In 1886 rumors began to circulate that Conn wanted to move his business to Massachusetts. Fewer than fifty 'Double-Bell Wonders' were produced of both iterations combined.Ĭonn's first factory was destroyed by fire on Janu(his thirty-ninth birthday), and he erected a new building on the same site. Brick-red 'Wonder' records were also pressed for the 'Double-Bell Wonder' talking machine by the Scranton Button Works from pirated Berliner masters. Armstrong, Joseph Jones, and Emory Foster to manufacture a twin-horn disc phonograph called the 'Double-Bell Wonder' that was produced in two iterations briefly in early 1898 before a lawsuit by the Berliner Gramophone Company caused production to cease.
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Conn's partnership with Dupont was dissolved by March 1879, but he was successful in attracting skilled craftsmen from Europe to his factory, and in this manner he expanded his operation so that by 1905, Conn had the world's largest musical instrument factory producing a full line of wind instruments, strings, percussion, and a portable organ. By 1877, Conn's business had outgrown the back of his grocery store, and he purchased an idle factory building on the corner of Elkhart Avenue and East Jackson. In January 1876, Conn joined with Dupont under the name of Conn & Dupont, and Dupont created Conn's first instrument, the Four-in-One cornet, with crooks allowing the horn to be played in the keys of E♭, C, B♭, and A.
Growth of Conn's musical instrument business Ĭonn met Eugene Victor Baptiste Dupont, a brass instrument maker and designer and a former employee of Henry Distin of London. Conn patented his rubber-rimmed mouthpiece in 1875 (with patents to follow through 1877) described as "an elastic face where the mouthpiece comes in contact with the lips, the object being to prevent fatigue and injury to the lips." It was in 1874 when Conn converted a discarded sewing machine frame into a simple lathe and started to turn out his mouthpieces and was soon in full production (Subsequently, Conn and Del Crampton became best of friends, and when Conn embarked on his political career, he was a staunch advocate of temperance). He needed a rim with a groove which the rubber cement would adhere to more easily. Conn then began to contemplate manufacturing his new mouthpiece. After he showed his friends his idea, he realized that there was tremendous demand for his invention. He decided to try adhering rubber stamp material to the rim of a mouthpiece which he hoped would conform to his lips. In addition to running his store, Conn also made rubber stamps and re-plated silverware. Conn's upper lip was severely lacerated, and it pained him so to play his cornet that he thought his playing days were over. There are three existing stories of how this occurred, but the popularly accepted version is that Del Crampton slugged him in the mouth outside a saloon where both of them had been drinking. Conn's entrance into the musical instrument manufacturing business was the result of a split lip. He also played cornet in the local community band. Army who, after the war, established a grocery and baking business in Elkhart, Indiana. 1.5 The Paul Gazlay - Lee Greenleaf era, 1949-1969.1.2 Growth of Conn's musical instrument business.
Conn survived as a brand of musical instruments manufactured by Conn-Selmer, retaining several instruments for which it was known: the Conn 8D horn, 88H trombone, 62H bass trombone, 52BSP trumpet and the 1FR flugelhorn.
The assets of UMI were bought by Steinway Musical Instruments in 2000 and in January 2003 were merged with other Steinway properties into a subsidiary called Conn-Selmer. The company was sold in 1980 and then again in 1985, reorganized under the parent corporation United Musical Instruments (UMI) in 1986. Conn was divested of its Elkhart production facilities in 1970, leaving remaining production in satellite facilities and contractor sources. In 1969 the company was sold in bankruptcy to the Crowell-Collier-MacMillan publishing company. During the 1950s the bulk of its sales revenue shifted to electric organs. Its early business was based primarily on brass instruments, which were manufactured in Elkhart, Indiana. It bought the production facilities owned by Charles Gerard Conn, a major figure in early manufacture of brasswinds and saxophones in the USA. Conn Ltd., sometimes called Conn Instruments or commonly just Conn, is a former American manufacturer of musical instruments incorporated in 1915.
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