Music Trade Review

Issue: 1924 Vol. 79 N. 1

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
10
New Stores and Changes Among Retail
Music Merchants During the Past Month
A Compilation of the New Stores Established and Changes in Ownership and Management Among
Retail Music Merchants for the Information of Manufacturer and Traveler
Alabama
Athens, Ala.—Papers of incorporation have been
filed here for the Athens Music Co., which will have
a capital stock of $4,000.
California
Santa Maria, Cal.—The Rice Music Shop, on West
Main street, this city, has been taken over by the
Bailard-Cramer Co., of Santa Barbara.
L,os Angeles, Cal.—The music salons of Hamburg-
er's department store have been removed from the
fifth to the fourth floor, which has been redecorated.
Iios Angeles, Cal.—F. L. Grannis has been ap-
pointed sales promotion manager of the Southern
California Music Co.
Manteca, Cal.—A branch of the Hauschildt Music
Co., of San P'rancisco, has been opened here in the
store of the Alger Furniture Co.
Bakersfleld, Cal.—The local store of Sherman, Clay
& Co. has removed to its new home at 1518 Nine-
teenth street.
San Jose, Cal.—A charter of incorporation has
been granted to the Anderson Music Co. to sell music
goods in this locality.
at 125 West Ninth street, has been purchased by
A. N. Pickerell, and will be managed by F. E.
Brandenburg.
Louisiana
Shreveport, La.—The Baldwin Music Shop, Inc.,
has increased its capitalization from $25,000 to $50,000.
Massachusetts
Rockland, Mass.—A permanent branch of the
United Music Co. chain has been opened here by
Charles Feldman and Charles Popkin.
Michigan
Detroit, Mich.—The Detroit Music Co. has re-
modeled its store at 2030 Woodward avenue, provid-
ing greater show window display space.
Missouri
Boonville, Mo.—F. T. Norris, who has been man-
ager of the Taylor Music Co., here, since last Sep-
tember, has purchased control of the business.
St. Louis, Mo.—The West End Music Co. has held
the formal opening of its warerooms at 1916 North
Newstead avenue, carrying small goods, piano rolls
and records.
Colorado
New Hampshire
Pueblo, Colo.—The D. Z. Phillips Co., 521 North
Main street, has completed alterations in its music
store, affording greater floor space.
Nashua, N. H.—Knox's Music Store has obtained a
lease on a new location at 4 Temple street.
Connecticut
Perth Amhoy, N. J.—The music store of B. Dzielak
has taken new quarters at Oak and Smith streets
and has added the Conn band instrument line.
Hackensack, N. J.—A branch store of Landay
Bros., of New York, has been established here in
the Mansion House, 54 Main street.
South Norwalk, Conn.—The Studwell Piano Co. has
moved from 5(5 North Main street to its new home
in the Vogel Building at 08 North Main.
Florida
Jacksonville, Fla.—Norman H. Edwards has re-
turned to the Arnold-Edwards Piano Co.'s store here
to take charge of the Victrola department.
Georgia
Savannah, Ga.—Ludden & Bates, local piano deal-
ers, have removed to the Dooley Building, on Bar-
nard and State streets.
Idaho
Twin Falls, Idaho—The Logan Music Co. has been
Incorporated with a capital stock of $10,000.
Illinois
Chicago, III.—The Vocalstyle Music Co., of Cin-
cinnati, has opened a branch in Room 393 Marquette
Building, with Arthur Bless managing.
Chicago, III.—The Piano Repair Shop has moved
to the center of Piano Row at 339 South Wabash
avenue.
Urbana, III.—B. A. Strauch has purchased Leslie's
Music House and will handle the Victor talking
machine line.
Indiana
Columbia City, Ind.—William A. Young has opened
a branch music store in the Homer Schinbeckle jew-
elry store here, with Miss Mary Bodley in charge.
Rising Sun, Ind.—A branch of the Milner Music
Co., of Cincinnati, has been opened here in the
Scranton Building, with a full line including radio.
Fort Wayne, Ind.—C. R. Mores, of Omaha, Neb.,
has been appointed manager of the Packard Music
House, here, to succeed Glenn W. Mills, who died
last month.
Iowa
Bed Oak, la.—The stock and fixtures of the Haw-
ley Music Co. have been purchased by the Jardine
Music Shoppe, which will continue business at the
former's location.
Kansas
Coffeyville, Kan.—The defunct Weigel Music Store,
New Jersey
New York
Rochester, N. Y.—The Rochester Piano Exchange
has been incorporated with a capital stock of $20,000.
