JUNE
7, 1919
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
CONDITIONS EXISTING IN THE PIANO TRADE IN GERMANY
Former Member of the Chicago Staff of The Review, Now in Germany, Tells of Effect of the
War on the Piano Industry in That Country-Present Situation Is Most Unfavorable
Conditions in the piano trade in Germany
formed the subject of a ve ry interesting letter
recently rec eived by The Review from a former
m ember of the staff of the Chicago office of The
Review, and now with the Ame rican Army of
Occupation in Germany.
In wri ting from Coblenz he said: "The other
day I managed to talk a few minutes with Herr
F.iseler, who is in charge of the warerooms of
the Mand . Co., in this city. This is an old
e&lablished hOLlse, founded , I am told, in 1839,
with branches in Cologne and Dusseldorf.
" ' I was at war so I cannot tell YOLl very much
concerning busin ess in the past four years,'
said Herr Eiseler, 'b ut before the war there
were 450 rnen working in our three factories.
To-day there is only one open-with ninety
men at work.
"'The fir st two years were, of course, very
bad and business dropped away to nothing. The
9
REVIEW
third year prices increased radically, due to the
shortage of labor, all the men being called into
the army, and the impossibility of getting ma
terial. Labor was poor and high, but to-day
it is worse, for since the revolution the demand
in wages has increased 400 per cent.
"'Concerning supplies. Felt was very dear
but we used it and resorted to no substitute,
although the grade was cheaper. Copper was
very scarce, so we usen for the bass strings
plated steel wire. In gra nds and the best up
rights, howev er, we used an all-copper string.
Keys did not cau se us so much trouble.
"'For the piano which in 1914 we got 650
marks we to-day ask 3,600 marks and manage
to sell all we make-mainly because we make
so few. Of course the value of the mark has
dtpreciated to less than 8 cents American
money, but our main trouble lies in the cir
cumstances surrounding the purchase of ma
tcrials and the cornering of supplies and
profite ering in them. Transportation has also
a great deal to do with present difficulty in Ger
man industry. Rolling stock is impossible to
get. The depreciation of the mark is only a
temporary condition and will not last; it is a
banking condition and political, perhaps .
"'Of course we do not sell on instalments at
present. Even in peace times we did to a lim
ited extent only and the discount system of
handling paper we never followed .
" 'Our best customers the last few months are
the American soldiers and we have sold lots
of pianos to the Y. M. C. A.'
"O n one side of the wareroom were stacks
of wooden shoes, or rather sandals, which were
made in the factory woodworking shops and
sold for children. The sole is made of a single
thickness of thin wood with somewhat thicker
strips nailed across at right angles, tqus afford
ing wear and at the same time some resiliency.
"I asked Herr Eiseler if that was some sales
'gag.' 'No,' h e said, 'we simply took advantage
of the high price of leath er and worked out a
few shoes in the factory.'''
MAY BRINGS NORMAL BUSINESS TO ST. LOUIS DEALERS
RAPID RISE OF J. E. NACE
Dealers Kept Active by Steady Demand, and Prospects for Summer Trade Are Excellent-Regret
Inability to Form Local Association-Piano Movers Ask Increase-Other News
Nace's Music Store of Hanover, Pa., Handles
the Bacon Line and Now Occupies a Three
Story Building-Doing a Big Business
ST. LOUIS, NIo., June 2.-Generally spea,king,
l\fay business in the music trades in St. Louis
did not measure up to that of May last year,
but business has had a great deal to contend
with this month. It might not have been af
fected by the Victor y Loan drive, the frequ en t
welcomings of homecom ing soldi ers and unsea
sonably wet and disa gre eable weather, but the
three togetber were bound to make th ems elves
fel t.
This May compared more nearly with
tb at of 191 7, when conditions were very bad,
owing to the war.
The St. Louis delegation to the Chicago con
ven tion may not be as large as was expected .
It is a peculiar thing about St. Louis piano
men that annual conventions look mighty good
to them when ' they are a long way off, but do
not look so good when close up. Every year
it is the same thing, and two or three weeks
before convention time every man you meet
says he is going to the convention, but when it
comes time to go only a few of them make the
trip. It is no secret that one of th e reasons for
indifference on the part of some of the St. Louis
piano men toward the national convention is
due to the diffic ulty that has been encountered
to bring about a local organization. They sim
ply cannot see why they should be greatly in
ter ested in the Na tional Association, which af
fects th em indirectly, when they are unable to
achieve unity of action locally, which affects
them a great deal. Recently a ren ewed effort
was mad e to get a local assoc iation go in g, and
for a time it looked like something was really
going to happ en, but it still hangs fire.
\;\Ihether St. Louis sends few or many men
to th e co nvent ion, it is evident that all roads
lead to Chicago thi s wee k.
