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8
THE MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Leading San Francisco Music Stores
Close Entirely on Saturday in July
Daniel Miller Re-organizes Conn-McDougall Co. in Portland as the Conn-Portland Co.—Radio
Station Installs Baldwin Piano—Sherman-Clay Service Makes Sale
P A N FRANCISCO, CAL, June 25.—There
^ a r e a number of untenanted offices and desks
in the leading music houses, this week, because
their usual occupants have gone to the conven-
tion in Los Angeles. However, business is
going on, in a perfectly normal way.
No Saturday Selling During July
Sherman, Clay & Co., the Wiley B. Allen
Co. and possibly one or two other music stores
will be closed for the entire day during every
Saturday of July. R. B. Miller, vice-president
of the Wiley B. Allen Co., said that, in com-
mon with all the large department stores of
San Francisco, these stores have been giving
employes the Saturday half-holiday during
school vacation with the exception of the first
and last Saturday. This meant closing for
seven or eight afternoons, and, this year, the
department stores made a move for substitut-
ing the whole of every Saturday during July.
As the Fourth is a public holiday, this means
only three entire days when the city's leading
stores will be closed. An advertising cam-
paign in the San Francisco newspapers will
tell the public of the closing and will urge cus-
tomers to do their purchasing on other days
during July.
Reorganizes the Portland Company
Daniel Miller, president of the Conn-San
Francisco Co., returned from a long business
trip a few days ago. On his way home from
the East Mr. Miller spent four days in Port-
land, Ore., and reorganized the Conn-McDou-
gall Co., of that city. He purchased the Mc-
Dougall interests and took over the concern
which will henceforth be known as the Conn-
Portland Co. Speaking of this, Mr. Miller said
that he anticipates a very good business be-
cause the people of Oregon are music-lovers
and have given many proofs of being willing
to patronize music.
While in the East, Mr. Miller attended the
C. G. Conn, Ltd. dealers' convention in Elk-
hart, Ind., during the first week in July. There
were many dealers present, and the convention
was such a complete success that C. D. Green-
leaf, president of the corporation, has decided
to make it an annual event.
Australia Holds Great Trade Possibilities
Prior to leaving for the convention in Los
Angeles, A. L. Quinn, Coast manager for the
Q R S Music Co., was called on by an official
of the Adelaide, Australia, Post Office Depart-
ment, named W. B. Edwards, who carried a
letter of introduction from E. N. Eddy, the
proprietor of Home Recreations, Ltd., of No.
12 Rundle street, Adelaide, a very good cus-
tomer of the Q R S. The letter stated that
Mr. Edwards, who is on a trip round the world,
is an enthusiastic player-piano owner. Before
leaving Australia, he expressed a keen desire to
view the operations that go into the manu-
facture of music rolls. Mr." Quinn gave him
the cordial welcome extended to all the numer-
ous visitors from Australia who call at the fac-
tory with letters of introduction. Mr. Edwards
expressed the belief that, while Australia is
one of the largest importing countries of pianos
and player-pianos, he believes that the surface
there has not been even scratched, and that
the future holds wonderful possibilities for the
American manufacturer
Radio Station Installs Baldwin Piano
A Baldwin piano has been installed in the
radio broadcasting station of Julius Brunton
& Sons, KJBS. This firm are the Willard
battery dealers for San Francisco and Ralph
Brunton, one of its members, says that Baldwin
pianos will probably be installed in the other
Willard broadcasting stations of the Coast.
In broadcasting circles here, a good deal of
interest has been aroused by the headpiece,
worn by Theodore Strong, radio organist for
the Welte philharmonic pipe organ, recently in-
stalled by Kohler & Chase. The organ is con-
nected with KGO, the General Electric Station
in Oakland, and the headpiece cuts out the
sound of the instrument as heard in the organ
room, and makes the player hear his own play-
ing as it comes over the radio. Mr. Strong,
who is giving a number of radio concerts here,
was formerly organist at Town Hall and
Aeolian Hall, New York. He has charge of
the organ department for Kohler & Chase.
A. Herp, who installed the Welte-Mignon
philharmonic organ, came here from Los An-
geles, where he installed three such organs for
Barker Bros. He was formerly with the Welte
house in Europe, and is a recognized expert.
