Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1910 Vol. 50 N. 24

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE:
EDWARD LYMAN BILL - Editor and Proprietor
J. B. SP1LLANE, Muaglng Editor
R. W . SIMMONS. Editor M u s i c S e c t i o n
Published Every Saturday at 1 MadlMa Avenue. New Y*rk
SUISCRIPTION. (Including portage), United 8rate* and
Mexico. $2.00 per year; Canada. M.BO; all •ther coun
trim. $4.00.
Telephones-Numbers 4677 and 4678 Gramerey
Connection all Departments
NEW YORK, JUNE 11, 1910
All matter of every nature intended
for this department should be addressed
The Editor Music Section Music Trade
Review, 1 Madison Avenue, New York.
COMMENTS B Y -
A course of the treatment which department
stores administer to themselves occasionally
would soon be marked by sickening symptoms
of financial disintegration among the regular
music dealers if it were indulged in by them.
This fact, of course, is well known, but it comes
to mind again after perusal of recent advertise-
ments of some of the local department stores
announcing retail sales of sheet music at six and
seven cents per copy. One such establishment
announced for last Saturday a veritable selling
debauch at which various undeniable popular
hits were offered at seven cents per copy. In
addition a concert feast was to be provided by a
quartet of fairly well-known singers, with a
composer at the piano. The other store, not to
be outdone, advertised the same songs at six
cents per copy, although it did not feel called
upon to add the vocal music to the rest of the
orgy. At this late day it is to be hoped that
necessity does not call for repetition of the fact
that a buyer who entered the sheet music de-
MUSIC
TRADE
REIVIEIW
partment of either of these stores and bought case with the publishers, and whether or no they
only some oi the six or seven-cent music would will ever cease running circles around them-
be as welcome to the management as if he had selves—which means finding fault with their own
the smallpox. Most of the music offered at the methods and never changing them—the plainest
prices mentioned cost the stores more than the thing except the sun is that the regular music
figures at which they were to be sold. The idea dealers require and will have some remedy for
of the advertised sale feature was, and always the unhealthy conditions that exist. In brief,
is, to get buyers into the sheet music department, what they want is a higher scale of retail prices,
with the justifiable expectation that in addition and, briefer still, they are not likely to get it. To
to the popular music bargains the customers obtain it would require a general agreement
would purchase production or classical numbers, among publishers to raise wholesale prices and
not to mention the various objects that tempted maintain the higher level. But even the pub-
their purses as they traversed the great aisles lishers who concede this need to exist admit
that the action will not be taken. John Smith
of other departments.
must raise some cash quickly, and he jumps at
Profits Swept Away by Price-Cutting.
As a matter of fact, the cutting of prices on an offer of six or seven cents for ten thousand or
sheet music is diametrically opposite to the twenty thousand copies. Thus the department
treatment which the regular dealers require for or ten-cent store is supplied, and the secret of the
the upbuilding of their business. This situa- permanence of present wholesale prices is told.
tion prevails with more relentless exactitude The chance of a mutual agreement being reached
to-day than ever before. Higher prices, if any among publishers has gone forever.
changes are to eventuate, are the order of the
Turning to Classical Music for Relief.
day. Such a change, however, has many compli-
All the above, of course, applies only to the
cations that would have to be straightened out publishers of popular music. Those who have
before the higher level of average prices could not contributed to the existing order of things
obtain. More and more often is heard the regu- are affected by the acts of others. There is a
lar dealer's cry of protest that his profits are change coming, nevertheless, and it is making
kept down or swept away by the retail figures itself slowly felt. It is coming from the dealers
which he is required to quote. The lower fig- themselves. They have taken the matter into
ures which prevail now as compared with those their own hands, those of them who have read
of a few years ago are due, of course, to the com- the signs aright. What they have done and are
petition of the ten-cent stores. These establish- doing is to increase their stocks of standard and
ments, moreover, have been aided and abetted also classical music, for which they receive full
by music publishers, not quite without excep- price. Even the department stores have seen the
tion, but almost. Now the publishers are begin- change that has gradually pervaded the industry
ning to taste the bitterness of tne fruit whose of selling sheet music. At Macy's, for instance,
seed they sowed. With wry faces they are mak- a newly enlarged department is provided with a
ing confused suggestions as to what antidote line of classical musical complete throughout,
should be applied. It is true that a certain few with an expert on such music in charge. Abra-
among the publishers of popular music are mak- ham & Straus, in Brooklyn, have recently in-
ing a success of their business. This is partly stalled a classical department complete in every
the result of co-operation with the dealers, as we particular.
