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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
(Chicago Section)
Chicago as a Player Center and The Future
The Subject of An Interesting Review and Analysis by William Braid
White—Looks for Great Accomplishments in the Way of Player Advance
in the West Because the People "Do Things" and Are Not Content to Rest.
I am to write about Chicago and the player-
piaiiu. What two topics could at once be more in-
teresting and more naturally fitted each to the
other? Both are young, one as cities go, the other
as inventions progress. Both are wonderful. Both
have achieved the seemingly impossible. Both in
their way are unique. And now both are destined,
if I mistake not, to stand together in closer rela-
tion than ever.
For, to put the matter with entire seriousness, it
is not in the least, exaggeration or mere fine writ-
ing to allege that the future of the wonderful play-
er business must be intimately bound up with the
future of Chicago. "Must" is easy to say, but in
this case, unless something goes wrong, "must" can
hardly be translated except as "will." Yet it is
possible that the scepter which to all seeming ought
to be Chicago's may yet slip from her hands. And
because this is possible the considerations which
follow are worthy of some attention from Chicago
piano and player men.
The great Middle West is distinguished from
other parts of the country by a quite completely
individual attitude toward everything. That "crude
Materialism" which so often forms the excuse for
reproachful Eastern judgment differs not one par-
ticle from the same cast of thought on the Atlantic
coast; except that the Westerner is less hypocrit-
ical about it. But one should note that your Chi-
cagoan, in the very instant of his talking about the
material greatness of his town, is bowing with
devotion that in itself is inspired, before a most
laudable ideal—that of excellence.
What Chicago Actually Does.
That this is true is most plainly shown by the
fact that Chicago not only does well the crassly
crude things, but also does fine things finely. In
fact, Chicago has a sense of the fitness of things,
a sense eminently right. Chicago makes much
cow into beef. But Chicago also makes the best
harps in the world. Chicago makes pianos in in-
credible quantities. But also Chicago makes some
of the very best pianos in the world. And to Chi-
cago's everlasting credit it may also be said that
Chicago makes some of the best players in the
world.
N'ow, anybody can show, if he be so inclined, the
picture of a Chicago that must become the head
:'f any industry, whether it be making pork or pi-
ano, simply on geographical grounds. The statis-
tician can prove, with complete conviction, that
Chicago's position in the center of things alone is
sufficient to assure leadership. But I prefer to
think of the matter in another way. I prefer to
think of Chicago as the great coming center of
the player industry, simply because I think that
the idea of the player, the idea on which the player
is built, the thing that it means to do, the thing
that it must do, are all exactly the ideas and the
things that Chicago is doing all the time. Chi-
cago takes short cuts to things. Chicago believes
that nothing is finished merely because it is called
finished by somebody else. Chicago insists upon
doing its own improving. And so Chicago, if I
mistake not, is going in the future to do that one
big thing; it is going immensely to improve the
player.
If one says that this is all mere talk, let him
consider that, in the first place, the player mechan-
ism is to-day in a position at once the most ad-
vantageous and the most dangerous of its career.
The most advantageous because it is now at the
height of success, an assured commercial article,
enjoying a steady and growing market. Danger-
ous because it is mechanically and musically in a
condition demanding radical improvement, an im-
provement continuous and consistent. The advan-
tage and the danger are complementary, since it is
the very success of to-day which may yet stiffen
the trade into a smug acceptance of existing con-
ditions and cause them to think that improvement
is nowhere needed. And the danger here is no
less than the danger of complete extinction as a
climax to a slow and painful decline.
Admirable Spirit of Player Men.
In this respect the spirit of the Chicago player
men has so far been most admirable. The comple-
tion of an organization technically, as well as com-
mercially, equipped to care for the need for con-
tinuous improvement was already the thought and
anxiety of player manufacturers in Chicago in the
days when their business was but a prospect of
success, and when the belief that nothing good
could come out of that Nazareth, Chicago, was
part of the piano men's Credo. That impatience
with present result which has come to be crystal-
lized into the Chicago spirit has shown itself most
laudably throughout our player trade here, with the
natural result that even to-day big things are be-
ing done; while the future no man can predict.
The future of the player business for Chicago,
then, holds the espec : al promise of continuous, rap-
id, and radical improvement as its first and most
pleasing anticipation.
