Just another mint NOS Hum-A-Tune

Just another mint and new old stock Hum-A-Tune (yellow, this time!). This one is so clean that even the stapples aren't rusty, and the pre-perforated hole for hanging on a display is not hollow.

The Rare, Amazing and Ugly Snoot-Flute!

To fish a Snoot-Flute was a quest. Do you remember the highly desirable Snoot-Flute, kind of a Nosy Grail for the nose flute collector ?... We had published the beautiful advertisement (see here) which was published in the Kenner toy catalog. We also had written a long article about Nelson Ronsheim (NFHoF), its funny and creative inventor (see here)…

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Well, we just were incredibly joyful when we recently found a Snoot-Flute!



It was very dirty and the cardboard was a wreck, having enormous moist blotches. I cleaned it a bit with a soft eraser, tried with diluted Hydrogen peroxide, but was not able to get the brown blotches to a lighter color. So, I just passed it a minute over steam, then carefully ironed it. Too bad that this card is so damaged, the design by Nelson Ronsheim is so great...





1.- The Cardboard

The design is tremendous, very vintage, with its oblique lines separating colored areas. Many of the typographics were hand drawn, including the adorable big logo. Here is a scan of my board. But I didn't resist providing also a 'digitally restored' version (yes yes, some work again:), to show how the paper should have looked when still new:




The first thing I noticed gave me an 'official' answer to the question of the date. I thought the Snoot-Flute was dating of the early 1960s, and a reader of this blog then posted a comment asserting « that is a page from the 1963 Kenner catalog. It's not in the '62 or '64 catalogs so it looks like it only lasted a year.». It would need some investigation to check if the Snoot-Flute ad really appeared in the 1963 catalog then, and above all, in other vintages. But... One thing is now sure and ascertained, the Snoot-Flute dates of 1959!!



The 'Pats. Pend.' should never have been registered, since I never found any traces of them and the date is not so far to have disappeared from the patent office.

Indeed, this part of the cardboard was totally unknown to me. The only picture I had was the catalog advertisement which showed the nose flute clipped on the paper, masking this essential info. Then, Mr. Michael Smith (Nelson Ronsheim's grandson) had sent me the only picture he had, and there again, the flute was clipped on the board (there).

By the way, please note the differences (colors, text, oblique lines) between the cardboard design on the catalog ad and the one that was actually printed:



Another nice surprise was to discover the user manual, announced by the mention 'Directions underneath', but also masked by the flute. I was surprised to read « To play different notes, breathe harder or softer » which is only really true associated with « and change the shape of your lips. » I think it is the very first time I read this advice in a nose flute instructions sheet.



Also hidden under the Snoot-Flute, a nice little drawing:




2.- The Nose Flute

On that topic also — the instrument by itself – a great mystery was still laying: on the catalog ad and on Michael Smith's picture, as well as on the pictures of the advertisement I got the Snoot-Flute from, the flute is displayed reversed side, showing its back only. How was the front ? The only design that was helpful for imagination was the one on the cardboard with the kid playing: rather flat front on its top part...

Have you seen how ugly it is ?? Hahaha! That was my first surprise when I open the parcel I received. The front of the flute is never shown, because it looks horrible! Very funny, and I love this flute even more. Have you seen the very crappy and distended yellow plastic sheet covering the front?

The second thing that surprised me is that, I was expecting a sturdy and thick plastic nose flute, and I got the lightest instrument. Among the plastic nose flutes, it is the lightest I know, even lighter that the Humanatone (3g) that is much smaller. The Snoot-Flute weight 2.5 grams!!



In fact, this nose flute is really clever. The plastic is very thin… because the Snoot-Flute was produced by thermoforming! Not injected plastic. As you know, the thermoforming uses a hot shape upon which is placed a sheet of thin plastic, while vacuum is produced in order to stick down the sheet and form it according to the shape. It is the only nose flute I know made this way. This explain why the front is so flat. The (red) bottom was thermoformed and at the same time the (yellow) flat top was superposed and glued by fusion on its sides. I suppose that it is at this very moment that this softened (yellow) part got a bit bulged (Some air was probably blown into the nose intake, to avoid the yellow sheet to stick the red one).



