As many have noted, the Indiana product line made use of older designs and tooling, perhaps also removing a feature or two. With WWII war production ahead, they dropped the IBICO entity. Until 1942, IBICO existed primarily on paper as a means of broadening their market to those who could not afford the Martin product line. Martin did purchase the small Pedlar clarinet operation across the street, but other than making a small number of clarinets (with little success), it was used for storage. This was much like Conn with their Pan American line and Buescher with Elkhart Band Instruments, both accomplished several years earlier. Plant by the same talented group of metalworkers and machinists. After checking with my Mom (the receptionist 1945-47) and two of my aunts (Fred Sr’s daughters) and three of Fritz’ sons, I can affirm that once Martin (Orville Bassett – majority owner & Gen Mgr and Fred Holtz Sr – Sales Mgr and my grandfather) created the Indiana Band Instrument Company in 1928, all production of both Martin and IBICO horns was done at the Baldwin St. I’ve done a good bit of background on this one because much of it didn’t jive with what I knew to be true when I was growing up in the fifties and sixties. The 1929 article on the right is some boilerplate I’ve used. One of the most confusing areas has been the often errant information often given on Martin’s “purchase” of The Indiana Band Instrument Company. I enjoy history and am trying to straighten what I can of Martin’s. This is a lot of interesting info about the Martin company and I hope you enjoy reading it: My grandfather worked at Martin from 1921 to 1948, my Uncle Fritz worked there from 1935 to the RMC days, and my Mom and three other uncles worked at MBI Martin Band Instruments at one time or another. I’m including the full text of each e-mail.
I don’t generally write anything about instrument companies’ history - I’m more interested in horns - nor do I write much about copmanies’ second lines, but I think Mr. I then proceeded to forget about his e-mails until he sent me another one.
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