Drums Sent in Record Time
As an example of the service given by Sher-
man, Clay & Co., E. J. Delano, manager of the
firm's retail small goods department here, stated
that a long distance call came a few days ago
from a drummer at a Santa Cruz theatre for a
set of pedal tympani. Santa Cruz is some
seventy-five miles from the city. The call came
at 4 p. m. and the drummer considered it urgent.
On the receipt of the call, the drums were dis-
sembled, and they were in one of the Sherman,
Clay & Company's wagons at 8.30 the follow-
ing morning. Mr.Delano went to Santa Cruz
that afternoon and found that the service and
the quality of the drums had sold themselves,
and all there was to do was to have the drum-
mer sign a contract and give him a receipt for
the first payment. The drummer put the drums
into the pit and having a very good ear, gave
what Mr. Delano considered to be a wonderful
demonstration of those Ludwig pedal tympani.
After a little practicing and trying of the pedals,
he played from a bass part in most excellent
tune.
Industry's Evils Are
Disappearing, Says Gorbin
(Continued from page 5)
customer is satisfied after all, for it is well to
remember that when the construction of an in-
strument becomes defective, the tone, of neces-
sity, must fail, and few, outside of the trade,
are really competent to judge whether the con-
struction of a musical instrument is good or bad.
The regrettable part of cases such as this is
that, while the buyers suppose they are choos-
ing from the instruments carried by many
stores, they are, in reality, choosing from only
one store, for the other stores visited never had
a chance to get the sale, and had less chance to
give any protection to the buyer, this for the
reason that the victimizer usually has the im-
plicit confidence of the victim. Even at the
store which from the beginning was to get the
sale, the dealer is somewhat reluctant to offer
the benefit of his knowledge and experience for
fear of embarrassing the guardian in the pres-
ence of the ward.
Broadcasting Prospects
There is also another class of commission
hunters who do not even enjoy the confidence
of the prospective buyer to the extent necessary
to be able to take him to any particular store.
So they merely give the name and address to
many, or sometimes all of the stores in a city,
and after waiting a reasonable length of time,
make a canvass of the different stores to find
the one which made the sale and there collect
a commission. These, and many other similar
abuses growing out of the old custom of paying
commissions to those not regularly employed as
JULY 4, 1925
salesmen, have caused dealers in many parts of
the country to discontinue paying commissions
altogether, which, of course, is no hardship
upon those musicians who have never taken
commissions. Usually those of the better class
who have done so in the past, seem to feel that
this change will have a very desirable effect
upon the profession as well as that of the music
trade. In fact, many musicians, having great
pride in their profession and knowing that
choosing an instrument for someone else car-
ries with it a suspicion that they may be receiv-
ing commissions, not only refuse commissions
but have gone further by refusing to recom-
mend any particular musical instrument. In
this they are probably right, for they know
there are honorable houses in every city carry-
ing different makes but thoroughly reliable in-
struments, and by taking that stand, they retain
the friendship of the different dealers and find
that friendship to be worth more to them than
the few dollars they might receive in commis-
sions.
Advertising
It is with great satisfaction we note the im-
provement in the class of advertising which is
being done by dealers in this trade of late years.
The trend seems to be strongly to advertising
of strictly high class, and this should be greatly
encouraged, for it is difficult to imagine any-
thing more demoralizing to the trade or de-
structive to public confidence than false or mis-
leading advertising. The few dealers who are
not marking well the boundaries of truth in
advertising are certainly sacrificing their future
business prospects for whatever slight advan-
tage it may bring to them at the present time,
for it must be remembered that gambling is not
so popular to-day as in times past, and not in-
dulged in by the American people to the extent
that it was at one time. In fact, they are be-
coming more inclined every day to avoid the
house where they once gambled and lost.
Elimination the Spirit
There may be some few other evils in this
trade in addition to the ones above mentioned,
but I believe' they are of minor importance,
since they affect only the dealer and not the
buying public. However, they will all be well
taken care of, for the elimination of the exist-
ing evils of this trade is the spirit of the hour
at the present time.
The Brunton Piano Co., of Jersey City, has
sold its two-story building at 108 Newark ave-
nue to the Packard Realty Co., for $44,000.
The Recognized Standard)
Mutty's
Player Piano Fabrics
and Tubing
The originator of these
Quality Products
Prices on application/.
LJ.MUTTYCO.
BOSTON. MASS.. U. S.AJ
Used Pianos Sold
to Dealers
from $25 Up
Send for Li$t
SAMUEL ORR
300 Washington St.
Newark, N. J.