Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1925 Vol. 80 N. 19

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
8
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Mason & Hamlin Piano to Be Handled
in Philadelphia by John Wanamaker
New Retail Branch Store of Charles M. Stieff, Inc., Opened at 1717 Chestnut Street With Elab-
orate Concert—April Business Reported on Parity With That of Last Year
MAY
9, 1925
Julia K. Longsdorf accompanying on the violin;
Beatrice Such at the piano with Henry Such as
violinist, and other vocal and instrumental en-
tertainers, including Marcella North, at the
piano with Mme. Anette Keyser, soprano,
Arthur Seymour, baritone, and others. Out-
standing in the musical selections of the after-
noon's program was that given by Miss Eliza-
beth Spencer, soprano, the young daughter of
Manager Spencer, whose songs, "I Chant My
Lay" and "Songs My Mother Taught Me," re-
ceived the hearty applause of the audience.
The present modern store quarters are the
culmination of a very successful undertaking
which the Stieff Company began in the Quaker
City three years ago under the direction of
Manager Spencer. During that time the busi-
ness has grown to such proportions that it has
been found expedient to increase the space from
a single store floor to the present commodious
structure with its four large floors devoted to
the various departments. The first floor will
be used as display rooms for the Stieff grands,
the second for the Reproducers, the third for
players and uprights, while the fourth and base-
ment will be devoted to the mechanical, repair
and used departments respectively.
PHILADELPHIA, PA., May 4.—A survey of visitors and patrons of the company. In the
the April business as it pertains to the piano spacious and modern four-story reconstructed
distribution division of the trade and made by home, the head of the firm, President George
the prominent dealers who are centered in the W. Stieff, and Secretary and General Manager
heart of the Philadelphia shopping district, re- C. J. Roberts, assisted Philadelphia Manager
veals the fact that there is a parity of condi- James A. Spencer in the duties of host to the
tions of the same period of last year. In most throngs of visitors who joined in the exchange
of the stores the totals of the April sales were of congratulations over the new enterprise.
on a par with that of the same month of 1924, The officials of the company with Manager A.
the only difference being the demand for the B. Lank, of the Harrisburg Store, journeyed
types of instruments. While last year's sales from the Baltimore headquarters especially for
were chiefly for high-grade grands and repro- the occasion. Among the talent of prominence
ducers, this year there has been a marked in- in the musical world who took part in the open-
crease in the sales of used instruments in the ing ceremonies beginning at 10 a. m. and ex-
straight piano group and for the grands with tending until 8 p. m. were such artists as Jud-
the reproducer ranking next in favor. High- son Eldridge, pianist; Herschel Levenoff, violin-
grade reproducers are the most salable of the ist; Robert L. Stewart and Florence Haenle in
player group, the low-priced instruments of this a Welte-Mignon concert as accompanists on
type being very little in demand. The dealers the piano and violin; Josep Wissow, pianist, and
believe that the factor which has been respon-
sible for the falling off in the sales of the cheap-
er instruments of the player types are the bait
ads used by some houses in conjunction with
bargain advertisements, the gratuities of ac-
cessories such as lamps, covers, cabinets and
other inducements, and the dissatisfaction of the Entries From Both Companies Rapidly Rounding Into Shape—Work Progressing Rapidly on New
Store of Lee S. Roberts, Inc.—Music Roll Demand Is Good
purchasers with their players because of defec-
tive operation. Most of the instruments in the
player group which just now are stagnant are CAN FRANCISCO, CAL., April 30.—Many struction of a $31,500 building, at 2273 Berkeley,
of the leaders in the music trades here are Cal., in the trans-bay region, to be used for a
the $5'00 types and those priced under this sum.
Much gratification has been expressed by the golfers, which accounts for the sporting inter- music store and studio building. Tupper &
trade over the successful drive which has been est which attaches to the coming third annual Reed, music dealers of Berkeley, are to occupy
made by the Victor Co. in co-operation with the match between the teams of Sherman, Clay & the building, which is to be erected for them.
