Music Trade Review

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JULY 24, 1926
The Music Trade Review
Final Dividend Paid in the Bankruptcy
Litigation of the Heller Piano Co.
Creditors Receive Final Dividend of 3 Per Cent from Estate Which Went Into Bankruptcy in
1913—Local Dealers Report Trade in Good Condition for Season of Year
MILWAUKEE, WIS., July 21.—The Milwaukee
music trade is in very good condition for this
time of the year. Summer business so far has
been more satisfactory than was anticipated, and
if things continue as they have started, some
stores will establish new records for July trade.
Pianos are moving fairly well in some quarters,
although this activity is not so general as might
be desired. Band instruments, however, have
been, going very well, and string instruments
of various kinds have also been moving better
than might be anticipated for the present time.
Introduction of the various new models in
phonographs has had a very favorable effect on
this department. Stores handling the Victor
line state that there, is a big demand for the
Orthophonic and the Electrola is beginning
to sell. In Brunswicks, recent business has
been particularly on Panatropes and combina-
tions. The new mechanical models have also
arrived and are beginning to move out nicely.
"We are doing a very nice business for this
time of the year," stated A. V. Orth, president
of the Orth Music Co., which features the
Brunswick line. "It has been an unusual busi-
ness for Summer, because it has been principally
on higher-priced merchandise in both talking
machines and radio. We are selling Panatropes,
combinations and Zenith radios."
Mr. Orth also reports a very good business in
records, running about 10 per cent ahead of last
year. Popular records of the Columbia line,
which are now being carried in addition to
Brunswick records, have already started to sell,
although they have been in stock only a short
time. One of the most popular has been the
new Ted Lewis number, "Where Did You Get
Those Eyes?" The Brunswick record, "Valen-
cia," is now beginning to sell briskly. When
this record was first released it attracted little
attention, but sales are steadily increasing, and
Mr. Orth predicts that it will have a very fine
run in Milwaukee.
"We had an exceptionally good June and
July is starting off much better than we an-
ticipated for this month," declared W. A
Bialucha, manager of the Carberry-Parker Co.,
home of the Chickering. "Grands have been
going especially well, but players still are very
active. If the last six months of the year go
as well as the first, we shall be more than satis-
fied with our player sales. During the first
six months we have shown at least a SO per
cent increase over the previous year. Right
now there is an unusually good demand for pho-
nographs. We have been doing a fine business
on Orthophonics and Electrolas are beginning
to move." The band and string instrument de-
partment of this store is also going along very
steadily, with strings showing up especially
well. Mr. Bye states that all kinds of string?
are moving, especially ukuleles, banjo-ukes,
banjos and guitars, but also violins and other
strings of this character.
Mr. Bye has just left for two weeks' vacation,
which he will spend in St. Louis, Kansas City
and other places in that vicinity.
"Business has been unusually good in our
line since the beginning of the month," said
Vesey Walker, of the Walker Musical Ex-
change, which handles band and string instru-
ments. "In fact, things are moving so well that
it seems very strange for this time of the year.
We had a very good May, but June went even
better than May. And this activity has con-
tinued into July. It is more like Fall business
than Summer, but there seems to be no ex-
planation for this activity.
"Saxophones are leading in sales, but this is
only natural as we have made a specialty of
Elkhart saxophones. We have the Walker Saxo-
phone Band, which has proved a very fine adver-
tisement for us, and we also have more than
2,000 saxophone students in the city. More re-
cently there has been a surprising run on clari-
nets. Usually, when we sell a number of clari-
nets in a day, it is because we are equipping a
band or orchestra. Individuals have made the
recent purchases.
"Hawaiian steel guitars have also picked up
during the past weeks, a fact which is probably
due to the work of Joseph Ikeoli, a native of
Hawaii, who is now in charge of our Hawaiian
instrument department."
The Wuerl Sisters saxophone quartet, which
has been under the instruction of Mr. Walker
for more than a year, has just signed a contract
for a season on big time vaudeville. The
sisters will be with Ruth Granville, the
noted saxophone soloist. The quartet has
been playing in and around Milwaukee for
about two years, being very much in demand for
banquet work as well as for appearance in stage
productions at various motion picture theatres
of the city. Their work has been so favorably
received here that Miss Granville heard of them
and offered them the contract.
"Business during the week of July 11 started
off only fair," reported Henry M. Steussy, vice-
president and manager of the Kesselman-
O'Driscoll Co., home of the Ampico in the
Knabe. "June was a very big month, and the
first days of July started off very satisfactorily.
Things slowed up somewhat after July 10, a
lull which is expected during the Summer
months."
A similar display was used the following week
to feature the Knabe Ampico.
Floyd Masters, representative of the Ameri-
can Piano Co., was a recent visitor in Milwau-
kee.
E. L. Sutton, of the Q R S Music Co., also
made a trip to Milwaukee last week.
