Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1926 Vol. 83 N. 5

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Music Trade Review
Ohio Carrying Charge Schedule Shortly
to Be Distributed to Ass'n Members
This to Be One of the Leading Topics of Discussion at Coming Convention of Ohio Association
in September—Radio Jobbers' and Dealers' Meeting to Be Held Next Month
/CLEVELAND, O., July 24.—The sales force
^ of the Euclid Music Co., which has five
stores, was recently addressed by Mr. Gal-
lagher, of the Cleveland Ignition Co., Atwater
Kent distributor, on the sales and servicing
of Atwater Kent sets. The meeting proved a
very interesting one and much enthusiasm was
shown. The installation, by this firm, of an
R. C. A. speaker outside the street door, that
is connected to a small Brunswick new
mechanical phonograph by means of the
patented device of Walter Cox, is attracting
large crowds of people, as the music produced
is so loud and natural that a passerby would
think it was an orchestra playing. This stunt
is being used to play the various Vic-
Sell the Miessner Now
—Before School
Opens
The big fall activity in the schools
and churches, the fall enrollment of
pupils with conservatories and pri-
vate teachers—all the seasonal de-
velopments that create new Miess-
ner piano prospects begin imme-
diately after Labor Day.
Don't wait until somebody else has this
business lined up and is all ready to make
delivery in time for the opening day. Get
in touch with the schools and churches
now. Tell them the story of the Miessner,
the original small piano, built by a na-
tionally known leader in public school
music, the ideal instrument for schools,
churches and the compact modern home.
The Miessner sales plan helps you put
over the Miessner story in a big, out-
standing way and develop new business
in markets you are not reaching. Mail
the coupon for complete information.
THE LITTLE PIANO WITH THE BIG TONE
MIESSNER PIANO CO.,
136 Reed St., Milwaukee. Wis.
Please send me complete information regarding the
Miessner Plan for increasing my piano sales.
Name
Name of Store
Street No
City
State
tor phonographs that are now being offered
at sharply reduced prices, and it is proving
very successful, the record department being
well filled with customers all day long.
A change in the small goods department of
the East Ninth street store has just taken
place.
H. Whitney is no longer connected
with the company and C. J. Kenny has been
made manager of the department. The com-
pany is devoting its window in the downtown
store to a display of the Baldwin grand piano
this week.
Henry Dreher has been greatly benefited by
his trip to Atlantic City, where he spent several
weeks. He is now back again and getting
down to the office every day.
The Cleveland Board of Education con-
tinues to keep the children of the public
schools interested in harmonica playing. A
contest is now being arranged by the Cleve-
land Times in connection with the supervisors
of the public playgrounds whereby a city-wide
competition in harmonica playing will be held
by the various playground harmonica bands.
The largest band in the city is that from the
Miles Standish school, which numbers sixty-
six members.
The Hardman piano recently sold to
the Cleveland Institute of Music is proving so
satisfactory that Martha B. Saunders, director
of the Institute, has sent George M. Ott, Hard-
man agent, a letter as follows: "Enclosed is
our check for the Hardman piano which you
recently installed for us. It seems most satis-
factory and I hope to be able to give you an
other order for one in the near future.
Thanking you for your interest in co-operating
with the Institute, Very truly, Martha B.
Saunders."
A display that is attracting considerable at-
tention is some oil paintings belonging to John
D. Rockefeller, Jr., that are being shown this
week in the windows of the Starr Piano Co.
Special permission was given by Mr. Rocke-
feller to show the pictures, which are of his old
homestead on Euclid avenue which he has just
purchased.
There will be no excuse for those attending
the convention of the Ohio Music Merchants'
Association in Columbus, September 13 to 15,
for not being familiar with all details of the
Ohio carrying charge schedule and the time
form that accompanies it, as Rexford C. Hyre,
secretary of the Association, is now having it
printed. He expects to have it in the hands of
members early in August so that they will have
ample time to peruse and digest it. The carry-
ing charge schedule is one of the four subjects
selected by Association members for discussion
at the convention. It has aroused more in-
terest than practically any other subject on
account of its great importance to the trade.
Rexford C. Hyre and Mrs. Hyre entertained
Mr. and Mrs. O. H. Boyd, of Marion, O., for
several days this week. Plans of the convention
were discussed in detail, Mr. Boyd, as vice-presi-
dent of the Association, being very active in
the organization's work Other members of the
Ohio Music Merchants' Association who also
visited in Cleveland recently were F. N. Goos-
man, of Toledo; Charles H. Yahrling, of
Youngstown, and D. W. Lerch, of Canton.
Frank Cerne has just completed building a
new store on East Seventy-ninth street and is
preparing to move his branch store that is
located nearby into the new building which is
modern in every respect. The main store at
St. Clair and East Sixty-first streets will re-
main in charge of Mr. Cerne, and an assistant
will have charge of the branch.
A large number of out-of-town dealers as well
JULY 31, 1926
as those from the city have visited the Colum-
bia branch to see and hear the new viva-tonal
machines that arrived this week. R. J. Mueller
has had the demonstration-room entirely re-
modeled and redecorated with beautiful results.
