Music Trade Review

Issue: 1924 Vol. 79 N. 25

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
DECEMBER 20, 1924
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
California Music Trade Looking For
Heavy Volume of Sales During 1925
Every Indication Is that the Coast Trade Will Be Good During the Coming Year—Sherman,
Clay & Co. Broadcasting—Municipal Music for Christmas
C A N FRANCISCO, CAL., December 11.—At
present, music merchants are so much
occupied with the work of bringing up their
December volume of sales, that' they have very
little time to bestow on the dispensing of news.
November was a good month, and it is ex-
pected that December will be better. The pub-
lic, however, seems to need a good deal of
reminding that Christmas is only three weeks
away. Business is good, but the holiday rush
has not yet commenced. By advertising and
by personal reminder, merchants are still urg-
ing: "Do Your Christmas Shopping Early."
Prospects Promising for Next Year
There is a very hopeful attitude toward next
year. For one thing, the deduction of the
California Development Association, based
upon bank clearings, is that only four other
States exceed California in the volume and im-
portance of business transacted this year. They
are New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Massa-
chusetts, and California is pressing the last-
named for fourth place. In November, for
instance, the five leading cities of the State
show bank clearings of $1,390,600,000. San
Francisco, with $574,400,000 and Los Angeles,
with $564,821,000, the other cities being Oak-
hind, San Diego and Sacramento.
Banner Year in Building Predicted
Another thing that makes music merchants
hope for a very prosperous 1925 is that it
promises to be a banner year for building
operations in San Francisco, as well as in
several of the Bay cities. The first eleven
months of this year show a total building value
of $52,000,000, as compared with $45,000,000 for
the twelve months of 1923. The biggest build-
ing year that San Francisco has ever had was
1907, when the total valuation of $56,578,844
was reached.
Broadcasting by Courtesy Sherman, Clay & Co.
The first program to go on the air, by "cour-
tesy of Sherman, Clay & Co.," since that firm
went into radio, will be broadcast on Decem-
ber 26. The place will be KGO Pacific Coast
Broadcasting Station, General Electric Co.,
Oakland. The program will be given by the
faculty of the Musical Arts Institute of San
Francisco, Wm. F. Tatroe, retail piano sales
manager at the San Francisco store, Kearny
and Sutter streets, having arranged for the art-
ists. In addition to the vocal and instrumental
numbers, Redfern Mason, a well-known local
music critic, will give an address on: "Music."
All the music on the program is by classical
and semi-classical composers.
Municipal Music Fostered for Christmas
The municipal observance of Christmas will
take place, on a large scale, in the Civic Audi-
torium, on December 24, under the auspices of
Mayor James Rolph, Jr., and the Board of
Supervisors. The Auditorium Committee has
the program in charge, assisted by the San
Francisco Community Service, Chester W.
Rosekrans, Executive Secretary.
A large
chorus will sing Christmas carols, and 100 chil-
dren will sing, supported by the municipal band,
the children rendering a pageant. Uda Waldrop
will play Christmas music on the municipal or-
gan.
On the same evening the Down Town Asso-
ciation, and other organizations have arranged
an open air Christmas concert, to take place at
l.otta's Fountain. These Christmas musical
events are considered manifestations of the
growing belief, in San Francisco, that the pro-
motion of music is almost of as much value,
to the municipality as promoting the building
of highways or factories.
Brings Good Report from Sacramento
H. W. Williams, manager of the Wiley B.
Allen Co.'s branch, in Sacramento, has been
visiting headquarters here. Mr. Williams says
things look very promising for an excellent
holiday business, in the capital city of the
State.
Go South for Radio Exposition
The Radio Exposition, in Los Angeles, has
attracted three visitors from headquarters of
Sherman, Clay & Co. here. They are: Fred
R. Sherman, vice-president of the firm; Andrew
G. McCarthy, treasurer and L. W. Sturdevant,
manager of the radio department. They left
on Monday, expecting to be gone for a week.