New York City—The ninth metropolitan branch of
Saul Birns, Inc., has been opened at 12 West Forty-
fifth street, carrying Estey and Welte-Mignon pianos,
phonographs and radio.
Buffalo, N. Y.—Charles J. Horcth, local piano mer-
chant, has purchased the three-story building at 413-
415 Genesee street, and has moved his stock to this
address.
Hornell, N. Y.—The Stranburg Music Co. has taken
larger quarters at 33 Broadway.
Kingston, N. Y.—William H. Rider, prominent local
piano merchant, has taken new quarters for his
store.
Ohio
Akron, O.—Papers of incorporation have been filed
for the Smith & Mitten Piano Co., which will oper-
ate here, with a capital of $75,000.
Canton, O.—Ralph W. Kincaid, for many years
manager of the piano department of Kenny Bros.
Co., has joined the George C. Wille Music Co.
Cincinnati, O.—The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. has
installed a large new show window in its retail
store on East Fourth street and has added a radio
line.
Marysville, O.—Harry M. Merz, of Columbus, has
taken over the music business of O. J. Penhorwood,
on West Fifth street, of which Milton Rausch will be
manager.
Norwalk, O.—Fisher & Zoll have opened a new
music store in the Pulley Block, on North Hester
street.
Pennsylvania
Philipsburg, Pa.—F. A. North & Co., of Altoona,
have rented a store at Second and Presqueisle streets.
Philadelphia, Pa.—The Cunningham Piano Co. has
Florey Bros. Grand Pianos Are Distinguished
THEY are distinguished from all other brands for several
important reasons. Among these we might mention
Exceptional standard of musical tone, individual design and
unusual refinement in workmanship and finish. They are
manifestly superior in every detail, made by OLD SCHOOL
CRAFTSMEN, on a basis of Quality Standard rather than Quan-
tity Output.
Dealers whose customers discriminate
should write for our literature.
Washington
New Jersey
JULY 5,
1924
moved into its now $2,000,000 building at 1312-14
Chestnut street.
Philadelphia, Pa.—Papers of incorporation have
been filed for the C. & J. Campbell Piano Co., long
established at 3330 G street.
Philadelphia, Pa.—W. A. Barry has taken over
the music business of Louis E. Cerino, 18 West
Chelten avenue, carrying sheet music, rolls and rec-
ords.
Pittsburgh, Pa.—The W. F. Frederick Piano Co.
has opened a new grand piano salon on the second
floor of its building at 635 Smithfleld street.
Philadelphia, Pa.—The South Ninth Street Talking
Machine Co. has added a complete line of small goods
as well as a player-piano department.
Herndon, Pa.—C. M. Brown has taken temporary
quarters in the Old Toll House, on Front street,
for his music store until the completion of the
Masonic Temple, his new home.
Titusville, Pa.—The new store of the Edward T.
Bates Piano Co. has been opened in the Harris
Block, at 120 Diamond street, carrying the Hobart
M. Cable line of pianos.
Greensburg-, Pa.—The local branch of the Rudolph
Wurlitzer Co., on Main street, has been formally
dedicated, and A. G. William has been appointed
manager.
South Carolina
Spartanburg, 8. C.—W. S. Rice, formerly of -In-
dianapolis, has opened a new retail music store at
172 North Church street, carrying pianos and phono-
graphs.
Tennessee
Knoxville, Tcnn.—G. W. Moore, formerly of Meri-
dian, Miss., has been made sales manager for the
local store of the O. K. Houck Piano Co.
Texas
Galveston, Tex.—C. A. Peters has succeeded A.
M. Cain as manager of the Galveston Piano Co.
Virginia
Richmond, Va.—The local branch of Charles M.
Stieff, Inc., has moved to its new home at 414-16
East Grace street, occupying a fine new building.
Washington
Roslyn, Wash.—The Roslyn Music Store has been
opened at 13 Pennsylvania avenue and will carry
pianos, phonographs and sheet music.
West Virginia
Wheeling, . W. Va.—The New Music Shop, at 38
Twelfth street, has been purchased by Ralph Tapp,
who has secured a long lease on the building.
Spencer, W. Va.—A new branch of Charles M.
Stieff, Inc., of Baltimore, Md., has been opened at
Church and Beauty streets, with Carl E. Wilson as
manager.
Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wis.—An annex has been completed
for the Groulx Music Shop on Washington street to
afford additional display space for pianos and Vic-
trolas.
West Allis, Wis.—Joseph Paulisch has opened the
West Allis Saxophone Shop, handling a full line of
small goods.
