Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1921 Vol. 73 N. 26

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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THE
VOL. LXXIII. No. 26
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI, Inc., at 373 4th Ave., New York.
Dec. 24, 1921
Single Copies 10 Cents
12.00 Per Yesr
Piano Development and the Critics
T
H E remark is frequently heard, both in and out of the trade, that there has not been any'marked and
distinctive development in piano construction for many years, and there are those who maintain that
such a condition tends to hinder the progress of the industry.
It is the chief delight of critics to call attention to the fact that the general characteristics of the
various piano scales are the same—that with the exception of a few minor details the structural features of the
various instruments are similar and that no real attempt has been made to change the form of the piano or to
offer something new to the public.
The trouble with those who criticize accomplishments in piano development is that in most cases they base
their opinions on surface indications and neglect to go into the matter sufficiently to realize the many details
that have been changed for the better within the last decade or so and which have helped toward tonal and
structural perfection. Although the player-piano and the reproducing piano simply represent mechanical addi-
tions to the basic instrument, they have played a very definite part in maintaining and increasing public interest
and are to be hailed with considerable satisfaction, for with piano production in 1921 just about equal to that
of 1913 one pauses to wonder just what would have happened to the industry if, during those years, we had had
to depend solely upon the straight piano.
It is, of course, acknowledged that the small grand is in many respects the dominating instrument of the
day, but the player-piano, even if we purposely narrow down its mission, has served to fill in the gap between
the straight upright and the grand. The small grand, incidentally, represents a trade development that is not
to be ignored. It is true that successful small grand pianos were produced a number of years ago, but the
production of those instruments and the exploitation thereof on a basis that has served to make their distinctive
merits better known is a more modern achievement. "
Everything considered, it would seem that piano merchants have been fortunate in being able to handle a
product subject to so few radical changes except in the matter of case design. In fact, no single factor has so
tended to stabilize the industry. If the piano had been a temporary or seasonable product, subject to radical
changes each year, with a view to maintaining public interest and causing former buyers to reinvest, then the
retailer would have been faced with the problem of either limiting his business to a point where he required only
a minimum stock, or of carrying a normal stock and taking chances of being compelled to sacrifice the surplus
at a loss in order to make room for the new lines.
It has been claimed, and probably with some degree of truth, that there is a lack of real scientific knowl-
edge in the production end of the piano industry, but this condition is steadily being remedied with the result that
the alleged faults of some of the present-day instruments are now slowly but surely being eliminated through the
increasing application of scientific methods in piano construction.
This fact can easily be demonstrated by comparing the average piano of a quarter-century ago with its
present-day counterpart. Such a comparison will show that even the so-called commercial instrument of to-day
has tonal qualities and structural perfections which were the exception, rather than the rule, in years gone by.
The improvements in piano construction have come slowly, and their gradual adoption has caused them to be
unnoticed to a great extent by the public at large, but the fact remains that the piano of to-day is, generally
speaking, a better musical instrument than was its predecessor of twenty-five years ago.
The question of increasing the output and maintaining public interest is not one of offering each year, or
every few years, some radical departure in piano construction, the details of which must be sold to the public
before the venture proves a success. What is needed is broad, consistent advertising through all the varied
channels that are now open to the average business man, followed by the sort of selling campaign that is
bound to get results for the energy that is put into it.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
PUBLISHED BY EDWARD LYMAN BILL, Inc.
President and Treasurer, C. L. Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Vice-President,
J. B. Spillane, 373 Fourth Ave., New York; Second Vice-President, Raymond Bill, 373
Fourth Ave., New York; Secretary, Edward Lyinan Bill, 373 Fourth Ave., New York:
Assistant Treasurer, Win. A. Low.
J. B. SPILLANE, Editor
RAY BILL, B. B. WILSON, BRAID WHITE, Associate Editors
WILSON D. BUSH, Managing Editor
CARLETON CHACE, Business Manager
L. E. BOWERS, Circulation Manager
Executive and Rcportorlal Staif
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenue, New York
Entered as second-class matter September 10, 1892, at the post office at New York, N. Y.,
under the Act of March 3, 1879.
SUBSCRIPTION (including postage), United States and Mexico, $2.00 per year;
Canada, $3.50; all other countries, $5.00.
ADVERTISEMENTS. $6 00 per inch, single column, per insertion. On quarterly or
yearly contracts a special discount is allowed. Advertising pages, $150
REMITTANCES, in other than currency forms, should be made payable to Edward
Lyman Bill, Inc.
Departments conducted by an expert wherein all ques-
tions of a technical nature relating to the tuning,
regulating and repairing of pianos and player-pianos
Ictllllltdl
Ict
p
are dealt with, will be found in another section of
this ;>aptr. We also publish a number of reliable technical works, information concerning
which will be cheerfully given upon request.
* -riallU
PintlA dllU
anil
Exposition Honors Won by The Review
Grand Prix
Diploiim
Paris Exposition, 1900
Silver Medal. . . . Charleston Exposition, 1902
Pan-American Exposition, 1901
Gold Medal
St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Gold Medal— Lewis-Clark Exposition, 1905
LONG DISTANCE TELEPHONES—NUMBERS 5982—5983 MADISON SQ.
Connecting: all Departments
Cable Address: "Elbill, New York"
Vol. LXX1II
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 24, 1921
EXCELLENT HOLIDAY BUSINESS
No. 26
DECEMBER 24, 1921
to $2,700, ridiculously small salaries in the face of existing conditions
and the work the men are called upon to perform. The result is
that skilled examiners are resigning from the Patent Office service
and finding more profitable employment either in other Government
departments or with private concerns. With the resignations far
exceeding the replacements the work of the office is going backward
to a point where cases in arrears are piling up at the rate of 400
a day.