Pleased with Big Organ Contract
Frank Taft, of the organ department, Aeo-
lian Co., now visiting San Francisco, recently
closed a deal for one of the biggest organs in
the world, to be built in Davenport, la.
Speaking of the construction of this great in-
strument, Mr. Taft said that no organ before
has ever been built with six keyboards. The
monster instrument is for a half million dollar
theatre which will have a seating capacity of
10,000. The organ, which will rival any in the
world, will have a console containing six man-
uels, two of which will have a double touch
system, as well as a pedal keyboard and liter-
ally hundreds of devices and appliances to bring
its enormous resources under the control of a
single player.
Sells A. B. Chase Grands
tcTUniversity Fraternities
H. G. Pulfrey Places Several A. B. Chase
Grands in University of Michigan Fraternity
Houses—Grands Also For New High School.
ANN
ARBOK, MICH., December 13.—H. G. Pul-
frey, manager of the University Music House,
this city, has been particularly successful re-
cently in placing instruments in local educa-
tional institutions and fraternity houses. Re-
cently he placed an A. B. Chase grand in the
Sigma Phi Epsilon and Psi Epsilon Pi fra-
ternity houses on the campus of the University
of Michigan. Also an A. B. Chase grand, style
W, was recently placed in the auditorium of the
new model high school recently opened by the
University of Michigan.
Another installation was that of a style T
A. B. Chase grand in the auditorium of the
new Masonic Temple here, one of the most
beautiful and complete temples in the state,
and another A. B. Chase instrument was in-
stalled in the Michigan Union, the local student
club. A Lindeman & Sons grand was also sold
recently to the Tau Delta Phi, another promi-
nent fraternity.
Altogether, Mr. Pulfrey appears to be keep-
ing in pretty close touch with sales possibilities
in this live university town.
New Firm in Visalia
VISALIA, CAL., December 13.—Broderson & But-
ler have just obtained a lease on the West half
of the building formerly occupied by the Visalia
Furniture Co., and will use it for a music busi-
ness. The new firm plans to carry a general
line of music goods and will be open for busi-
ness in a week or two.
New Store in Denmark, Wis.
DENMARK, WIS., December 13.—Ray Charbon-
neau, who has been operating a music business
in Green Bay for many years, has opened a
branch store here on the south side of Kri-
wanek's Garage. The new store will carry a
complete line of music goods.
11
It Pays
To Buy
Tonkbenches
The
Quality
and
The
Value
Are Both Achieved Thru
o
R
G
A
N
I
Z
A
T
I
O
N
As Effected by the
Tonk Mfg. Co.
1912 Lewis St.
CHICAGO, ILL.
Manufacturers
Publishers
KD88
Tonkbench
Tonk
Topics
It Pays
To Buy
The Best
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
12
THE MUSIC TRADE
COINOLAS
Supremacy thru their
Performance
Tiny Coinola
Durability that has
defied the years
REVIEW
DFXEMRER 20,
1924
Advertising Seems to Be the Chief
Topic of Discussion in St. Louis
According to Local Correspondent the Mere Mention of It Is Likely to Set Piano Men of
That City by the Ears—Better Business Bureau of City Enters the Fray
CT.
LOUIS, MO., December 15.—It used to be
that the Christmas rush in St. Louis set in
about December 10, but times seem to have
changed. Here it is the fifteenth and the
rush hasn't started. There is business but it is
not what music merchants have a right to ex-
pect along about now. But hope has not died.
The incorrigible optimists of Olive street are
out scanning the horizon and they all expect
the rush to come at any minute. Salesmen
are out beating the bushes trying to drive it
from its lurking place. And like as not it will
all come to pass, with everybody buying in the
last week, the last day and the last hour. That
will be all right. Just so they buy. One time
is as good as another.
If you want to start something in Olive street
just go down Piano Row yelling "advertising."