Robelen Go. Remodeling
WFLMINGTON, DEL., July 1.—Reconstruction of
the front of the Robelen Piano Co., 710 Market
street, was started this week and will require
about a month for its completion. The front
of this building is fifty-three feet wide and will
be remodeled to substitute two show windows
of glass and copper, with marble trimming for
the present facing. The job, which is an ex-
pensive one, will also include painting of the
interior of the display space and the laying of
a parquet floor.
A. N. Hansen Go. Chartered
CHICAGO, III., June 30/—Incorporation papers
have just been granted the A. N. Hansen Co.,
4032 Milwaukee avenue, which will trade in
pianos, Victrolas and radio instruments. The
incorporators are Frank Shunkel, August N,
Hansen and William M. Divine. The concern
has secured Everett L. Millard, 68 West Wash-
ington street, as correspondent and will be cap-
italized at $50,000.
Marshall Field Takes Sonora
Word has just been received from the offices
of the Sonora Phonograph Co. that the Mar-
shall Field Co., of Chicago, has taken on the
Sonora line. This marks one more of the many
large Chicago retail organizations which are
now handling Sonora, including the Hartman
stores, The Fair Store, Baldwin Piano Co. and
others.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JULY S,
THE
1924
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
11
TECHNICAL DEPARTMENT
Conducted By William Braid White
Ventilating Some of the Ideas Which
the Tuners Give Currency to To-day
Discussion Always Aids in Finding a Satisfactory Solution to Grievances—Manufacturers' Atti-
tude, Technicians, Tuners as Writers and Dealers and Service—Comment of the
Technical Editor on Questions Raised by E. U. Will
ERE is a letter which brings up a number
of controversial questions, all of which
are worth reproducing, however, and
also answering, because they relate to matters
at present very much in the minds of all field
technicians, even though they do not come to
the surface or find expression. When a man
says things which one knows to be in the
thought of almost every one else in the same
profession, it is always well, and more than
merely well, to give currency to them; for thus
they may be ventilated and their worth put to
a test which otherwise probably would be quite
unobtainable. Discussion always helps, espe-
cially when the matters discussed are viewed by
most of the participants in a wrong light.
I am reproducing a letter from E. U. Will,
of Portland, Ore., well-known to readers of this
department as a tuner and piano technician of
high attainments. He says:
"Dear Mr. White: Your technical columns
are always interesting and should be read by
all tuners for the new thoughts conveyed by
them and inspired in readers' minds. In time,
no doubt, your work will bring beneficial results,
but, unfortunately, few, if any, manufacturers
seem to better their ways or their product for
all your earnest work.
Says Manufacturers Are Different
"1. Your observations in the June 14 issue
on the labor situation in the piano factories
gives in a measure the manufacturers' point of
view and offers reasons for the inferior tone
value of the pianos made by them to-day. The
manufacturers' indifference to public wants in
tone value should be laid bare; or perhaps the
public should rather be educated in piano tone
production, so that they might demand better-
toned pianos. When the demand is strong
enough, some one will produce the goods
accordingly.
Fifty-two Out of Fifty-four
"2. A very interesting exhibit was published
in a trade paper last week of a very prominent
piano factory which had sold fifty-four pianos
to schools and colleges; yet in the entire num-
ber only two were so-called 'first-class' grands.
H
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"How to Repair Damagp to Var-
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It will Interest any dealer, tuner or
repair man.
WRITE FOR FREE COPY TODAY
If you are too busy to write a letter, pin
thin ad to your card or letterhead and mail
it to us. We'll know what you want.
The M. L. Campbell Company
1328 Penn
Kansas City, Mo.
FAUST SCHOOL
OF TUNING
Standard of America
Alumni of 2000
Piano Tuning, Pipe and Reed Organ
and Player Piano. Year Book Free.
27-29 Gainsboro Street
BOSTON, MASS.
Fifty-two out of fifty-four inferior-toned pianos,
therefore, were sold to schools and colleges.
Why? Because the purchasers did not know
what to call for and demand in the construction
of the pianos they selected. The manufacturers
and dealers left them in ignorance and so the
children who will play those pianos will have
to put up with the selections made. Here, is
work for some one, to bring about a change
which will result in better music from moderate-
priced pianos.
Technicians
"3. In reference to the organization of tech-
nicians and factory superintendents: Do you
think that technicians and tone experts should
give their knowledge gratis to manufacturers,
dealers and the public? Will the society pub-
lish its findings for public distribution? Who
will educate the public? Technical publications,
read only by technical persons, will not educate
the common public very fast.