Traveling piano
men passin g through St. Louis are all headed
.that way. Amollg them was Jay Hobson, of
Price & Teeple, who has been West and back
traced through here so as to be at hom e for the
convention, and ·M r. Kehoe, of Jacob Doll &
Sons, New York, who will layover in Chicago
during the conventi on .
The Lehman Musie House, 309 Collinsville
avenue, Eas t St. Louis, w ill not have to HlOve,
fo llowing the sale of the building to Kohen &
Erber, theatrical men. T h e music house lease
has some tim e to run and the reconstruction of
the building' will be with a view to providing a
perm ane nt hom e for the Lehman busin ess,
which will be better than the present one. The
music store is to have fifty feet fro nt and three
Aoors.
Fred Lehman, proprietor of the busi-
ness, has gone to New York to get some ideas
on ho w the store should be remodeled and re
decora ted.
A. C. Thiebes, who recently disposed of his
interest in the Thiebes Piano Co., is going to
sell oil la nd s. He ha s opened an office in the
Third Na tional Bank Building for that purpose.
He may also continue in the sheet music busi
ness, as he owns the copyrights of an extensive
li s t.
Jean De Walpine, of the Baldwin Co. sales
staff, has returned from New York, where he
spent five weeks building up his health, which
had become impaired.
Charles Albrecht, who operates a saloon ancl
all electric piano at 108 North Fourteen th street
(until July 1), blamed the piano when he was
up in police court the other morning charged
with operating the saloon overtime. A police
man heard the piano going at 1.08 a. m. and
found Albrecht in the saloon and arrested him.
Albrecht told the judge that a customer dropped
a nickel in the slot at just a minute before 1
o'c lock and he couldn' t stop the automatic in
strument until it had given the man h is nickel's
worth. He was discharged .
F. C. Stierlin, of the Burn s Bros. Scarf Co.,
New York, was in town during the past week.
He is an old St. Louis piano m a n, formerly of
the firm of Thiebes & Stierlin, and later went
into piano manufacturing in St. Louis.
The men at the bottom of the scale in the
piano indu st ry continue to demonstrate to St.
Louis piano merchan ts th e beauties and bene
fits of organization. Now it is the dray gentle
men. They are organized and they are brin g
ing to bear the force of their o rganization in
support of their demand for an increase from
$19 to $25 a week, a reduction of working hour s
from nine to eight and assignment of more men
for delivery.
Up to now the usual number
has been three, including the driver.
Their
demand is for four for a player-piano and six
for a grand piano.
E. A. Kieselhorst, president of the Kiesel
horst Piano Co., is not going to let the hire
lings do all the price-raising.
H e' has raised
his rates on tuning, and hereafter it is going to
cost $3 for uprights, $3.50 ·for player uprights ·
and $4 for gra nds.
And it is going to cost
more, too, for pianos "loaned" for entertain
ments . The Kieselhorst price from now on is
$12 for an upright and $15 for a grand, and the
point of delivery has to be inside the city limits
and on the first floor.
Few piano merchants throughout the coun
try can look backward over their business
progress with as much satisfaction as J. E.
Nace, of Hanover, Pa., who handles the Fran
cis Bacon line in that territory.
He commenced as errand boy in the general
store conducted by hi s father and developed
gradually until the presen t time when his sales
rcorns now 'o ccupy three floors,' each 30 by
115 feet.
Returning in his narration to hiS early life
Mr. Nace states that he acted as clerk for more
than two years, seiling general merchandise in
a store under his fa ther's name. Later as his
business knowledge developed he undertook the
entire management of that establishment, enlarg
ing it shortly afterwards, so as to conduct in
addition a wholesale business .
Eight years ago, early in 1911, he added to
the retail division of his store a small music
department which soon proved to him to be a
legitimate and profitable business and one which
held tremendous possibili ties for expansion . De
ciding in March, 1919, to devote his entire
energy to th e sale of musical instruments, he
sold the fixtures of the entire department
store, rearranging the space thus obtained in
the most comprehensive and elaborate series of
showrooms for the display exclusively of mu
sical instruments.
The business as it is to-day is drawn from five
surrounding counties and a corps of salesmen
are kept actively engaged handling the tre
l1lendolls amount of business which is turned
over yearly_
Mr. Nace is an enthusiastic admirer and seller
01 the Baco n line.
He attributes much of his
rOllarkable success in the music business to
the handling of the line of pianos which carry
with their ni me not only prestige but durabil
ity and tone.
DA~BURV'
PIANo
MAN HONORED
'.
' -' '' - '
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"
Frank W. Hansoll; manager of the piano de
partmel!.t
,tf;~ · J:(e i.n~ ' Music Store, Danbury,
Conn., ~~s, ;ece~tl y ele~ted councilman from the
second ."wat~ i~ntltit ' ~ity and was chosen as
presidellt of the new board of councilmen at its
organization.
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of
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Frank M;rdell, a piano maker, _was found dead
in bed in a gas-filled roo m at 1140 Fourth ave
nue, Astoria, N. Y., last week.
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