Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JUNE 8,
1918
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Player salesmen in the employ of E. F. Droop
& Sons Co., handling the Apollo line, are being
"coached" in the use of a line of argument that
seems to be reaching the spot in the case of a
gratifying number of prospects. This new angle
in the technique of salesmanship as practiced
at the Droop warerooms seeks to impress the
customer with the fact that "skill in operation"
is not half so essential in obtaining 100 per
cent, enjoyment from a player as "judgment in
selection" when the purchase of an instrument
is made. The new line of talk in this quarter
is that heretofore rather too much stress has
been laid upon the responsibilities of the oper-
ator of a player and too little credit has been
given to the accomplishments of an instrument
endowed with ability that, given half a chance,
enables virtual duplication of human playing.
Manager W. P. Van Wickle, of the Van Wickle
Piano Co., formerly the F. G. Smith Co., is
taking his own time in deciding what additional
lines, if any, he will take on and has formulated
no policy on this score, although he talked the
matter over with various friends in the manu-
facturing end of the industry during a recent
trip to Chicago. Mr. Van Wickle makes it clear
that he is entirely satisfied with his present line,
embracing the Bradbury, Webster and Whittier,
and that if he ultimately decides to make an
extension, it will be merely for the sake of en-
compassing in his stock instruments of a price
range that will satisfy all purses. Mr. Van
Wickle will continue as heretofore to give an
especial amount of attention to Victor and Co-
lumbia instruments and records.
MRS. CARRIE JACOBS=BOND WELL
FATHER OF THE WAR CHEST PLAN
Is Happily Pursuing Her Work at Her Los An-
geles Home in Spite of Reports of Her Death
Frank E. Wade Introduced the War Fund Idea
in Syracuse, Following Which the Plan Has
Been Adopted in Many Cities in the Country
WASHINGTON MERCHANTS WATCHING WAR TAX BILL
Endeavoring to Educate Legislators to a Knowledge of the Necessity of Music and Musical In-
struments in War Time—Small Grands Greatly in Demand—Droop Featuring Apollo Line
WASHINGTON, D. C, June 6.—Music trade mer-
chants in Washington who have close personal
friends among the members of Congress have
been set pondering these past few days- the
question of whether it is up to them to do a
little "missionary work." It all comes about
from the fact that the Ways and Means Com-
mittee of the House of Representatives this
week began public hearings preliminary to
drafting the new "war tax" measure which was
stated to be necessary by President Wilson in
his recent message to Congress.
Where the piano and talking machine dealers
come in, according to their friends in Con-
gress who are calling the attention of their
Washington acquaintances to the situation, is
that the President has intimated that the addi-
tional revenue needed will have to come from
excess profits, "luxuries," etc. The danger is
that Congressmen who are not enlightened on
the subject may be too prone to construe all
musical instruments as "luxuries." Jf such a
fallacy can be headed off at the very outset of
the preparations for the new revenue act it will
save much time later on.
Evidence is accumulating at Washington that
national officials are gaining a deepening con-
viction that music is an "essential" and a war-
time "necessity" as well as a peace-time neces-
sity. The increased orders for players for our
warships—as many as four to one battleship—
attest this and so does the current order to
greatly enlarge the size of U. S. military bands.
Some of the national officials are willing to go
to any reasonable length to encourage music,
even to the extent of obtaining "preferences" in
railroad transportation for musical instruments
intended for use at military camps and in pub-
lic schools, but there are not a few Congress-
men who are not yet "sold" on this proposition
and the lawmakers who realize this are telling
their confidants among the Washington dealers
that they owe it to themselves and to the trade
to appear before the Ways and Means Com-
mittee unless the trade associations are to be
represented at these hearings by accredited
spokesmen.
Most of the Washington music houses will
go on "summer schedule" by July 1 or earlier.
For the heated term the business hours will
be from 9 a. m. to 6 p. m. for five days a week,
the store remaining closed all day Saturday.
Several of the Washington firms are having
excellent success with a scheme whereby each
Monday or every Monday and Tuesday is de-
voted to a sale of "traded-in" instruments. This
operates to concentrate this class of business in
one interval where it has the benefit of the ad-
vertising in the Sunday newspapers. In the
case of a house, handling both lines of instru-
ments, the approved plan in Washington is to
devote Monday to pianos and players and
Tuesday to talking machines and phonographs.
O. J. De Moll, manager of Washington's
Aeolian Hall, is making a hard drive with
grands and more especially baby grands. Mr.
De Moll reports that each successive month
shows a gain over the previous month's record
in the sale of baby grands—such well-known
makes as the Sohmer, Weber, McPhail, Steck,
^Milton and Krakauer. This drive on small grands,
so logical in a city where housing space is at
the premium it is in -war-time Washington, is
not allowed, however, to draw selling force from
the Duo-Art Pianolas, the Steinway, Weber,
Steck and Stroud models, which are handled
by the firm of De Moll & Co.