The player-piano is essentially the instrument
for those whose spirit is young, for the people
who are just beginning to wake up to the beauty
of music, who are just beginning to demand finer
thought and finer things. The player business
during the recession in business which has char-
acterized the past year, has been amazingly good
with those houses that have their headquarters
in Chicago, the Middle Western trade has kept
up wonderfully well everywhere. Straws show
the direction of the wind. The Middle West is the
coming great field for the development and ex-
ploitation of the player. And of the Middle West
Chicago is the capital.
The more obvious commercial aspect of the
matter needs scarcely be touched on. In course
of time all industries come to group themselves
along lines of communication. Chicago is solving
her transportation problems in a characteristically
large way. The new freight clearing house and
yards she is building in her southwest corner will
immensely facilitate the handling of her prod-
ucts. And this in itself will he but one more link
added to the already strong chain that binds man-
ufacturing interests to her so closely. Chicago
must necessarily draw towards her the piano and
player business of the country. So at least, all
probabilities commercially calculated would seem
to lie.
But there is one point, or scries of points, of the
utmost importance, that cannot be overlooked. In
the player business, as in few others, technical
excellence is a necessary element of success.
One player action that does not make good, soon
d'sappears. Leadership in the player field is as-
sured only to those men and to that community
to whom the ideal of excellence is ever present.
Continual improvement is the price of player su-
premacy. Chicago's spirit is the spirit of improve-
ment. May she prove this fully in the realm of
the player.
It is hardly necessary now, after what I have
here said, to repeat my conviction that the player
industry is ultimately to find in Chicago a logical
center and headquarters. But it would be alike
stupid and childish to assume that any such sit-
uation will arise through the operation of any
blind good fortune. On the contrary, systematic
progress, intelligently directed, will alone bring
about any such desirable result as is here so con-
fidently and so logically anticipated.
Our friends in other parts of the country may
feel inclined to challenge these statements. But
no one will deny that the race most decidedly will
be to the strong, to the swift and to. the wise.
Reminiscences of an Old-Time Chicago Salesman.
George B. Grosvenor Tells of the Good Feeling Which He Always Finds
Among the Members of the Music Trade in Chicago and Gives Some Illus-
trations of Selling Methods in Olden Days—Some Old-Time Salesmen.
A chief and noteworthy characteristic of the
Chicago piano trade has been the good feeling
which has always prevailed among the houses and
their salesmen toward their competitors. When I
first came into the piano business in this city the
most prominent men as I remember them were
George W. Lyon, W. W. Kimball, I. N. Camp and
John and Henry Reed. All of them were fine
salesmen and hustlers for business.
For more than thirteen years I was intimately
associated with Mr. Lyon and I have always re-
garded him as a most remarkable and not always
understood man. As a piano salesman he was
without a superior. His quickness of wit was
accountable for many of his sales.
George W . Lyon as Salesman.
One story that used to be told in the trade illus-
trates this point, although it does not bear on the
selling problem. One time when Mr. Lyon was in
New York City he dropped into a second-hand book
store. He picked up a small book from the coun-
ter and, glancing at it, found something in it that
made him think that he would like to bring the
book back to Chicago with him. Still turning the
pages, he asked the dealer, ''How much for this
book?'' expecting to be told twenty-five or fifty
cents. The dealer looked over his shoulder and
said: "The price of that book is $45." Without
taking his eyes from the book or moving a muscle,
Mr. Lyon said: "Have you two of them in stock?"
Mr. Lyon much resembled the famous showman,
P. T. Barnum, in appearance and in my estima-
tion was greatly his superior in ability. It was
current in the trade that Mr. Kimball once said
that there were three awful liars in Chicago—he
was one and George Lyon was the other two. Mr.
Barnum did not live in Chicago and so escaped.
Mr. Kimball as I remember him always affected
the long frock coat and silk hat and bore a min-
isterial appearance which quite belied the nature
of the man. On one occasion he went into Bishop's
hat store and asked for a silk hat. On being told
the price he asked if they did not make the usual
discount to members of the cloth, and, being told
that they did, replied that he would take the hat,
with the statement that if his congregation did
not like it they could go to a place that is de-
clared to be non-existent by modern theology.
In Piano Business 34 Years.
It was among men like those whom I have
named, tireless workers, enthusiastic and whole-
hearted friends to each other, that I received my
training as a piano salesman. For thirty-four
(Continued on page 9.)