The trade is very much impressed with the ma-
chines and a large number of orders have been
booked. Another thing that has created a great
deal of admiration are the new Columbia
masterpiece sets, which one prominent down-
town Cleveland dealer described as "the most
handsome thing he had ever seen."
The Euclid Music Co. closed a contract this
week to supply the Beaconsfield Dinner Club,
Detroit and Mars avenues, Lakewood, with a
de luxe Brunswick Panatrope. This club is one
of the most popular around town and the in-
stallation of the Panatrope is fine publicity for
the instrument.
R. E. Taylor, manager of the local Starr
Piano Co. branch on Huron road, was in Rich-
mond, Ind., last week at the Starr factory. The
new portable phonographs recently put out by
the company in various colors are proving to be
very good sellers in Cleveland and are also help-
ing the sale of Gennett records.
Warren R. Cox has been appointed chairman
of a committee of Cleveland jobbers and deal-
ers to arrange for a convention of jobbers and
dealers in radio on September 21 and 22. The
music trade all over Ohio and adjoining States
is to be invited to attend as well as those who
handle only radio. The program of speakers
so far includes Howard Shartle, of the Cleve-
land Talking Machine Co., distributor for Victor
and Atwater Kent, whose subject will be "The
Music Store as an Outlet for Radio." Walter
A. Schilling, manager of the Radio Dealer, will
speak on "Advertising and Its Successful Ap-
plication by the Radio Retail Establishment."
There will be other prominent speakers who,
with their subjects, will be announced later.
The meetings will be held at the Hotel Hollen-
den and those in attendance will be able to visit
the Cleveland Radio Exposition that will be in
full swing during that week.
Art Gillham Divulges
a Deep-hued Secret
Tells the Tale of How He Secured Some of the
Material in His Latest Columbia Release and
How It Went Over
During his recent trip to New York to make
new records for Columbia, Art Gillham, "The
Whispering Pianist," exclusive Columbia artist
and radio and moving picture theatre head-
liner, divulged an interesting little secret.
"I just listened," said Art, "to my latest
Columbia release No. 657-D, which is 'He Ain't
Done Right by Nell,' on one side and 'It Don't
Do Nothing But Rain,' on the other. The first
selection takes me back to some of the ideas
that I put into that record. You know travel-
ing radio artists hear and see a lot of funny
things in their travels from station to station.
"During my last stay at WJR, Detroit, where
the Merry Old Chief, Leo Fitzpatrick, holds
sway over his jesters, I heard Leo do a song in
front of the microphone which he did not think
meant anything. He called this little conglom-
eration of hokum 'play.' The idea stuck with
me and while I was making 'He Ain't Done
Right by Nell,' at the Columbia laboratories in
New York, my mind wandered back to WJR
and I used Leo Fitzpatrick's little nut song to
fill up my record between choruses.
"In the type of records I am making, it keeps
a fat boy like myself stepping fast on the snow-
shoes to get material and sometimes I have to
get it from something some one else does; so
I think it might interest record lovers to know
that Leo Fitzpatrick is responsible for the
amusing 'hokum' in the Columbia record No.
657-D."
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Player-Piano's Musical Value and
How Well It Can Be Played
To Play the Player-piano Is an Art and a Universal Art Which Can Be Mastered by Practically Everyone—
Mistaken Attitude on the Part of Retail Merchants Who Seem Generally to Believe That
the Buying Public Will Never Buy Anything That Requires Study
J
UST how well can the player-piano be
played and what really is its musical value
to the world? These have been moot ques-
tions for long enough, in fact ever since the
first cabinet players came upon the market.
Controversy over them has never ceased and
the last answer has been no more conclusive
than was the first. Still, every bit of evidence
tending toward the formation of sound opinion
is worth having, for which reason the reader is
invited to notice the following remarks, ex-
tracted from the July issue of Musical Opinion,
a weighty and influential musical magazine
which for nearly fifty years has been regu-
larly published in London. The editorial
writer who signs by the pseudonym 'Schau-
nard' has this to say, speaking of one who
the previous month had protested in the
columns of the paper against some of the stupid
methods used in player-piano merchandising by
British music merchants:
"I am wholly with Mr. Godfrey in his plea for
propaganda on behalf of the player-piano and
the desirability of eradicating the bad impres-
sion created that player-pianos are so mechani-
cal, or any other fangled excuse. Yet the
makers have done their bit toward creating this
impression through their slogan about a little
child being able to play it. The 'push-the-but-
ton-and-the-machine-does-the-rest'
motion is
applicable only to the electric reproducing
models; in no sense of the word can pushing the
button be said to be playing. Yet the foot-
blown instrument is essentially one which not
only can be played but needs to be played. It
has its limitations, and you soon learn what
music it is as well not to attempt on it; but if
the technic of the controls and the feet are mas-
tered, it can be played in a way far removed
from any sense of the mechanical. Even the
piano can be played mechanically.
