The Boston Drum Builders

From George B. Stone and Son Catalog G, circa 1912: 
 

"In the [18]80's George B. Stone commenced making drums for his pupils with such success that in 1890 he established a small work shop near his home in Roxbury [MA]. In the course of a year he removed to a larger room in the building we now occupy, where, seeing the possibilities in manufacturing a line of goods so well known to him, he installed machinery and hired an assistant. Hardly had he settled before he had outgrown his new quarters, so he added more floor space, machinery and help, and entered upon selling his drums by mail.

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The mail-order business was a decided success and exceeded his most sanguine expectations. Every sale brought new customers, and in spite of his constantly increasing facilities he found it difficult to keep abreast of his orders.

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At this time he decided he needed his son, who had completed his third year on the road with one of the best concert and dance orchestras in the New England States. Beginning at the bottom, George L. [Stone] went to work at the bench gaining practical knowledge of drum and trap construction in its every detail. After taking a private course in a Business College in book-keeping and stenography he attended to the office work, and later, being admitted as a partner, took entire charge of the correspondence, with the aid of office assistants."

George Burt Stone died of pneumonia in January of 1917 at the age of 60 leaving the company to his son. George Lawrence Stone's qualifications to assume both the business and his fathers responsibilities as a magazine columnist were described at length in the March 1917 issue of Jacobs' Orchestra Monthly and reprinted in George B. Stone & Son Catalog "I" published in 1919: 
 

"One of the great equalizing laws of nature is that of compensation, which ever seeks to balance loss with some measure of consequent gain. It thus becomes a pleasure deeply tinged with sadness to introduce Mr. George Lawrence Stone, who has assumed his late father's position on the staff of JACOBS' ORCHESTRA MONTHLY.

 

There is no question as to the competence of Mr. Stone to successfully carry on the work and business begun by his father, nor the shadow of a doubt as to his proving a most worthy successor of an ever reliable department conductor. Already he possesses the broad knowledge and requisites of the father, partly gained through association and example, yet wholly acquired by personal energy and application.

 

Young Mr. Stone entered the musical field in 1901, and soon was in demand by the best concert and dance teams. In 1907 as tympanist and bell soloist, he joined the Boston Festival Orchestra under the direction of Mr. Emil Mollenhauer. He next became connected with Stewart's big Boston band, and later enlisted in the First Corps Cadets, Massachusetts Volunteer Militia, ranking as regimental drummer. With the advent of the Boston Opera Company he relinquished all playing connections save that with the Boston Festival Orchestra, a position which he held with credit during the entire five years of this company's operatic regime in Boston.

 

Not withstanding the confining and exacting duties of rehearsals and performances with an established opera company, he had found time, in the interim, to specialize in the study, practice, and teaching of the xylophone, and at the final closing of the opera he entered the vaudeville field as a xylophone soloist, covering the various smaller time theaters throughout the Eastern States. His pronounced success in this field soon attracted the attention of one of the managers of the Keith Theater interests, and he soon was booked in the "big time" on the Keith circuit.

 

It was during this period of Mr. Stone's public career that Thomas B. Senia, a veteran Boston Drummer, through ill health was obliged to resign his position in the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and through the strong recommendations of several prominent Boston musicians, Mr. Stone was sent for by the director of the Symphony, who first tested his musical ability and then proffered him a three-year contract with the big Boston Orchestra.

 

Although reluctant to lost the opportunity of being identified with what is probably one of the greatest orchestras in the world, the young tympanist was forced to refuse this offer, as well as another most flattering year's contract for the Keith circuit, tendered by the New York manager. These refusals were wholly contingent upon the rapid growth of the manufacturing business established by his father, and its steadily increasing demands upon his time.

 

Since 1914, and to the exclusion of outside playing, Mr. George Lawrence Stone has devoted his entire time and energies to the business, the father gradually shifting the executive end to the son, and himself solely to a large class of pupils and the conducting of his magazine department. Of late, however, the younger man had also been largely collaborating with his father in conducting "The Drummer" therefore the touch of his hand will not be entirely new to the readers and correspondents of this department. - The Editor."