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The Music Man of Main Street

By Jonathan Monfiletto

There is an old saying that goes, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” This saying is so old, it seems, that it is attributed to people, according to my Google search, ranging from Confucius to Mark Twain (and probably Abraham Lincoln). Whoever said it originally and whoever has spread it since then, it seems Warner Bush lived it. Warner Bush chose a job he loved so much, in fact, that he not only never had to work a day in his life but also apparently never retired.

As many people still around Penn Yan and Yates County today remember, Mr. Bush owned Bush’s Music and Radio House on Main Street in the village – a business established in 1905 by his father, Fred, who was a grandson of Dr. Wynans Bush, the notable doctor and abolitionist of Yates County. Mr. Bush apparently worked in the family store from the time it opened when he was 9 years old until he died at age 92 in 1988, except for the time he served in the Army during World War I.

I enjoy choosing old photographs to post on our Facebook page; sometimes I know something about the photo because of the description either on the back or in our database, and sometimes I just choose the photo because it looks interesting. The latter was the case when I found a photo labeled “Warner Bush” on the back and depicting a man, Mr. Bush as I know now, showing off the latest and greatest in 1980 technology – a General Electric television with knobs on the front (though Mr. Bush is holding a thick remote control) and a sign above it reading, “Quartz Precision Electronic Tuning.”

Both the child-of-the-1990s part of me (I was born in 1988) and the old-man part of me (I’ll turn 35 next year) were amused by a photo depicting a state-of-the-art technology of the time that would nowadays be considered an obsolete and defunct relic. So, I shared the photo on our Facebook page and was treated to a multitude of people who commented with their memories of the kindly Mr. Bush and his wondrous store, where they bought records, appliances, and musical instruments.

The point to start talking about Mr. Bush might actually be with his death on March 21, 1988 and the ensuing newspaper coverage (several articles are in our subject files) that called Mr. Bush an institution in Penn Yan as well as a “long-time area musician, minstrel, composer, band leader, and businessman” and even the Music Man of Main Street. Fellow Main Street business owners paid tribute to him and celebrated the life of this colorful character. During his life, Mr. Bush was also featured in the local press when his store marked 70 years in business, when he turned 87 years old, when he turned 90, and elsewhere throughout his time. Each story seemed to add to the living legend of Warner Bush, especially when those who operated stores around his offered such kind words about this kind man.

Born February 21, 1896, Mr. Bush went into the music business when his father opened the store out of the family home at 129 Hamilton St. The elder Bush had started out selling meats from a traveling wagon in Penn Yan but transitioned to selling Edison cylinder records and record players, pianos, and organs as well as Singer sewing machines. The store moved to 132 Main St. sometime around Fred Bush’s death in 1939, and it remained there for the next 50 years. A 1914 graduate of Penn Yan Academy, Mr. Bush began playing music as well as selling it while still in high school and immediately afterward – performing concerts in front of the Yates County Courthouse and on a boat that went from Penn Yan to Hammondsport and back on moonlight excursions. In May 1918, Mr. Bush became Cpl. Bush when he was drafted and sent to basic training; he served with 40th Company, 153rd Depot Brigade and then 3rd Company, Convalescent Center before being discharged a year later. During the war, he was also part of a touring group of 40 Army band members, backing up vaudeville acts and giving concerts in what was a forerunner to USO shows.

Upon his return to Penn Yan and to the family business, Mr. Bush joined the town band, going from Penn Yan to Dresden on the train to perform for the annual Decoration Day festivities. He also formed a five-piece band that became known as the Saxophone Novelty Orchestra, playing the piano and doubling on trombone. Amid personnel changes, Mr. Bush remained with the band for more than 40 years until 1962 and even took over its leadership in the mid-1940s. Elsewhere, music aficionados knew you could “swing and sway with Sammy Kaye,” but in Penn Yan the slogan was, “shove and push with Warner Bush.”

And Mr. Bush didn’t just sell music and perform music; he also wrote music – publishing two marches, “The President Elect March” and “With The Colors,” in 1917. Both of these pieces were on display on the sheet music rack in the store, along with the reported 8,000 records in stock and the first television to receive a signal in Penn Yan at 4 p.m. on June 11, 1948. That television, of course, was a General Electric model; Mr. Bush began selling the first General Electric refrigerators and eventually became the oldest continuous dealer for the company in the United States.

Aside from his music and his appliances, Mr. Bush had a trademark style, of course. A lead in a 1983 newspaper article remarks that he would not have been born like other babies but “must have come complete in a blue, pin-striped suit with sheet music in his hands.” Even in his late 80s and early 90s, he worked each day and arrived shortly before noon, greeting customers and passers-by with a “Hello” and a smile.

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