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NOVEMBER 13, 1926
The Music Trade Review
E. H. Uhl Guest of the Music Trades
Association of Northern California
President of the National Association of Music Merchants Dined in San Francisco Upon
His Return From the Executive Board Meeting in Indianapolis
CAN FRANCISCO, CAL., November 5.—
^ Nearly all the leading music houses of San
Francisco were well represented at the dinner,
held Thursday evening, in honor of Edward H.
Uhl, at the Hotel Stewart. It was given under
the auspices of the Music Trades Association
of Northern California and Shirley Walker, of
Sherman, Clay & Co., president of the Associa-
tion, presided. President Uhl was on his way
home to Los Angeles from attending a meeting
of the Executive Board of the National Asso-
ciation at Indianapolis, and interest was keen in
the late ideas which those present knew Mr.
Uhl would bring them from the East.
Touched on Three Interesting Topics
The president of the National Association
£ave a talk on the importance of the organized
State associations which function as part of the
National Association. He reported the forma-
tion of several State organizations and declared
that several more State organizations are on
their way.
Mr. Uhl outlined the necessity for piano inter-
ests taking up the idea of the stamp tax, as it
provides necessary funds for organization, etc.
He expressed himself as being strongly in favor
of using the stamp tax for promotional work,
all money collected for stamps in any State
being spent exclusively in that State.
Considerable interest was aroused when Mr.
Uhl outlined the wonderful possibilities of a
piano-playing contest, and urged that San Fran-
cisco be put on the list of contest cities. He
told of the success of the piano-playing contest
in Detroit, and said that several of the big cities,
notably Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles,
are laying plans for contests to begin in Jan-
uary.
Music Merchants Made Addresses
Prominent members of the music trades were
speakers at the banquet, including Frank Anrys,
vice-president and general manager of the Wiley
B. Allen Co.; George Q. Chase, president of
Kohler & Chase; H. C. Hanson, proprietor of
the H. C. Hanson Music House, and J. Ray-
mond Smith, president of the J. Raymond Smith
Music Co. Shirley Walker also addressed the
meeting of music merchants.
Boys' Achievement Club Awards Medals
The Boys' Achievement Club of the Em-
porium began its Winter music season with a
piano-playing contest, held last Friday. Twelve
boys entered it, a Steinway grand piano ob-
tained from Sherman, Clay & Co. being used.
Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded
to the winners, the judges being John Vogel,
Sherman, Clay & Co.; Will Pickett, well-known
instrument man, and Miss Maxine Cox, local
accompanist. All competitors were under fifteen
years of age. The Boys' Achievement Club was
started by the boys' department of the Em-
porium, of which W. F. Van Horn is manager.
It has brought forth so much talent that now
the directors of the Emporium are participating
in its management.
Contest Develops Musical Talent
According to W. F. Van Horn no effort is
made to bring in a mob of boys to the Achieve-
ment Club's contests. The club is not featured
in the Emporium advertising, and contestants
need not be customers of the store. The idea is
to develop achievement on the part of boys.
As an instance of what the club is doing, Mr.
Van Horn stated that one boy has come 125
miles to every piano contest and has shown
marked improvement in his piano-playing every
time. He made his first winning last Friday by
taking the bronze medal. The winner of the
gold medal in November, 1925, Robert Turner,
had never participated in a contest before. His
mother said the contest made him study hard,
and he later won a State contest against 500
others, some of them twice his age. Robert
Turner is now representing the Pacific Coast
in the National Music Students' contest at
Philadelphia this week. He is only twelve years
of age, and some of the contestants are twenty-
four. Started by the Boys' Achievement Club,
this youngster's parents are planning to let him
take up music as a career.
Will Visit Dealers in Central California
Visits to music merchants' associations in
Fresno and in Sacramento, Cal., will be paid
next week by Shirley Walker, president of the
Music Trades Association of Northern Califor-
nia, and James J. Black, of the board of direc-
tors. On Monday evening they will meet the
Fresno Music Trades Association's members
and Mr. Walker will give an informal talk.
James J. Black stated that in Fresno they hope
to meet Mark P. Campbell en route from south-
ern California. Hecman P. Siblcy is with Mr.
Campbell.
On Tuesday Shirley Walker and James J.
Black will attend a dinner of the Sacramento
Music & Radio Trades Association and Mr.
Walker will address those present informally
regarding business and plans to promote busi-
ness.
Date Set for Western Convention
P. T. Clay, president of the Western Music
Trades Association, has appointed Shirley
Walker to be secretary of the board of directors
and also to serve as his personal aid in super-
vising the details of the 1927 convention, which
is to be held in San Francisco at the Hotel St.
