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• M A Y 10,
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
1919
PITTSBURGH TRADE CONTINUES TO SHOW GREAT ACTIVITY
Local Piano Men Well Satisfied With Volume of Business Being Done—Housing Shortage Will
Be Overcome Presently—Hoffmann Featuring Gulbransen Players—News of the Week
PITTSBURGH, PA V May 5.—Spring trade in Pitts-
burgh piano circles is keeping up at a very flat-
tering rate and the leading dealers are unani-
mous'in expressing themselves as highly pleased
with business and are most optimistic concern-
ing the future.
One of the principal motifs in the recent sale
period was caused by the impending return of
so many of the Pittsburgh soldier boys and the
progressive piano merchants were keenly alive
to the advantages of judicious publicity in which
the need of music in the home for the war
heroes was plainly emphasized.
In general, business conditions in the Pitts-
burgh district as a whole are good. While
there is considerable unemployment, a large
number of the idle men are those who earned
high wages during the war period and who
saved their earnings and are now able to be
without work for a time without feeling incon-
venienced. It is well known that as soon as the
steel market is stabilized and prices for lum-
ber and other building materials readjusted,
there will be a tremendous boom in the building
trades. As it is, over 1,000 houses could be
readily rented at this time if they were available.
So acute is the house shortage that on May 1,
the regular moving date here, many persons
found themselves without homes. In a num-
ber of the fire engine houses of the city room
was made for the furniture of those who had to
move and had nowhere to go. As a result there
are now temporarily stored in these municipal
buildings over a score of pianos and phono-
graphs.
"Our April business was the best in the his-
tory of the store, with the possible exception
of some December business," said W. C. Dierks,
gtMieral manager of the C. C. Mellor Co. Mr.
Dierks stated that in one day alone during the
month over $10,000 worth of pianos had been
sold. . ..The used piano sale of the Mellor Co.
wask)rie,of the most successful, and it attracted
customers from many cities and towns within a
radius of ISO to 200 miles of Pittsburgh.
• The J. M. Hoffmann Co. utilized newspaper
*'sp^ce., liberally in calling attention to "Free
Musjc Lessons" in connection with the Hoff-
mann 1 l?ive-Minute Sight Method of Producing
Good Music. It was stated that "in five min-
utes we will show you the Hoffmann 'method of
using one of the famous, easy-to-play Gulbran-
sen player-pianos and a Q R S word roll."
Theodore Hoffmann, the genial head of the
firm, was very enthusiastic concerning the brisk
sales of the Gulbransen players. He stated:
"We have been handicapped for some time,
owing to our inability to secure as many of
the Gulbransen players as we needed for our
patrons. But we have just been notified that
there are two carloads of Gulbransens at the
freight depot, and they will be in our ware-
rooms within forty-eight hours ready for in-
spection." Mr. Hoffmann, who just returned
from a successful trout fishing expedition to
Potter County, did not reveal the number of
speckled beauties that he caught. However,
he said that he had a good time—and what is
fishing if not a good time?
W. C. Hamilton, of S. Hamilton Co., stated
LANGDON
The Remarkable
PLAYER-PIANO
The Best DEALERS' Proposition | | 1
oa the Market Today
LANGDON PIANO CO.
Player-Pianos Exclusively
82-88 Brown Place
New Yorli
that April trade had been very brisk and far
above the record made in April of last year.
He anticipates a continuation of the brisk period
in the piano trade for an indefinite time. The
Hamilton Co. have placed on sale, in addition
to their other lines of leading makes of pianos,
the Lindeman and the Emerson. A very hand-
some Lindeman upright was given a prominent
position in Hamilton show windows the past
week.
E. B. Heyser, general manager of the W. F.
Frederick Piano Co., stated that the April busi-
ness in pianos and player-pianos was very flat-
tering, and that the first few days of May in-
dicated that the demand for the instruments was
very likely to keep up during the month. Mr.
Heyser stated that reports from the branch
stores of the Frederick Co. all showed an in-
crease in business.
F. H. Groves, of the F. H. Groves Piano Co.,
left on a business trip to New York and other
Eastern points to purchase pianos and player-
pianos. He said: "We are practically sold
out of all pianos that we have and the demand
is so strong that I find it necessary to make a
personal trip to expedite shipments. Our sales
of Mathushek and Steger pianos have been, to
say the least, rushing."
"Our business for April was good and showed
an increase of between 30 and 35 per cent, over
the sales in April, 1918," said C. J. Roberts,
manager of the Chas. M. Stieff, Inc., Pittsburgh
branch. Stieff player-pianos and Stieff grands,
Mr. Roberts said, were having a brisk sale.
L. H. Jacobi, Jr., the popular manager of the
Kaufmann piano department, who has just ended
his first month in the Pittsburgh piano trade,
stated that the month had been uniformly a
most successful one. "I am very much pleased
with the result of the efforts put forth by the
sales force of the department for the month, as
it resulted in a splendid list of sales." Mr.
Jacobi intimated that plans were under way for
making the piano department one of the very
largest and best equipped in western Pennsyl-
vania. The Mehlin, Milton, Behr Bros., Stultz
and Bauer, Shoninger and Jacob Doll & Son
pianos and player-pianos are sold. The floor
space is ample for the splendid display that is
given to each of the above makes of instru-
ments.
M. P. Matthews, of New York, representing
the American Photo Player Co., was in Pitts-
burgh on a business trip.
"In a few days we expect to announce the
date of our formal opening," said H. P. Shearer,
the live-wire manager of the new Rudolph Wur-
litzer store, that is in process of creation here.
Painters, carpenters, metal workers and dec-
orators are still busy at work. Notwithstand-
ing the building process and the accompanying
disorder DeWitt Roberts, manager of sales of
the piano department, said that there had been
some very satisfactory sales made.
PRAISES MASON & HAMLIN PIANO
Piano dealers speak in high praise of the
Mason & Hamlin piano, and many are featuring
its good points in their advertisements. The
Eberhardt^Hays Music Co., Wichita, Kan., say
the following in one of their advertisements:
"In vain have piano makers striven to build a
piano equal to the matchless Mason & Hamlin
in its tone beauty and incomparable resonance."
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iL|ffniirinmiiiiniiiiuiniminnnniMiiiiuuiuii
Victrola XVI, $225
Victrola XVI, electric, $282.50
Mahogany or oak
Other styles $25 to $950
Victor
Supremacy
The enormous pub-
lic demand for the
Victrola, the unparal-
leled success of Victor
retailers everywhere,
unmistakably tell of
Victor supremacy.
Victor Talking Machine Co.
Camden, N. J., U. S. A.
" V i c t r o l a " i, the Registered Trade-marie of
the Victor Talking Machine Company designating
the product! of this Company only.
W a r n i n g : The me of the word Victrola
upon or in the promotion or sale of any other
Talking Machine or Phonograph products is mis-
leading and illegal.
I m p o r t a n t N o t i c e . Victor Records and
Victor Machines are scientifically co-ordinated
and synchronized in the processes of manufacture,
and their use, one with the other, is absolutely
essential to a perfect reproduction.
FIVE PIANOS TO RELATIVES
By the will of Mrs. Sarah Clark Goodwin,
Bronxville, N. Y., who died some time ago,
relatives receive five pianos and a number of
other musical instruments said to be worth a
great deal of money. Mrs. Goodwin also left
legacies of stock in the Vibratone Piano Co., in
which she had a large interest, the will dispos-
ing of an estate estimated at more than $250,000.
"HIS MASTERS VOICE"
J