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From: Mark Osterman [aka Dr. B. B. Bumstead]
Date: 8/12/2005
Time: 11:02:17 AM
Hello, I saw this post regarding Humanatone nose flutes and thought you might enjoy my two cents. I sold many thousands of nose flutes in twenty years time from my three man medicine show mounted on the back of a model T Ford. We had a special box made bearing a line drawing of me playing one on the front. The key to selling them was playing them well during the performance and giving several away to children in the morning when we were setting up the stage and getting the show ready. Those kids would play them all over the fair grounds advertising the show. Ours came with written instructions and a moneyback guarantee.."tripple your money back..just bring the instrument unused to the place of purchase, one year after the purchase date." I still have the original painted canvas banner for selling them and about 100 unused boxes. I also did a second one man show from the rumble seat of a 1933 Plymount. I would stand in the seat area facing the rear of the car. The backdrop was held above and behind me on polls and a wooden podium onto which was attatched a microphone flipped up in front of me. Two lights illuminated me from below on either side. I still have some wonderful 16mm black and white films and prints of an evening performance at a country fair showing this set up. By the way, the earlier pre-plastic Humanatone was tinned steel and came in a box with instructions with an illustration of a man playing one, in tails with piano accompanyment, in front of a well dressed audience! I still have one of these. We often broke the plastic ones on stage on purpose assuring the parents with children on a long trip home that the best feature of the Humanatone was that they actually were breakable! See images and descriptions of our old show by searching for Dr. Bumstead's Celebrated Lenape Liquid Show...feel free to contact me through sculloster@aol.com Best regards, Mark Osterman