Found Music Roll Demand Quite Good
dealers and distributors in the Philadelphia Co. and the Wiley B. Allen Co. The trophy, a
A long tour of the Pacific Northwest from
territory during the month. The special sales plaque, after hanging for the first year over the
campaign terminates on May 10. Music desk of Harald Pracht, sales manager of the which L. F. "Lou" Goelzlin, proprietor of the
stores and those handling talking machines Wiley B. Allen Co., was transferred, last year, Pacific Music Co., has just returned, led him
only have been convinced that there is business to the office of Shirley Walker, of Sherman, to the belief that many of the dealers through-
to be had by the go-getter as evidenced in this Clay & Co. Pracht has been training on the out the territory are planning to attend the
concentrated sales effort of the Victor. Some links with Tito Schipa and can now shoot the Western Music Trades Convention in June in
of the dealers found that where one machine course in high C. but Mr. Pracht denies the Los Angeles. Business, he found, was some-
was sold last April, five were disposed of the rumor that Schipa said, as a golfer, Pracht is what spotted, but people were optimistic for the
past month in the same period of time. Crews a good baritone. It is rumored that Mr. Walk- Fall business.
were set to work with expert guidance and the er is practicing, but those who see him in his
Calling on the California Dealers
Victrolas were placed in homes for free trial, office, in the Sherman, Clay & Co.'s building,
Andrew G. McCarthy, head of the phono-
in almost every case there being a sale made say, if so, he must get out on the links when graph and radio departments of Sherman, Clay
where such trials were given. The campaign the day is very young. The rivalry for the & Co., is calling on the California dealers. Mr.
was conducted under the direction of Phila- possession of the plaque this year is keen McCarthy is the foremost representative of
delphia Sales Manager Robert Bartley, who was enough even for this.
the music trades on the Executive Committee
G. W. Bates and Lawrence Lindsey, comp- of the San Francisco Down-Town Association.
placed in charge of the special Victor campaign
trollers respectively of Sherman, Clay & Co.
service.
Mason & Hamlin With Wanamaker, Phila- and the Wiley B. Allen Co., are reported to be
about evenly matched. Arthur Duclos, manager
delphia
Of paramount importance to the Philadelphia of the retail roll department, Sherman Clay &
trade was the announcement made during the Co., is a quiet but earnest player; James J.
week by the Wanamaker Store that the local Black, treasurer of the Wiley B. Allen Co., will, Attractive Series of Advertisements Prepared
for Use of Retailers in Their Local Publicity
distribution of the Mason & Hamlin pianos it is understood, go to bed at 8 p. m. every
—New Ideas Offered
had been taken over by that nationally prom- night during the week preceding the match.
inent department store. Simultaneous with the He has a reputation to sustain and means to
C. Kurtzmann & Co., Buffalo, N. Y., continue
announcement of the Wanamaker Store the sustain it. Ed. Little, of sheet music fame, is
statement was made by C. J. Heppe & Son, expected as usual to be a tower of strength to supply their dealers with prepared adver-
1117 Chestnut street, that it had discontinued to the Sherman, Clay & Co. team, and W. R. tising of an interesting and worthwhile nature,
the sale of the Mason & Hamlin instruments Lawrence, manager of the Wiley B. Allen Co. mats and electros of which are available to the
after eight years as exclusive Philadelphia rep- branch in San Jose, is putting in a lot of work retailer for use in his local newspapers.
A particularly interesting series of advertise-,
in the peaceful Santa Clara Valley, without
resentatives.
The Wanamaker Store will have the exclu- anyone here knowing just what amount of pro- ments was issued by the company recently,
sive sales rights for both the Ampico combina- ficiency he has attained. The place, and all the copy setting forth the many materials in
tion and the straight instruments of the Mason other preliminaries for the match, will be de- widely separated parts of the world that enter
into the making of the Kurtzmann piano, rang-
cided within the next few days.
& Hamlin line.
ing from African ivory for the keys, to Adi-
Work Progressing on Chickering Store
New Stieff Quarters Formally Opened
rondack spruce for the sounding-board. That
No
definite
date
has
yet
been
set
for
the
With appropriate dedicatory ceremonies the
handsome new home of Charles M. Stieff, opening of Lee S. Roberts, Inc., but it will be the advertising service is appreciated is evi-
Inc., at 1717 Chestnut street, was formally soon. The store, on Post street near Grant denced from the fact that dealers generally arc
opened to the public last Wednesday. It was avenue, is still in the throes of being thoroughly making wide use of it.
quite in keeping with the high standing of this reconstructed with carpenters, decorators,
company in the piano industry of the country plasterers, etc., working on every hand. Lee
that there should have been provided a musical S. Roberts himself is generally to be found at
WASHINGTON, D. C, May 2.—The Central Com-
program whith would bring out the best in the the store during the day, for there are many
Stieff instruments and so an entire day was details to which he is giving his personal super- mittee on lumber standards meeting in annual
conference at the Department of Commerce
given over to an elaborate musical entertain- vision.
this week, adopted a number of important
Fine New Building for Berkeley
ment by prominent artists in the way of con-
amendment?.
