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The Music Trade Review
Over 400 Dealers Are Co-operating in
the National Piano Promotion Campaign
Report at Meeting of Committee in New York Shows This Number Are Using Com-
mittee's Retail Advertising in Local Daily Press
A T a meeting of the Sales Promotion Com-
mittee of the National Piano Manufac-
turers' Association, held on Thursday of last
week at Aeolian Hall, New York, and attended
by W. H. Alfring, Frank E. Wade and W. E.
Guylee, of the committee, and Max J. deRoche-
mont, president of the Association, the members
listened to an interesting and imposing report
of the progress of the campaign as presented
by E. C. Boykin, the executive secretary.
One of the outstanding features of the re-
port was the fact that within the period of a
single month preceding the meeting over 400
piano dealers in all sections of the country, in-
cluding several in Canada, arranged to use and
did use in their local papers the advertising
material in the interests of the piano prepared
by the committee. This effective tie-up
through local advertising is accepted as indi-
cating the genuine interest of the retailers in
the plans for re-establishing the status of the
piano, for the advertising on a cold dollars-and-
cents basis represents a most substantial invest-
ment.
It was stated that not only are new dealers
being added daily to those who are making
use of the advertising service, but that a ma-
jority of them are ordering and paying for the
various pieces of literature issued by the com-
mittee for public distribution. It is the hope
of the committee to have a number of the
dealers participating in the campaign well be-
yond the thousandth mark before the opening
of the convention in Chicago.
An imposing array of letters from piano manu-
facturers and dealers, as well as those in other
divisions of the trade, were presented to the
committee as evidence of the widespread inter-
est in the movement, those offering or giving
support including.members of the supply trade
and prominent music publishers, particularly
those supplying teaching music.
It was reported that piano-playing contests
and group instruction movements were now
under way in nineteen cities of the country,
with that number being increased steadily each
succeeding day.
The afternoon session of the Sales Promo-
tion Committee was attended by E. R. Jacob-
son, president; Alfred L. Smith, general
manager; C. Alfred Wagner and Hermann
Irion, of the directorate of the Music Industries
Chamber of Commerce, who went over the
ground covered by the Promotion Committee
and listened to the plans for its future activ-
ities. The Chamber executives were apparently
much impressed with the work that has been
accomplished.
May Go. Sells Over
$125,000 Music in a Day
The preparations are most impressive, the
special cleaning and arranging, the pricing and
tagging. Then there is the human element—
the extra hiring; over fifty additional salesmen,
credit men and clerks were hired, and they
all had to be instructed and drilled and super-
vised. The smoothness of the progress of the
sale and its success reflected the greatest credit
on Mr. Marcus.
Music Section of Los Angeles Department
Store Does More Than Quota in Firm's May
Day Sale
Los ANGELES, CAL., May 13.—After running a
score or two of full-page advertisements in the
Los Angeles newspapers the day previous to
their great one day's sale—May Day—and dis-
tributing in a quarter of a million homes a
special twelve-page newspaper of their own,
MAY 21, 1927
tion in which various agencies, including local
dealers, were combined to make an effective
working body.
Mrs. C. R. Moores was chairman of the Spe-
cial Music Week Committee, made up of repre-
sentatives of various organizations, including
George W. Jacobs, Jr., president of the Fort
Wayne Music Merchants' Association. The
week opened with a free concert by the Fort
Wayne Symphony Orchestra, and the Fort
Wayne Lutheran Choral Society held at the
new Catholic Community Center Auditorium
on May 1, the programs for the event being
provided by local music dealers, among them
being the Duesler Music House, Jacobs Music
House, Melody Shoppe, Packard Music House
and Will A. Young Music House. A fund for
the Mississippi relief was taken at the concert,
bringing in well over $100. During the week
concerts and recitals were given in various
schools and auditoriums and in the various
music stores.
New Catalog Describes
Weaver-Made Pianos
Attractive Volume Just Issued Tells of the
Weaver Institution, and Features Several
Types of York Instruments
The Weaver Piano Co., York, Pa., has just
issued a particularly attractive catalog featuring
the Weaver instruments, the cover of the cata-
log being provided with a special pocket for
holding folder in which are described and
illustrated the various types of instruments. The
booklet proper tells something of the Weaver
institution, the factories in York, Pa., and the
general structural details of the company's in-
struments, based upon fifty-seven years' experi-
ence in piano making.
The instruments illustrated and described in
the folders include the York baby grand, five
feet one inch in length; the York Style 11 Up-
right, only three feet seven inches high; Style
15, a four-foot five and one-half inch instrument;
Styles 16 and 17 York uprights, and Styles N
and E players of the same make.
Dealers Aid in Fort
Wayne's Music Week Texas Convention on May 25
Various Organizations, Including Trade Mem-
bers, Co-operate to Make Celebration a Suc-
cess in That Progressive City
FORT WAYNE, IND., May 14.—Although music
week observance in this city has come to a close
the local public is still highly interested in music
because of the efficient manner in which the
music programs were conducted under the aus-
pices of the Fort Wayne Civic Music Associa-
DALLAS, TEX., May 14.—The annual convention
of the Texas Music Merchants' Association will
be held at the Adolphus Hotel, this city, on May
25. An interesting program has been prepared
for the meeting, and it is expected that Edward
H. Uhl, president of the National Association
of Music Merchants, will attend the session.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review.
Leslie I. King Is Appointed Sales
Manager of the Bush & Lane Piano Co.
Other Changes in Organization, as Announced by Secretary Beach, Are Charles Karr
as Advertising Counselor, and A. E. MacElroy as Advertising Manager
H. Marcus
the May Co. sold $1,250,000 worth of goods on
that day—the last but two of April.
The music department, under H. Marcus,
manager, sold its quota—and then some. Be-
tween two or three hundred portable phono-
graphs, dozens of large Brunswicks and Victors,
nearly 600 radios ranging about $100 each and
several dozen pianos—mostly grands and baby
grands, brought the total up to the $125,000
mark at least.
Sales of this kind consist of much that is
not apparent to the eye during their operation.
U O L L A N D , MICH, May 14.—The executive
personnel of the Bush & Lane Piano Co.
here has been increased and the organization
is strengthened by several new appointments
just announced by Secretary Chester L. Beach.
Leslie I. King has been made sales manager
of the Bush & Lane Piano Co., Charles Karr
becomes advertising counselor, and A. E. Mac-
Elroy becomes assistant sales manager and
advertising man.
Mr. King is widely known and popular
among the Bush & Lane dealers and for years
has been the northern Ohio representative of
that company, making his headquarters in
Cleveland and doing effective work from that
point throughout the populous district. His
promotion to general sales manager of the com-
pany is a deserved recognition of the success
he made as northern Ohio district representative
for the wholesale department of the Bush &
Lane Piano Co.
A. E. McElroy has an extensive acquaint-
ance and enjoys the respect of many leading
members of the trade. He comes to the Bush
& Lane Co. from the Straube Piano Co., of
Hammond, Ind., and will specialize in dealer
service, correspondence, dealers' helps and ad-
vertising.
Mr. Karr, who comes into the service in a
new position, that of advertising counselor, has
been with the Holland Furnace Co., one of the
leading industries of this city, for many years
as its advertising manager and specializing in
industrial publicity and vocational aptitudes.