Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
46
THE PALATIAL COLUMBIA WARERQOMS ON FIFTH AVENUE
New Retail Establishment Devoted to Columbia Grafonolas Is One of the Most Magnificent Stores
of Its Kind in the World—Exquisitely Decorated and Most Efficiently Arranged
One of the most important events in local runs back a gallery, off which four smaller
talking machine circles during the past few rooms open. Each of these rooms is devoted
years was the recent opening of the new mag- to a certain period style of furniture with which
nificent warerooms of the Columbia Grapho- every appointment is in accord. In this man-
phone Co. at 411 Fifth avenue, New York. Lo- ner each person is able to see exactly how the
cated at the corner of Thirty-sevejnth street Grafonola will fit in with the predominating
and Fifth avenue, directly facing Tiffany's, of style of the home's furnishings. These period
world-wide fame, this new home of Columbia style Grafonolas range in price from $250 to
products is already being recognized as one $2,100, and in style from the plainest to the most
of the show places of the Fifth avenue shipping ornate. They include the Italian Renaissance,
district.
the Jacobean, the Gothic, the Queen Anne, the
The new home of the Columbia products was various Chippendales, the William and Mary,
completed on July 9, and formal invitations were the Adam family designs, the Elizahethan, Louis
mailed to the music loving public to attend the XVI, and the various Oriental styles.
informal opening of the company's new shop,
The entire first floor of this unique shop is
where "an interesting line of newly designed given over to the artistic setting of period style
Grafonolas will be presented."
Grafonolas, but the practical side is always there.
Thousands of visitors called at the warerooms Thus a part of the oak paneling in the back of
in response to this modest invitation, and one the reception room slides back, and an elevator
and all were astounded at the radical difference is waiting to convey visitors to the second
which characterized the new store, as compared floor. This elevator runs up behind a mirror
with the average- talking machine warerooms.
"Unique" was one of the many terms applied
to the decorations and furnishings, but this term
hardly does justice to the magnificence and rare
beauty of every single detail in this Fifth ave-
nue shop.
Upon entering the warerooms the visitor is
received in a high vaulted reception room where
the Old English appointments give an atmos-
phere of many centuries ago. Here the light
streams through tall, small-paned windows, sim-
ilar to those of ancient Agecroft Hall. The
walls are covered with heavy oak panelings, and
blazoned with carved figures, much of which is
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The New Columbia Warerooms
a reproduction from the walls of Hoghton
Tower. In the middle space of the floor under-
neath Speke Hall's famous six-light oaken chan-
delier stands a long, ponderously solid and yet
gracefully carved table of the Elizabethan
period. Against the walls on the four sides
stand four pieces of furniture; a low, many
drawered table of the William and Mary style;
opposite, a tall voluminously generous cabinet
of the Jacobean period; further down this wall,
a Gothic dowry chest bears heavily on the floor,
and opposite this stands one of the oldtime low
boys.
The visitor is naturally curious as to the loca-
tion of the Grafonolas, and this curiosity is ap-
peased when one of the salesmen throws open
a panel in the Jacobean cabinet, and discloses
in this century old setting the most modern per-
fect music reproducing mechanism. This also
applies to the other pieces of period furniture
in this Old English room, for the pressing of
a secret lever opens the panels of each piece of
furniture, and discloses a Grafonola with record
compartments.
From the main reception room on one side
Fireplace in the Reception H&tl
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so perfect in its reflection that it seen^ -merely
a continuation of the room's oak paneling. By
the side of the elevator is a richly balustraded
stairway, a reproduction of the noted Grewe
Hall staircase, ascending to a balcony forming
the mezzanine floor. Here the sales and
clerical staff has its office, from where all those
entering the reception room can be seen and
immediately taken care of.
The second floor of the new Columbia shop
houses most luxuriously a complete line of the
regular Columbia Grafonolas, as distinguished
from the Art period styles shown on the first
A GROUP OF "LIVE WIRES"
A Snap of Some of the Sales Staff of the New
York Talking Machine Co., Including General
Manager, Who Are Popular with the Trade
"A Group of Live W T ires" is an apt caption
for the illustration shown herewith, for every
member of this group is a human dynamo, and
always "on the job." Reading from left to right
floor. There are twenty-one demonstration
rooms on this floor, each spacious and fitted up
for a private showing of the Grafonola. These
rooms ar& all equipped with a modern ventilat-
ing system that insures perfect comfort.
By utilizing the most up-to-date means of
filing there are also placed on this floor 18,000
Stairway to the Mezzanine Floor
Columbia records. On the counters underneath
plate glass are descriptive lists of the records
so that they are always in sight as suggestions
to purchasers.
The Old English style of the first floor is
carried to the second in a concert hall which
stretches along the entire Fifth avenue front of
the new shop. An audience of two hundred
can be seated here in comfort before the slightly
raised platform, and it is planned to give in-
formal Grafonola demonstrations in this con-
cert hall during the coming fall and winter.
Throughout this new shop there is an atmos-
phere of refinement and artistic conception
which makes these warerooms distinctive to a
degree. The decorations and furnishings form
an appropriate setting fdr the magnificent Co-
lumbia Art Grafonolas, although the practical
and efficient side of retail merchandising has
been well taken care of throughout the estab-
lishment.
The Columbia Co. is to be congratulated upon
its initiative in erecting a Fifth avenue shop that
is already well on the road to country-wide
fa*ne, and these new warerooms are destined to
become a Mecca for Fifth avenue's music
lovers. H. E. Speare is manager of the new
shop, and is assisted by an exceptionally ca-
pable staff of sales people.
bers of his sales staff. They have won the
friendship and esteem of the Victor fraternity
through ability and a spirit of helpfulness.
It may be added that one member of the New
York Talking Machine Co.'s sales force is
missing from this picture—J. J. Davin. This
happened because it is almost impossible to
take a picture and still be "in it," and this is
the case with this group, for Mr. Davin snapped-
the portrait with his handy "Brownie."
FIRST AID AT AEOLIAN PLANT
Left to Right: L. Schoonmaker, R. J. Keith, M. Owens,
E. Fontan
MERIDEN, CONN., August 6.—The Aeolian Co. has
installed a first aid room, complete in every par-
ticular, and with a graduate nurse in charge,
in its factory here. The concern has always
maintained first aid service, but the increasing
number of employes made greater facilities for
rendering first aid necessary. The new room is
located on the ground floor of the main factory
building facing on Cambridge street.
they are: L. Schoonmaker, R. J. Keith, M.
Mclntosh Bros., of Woodbury, N. J., are now
Owens and E. Fontan. Mr. Keith is general
manager of the New York Talking Machine located in their new quarters at 197 Broad street.
Co., Victor distributor, and the others are mem- They are specializing in Victrolas.