Watch & Listen Member Center / Docs Shop

Press Kit

Essential reading and links

These background resources will help you tell the story of barbershop:

BHS Vision & Mission

Press Releases and Fact Sheets

Click here to see all of our press releases.

BHS Fact Sheet

Learn more about our vision, mission, motto and theme song, as well as our programs and outreach work, our charitable and community activities, our size and reach, and more.

Access the pdf here.

General BHS Background

Everyone in Harmony: How a barbershop quartet club might hold the key to world peace

OC and Rupert didn’t want to change the world; they just wanted to spend an evening singing with some friends. But what began on a lark as a quaint hobby became a music revivalist tradition, evolved into a legitimate musical art form, and is now a dynamic force for changing lives throughout the world...

Access the pdf here.

BHS Contests

How to watch and judge a barbershop contest

The first contest of the Barbershop Harmony Society, held in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in June of 1939, was an extremely casual affair. There were no scorecards, no trained judges—in fact, no one’s quite sure how many quartets actually competed. We do know that the Bartlesville Barflies of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, beat the Capitol City Four of Springfield, Illinois, after a “sing-off,” and took home $50 and the coveted title of “World Champion Quartet.” The second contest, held at the New York World’s Fair in 1940, was judged by a panel of dignitaries that included Governor Al Smith, whom one competitor overheard whispering to a fellow judge, “They all sound good to me—who should I vote for?”

Access the pdf here.

For more background information, please contact:
Brian Lynch, Public Relations Manager
615-673-4131 | blynch@barbershop.org