A Brief History of the Conn Company (1874-present)*

by Margaret Downie Banks, Ph.D.
Senior Curator of Musical Instruments
National Music Museum
Vermillion, South Dakota

© Copyright 1997-2009 by The National Music Museum.
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*Excerpted and updated from Elkhart's Brass Roots: An Exhibition to Commemorate the 150th Anniversary of C. G. Conn's Birth and the 120th Anniversary of the Conn Company by Margaret Downie Banks (Vermillion, South Dakota: The Shrine to Music Museum, 1994).

Paul Gazlay Era (1949-1958)

C. D. Greenleaf retired as President of Conn in 1949, having directed the company for 34 years. He was succeeded by the former head of Conn's Continental Music Division, Paul Gazlay (1897-1966), who led the company, still owned by the Greenleaf family, for the next decade. Once again, the company was called upon by the government to apportion part of its business for the manufacture of specialized equipment, this time for the Korean War. During Gazlay's tenure, Conn also liquidated and/or absorbed all its subsidiary companies, including the Leedy and Ludwig Drum Division (established in 1949 and sold in 1955) and the New Berlin Instrument Company, established in upstate New York (1954-1961) for the production of Conn's clarinets, oboes, and bassoons.

Above: Row upon row of shiny new trumpets, cornets, and trombone slides were produced during the early 1950s. Many improvements in such products were the result of pure acoustic research in conjunction with numerous working meetings with representatives of the College Band Directors National Association and the American Bandmasters Association. From the Conn Archive at the National Music Museum. Gift of Dr. Earle Kent, Elkhart, Indiana, 1992.   © 1997-1999 by The National Music Museum.

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