A petition in bankruptcy has been filed in the
Federal District Court at Milwaukee by Lavern
L. Pelton, music and radio dealer at Neenah,
Wis. Schedules filed through Attorney Glen W.
Barto show assets of $800 and liabilities of
$3,444.
The bankruptcy case of the Heller Piano Co.,
which has been pending for thirteen years, has
finally been closed with the payment of a second
and final dividend of 3 per cent. The famous
case of the Heller Piano Co,, which went into
bankruptcy in October, 1913, was followed
closely at the time and for several years fol-
lowing because of the ensuing litigation which
established the status of a piano contract placed
with a discount company.
The litigation was caused by the fact that the
Heller Piano Co. sold pianos on the instalment
plan and put up the sales contracts as collateral
for loans, and the fact that some of this litiga-
tion extended over many years before pianos
could be recovered by the trustee was the rea-
son for the delay in closing the case. The First
Wisconsin Trust Co., appointed trustees of the
bankrupt's estate, immediately started repleTin-
ing pianos that had been sold on the instalment
plan under the terms of their conditional sales
contract. Four suits were brought against the
trustee by claimants who asserted that they
were entitled to possession of a number of
pianos secured by the trustee in replevining.
These claimants were C. R. Gether, who as-
serted his right to five instruments; Lyman
Bernhard, fourteen; the H. P. Nelson Co., seven-
teen, and the Germania National Bank, thirty-
five. These instruments were claimed on the
grounds that the Heller Co. had borrowed
money by turning over the sales contracts for
security. The referee decided in favor of the
trustee. Another suit was brought against the
Union Bank by the trustee to collect $31,000 al-
leged to have been paid the bank by the Heller
Co. shortly before it went bankrupt and to ob-
tain an accounting of $24,500 received through
the sale of real estate, both of which claims
were settled for $3,000.
The Nelson Co. then went bankrupt, and the
claim of the Heller Co. for $50,000 was filed
against the bankrupt's estate and allowed at
$40,000. The Wurlitzer piano interests brought
a suit against the trustee of the Heller estate,
which was settled for $16,000.
The final report of the trustee showed that
receipts totaled $34,679 and total previous dis-
bursements, $28,900. Claims amounted to $62,-
288. The creditors had previously been paid a
dividend of 5 per cent, and the final dividend
of 3 per cent closed the famous case.
A clever publicity stunt is being carried out
by the H. Buchheim Music Co., Gulbransen
dealer of Sheboygan, Wis., with the co-operation
of the Gulbransen Co. This store is featuring
the new baby Gulbransen, which has just been
received, and is asking the public to name the
"baby." The prize offered for the best name
submitted in the contest is one of the new in-
struments.
The Groulx Music Shop, which filed articles
of incorporation this month, has announced
plans for operating a chain of music stores in
the east-central section of Wisconsin. The new
firm is a consolidation of the stores operated
in Green Bay and Seymour, Wis., by D. M.
Groulx and music stores conducted in Oconto
and Oconto Falls by A. Maigatter. The new
organization will open two new stores in the
near future, one in Gillett and the other in Lena.
Mr. Groulx has been in the music business for
thirty-six years, and has been located in Green
Bay for nineteen years. He handled Gulbran-
sen pianos and the Victor line.
Commission Refuses Road
5 Per Gent Rate Increase
Holds Petitioners Have Failed to Prove Their
Case in Request for Advance in Western
Territory
WASHINGTON, D. C, July 19.—A general in-
crease of 5 per cent in freight rates in the
West was refused July 16 by the Interstate
Commerce Commission, on the ground that
the carriers had not proved their contention
that a financial emergency, necessitating such
an increase, exists.
Conditions throughout the territory in which
the increase was desired, the commission held
in its decision, are showing a tendency to im-
prove and the carriers themselves were found
to be both physically and financially sound.
Inequalities and discriminations exist in the
present freight rate structure, the commission
admitted, but there is no such emergency ex-
isting as would warrant the application of a
general increase, and unjust variations in rates
may be ironed out by individual proceedings.
Baldwin Sales Contest
ST. LOUIS, MO., July 17.—A sales contest is being
conducted by the Baldwin Piano Co., of this
city, for the benefit of its retail selling force and
the general stimulation of business during July.
The contest was devised by C. E. Storer, sales
manager of the company, and will provide free
memberships in the Automobile Club of Mis-
souri to those of its forty salesmen who reach
a certain goal in piano sales during the month.
Mr. Storer is a member of the Automobile Club
and practically all of the men use automobiles
in their work.
Panatrope for Dancing
O., Ju 1 y 20.—A Brunswick Pana-
trope has been installed in the new Patio, a
refreshment and dance place of Spanish type,
formally opened in the exclusive residence sec-
tion of the city this week.
MASSII-LON,