| 1885- |
Henri Selmer begins manufacturing
clarinets and mouthpieces at 4 Place Dancourt, in Paris. For some years he had
made reeds. |
| 1898- |
Henri's brother, Alexandre, comes to
the United States to become Principal Clarinetist of the Boston Symphony. His
set of Selmers is the first seen in this country. |
| 1901- |
Alexandre moves to Cincinnati,
becoming Principal for the Cincinnati Symphony. The word is starting to spread
about the superb quality of the Selmer clarinets. Alexandre sells them to many
prestigious players. |
| 1904- |
A demonstration booth is secured at
the St. Louis Exposition, April 30th to December 1st. Alexandre has the first
catalogues printed and establishes a sales office in Cincinnati. |
| 1909- |
Alexandre moves to New York as
Principal Clarinetist of the New York Philharmonic. He opens a Selmer retail
store on 86th Street. The store was an instant success, and teaching and repair
facilities were soon added. A person destined to take over the company in later
years, Mr. George Bundy, started working in the store. He was an outstanding
pupil of Alexandre Selmer. |
| 1911- |
Selmer opens a manufacturing plant,
with excelsior, at 251 Fourth Avenue, New York, to make fine accordions. At the
end of the year Alexandre Selmer has returned to Paris, putting George Bundy in
charge of the store. Mr. Bundy immediately contacted several American band
instrument and accessory manufacturers and added many different lines of
products to the retail store. These included Bach, Martin Band Instruments,
Olds trombones, Martin and Vega guitars, Ludwig drums and many accessory items.
|
| 1920- |
The Selmer retail store is moved to
larger quarters, on 89th Street. |
| 1922- |
Yet another move, with rapid business
growth, this time to West 48th Street, their most well known address.
|
| 1927- |
George Bundy buys the store from the
Selmers, changing the name to H. & A. Selmer, Inc. There was no remaining
financial connection between the Selmers, in Paris, and Selmer in America. Mr.
Bundy was appointed the sole distributor for Selmer Paris instruments in the
United States. George Bundy
came to Elkhart due to the reputation of its being the "Band Instrument
City of the World", many thanks to C. G. Conn. He purchased the property
at 1119 N. Main Street, and moved many of the New York employees to Elkhart.
Due to the small size they only occupied the 2nd floor of the building. It had
originally been the show rooms for the Crowe Automobile factory, across the
street, and housed the sales rooms for the Hudson Motor Car Agency at the time
of purchase. This caused one of the competitors in the band instrument industry
to call Selmer "the little place over the garage". Soon afterward,
the Hudson Agency moved downtown, and Selmer leased the 1st floor to the
Metallic-X Company, maker of metal-based adhesives. Now said competitor talked
about Selmer as "the little place over the glue factory"! What a
different tune was sung when, 40 years down the road, Selmer replaced Conn as
the world's largest band instrument maker!
|
| 1930- |
Another most important contributor to
the Selmer saga joined the staff, in the capacity of advertising manager. He
was Joseph M. Grolimund, destined to become the second president of the
company. J.M.G. or just plain Joe, as he insisted on being called came on board
during the depression, but soon devised a mail campaign for Selmer which kept
them on the plus side in the profit picture throughout those tough times. While
most companies were laying people off, Selmer increased its staff to 17 from
the 8 it had two years previously. |
| 1936- |
The managers of Selmer, due to the
rapid growth in popularity of the Selmer Paris instruments, made an unheard of
decision. While the other manufacturers were still selling at retail as well as
trying to maintain individual music stores as dealers, Selmer, at the
insistence of Joe Grolimund, switched to a policy of selling only at wholesale,
and only to legitimate retail stores. This move was welcomed by all dealers,
and boosted Selmer sales dramatically. |
| 1941- |
WW II cuts off all shipments of
Selmer Paris instruments, and George Bundy buys the Jesse French Piano Company
to supplement the sales. Also, he starts the very successful Bundy line of
student instruments, then adding the Signet middle grade line. |
| 1944- |
All band instrument activity is
ceased, and the company goes into export packing for the government, strictly a
war effort program. Only a few instruments and accessories are available.
|
| 1946- |
Things slowly return to normal, as
Selmer Paris is again in production. The production of Bundy and Signet
instruments grows rapidly. |
| 1950- |
Start of an organized field sales
force to more firmly establish the Selmer dealer network. This consists of 7
men, the production force has now grown to 52, with 20 in the office, and the 4
men who have purchased the company from George Bundy, now in very poor health.
He died in April 1951. The four were Joseph M. Grolimund, Jack Feddersen, Milt
Broadhead, and Charles Bickel. |
| 1958- |
Purchased the Harry Pedler and Sons
brass plant on Superior Street. |
| 1961- |
Selmer purchases the Vincent Bach
brass plant. It is not moved to Elkhart at this time. Mr. Bach begins designs
for the Bundy student brass lines, to be made in a small new plant in Elkhart.
|
| 1963- |
Selmer purchases the Buescher Band
Instrument Company just as it was being closed for good. Actual purchase was by
the Bundy Band Instrument Company, a subsidiary of H. & A. Selmer, Inc. The
Buescher name and most of the lines were perpetuated by Selmer. |
| 1964- |
The Bach plant and equipment are
moved to Elkhart. |
| 1965- |
A new two story addition to the rear
of the original Selmer plant, doubling the floor space for manufacture of
woodwind instruments. |
| 1966- |
Selmer buys the Brilhart mouthpiece
lines, including fibercane reeds. Mouthpieces are made by the J. J. Babbitt
Company. |
| 1967- |
Selmer purchases the Lesher Woodwind
Company, makers of oboes and bassoons. Also purchases 19.7 acres in an
industrial park for new Bach brass plant and new corporate office building.
|
| 1970- |
Selmer merges with Magnavox
Corporation. All stock is eventually purchased by North American Philips
Corporation. Selmer purchases a portion of the Premier Drum Company in
Leicester, England. The 70's also saw a new case plant, as well as a large
warehousing complex. |