Hugo Worch, who clings to his conviction
that there is no, "entering wedge" better than a
rental arrangement on a piano with the under-
standing that the rental will be applied on the
purchase, is featuring the Kranich & Bach
Orandette.
This instrument has needed in
Washington the vigorous representation that it
is now getting at 1110 G Street.
CHICAGO, I I I . , June 3.—When called upon by
The Review this week, F. J. Smith, manager of
the Bond Shop, stated that he received several
letters recently from the trade relative to the re-
ported death of his mother, Carrie Jacobs-Bond.
"I want to make it emphatically known to the
trade," stated Mr. Smith, "that Mrs. Bond is
as live as anyone and is at present carrying on
her work, and as Mark Twain so aptly wrote,
'Reports of demise are greatly exaggerated.' "
This applies to Mrs. Bond. During the month
of April Mrs. Bond had been confined to the
Westlake Hospital at Los Angeles after under-
going a slight operation necessitated by inhaling
particles of sand while motoring between On-
tario and Riverside, Cal. Her condition at the
time was quite alarming, but after a few short
days she was discharged from the hospital and
returned to her Hollywood home, where she now
is. An item to this effect was printed in the
April 27 issue of The Review, which gave a cor-
rect report of the incident. The news of her
death was published in several of the local coun-
try newspapers, and for this reason it is pos-
sible that some of the members of the trade
may have read it and took it for granted that she
had passed away. However, the story is un-
founded, and the trade can rest assured that
there is no truth in it whatsoever.
AL. BEHNING, JR., DOING HIS BIT
Enters Field Service of the Y. M. C. A. and Is
Now Bound for France
Albert Behning, Jr., son of Albert Behning,
secretary of the National Piano Travelers, New
York Piano Manufacturers, and the New York
Piano Merchants' Associations, has entered the
field service of the Y. M. C. A. and left on
Sunday last for Washington under field orders,
his ultimate destination being France.
Al-
though of draft age Mr. Behning was not found
liable for military service. Despite the fact
that he is married, however, he felt that he
wanted to do his bit for his country, and there-
fore succeeded in entering the services of the
Y. M. C. A.
Among those piano trade men who have de-
voted no small amount of their time and energy
to war activities is Frank E. Wade, head of the
Amphion Piano Player Co., of Syracuse, N. Y.
Way back in the early days when war was de-
clared Mr. Wade busied himself in many of the
patriotic associations, such as the National Se-
curity League and the Red Cross. It was work
in these fields that finally led him to make a
special trip to determine the methods other
cities in the United States and Canada were
using to raise money for the war charities.
When he returned to Syracuse he worked out
a new system in conjunction with the Local
War Board, of which he is chairman. This sys-
tem was immediately adopted by the city of
Syracuse, and was heralded as the War Chest
System.
Since this plan was first introduced in Syra-
cuse the idea has rapidly spread to many other
cities both large and small, among which may
be mentioned, Rome, N. Y.; Utica, N. Y.; Co-
h'.mbus, O., and more recently Philadelphia and
Detroit. Briefly the War Chest plan consists
in asking every man, woman and child of a city
to contribute a set amount each month to a
common community fund from which the ex-
ecutive committee appropriates sums in accord-
ance with the adjudged merit of each individual
charity. It is a system which involves a mini-
mum overhead as far as collections are con-
cerned, and it has attained some remarkably
high per capita returns, in addition to fostering
a patriotic spirit and American fellowship not
equaled by any other system yet devised.
A representative of The Review recently had
an opportunity to make a thorough investigation
of the War Chest plan, particularly with refer-
ence to its origin and development, and after
completing "this investigation The Review does
not hesitate to proclaim Frank E. Wade as the
father of the War Chest idea.
If other members of the industry are equally
enterprising in doing their "bit" to help win the
war, when peace finally arrives the piano trade
will have a record of which it can indeed feel
proud.
CONDOLENCES FOR A. H. YOUNG
W. J. BUTLER A SERGEANT
Albert H. Young, of the John Wanamaker
piano department, New York, is receiving the
sincere condolences of his many friends through-
out the trade on the recent death of his daugh-
ter, whose funeral was held a week ago Satur-
day. Interment was in Evergreen Cemetery.
CINCINNATI, O., June 3.—Willard James Butler,
the nineteen-year-old son of the l^te James H.
Butler, of Butler Bros. Piano Co., this city,
who enlisted for service at the beginning of
the war, has been recently commissioned Tech-
nical Sergeant, and is now stationed at Camp
Sheridan, Montgomery, Ala. He expects to be
sent to France in the near future.
TAKES OVER NORTH CO. STORE
B. W. Phillips, a piano dealer of Scranton, Pa.,
has taken over the store and stock of the F. A.
North Co., Wilkes-Barre, Pa., and will fea-
ture the Lester piano as his leader.
Ralph C. Nelson, who has been traveling au-
ditor for the New York Piano Co. for the past
six months, has now assumed management of
the Watkins Bros, piano store at Bristol, Conn.