Music Trade Review

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46
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
FEBRUARY 7,
1925
IN THE WORLD OF MUSIC PUBLISHING
Conducted By V. D. Walsh
How Things Are Among the Sheet Music
Merchants of the City of the Straits
Maurice Richmond, of the Richmond Music Supply Corp., New York, Tells of the Situation in the
Sheet Music Trade in Detroit—Written Exclusively for The Review
r \ E T R O I T , Mich., February 2.—There is only
•^*^ one "flivver" king—and that is our friend
Henry in Detroit. Likewise, there is only one
dairy king—and that is Jerome H. Remick.
I would no more think
of passing up a visit to
Jerome
H.
Remick
while in Detroit than I
would of passing up an
opportunity to get a
case of Canadian Club
safely across the On-
tario border.
It was exactly 10:30
a. m. when I called the
big chief on the photic
at the Detroit Cream-
Maurice Richmond
cry. His secretary said
he was in and gave my name to him. The
answer came back immediately, "Come right
over. I am busy, but I want to see you."
We talked at length on the general condi-
tion of the music business during the last sea-
son as well as the changes that have taken
place since the first of this year, such as the
advance in prices in several of the publishers'
catalogs. Mr. Remick expressed himself in the
following manner, regarding the latter.
"We have started a new and untried year.
During the next twelve months we will be ex-
posed to many inevitable trials and troubles
as well as sunshine and roses. Why not leave
good enough alone? (By that, Mr. Remick did
not mean to criticize the publishers who ad-
vanced their rates.) After all, each one of us
must look after our own lot. Take the ordi-
nary American family which works on the so-
called budget system.
It has just so much
money to spend for the necessities of life—
and just so much for whatever luxuries it can
aflford. Only a certain amount of the money
set aside for luxury can be used for music and
if the prices are continually raised it is only
reasonable to expect that the demand for music
will materially decrease. I, for one, am not
in favor of any advance in price over the pres-
ent rates. The public must be considered at all
times, since it is the public to which the pub-
lisher and dealer must look for a livelihood. It
is up to the individual publisher to solve his
own problem—let him check his overhead and
try to get down to a better working basis. Why
take it out of the public? The radio, although
in its infancy, has already hurt the sale of
music and records considerably. Resides,, every-
thing else is coming down. Why raise the price
of music?"
Mr. Remick was in fine spirits and looked
the picture of health. He was just signing
a lot of dividend checks for the stockholders
of the Detroit Creamery. He is not only get-
ting a lot of cream out of his creamery, but his
publishing business is producing "cream" in
hits right now. It is sure a year for Remick.
The Jerome H. Remick quarters on West
Fort street are spacious. It is an institution
consisting of a jobbing plant, mail order busi-
ness and printing plant. Ninety-five per cent
of the Remick publications are printed right on
the premises. They are the only music pub-
lishers who do their own printing.
The Remick Printing Co. is a corporation
and the majority of the stockholders are boys
who have grown up with Mr. Remick. This
is headed by the genial John H. Engel, treas-
urer of the J. H. Remick Co. and chief of the
credit department. Mr. Engel is a true friend
of the dealer—who, although like everyone else,
anticipates his moneys promptly, has always
been reasonable and given the dealer the bene-
fit of every concession and doubt.
Emil Voelker who is in charge of the printing
and shipping departments, has been associated
with Mr. Remick for over a quarter of a cen-
tury. He looks more like an alderman than
any alderman does—and he is German besides.
The secret of it all is that he visits the Ger-
man Singing Society where the Wurtzbcrgcr
still flows—but you must know the high sign
and password to enjoy this real fluid.
Daisy S. Covert was, as usual, extremely
busy. In lact, she has been ever since 1902
when she first came to work for Mr. Remick. It
is almost impossible for her to be anything else.
Doing the buying, looking after the store orders
and the jobbing department keep Daisy from
being lazy.
Hudson Music Store
Upon visiting the Hudson Music Store in
J. L. Hudson Co., 1 was sorry to hear that our
friend Arnold Robinson was laid up at the
hospital and had .been confined there for some
time. The report, however, was that he was
recovering quite rapidly.
Orcutt's
The usual bunch who hang around Orcutt's
place, at 1522 Broadway, arc salesmen and local
managers of New York publishers, who are
trying to boost Orcutt's business so that they
can get better orders. Mr. Orcutt was busy
checking in merchandise and checking out com-
plete salesmen's kits, as he calls them. He has
many men, whom he equips with a complete line
of numbers and sends out to the thousand
and one small dealers in the suburbs to re-
plenish their stock.
