from the ranks of musical merchandise workers. In normal times, when a skilled employee forsakes the industry for personal reasons, it is extremely difficult to adequately replace him, and one can conjecture what the conditions will be after the war has ended and so many of the best mechanics who have fought at the front never return."
Samuel Bugeleisen, Music Trade Review 1915
I thought you'd get a kick out of just how correct you were, right from the horse's mouth, so to speak. The catalog he discusses later in the article is the one I'll be sending you. Here's a photo of Mr. B from that same publication.

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