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History's most notorious incident of wholesale destruction of musical instruments was the purposeful burning of a large number of old square pianos at Atlantic City, New Jersey, on the evening of May 24, 1904. The conflagration was planned to coincide with the joint meeting of the National Association of Piano Dealers of America and the National Piano Manufacturers' Association of America, although it was not part of the official program. The event was entirely the creation of Harry Edward Freund, the ambitious editor of The Musical Age, a New York trade journal aimed chiefly at piano dealers. Among the many concerns that Freund raised in his weekly periodical, none seems to have fired (!) his enthusiasm and imagination as much as the claim that dealers were suffering losses by having to give trade-in allowances on their old, outmoded square pianos. His solution to the problem was to stage a public demonstration of the worthlessness of the squares in a way that would generate maximum publicity.
Freund's campaign began in The Musical Age on November 7, 1903, with his editorial "Burn the Old Squares at the Atlantic City Convention." Subsequent issues presented further inducements supported by letters of approval and reprints of newspaper articles from all over the country. Freund made sure that his name was mentioned at every opportunity, and that the bonfire ceremony during the convention was described in detail, especially the point at which he set his torch to the pile of kerosene-soaked pianos, reported to number one thousand. The event, of course, was deemed a triumph, but Freund's plan was not yet fully realized, for he continued to feature reports on "The Passing of the Old Square Piano" in The Musical Age. The issue of December 17, 1904, delivered his final salvo: a barrage of 281 articles, some rather colorful, culled from newspapers in 133 cities of the United States and Canada.
This paper will trace the full history of Freund's Great Bonfire from its inception to its final outcome, drawing on documentary evidence from a number of sources. Freund's influence, as a leading member of the musical trade press, on the retail piano business of his time will be evaluated. The presentation will also consider opposing views of his plan of destruction and its significance, including claims made by his journalistic competitors that the whole thing was a hoax!
Freund's campaign began in The Musical Age on November 7, 1903, with his editorial "Burn the Old Squares at the Atlantic City Convention." Subsequent issues presented further inducements supported by letters of approval and reprints of newspaper articles from all over the country. Freund made sure that his name was mentioned at every opportunity, and that the bonfire ceremony during the convention was described in detail, especially the point at which he set his torch to the pile of kerosene-soaked pianos, reported to number one thousand. The event, of course, was deemed a triumph, but Freund's plan was not yet fully realized, for he continued to feature reports on "The Passing of the Old Square Piano" in The Musical Age. The issue of December 17, 1904, delivered his final salvo: a barrage of 281 articles, some rather colorful, culled from newspapers in 133 cities of the United States and Canada.
This paper will trace the full history of Freund's Great Bonfire from its inception to its final outcome, drawing on documentary evidence from a number of sources. Freund's influence, as a leading member of the musical trade press, on the retail piano business of his time will be evaluated. The presentation will also consider opposing views of his plan of destruction and its significance, including claims made by his journalistic competitors that the whole thing was a hoax!