It’s funny how you can stumble on an item that piques your interest while searching for something totally different. Canadian collector Doug Dawson had recently acquired a harmonica called Sounds Of Peace and he was trying to identify the maker. I felt it may have been sold here in Australia so into the search engine … Continue reading A Perfect Organ
Marshall's Portable Music Machine. Positively, definitely the best you've ever seen. Painted violet, ebony and green. Marshall's Portable Music Machine Written by Don Mudie and Brian Cadd for Robin Jolly. The fun tune reached the Top Five of the Oz Charts in 1972. In my rummaging through harmonica advertising I stumbled across this amazing portable … Continue reading Marshall’s Portable Music Machine
“Wherever you be let your wind be free” (Paddy Sheppard) One of Grandfather’s favourite sayings. He was a seaman, but I think he was referencing a gastro intestinal condition. The Hohner Auto Valve Harp was not in the business of letting it go, but rather in saving it by the use of leather valves. I … Continue reading Saving Wind
A recent acquisition to my harmonica ephemera is Aussie (and American) Gene Jimae’s program handout displaying some great illustrations and information. I had to look up ‘moppetry’ a term not frequently used in today’s vernacular. Its reference is to childhood. I have no idea of the meaning of ‘sock results’ mentioned later in the pamphlet. … Continue reading Moppetry Hogwash
My recently acquired Crackajack Artist had me delving into the world of harps with fluted covers. The Crackajack Artist (1926) manufactured by F A Rauner is shaped like their fluted World Master mouth organ. ‘Down Under’ we also had the Rozella (1913) by Otto Weidlich and the Perla (1926) both with fluted cover plates. It … Continue reading Fluted Harps
W J Deane in 1896 were selling both the Woolloomooloo Warbler and the Kangaroo Chalmer. In ‘97 they advertised the newly invented Native Waratah and Boomerang mouth organs and in ‘98 Deane And Son had their own model The Bugler for a Bob. I had initially thought The Bugler mouth organ may have been produced … Continue reading Deane’s Sticka
An early advertisement in the Colony for a Mundharmonika at R Clisby’s Musical Repository in Rundle Street Adelaide. It appears in the South Australian newspaper the Sud Australishe Zeiting in 1862. South Australia had a large intake of German settlers in the 19th Century, so much so that they represented 10% of all South Australians … Continue reading Schokolade & Adelaide
Some time ago I found a couple of early advertisements of a couple of cheaper Crackajack Mouth Organs that were offered in their product range, The Tommy Dodd (1903-06) and the Little Gulliver (1903-12). I cannot conclusively establish how the naming of these was contrived, but I would like to suggest it was of prominent … Continue reading Tommy & the Gulliver
1897 - F A Rauner of Klingenthal, Germany register their Cracker Jack name # 28285. Sold six years later in Australia as Crackajack with same reg #. 1899 - F A Rauner had The Scorcher models in the market place in Australia sold by Feldheim, Gotthelf & Co of Sydney and The Bushman sold by … Continue reading A Crackajack Story
Photo courtesy of Pittwater Online News In 1898 Johs Richter trademarked both the Coo-ee and Kookaburra name for mouth organs. Seydel took over the name of Kookaburra and produced them and in 1910 they trademarked the name Coo-ee for mundharmonikas. We know one exists (just beyond coo-ee) as the owner, the editor of the Pittwater … Continue reading Within Coo-ee