It will bring all the music merchants to their
doors and the next minute they will be all
tangled up in the middle of the street like a
bunch of Kilkenny cats. They are all 'het up"
over it and are ready to fight for their con-
victions at the drop of the hat. For some time
there has been a discussion raging as to the
elhical aspects of some of the St. Louis piano
advertising. There can be no denial that some
of the statements in the advertisements have
been very extravagant. The Better Business
Bureau has been prodded into taking notice.
It has had representatives shopping along the
street to see how the houses stand behind their
advertising and find out other things. The lead-
ing newspapers have been involved. Recently
one of them took the stand that it would not
print the advertising of a certain piano house
and printed a page of its own, patting itself on
the back like this: "We have just refused our
advertising columns to a large user of musical
display copy until such time as the copy and
sales methods of this advertiser meet with the
standards set by the Better Business Bureau
of St. Louis, Inc. Our action followed a dem-
onstration by the Better Business Bureau that
reader confidence was being abused by mislead-
ing cuts, statements and so-called 'bait' offers.
"If you have trouble securing an article ad-
vertised, if you are subjected to annoying efforts
to force you to buy higher-priced articles
through delays in delivery, requests for confer-
ences, abuse of the merits of the article adver-
t ; scd, etc.; if, in any way, you feel that the
ad crtiscr does "not meet the spirit and letter
of his printed offer you are invited to make
complaint to this newspaper or the Better Busi-
ness Bureau."
Last week a conference was held at another
newspaper office at which the pot called the
kettle black and the kettle talked back and there
was a general exchange of left-handed and back-
handed compliments. The upshot was that it
was left to the newspaper and the Better Busi-
ness Bureau to formulate something in the na-
ture of a standard of practice, acceptable to the
music merchants for their guidance in future
advertising.
George W. Allen, president of the Milton
Piano Co., New York, was here last week.
R. T. Hammon, manager of the Kieselhorst
Piano Co., after a severe illness, has returned
to his desk.
Mark Meyer, traveler for the Schulz Piano
Co., with headquarters in St. Louis, has re-
turned from a trip through Kansas and Okla-
homa, where he found conditions very encourag-
ing.
Special Course in Detroit Regarding
the Duo-Art Proves to Be Big Success
Forty-three Members of the Qrinnell Organization and of the National Association of Piano
Tuners Attend Course—Classes Held in Local Grinnell Store
' T H E Aeolian Co. recently organized in Dc-
•*• troit a special course for Duo-Art repairmen
to instruct them in the finer points of Duo-Art
construction and regulation. Forty-three men
from Grinnell Bros.' organization of thirty-
seven stores and the National Association of
which entitled them to a Duo-Art certificate
showing they thoroughly understood the Duo-
Art dynamic control system.
J. W. Gregor, of the Aeolian Co., of New
York, and the head of the Duo-Art repair
school, was in charge of the instruction. His
Reproduco Player Organ
Known Values
Proven Satisfaction
Your territory may be open
Manufactured by
The Operators Piano Co.
715 N. Kedzie Ave.
Chicago
Illinois
Detroit Class on the Duo-Art, J. W. Gregor in Charge
Piano Tuners attended the classes. They'were lectures were illustrated graphically by means
for the most part the "combination" men who of specially prepared charts and working models
are accustomed to working on the action, tuning demonstrating the control mechanism. Mr.
and regulating of the Duo-Art.
Gregor reported a most enthusiastic co-opera-
The classes were held in one of the rooms tion on the part of the men and a splendid
of Grinnell Bros.' store on Broadway. After- record of attendance.
noon sessions were held from 1 to 5 and eve-
D. S. Farmer, manager of Grinnell Bros.'
ning sessions from 7 to 10. The whole course service department, and A. V. Minifie, local
of instruction extended over a period of two secretary of the National Association of Piano
weeks. Examinations were held the latter part Tuners, rendered great assistance in establish-
of the second week and twelve men passed, ing the school.

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