Music Trade Review

Issue: 1920 Vol. 70 N. 23

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE
JUNE 5, 1920
57
REVIEW
AEOLIAN CO. PREPARES WINDOW DISPLAY FOR DEALERS
The Aeolian Co. has just had prepared for
the use of Vocalion dealers a most attractive
window display, heavily lithographed, and de-
signed to fit around the various styles of Vo-
fully designed, and represents an allegorical
treatment of the various forms of music, operas,
sacred, concert and dance music, etc.
Photographs of the display in black and white
Handsomely Prepared Aeolian-Vocalion Window
calions and to hold at the extreme end two of are being sent to Vocalion dealers for filing in
the latest Vocalion records. The display, which their dealers' service book, and the complete
is in two sections, one section to be placed displays will shortly be ready for delivery in
at each side of the machine, has been most care- quantities.
NEW VICTOR DISTRIBUTING HOUSE
Ohio Talking Machine Co. Will Open Up at
427-29 West Fourth Street, Cincinnati, June 1
—Prominent Men With This Organization
CINCINNATI, O., May 29.—The new Victor dis-
tributing organization to be located in this city
has been completed, under the name of the Ohio
Talking Machine Co., as was announced in last
month's Review, with headquarters at 427-429
West Fourth street, and on or about June 1
the company will begin to supply Victor goods
to dealers in this section of the country. Of-
ficers of the new company have been elected
as follows: President, W. T. Haddon; vice-
president, A. H. Bates; secretary, C. H. North;
treasurer, C. A. Dougherty.
Mr. Dougherty has been for many years con-
nected with the accounting department of the
Victor Talking Machine Co. and m this new
connection as financial administrator in the
Cincinnati distributing organization his knowl-
edge of modern accounting methods will be of
will at all times be at the service of the dealer
to enable him to intelligently buy and efficiently
sell Victor records. As has been stated before
in these columns, all of the officers connected
with the company have-had an extensive Victor
training and it is their purpose to organize a
trade service department which will be qualified
unusually in that direction.
Mr. Bates, who has figured as a Victor
traveler and later as manager of Waiiamakor's
talking machine department in Philadelphia, is
an expert in store management. Mr. Dougherty
contributes to the company his knowledge of
store accounting and retail financing as par-
ticularly applied to the talking machine business,
and Mr. Conaty, as record expert in record or-
dering, record filing systems, and record mer-
chandising, will give his services in that con-
nection.
The personnel of this new distributing organ-
ization is unusual in that all of the members
are men who have given practically all of their
business lives to the talking machine business,
which is another indication that there has been
rounded out a generation of men who have
specialized only in this industry.
TALKING MACHINE HELPS CUPID
Playing of Plaintive Record Causes Divorced
Couple to Make Up and Remarry
C. A. Dougherty
J. J. Conaty
great value, not only to his company, but to
Victor dealers in that section.
James J. Conaty, whose fourteen years' ex-
perience in the record ordering department of
the Victor Co. qualifies him as an expert on
records, will have charge of record ordering and
merchandising for the new organization.
The Ohio Talking Machine Co., in acquiring
the services of Mr. Conaty, has succeeded in
carrying out its policy of making available to
Victor dealers a man whose experience and
knowledge in the comparative selling value of
records is national, so that competent assistance
A story comes from St. Louis to the effect
that a combination of a talking machine and the
record of a popular song has proven instru-
mental in smoothing out a marital tangle in that
city. A St. Louis physician and his wife were
divorced last Fall and the custody of the chil-
dren was given to the father, with the proviso
that the mother should see them at regular in-
tervals. While the mother was visiting the chil-
dren in a music store, of which the father was
part owner, the latter came in, and his partner
conceived the idea of trying a little music to
bring the couple together. The partner started
the record of "I Know What It Means to Be
Lonesome." The effect was immediate, and the
final result was that the doctor and his wife
patched up their troubles and were remarried.
The talking machine record was among the wed-
ding presents.
D. G. Sunderland, of the Broadway Depart-
ment Store, Los Angeles, Cal., reports an in-
creasing demand for Pathe phonographs, while
Pathe records are selling heavy.
How You Can
Safely Increase
Your Income
Piano merchants, who have
not investigated the talking
machine field, will find that
the subject is one of deep
interest to them and they
will also learn that talking
machines constitute a line
which can be admirably
blended with piano selling.
The advance that has been
made in this special field
has* been phenomenal and
every dealer who desires
specific information con-
cerning talking machines
should receive The Talking
Machine World regularly.
This is the oldest publica-
tion in America devoted
exclusively to the interests
of the talking machine, and
each issue contains a vast
fund of valuable informa-
tion which the talking
machine jobbers and dealers
say is worth ten times the
cost of the paper to them.