Wanamaker's shelves exhibit a
have remarked in these columns in times past, greater amount of classical music than ever be-
and partly because of peculiar conditions of low fore. Sales of such are untainted by the fool-
cost of output and other business details.
hardy methods observed in offering popular
music. Jerome H. Remick & Co. are buying
More Active Search for the Remedy.
Under certain conditions a publisher of popular more classical music for their stores than ever
music can make his business very profitable to- before. Charles K. Harris is adding high-grade
day. Most publishers cannot create those condi- numbers to his publications. Leo Feist puts out
tions, and consequently the majority can hardly standard and high-grade music, and now adds a
make income equal outgo. But whatever is the grand opera to his list. The Witmarks find their
SOME OF OUR REAL HITS
MESSRS. CHAPPELL & CO., Ltd.
"THE
CUBANOLA
G L I D E " (, nss ? rnu Ven?a.)
"MY
SOUTHERN
ROSE"
song
" K E E P YOUR FOOT ON T H E SOFT P E D A L " s ons
"THE
YIDDISHA
R A G " ( lnss ? rnu ° ma en?a.)
"HIP-HIP-HYPNOTIZE
M E " son a
" G I V E M Y R E G A R D S T O M A B E L "
are the publisher* of
THE REIGNING MUSICAL SUCCESS
THE ARCADIANS
Music by Talbot and Monckton
(Produced by Mr. Charlea Frohman)
HARRY VON TILZER MUSIC PUBLISHING COMPANY
FRANZ LEHAR'S NEW OPERA
THE MAN WITH THREE WIVES
AD D R
N E W YORK-OTFICE™
125 West 4 3 d Street, New York City
(To be produced shortly by Messrs. Shubert)
IVAN CARYLL AND LIONEL MONCKTOWS
SUCCESSFUL MUSICAL PLAY
OUR MISS GIBBS
(To be produced shortly by Mr. Charles Frohman)
LONDON'S LATEST CRAZE
THE BALKAN PRINCESS
A Musical Play by Paul A. Rubens
(To be produced by Mr. W. A. Brady)
CHAPPELL & CO., Ltd.
37 W. 17lh St.
-
-
NEW YORK
THE MOST POPULAR PIANO DANCE^FOLIO
THEODORE MORSE'S NEW HITS !
"MOLLY LEE"
"KITTY CRAY"
"HE'S A COLLEGE BOY"
"RED CLOVER" (Song and Intermezzo)
"BLUE FEATHER" (Song and Intermezzo)
You could have had these once for 5 cents. Take
our new issues and you'll get better ones.
m^KT"
9^V
PHONOGRAPH RECORDS ARE - ^ M f t
MADE FOR ALL OUR SONGS ^ ^ f i
Theodore Morse Music Co.
1367 Broadway, New York
c SHEET MUSIC
DEPARTMENT
This collection will fill
a niche quite of its own
in musical literature as
being the only folio of
standard dance m u s i c
which can lay claim to
being complete. An even
casual glance at the con-
tents cannot fail to con-
vince the lover of piano
music in the lighter vein,
that it is the ideal collec-
tion of piano dance music,
including every _ known
style of dance, in each
case represented by a
composition from the pen
of some past master_ of
dance music composition.