There are still some embossed points visible on the red part: the points where ejection pushrods did their work. There are 3 pairs of them (top, middle, bottom). If you take a look, they are also visible on the Michael Smith's picture, as well as the bizarre kind-of-boomerang shape. But this weird shape is not at the same place on both flutes, and it should be a mark made from but after ejection:




Oh! The sound? Well the sound quality is not so bad and quite powerful, just a bit sqwacking in the sharps:



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Don't you think it looks much like a...



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Now, let just make a fake picture, just for the pleasure of looking at a mint Snoot-Flute:

Humatune… addendum

After having posted yesterday's article, I incidentally found some pictures of a pair of Humatunes that have been sold on Etsy.com (it is always easier to find when you know what to look for...). Those were still packed in a cellophane envelope, and sealed by a paper header:




The first interesting thing is the price: 10c. It doesn't ascertain nothing, but comparison with other nose flutes (sold in groceries or so) may help to give a date:

1963: Snoot-flute - 10c.
1965+: Topps (Humanatone) - 19c.
1969: Bullwinkle's Hum-a-tune - 29c.

But all three were plastic made. So, a metal nose flute should have been more expensive, or, at 10c., on the market earlier. Thus, the Humatune should probably date of the 1950's.

The second interesting point is obviously the mention Packed by "Toy-Pak" .

It was not easy to find info about this company, but I finally did through... obituary notices!

Vancouver Sun (BC):


So, Toy-Pak was founded by Stuart and Mary Whitehouse, and was 'the first wholesale toy distributor for the grocery trade in BC'. So, Toy-Pak was located in British Columbia (CA), precisely 8455 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby (Eastern suburb of Vancouver):

Sorry, I didn't find bigger:


My first thoughts were that Humatune could have been the Humanatone brand for the Canadian market... But the seller of this pair of Humatunes was in California, and the seller of mine too!

Indeed, Pak-Toy seems to have had subsidiaries in Santa Maria, California, and in Stirling, Scotland:



The Humatune looks to date of the 1950s; anyway, Toy-Pak was still existing in 1976:

Squamish Times (BC), May 20, 1976:



And if...

... if Gretsch had simply bought the brand Humatune ?

Remember, the Hum-a-tune was a kind of circular kazoo that got a good fame in the 1930s (see here). Its production probably stopped with the WWII. But the brand was reknown...

I got a late sample likely from the early 40s [according to the Junket Rennet powder box (ad on the papers) which had changed in 1943], complete and I dare to say 'pristine':




And if you see well, whether the brand is written 'Hum-a-tune' on the papers, it is stamped without the dashes on the instrument itself:




So? It is just an hypothesis, but if Gretsch had bought the brand Hum-a-tune/Humatune, it would explain why the graphic chart of the Humantune is the same that the Gretsch one, but also details like the article 'the' in 'Humatune (The Nose Flute)'. Indeed, the people already knew Hum-a-tune the kazoo, and here came the nose flute. But why not Humanatone? It could have been either to differenciate the metal flute from the plastic one, but more likely to get the benefit of a brand known in a different sector of distribution than music resellers: the grocers.

Humatune ?!?

In the field of the historical research, new discoveries and findings often do not help much to achieve the puzzle or even consolidate it, but generally open new breaches in the 'global frame', and make even more fragile the facts that were regarded as ascertained. This is particularly true in nose flute historic research, and notably because there is no previous corpus to lean on.



I found a vintage nose flute that is a real mystery, the Humatune. Oh yes, it sounds like the Hum-A-Tune, the late 1960s Hong Kong copy of the plastic Gretsch Humanatone (see here for instance), but this Humatune brand wears no dashes. Yes, it has the shape of a Gretsch Humanatone, but it is made of metal. Yes, it was made in Japan, like the Gretsch metal Humanatone (see here). In fact it is the exact same flute that the Japan made metal Humanatone. Just the brand and the packaging are different.

