Description

What a great Player!  Nice big commanding tone.  Hard to believe this horn is around 83 years old.  (circa 1942)
Manufactured at 1945 Morse Avenue on the north side of Chicago. This is  where the great majority of the Chicago Benge trumpets were handmade by Eldon

S/n 1036 Bb ML
Lacquer W/ Bell Staff Logo
Double rings on receiver.  The serial 1036 is stamped vertically on the second valve
The Benge logo is either worn or buffed off. 2 braces on third slide inside legs of slides is nickel
There is no bore size marking but it measures out to .460 (ML)
The 3 slide’s finger ring is on the bottom and is adjustable
Repaired & re-lacquered in early 1960s.
Purchased @1960 for $115 from the original owner, Arnold Battalini.

Video Coming ASAP

Elden Benge was born on July 12, 1904, in Iowa, but moved in 1921 to Glendale, California. He started cornet at age 7, and played in several dance bands while in high school and went on the road his last year of high school.

He made his way east and played trumpet in the Detroit Symphony from 1928 to 1933.

The Chicago Period.
He then moved to Chicago where he played in the Chicago Symphony and other local orchestras. Around 1934, in the basement of his house on Berwyn Avenue on the northwest side of Chicago, he started to make copies, with some improvements, of F. Besson trumpets, which were nearly universally played in large orchestras at the time (Vincent Bach’s and Dominic Calicchio’s first trumpets were also copies of F. Bessons). In 1937, he sold his first custom built trumpet to a fellow member of the Chicago Symphony trumpet section. At that time he manufactured the horns in the basement and lacquered them in the kitchen. He used parts from other makers for several years. At some point he moved to a house on Major Avenue and continued his manufacturing. By 1942, Benge moved to 1945 Morse Avenue on the north side of Chicago where the great majority of the Chicago Benge trumpets were made. The horns remained almost cosmetically indistinguishable from the F. Bessons, especially including the second valve slide that faces the bell rather than the mouthpiece, throughout their production. Virtually all the details and braces were the same as well. Benge was a friend and neighbor of Renold Schilke and Schilke, with his experience in machine tools, helped Benge set up his manufacturing shop. There are not a lot of these “Chicago Benges” around (go here for an estimate) but they are popular with both collectors and players, costing a premium, like New York Bachs. The trumpet played by Herb Alpert on his recordings is a Benge made in Chicago in 1951. A friend has a Chicago Benge and it plays very well. For an article about Elden Benge’s early days, go here.

Elden Benge was a fine trumpet player. When he was healthy, Elden Benge was about 6’2″, but when he was older he was all crippled up with arthritis of the spine and stood nearly a foot shorter. According to Frank Kaderabek, Benge would sit in a desk chair and lean back to play the trumpet. His sound, according to Kaderabek, was gorgeous–soft and refined.

At some point, the bell hallmark changed from “Hand Tempered Bell” to “Resno-Tempered Bell” and did throughout the product run of Benge B flat trumpets until manufacturing was suspended by Conn-Selmer in 2005. According to Donald Benge, “Resno-Tempered” means the process of hammering and annealing (heating) the one piece bell into shape as specified and practiced by his father.

At the time “Resno Tempered Bell” was included on the bell hallmark, another change was made: E. BENGE is spelled out with the notes on a short musical staff, including an ingenious way to get the “N” in there.