Price 75 cents.
Published by
HINDS, NOBLE & ELDREDGE, 31-35 West 15th Street, New York
WILL ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS TO YOUR STORE THAN
ANY OTHER MEDIUM YOU COULD EMPLOY
Write for catalogue and particulars as to how to
make a sheet music department a money-maker
Address nearest office
McKINLEY MUSIC CO., 185 Harrison St., Chicago, III.
NO. 80 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK, N. Y.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
twenty song numbers set to lively melodies by
A. Baldwin Sloane. Mr. Sloane may be said to
have done some of his best work in "The Sum-
mer Widowers," with due regard for his compo-
sitions in past unmistakable successes. One of
'SUMMER WIDOWERS" HITS MARK. the songs which gave the audience a "long, ecs-
tatic thrill" was "Those Were Happy Days,"
New Summer Review at the Broadway Theater which was a medley of famous old song hits
a Lively and Tuneful Production That Meets of the Weber and Field days.
Irene Franklin, famous for her "Red Head"
the Public Wants as a Hot Weather Musical
and other songs of the vaudeville stage, shared
Comedy
honors with Lew Fields, the producer, who played
"The Summer Widowers," the first of several his time-honored German comedian role. There
musical productions to be given on the schedule was plenty of cleverness among the other prin-
prepared for enlivening the hot months this year cipals, and a tuneful chorus of one hundred.
on Broadway, has been making good since its The music of "The Summer Widowers," like that
opening at the Broadway Theater last Saturday of its two predecessors, is published by Charles
night the claims previously made for it as the K. Harris.
logical successor of "The Midnight Sons" and
"The Jolly Bachelors." Big, gay, lively, melodi- TWO NEW PRODUCTIONS FOR FEIST.
ous and opuient are a few of the adjectives which
the critics have applied to this newest spectacle. "Cardland" and "$3,000,000" Are the Titles of
The production, incidentally, carried extrava-
Musical Comedies Whose Scores Will Be
gance a step farther than either of the predeces-
Published by That House.
sors named. It seems to be agreed that to claim
for it lucidity would be a bit of added extrava-
The "production" department which was es-
gance, although, as one writer has pointed out, tablished by Leo. Feist a few weeks ago as a
the production by this lack makes obeisance to separate and important branch of his business
that silly season to whose needs it is supposed to has already made progressive strides along the
minister.
lines laid down for it, under the personal direc-
The seven elaborate settings show the Board- tion of Felix F. Feist. The purpose of the de-
walk and Million Dollar Pier at Atlantic City partment is to bring producing managers and
and a series of pictures of Riverside Drive apart- authors and composers into closer relations, and,
ments and Broadway roof gardens, where the of course, to increase the undertakings of the
"widowers" have a lively time with the "stay-in- Feist establishment by the bringing out and sale
towns." These are shown in the course of carry- of the music of various new musical comedies
ing out a light idea of gayety for married men from time to time. Several librettos have been
whose wives are away, rather than of developing accepted by producers and some well-known
a plot. In this respect, too, the piece is in full American composers are at work composing the
accord with what seems to be wanted for the scores. The last venture in this line was "A
summer. The book is by Glen MacDonough, Skylark," which was seen at the New York
who has used the lines as connecting links for Theater, this city.
Announcements by the department, through
Felix F. Feist, have recently been made con-
cerning two new musical productions which will
be put into rehearsal later this month or early
in July. One of these is "$3,000,000," mention of
which was made recently by The Review. It will
The following epigrammatic edi-
be produced by Charles Marks, former manager
torial appeared in one of our and producer for Richard Carle, and will t e seen
great weeklies:
at one of the houses controlled by Klaw &
Erlanger The book is by Edgar Allan Woolf,
the lyrics by David Kempner and the score by
"The high cost of living is
Anatol Friedland. The premiere is scheduled for
early in August in Atlantic City.
coining down. Beethoven's
The second production was announced this
Sonatas, in excellent edition,
week for the first time. It is to be "Cardland,"
now can be bought for ten
which unique title has been given to a fantastic
cents a copy."
extravaganza to be produced by Chas. H. Pope,
also on the Klaw & Erlanger booking. The book
was written by Chas. H. Brown, the author of
educational equipment growing almost of itself.
