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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JULY 10, 1920
11
ST. LOUIS PIANO TRADE MAKING EXCELLENT SHOWING
Local Houses Finding That Annual Statements Show Unusually Good Business for Past Fiscal
Year—Summer Closing Problem Again to the Front—Personals and Other News
ST. Loris, Mo., July 5.—There is ground for
suspicion that St. Louis piano men who have
been bewailing bad business for the past sev-
eral months do not mean exactly what they say.
There is no doubt that there has been a very
considerable falling off in the number of sales,
but it is not so certain that volume of business
has not taken up this slack and added a gen-
erous surplus. There is probably a tendency
on the part of dealers to dwell too much on
the fewer sales and not to give due credit to the
larger sales. But the figures at the end of the
fiscal year tell the tale. The Aeolian Co.'s fis-
cal year ends with June and the actual figures,
according to Manager W. P. Chrisler, are many
thousands of dollars in excess of those of last
year, and last year was the best in the history
of the St. Louis house up to that time. And
June was the best June that the house ever had.
and that in spite of a scarcity of goods much
of the time throughout the year. Well, that is
a concrete fact that overbalances a great deal
of vague generalizations about bad business. It
is not to be supposed that the Aeolian Co. is the
only one that has been doing well. It is prob-
able that other houses, when they come to their
annual balancing of accounts, will find that in
spite of the comparatively small number of sales,
the volume of business has been greater than
last year, and that is what counts.
St. Louis piano houses are up against the
annual Saturday closing problem. Saturday
afternoon closing is a thing that has never yet
been achieved in St. Louis. Every Summer the
piano men solemnly agree to close at noon on
Saturday and then pretty nearly every one of
them assigns a man for picket duty to stick
around and see to it that if anybody comes
meandering along looking for a piano to buy
he shall not be disappointed. It is not of record
that it has ever happened that such a man so
meandering along has been disappointed. It
looks like it is going to be the same way this
Summer. Notwithstanding that the department
stores, including the piano and talking machine
departments, are all closed as tight as wax, the
outlook is that the closing along Olive street
will be as pseudo as usual, with one or two
exceptions. All the stores kept open all day
CHARACTER
"Admirable Quality; Acknowledged Reputation"
last Saturday and all of them closed all day to-
day for the Fourth of July celebration. That
is, they closed theoretically. But most of "the
managers were able to find a man in the sales
organization who did not care much about cele-
brating the Fourth of July, anyway, and he
stayed around to keep that irrepressible piano
purchaser from being disappointed. The all-
day closing of the department stores will begin
next Saturday and continue through July and
August.
J. B. Moran, the well-rounded manager of the
R. Wurlitzer Co., came back Friday night from
Cincinnati where he had been mulling over alter-
ation plans with the high-ups of the house of
Wurlitzer, which are in process of being carried
out here. They say that Friday afternoon Phil
Lehman and Robert Conroy, Jr., went out to
the ball game and found standing room only and
none of that left and the man at the gate said
he was very sorry but there was no room inside.
"But Moran's out of town," they reminded him,
and he said: "Oh, is that so, then there's room
for two more. Come in." Probably it didn't
happen but that is the way they tell it.
Manager Russell Elam's faith in that little
pamphlet, "The Musical Center of St. Louis,"
which the Scruggs, Vandervoort & Barney Co.
began sending out last week to its mail list, is
justified by the first returns. There have been
a number of inquiries and two salea have been
traced to it. A good many more sales can be
made without leaving the sales floor bare. The
stock at Vandervoort's is more complete than
it has been for a good while. Arrivals of
Kurtzmanns, Miltons and Fishers have filled out
the empty spaces. L. R. Tippin, assistant man-
ager, is going to be away all of July. He and his
wife, who is connected with the player roll de-
partment, will motor through Ohio and visit rel-
atives. The last two weeks of the month Man-
ager Elam and his family will motor out some-
where into the Ozarks for a rest.
Manager Chrisler of the Aeolian Co. is hav-
ing' his grands and Duo-Art grands sent from
the East by express to avoid the long delays of
freight.
Charles E. Casey, formerly a St. Louis piano
salesman but for the past nine years in Texas,
has returned to St. Louis and has joined the
sales force of the Aeolian Co.
F. M. Schlucter, formerly with the Aeolian Co.,
has joined the sales force of the Scruggs, Van-
dervoort & Barney piano department.
—(Standard Dictionary)
R. S. HOWARD PIANO FOR EXPORT
PIANOS
Manufactured by
Smith, Barnes
and
Strohber Co.
j
• \
have for 33 years
justified their right
to be called
Pianos of Character
FACTORIES
North Milwaukee, Wii.
OFFICE
1872 Clybourn Avenue
Chicago, HI.
Chicago, III.
Steadily Increasing Foreign Demand for the In-
struments of That Make the Result of Long
and Persistent Effort on Part of Makers
The volume of export business of the R. S.
Howard Co., New York, manufacturers of the
R. S. Howard pianos and players, during the
past mouth reached very large figures, constitut-
ing two-thirds of the total business. R. S. How-
ard, president of the company, stated that this
proportion was rather unusual and was due to
the restrictions on domestic shipments due to
the railroad situation. The regular monthly
proportion of export and domestic shipments is
generally of equal volume. The large foreign
business done by the R. S. Howard Co. is the
culmination of eighteen years of intensive de-
velopment of this trade by Mr. Howard. Dur-
ing that period Mr. Howard has made several
personal trips throughout the countries and con-
tinents where the R. S. Howard piano is sold.
The line has given great satisfaction abroad as
well as at home and the foreign Howard deal-
ers are enthusiastic representatives for the line.
Consult the universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.
"The First Touch Tells"
Christman
Reproducing
Pianos
Are the Highest
Artistic Ideals in
Piano Construction.
The tone of the
Christman
has that true art
quality recognized
all over the country
by critical musi-
cians.
Tuners have written
commending its
wonderful lasting
qualities.
The scarcity of
pianos next Fall
w a r r a n t s your
making immediate
connections.
Some territory open.
"The First Touch Tells"
i
Christman Piano Co.
597 E. 137th Street, New York