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1. What was the first Chicago Benge?
There are two ways to think about this question: 1) What is the number of the first trumpet
made by Elden Benge, and 2) What is the number of the first trumpet sold by Elden Benge?
For years the rumor was that #525 was the first Chicago known to have been sold. Apparently,
the West Coast people (such as Irving Bush and Robb Stewart) had always heard that Elden
Benge started with #500. They were less surprised than I when the Sibley Benge surfaced.
Even if #500 was the first horn sold by Benge it work stand to reason that he would
have made prototypes; I'm not surprised that the horn isn't #1 or something similar, as Benge
always thought that nobody would want to buy trumpet #3 (for example) made by anybody;
starting with #500 (for example) was a marketing idea. In the 1936 letter to Forbes Sibley,
it's interesting that he doesn't mention the fact that #500 is the first (or second, or third) trumpet
sold. I believe that's consistent with Benge's concern about marketing a "new" trumpet.
In an October 7, 1951 interview with Genevieve Flavin (Chicago Sunday Tribune),
she states: "Fashioned for his personal use, the first trumpet was sent by Benge to a
musician in Michigan in 1935. The Benge trumpet made its symphonic debut in a
symphony in 1937 when one was sold to a member of the Chicago Symphony orchestra."
Although the dates are off (he mentioned differing dates to different interviewers) the basic
concept is the same.
One unanswered question has to do with the sequence of numbering. It's known that,
continuing from #525, Benge numbered sequentially. The question is: how many trumpets
were numbered before #525? We know about #500, #513 and #520. Were there other numbers
mixed in? I'll bet that there were, especially 513 is such a non-sequencial number. I originally
thought that the prototypes may have been numbered 500, 510 and 520, but #513 shoots down
that theory. I'm now convinced that there are others out there (or were).
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