I did get compliments on it (not bad craftsmanship for a 13-year-old boy, if I do say so myself). I lined it with green velvet, and I trimmed pieces from an old bed sheet to cover the outside, painting it tan, the same color as the original case. I made a larger case to hold mutes and music, along with the trumpet. The case was just big enough to hold the trumpet, mouthpiece, a bottle of valve oil, and a cloth to wipe the horn down. Remember the glass eye dropper bottles and the smell? The bottom-sprung valves, on the other hand, weren't burdened by any plating whatsoever, so they did not resist wear, even with Holton valve oil. Do you know how much time and effort is involved in sandpapering hard chrome off the slides? I do.
The manufacturer plated the slides without compensating for the thickness of the chrome, so they all were an interference fit. Can't get shinier than that, can you? Nor hotter to the touch when playing outside in the sun, like at outdoor concerts and in parades.
It most likely came from the Montgomery Ward catalog as the "Good" of a "Good, Better, Best" choice. I think it had "American" in the name, but I'm not sure. The brand of my first trumpet is lost to my memory. Even a beginner could tell the difference. He had already started band when I gave it to him, and he played it a bit and said “I like this one a lot better”. It was a really nice, good-playing Conn Director cornet, still a student instrument, but a much better one. I told him not to, that I would give him a better one I already owned.
When my nephew (and godson) was going to begin band in middle school, my brother was going to let him use the Cleveland cornet. Lol.that’s exactly how I’ve described it in the past. I don’t own that horn anymore, but played it from 7th grade through most of college! Wish I still had it - he had bought it from Bobby Shew when they were playing together in Las Vegas. I kept it all these years just so some other poor kid wouldn’t get stuck with it! My replacement for it was a 1960 Benge 3X that my first private teacher sold us for less than it was worth because he didn’t want me to play that cornet any more. I started on a Cleveland cornet exactly like that! It plays like a sewer pipe, and is currently in my home shop waiting to become a lamp.
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