Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JANUARY 2, 1926
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
How the Windsor-Poling Go. Turns
Music Prestige Into Sales
Akron, Ohio, Music House, Which Has Just Added a Piano Department to Its Warerooms Featuring the
Complete Bush & Lane Line, Has Remarkable Record of Musical Achievement in Its Territory, an
Achievement Which Has Been Turned Into a Steadily Increasing Business
H E Windsor-Poling Co., of Akron, O.,
which for several years past has special-
ized in the handling of talking machines
and records in a manner that has attracted at-
tention from all sections of the country, recently
opened a new piano department for the special
purpose of acting as representative in Akron and
vicinity for the Bush & Lane Piano Co.'s line of
pianos, players and reproducing instruments,
being among one of the nineteen dealers in Ohio
alone who have secured the representation for
the Bush & Lane line during the past few
months.
Earle Poling, general manager of the Wind-
sor-Poling Co., is particularly well-known for
his musical activities, for some five years ago
he established the "Famous Artist" course in
Akron, bringing to the city, through his own
initiative, many of the leading figures in the
concert and recital fields. He not only brought
the artists to Akron but promoted the concerts
on a profitable basis, which in itself is an indi-
cation of his ability. Under sucli competent
direction the future of the Bush & Lane line in
Akron would seem assured.
As a rule, the manager who promotes a con-
cert course has very little association with the
artists who are presented. To the general run
of managers, the artists represent little more
than the means by which the manager is to re-
ceive financial returns, and when those details
have been arranged the usual type of managci
has no further interest. In the case of Akron
and Mr. Poling things are entirely different, for
when the first artist appearing on Mr. Poling's
first course arrived in town Mr. Poling met him
at the train and took him to his own home.
Since that time, during the five years which art-
ists have been visiting Akron, Mr. Poling has,
in different ways, managed to get acquainted
with each celebrity in the capacity of real hu-
oiie, for among Mr. Poling's personal belong-
ings he has a portfolio filled with letters of ap-
preciation from the artists whom he has made
"feel at home" during their stay in Akron. The
letters are all delightfully personal and intimate,
and among the correspondence are the names
of Edward Johnson, Sophie Braslau, Cecil Fan-
ning, Werrenrath (who signs himself "Werry"),
and many others.
Aside from the impression made with the
artists during their stay in Akron, Mr. Poling
has been instrumental in bringing the city to
the foreground as a place where really big things
are done from a musical standpoint. Chief of
these was his promotion of the premiere of l)e
Leone's "Alglala," which owed much of its suc-
cess to the whole-hearted manner in which
Mr. Poling went into the project. It was he
who went to New York and secured Edward
Johnson, the noted tenor, for the title role, and
for no other reason than that Mr. Poling was
a personal friend was Johnson induced to give
his co-operation. The production locally of the
opera is a much greater event in musical cir-
cles than many Akron people think, and in re-
gard to Mr. Poling's part in it Pierre V. R.
Key, editor of the Musical Digest, says in a
personal letter, from which the following ex-
tract is taken:
"I must congratulate you for the truly splen-
did achievement which is to your credit for
what you did in making the 'Alglala' premiere
and the two following performances so success-
ful. What you did was a real service to the
cause of American music, and the stimulating of
public interest in it. And I am sure that by
compliments paid you (by people who spoke
of your accomplishments to me) you would
be more than repaid for your devotion to this
project." Mr. Poling's part in the Cleveland
production of "The Miracle" did much to show
Home of Marjorie
man beings, with the result that there is scarce-
ly an artist among the many who have appeared
here who does not look upon him as a personal
friend.
Furthermore, the feeling is not a transitory
Barkley McClure
that city Akron's interest in art, and his handling
of transportation and accommodations at that
time gave the trip to and from the performance
a touch of the "personally conducted" tour.
There's nothing very different in Earle Pol-
T
ing's music store to distinguish it from the av-
erage store you see in any city. Poling is, in
fact, a music dealer extraordinary to the city
of Akron. He sells phonographs by the dozens
and records bv the thousands. "If a record is
Earle Poling
obtainable, we'll get it for you," he advertises,
and frequently he orders special records over
the long distance phone from Cincinnati, To-
ledo, Pittsburgh and New York. He does all
he can for every customer, and knows for a cer-
tainty that his business will grow.
Such achievements as a business man and as
an impresario would not be impossible for any
man having some money to start with and the
right opportunity, but Poling was a stranger in
Akron, and his store, as any Akronite can tell
you, is not the best location in town; in fact,
it's the one corner where automobiles can't
park and where customers had never been in
the habit of stopping. And as for money, he
came out of the army in 1919 as he had entered
it, eighteen months before, flat broke.
He always had been interested in the sale of
musical instruments. "I was born in a piano
box, so to speak," lie explains; but he adds that
he can't play two notes of music on piano, vio-
lin or even jew's-harp.
Starting out in Cumberland, Md., he enjoyed
the business association of an uncle who ran a
small-town store. But the musical urge got him
again and he spent a year or two in Pittsburgh,
selling phonographs from house to house and
making money at it. Then came an opportunity
to buy out a retail store in Cleveland. He and
his brother sank in the project every dollar they
had, and after an eye-opening experience in re-
tailing and a painful lesson in the matter of
sales contracts they found that the man they
had bought out had double-crossed them. They
went under. And Earle Poling's name was on
several promissory notes for a goodly amount.
He signed up, then, with the Victor Talking
(Continued on page 9)