So it goes. Times have changed at last. Signs
point the way of the future, and music publishers
will do well to heed the warning.
EDITORIAL
It referred of course to
CENTURY
EDITION
CENTURY MUSIC PUBLISHING CO.
1 178 BROADWAY, NEW YORK
A Hit of Hits!
EVERY LITTLE
MOVEMENT"
By OTTO HAUERBACH and KARL HOSCHNA
several successes, and the score by Paul Tietgens,
of "Wizard of Oz" fame.
NEW LIGHT POSSIBLE ON TITLES.
Property Rights in Such May Give Ground for
Suits in State Instead of Federal Courts in
Case of Infringements.
A question of using for a vaudeville production
a title nearly the same as that of a play con-
trolled by others was involved in the recent con-
troversy over "The Barnyard Romeo," an act pre-
sented this week a t the American Music Hall.
William Morris, Inc., had intended to call it
"Chanticlair," but changed the name after suc-
cessfully resisting the efforts made on behalf of
Charles Frohman to restrain the giving of the
production itself. It is now stated that there is a
possibility of the question of the right to use
the title "Chanticlair" being fought through the
courts. As music publishers are frequently at
odds with one another over the use of titles
this case presents points of interest to them.
If the Morris people take the matter through
the courts it is evidently their intention to carry
on the fight in the State courts, which have
nothing to do with the copyright law. Repeated
suits in the United States courts have indicated
that the copyright law does not contemplate a
copyright title on a particular word, and also
that it is extremely difficult to establish a copy-
right on a combination of words. The ground on
which such a suit may be fought in the State
courts is that a manager (and presumably a
music publisher) by taking a certain word for a
designation acquires a property right in it as a
title, which is entirely separate and distinct from
any copyright. A precedent or two along this
line would open new lines of procedure to music
publishers in the matter of the ever-vexing in-
fringement of song titles.
THAT
ITALIAN
RAG
By AL PIANTADOSI,
Creator of Italian Character Songs.
A POSITIVE HIT!
A PROVED SELLER!
Orders poured in the very day after this
song was first sung at Hammerstein's
Victoria Theater.
-GOING STRONGER EVERY DAY!
PUBLISHED BY
LEO. FEIST, NEW YORK
Writers of the Bio Successas,
" T H E THREE T W I N S " and "BRIGHT EYES"
The
H E A D HAS HITS
(George W. Head, Jr.)
WORLD'S GREATEST BALLAD
"Without You The World
Don't Seem The Same"
An Endless Chain of Sales of This Song Will Start
From First Purchase.
Best Ballad Since the Time of Jenny Lind
THE HEAD MUSIC PUBLISHING
CO.
1416 Broadway, Cor. 39th Street,
New York
reigning Musical Hit from
"MADAME SHERRY"
Now Playing at Colonial Theatre,
Chicago
Sung, Whistled and Hummed Everywhere
Greatly in Demand. Order Now
M. WITMARK & SONS, Publishers
NEW YORK
CHICAGO
LONDON
PARIS
SONGS FOR EVERYBODY!
"PLAYTHINGS
THAT'S ALL"
By John W. Bratton.
11
MOTHER"
By Cooper & Frederics.
" I N THE SAME OLD WAY"
By Nat D. Mann.
"WHEN YOU DREAM OF THE GIRL YOU LOVE"
By Leo Edwards.
" G O O N , GOOD-A-BYE "
By Brown & Murphy.
VICTOR KREMER COMPANY
108-1 10 Randolph Street, CHICAGO, ILL.
(Opposite Garrick Theatre>

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