Francis, July 12 to 15, 1927. The date has been
arranged in view of the fact that the National
Association of Music Merchants is to hold its
convention in Chicago in the early part of June.
Auburn Firm Remodels Store
The Renwick Music Co., which bought out the
Auburn Music Co., of Auburn, Cal., has com-
pleted the remodeling of its store and recently
held a formal reopening. This firm has taken
over the Auburn agency for Victor records and
phonographs and is also agent for Magnavox
radio goods.
Woman and Her Piano Buying Habits
(Continued
it—because they rarely know the value of
money as does the normal family provider. I
have always personally thought it wise to 'size
up' a woman's means before going far into a
sale, because there is no sense in selling her on
an instrument that her husband or dad will re-
fuse to accept into the house. For that reason,
I try to ask her as soon as I get talking to her
how much she would care to spend.
"The experienced salesman will admit that,
in spite of the variety of feminine types, for
which God be praised, there are, to be sure, a
few tactics that can be employed with all of
them. Courtesy is, of course, paramount, and
it cannot be overdone. It is very important to
maintain a super-polite bearing with a woman,
escorting her to the door, even though she fails
to make up her mind on one of your pianos.
She is apt to forget some of the points of the
instrument's superiority, but your farewell smile,
if you know how to throw it, will be fresh in
her mind during her interview with the man in
the store down the street. There is no denying
it—sheiks sell pianos; I wish I were one."
Another point brought out by this salesman
was the use of flattery. "This," he added, "may
seem a bit crass to conservative salesmen, who
are probably just as dull to their wives and
sweethearts as they are to their lady customers.
The point is that it must be done subtly, with-
out effort. If possible, it is effective to use a
bit of mild by-play; maybe the same joke will
sell two or three lady customers the same day.
At least it will get them smiling and you've
got the next salesman beaten, if she goes else-
where, unless he does as much. But keep your
joking strictly clean."
It is obvious that one can never do justice
to the whims and fancies of women's tempera-
ments in a page of a trade-paper. Novelists
have worn out typewriters with the treatment
of a single type. As the two salesmen have
stated, there are certain generalities, which can
be pointed out to the novice salesman to give
him something to work with. The rest will
come with experience.
One characteristic, in which women are dif-
ferent from men, seems to stand out in the
foregoing remarks. That is that a woman shops
in a different frame of mind than a man. A man
knows nearly always what he wants, what he
can afford to pay, and gets to the point as
quickly as possible. The purchase of a piano
is simply a contact between one business man
and another. He appreciates the salesman's
logic and falls in line if it is straightforward
stuff.
A woman, however, goes shopping more in
from page 3)
the spirit of a lark. It may be her first trip
to the shopping district in several weeks and
she is willing to take her time and make the
most of it. She sees the salesman not as a
business man but as "tall, dark and handsome"
or whatever he happens to be. If not handsome
he may be "awfully polite," so that it is just
about as good with her. It doesn't mean any-
thing. She is not seeking an incipient affair
with the salesman, but she is a woman and it is
as natural for her to be impressed by those
qualities as it is for her husband to buy a use-
less tag or a poppy on the street from a pretty
flapper.
In selling a woman, then, it is well for the
salesman to guard against too much talking
away from his goal—the sale of the instrument.
His experience will teach him to know when
the lady is about to digress on "how her little
Bertha just got over the measles" and "did his
little Walter ever have croup?" These are in-
teresting topics for establishing contacts after
her name is on the contract, but such digres-
sions are apt to delay her until luncheon time
and she will run off to meet Mrs. Gray, and
what is worse bring her back in the afternoon
to look at the piano before deciding. But there
are ways and ways of handling women, in and
out of the warerooms, and these are merely
some of them.
Richmond, Va., Dealers
Form New Association
Louis Heindl, of Walter D. Moses & Co., Presi-
dent of Latest Trade Organization Which In-
cludes Representative Merchants of City
RICHMOND, VA., November 6.—The organization
of the Richmond Music Merchants' Associa-
tion, with a representative number of local mer-
chants as members, was perfected here this
week, the charter membership including the
Biggs Music Co., A. J. Crafts Piano Co., Fer-
gusson Bros., Lee Fcrgusson Piano Co., C. B.
Haynes, Walter D. Moses & Co., Manly B.
Ramos and Charles M. Stieff, Inc. Louis
Heindl, of Walter D. Moses & Co., was elected
president; Lee Fergusson, vice-president; E. G.
Rike, of Chas. M. Stieff. Inc., treasurer, and
Wm. R. Reinhardt, of the Biggs Music Co.,
secretary.
The new association will shortly lay out a
definite program of organization work which
will include general co-operation in the various
movements to further the art of music and its,
appreciation.