The Hicksville Era Begins, and So Does the Ride Downhill
During its years in Hicksville, the parent Hohner company would undergo great changes. The retail market for musical instruments - the backbone of Hohner's profits - changed drastically during this era.
From the perspective of Hohner's retail market, the 1950s were the harmonica's heyday. Many of the most popular blues and jazz performers used harmonicas. Their pop counterparts were regularly booked into chic urban nightclubs, and frequently appeared on television variety shows. They sold stereo LP albums, and their singles could be heard on Top 40 AM radio. The theme from the movie Ruby Gentry* - orchestral, but with prominent solo harmonica work - had three different versions on the charts at once in the U.S., and simultaneously was a hit in Europe, Australia, and Canada. Clearly, the world loved the plaintive sound of a well-played harmonica.
*Readers may recall Ray Charles's later vocal recording of the theme, called simply "Ruby," which was released as a single in November 1960.
By the end of the 1980s, pop's dominance had been replaced by that of rock. Whatever music young people listened to, whether Blondie, the Knack, ABBA, or the Village People, it did not inspire them to learn to play harmonicas or accordions. They were buying electric guitars, amps, drums, and keyboards. Hohner's feeble but costly efforts to diversify into the low-end portions of the latter markets had left it with colossal debt. It's performance in the U.S. led M. Hohner, Inc. to take an unprecedented step - it passed its corporate baton to an executive who had no connection to the Hohner family.
Let's look at what happened during the years when the Hicksville arm of Hohner tried to ride the ups and downs of America's changing music scene.
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As the 1960s began, Hohner concentrated on rebuilding its traditional rapport with America, not advertising to the public at large, but engaging with it in other ways.This item appeared in the Penn-Yan, NY Chronicle Express on May 4, 1961 (at a time when much of America was listening to "Travelin' Man" and "Mother-in-law"):
The Accordion Symphony of the Kenneth Miller Music Studios... will be presented as part of the fifth annual concert and Variety Show of the Miller Studios. Playing a new selection, "Bagatelle," the music for which was imported from Germany through M. Hohner, Inc., the symphony will make full use of the unique electric bass accordion and special arranging.
Thanks largely to the publicity people on Andrews Road, Hohner was much in the public eye by 1964. At the New York World's Fair, it exhibited in the German Pavilion, where visitors received tiny souvenir four-hole harmonicas in special boxes.
rubylane.com
Newsday, meanwhile, reported that the rise of folk music was increasing the popularity of Hohner's harmonicas.
Two excerpts from "Harmonica Sales Aided by Hootenanny Fad"
Newsday, April 27, 1964
"Little Stevie" Wonder sang and played his harmonica up the charts. His popularity first earned him a part in Muscle Beach Party, and then one in Bikini Beach. The latter's New York premiere was held at Manhattan's RKO Palace, where Hohner gave harmonicas to the first five hundred attendees.
New York Daily News, September 19, 1964
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Around the same time, a baseball story put harmonicas into the nation's sports headlines.
No, that is not a typo. After appearing to be on their way to the 1964 World Series, the Yankees fell into a late-season slump, and manager Yogi Berra was fretting. On the team bus from Comiskey Park after yet another loss to the White Sox, all was deadly quiet. Phil Linz, a reserve infielder, took out a harmonica and began to play. Berra yelled at him to stop; Linz didn't stop. Berra confronted Linz, who disgustedly flung the harmonica at Berra - who angrily swatted it away, and into the eye of his first baseman. For a few days, sportswriters and fans talked of nothing else; news of the fine that the club afterwards levied on Linz only stoked the flames. A few days later, the Yankees and Mets played their annual charity game at Shea Stadium.
Phil Linz, Yogi Berra
New York Daily News, August 22,1964
New York Daily News, August 24,1964
New York Daily News, August 25,1964
Many fans brought along harmonicas, a couple of which were tossed in the general direction of Berra, but everybody laughed. Some time later, M. Hohner, Inc. announced that it had signed Linz to contract to publicize Hohner harmonicas, noting that harmonica sales had climbed sharply because of the incident.
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