Music Trade Review

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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
HARGER & BLISH_WHOLESALE ONLY
NEW COLUMBIA FAN READY
Large Edison Jobbers of Des Moines Find
Wholesale Business Demands Their Entire
Time—Massey Piano Co. Now Edison Retailers
Dealer Service Department of Columbia Grapho-
phone Co. Prepares Useful Advertising Nov-
elty for Benefit of Retail Merchants
DES MOINES, IA., April 12.—Harger & Blish, Inc.,
Edison jobbers of this city., have found that
their wholesale Edison business has grown to
such proportions that it will be necessary for
them to relinquish the retail end of the business.
Since the iirst of last month arrangements have
been effective whereby the Massey Piano Co.
conducts the retail business of Harger & Blish.
The Des Moines Capital commented on this in-
teresting move as follows:
"Harger & Blish have just concluded negotia-
tions with the Massey Piano Co. which involve
the withdrawal from retail activities of Harger
& Blish, who will confine their entire efforts
to further development of the wholesaling of
Edison phonographs, Re-creations and supplies.
''The Massey Piano Co. will take over the
entire building at present occupied by Harger
& Blish and will remodel it into what will be
one of the finest and most complete music
establishments west of Chicago. In addition to
its present fine of pianos, the Massey Piano
Co. will acquire the retail selling agency for
the New Edison, to which will be added a full
line of all things musical. Mr. Massey con-
templates converting the second and third
floors, which at present are being used by
Harger & Blish as wholesale quarters, into
beautiful parlors and music rooms.
"One of the most interesting stories of growth
and development and ample proof of the oft-
repeated statement that Des Moines is a 'City
of Certainties' is the history of Harger & Blish,
who opened a small branch jobbing house here
just eleven years ago. This is an old firm, dat-
ing back fifty-four years and operating thirty-
four years under its present name, whose busi-
ness up to only eight years ago was a general
book and stationery, music and miscellaneous
store at Dubuque. After three years of experi-
ence with their branch house here in Des Moines
this firm abandoned all of the many lines it
had carried for so many years and concen-
trated its entire effort in the selling of phono-
graphs. Under the energetic management of
H. Herbert Blish, president; George C. Silzer,
secretary and treasurer, this institution has
grown to be one of the really large concerns of
the city, doing a volume of business which
necessitated larger quarters with room for
added expansion.
They have erected on
Eleventh street a six-story concrete building,
of which they will immediately occupy the first
three floors and basement, giving them a floor
space for their own use of as much room as
the entire main floor of the Coliseum.
"Mr. Massey is to be congratulated upon this
extension and evidence of business success, and
Harger & Blish are to be commended for what
they have added to Des Moines' development
and community growth. To every citizen of
Des Moines is given cause for pride in having
a home city in which it is easily possible to be
successful."
The Dealer Service department of the Co-
lumbia Graphophone Co. has prepared for the
use of Columbia dealers a series of valuable and
practical sales helps for Summer use. One of
the principal factors in this campaign is an ar-
tistic fan, an illustration of which appears here-
with.
A member of the staff of the Dealer Service
department of the Columbia Co. commented as
E. A. WIDMANN HOMEWARD BOUND
Eugene A. Widmann, president of the Pathe
Freres Phonograph Co., sailed on Saturday,
April 10, on the "Mauretania" for New York.
Mr. Widmann has been in Europe for about a
month.
Although the construction of the large new
addition to the Pathe plant in Brooklyn has
not been entirely finished, the company has
already taken possession of three of the floors,
adding materially to the already large facilities
at its command.
APRIL 17,
1920
D. E. WHEELER WITH EDISON CO.
Prominent Magazine Writer and Musician Now
Member of Edison Advertising Department
Daniel Edwin Wheeler, formerly associate
editor of the Popular Magazine, has been ap-
pointed editorial director in the advertising de-
partment of the Edison Co., Orange, N. J. He
brings to the new job a wide and varied experi-
ence in the literary world, as well as profes-
sional musical knowledge. Mr. Wheeler started
out in the world hoping to be a musician, but
he somehow turned into an editor and writer
in course of time.
