Glens Falls in 1941 — Music a ‘cure’ for ‘war jitters’

Customers buying one-hundred-and-ten trombones, or even just one, should not have to bear the cost of a proposed new federal excise tax.

Clarinets and violins and the instruments the Braydon and Chapman Accordion Band performed on at local dances, or any other musical instrument, too, should be tax free.

That’s the gist of Glens Falls music dealer Royal J. Braydon’s protest of a proposed 10 percent federal excise tax on musical instruments in 1941.

“Classifying music as a luxury is not only inaccurate but dangerous,” he wrote, in an essay published May 16, 1941, in The Post-Star. “Musical instruments should be considered tools of education and of trade.”

The World War II era tax, which was enacted, also applied to phonographs, phonograph records, radios and the sound units of televisions.

The tax was charged to manufacturers, but Braydon said the added expense would trickle down to the school district and parents that bought musical instruments to enrich the lives of children.

“Millions of boys and girls are studying music because its benefits as an educational medium are universally recognized,” he wrote. “It takes only a little thought to realize how important music is to the public in these troublesome times, and its value in stirring patriotism and keeping up the morale of both those in military service and those at home.”

Braydon said Congress should promote the holistic value of music.

“Rather than being killed by taxes. music should be encouraged in times like these as a source of comfort and a means of inspiration,” he wrote. “Playing the piano, for instance, is a well-known means of soothing jagged nerves and banishing worries. Music is a cure for ‘war jitters’ and not a luxury.”

Braydon established his music business in 1911, after working five years as a salesman for Cluett & Sons piano store.

In 1915 he took on Fred B. Chapman, treasurer of Finch, Pruyn & Co., as a partner.

For many years the store was located at what is now the corner of Glen Street and Hudson Avenue, in the building where Domino’s Pizza is now on the ground floor.

Braydon and Chapman music store closed in 1971.