THE
10
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
MIL WAUKEE HOLIDAY BUSINESS BREAKS CITY'S RECORDS
Saturday, December 22, Said to Have Shown Largest Volume of Sales in History of City's Trade
Advertising During the Holiday Period Up to Very High Standard
MILWAUKEE, WIS., December 26.-For the ma
jority of music merchants in Milwaukee last
Saturday, D ecember 22, passed ' into histor y as
the be st business day in all time. While Mon
day of this week was a day of nearly frenzied
activit y in all stores, the volume was not quite
up to that of Saturday, but it proved to be so
e ntirely satisfactory that Christmas was decid
edly a merry one for the members of the loca l
trade. It was not until late a t night on Monday
th at the crowds in th e stores thinned out to a
point where m anagers and employes were ai:>le
to ?,'e t a breathing spell, don th eir coats, call
it a da y and go home to play Santa Claus to
their families. To-day, and for the re mainde r
of the week, piano and talking machine st ores
are e ngaged. in the annual task of "cleaning up
th e debri s," so to speak, left by th e final ru sh
of holiday shopping.
One of the de ve lopment s of holida y music
merchandising in Milwaukee thi s year has been
the almost entire lack of questionable advertis
ing. There were few in stances of publicity tha t
savore d bf the unethical. Neither was there the
usual run of fly-by-night merchandising so fre·
quently indulged in at times wh en t he sta te of
a ctivity in the trade run s to the peak point. As
far as is known, no one ente red the music field
with "bankrupt sto cks" or other stores of mer·
chandise offered at ridiculously low price s,
which destroyed th e confidence of many people
w ho were intending purchasers of legitimate
goods at legitima te prices.
Good Work of Better Business Bureau
S everal att empts to practice unethical mer
chandising of mu sical g oods as well as 'j ew elr y,
shoes, etc., were nipped in the bud by Oscar H.
Morris, State Senator, and manager of the Bet-
Fourteen Years of
Unparalleled Success
with the finest of player-pianos
g i veto the m a k e r s of the
M. Schulz Co.
Player- Piano
unusual reasons for wishing to their many friends
and associates in the American piano industry
A Very Merry Christmas
and
A Happy New Year
1924 bus i n e s s is already
opening up finely. Write us
for interesting data on our
proposition.
M. SCHULZ
co.
Founded 1869
General Office. :
Schulz Building
711 Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago
Factories:
Chicago
Southern Wholesale Branch
1530 Candler Building
Atlanta, Ga.
DECEMBER 29, 1923
ter Business Bureau of the Milwaukee Associa
tion of Comme rc e. Mr. Morris has been par
ticularly active sinc e early in November to pre
ven t fraudulent p ractices by those who find the
holiday shopping spirit good prey. It was pos
sible for the Bu r eau to discourage such practices
without resort to the courts, the offenders
usually packing up and leaving about as sud
denly as the y came when told plainly that they
could not operate.
'While th e piano trade during the holiday sea
ssm was exceptionally good, the talkin g machine
division of the music business broke all previolli
reco rds in the number and yolume of sales.
Local jobbers in th e leading lines found their
floor stocks cleaned out before December 15,
and most of them faced the utter inability to
get any appreciable quantity of goods from th ei r
facto rie s. Music m erchants who maintain radio
departm en ts report a veritable land-office busi
ness.
Customers Wait for Deliveries
The J. n. Bradford Piv.no (0., with main sto re
at 411 Broadway and a so uth side branch at
608 Mitchell street is probably the most enthu
siastic am ong a ll Milwaukee retailers in speak
ing of the 1923 holiday trade, as we1l as business
for the entire year. Every previous peak record
was cast asid e by this year's volume, and, in ad
dition, t he st ores have orders for Mason & Ham
lin grands and Duo-Art instruments which it
will not be a ble to fill by actual d eli very until
we ll in 1924, owing to the sold-up conditio n of
the two manufacturers. Most of these orders
represent cash sales to prominent Mil wau kee
familie s, which have expressed their willingness
to wait for delivery rath er th a n buy any other
instrument which might be available for prompt
delivery.
The outlook for 1924 is regarded as most
promising, and' some dealers venture the pre
diction that unless something entirely un fo re
seen occurs, the coming year wi1l break the
high record set up this year. At the close of
the year the employment situation 'in Milwau
kee is excep tionally favorable, and in many in
stances shops which usually layoff their m en
for two wee ks over the holidays are confining
the rece ss to a single week because of th e
ur ge nc y of or d er~
,
A pleasin g story is also told by the reports
from mu ,ic slo re s tha t col lectio ns are ve ry
good. At th e sam e time it is noticeable that
th e number of spot-cas h sa le s this year, and
especially in the pa st few weeks, is larger than
at any time since 1919.
Repossessions of
pianos or other musical instruments are few
and far b etwe en, which exhibits the healthy
slate of the Milwaukee music trade as it pre
pares to e nl e r the new year.
MANY TEACHERS BUY BALOWINS
Popularity of That Instrument With Instructors
Emphasized Through Recent Sales Made by
San Francisco Branch of Company
S.~N FRANCISCO, CAL., December 20.- The popu
larity of the Baldwin piano with the lea ding
music teac hers of this city has been st ron gly
emphasized by re cent sa les made to teachers
by the lo ca l branch of the Baldwin Piano Co.
The sales include, for instance, Baldwin grands
to Giuseppe J ollain and Sigmund Awker, vio lin
teachers; Mi ss :M. Sheehan and Mrs. C. S. Ford,
piano teachers, and ]. W. Nash, vocal teacher.
Frederick Brue schwierer, well-know n piano
teacher, bought a Bald wi n g rand and also an
upright, w hile Mi ss Eva Ritti gs tein bought a
Baldwin g rand and upri g ht of the same make
and also an Ellington upri ght.
Mrs. A. F.
Scott, -a vocal teacher, bought a Howard up
right, while C. B. V'hikel and H arol d Kirb ) ,
vocal teachers in Berkeley, bou ght an Ellington
grand and a Baldwin grand respectively.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men w\1Q desire positions.