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AUGUST 8,
1925
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Milwaukee Music Merchants Preparing
for Good Demand During Fall Months
Latter Part of July Proved to Be Quiet Period in the Local Trade—Carberry-Parker Co. Co-
operates in Local Newspaper Campaign—Kesselman-O'Driscoll Employes' Picnic
strongly at co-operation between the winners
X / f l L W A U K E E , WIS., August 5.—The month
of July drew to a quiet close in Milwaukee, and the umpire and scorekeeper.
so far as local music stores were concerned,
Fred J. Base, from the Chicago office of the
and little change has been noted at the open- Fred Gretsch Mfg. Co., New York, was a
ing of August. Merchants are working on recent visitor in the city. Mr. Base is making
prospects wherever possible, and securing names a trip through his territory following a vaca-
of those who might be interested in musical tion spent in Indiana. He states that things
instruments by Fall, but immediate business is are looking very good for Fall. Crops seem
slow. The demand for stringed instruments to be good throughout this section of the coun-
for use at resorts and for vacation activities try, and farmers are beginning to spend more
continues, and records are also holding up well, money. This is resulting in increasing pros-
but activity is limited in other lines.
perity in all lines.
The record department has been showing the
Some excellent advertising on a Symfonia
player grand has been obtained by the Car- most activity at the Boston Store during the
past week or ten days. Business in the base-
berry-Parker Co. as a result of the selection of
this instrument by the Nowiny Polski Daily, a ment department is especially brisk, where
daily Polish newspaper, as the grand prize in a there is still a steady demand for German rec-
popularity contest. The paper is using a full- ords. Recent popular hits in Victor and Bruns-
page newspaper advertisement regarding the wick records are showing up well in the regular
contest each day, featuring the instrument as music department, according to J. J. Healy,
the prize, and many people on the South Side manager. Mr. Healy was in Chicago one day
of Milwaukee are participating in the contest. last week, calling at the Gulbransen factory and
The Symfonia grand was first placed on dis- the Chicago office of the Brunswick Co., in ad-
play in the window of the Carberry-Parker Co., dition to several other music firms.
where it attracted much attention.
While ii
Merle Roussellot, managing director of the
was there, many people from the Polish district
Lyric Music Co., accompanies the Milwaukee
dropped into the store to look at it. The same delegation which attended tlie convention of
was true when the instrument was removed to the National Commandery of the Masonic or-
a furniture store on the South Side of the city. der held in Seattle during the latter part of
As a final advertising feature, the grand will July. A special train from Milwaukee made
be used to accompany a child saxophonist at
the trip through Canada, stopping at Winni-
the Modjeska Theatre, the child using the play- peg and several points in the Canadian Rockies
er equipment to accompany herself in some of
before reaching Seattle, and returned through
the numbers.
the northern part of the United States.
Miss Hannah McQuade, in charge of the Edi-
The appearance of Baby Dorothy Parker, said
to be the world's youngest saxophonist, was son record department of the Flanner-Hafsoos
used as the basis of a window display at the Music House, Inc., participated in the State golf
Carberry-Parker store as the child musician tournament held at Kenosha last week. Miss
uses Buescher instruments which are featured McQuade failed to qualify for the finals, but
in the band department of this firm. A large won out by a good margin in the non-qualifiers'
sign calling attention to the child's appearance medal play over eighteen holes.
for a week at the Wisconsin Theatre was used
Thomas Gormley, representative of the Ca-
as the background for a display of band and ble-Nelson Piano Co., was a recent Milwaukee
string instruments. Pictures of the child in visitor.
two different poses with her Buescher saxo-
Nels Martin has purchased the interests of
phone formed part of the sign. The window • Leo Monroe in the M & M Music Shop, at
has brought satisfactory response, according to Kenosha, Wis., and has taken over entire man-
W. A. Bialucha, who is now merchandising this agement of the shop.
department. Leslie C. Parker, president and
Edward Matausek, Racine, Wis., music dealer,
manager of the Carberry-Parker Co., home of
spent a few days in Milwaukee.
the Chickering, left August 3 for a month's
J. Fuller, representative of Simson & Frey,
camping trip.
of New York, also stopped off to call on the
"The last week of July was very quiet, but trade last week.
business for the month comes up to last year,"
said Hugh M. Holmes, vice-president and sales
manager of the J. B. Bradford Piano Co., home
of the Duo-Art and the Sohmer line. "The
way things are lining up now in the way of
(Continued from page 3)
prospects and the like, we are going to have
an unusually good Fall." Although few big creases the tension of the strings, raises the
deals have been closed recently by Bradford's, pitch and thereby places an unnecessary strain
Hugh W. Randall, president and general man- upon the instrument beyond that intended by
ager of the firm, has announced the sale of a its maker.
