A couple more vintage music items arrived last week.  I don't really do any conducting.  My one and only time actually conducting happened quite by accident in a pit in Salt Lake City.  But that's a whole different story.  Even though I don't do any conducting, I love picking up vintage conductors batons when I can find them at a reasonable price.

Last week two batons made by the Elton Musical Products Co. arrived.  I'd been watching the "telescopic" baton on "the auction" site for quite awhile.  It was priced a little more than I really wanted to spend.  Then an "illuminated" baton by Elton showed up.  I did a little research and found a scan from a 1963 Elton catalog that showed both (and only those two) batons.  I took that as a sign that I should pick up both of them.  They each had a "make an offer" button, so I made offers on both and they were both accepted.   

They are both really kind of cool and gimmicky.  The telescopic one is about the size of a pen and has a clip to keep it in your pocket, but is 18" long when fully extended.  It's aluminum, so it's pretty lightweight.  The illuminated one is 16" long with an aluminum handle that housed a lightbulb and a battery.  The shaft is a long piece of lucite.  This one is missing the bulb and I haven't figured out what kind of battery it would take.  That will take some investigating.  For now I have a laser pointer that fits in the handle perfectly.