For some reason, they say musicians can’t succeed in business. Frank Holton had a notable career as trombonist, but no one would give him a second thought today if he hadn’t founded a very successful business. With great difficulty and perseverance, he built Frank Holton & Company into one of America’s premier band instrument companies.

Frank Holton was born in 1857 or 1858 (sources vary) in Allegan County, Michigan to a music-loving family. His father, a farmer, sang in the village choir and his mother played organ. It’s not unusual for well-known musicians to come from small towns, but Allegan is special. Not only was Holton born there, but other brass greats Gardell Simons, H. A. Vandercook, and C. Z. Bronson.

Like many small-town musicians, Holton was largely self-taught on trombone. But only a few (Arthur Pryor being another) became nationally known soloists.

An uncle operated a blacksmith shop in Battle Creek. In his early teenage years, Frank became his uncle’s apprentice. In Battle Creek, he also heard a brass band for the first time. He soon joined the Allegan Band and learned to play cornet, trombone, and baritone horn.

By 1880, Holton was working as a blacksmith in Kalamazoo and playing in the local band. He entered the State Band Tournament as trombonist and 1883 and won first prize. The next time he tried to enter the contest, he was informed that no one was willing to compete against him if he competed as a trombonist.  So he entered on baritone horn instead. Although he was much less familiar with it, he won second prize.

Holton’s career as trombonist

Holton started his professional playing career touring with various minstrel shows. He became featured trombone soloist with Hi Henry Minstrels for several seasons and also toured with the Barnum and Bailey circus band.

He joined with Ellis Brooks in 1885. Brooks operated a touring band out of New York in the summer and a hotel orchestra in St. Augustine, Florida in the winter. Holton played in both for eight seasons. He served as featured trombone soloist with the band. Few trombonists could match him in technique.

In 1892, while featured as trombone soloists in Brooks’ band, he was invited to join John Philip Sousa’s new band. That fall, he toured with Sousa and performed more than 100 concerts in less than three months.

Holton meets his match

After a winter with Brooks, Holton rejoined Sousa for residency at the World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1893). As the band rehearsed, young Arthur Pryor came to a rehearsal. Sousa invited him to warm up, and the whole band was astounded at what they heard. Pryor joined Holton on first trombone and Sousa asked Holton to bring him up to date on what they were doing.

At the time, they were rehearsing a piece with a very difficult trombone part, and Sousa was taking a faster tempo than Holton could handle. So Holton asked Pryor to try it, unknown to Sousa. Sousa complimented Holton on playing it right for the first time. Holton confessed that Pryor had played it and then privately asked for his release from the band. Sousa persuaded him to remain until the end of the fair in case Pryor turned out to be a mere flash in the pan.

By 1896, Holton had returned to New York to work with Ellis Brooks, both as trombone soloist and business manager. At about the same time, he developed his own formula for slide oil. As he shared it with other trombonists, he realized that he had the makings of a new business.

Much later, he remarked in an interview that he was more successful as a musician than he had ever thought possible. But even with strictest economy, he couldn’t manage to save any money. Therefore, he decided to try his hand at starting and operating a band instrument business. His experience as a blacksmith would certainly come in handy.

Holton starts a business

Holton first ventured into business in 1885 with a one-year partnership with instrument maker James Warren York.

While still with Ellis Brooks, Holton started selling Holton’s Electric Oil through mail order in 1896. By 1898, it still wasn’t profitable, but at age 42, he thought he had reached the peak of his playing career.

It was conventional wisdom that musicians couldn’t succeed in business, but he determined to try anyway. He decided to expand his slide oil business rather than give up on the idea.

Wisely, he started slowly. He opened a shop in Chicago’s Loop and sold his slide oil and used instruments. He played trombone professionally on nights and weekends and his wife gave piano lessons to pay bills.  He drew no salary from the store until it built enough reputation to succeed.

His time as a blacksmith gave him not only experience in metalworking but also the experience of holding down a full-time job while working as a musician. His plan to grow his business in Chicago, then, represented a return to a familiar lifestyle.

Next, Holton hired someone to repair instruments. Eventually, he began to design his own line of brass and percussion instruments. He was very critical of the trombones available to him. “They have too many wolf tones, particularly the high A and B,” he noted.

Holton moved to a larger building and then, in 1904, built a new factory in Chicago and incorporated as Frank Holton & Company.

