The Legend:
These clarinets were made out of the wooden propellers of decommissioned or destroyed WWII aircraft.
There was a shortage of African blackwood (grenadilla) due to the rationing of the war.
Additionally, it was difficult to source large, solid pieces of wood to make instruments with.
So, C.G. Conn Ltd. directed their Pan-American division to scavenge the unused propellers of downed aircraft.
These propellers were the perfect size to make instruments with, and thus, the propeller wood clarinet was born!
The Truth:
In fact, nothing of the sort happened. It sounds great and may have been used in marketing or salesmanship lip-smacking, but there are zero indications that Conn actually used aircraft propellers to make these instruments.
In fact, Conn seems to have referred to these as "violin finish" themselves, and does not seem to have made any official announcements about the propeller-nature of the instruments.
Conn also made oboes out of this "propeller wood," but these are even rarer than Conn clarinets.
The wood itself seems to be some sort of laminated something. There may be some truth in the wood shortage, but that doesn't explain how every single other manufacturer seemed to have no problem producing grenadilla clarinets...
If the French could churn out countless stencils in the early to mid 1940s, then it seems unlikely that here in America the wood shortage was so severe that aircraft propellers had to have been used.
Additionally, some sources seem to indicate that this clarinet was not produced in the 1940s at all! Instead, they seem to have been made in the early 50s.
I still like the propeller story better.
