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JANUARY 28, 1928
The Music Trade Review
Dealers' Executive Board Meeting Held
(Continued from page 5)
trade organization and every individual member
of the trade should take an active interest, and
urged that support should be prompt when
requested by those who are in touch with af-
fairs at Washington and will be able to judge
just when country-wide pressure is needed. In
the meantime he suggested that as many as pos-
sible of the trade communicate with members
of the Senate Finance Committee in an effort
to giving them a proper understanding of the
unfairness of the measure as it now stands.
Afternoon Session
At the opening of the afternoon session Presi-
dent Roberts read telegrams of regret from
Parnham Werlein, New Orleans, and Shirley
Walker, of San Francisco. He also read a let-
ter from R. M. Grunewald, L. Grunewald, Ltd.,
New Orleans, emphasizing the fact that in as
much as the Mississippi River drained fully a
third of the United States, the problem of con-
trolling that river's floods was one of national
rather than of local interest.
The secretary was instructed to communicate
to the members of the Association to decide
whether or not they desired, in connection with
the June convention, an advertising exhibit or
or a display of Music Week window displays
or both as had been the custom at previous
gatherings. Charles H. Yahrling suggested that
% prize or prizes be offered for the best plan
for conducting group instruction classes by
dealers, and it was voted to appropriate $200
to cover the cost for such a contest.
The question of the annual banquet also pro-
voked considerable commotion, although no
definite plans were made. It was voted, how-
ever, to place in the hands of the president all
arrangements for the annual banquet, he being
given full power to engage the services of some
one whom he considered competent to handle
this important convention feature.
Secretary Loomis was particularly enthusias-
tic over the manner in which the manufacturers
had supported the Association in the special
promotion stamp which has resulted in sufficient
revenue to finance a number of projects, in-
cluding the meeting of the Piano Section of the
Committee on Instrument Music of the Music
Supervisors' National Conference.
The National Association has at the present
time ten affiliated State associations, viz., north- •
em California, southern California, Illinois, In-
diana, Maryland, Michigan, New York, North
Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and six
of these organizations were represented at the
meeting of the Executive Committee.
Among those who attended the sessions of
the Executive Board were C. J. Roberts, Balti-
more, president; Chas. H. Yahrling, Youngs-
town, O., and A. Z. Moore, Lancaster, Pa., vice-
presidents; Otto B. Heaton, Columbus, O., Jay
Grinnell, Detroit; Alexander McDonald, New
York, and George J. Winter, Erie, Pa., direc-
tors; Robert N. Watkin Dallas, Tex.; M. V. De-
Foreest, Sharon, Pa.; E. Paul Hamilton, Brook-
lyn, N. Y.; Henry Dreher, Cleveland, and Ed-
ward H. Uhl, Los Angeles, of the Advisory
Board of past presidents; Frederick P. Stieff,
Baltimore; W. C. W. Marshall, White River
Junction, Vt.; H. G. Hyde, Courtland, N. Y., m
and W. Otto Miessner, Milwaukee, Wis., of
the Auxiliary Board, made up of representatives
of affiliated local associations, A. P. McCoy,
Hartford, Conn., and Delbert L. Loomis, execu-
tive secretary.
The Dinner
On Thursday evening the members of the
executive committees of the National Associa-^
tion of Music Merchants and the National Piano
Manufacturers' Association, together with the
members of the Board of Directors of the Music
Industries Chamber of Commerce, were the
guests of the New York Piano Manufacturers'
Association and the New York Piano Mer-
chants' Association at a dinner at the Hotel
Commodore, which, from the social standpoint,
proved an unqualified success.
The principal speaker at the dinner was Theo-
dore E. Steinway, president of Steinway & Sons,
who gave a delightful talk, partly humorous and
partly serious, but full of optimism and faith
in the future of the industry. Mr. Steinway
called attention to the marked and steadily in-
creasing interest in music. Not so many years
ago, he said, New York had difficulty in sup-
porting one orchestra, giving a score of con-
certs or so, while to-day there are probably 100
orchestras, including local organizations and
visiting ones, giving hundreds of concerts each
season for many of which it is often impossible
to secure a seat.
The speaker held that the popularity of the
radio and the talking machine were due largely
to simplicity of operation, and that the piano
men were proceeding along the right lines in
endeavoring to simplify the problem of learning
to play their instruments. Withal, he declared,
these other musical instruments were serving
the purpose of increasing musical appreciation
which was bound to react to the benefit of the
piano industry.
It is not a time for fretting, but rather one
for planning to work harder and more earnestly
for the future, he stated. The importance of
the piano as the basic musical instrument is
constantly gaining more recognition and as Mr.
Steinway put it: "We are always going to have
with us that popular three-piece orchestra—•
piano, stool and cover."
The only other speaker was C. J. Roberts,
president of the National Association of Music
Merchants, who made a point of the fact that
although radio and the talking machine might
be competitors of piano men, they were, never-
theless, helping to re-establish American home
life. Hermann Irion, president of the Chamber,
was toastmaster, and during the evening a num-
ber of solos were offered by Norman Jolliff,
baritone. It was a representative gathering of
trade members from California to New York
and Texas to Vermont.
Music Advancement
Committee Holds Meeting
most valuable information. They, too, urged
that the financial support given to the Bureau
be extended as far as possible.
Those of the trade who attended the sessions
included Mark P. Campbell, chairman of the
committee; C. J. Roberts, president of the Na-
tional Association of Music Merchants; C. M.
Tremaine, director of the Bureau; