Music Trade Review

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THE
SECURING SUMMER BUSINESS.
B. P. Woodward, Manager of Talking Machine
Department of Emahizer-Spielman Co., To-
peka, Kans., Discusses Development of Busi-
ness During Summer Months—A Great Be-
liever of Going After People Instead of
Waiting for Them to Come to Him.
(Special to The Review.)
Topeka, Kan., Aug. 10, 1912.
B. P. Woodward, manager of the talking ma-
chine department of the Emahizer-Spielman Fur-
niture Co., who handle Victor and Edison talking
machines in addition to a large line of pianos,
headed by the Chickering, is quite an originator
and developer of ideas, as applied to the expansion
of business. In a talk with The Review he said:
"I have recently decided upon a new plan for
getting "live" business for the Victor.
In a
radius of about one hundred miles north and west
of our city is a very rich farming country—and
I hold that no one needs a Victor more than a
farmer. To reach these prospects I take either a
wagon and load it up with Victrolas and drive
from one ranch to the other, or ship the Victrolas
to the nearest town and have them handled from
that point. In these small towns will be found
a great number of retired ranchmen who own large
tracts of land and have moved to town for a little
enjoyment. These are the kind of people who will
buy Victrolas.
"The talking machine business, as I find it, al-
ways makes money nine months in the year, witn a
falling off or loss for the remaining three months.
Something that will stimulate business for these
three months is what we need, and as the farmer
never takes a vacation he will buy a Victrola just
as readily in the summer as the city people will in
the winter, and more so, because he never has an
opportunity to go to shows, nor is it possible for
him to hear the great artists of the world in any
other way than through the talking machine.
"I recently had a very odd experience with rec-
ord No. 88108, Nevin's 'Rosary/ sung by Mme.
Schumann-Heink. One night a man and his wife
came in to look at a Victrola, or rather, I should
say, it was the wife, for the man seemed to be
very antagonistic in regard to talking machines.
While I was playing the various records that the
lady called for, he absolutely would not listen to
them and tried to keep her from doing so—in fact,
he was constantly desirous of leaving. After I
became provoked and had given up the prospects
of a sale, I asked the lady to hear a record of
'The Rosary,' and for the first time her husband
seemed to display attention. When the record was
finished he asked for another record sung by
Schumann-Heink, and the result in short was that
I sold them a Victrola XVI and $50 worth of rec-
ords. So you see it pays to be patient. More-
over it demonstrates that the tastes of people
differ. It was clear that the wife wanted popular
music while the husband preferred something clas-
sical, at least high-class musical numbers. It also
points out that it is well not to leave all the re-
quests for records in the hands of the visitors, but
to ask their indulgence to listen to such numbers
as the salesman may consider would appeal to his
callers.
"In our business, which covers so many interests
besides talking machines, we have about six thou-
sand accounts on our books,- of which about eight
hundred are paid up piano accounts. I
have found it most profitable to take these names
and send them circulars, or call upon them in
person and interest them in the Victrola, to the
MU3IC TRADE
REVIEW
end that they may give it a trial in their homes,
just to prove its merits in the parlor. This I have
found most profitable, because once a Victrola goes
•into the home it stays there.
INCORPORATED THIS WEEK.
The Record Distributing Co., of Manhattan,
has been incorporated under the laws of New
York, with capital stock of $50,000, for the pur-
pose of dealing in sound-reproducing records.
The incorporators are: E. H. Randolph, F. J.
Coupe, C. W. Pope and W. C. Carrigan.
The Phonograph Co., Chicago, 111., has incor-
porated with capital stock of $50,000 for the pur-
pose of engaging in the phonograph business. The
incorporators are: Morris Cohen, Fred Barth and
Clyde E. Shorey.
ENTERTAIN CHILDREN WITH THE VICTOR
(.Special to The Review.)
Wilmington, Del., Aug. 12, 1912.
Miller Brothers Co. entertained several hundred
children and grown-ups in Kirkwood Park yester-
day afternoon with a Victor talking machine con-
cert. The concert will be repeated in the other
playgrourdb. Among the selections were: "Amer-
ica," the children joining in- the singing. Then
came the "Highland Fling" and "St. Patrick's
Day," the children dancing after that. "The Ace
of Diamonds" and "Carousel" were given, the chil-
dren playing, and so it went, with patriotic songs,
dance and plays for upwards of two hours, finish-
ing with "Yankee Doodle."
DEPARTED VOICES LAID AWAY
In the Paris Opera House, and the Day of Resur-
rection Is Set by the French Government
One Hundred Years Hence.
A strange ceremony was held recently at the
Opera House in Paris, where phonographic records
of singers were consigned to a hermetically sealed
tomb under the building where they are to repose
for a century, when they will be opined to allow
those of another century to hear the songs and
voices that delight the audiences of to-day.
The first series of such records was made by the
opera in 1907, when the voices of Caruso, Ta-
magno, Melba and others were duly buried under
the seal of the State Secretary of Fine Arts.
The Consular reports are to the effect that
African merchants are calling for catalogs of
American talking machines.
HOW THE SATEVEPOST STORY WORKED.
Say, Grade, isn't that one dandy advertise-
ment?
Why, Jack, just the very thing we want.
We simply must have some music in the house.
And we can have tea on it on the piazza.
Let's go get itl
Now, this looks more promising
And it doesn't look a bit like an ordinary
talking machine. It'll look fine in that corner.
Gracious! this must he the wrong shop.
Nothing doing! No! No! No, thank you!!!
Oh, Jack! It's even better than the adver-
tisement said.
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Home life
From the
Columbia Record,