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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Business Continues to Show Improvement and Better Feeling Prevails—Anniversary Month of
the Starting of the Wanamaker and Gimbel Piano Departments Being Celebrated in a Most
Imposing Way—Wanamaker's New Department Most Artistic—Egyptian Hall Equipped
With Handsome Pipe Organ—Gimbel Bros. Giving Splendid Concerts With the Banda
Pupilla—Herzberg's Fine Business With the Kranich & Bach, Mehlin and Straube Pianos
—Woodford, Crouse & Stoll Affairs—Bellak Visiting Florida—Heppe's Fine Business.
(Special to Tlie Ileview.)
Philadelphia, Pa., March 3, 1908.
Business in Philadelphia is showing some im-
provement this week. This is apparent on all
sides. Not only have more pianos been sold, but
the scare is passing away and there have been a
great many more persons "looking around." This
is also true of the other lines of the trade, in-
cluding the "small goods" and the talking ma-
chines. The dealers tell me that more talking
machines have been sold the past week than any
week previous to Christmas.
One reason, no doubt, for an increased trade
is the heavy advertising that is being done, par-
ticularly by the department stores. This month
is the anniversary month of the starting of the
Wanamaker and Gimbel piano departments, and
both houses had made extensive arrangements for
the celebration. The Wanamaker house had
hardly begun the celebration on Monday before
the news came from Paris of the death of
Thomas Wanamaker, who was long associated
with his father in the conducting of the big
department store, and who was particularly In-
terested in the piano department. The celebra-
tion was to have kept up through the month, but
as the opening day's program had been so exten-
sively advertised, it was carried out, but the rest
of the celebration has been postponed indefinitely.
I attended the opening day's celebration, which
began at 9 o'clock with a military parade and a
concert by the J. W. C. I. Bugle and Drum
Corps. At 10.30 a. m. the new Wanamaker
Egyptian Hall was thrown open by a lecture on
"Music in Human Life," and at 11 o'clock the
new pipe organ was dedicated, Mr. Himmelreich
presiding. At 2.30 p. m. the first concert was
given in the new Egyptian Hall by Herr Jan
Mankacsy, violinist, and Herr Karl L. Ondricek,
pianist.
Egyptian Hall is the most magnificent hall de-
voted to music in Philadelphia. It seats 2,000
people and the balcony that surrounds the hall
on three sides is a series of luxurious boxes. Its
stage is large enough to accommodate 700 people,
and there is room provided for an orchestra of
one hundred musicians. The new organ contains
2,136 pipes, and the console in front of the stage
is equipped with four manuals. A set of chimes
and an echo or antiphonal organ is located in the
rear of the room. The organ can be played either
by hand or with the Angelus music roll. The
concerts which were begun on Monday will be
continued through the entire month. The great
choir of 700 voices, consisting entirely of Wana-
maker employes, will sing several times daily.
The Wanamaker Egyptian Hall is but the
center around which are a number of smaller
RUDOLF
PIANOS
are conscientiously made, good
instruments; in other words, the
sweetest things out.
RUDOLF PIANO CO.
458 E. 144tta Street,
NEW YORK.
11
been personal and it may not have been, but it
caused a hearty laugh, and suggested the great
worth these instruments could be put to In a busy
office where a number of "nuisances"—as, for
instance, news extractors—are liable to congre-
gate. W. J. Elwood, of the Heppe phonograph
department, has again returned to the store after
a short illness.
Mr. Hunter, floor manager of the Sterling Co.,
of Brooklyn, accompanied by Mrs. Hunter, was a
Philadelphia visitor at the end of last week.
The Heppes have been doing a very large busi-
ness in Aeolians and Pianolas lately. Last week
they succeeded in selling one of their finest
Aeolians, worth $2,850, and it was a cash sale,
to a prominent Philadelphian. The most popular
of their Weber pianos is style 26 P. They have
already placed 25 of the Stuyvesant Pianolas
alone on the United States fleet, delivering them
to League Island.
halls, the Greek Hall, Byzantine Chamber, the
Moorish Room, the Empire Salon, the Louis -XII.
and XIV., and the Art Nouveau apartment. And
last, there are no less than thirty-one smaller
piano parlors or test-rooms, each of which bears
the name of a famous musician. While the daily
celebrations have been stopped, they will no
doubt be resumed shortly.
