Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
NOVEMBER 20,
1920
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
SUCCESSFUL PIANO RETAILING IN A DEPARTMENT STORE
Active Work of King Leeson and H. A. Ruthven, of Leeson & Sons' Co., Elwood, Ind., Results in
Building Up of an Important Retail Trade in Pianos and Other Musical Instruments
ELWOOD, IXD., November 15.—That a live piano
and music department in a department store if
properly conducted can be made a quick success
is evidenced in the department conducted by the
R. L. Leeson & Sons' Co., this city. Although
Elwood has a population of only slightly over
King Leeson
10,000, it is an active industrial center and the
Leeson & Sons' Co. do a total annual business in
excess of a million and a half dallars.
The music department in the store was started
about a year ago, through the co-operation of
H. A. Ruthven
King Leeson, junior member of the firm, and
H. A. Ruthven, who has had considerable experi-
ence in the music business. Mr. Ruthven was
made manager of the department, and his success
was almost immediate, due to the adoption of
live and practical ideas in advertising and selling.
FOTOPLAYER
for the finest
Motion Picture
Theatres
The AMERICAN PHOTO
PLAYER CO.
San Francisco
New York
Chicago
Mr. Ruthven organized a four-piece orchestra
now known as "Leeson's Jazz Band." After a
thorough canvass of some particular outlying
country territory, it would be advertised that a
free musical concert would be given on some
specified night in the town where the farmers in
that particular territory were accustomed to go
to do their trading and on the night in question,
weather permitting, the jazz band would arrive
in the town with a player-piano conveyed by
means of an Atwood Self Loader to give a con-
cert. Then, after a few selections rendered by
the musicians, the crowd would be given a short
but very interesting demonstration of the player-
piano, following which a cordial invitation was
extended to everyone to pay Leeson's new music
department a visit before buying a piano or
phonograph.
By pursuing this method, it was frequently pos-
sible to gather together a number of prospects
and by means of the demonstration and enter-
tainment given them stimulate the growing desire
to own a player-piano, which, when followed up
the next day by a personal call from the salesman,
quite often resulted in the closing of a sale.
The popularity of Leeson's Jazz Band grew
by leaps and bounds and soon Leeson's were re-
ceiving calls for their musicians to play at country
church socials, farmers' family reunions, etc., in
addition to their concert in all the burgs, ham-
lets and towns surrounding Elwood, with the re-
sult everyone living within a radius of fifty miles
of Elwood knew R. L. Leeson & Sons' Co. had
pianos and phonographs for sale.
The sales from pianos and phonographs will
amount to over $90,000 for the first year's busi-
ness, it is said. This $90,000 worth of piano and
phonograph business is of the substantial kind and
the leases show the kind of initial payments and
weekly or monthly terms that are worth while.
For all phonograph accounts drawn up the pay-
ments are arranged so the account will surely be
closed within a year to fifteen months at the
longest.
A piano never leaves the salesrooms without
at least $100 having been paid on it and without
the agreement that the time limit on the lease is
not to exceed two years. No pianos are put out
on trial. When a piano leaves the store it is sold
and sold to a customer who has an established
credit rating, for if it be known that a prospective
piano buyer owes a legitimate bill to some other
merchant in the city (whether that bill be for
groceries, clothing, etc., it matters not what it is)
this customer's credit is considered no good in
Leeson's music department.
The Packard pianos, made in Fort Wayne,
Ind., with the Jesse French pianos, made in New
Castle, Ind., are the lines featured, with the
Q R S and Vocalstyle rolls exclusively. The
New Edison, Columbia and Cheney phonographs
are all good business getters.
At the present time the music department of
this store covers over 3,000 square feet of floor
space and, in all probability, some additional
space will be added in the new year.
"Will there be
a Victrola
in your home
this Christmas?"
That is the question
being put before the en-
tire country in the exten-
sive Victor advertising.
That is the question
which is going to be
settled in thousands of
homes.
That is the question
which will help the
Christmas business of
Victor retailers every-
where.
" V i c t r o l a " i, ,he Registered Trademark of
the Victor Talking Machine Company deiignating
the products of this Company only.
W a r n i n g : The use of the word Victrola
upon or in the promotion or sale of any other
Talking Machine or Phonograph products is mis-
leading and illegal.
I m p o r t a n t N o t i c e . Victor Records and
Victor Machines are scientifically co-ordinated
and synchronized in the processes of manufacture,
and should be used]together to secure a perfect
reproduction.
WIDOW CONTINUES PIANO BUSINESS
Mrs. J. W. Brown Now Conducting Affairs of the
Brown Piano Co. in Canton
CANTON, O., November 15.-—Mrs. J. W. Brown,
widow of the late J. Wesley Brown, founder of
the J. W. Brown Piano Co., Second street and
Walnut avenue S. E., has assumed her husband's
responsibilities with the firm and business is be-
ing continued along the same policy, it is an-
nounced. Mrs. Brown announces the same sales
force will be retained and that expansion of
the company's activities will come next Spring.
Consult the universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.
Victrola XVI, $275
Victrola XVI, electric, $337.50
Mahogany or oak
Other styles $25 to $1500
Victor Talking
Machine Co.
Camden, N. J., U.S.A.