The first job Mr. Wheeler had was with the
Bacheller Syndicate, a newspaper syndicate con-
ducted by Irving Bacheller, the famous novelist.
Then he took a position on the Cosmopolitan
Magazine, published at that time by John
Brisben Walker. Next he was on the staff of
Collier's Weekly. For several years after leav-
ing Collier's he compiled and edited sets of
subscription books, including "Writings of
Thomas Jefferson," "Works of Thomas Paine,"
"The Writings of Lincoln," "Great Events by
Famous Historians" and "Boys' and Girls'
Bookshelf." Followed two years with the En-
cyclopedia Britannica, for which he wrote ar-
ticles on American subjects. The encyclopedia
work completed, he went on the staff of the
Popular, where he remained several years.
Mr. Wheeler has written a great deal for
magazines. Music, naturally, has been a favor-
ite topic with him. In McCall's- Magazine for
May there will be an article from his pen, "Set-
ting America to Music." Also, he is the author
of a biography of Abraham Lincoln, published
by the Macmillan Co.
AEOLIAN ARTISTS AT HIPPODROME
Rosa Raisa, Giacomo Rimini and Winifred Byrd
Appear in Successful Concert
The Columbia Co. Advertising Fan
follows regarding the value of this fan as a
stimulant for Summer sales:
"A well-built and substantial fan has a definite
and useful life when carefully distributed. The
better the fan the longer it will be kept and
used by the public. If attractive in colors and
interest-compelling in copy and illustration, the
fan will work continuously during the Summer.
In designing the Columbia fan for 1920, the
Dealer Service department has taken into con-
sideration all details that go to make a correct
fan and the carrier of a potential selling cam-
paign.
"Tie-up of the fan illustration to national ad-
vertising copy, in illustration and text, serves
to identify the distributing dealer whose name
appears on the fan as a part of the Columbia
organization and to emphasize in the mind of
the public the fact that that particular dealer's
establishment is the one market-place in the
territory where Columbia products are sold.
"Distribution was another element of serious
thought. The fan must be such as to warrant
its careful preservation in the hands of the pub-
lic. This point was covered by past experience,
good fortune in securing an exceptional quality
of cardboard stock, a strong wooden handle and
a perfected method of attaching the two. An
instructive folder accompanies each shipment
of fans to the dealer, offering valuable sugges-
tion as to how the dealer can place them ad-
vantageously at gatherings w'here music,; and par-
ticularly music of the Grafonola and Columbia
records, would be welcome."
Rosa Raisa, returning in better voice than
when she sang here with the Chicago Opera
earlier in the year, appeared in a mixed con-
cert program last Sunday night before an au-
dience that filled most of the regular seating
capacity of the Hippodrome. Mme. Raisa was
much applauded in airs from "The Marriage of
Figaro" and from "Trovatore," a group of her
native Russian songs, to which the house de-
manded two encores, and an Italian version of
Frank Bibb's familiar "Rondel of Spring." With
Giacomo Rimini, a baritone, she gave duets
from '^Mignon" and from Verdi's "Luisa Miller."
The program also included piano solos by Wini-
fred Byrd.
Both Mme. Raisa and M. Rimini record ex-
clusively for the Aeolian-Vocalion, while Miss
Byrd makes record rolls exclusively for the
Duo-Art piano.
HOPKINS ENTERTAINS STAFF
Gives Informal Dinner to Various Department
Heads Following Return from Palm Beach
Geo. W. Hopkins, general sales manager of
the Columbia Graphophone Co., was the host
at an informal dinner held a few days ago at
the Advertising Club, New York. Mr. Hopkins
gave this dinner to the heads of his various de-
partments in order to have an informal "get-
together" chat incidental to the activities of his
department during the past few weeks. Mr.
Hopkins recently returned from a fortnight's
vacation at Palm Beach.
Among those who attended the dinner were
Frank K. Pennington, O. F. Benz, C. K. Wood-
bridge, W. A. Willson, Lester L. Leverich, H.
L. Tuers and Robert E. Rae.