Frank Holton & Company moves to Elkhorn, Wisconsin

One early customer, George Renner of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, befriended Holton not long after he started his store. By 1916, Holton’s business had become successful enough to give him a comfortable living. He decided to buy a small farm near Elkhorn that he could use as a vacation home. When he outgrew his Chicago factory, Renner persuaded him to relocate the entire company to Elkhorn in 1918.

In a 1920 pamphlet, the Holton company claimed that between 800 and 1,000 of the 2,000 residents of Elkhorn were musicians. These included pianists, singers, string players, and about 500 players of various band instruments.

Elkhorn was first settled in 1837 and established its band in 1840. It served during the Civil War as the 12th Regiment Wisconsin Volunteers. The pamphlet claimed it was among the oldest continuously operating bands in the country. But when Holton moved his company from Chicago, he brought a company band with him. The two organizations merged, but there were four other bands in Elkhorn: the American Legion band, an all-saxophone band, and two school bands.

Elkhorn grew from a small town to a small city largely because of the growth of Frank Holton & Company. He hired hundreds of factory workers and a nationwide network of thousands of salesmen. By that time, he also issued a complete line of woodwind instruments.

Government incentives for new businesses are not a new practice. Holton received his 6-acre facility for free in exchange for promising a half-million-dollar payroll over the next seven years.

It turned out to be a difficult promise to keep. The US had just entered the First World War, and brass was needed to make shell casings. Young men who would have otherwise been available to make brass instruments instead served in the military.

Early struggles

Labor and material shortages made Holton scramble for three years to keep the federal government from commandeering all the brass and shutting him down.

He tried to build a neighborhood of homes to attract workers. Unfortunately, the city couldn’t extend sewer service, and all the basements flooded after a heavy rain storm. Holton had to pump them out and construct temporary sewers at his own expense.

During this difficult time, Holton spent as much time as he could in his experimental workshop to relax. Once the war and the shortages ended, Holton turned his stress-relief project into the very successful Holton Revelation line.

The Holton factory accepted used instruments as partial payment for its new instruments. Therefore, it boasted one of the largest inventories of used instruments in the country. It cleaned and rebuilt these instruments and sold them.

Although Holton no longer played trombone professionally, he never stopped playing. He kept a trombone near his desk even as an old man. Playing it both gave him relaxation and ideas how to improve his instrumental designs.

Outstanding success

Despite these early struggles, the pamphlet claimed that the company was doing more than a million dollars in business annually two years after moving from Chicago. It described the facility as an unusually clean, well-ventilated, and well-lit factory.

Even the buffing and polishing room was in the open factory, as it boasted exhaust fans that drew all the residue outside. Workers on the first floor made basic parts from sheet brass and tubing and solid brass rods. Workers on the second floor used these finished parts to keep up with orders for various instruments.

At the start of the Depression, Holton bought E.A. Couturier Company, which had been founded by a former associate. He used the company’s facilities in LaPorte, Indiana to manufacture a new Holton student line. The slumping economy made it impossible to maintain two facilities. With excess capacity in Elkhorn, Holton had to shutter the LaPorte facility and move production of the student instruments to Wisconsin.

By the time sales rebounded, Holton was both old and ill. He could see renewed success for the company ahead, but at 81, decided to step aside. He sold his company to a trusted employee, Fred Kull, knowing the firm would continue to operate on the same principles. He died two years later

H.J. Charlton, who joined the company in 1908 and later became its treasurer, presided at a 25th Anniversary Celebration. On that occasion, he declared that Frank Holton always had harmonious relationships with his employees, and that was the key to his success.

But in 1965, LeBlanc engineered a takeover. Under LeBlanc, the Holton company stopped innovating and began to imitate other brands. It also changed all the model names. After further rounds of mergers and acquisitions, the Holton name became a part of Conn-Selmer.

Sources:

“Frank Holton” and “Arthur Pryor” in Pioneers in Brass / Glenn Bridges (Sherwood Publications: 1965)
Frank E. Holton: world class musician and musical instrument manufacturer / Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library. August 2012
A history of Frank Holton Company / Ron Berndt, Trumpet-history.com. 2015
A trip through the Holton factory / Frank Holton & Company. 1920 — All illustrations in this post come from this pamphlet.