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PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 29, 1917
An Unusual Opportunity for Stimulating Interest in Player-Pianos Will Be
Found Through the Medium of the Numerous Women's Clubs Which Have
Been Established in All Parts of the Country—How to Cultivate This Field
At a time like the present, all members of an
industry find it advisable, nay, find themselves
compelled, to take thought very seriously of
their position. In every line of endeavor the
routine of everyday life tends to keep us in a
rut, from which it is always the exceptional
man who lifts himself. But under the spur of
some national crisis, mentalities are everywhere
quickened, and there comes a natural feeling
that, while everything else is being tried out
in the fire of rough experience, perhaps it may
be well to look into our own line of business
with a little more care than usual.
Whenever this happens, we find, as is natural,
that all sorts of ideas spring up that before
we should have considered either unpractical
or too slight to be of any immediate use. The
player business is not in this respect different
from any other.
Whenever business finds itself, as it were, in
new and peculiar circumstances, there is sure
to be much searching of heart; and among sales-
men that searching is likely to result in a feel-
ing that the methods hitherto may have to be
furbished up or even considerably modified, be-
fore they can hope to catch up with new con-
ditions.
Talks by experts are so common—and so ter-
ribly cheap—that whenever a group of business
men happens to find itself set down anywhere,
an expert of some sort of efficiency is seen in
the offing, ready to deliver a broadside upon the
defenseless mercantile fleet, in the shape of an
improving talk. This humble article pretends
to no such piratical purpose. We hold no let-
ters-of-marque from efficiency institutes. We
timidly suggest; and let it, so to speak, go at
that.
One of the possibilities that has occurred to
us is that of making a more thorough study of
the field for the player-piano among various
sorts of voluntary associations, such as clubs,
lodges and societies. We are aware that much
good work has been done in this way, but the
truth seems to be that most of the sales made
to institutions of this sort have been made by
chance. In other words, it would seem that
there does not yet exist any systematic method
of getting at social and literary or artistic clubs
and societies for the sale to them of player-
pianos. As to straight pianos the case is no
doubt different.
The writer has been giving some attention to
this matter and recently it was suggested to him
that the women's clubs ought to be investigated
with a view to seeing what sort of soil they
would provide for cultivation in the interest of
player-piano sales. The subject looked so in-
viting that it was at once taken up. The fur-
ther one looked into it the more inviting it be-
came; and the results of the looking-into are
here respectfully set forth in the hope that
they may be of some use to someone.
Women's Clubs
Women's clubs have now for some thirty-five
years been important factors in national life;
and for the last fifteen years have been very
important indeed. The habit which men so
largely have of putting aside without thought
the activities, mental and physical, of one-half
the population, save in so far as these affect them
personally, has perhaps had much to do with
concealing from most of us the fact that there
has grown up around us silently an enormous
network of musical, artistic, literary and edu-
cational societies, devoted to the improvement
of their members and to the creation of a
higher and better tone in matters mental
amongst women. "Culture" has been ridiculed
by stupid and superficial persons, because it has
been supposed to be a fad; but in fact, fad or
not, the number of women who allow the pur-
suit of some cultural study to engross a large
part of their time is very large and is growing
larger, so much so that the woman's club has
become a very important feature of American
social life, too important altogether to be over-
looked by the salesman who is searching for
new fields to sow or new worlds to conquer.
The Musical Club
, Generally speaking, women's clubs in this
country are devoted to a specific aim. The vari-
ous "Daughters" clubs, composed of those who
trace their descent from Revolutionary ances-
tors, are largely social in their nature; but the
number of clubs devoted to more or less specific
aims, musical, artistic, literary, economic or po-
litical, increases daily and has always been per-
haps the larger element. It is with these that
we have mainly to do just now.
There is no doubt that the idea of putting to-
gether women's musical clubs and player-pianos
sounds at first rather absurd. Women musicians
as well as males of the same persuasion have not
been so cordial to the player-piano as the adver-
tising of some manufacturers might lead one to
believe. The rank and file of musicians, that is
to say, have had precious little time for the rank
and file of player-pianos. But in truth the ma-
jority of the members of women's musical clubs
are amateurs, although their work often reaches
high planes of excellence. Now, amateurs al-
ways look upon their hobby more or less de-
tachedly. They are not thinking about it as
means for making a living and consequently are
not frightened into a fit every time a player-
piano is mentioned. It is true that most of
them believe themselves to be much horrified
when they hear the name of player-piano men-
tioned, but this is just because they have only
heard the horror next door or up the street.
There is no reason why, the next time there is
a chance to sell a piano to a woman's musical
club, the subject of player-piano should not be
brought up; especially now that player-grands
and reproducing pianos, both upright and grand,
are to be had.
Indeed, an excellent beginning can be made
by merely inducing a prominent member of
such a club to have a musicale at her house
featuring the player and showing it up at its
very, very best. We can imagine few if any
ideas more delightful than that of a reproducing
piano program well-chosen, given at the home
of a member of a musical club, with the at-
tendance restricted to the club members. We
mean delightful from the business standpoint.
The arguments that may be employed in
working up the musical club prospect, whether
an individual member or the whole body, might
be put somewhat like this:
"The player-piano of 1918 is no more the
player-piano of 1908 than is the automobile of
the present date that of the earlier date. It
is not at all a question of a player-piano being
just a player-piano, but entirely a question of
the sort of use you intend to make of such an
instrument. A woman's musical club not only
could, but positively ought to have a reproduc-
ing player-piano, preferably a grand, for it will
have to be used for ordinary playing too, to-
gether with a library of reproducing records."
Why duty? Simply because the club is not do-
ing its full duty till it has given its members
tlie opportunity of partaking of the benefits
of a museum, as it were, of tone photographs,
tone reproductions of great living pianists. An
art club will certainly have a gallery of fine
reproductions of fine paintings and a literary
club will surely possess some rare books or
literary relics of the author whose works form
the subject of their study. How much more
ought a musical club to have a library of im-
perishable records of the playing of great ar-
tists! What a marvelous opportunity will thus
be afforded the members of moulding their own
style upon correct foundations! How better,
nay, how else, can this be done than by placing
in the club's rooms a reproducing piano with a
fine selection of the best records?"
(Continued on page 5)