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60
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Conducted by B. B. Wilson
COMMENTS B Y - „
A problem that is proving quite troublesome to
many publishers, especially those who make a prac-
tice of sending out popular music on consignment,
is that of regulating returns. In view of the nar-
row margin upon which popular music is sold at
the present time, the amount of new music offered
each month and the strong competition between the
publishers themselves, it has for some time past
been the practice in certain quarters to guarantee
a minimum sale for a song, simply for the purpose
of having it placed in the stores and before the
public. The difficulty lies in the fact that the music
dealer is sometimes inclined to lose courage and
return a bunch of music before he has given it a
fair chance to sell.
Lacking in Persistence.
price for the latest popular music at various de-
partment stores last week, the ten-cent music prob-
lem, which was a live topic at one time, is shoved
back into the shade. The average dealer can buy
at prices that will permit of his selling at ten cents
and realizing a profit, but when it comes to the
three-cent proposition as a steady diet—curtain.
The activities of the prominent department stores,
always a thorn in the side of the publishers, are
even rousing the ire of the ten-cent syndicates,
who, from being a menace, have reached a point
where they bid fair to constitute a standard of
good prices. Well, what are the publishers going
to do about it? Will the general rule of devising
a remedy after the fatal catastrophe hold good
if. this case, too?
MAKING GOODJN THE WEST.
Pryor & Claire Featuring Feist Numbers in
Their Act with Great Success.
Pryor & Claire, the well-known vaudeville team,
who are at present meeting with flattering success
on a Western tour, are declared to owe a large
part of their excellent reputation as entertainers
t? the fact that they have a faculty for picking out
songs that are not alone suitable to themselves and
their act but which please the public generally. At
BOSTON PUBLISHERS DINE.
Hold Quarterly Dinner at Parker House, w i t h
Michael Keane and W i l l i a m M. Gamble as
Guests of Honor.
(Special to The Review.)
For example, a sales manager was asked this
week to take back a large number of copies of a
song that has been on the market less than two
months and which has actually been pushed for
only a trifle over a month. The song is rapidly
developing into a real success, but the dealer who
made the request evidently expected to get rid of
the whole order in a day or so, and being disap-
pointed in that particular immediately decided that
the fault lay with the song itself rather than with
3 particular methods of music selling.
Boston, Mass., April 22, 1912.
The Boston Music Publishers' Association held
its regular quarterly dinner at the Parker House,
on Thursday evening of last week with Michael
Keane, manager of Boosey Co., New York, and
William M. Gamble, of Chicago, as guests of
honor. Both gentlemen spoke informally on mat-
ters of trade interest. W. M. Gerrish, the well-
known organist, made a short address in reminis-
the present time Pryor and Claire are featuring
cent vein, and Edmund Braham, of New York,
"Brass Band Ephraham Jones" and "Your Daddy
played a number of his own piano compositions.
Did the Same Thing Fifty Years Ago," two Feist
Walter M. Bacon, president of the association, numbers that are acknowledged to be in the hit
Song Successes Not Made in a Day.
The music publishers themselves, the men to take presided as toastmaster, and about thirty of the class. "Your Daddy Did the Same Thing Fifty
members were in attendance.
the first risk, and ofttimes the entire risk under
Years Ago," one of the later Feist publications, is
present conditions, have long ago learned from
showing remarkable "speed," and through the
costly experience that song successes are not made
efforts of a number of prominent acts is becom-
A CHAIR 0F_C0PYRIGHT.
in a day or even a week, and that only faith and
ing widely known and decidedly popular. Both the
First Professorship of the Kind to Be Estab-
persistent effort will place good songs on a paying
lyrics and the music are pleasing to the ear and
lished at Leipsic.
basis. Why, then, should the dealer become dis-
the desirable quality of humor is not lacking.
A dispatch to the New York Times states that
couraged after a week or two and desire to try out
the world's first Professorship of Copyright is
DAMROSCH TO COMPOSE NEW OPERA.
other numbers of which he knows practically noth-
ing? The dealer, had he bought the music out- about to be established at the University of Leipsic,
A new opera with music by Walter Damro-sch,
where the center of the German publishing trade
right, would have made every effort to dispose of
and book by W. J. Henderson, the musical critic
is situated. The chair will deal not only with
it. He would have displayed copies in prominent
of the New York Sun, based upon the play "Cyrano
literary and artistic copyright, but also with every-
places and featured it on the piano and never let
De Bergerac," has been accepted and will be pro-
thing connected with industrial patent rights.
his interest flag for a moment, but with the assur-
duced
at the Metropolitan Opera House next
The first occupant will be Professor Planitz. of
ance that it could be exchanged, the strong incen-
Leipsic, who is a well-known specialist on the sub- season. The book follows the original play rather
tive to work and plug the song was lacking and
closely, and the piano score, which has been com-
ject.
the publisher was expected to bear the conse-
pleted, is now being orchestrated by Mr. Damrosch
quences. In the particular case referred to the
will be ready for rehearsal early in the fall.
dealer was induced to give the number another
SONGS FOR "A WINSOME WIDOW." and
This
is Mr. Damrosch's second grand opera, the
trial but at the expense of argument that would Three Remick & Co. Numbers Written Espe-
first being based upon Hawthorne's book, "The
have been sufficient to have opened a new account
cially for New Ziegfeld Production.
Scarlet Letter."
for the house.
A Practice That Is Causing Trouble.
The practice of consigning music with the privi-
lege of returning those numbers which did not sell
originated with the publishers of production music,
and in that particular field the idea was and is
probably necessary, for the uncertainty regarding
the success of musical productions and the perma-
nence of their careers would naturally be expected
to cause the dealer to hesitate about plunging.
When the practice, in extending to the wholesaling
oi popular music, tends to discourage the proper
amount of effort on the part of the individual
dealer, it would seem to indicate the publishers
will be compelled to prescribe certain limitations
in order to protect themselves. Without such
limitations conditions will reach a point where the
publishers will practically be furnishing the capital
for the dealers to work on. Fortunately there are
many dealers who accept the publishers guarantee
in the proper spirit and not as a means of imposi-
tion. Their efforts to sell, rather than simply to
display music, should be considered worthy of pro-
tection.
J. H. Remick & Co. have just placed on the mar-
ket three songs written especially with a view to
their interpolation in "A Winsome Widow," the
new Ziegfeld production at the Moulin Rouge. The
scngs are "When I Waltz With You," by Alfred
Bryan and Albert Gumble; "Oh, You Fascinating
Girl," words by Frank Tinney and Sydney Jarvis
and music by Fred Strasser, and "You're a Regular
Girl," by the same writers. According to reports
the numbers are already in excellent demand.
Not a Hit that w i l l die but a seller that w i l l live
IWILLLOVEYOUWHEN
THESILVERTHREADS ARE
SHINING AMONG THE GOLD
SECURE RIGHTS TO NEW CARYLL PLAY.
Klaw & Erlanger, through A. L. Erlanger, who is
in London, have secured from C. M. S. McLellan
and Ivan Caryll, the authors of "The Pink Lady,"
their new musical play, which is called "Gay Del-
phine." It is from a French story by the same
author who wrote the original "Pink Lady." It
will be produced in the United States in August
and in England next season, in conjunction with
Charles Frohman.
Eilers Music House has purchased the sheet-
What Are the Publishers Going to Do?
music department of James W. Casey & Bro.,
With three, four and five cents advertised as the Portland, Ore.
ROGER LEWIS
F. HENRI KLICKMAN
Frank K.Root & Co.
CHICAGO
NEWTOSK
Published by McKlnley Muslo Go.,