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THE MUSIC TttADE REVIEW
DECEMBER 5, 1925
Vari-Golored Small Sized Uprights
Featured by St. Louis for Holidays
Wide Range of Colors Shown in Small Instruments by Number of St. Louis Music Merchants—
Kimball Organ for the New St. Louis Theatre in That City
T. LOUIS, MO., November 30.—Business is
on the up-grade, but not making the grade
as easily as could be desired. It goes good for
a while then it slows down a little and the en-
gine, or whatever it is that makes business go,
labors, and it is necessary to shoot in some gas,
or whatever it is that makes business better. It
takes what might be called good driving to
keep headway. Everything considered, though,
results are fairly satisfactory in that, despite
the tendency to slow down and the vigilance
needed to prevent it, there is gradual and defi-
nite improvement.
The Kieselhorst Piano Co. and the Aeolian
Co. of Missouri, on opposite sides of Olive
street, are putting a piquant touch into the pre-
Christmas situation by offering vari-colored,
small-sized uprights, to match the furnishings,
or your hair, or anything. The Kieselhorst
showing is of Cable midgets, "for unusual
places." The particular color displayed in the
window is a Chinese red, which is especially
recommended to persons with that kind of hair.
It was shown last week at the Missouri Public
School Teachers' meeting. The particular ad-
vantage, however, is that the midgets are so
much so that they can be made to fit into most
any cramped situation. The Aeolian Co. has a
green or a blue. Some say green and some say
blue. One of those baffling tints. It is a Schaef-
fer from the Price & Teeple laboratory. The
Wurlitzer Co., next door to the Aeolian, has
some little ones, too, but they come in conven-
tional black, not these new college boy colors.
The midgets seem to fill a long-left want or
something. The Board of Education no sooner
saw them than it told the Kieselhorst Co. to
wrap up three and send them out. They are
going to be used in the school rooms. They
are small enough for the smallest children to
climb over them.
From midgets to pipe organs is quit a jump.
Business at Kieselhorst's makes jumps like that.
The pipe organ was a Kimball, sold to the new
St. Louis Theatre, at Grand and Franklin ave-
nues. The St. Louis is a theatre any pipe or-
gan might be proud to be heard in. It is one
of the finest anywhere. Besides the pipes the
theatre will have three Kimball grands, also
from the Kieselhorst distributing station.
Maurice Demesnil, French pianist, played
with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra at the
Odeon yesterday, using a Chickering from the
Scruggs, Vandervoort & Barney piano depart-
ment. He was a guest at the Saturday night
concert of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Mayfield. Mr.
Mayfield is president of the Vandervoort Co.
Other guests in the box party were Mark Se-
quin, French Consul, and his wife and Mr. and
Mrs. Radcliffe, of the Odeon management.
E. L. Brady, a well-known local salesman, has
joined Manager Brown's organization at the
Scruggs, Vandervoort & Barney piano depart-
ment.
"Pullman Jump" Selling
Reduces Sales Volume
them for one reason or another still concen-
trate on the big fellows in the large centers
and thus enter into competition with 99 per
cent of their fellow manufacturers with the re-
sult that the proportion of business for the
individual concern is negligible.
Properly handled, wholesale selling within
State limits does not mean prohibitive expense.
On the contrary, it is the direct means for
blanketing the country with retail piano repre-
sentatives, and the more there are of these the
greater will be the distribution of instruments
and therefore the more rapid the growth of the
industry.
It is largely a question of whether the manu-
facturer is content with "Pullman jumps" and
limited distribution and production, or whether
he bows to the call of the crossroads and goes
in for volume.
S
(Continued from page 3)
salesmanship he may persuade the small dealer
to buy two or three more instruments than
he needs at the moment, which means that the
retailer is going to work just a little harder to
dispose of those instruments and thus release
his capital.
To the layman, and for that matter the manu-
facturer, an order for one or two pianos does
not appear impressive, but if orders of that
type are secured from a half dozen dealers in a
week it means a shipment to the territory of
from one to two carloads, and carloads of pianos
always command attention.
An Example
Some years ago a New York manufacturer
conceived the idea of acquiring several dealers Briton Invents Light
in Middle Western States to act as wholesale
representatives for his concern, devoting a few
Musical Instrument
days a month to traveling through their respec-
tive States on wholesale selling trips. The cost
A new musical instrument, employing a key-
of this work was distinctly low, for the manu- board and producing sounds not unlike a pipe
facturer simply paid the expenses of the dealer- organ, has been invented by H. Grindell-
salesman and commissions on sales actually Matthews, English inventor, who recently gained
made. Keeping within the confines of a single international fame from his electrically oper-
State and away from home only two or three ated "death ray" machine. The new instrument
days at a time, these expenses were light as is called a luminaphone, in view of the principle
compared to what it would have cost to have which the device employs of converting light
had a man travel a thousand or fifteen hundred rays into musical tones. A keyboard of thirty-
miles before he actually hit the territory.
seven notes on the instrument releases light
There are admittedly a number of manufac- rays from projectors. These rays pass through
turers who, as a result of the very character of perforations on revolving discs, and in their
their products, are compelled to limit repre- interrupted form strike selenium plates, setting
sentation to dealers in the larger centers who, up vibrations which are amplified as on a radio.
when circumstances warrant, may appoint sub- The instrument is played like an organ and pro-
dealers under their supervision. But for the duces tones no less pleasing, it is reported.
manufacturer who depends upon volume and
who sells upon a national basis with a price
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
as well as a quality appeal, the intensive sales The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
plan is essential. Unfortunately, too many of free of charge for men who desire positions.
Highest
Quality
ONKRENCH
Seeking Court Ruling on
Status of Invested Capital
Decision of U. S. Board of Tax Appeals Would
Open Way for Many Claims for Tax Refunds
WASHINGTON, D. C, November 30.—Officials of
the Treasury Department are now preparing to
carry to the courts the recent decision of the
United States Board of Tax Appeals on the
question of invested capital, which has opened
the way to the filing of applications for refunds
totaling many millions of dollars.
In its decision the board held that the sur-
plus at the beginning of any taxable year may
not be reduced in computing invested capital by
reason of taxes payable within the year upon
the income of the preceding taxable year, which
means that an assessment of deficiency taxes by
the Commissioner of Internal Revenue could
not reduce that surplus but should be treated
as an expense for the year in which paid.
This decision affects a large number of cases
where the action of the commissioner in as-
sessing deficiencies had resulted in an increase
in the excess profits tax, and is probably the
most comprehensive ruling yet rendered by the
board.
An involuntary petition in bankruptcy has
been filed against the Manganaro Music & Fur-
niture Co., Quincy, Mass., at the instance of
three creditors, whose claims total $4,763.
Pratt Read
Products
P i a n o Ivory
Piano Keys
P i a n o Actions
Player Actions
Established in
1806
at Deep River, Conn.
Still There
Standard Service and Highest
Quality
Special Repair Departments
Maintained for Convenience
of Dealers
PRATT, READ & CO.
THE PRATT READ
PLAYER ACTION CO.
Oldest and Best
Highest
Quality