Steck Duo-Art to Frank Edwards, head of the
Exposure to the concentrated rays of the sun
Edwards Motor Co., Dodge Bros, dealers in through windows is detrimental to the fine fin-
this territory. Paul Fink, of the Aeolian Co., ish of the case of a piano. If the finish is to
was a visitor at Bradford's for a day last week. be preserved it must be protected against sud-
Practically all employes of the Kesselman- den changes of extreme heat and cold.
The piano must not be placed too near to the
O'Driscoll Co., home of the Ampico in the
Knabe, Haines Bros, and Marshall-Wendell heat supply; in fact, it should be as far from it
as possible to maintain a comfortable degree
pianos, attended the annual picnic of the com-
pany held at Interlaken Beach, Beaver Lake. of temperature. Extreme heat is as injurious,
Leaving Sunday morning, July 26, the entire if not more so, than extreme cold.
The life of a piano subjected to dampness
force journeyed to the beach, where the day was
devoted to baseball and other games, bathing, in Summer and extreme heat in Winter is of
and disposing of the ice cream, grape punch, short duration and full of trouble. In Summer
candy and crackerjack provided in large quan- its pitch goeth up and in Winter it goeth down,
tities by the music firm. The feature of the expressed in biblical form.
day's entertainment was a baseball game be-
As even a temperature as possible should be
tween the inside sales force and those engaged maintained in the music room at all times and
in outside selling. The outside force won by a sudden changes should be avoided.
small margin, although the losing team hints
The heating system is a very important fac-
The Architect and
the Piano's Requirements
tor in the care and maintenance of the piano.
It is impossible to keep a piano in tune for any
length of time with some of the heating sys-
tems now in use. Some systems supply ex-
treme heat at the top of the room, while the
floor remains cold.
The pipeless furnace system, for instance,
is noted for this condition. It heats the top
of the room quickly and allows it to cool
quickly. This is disastrous to the staying-in-
tune qualities of any piano. Upright pianos
suffer more under such conditions, as because
of their vertical construction they are more ex-
posed to the ever-changing temperature than
grand pianos, which lie horizontally between the
two extremes of temperature.
Once the writer was called to service a piano
that to all appearances was well located. It
was at a safe distance from the hot-air registers
in the room and well protected from draft and
sudden change of temperature. It was an up-
right piano, placed against an inside wall near
the center of the room, in fact, this space had
been carefully arranged for in the house plans.
As it was an expensive instrument of well-
known, high-grade manufacture, I could not
understand why I should be called to locate
a serious trouble that had developed near the
center of the scale. After a long search I
found a hot-air stack within the wall directly
behind and against the part of the piano af-
fected that made the wall very hot. By mov-
ing the piano to another place in the room the
trouble soon disappeared. The architect could
just as easily have placed the hot-air stack else-
where if he had known something of the deli-
cate nature of pianos with regard to tempera-
ture.
The lack of proper ventilation, combined
with extreme heat, reduces the humidity of the
atmosphere, and causes every part of the in-
strument to rattle or vibrate. The tension and
stress on the bridges are soon lost as the sound
board flattens, and harmonics and after-tones
develop, greatly to the annoyance of the pianist
and service men.
To prevent or cure a condition of this kind
it has been customary to increase the humidity
of the atmosphere by the vaporizing of water
or the placing of an open vessel of water in
the bottom of the piano. Such procedure would
be entirely unnecessary if the room were prop-
erly heated and constantly supplied with fresh,
tempered atmosphere.
Often the piano owner when told of the evil
effects of exposure to draft, dampness, etc.,
thinks this can be avoided by keeping the
music room closed. With no ventilation the
atmosphere soon becomes stagnant and damp
during the Summer months. The piano shows
signs of rust, the action becomes heavy and
sluggish, the pitch goes up and the piano be-
comes very much out of tune and unbalanced.
Then when Winter comes, and the dampness is
expelled by artificial heat, reaction takes place,
resulting in shrunken joints that jattle, loose
bridges and cracked sound boards, lowered
pitch and impaired tone.
No wonder the ability of the tuner is ques-
tioned when he is forced to service a piano
which has been under such unfavorable envi-
ronment. Has he not a right to place the blame
where it belongs, or at least to make a defen-
sive explanation of why sometimes he fails to
satisfy a customer?
Again, the architect should have all the
scientific knowledge available regarding acous-
tics. He may wonder what acoustics has to
do with the work of the tuner. All of us who
have attempted to tune a piano in a room
where a single tone would reverberate for sev-
eral seconds know how difficult and almost im-
possible it is to do a satisfactory job.
However, we feel that the subject of acous-
tics is so great and important that it should be
taken up and discussed at length by some one
well informed in the science of sound, and its
effect on the organs of hearing. Its possibili-
ties are unlimited and it enters into the work
of the tuner and the performance of the piano.