{"id":453,"date":"2008-08-03T19:01:08","date_gmt":"2008-08-04T02:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=453"},"modified":"2008-10-03T10:00:47","modified_gmt":"2008-10-03T17:00:47","slug":"extra-extra-read-all-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2008\/extra-extra-read-all-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Extra, Extra, Read All About It…."},"content":{"rendered":"

From the days when advertising was still more text heavy than it is now, here are some wonderful old Buescher ads to travel you back to the time when saxophones were coming out of the closet they had been in, and into the vaudeville theatres, speakeasies, travelling shows, front parlours, and consciousness of North America.<\/p>\n

The 1920s saw the rise in popularity of saxophones, thanks in part to clever marketing such as the following\u00a01923 advertisement telling you that you don’t have to spend years, or\u00a0even months,\u00a0learning how to play music, just get a Buescher True Tone and “See How Easy It Is”.<\/p>\n

Just as an aside, I think it’s interesting that the ad execs decided to\u00a0show both a man & a woman playing a sax. That’s pretty advanced thinking for 1923. So\u00a0the saxophone was not only being marketed towards men…They thought a woman could operate a “complicated” piece of machinery like this…Interesting….Or perhaps, it was so easy, even\u00a0a woman\u00a0could\u00a0play one, because it wasn’t complicated at all.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Buescher 1923 True Tone Saxophone.<\/h6>\n

The next\u00a0ad, from a 1925 edition of The American Magazine,<\/em> tells you that you’ll be “The Life of the Party”, if only you would play the Buescher True Tone.<\/p>\n

Without\u00a0the stereo systems that we have to today, in the 1920s\u00a0when people got together there was often a piano in the front parlour for musical entertainment. This was\u00a0fertile ground for the C melody. With no\u00a0complicated transpositions to do, the\u00a0hobbyist sax player could just read the piano\u00a0score over the shoulder of the piano player.\u00a0PRESTO, you’re the\u00a0life\u00a0of the party \u2757<\/p>\n

Sure, she’ll be smiling like that at you after you’ve been playing sax for 2 years and you’re playing\u00a0into her ear, but only after she’s had a lot<\/span> <\/em><\/strong>of boot-legged or bathtub gin!\u00a0 \"\"<\/a> Even then ads were totally fictitious.<\/p>\n

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Buescher 1925 True Tone Saxophone from The American Magazine.<\/h6>\n

But nothing is more fictitious, in my mind, than this 1928 ad featuring Tom Brown of the Brown Brothers<\/em>. In this ad Buescher actually goes\u00a0so far as to say that if you play a Buescher True Tone,\u00a0“you don’t have to be talented…Play and earn while you pay” (for the saxophone presumably).<\/p>\n

They tell you that certain saxophone players make between $100 and $500 per week! (In today’s dollars that would be $1260.82 & $6304.09.)<\/a> Of course if the dollar amounts don’t impress you, the line about\u00a0the True Tone sax player being the centre of attraction, and it being the key to social popularity might.<\/p>\n

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Buescher 1928 True Tone Saxophone (left). The famous Brown Brothers (right).<\/h6>\n

In 1929 the\u00a0marketing\u00a0machine targeted parents with this ad informing them that if they\u00a0bought a True Tone Saxophone for their child, it would not only be a “source of lifelong satisfaction”, but it would also turn a “child’s mind toward constructive effort”, multiply “desirable social contacts”, and afford “the means of earning extra money”. And most importantly remember that “no child who can play a Buescher need ever be in want.”<\/p>\n

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Buescher 1929 True Tone Saxophone.<\/h6>\n

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed this little excursion down Buescher’s advertising past. It makes me appreciate my Buescher True Tone bass saxophone a great deal more. Now I know I need to take it\u00a0to parties! \u00a0OK, next weekend I’m taking it to my friend’s surprise b-day party. Now that will<\/strong> be a surprise!!! \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I do feel a little\u00a0stupid, however. Here I’ve been working so hard for all these years trying to be a\u00a0better sax player, now I find out that I don’t need talent. I’ve just been using the wrong horns!<\/p>\n

That’s it. I’m selling my Selmers. I’m replacing them with True Tones. Anyone out there want to trade a set (SATB) of Mark VIs for a set of True Tones? Get in touch. I need to make that $1200 to $6300 a week, and those VIs just aren’t doing it for me!\u00a0 \":mrgreen:\"<\/p>\n

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…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/strong> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the days when advertising was still more text heavy than it is now, here are some wonderful old Buescher ads to travel you back …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[78],"tags":[150,640,634,38,643,31],"class_list":["post-453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vintage-horns","tag-american-saxophones","tag-buescher","tag-humor","tag-vintage-ads","tag-vintage-horns","tag-vintage-sax"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t