Right Propaganda Called For
"It would be propaganda of the right kind
if the companies were to engage a few expert
player-pianists to give demonstrations around
the country of the sensitive response which can
be obtained from a fine instrument.
The
average salesman can be good at the palaver,
but he is no good as an exhibitor of what the
player-piano can be made to do. . . .
Granted a fair musical knowledge in the pur-
chaser and perseverance in the task, a good
technic on the player-piano can be acquired
within a year. And a good technic includes
such sympathy between performer and instru-
ment, such as should exist between a horse and
a good rider, as eliminates the interval between
conception and accomplishment, so that what
he is thinking is translated into sound accord-
ing to his wishes before he has had time to feel
that he has wished it.
"Rub It In"
"The player pianist's advantage over the
pianist should be rubbed home, for it is a real
compensation for the limitations imposed on
him by his medium. He can prepare a finished
performance of a dozen or more pieces of music
in the time it takes the pianist to prepare one.
He can know intimately ever so much more
music than the pianist can ever hope to know.
And about what he achieves on the player-piano
he need not be too modest. All he has eluded
is drudgery. The player-piano roll, in its kind,
is not greatly different in status from the
printed book of poems. Poetry, like music, is
dry art until it is translated into sound. It is
possible for the player-pianist to make himself
an artist performer such as need not hang his
head before the pianist or the poetry-speaker."
All to the Good
Now all this is very much to the good. Here
we have an opinion from a musician, that is to
say, from one who might be expected to display
all the prejudice and the bigotry which have so
much disfigured discussion on the subject
during past years. As a matter of fact, British
and European musicians have been a great deal
readier to welcome the player-piano than have
their American brethren; something which is
very hard to understand but which is undoubt-
edly true. However, the important point is
that this gentleman, who has a right to speak
with authority, takes his stand with such men
as Ernest Newman in saying that it is right to
take the player-piano seriously, to treat it as
a veritable musical instrument and to take
pains to acquire its technic. Not only so, but
this authority corroborates further the state-
ments of Newman in his book, "The Piano
Player and Its Music," and of Grew in his still
more elaborate "Art of the Player-Piano," to the
effect that the expert player-pianist is really an
artist who can take his place with the other
artists in music; when indeed he has reached, as
he can reach, the highest points of excellence in
his o.wn special technic.
An Art for All
In a word, to play the player-piano is an art
and a fine art. But it is an art which can be
practiced by any normal person who will take
the trouble to acquire it. This question of tak-
ing trouble has been exaggerated to the point
of actual panic by piano merchants who have
grown almost tearful over their certainty that
the public would never, never buy anything
which required "study." Yet the actual amount
of such study is nothing like so much as is
needed to make a man reasonably proficient at
golf, and certainly no more than is needed to
make him a proficient automobile driver. In
fact, the talk about the dear public and the ab-
solute necessity of never, never even suggesting
that any one should learn to play the player-
piano is alibi, alibi pure and simple, alibi and
nothing else. Moreover, it is a very poor alibi
at that.
And it is poor very largely because good
player playing does not necessarily mean play-
ing those dreadful "classics," the thought of
which so horrifies many an otherwise excellent
dealer and salesman. The player-piano can be
played, and played very well, by persons whose
ideas are confined to popular music. And there
is a vast deal more fun in playing dance music
well, of one's own accord and initiative, than in
merely listening to it.
In fact, any normal person can within a few
months acquire a good player technic. No
game known to man is more fascinating than
this game of playing music. Why is it that our
merchants and salesmen will not take the obvi-
ous hint?
Pratt Read
Products
have stood for years
as an asset of
incalculable value
to the piano industry.
New Truck Folder
A new folder, describing the small dollie
truck for shifting pianos in warerooms and fac-
tory, has been released to the trade by Ham-
macher, Schlemmer & Co., New York. This
handy article, listed as No. 674 in the company's
catalog, is only 5% inches in height, and makes
the handling of pianos very easy. The Tote
Dollie, as it is called in the Hammacher
Schlemmer circular, weighs only 1 7 ^ pounds
and is easily picked up and carried. While not
necessary, the top can be padded with heavy
carpet or other soft material to prevent any
possibility of scratching or marring. With the
aid of a dollie truck, the shifting of pianos in
a store becomes a one-man proposition, elimi-
nating the need of two or three for the job.
Pittsburgh Radio Show
PITTSBURGH, PA., July 26.—Local music store
proprietors handling radio will have an oppor-
tunity this Fall for a real merchandising offen-
sive in this field, when the first annual radio
show will be held here in Duquesne Garden
during the week of October 4. The show will
be under the auspices of the Pittsburgh Radio
Association, which is composed of dealers and
representatives of the leading radio manufac-
turers of the country.
Know Our
PIANO KEYS
PIANO ACTIONS
PLAYER ACTIONS
and Our Service
Write us at the
first opportunity
PRATT, READ & CO.
Established in 1806
The PRATT READ PLAYER ACTION CO.
Deep River, Conn.

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