Trump the Mouth Organ

Hi Riffers,

“The line of ‘Make America great again,’ the phrase, that was mine, I came up with it about a year ago, and I kept using it, and everybody’s using it, they are all loving it. I don’t know, I guess I should copyright it, maybe I have copyrighted it.”

“Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest – and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure, it’s not your fault.”

The greatest mouth organ of all. Or is he? In 1929 Sutton’s music store in Ballarat and in their other retail outlets in Melbourne and Sydney sold this forty reed octave mouth organ made by Hohner. Probably a rebranded Auto Valve Harp chassis. It was more than likely named on on the basis of a trump card and thus promotes the notion that this mouth organ outranks any other. The current President of the United States of America would more than likely believe that of himself.

Sutton’s Music Emporium’s humble beginnings originated when Richard Sutton traded musical instruments out of a tent on Bakery Hill at the Ballarat goldfields. After Richard’s death in 1878 (to dropsy at the age of forty five) his wife Mary took over the reins and stores were opened in Melbourne, Bendigo, Geelong and other regional towns. Richard and Mary’s second son (they had eleven) Henry became a famous Australian inventor and amongst his many inventions were rechargeable batteries, the wireless radio, an ‘autocar’ and the telephane, a prototype television.

(Australian Mirror Vol 5 No 45, 1st October 1929)

Times were tough and particularly so in Sydney. The store would be an abject failure and in 1930 at the annual meeting it was stated that, “practically the whole of the loss of £23,824 had been incurred by the branch in Sydney.” (Sydney Daily Pictorial 17 September, 1930) The Sydney store would be short lived.

As a side note Sutton’s were selling the The Fan Trumpet mouth organ (two models No. 1, 3/6 and No. 2, 5/-) in December of 1908. It was promoted as one of the greatest novelties ever seen, the loudest mouth organ on the market and with marvellous tone. Not sure if this was a single horn attachment or maybe something even more elaborate for hand tremolo.

Perhaps I should let the modern day Trump mouth organ have the last say (I’m sure he would want that), “I think I am actually humble. I think I’m much more humble than you would understand.”

Ch SD

PS: Found this photograph of Sutton’s of Ballarat in 1902.