You can receive the paper
regularly at a cost of $2.00
a year and we know of no
manner in which $2.00 can
be expended which will
supply as much valuable
information.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
Publisher
373 Fourth Ave. NEW YORK
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
58
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JUNE 5, 1920
CONDUCTED BY V. D. WALSH
PUBLISHERS' CONVENTION JUNE 15
Annual Meeting of National Association to Be
Held at Hotel Astor, New York—An Inter-
esting and Constructive Program Ready
Official announcement has just been sent out
of the twenty-sixth annual meeting of the Music
l'ublishers' Association of the United States to
be held at the Hotel Astor on June 15. The
first session will be called to order at 11 o'clock
in order to permit New York members to take
care of their correspondence before attending.
At the first session publishers and dealers not
members of the Association are invited to be
present.
The afternoon session will be devoted to the
business of the Association and the attendance
will be limited to members. There will be a
summary of the Association's activities during
the year, a report on the copyright situation,
and the usual reports by committees, together
with the election of officers. Members are urged
to make a study of questions to be brought up
at the meeting in order to speed up the work of
the convention.
The official notice devotes a special paragraph
to the necessity of hiring trained clerks and
providing for the advancement of such clerks
when their efforts warrant. It is urged that at
the publishers' convention a prize be offered for
the best article on the question of training
clerks, anyone in the trade being eligible to com-
pete.
CLOSE CHAPPELL CANADIAN BRANCH
After June 30 All Business Will Be Handled
Through New York Offices
Chappell & Co., the well-known English music
publishing house, have forwarded the following
letter to the Canadian trade, which no doubt will
be of distinct interest:
"Messrs. Chappell & Co., Ltd., 50 New Bond
street, London, West, take this opportunity of
informing their friends in the trade throughout
the Dominion that they have decided to close
their Toronto branch on June 30 next, with a
view to consolidating their business. After that
date all orders will be executed from their New
York office, at 185 Madison avenue."
A NEW REMICK SONG SHOP
J. H. Remick & Co. will shortly open up a
new retail store at 262 West 125th street, New
York. This is an attractive location and the
quarters are quite large. The new store makes
a substantial addition to the growing list of
Remick Song Shops.
TEN=CENT NUMBERS MAY DISAPPEAR
Publishers Finding It Impossible to Issue Such
Songs at a Profit—Many Firms Have Entered
30-cent Field—New Agreement May Be
Reached With Syndicate Stores
For a long period of months the publishers
have protested that it was practically impos-
sible for them to longer issue numbers to re-
tail at 10 cents. They stated the costs in all
directions had mounted so steadily that to at-
tempt to continue publishing music to retail at
such a -price was "business suicide." There-
fore many of them entered the 30-cent field in
an effort to continue the publishing of popu-
lar works at a profit.
A fight immediately loomed up with the ma-
jority of the publishers on one side and a well-
known syndicate store on the other, this latter
organization confining themselves to sales with
a maximum retail price of 10 cents. Many of the
larger publishers were cut off of the syndicate's
list and that organization made an effort to
deal almost exclusively with smaller publishers,
featuring their numbers in a large way. Fol-
lowing the syndicate's national announcement
of their new policy, they accepted a number
from a small publisher, featured it extensively
and used the most modern merchandising meth-
ods to create sales, and it is estimated these
reached over the 500,000-copy mark. However,
despite this publisher's smaller overhead, the
prompt payment he received for his copies, and
despite the song's large sale, he finally was
forced into bankruptcy, thus demonstrating that
the protest on the part of the publishers that
they could no longer publish 10-cent music at a
profit is based upon accurate information.
It is now understood that the same syndicate
will make an effort to come to an agreement
with the large publishers, eliminating entirely
the smaller organizations in their purchases.
This agreement will be arranged on a basis
of the publishers giving the syndicate one or
two of their numbers that have good possibili-
ties. The publishers do not appear any too
anxious to close such a deal, but as has been
demonstrated in recent weeks the sales of all but
the hits are falling off in the 30-cent field and
this may lead some of the houses to accept the
present offer.
Some publishers contend that it is possible
for a real large organization to place certain
numbers in the 10-cent stores, with their very
biggest numbers retailing at 30 cents. The con-
tention is that with large organizations and with
the sales as stated above, it is possible for
them without greatly increasing their overhead
to place a given number in a 10-cent catalog.
Especially is this true of novelty numbers and
publications that require quick action, and
while the profits from this source will not be
large, the plan will be a success. Then, too, the
mechanical royalties the publishers would re-
ceive from such numbers that become popular
would be practically as large as if they were
from their 30-cent catalog.
GRANADA
CASTILIAN
FOX-TROT
MELODY "HITS'"
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