A contract ha<; been awarded for the con
certs and open house hospitality to the many
Annual Golf Competition With Allen &
Go. and Sherman, Clay Stirs Frisco
Kurtzmann & Co.'s Live
Advertising Aid to Dealers
New Inspection Regulations
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MAY
9, 1925
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
The Work Which Is Being Done by
the Reproducing Piano Schools
Traveling Schools Conducted by the Manufacturers of These Instruments Making Available to Piano
Technicians and Salesmen Full and Detailed Knowledge of This Latest Development in
the Piano Industry and Solve the Important and Vital Problem of Service
O news that has come along the wires plete technical education in all that pertains to
for many a long day is more interesting the most complicated part of the piano busi-
and welcome than the news of the elabo- ness, which is the pneumatic art in its theory
rate arrangements which have been made by the and practice. It is now becoming possible for
conductors of the Danquard Player School to any man in need of this education to obtain
cover the whole country by means of traveling a complete and thorough course of instruction
editions of the school, fully equipped with in player-piano pneumatics, and in the practical
work of adjusting and repairing all the repro-
models, teachers and everything else needed.
In so saying, one is reminded also of the ducing mechanisms as well' without cost. The
equally fine work being done by the traveling arrangements which have been made by the
Ampico, Duo-Art and Welte-Mignon (Licensee) various schools whose names are mentioned
player schools. What here is important is the above contemplate visits to every large city in
fact that, finally, we have got to a point of the country, even though this plan means look-
understanding that to bring technical player ing ahead several seasons. Even under present
knowledge to the tuners of the country is not arrangements all sections of the country save
the extreme West will be covered during the
merely desirable but essential.
Taken with the appearance of the latest addi- next few months, so that, between the Atlantic
tion to The Review's technical library, the new and the Rocky Mountains at any rate, every
treatise on "Piano Playing Mechanisms," these tuner who needs instruction in pneumatic work
recent moves indicate the growth of a new con- will be within easy reaching distance of one
ception of technical training in this industry, a of the stopping places of one or more of the
conception highly important and one which can schools. Moreover, the National Association
of Piano Tuners is working in co-operation and
hardly be treated too seriously.
For in truth what this paper has repeatedly is doing its best to help the good work along.
said is now beginning to be generally appreci-
Is This Enough?
ated, namely, that the player-piano is just as
This is all to the good, but it may well be
strong as the organization for supplying tech- asked if this is enough. If it be right to do
nical service to it, just as strong and just as this sort of thing in respect of the player mech-
weak, no more and no less.
anism why is it not equally right to do it in
Important and far-reaching truths move respect of those other technical features which
slowly into the consciousness of groups, and are just as important and just as much neg-
it is too much to expect that large numbers lected? Let us take just the single instance
shall be stirred with the rapidity which is per- of the action of the grand piano. What is more
mitted to single minds. It takes long for even important than to spread knowledge of grand
the most obvious of truths to penetrate so far piano regulating?* The whole progress and fu-
into a group-mentality as to bring about defi- ture of grand piano sales, on which so much
nite action. Men often realize that a given hope is being built, rests upon creating a race
state of affairs exists and calls for remedial of technical experts able to do anything and
action long before they can bring themselves to everything needed in a mechanical way on grand
take that action.
pianos. Any one can tune a grand piano who
Rut now it seems that the time is actually can tune an upright; but not any tuner can
come to say that those who control the ten- therefore regulate a grand action. In fact,
dencies of the trade are moving, and are com- there is perhaps more ignorance of grand action
mitted to a policy of action, in the right direc- work than there is of any other feature of the
tion. The service question is at least in a fair whole technical situation.
way to be settled, and to be settled after the
Is there any reason why those who are build-
only fashion at once practical and positive which ing reproducing grand pianos in large numbers
has ever yet been proposed.
should confine themselves to pneumatic ques-
In a word, the needed education is being tions, when the very men who come to them
taken to the men who need it.
for pneumatic instruction need just as much to
be taught to take expert care of the piano ac-
Manufacturers Are Far-seeing
This is an important and remarkable fact. tions of these delicate and beautiful instru-
It means a revolution in our whole previous ments?
