Finally found a used copy of Harpo’s autobiography. A fun romp through early, poverty-stricken but full of get up and go New York Marx family childhood stories (Harpo was born in 1888!). Followed by years and years of pounding the pavement scratching out a living on the Vaudeville circuit. Finally a few breaks and steady theater success, and then Hollywood and the big time.
Here he details the birth of his trademark squeeze horn ( taxi horn). The show ‘Home Again’ puts this at around 1914.
Just for fun. On those special occasions when you want to make a big impression. By the way, this is a very big bike!
A fresh shipment of beautiful horns just in. Thank you Alvin!!
Back in the day they were called bulb horns and were the standard horn on pre-war cars. Somewhere along the line they began to be called squeeze horns. This begs the question… Who was the first clown to use a squeeze horn (was it Harpo?) because nowadays they’re also referred to as clown horns.
From Bonham’s auction house! Beautiful ‘bulb horns’ from the early 1900s.
Reader Iguana sent this to me in a comment and it’s priceless and so worth sharing. Horns are featured starting right after the opening credits for the first 4 minutes or so.
“The G minor horn always gets them.”
The Marching Hornets perform Herb Alpert’s ‘Tijuana Taxi’. You can hear it too! Check out the video here. Band director John was right, the squeeze horn adds that special something.
University of Michigan has a 2016 video describing the original taxi horn tones of the Gershwin score. [Updated 11/19 See also new Taxi Horns post.]
Reader Jan (see comment below) shares an insight into the notes used in the original recording. That lead to this article (lots of interesting details): 1929 Gershwin Taxi Horn Photo Clarifies Mystery. It would seem the mystery of the actual tones used in the original recording is solved!
A comment from Bill Schuetter today provided the missing clue to discovering a source for tuned squeeze horns. Bill provided a link to a YouTube video of the LA Philharmonic performing Gershwin’s ‘American In Paris’. There they are! and certainly orchestras around the world would need these to perform Gershwin. I found a few sources. See links below.
[Update 5/11/15] There you go! Owner Russ Knutson, of Chicago Percussion Rental comments below to point out that the horns in this shot came from his shop.
From CaliforniaPercussion.com (renting at $100 a week + shipping).
George Gershwin wrote for Tuned Taxi Horns in his composition An American in Paris. These horns come in a set of 4 pitches: A, B, C, & D. We have 3 sets of tuned taxi horns in our rental department and they all sound FANTASTIC! You will have no issues with our taxi horns; no muffled or dog barkish sounds, just pure taxi horn tone! As a percussionist for 10 years in the San Francisco Symphony, Trey Wyatt has used these horns for over 50 performances without failure.
The taxi horn part is normally played by one player. Gershwin actually writes for 2 players to each play 2 horns. However, it works brilliantly for this part to by played by 1 player, the cymbal player, as the cues for all the horn parts are written in the cymbal part.
Certainly not cheap to purchase. That’s about $750. U.S. From Kolberg in Germany.
A little cheaper at around $650 (but without the stand) from Jam in the U.K.
Most orchestras rent the set of horns. In the U.S. often from Steve Weiss Music outside of Philadelphia.
Also from LA Percussion Rentals. FSTJ Percussion in Quebec, Canada, and above-mentioned California Percussion.
I’ll be looking for a U.S. source to purchase. I’ve also emailed an Indian manufacturer to see what the thinks about custom building tuned horns.
Not that there was ever any doubt, but here’s picture proof that our horns are a class act. This is the 12″ medium loop horn mounted on Tim’s 1955 BMW. Beautiful! We were a little concerned about mounting the horn to his 7/8″ handle bars. He did use the attaching bracket I include, but supplemented it…
I used a zip tie to the clutch cable to increase the contact points. After taking the photo I inserted sail tape (used to stop sharp objects from ripping sailboat sails) between the handle bars and the clamp. This tightened the fit and prevents scratches to the chrome bars. The horn is loud (good) and is an excellent add on.
Thanks for sending the photos Tim!
Johnny sent along a shot of his 16″ covered bell horn, now safely secured to his bike. I asked him how he attached it.
I couldn’t use the included handlebar clamp due to dashboard and foredeck, so I used two 3/4″ insulated conduit hangers and secured the upper segment with a zip tie.
And here’s a close-up of how he attached his horn.
34 thoughts on “Old Comments Prior to 2021”
Hi John, I am from Mumbai and we have these horns used in the autorickshaws ( tuk tuk) and the state run buses.
