The "Battle of the Bands" and the "Battle of the Beat" competitions, held respectively in the Bay Area and Los Angeles as part of the 4th Teen Age Fair, were the first major marketing ventures by Thomas Organ for Vox in the United States. For the heats and so on in late March and the first half of April, 1965, see this page.

Teen Beat magazine issue 1 - really a newspaper magazine, as its successors also were - was produced to help promote the contests, evidently while the heats were in progress. The closing rounds at the Hollywood Palladium are listed, but those at the San Mateo County Fairground are noted as not having yet been finalised (see the foot of page 2).

The driving force behind these events was Marvin (Marv) Kaiser, Sales Manager for Vox. It was doubtless Kaiser who also came up with the idea of the Vox van, which toured California with demonstration equipment shortly before the two "Battles" were due to take place:

Above, a short piece in the "Oxnard Press Courier", 2nd March, 1965. The Vox van! - bringing promotional equipment from Sepulveda. Phinney-Hale Music is picked out for mention in the magazine below on pages 4 and 6.

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