The Gimbel store will celebrate in an equally
extensive way, although there will be less inter-
est, as they have no new quarters to inaugurate
to add interest. However, they have secured the
AN OLD PIANO IN PORTSMOUTH.
services of one of the finest musical features ever
C. H. Gray, of Portsmouth, N. H., is the owner
arranged for such an event—the famous Banda
of a very old piano which was in the possession
Pupilla, under the direction of Chevalier Lorenzo of the Astor family until early in 1800, when it
Pupilla, who is known as "The Sousa of Italy." we»t into the possession of the father of the late
The concerts will be given daily in the Audi- G. Alexander Emery, of Boston. On the death
torium of the store at 11 and 2.30 o'clock, and of Mr. Emery, Sr., the piano passed to his son,
fine programs are announced for the week.
and on his removal from Boston to Portsmouth
While Strawbridge & Clothier are not celebrat- he took the instrument with him, and highly
ing an anniversary, yet they are preparing for treasured it up to the time of his death, some
one of the biggest musical events of the year, twelve years ago.
which will be given at the Academy of Music
In 1892 a prominent piano manufacturer of
on March 12, when the large chorus of the store, Boston, who was desirous of securing a collec-
consisting of more than 100 voices, will sing Carl tion of antiques to exhibit in the World's Fair
Busch's prize cantata, written for this occasion, in Chicago, went to Portsmouth and endeavored
entitled "The Four Winds."
to purchase the piano from Mr. Emery, but the
Gustav Herzberg enjoys a rare, unique posi- latter, although in straitened circumstances, re-
tion in the trade—a position that is not affected fused to part with the instrument.
by financial conditions as much as some of the
After his death his effects passed into the pos-
other houses, and for that reason his business session of his landlord, and Mr. Gray, having
has been fairly good right through the winter. occasion to visit his place one day, found the
This position is held not alone through the fact ancient instrument being used as a table for
that he sells three of the most popular pianos paint pots and other articles. He quickly closed
sold here—the Kranich & Bach, the Mehlin and a trade for the pianoforte.
the Straube—but he has been in the business so
long, and has kept such implicit faith with the
OPEN STORE IN GALVESTON.
public, and besides, through the work of a num-
The W. A. Layhe Piano Co. have opened a
ber of years he has been able to get the orchestra
he controls to play at many of the most exclu- store in Galveston, Tex., to be made the head-
sive functions given in this city and suburbs. quarters of the concern, who conduct a number
It is this personal popularity that stands him in of piano stores throughout the State. They
such good stead in the sale of particularly such handle the Kimball, Crown, M. Schulz Co. and
fine instruments as the K. & B. and Mehlin, and other makes of pianos.
getting customers to the store always means a
sale when such customers are in the market to
"DISTINCTIVELY HIGH GKADE"
buy, for the reason that the tone, quality, work-
manship, artistic case work, and everything else
about the pianos sold by Mr. Herzberg are of
such a character as to appeal very strongly.
There is nothing new in the situation at the
former Woodford, Crouse & Stoll firm. Mr.
Woodford is in complete command, Mr. Crouse
writes that he has secured a position with the
Baldwin house in St. Louis, and Mr. Stoll is look-
ing around. J. V. Steger was expected in Phila
delphia on Monday of this week, but up to the
present writing has not arrived. The firm re-
cently received a fine shipment of Steger pianos
and have a splendid stock of instruments on
hand. Apparently things will now settle down,
and with Mr. Woodford in charge, will no doubt
progress very satisfactory, as he is one of the
most thorough piano men that has ever come to
this city, combining the artistic element that
Philadelphia admires, with the Western push that
always counts anywhere.
Leopold Bellak has gone to Florida with Mrs.
is the greatest success of the day.
Bellak, in order to recuperate. Mr. Bellak has
It possesses a scale of rare even
ness, a tone of remarkable sonority
not been feeling very well for some time, and
and richness, with a quality that
writes that he is enjoying life in the sunny clime
is highly orchestral. Our latest
very much. The Bellaks have increased their
styles of Grands and Uprights
business very much of late, particularly on the
mark a decided advance in the art
Hardman Autotone, having recently placed a
of piano-making. We court inves-
number of these Louis XV. and Louis XVI. Hard-
tigation. Some territory still open.
mans with representative families of this city.
I called at Heppe's this week, and the inter-
CHRISTNAN SONS,
view progressed satisfactorily for a while, when
FACTORT AND OFFICE:
WARKROOMS-
they put the phonograph record on the machine,
35 W«»t 14th St.
•*9'S73 Eut 137th St.
1TBW YORK
entitled "Bid Me Good-Bye and Go." It may have
6f>e CHRISTMAN
STUDIO GRAND