While at Orcutt's 1 met the young and en-
ergetic Norman White, the Detroit manager for
Jack Mills, Inc. Mr. White specializes in radio
broadcasting and features all the old-time num-
bers. His success has been phenomenal and he
claims the public of to-day get more pleasure
listening to the old-fashioned rural ballad than
they do out of the more artificial type of song.
Grinnell Bros.
Upon my arrival in Detroit 1 immediately
called Elmer Harvey, of Grinnell Bros., on the
'phone. 1 wanted to make an appointment for
him to see me early in the day, since I in-
tended leaving for the foreign shores of Canada
in the evening. Elmer was extremely busy, it
being convention time for all the out-of-town
managers of the entire Grinnell chain of stores.
He was so busy with conferences he could not
even shake me by the hand. However, I tried
to persuade him to invite me out to his house
for dinner (I happen to know what a "peachy-
little cook" Mrs. Harvey is, since I had tasted
her roasts before) but there was nothing do-
ing. Then I tried to get Nick Lang, who rep-
resents B. F. Wood and who was stopping at
the Statler, to treat Mr. and Mrs. Harvey and
myself to dinner. As a matter of fact, we all
did have dinner together, but I was stung for
the check. It was all right though.
It al-
ways gives me a lot of pleasure to be the host
of Elmer and Mrs. Harvey, and as for Nick
Lang, I'll get square with him some day.
Elmer was very nice to me that night and
drove me to the station. On the way down in
his high-powered car (It looked like a Rolls-
Royce, but it may have been a Roamer) we
were overtaken by a policeman who said to
Elmer:
"Say, didn't you hear me call for
you to stop back there?"
Elmer said: "I
did hear you say something, but I thought it
was 'Good evening, Senator.' " The cop imme-
diately changed his attitude and said: "It's all
right, Senator, I only wanted to warn you about
the icy streets down near the station." I won-
der if Elmer really looks like a Senator.
Before leaving Nick Lang, the world-wide
known traveler for the well-seasoned Wood
catalog, he told me he was particularly happy
about a few of their recent publications that were
moving splendidly. They were: "Musical Tales
of the Sharps and Flats," by Laurence Gard-
ner; "Two Rooks of Easy Piano Lessons," by
Stella Morse Livsey; "Continuation of Livsey's
Children's Musical Moments"; six numbers
by A. F. Venino—one of Seattle's foremost pro-
fessional pianists; "Progressive Studies," in five
books.
"Nick" also gave me a few catalogs which
contain one thousand titles of the "Edition
Wood," universally known.
I parted with a lot of green-backs before
they let me through the railroad gate and final-
ly I landed in a comfortable lower berth which
carried me out slumbering through the night
and brought me into Toronto, Out., Canada.
Carl Fischer, Inc. Sends
Out February Offerings
Includes Number of New Piano Solos, Etc.—
Firm Makes Fifty-third Annual Spring Offer-
ing
The February leases from the Carl Fischer,
Inc., catalog have been forwarded to the trade.
Of particular importance besides the meritorious
material that is included in the new list is the
fact that they all contain the retail net price
markings as recommended by the Federal Trade
Commission. This includes the Library cata-
logs. The literature and catalogs of all the Carl
Fischer publications are now being issued with
the net retail selling prices. Carl Fischer, Inc.,
recently announced its fifty-third spring trade
offer.
In the February issues there are a number of
new piano solos, including "Days of My Youth,"
"Spring Song," "Chinese Lullaby," "Midsum-
mer," "A Day in the Life of a Child," "Peaches
and Cream," a fox-trot by John Philip Sousa,
and "The Kiwanians," a march. There are also
pieces for the harp, a variety of vocal selections,
numbers for the violin and piano, including
"Concert Transcription" of Mischa Elman, and
numbers for wind instruments and for or-
chestras.
"Waiting for You" Featured
CHICAGO, I I I . , February 2.—Mr. and Mrs. Jesse
Crawford, of the Chicago Theatre, the elaborate
motion picture playhouse of this city, will pre-
sent for the first time on Monday, February 2,
a novelty known as "Musical Film." This prod-
uct presents in picture form the story of the
song, and at the same time displays the words
on the screen as the organist plays the melody.
The number selected for this special presenta-
tion is the waltz success from the catalog of
Will Rossiter, the pioneer Chicago publisher,
entitled "Waiting for You." It is expected the
number will be a big success,