 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Mark Charette
Date: 2002-02-09 18:38
<b>Chicago Musical Instrument Co.</b> WWI, BI
<i>fl</i> Chicago 1920-<i>p</i>1950
1920 established by H.H. Berliner (<i>b c</i>1895) as dealers; later also as manufacturers; as in-house technician employed Aman, who developed their plastic bugle and the prototype for Swanson's 'tonette'. Employed trade name 'American Student' for instruments made by Bohland & Fuchs.
Mark: CMI
Patent: 1939 (GB) #527790: ocarina
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Author: jbutler
Date: 2002-02-09 18:59
If my memory serves me correctly, this became a part of Lyons Music. I would have to research the topic again. I'll repost if I find the time to look it up.
jbutler
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Author: Marge
Date: 2002-02-09 21:22
I guess Mark's info takes care of part of the identification of my/my uncle's hard-rubber clarinet, which I knew dated to at least the mid-1930s, which I described under the next thread, "Clarinet nobody ever heard of." The "C.M.I. Co." part of the stencil surely refers to this company, especially since my family lived in Chicago then (and later), which fact I neglected to mention in my initial posting. I suppose that C.M.I. had this clarinet made up for them in Paris, with the model name "Harmony," which would account for the "Harmony Paris" part of the one stencil?? The stencil above it, though very faint, reads "L.P." with a "B" under it--wonder what that means. I vaguely recall hearing of Harmony clarinets somewhere--or was that an early (wood?) model made by Buffet? Or maybe there was once a separate Harmony company?
Re Lyons Music Company/Lyons Band Instrument Company originally in Chicago (several locations), then in a suburb, and eventually in Elkhart, IN:
I found a fascinating, detailed history of the company at:
http://www.4lyons.com/webstuff/lyonshis.html
Since there is mention there of some obscure (today) instruments, it might interest some for that reason.
I got there while searching to see whether I could find any info about my McCreery mouthpiece. I bought it at Lyons about 1953 or 1954 from Mr. McCreery himself. The mouthpiece that had come with the above-mentioned clarinet had been shattered on a city bus on my way to high school, and my clarinet teacher told me to go to Lyons and ask for Mr. McCreery (evidently known as Mac, though the history page says his given name was Clarence; he was a founder of Lyons in 1928 and was secretary-treasurer, retiring in 1963). He had me try lots of mouthpieces, but I kept coming back to a hard-rubber one with his name on it ("McCreery" and "Custom Faced") as the best of the lot. I guess I knew at the time that he played clarinet, but I didn't know until I read the Lyons history that he was such an esteemed clarinet (and sax) player in Chicago.
Played with it through the rest of high school, then college, and for part of the 1970s and 1980s. Continued with it in our community marching band from about 1992 (and since fall in our new community concert band). One son of the uncle who loaned me the clarinet also used it for 4 yrs. of h.s. in the 1960s. Since about 1998 I've used it with a borrowed plastic Vito instead of the hard-rubber Harmony, since the Vito is better, though the mouthpiece that came with it is definitely not. Now, as I'm finally getting my own wood clarinet, I'm starting to think whether I might do better with another mpc. This one has wear and marks (though I think not in critical areas), and it looks fairly ratty from discoloration and the remains of mineral deposits I just can't get off without being too brutal. Still seems to play pretty well, though it may have degraded so slowly over time that I just don't notice.
Does anybody else have or know about McCreery mouthpieces? I'd be esp. interested to know what its physical characteristics are (which evidently worked/work well with me and which I might like to look for in a new mouthpiece, or at least know about when buying new). I e-mailed Lyons to see whether anybody there might know anything about these old mouthpieces. Got an answer from the manager, who said no one seemed to, but that his guess was that McCreery had them made to his specifications at some Elkhart plant. And I suppose it's possible he did some finishing work himself.
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Author: Ken Lagace
Date: 2018-05-23 22:38
I am bidding on a clarinet with a McCreery mouthpiece so I may have one in a week or so. Will check it out and write back.
I will also be curious of any other info on this mouthpiece .
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