American Boomerangs

Sometime back, Pat ‘The Groovy Guru’ Missin had alerted HRR that Australia’s Boomerang Mouth Organs were sold in America 🇺🇸. He had unearthed a 1924 Pennsylvania advert from Landau’s Music House promoting their Boomerang mouth organs. Later he stumbled on a report that a firm in New York were also offering Boomerang mouth organs for sale in 1925.

I thought I’d have a crack at scrutinising the Music Trade Review, and there and behold was an article from 1904 (pictured above). It outlined Stern & Co’s involvement in vending the Boomerang Harmonica, declaring they were doing so as early as 1901.

It was just four years earlier in Australia that J. Albert & Son (118 King Street, Sydney Australia) advertised, under the banner of ‘New Feature In Mouth Organs’, both their miniature and large Boomerang mouth organs, with the added hallmark “of solid brass-nickel covers, bearing a hand with a Boomerang in it, and styled (engraved).”

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Stern & Marks

Stern & Co were founded by Joseph Stern and Edward Marks in 1894. They were primarily a music publishing company who also retailed musical instruments. Joseph Stern would retire in 1920 and the firm became Edward’s, trading as Edward B. Marks Music Company.

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There are some interesting claims made in the article title titled ‘Stern’s Boomerang Harmonica’ (Musical Trade Review – 1904 Vol. 39 N. 26 – Page 44). Let’s have a gander at a couple. Firstly; I’m not sure that J Albert & Son was strictly their ‘Australian house’. Secondly; that ‘the name boomerang is applied to a weapon which strikes an object and then returns to the thrower’. Ah! That’s a no. A physical impossibility. It defies all the laws of physics. There are two types of boomerangs, those that return to the thrower and those that don’t. Those used as a weapon to strike were non returning boomerangs and they were shaped differently to the returning type. A returning boomerang could not possibly return having its momentum halted. What we know as boomerangs had various names according to which mob (there were over five hundred different indigenous languages) they belonged to.

The returning type was more for amusement (also maybe to scatter birds) than any extrinsic reason and if they collide with anything in flight they won’t return to sender. These too had various names. In a previous post I used the term Barran for the Miniature Boomerang Deluxe I acquired from Tamworth. Barran referred to the returning boomerang of the First Nations people, the Kamilaroi, of this region. Other indigenous names include the birgan, barragadan, wongium and bamurra to name a few.

This article from the 1925 Music Trade Indicator (uncovered by Pat Missin) also had some doubtful assertions.

I’m not sure what C. A. Seydel Söhne, a high quality harmonica factory in Klingenthal, Germany (manufacturer of Albert’s mouth organs), would have made of a factory being built for the increased demand of Boomerang Mouth Organs. This implies that Jacques commanded his own Boomerang factory. The other claim that Jacques Albert was educating skilled mechanics on tuning reeds, would surely (don’t call me Shirley) have to be poetic licence.

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Frank Albert

Albert’s never manufactured their own mouth organs, they left that expertise to Seydel. Michael Francois (Frank) Albert, however had an important role in promoting Australian branded mouth organs and utilising the cover plate as a canvas for their marketing. Their range of Boomerang mouth organs was an obvious case in point. Frank became a partner in the firm with his father Jacques in 1893. Three years later he would take over the reins.

The Boomerang image and name had been branded on their songsters and I believe these proceeded the production of the Boomerang mouth organs. Music publishing was a prime component of Albert’s music business just like Stern & Co.

The success of the Boomerang mouth organs is now written in Australian folklore.

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Seasons Greetings Riff Raffers

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