Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PIANO MEN IN AK=SAR=BEN.
TRADE CONDITIONS IN DETROIT.
Omaha Dealers Take Full Advantage of Big
Fall Festival Gathering in That City to
Spread Themselves in Advertising and Win-
dow Displays—Looking for Lively Business.
Fluctuating Tendency Still in Evidence—Last
Two Weeks Not as Good as the Same Period
in September—No Basis for Trade Relapse,
However, as Employment Is General.
(Special to The Review.)
OMAHA, NEB V October 19.—The various piano
houses in this city were among the most active
participants in the welcome extended to the dele-
gates to the annual fall festival of the State, the
gathering of the Ak-Sar-Ben, which was held in
Omaha recently. The festival attracted a host of
visitors to the city, which was elaborately decorated
for the occasion, especially in the business section,
and several of the piano men took part in the big
carnival parade.
Most of the piano houses had special advertise-
ments in the local newspapers to attract the atten-
tion of the visitors, among them being the Schmol-
ler & Mueller Piano Co., of 1311 Farnam street,
which advertised its famous line of instruments,
including the Steinway, Emerson, Weber, Linde-
man & Sons, Hardman, McPhail and various other
makes of pianos, and the Aeolian Co. line of
Pianola players. The company also held a special
sale of used pianos during the festival and offered
free railroad fare to out-of-town buyers.
The Haddorff Music House, 918 Farnam street,
of which W. M. Robinson is manager, featured
the Haddorff piano in a striking manner in its ad-
vertisements and reproduced a strong testimonial
from the president of the Omaha Conservatory of
Music and Art, which institution has selected the
Haddorff piano as its official instrument. Hayden
Bros, also advertised a special Ak-Sar-Ben sale.
The show windows of the stores for the most
part had special attractive displays for the oc-
casion and the general report was to the effect that
the business realized warranted the special prepar-
ations.
The Omaha piano men are an optimistic lot and
are going ahead with their campaigns for fall busi-
ness as though a large section of the country was
not complaining of poor conditions. The outlook
in this section is really encouraging, both as it re-
lates to the cattle and agricultural markets, and
there is no reason why the piano men should be
disappointed in their business expectations.
WINS OUT ON J)NE PRICE BASIS.
(Special to The Review.)
SAN JOSE, CAL., October 17.—One of the most
active of the piano dealers in this section of the
country is A. A. Brown, 109 East Santa Clara
street, who is a strong advocate of the' one-price
system of piano selling, makes excellent capital of
that fact in his advertising and is winning success
along that line. Mr. Brown has built up an ex-
cellent trade throughout the valley with his line of
Knabe, Emerson, Vose, J. & C. Fischer and Kohler
& Campbell pianos and player-pianos. Mr. Brown
has been connected with the piano trade in San
Jose for over twenty-five years.
Any member of the music trade can forward
to this office a Want Advertisement and it will
be inserted free of charge.
RUDOLF
PIANOS
are conscientiously made,
good instruments; in other
words, the sweetest things out.
RUDOLF PIANO CO.
172 East 137th St.
NEW YORK
(Special to The Review.)
DETROIT, MICH., October 20.—The piano trade in
Detroit still shows fluctuating tendencies. The sud-
den increase in September, which manifested itself
in spite of the counteracting effects of the G. A. R.
reunion and the State Fair, highly encouraged the
Detroit dealers. But during the last two weeks
there has been a relapse. No concern reports busi-
ness as good as it was in October last year. Some
say "dull," some say "fair" and others are seeing
signs of fall expansion in the shape of good-appear-
ing prospects, though they are not closing them.
There is no particular reason for the dulness, for
Detroit merchants in other lines of business are
doing more business than they did a year ago. The
effects of the war were discounted long ago. Poli-
tics cuts no figure, though the orators of the "outs"
are declaiming that the country will blow up en-
tirely unless they are voted into the offices now held
by the "ins" this fall. Most of Detroit's big fac-
tories are running full time and some overtime.
There are few unemployed, and the manufacturers
are taking steps to prevent the development of an
unemployed army by agreeing not to hire "floaters,"
and to give permanent residents of the city work
before any applications from outside are considered.
Detroit employers could have taken care of prac-
tically all the city's bona fide workingmen last win-
ter had it not been for an influx of hordes of un-
employed foreigners from Europe, who flocked here
to get work in the automobile factories. Some of
them managed to force Detroiters out of their posi-
tions through the fortunes of competition, illness
and so on. This year the city is sending out pub-
lieity to other cities to the effect that there will be
no jobs in Detroit for outsiders, and it is hoped
by this means to keep the jobless of other cities
away.
It may be that a further reduction in the price of
a certain popular automobile has something to do
with the fact that people are not buying pianos as
freely as was hoped. The company making them
turned out and sold more than 21,000 of them in
September at less than $500 each. As this new
price is about even with that of a high-grade up-
right and a medium-priced player or grand, some
people who might have been intending to buy pianos
may have invested in a motor car instead. How-
ever, it was in the month of the sale of 21,000 auto-
mobiles that the sales of pianos picked up so en-
couragingly.
Detroit piano merchants are not pessimistic, how-
ever. They believe that with other merchants so
prosperous they are bound to get their share of
business as soon as the holidays turn the attention
of the people to the music stores.
MAX DE ROCHEMONT APPOINTED.
Max de Rochemont, vice-president of the Laf-
fargue Co. and one of the active members of the
North Side Board of Trade, which looks after the
business development of the Bronx district, has
been appointed captain of one of the reorganization
teams of the board, the object of which is to pro-
mote greater efficiency in the work of that body.
FEATURING THE_STERLING PIANO.
The
BEHN1NG
Player-Piano
has commanded a special
place in the esteem of the
leading piano merchants
and player pianists of the
country, by reason of its
simplicity and durability of
construction, its remarkable
scale, its ability to furnish
the pianist with the most
improved means of expres-
sion control and its general
effectiveness throughout.
Like all the Behning prod-
ucts it is distinctly individ-
ual and reflects the progress-
ive ideals which have ever
actuated the Behning insti-
tution since its foundation.
The Behning Player-Piano
is manufactured in its en-
tirety under the supervision
of the men whose name it
bears, and leaves the factory
and goes into the home a
complete a r t i s t i c creation,
one that will add to the rep-
utation of the men selling it.
All standards for compari-
son in the player-piano field
are measured by the Behning
Player-Piano.
The Sonnenberg Piano Co., 38 Warburton ave-
nue, Yonkers, N. Y., of which Jos. Bareuther, well
known in the New York trade, is the manager, is
paying particular attention to the featuring of the
Sterling piano and is meeting with much success in
its campaign.
The Behning
Piano Co.
UPHOLDS THE ONE=PRICE SYSTEM.
Factory and Office, 133d Street
The J. W. Jenkins Sons Music Co. branch in St.
Joseph, Mo., of which S. S. Oakford is manager,
and which handles the regular Jenkins line of
Steinway, Weber, Vose, Kurtzmann, Henry F.
Miller, Ludwig and other makes of pianos and
players, is carrying on a strong advertising cam-
paign on the one-price, no commission basis.
and Alexander Avenue
NEW YORK
Warerooms, 425 Fifth Avenue