Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1927 Vol. 84 N. 21

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
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.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Radio and Records
Real Sales Aids to Each Other
Increased Phonograph Record Sales Can Be Traced to Interest
Aroused by the Radio Set—How A. H. Mayers Develops the Sale
of the Record With the Customer Who Has a Radio Set at Home
T is by no means uncommon these days to few who have season boxes at the opera or con-
find music merchants reporting marked in- servatory educations.
creases in their sales of phonograph records
"It is for this reason that we feel that radio
as compared with corresponding periods of re- has helped and will continue to help the record
cent years. Many firms, in fact, have d6ubled
trade and our task is simply to show the music-
or tripled the amount of record business done in lover that he need only to name his preferences
the two or three years preceding the advent of
electrical recording. A boost in record business,
and a big one, was to be expected with the in-
r
troduction of improved new phonograph units
i *HERE are many retail music stores
and modern recording methods on the part
**• which trace the development in their
of the large manufacturers, but many dealers
claim that the present activity of their record talking machine record sales directly to the
departments exceeds their most optimistic ex- interest aroused in music through radio
pectations.
broadcast programs. On this page is told
One New York concern in particular, the A. the story of a New York firm which has
H. Mayers organization, operating a chain of
steadily utilized this condition and as a re-
four music stores in the metropolitan area, has sult reports that thus far this year its record
been keeping accurate statistics of its record
sales and reports that in the first four months sales have shown an increase of 25 per cent
of this year the record departments have shown over the same period for the previous year.
a 25 per cent increase over 1926. This is note-
worthy in that last year the department showed
a consistent profit, that being the first full year
after the development of the new type of
and we can give him what he wants. First of
records.
all, of course, we must get him into the store.
"It has been our experience that nearly half
Executives of the Mayers company state that
they are not sitting idly by and waiting for the of the customers who patronize our radio acces-
business to grow as a matter of course. On the sory counter are potential record-buyers, be-
contrary, they attribute much of the present cause they are radio fans. Our salesmen are
growth of record business to the efforts they trained to ask the customer if he owns a phono-
are making to hold customers and create new graph in such a way as to be inoffensive. Many
ones. Many of their ideas are worthy of con- persons will answer that they have not used
their phonograph for years or have put it in the
sideration and represent a careful study of
attic or storeroom. To this the salesman will
present-day conditions.
"A year or two ago," said William Mayers, say that he doesn't understand how any real
manager of the company's store at 861 Eighth radio fan can afford to be without a phonograph
avenue, "we grew aware that a new class of these days, because most of the radio stars arc
record buyers was coming into our store. I am recording.
"The salesman will ask the customer if he has
referring to a newly created group of music-
lovers, whose interest in various types of music any radio favorites, such as the Happiness
has been stimulated by the radio. It would be Boys, Wendell Hall, Art Gillham, Radio Franks,
safe, I think, to estimate that this class aver- etc., and is certain to find that some of these
ages several hundred to each thousand of radio are among them. The salesman will then ask
the patron if he is aware that most of the
fans.
"Every one knows of dozens of people who celebrities of the air are now making records
had little if any interest in music a few years and will add, 'You know why the phonograph
ago, but who now listen in nightly to pro- people have secured these artists, don't you?
grams by the very best orchestras in the coun- Simply because they wanted to meet the de-
try. Not every listener but the true music- mand of the radio public, who became ac-
lovers among them have developed definite quainted and drawn to them over the air.'
"So saying, the salesman has withdrawn a
preferences for certain compositions and a will-
ingness to hear any selection of good music Brunswick record made by Wendell Hall, and
at least once. Their who*le attitude toward invites the customer to a demonstration booth.
music has changed and thev now realize that 'You probably realize that Wendell Hall doesn't
musical enjoyment is not relegated to the select sing in New York every night or even every
I
ESTABLISHED 1862
month,' he will say, placing the record on a
Panatrope. 'In fact, he may be in California this
very minute, but I can tune him in any time at
all with a talking machine. When you finish
with that record, let me play one made by the
Radio Franks, you can't get them on your radio
any more, because they don't sing together
nowadays.'
"These tactics may sound cut-and-dried, but
they actually work," continued Mr. Mayers.
"Of course, occasionally the procedure is dif-
ferent; a man may be interested only in dance
music. This is an easy class to interest in
records, in fact, they come into the store fre-
quently to ask the name of a jazz selection be-
ing played on a record through the sidewalk
demonstrator. Anyone coming into the store in
this way is invited to a booth to hear the record
privately with no obligation to buy, but we have
found that he generally docs buy the record.
"The richest field is in interesting the lover of
symphonic or operatic music, who has gained
his insight through his radio experience. There
will be plenty of selections by his favorite com-
poser that he has never heard because he never
happened to tune in at the right time. His eyes
will light up when he hears a full symphony
over the improved phonograph, free of static
and reproducing perfectly the tone of each in-
strument. You understand that our salesmen
never talk against the radio, because it is an in-
tegral part of our business. We simply point
out that the radio can't do everything and that
there are distinct advantages in owning a
phonograph as well."
Another point brought out by Mr. Mayers
applies to inducing record buyers to vary their
selections occasionally and thus widen their
range of musical enjoyment. He classifies the
record-buying public as follows: 1. Buyers of
classical music. 2. Buyers of semi-classical and
ballad music. 3. Buyers of dance music and
popular songs. He states that it is surprising
how many of the firm's customers are inter-
ested only in records of a certain taste. En-
thusiasts of popular music rarely listen to a
classical or semi-classical selection and vice-
versa.
"We have found by experiment," he stated,
"that it is an easy matter to switch a man's in-
terest from class to class, and often, by playing
a tuneful ballad for a person mainly interested
in operatic records, we create a new buyer for
that class of records. In the same way, we can
get a buyer of these classes to become inter-
(Continued on page 9)
L'A.UTER
NEWARK, N. J
ONE OF AMERICA'S FINE PIANOS
GRANDS
UPRIGHTS
THE LAUTER-HUMANA

Download Page 4: PDF File | Image

Download Page 5 PDF File | Image

Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).

Pro Tip: You can flip pages on the issue easily by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.