Both Humatune and Humanatone, Japan make:
In fact, it is not the packaging which is different, but the brand, the color and the text. All the rest is identical. May we deduce that one follows the other or could have they been sold at the same time, and if so, why?

The Humatune clearly uses the same branding codes and graphic chart that the Humanatone, also declined on the 1950-60 plastic version box (see here)



So, the Humatune should be a Fred Gretsch Mfg Co. product. But there were earlier versions of the plastic Humanatone (since 1943), and the brand 'Humanatone' was already a Gretsch property. So why having used an new brand ?

As we said, the printed texts are different. It is interesting to notice the differences, notably in the titles, on one hand "The Nose Flute / A musical instrument…" and on the other hand "Nose Flute / The musical instrument…". It is sometimes possible to deduce which text is prior to another one, for instance when typo had been corrected. But here ...



Although the text is elegant and rather regular, a closer look shows that it had been hand written. Not even produced with a lettering guide... Check the differences between the letters (the size of the 'o' or the 's' for instance). This is pure meticulous hand writing:



And this was probably the same person who wrote both text. The global 'hand' is the same, but more, the little mistakes are the same! For instance, the 'kerning' mistakes regarding the just placement of the 'i' between 'r' and 'l' in NOSTRILS, etc.




(this is not a) Conclusion

The Japan make Humatune and Humanatone should probably have not been sold at the same moment. Indeed, as they were both produced by the same company and share many identities, the text should have been the same. So, my opinion is that one preceded the other. Which one first?



Points in favor of the anteriority of the Humanatone:

- The headline "The musical instrument that anybody can play" is placed on the Humanatone version just over a insertion cutting: when the instrument is on the cardboard, it masks half of the text. The Humatune version, on whish the text has been displaced, may look as a correction.


Points in favor of the anteriority of the Humatune:

- If the first metal flute had been branded Humanatone, there would have been absolutely no obvious reason to change the brand into a new and unknown brand.

- "… and first finger of hand" [Humatune] sounds like gibberish (would one have thought they could play with their foot ?). The sentence "… and forfinger of either hand" [Humanatone] sounds like a correction.

- The use of the article 'the' ('the nose flute') is a bit strange, and did not appeared on the the different boxes that packaged the plastic version. This looks like an archaïc version.

- The sentence "No opening at the corner of the mouth so air can escape" is not very clear. On the Humanatone, the last part is missing. This could have been a correction.

- "you can play" [Humanatone] sounds like a simplification of "you can learn to play" [Humatune]

- 'firmly' ("Hold the Humanatone firmly") is a word you would add, but probably not remove from a user manual. It doesn't appear on the Humatune.

- Many other little details ... "anybody"/"anyone", "hum a tune or sing"/"sing, hum or whistle a tune"… plead in favor of the Humanatone as an amended version.


So, why would have the Gretsch co. used another brand in the early version of this instrument ? Could have it been in order to avoid confusion between the metal and the plastic instruments ?
Could have Gretsch bought a competitor called Humatune, kept the name, but replaced the instrument and the graphic chart ?

Hum-A-Tune: Another Version!

The Hum-A-Tune was a Humanatone cheap copy made in Hong Kong in the mid to late 1960s. We already published here and here, about the two (packaging) versions we had. Plus the Bulwinkle branded version (see here).

We just found another version. The flute is the same, a low grade plastic Humanatone (not polystyrene like in the Gretsch original version), not "true tremolo" hole, and no stampings beside a reversed "Made in Hong Kong" on the inside of the mouth shield. But aslightly different version of the packaging.



In this version, the red color surrounds a yellow splash, much more flashy! The typo ink as turn from navy blue to black. And again, the whole text has been designed once more. On the back side, the text is now medium blue, while it was almost black in (what I suppose to be) the previous versions.



Let's make a little comparison between them all (1-2-3 or 1-3-2 ?):