Probably it is only because the facts have not
idea of what constitutes the relation of the
service man, the tuner-technician, to the manu- been made clear that those who have seen what
facturer and the dealer. It means that the had to be done for the pneumatic work have
manufacturer, at any rate, has realized that he not also seen the need for doing the same in
must choose between bringing his own progress these related branches.
to a standstill and taking action of a kind which
A Closed Book -
for long was considered to be none of his busi-
Grand piano construction is a closed book to
ness. The manufacturer is usually far-seeing. vast numbers of otherwise good technical men.
It requires a good deal more foresight, and This is simply because the vogue of the grand
usually a bigger conception of business in gen- piano is something of very recent growth.
eral, to be a successful manufacturer than
Twenty years ago a man might tune for a whole
merely to be a successful retailer. Hence the year without touching ten grand pianos. To-
manufacturer has been the one to whom the day he is lucky if one-third of all his work is
progressive thinkers have always looked, know- not on pianos of the horizontal type. All this
ing that he might be depended on- sooner or change has taken place within two decades,
later to take appropriate action in critical cir- and most of it within the last seven years.
cumstances.
Considering that accessions to the ranks of
The manufac'urers finally, then, have aban- tuners are annually so few, it is not surprising
doned all illusions and have undertaken to give to find that technical ignorance of the grand
to the tuners of the country, and in fact to all piano is still rife.
This is something which the manufacturers
others who may be capable of using it, a com-
N
of reproducing grand pianos ought to put on
their instruction programs, and by so doing
open up the possibility of finally coming to that
ideal of universal free education in everything
pertaining to the construction and maintenance
of pianos and player-pianos, which the industry
even now is obliged to envisage and which it
must some day make practical.
Only in that way will the problem of tech-
nical instruction, and of recruiting the fast-
diminishing numbers of the good tuners, be
successfully met.
Ampico Traveling School
Completes Atlanta Session
Excellent Registration of Students From All
Sections of State Attend Course—School to
Open Next Session in Dallas, Tex., May 11
The latest session of the Ampico Traveling
School held in Atlanta, Ga., has just closed.
Classes were conducted by C. L. Schneider.
There were twenty-eight registrants and thir-
teen of the students successfully passed the ex-
aminations, practical a.nd technical, and have re-
ceived the Ampico Credential. Students attend-
ing this school came: from all parts of Georgia,
and one from as far distant as Calhoun, Tenn.
In addition to the regular registrants a number
of salesmen and mechanics attended the session
and lectures.
This session of the school, like its predeces-
sors, has done much toward increasing the fel-
lowship and co-operation among tuners and re-
pairmen. This is evidenced by many letters re-
ceived by directors of the cpurses expressing
appreciation of this important feature. A let-
ter from A. R. Foster, of the Cable Piano Co.
of Atlanta, expresses the general feeling regard-
ing the Ampico Traveling School classes among
the retail dealers.
"The Service Department of the American
Piano Co. is to be congratulated upon the pro-
grain of instruction about tin- Ampico. The
school just closed in Atlanta is striking evi-
dence of what can be accomplished under the
direction of an able instructor. Not only were
tuners and repairmen interested in the work, but
many salesmen took advantage of the classes
conducted by Mr. C. L. Schneider and found
great value in them.
"The broad policy adopted by the American
Hiano Co. in asking the attendance of men from
the independent field received much favorable
comment. We hope Atlanta may soon have an-
other school and under the same conscientious
and able direction."
Making Radio Tables
HIGH POINT, N. C, May 2.—-The Carolina Piano
Manufacturing Co., of this city, has recently
begun the manufacture of radio tables, work-
ing on an initial order of 5.000 tables for a
large radio corporation in the East. The tables
are made to fit the various sizes of radio cab-
inets now in use, and are finished in a variety
of styles.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.

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