Tuners as Writers
"4. If, on the other hand, this is left to
tuners, then these latter should get their knowl-
edge published in journals read by music teach-
ers and their pupils. Personal interviews with
the editors of music journals may bring results.
I have tried correspondence with the editor of
the Etude, but my article was not published,
rather to my surprise. Yet I am sure that many
teachers would have been interested. I know
how my own clientele of teachers has been in-
terested in matters of piano construction as
these affect the tone of a piano.
"5. The most prominent manufacturers, with
few exceptions, rather hold themselves aloof
from giving out important information that
every piano owner should possess. Nor do
dealers educate their customers, largely perhaps
because they themselves do not know much
about piano tone production. Many successful
dealers do not know when a piano is in fine
tune. Naturally, the public will buy pianos out
of tune and not tone-regulated. I venture to
say that not one dealer in twenty-five knows
the value of good tone-regulation, and so, of
course, very few owners have any knowledge in
the matter, or know that such service can be
had. Dealers do not require their tuners or
salesmen to tell customers about tone-regulating
old pianos, for if the customers had the in-
formation they would spend money on having
tone restored rather than on buying new pianos.
Dealers and Service
"6. This brings up another question: Can
a tuner conscientiously serve two masters, as
it were, the dealer who employs him and the
owners of pianos who spend their money to
have their instruments (supposedly) put in fine
musical order? Only the other day a client
called me up and said that three prominent deal-
ers had turned her down for piano service, say-
ing that her piano was too bad. It is an Emer-
son, thirty-five years old. Three and a half
hours of work put the piano in good tune at
Established
1901
POLK TUNING SCHOOL
Pioneer school of piano, player-piano and Reproducing
Piano tuning; and repairing in the United States.
Complete Courses Taught la Serea te Tea Wo«ka
Write for terms and literature
POLK BUILDING
VALPARAISO, HJ>.
A 440, regulated the action, filed the hammers
and produced an excellent tone which com-
pletely satisfied the owner. Did the tuners em-
ployed by these dealers do right in turning
down that application for tuning service? Re-
spectfully, E. U. Will, Portland, Ore."
Comment
Answers to these questions, and comment
upon the statements made along with them, are
made at some length, not because I agree with
most of what Mr. Will advances, but because
the thoughts that prompted him to write so
fully and interestingly are so many signs of
opinions very widely held among the tech-
nicians in the field; thoughts not the less inac-
curate for resting upon a substratum of truth.
Discussion is therefore highly valuable.
1. I have no special brief for either the man-
ufacturers or the dealers, but I do know some-
thing of their problems and of the reasons which
lead them to some of the actions which have
provoked Mr. Will's dissent. And I think it
perfectly proper to say that the trade is by no
means indifferent to public wants. The funda-
mental difficulty lies back in the beginning of
the industry, which early was invaded by men
who saw that there was a demand for a piano
at a price which almost anyone could pay, and
who, in consequence, inaugurated the era of
cheap manufacturing which finally led to the
dreadful thump-box of fifteen years ago. That
piano is, of course, to-day dead, happily for us
all, and the general average of manufacturing is
now well above that level. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the mischief which was done so lightly
years ago is to-day most hardly to be undone.
The public has been wrongly educated and
thinks that a piano is a piano, and that noth-
ing else much matters. Price has been drilled
into the public mind through the mistaken tac-
tics of dealers who have been unable to figure
out any other way of selling so easy and so
simple; and by manufacturers who have been
compelled, by dealer pressure, to supply goods
built down to a price. It is easy to denounce
the state of affairs, which is certainly not ad-
mirable or creditable; but to remedy it is more
difficult, though remedied it must be.
The Pernicious Price Thought
2. If Mr. Will had ever tried to capture a
large order of pianos for a school, a college
or for any other public institution he would
know that it is usually a matter of competitive
bidding. Now competitive bidding is all very
well in its way, but when six or seven concerns
are working for a contract of this kind, which
will finally be awarded by men who neither
know nor care about tone, but who do care
very much about price, who is going to take
blame for supplying the goods which are de-
manded, rather than for trying in vain to supply
what is actually needed? A dealer big enough
to administer a rebuke in some of the shameful
cases of the price-screwing which .purchasing
agents of public institutions have not been
(Continued on page 12)
REPAIRING
and Refinishing
Pianos and Phonographs
Write for Details and Terms
PIANO REPAIR SHOP
339 So. Wabash Ave.
Chicago
OTTO R. TREFZ, Jr.
Piano Bass Strings
Piano Repair Supplies
2110 Fairmount Ave.
Philadelphia, Pa.

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