I have found some people making these brass horns STILL in Mumbai, perhaps these are the last of the breed but these can still be sourced here in Mumbai . Drop me a line on … and we can take ahead.
Regards
Al
Hi Al, I replied by email (took your address out of the comment so it wouldn’t be public). Thanks and excited to discuss. Best, John
I know you are still looking for a distributor. Maybe this guy who is a horn expert on the UK can help you
https://taffthehorns.com/
Very interesting, thank you. Looks like he’s mostly dealing with vintage motorcycle horns. I’m getting some great ideas for attaching brackets for bike handlebars from looking over his site. Thanks again Iguana.
Hi. John
Greetings for the day.
This side surender sethi.
Let me know ur requirements of spare rubber horn bulbs.
U order any color any quantity.
Be assured u will get in best rubber quality.
Regards
Surender sethi
Hi Sethi, I removed your email from the comment so you don’t get spammed. But I will contact you now to be in touch.
Thanks!
John
Humor – Squeeze horns have been known to cause insanity:
https://youtu.be/PeWBwbOu_b4
Oh Wow! That is fantastic. Going to make a post for it. Thank You!!
Good morning, evening, afternoon and night! I have great interest in your insightful encyclopedia of bulb horns of many! But I was wondering if you would be able to identify several of these bulb horn/noisemaker sounds. I’ve created a compilation of these sounds (Warner Bros./Looney Tunes horn sounds) that way they’ll be easy to tell apart. I’m hoping this won’t be a hassle! Do take your time. Thank you and have a great day!
The video containing the samples:
https://youtu.be/d0zhfD3lK00
1. Large squeeze horn 2. Small squeeze horn 3. Small, probably plastic squeeze horn 4.Sounds like a rubber duck squeeze toy 5. Not sure, but maybe a very small plastic squeeze horn. You can also compare to my SFX/Ringtone recordings here: https://www.squeezehorns.com/2011/squeeze-horn-sounds-and-ringtones/
Best,
John
Maybe try to get hold of the rickshaw people in India? This person seems to repair them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H42hbtnIhjA
OMG, that’s amazing and opened up to a ton of other similar vids on YT. Thanks for the link. I’ll build a post with the best of these type of Desmo Horns I can find.
They spell it many different ways.
Desmo, Deshmo, Deshmuk, Deshmukh.. Sometimes bhopu.. Maybe that will help you ask for the right things.
Hi,
Are you back to selling horns? Though they were a couple of years old, I’ve seen a few posts on your site saying that you had stopped temporarily.
I’m looking to purchase two – a 7″ brass and a 10″ double-bell brass.
I look forward to hearing from you, thank you.
Mike
I have about 20 squeeze horns that I purchased from WalMart and the horns are used on a kids barrel ride train.
the horns are made in China and are sold under the names of Bell and Kent bicycle accessories.
The plastic and brass reed valve will fail/break after a few minutes of the kids honking them.
Do you have a vendor or manufacturers that will sell replacement reed valves only?
replacing the valve would be an quick and simple fix, but the stores that I purchased the horns from tells me the have to replace the whole horn.
can you help?
Thanks,
Terry Martin
I have a horn and need a bulb, can you help, all that I see on the interweb don’t look like mine.
Hello I am looking to buy just the ball that squeezes as mine has disappeared from my horn bell. Do you know where I could purchase one? Or coul I et one from you? The opening diameter is 1 cm.
Thank you
Allexa
Sorry, I don’t just now. Also the bulb on our horns is larger than 1 cm. If you do find a source please let me know.
Tim bought a sqeeeze horn from you a year ago
How to clean the rubber bulb
It leaves your hand black!
I’m just discovering this myself. What I’m suspecting is that the second batch of horns I received included bulbs with inferior rubber quality. I’ve cleaned mine with dish washing detergent.
hope you guys are not permanently defunct… I just found you and want to do some bid’ness…
in the market for some horns (I love the silly things, too) and particularly the mounting brackets
that you’ve had made up, very cool… if someone’s still out there in the digital wasteland, and
planning to resume ops anytime soon, plz. contact me so that we may conduct some sort of
bulb horn transaction… best regards, John D…
Oh we’re back alright! Just in case anyone is wondering . I’ve asked a few recent customers if they’d care to comment or send along a photo of their horns in use. Fingers crossed they get back to me. Best, John