In view of the situation, which is now so generally recognized, it
would seem that members of the music industry, as well as business
men generally, should support strongly the bill now before Congress
providing for fair increases in the salaries of Patent Office employes.
The fact that the bill provides for an increase of $5 in the patent fee
(from $35 to $40) should not serve to weigh against the great relief
that the passage of the bill may be expected to afford to industry
as a whole.
RADIO CONCERTS AND THE TRADE
EDWARD VAN HARLINGEN, Y. D. WALSH, E. B. MUNCH, LEE ROBINSON, C. R. TIGHK,
EDWARD LYMAN BILL, SCOTT KINGWILL, THOS. W. ISRESNAHAN, A. J. NICKI.IN
WESTERN DIVISION:
BOSTON OFFICE:
Republic Bldg., 209 So. State St., Chicago.
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Telephone, Wabash 5242-5243.
Telephone, Main 6950.
LONDON, ENGLAND: 1 Gresham Buildings, Basinghall St., D. C.
NEWS SERVICE IS SUPPLIED WEEKLY BY OUR CORRESPONDENTS
LOCATED IN THE LEADING CITIES THROUGHOUT AMERICA.
REVIEW
T
H E hooking up of music with radio work is a development that
is deserving of the support of members of the industry who
realize that general educational and publicity work has an important
bearing upon the present and future demand for musical instruments.
()ne of the big electric companies has for some time past been con-
ducting a series of nightly concerts, covering through various stations
a radius of several thousand miles and entertaining nightly audi-
• ences of several thousand amateur radio enthusiasts and their
friends. Vocal solos, talking machine record music and piano music
are regularly found on the programs, and it is believed that the
experiment will more than likely develop into a permanent feature.
In a'ddition to the work of the big electric companies various
individual concerns in the music industry have taken occasion to
give concerts by radio, furnish music for dancing by that means,
and, in one case at least, carry on the experiment of recording for
a talking machine record by the radio system.
Just now the publicity given such concerts is most generous, for
the weird process of sending music through the air is still uncommon
enough to be regarded as real news by the newspapers.
That a
number of members of the industry have been sufficiently awake
to take advantage of the situation and participate in the experiments
is a matter for congratulation.
ATE reports regarding holiday business, which reached its peak
AN ANALYSIS OF MUSIC TRADE ADVERTISING
this week, are to the effect that the sales totals in most cases
have measured up fully to the expectations of the retailers and, in
HE statement by the Director of the Better Business Bureau
many instances, have exceeded in volume those of the holiday season
of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce to the effect that
last year. To those who have kept persistently at it during the
of 630 advertisements of music houses submitted to the Bureau for
dull months of the year this holiday time recovery has brought
examination 320, or more than half, were found to possess doubtful
welcome relief. It may be that the sales totals for the year will
features is a matter of deep concern to those who have been fighting
prove a bit disappointing, but the comeback during the Fall leads
for clean publicity in the trade and have felt that progress was made
to the. belief that the improvement will be permanent and that the
in that direction during the past few years.
promises of a normal year for 1922 may work out. Certainly there
The chief evil seems to be the prevalence of "nothing down"
are several factors that should serve to encourage the retailer regard-
and "free trial" offers, which are calculated to destroy public con-
ing business prospects for the opening months of the year at least.
fidence in piano values and lead to the belief that concerns doing
business on a legitimate basis, offering real value and demanding
THE NEEDS OF THE PATENT OFFICE
fair payments, are simply working against public interest.
The argument given by most of the advertisers when approached
OR a number of years there has been a persistent demand for
on the subject was that bargain advertising was a rule and that they
Congressional attention to the needs oi the United Slates Patent
had to do something to stimulate sales. The question is whether
Office, but the demand has been neglected to such a degree that a
in the long run the business that responds to the "nothing down"
situation has developed that represents a real menace to the business
proposition is the kind that means profit, provided, of course, that
life of the country. Two years ago, for instance, the Patent Office
was 15,000 applications in arrears, and to-day, according to the the retailer does not boost the price to a point where the profits
on two instruments will more than compensate for the repossession
Commissioner of Patents, it is 56,000 applications in arrears. These
figures alone offer convincing proof of the seriousness of the of one.
With over half of 600 advertisements proving of doubtful
situation.
nature
there is a question as to just how high all retail piano adver-
The efficient handling of the business at the Patent Office is a
tising
will
measure up under present-day conditions. It is unfortu-
most important matter, for both the development or the ruination
nate
that
there
are so few avenues open for the relief and protection
of a business may depend upon the decision of the Patent Office
of
the
piano
merchant
who believes in clean business and honest
regarding the strength of patents under which it operates. There
advertising.
is no question but that the revival of business is hindered to a
material extent as a result of this situation, for, of the thousands
H E writer of an article in a Chicago medical journal on "How
of patents being handled, there are unquestionably many that, put
to Get Sick" says that it can be done "by never smiling at meals
iinto force, would mean the establishment of new industries, the
r
o
by
wearing a grouch and trying to get the rest of the family miser-
• employment of many new workers and a material increase in the
able."
This absence of smile and presence of grouch have made many
business activity of the country.
a
business
sick, too.
Expert examiners in the Patent Office are paid only from $1,500
L
T
F
T

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