PACIFIC (AP) - Mel Bay Publications is celebrating its 60th year of teaching the world to play guitar. The company, based in Pacific, Missouri, has a catalog of music books 3,000 deep, and recently opened an office in London to expand in Europe. It has expanded beyond the how-to-play format with sales of CDs, DVDs and an increasing online presence. But back in the 1940s, New York's three biggest music publishers turned Mel Bay down, saying there was no future in guitar. Bay decided to self-publish -- just before Elvis Presley burst onto the scene. Suddenly, his how-to-play-the-guitar books were in high demand as thousands took up the instrument.
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