Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PLAYER SECTION
NEW YORK, MAY 31, 1919
-MgEBBa&MMjaMikffliviiM^
MMiaBL^^
Being Observations, Grave and Gay and of Varying Degrees of Wisdom and
Pertinence, on Past, Present and Coming Events, Distilled from the Thoughts of
that Home-Trained Philosopher, to wit: the Editor of This Player Section
ince
•u at the same time pertinent
•which has managed to make
isly unromantic as ours is
ot tasks, and those who sup-
tu.- -. A-
\r- •
.-nalism passes through a life of undi-
'.-'-•-' V'ight are slightly inaccurate in their
'
• .. The truth is, of course, that our
;V
* a H businesses has, if I may say it,
I':.'. • i business to make itself unromantic.
'Vilat is wrong with a generation that cannot
see the romance in a piano, the really incred-
ibly romantic fact of a player-piano? After all,
•he most romantic facts in the whole world
y e the facts we most easily and carelessly pass
liy. Think of the airplane! But even the air-
plane, when you think seriously of it, pales into
relative insignificance before some of the mar-
velous developmen.ts ! vn,,the realm of scientific
music production""wKe^r^jyxtfr; we[.are so., apt to
speak even condescendingly. We confess that
the sight of a supercilious young person lan-
guidly demonstrating a reproducing piano 'to a
group of interested but hopelessly commonplace
persons produces in us the most profound.,ac>,r-
row for our own race. What is'trle v matter with
d» ? We deal in the most romantic of commod-
., music. We handle incredible marvels in
wood and leafher and fe.lt and metal. And we
don't realize thr* our industry is, of all in-
dustries, the *1%st interesting, the most roman-
tic and the most wonderful!
Slacking
'
The conventions are with us once more, and
no doubt we shall see quite a good deal in the
way of new instruments of all kinds, shown
vately by manufacturers. Yet it has not been
a year of marked technical p r o g r e s s fla
deed was this to have been expected. Circum-
stances have been just a bit too much for that.
But one thing is quite certain. Although»there
have been few chances to produce markedly new
ideas there have been chances enough to im
prove workmanship and clean-up design.
.sew showings will, we hope, not ' disappoi:'
le hopes in this direction, although one
ju
f
vsip feeling that these hopes are prob-
-••>' sari/j&M;-1.j.,..
fact is, as the manu-
3
ers v. >"•: /• •
week may confess to
•it -x, " h i : -
v.s been a good deal of
shi:k Vv =x. p -tting past the inspectors.
cvcf the excuses may be, however dif-
trTv ; X>r2iiave been to secure necessary
grades of material and workmanship, the fact
must be recognized that the player action is the
very last piece of goods in the world which one
can afford to send out in an unsatisfactory con-
dition. When I say unsatisfactory I mean in
a condition less than the best possible, for only
the best possible in player work can be trusted
not to fail when it is least expected to show
weakness. It is neither wise nor fair to con-
ceal the fact that there has been cause for com-
plaint during the past year concerning material
and workmanship in the player actions turned
out from certain factories. It would be most
unfortunate if next week's experience meetings
should not produce the determination to get
back without delay to pre-war standards.
by doing a little plain and fancy, ground and
lofty, philosophizing in one at least of my al-
lotted paragraphs. Let us, dear brethren, con-
sider the topic of conventions. Conventions,
beloved, are lovely when you go to them from
your own more or less dear native village to
somebody else's d. n. v. But when the con-
vention is being held in your own dear old home
town—or that which serves you as such for the
time—then the shoe is on the other foot. There
is absolutely no fun in walking down the street
to a convention, much less fun than walking
on the West Side to watch the auto bandits hold-
ing up the banks. Half the fun is the long
train ride out to the convention city, the hunt-
ing for rooms at the hotel, the quarrels with
haughty clerks about the overcharge in the bill
Player-Piano Yeast
and the inspection of the bright lights in the
convention city. But when—as is my unhappy
You need only glance through the pages of case this year—you know all the hotels and all
this Player Section to see that the intelligent the clerks in them, and you go home at night
editor has determined to remind his readers instead of raising Cain around the Grand
that the music roll exists as an integral part of Babel Hotel, and there is no fun and no nov-
the player industry. The editor does not know elty and no nothing, outside of a huge amount
whether he is justified in assuming that the' in- of extra work in helping the paper get out its
dustry is unaware that the music roll belongs convention report for the end of the week—
to it, but he has sometimes had occasion to sus- then we say down with everything—for this
pect that the r e'taifii fii fl L'ff IBHwfrHiiiipm i 11H ia ni >mm jyCaT?*'- 1 'Hten.1 year, when we shall have to close
on the subject. The music roll has been a, .sort our desk and rush off a thousand miles East to
of stepchild of the player for a good many rea- meet ouf a "P|i|iwi»4fc..frens and make a general
sens, and we are just beginning to realize that our Windy n i t y nuisance among the culchawed per-
intei'WW'Sr'e vitally bound up^ with those of this sons of lanhattan, next year we shall be vio-
once rather despised relation. The music roll, lently pic-convention again. Of course!
oft the other hand, has lagged in development to
some not inconsiderable extent, just because it
TOM GRIBWfijN NEW YORK
has been relegatetl^p a, bacjL^£at by its larger
brother.
Now, within the last two or three
Sales Manager of Udell Works on Visit to
year's" t'rrere has -been a great««prising*oT interest
Eastern Trade Centers
1
in Jthe^jousic roll and that wond?f*fu f*skeet oil- • -
paper has srtown itself even more wonderful,
Tom 'T rilh, sales manager of the Udell
to be a great deal moxe^jnterested in
the music roll than we usually are, because the Works, .i.idianapolis, spent this week in New
h towards the player-piano York City, attending to certain business mat-
ters, and calling upon several of his friends in
that yeast occupies towards bread. Flour and^
'"*" ""' ^'v. ,Qn his way to New York Mr. Griffith
water will make something e^.taHi«^
.... Philadelphia and Camden, and on
at, but nine persons in te'
xi trip plan^ - J | tj^rt*k«f*W'W* ; iri Buffalo for
>' <•> ~ Pn v e played with<
H° reports art exccc^iLugiy heavy de-
rsons tit" fen cajy
camnets and Udell
- plain
Ing machine cabinets, amtaMBBt^that every
*«r
efl'r-rt is hpinf^^;^;^ flfr tfaf- TTHPII plant to speed
IJTICATRNO 1
true Euclidean poin
magnitude if I
ing, justify
The Anderson
-.•• ted in its
riTJffii! muss
is now
at 217 Bleecker street,
the piano salesrooms.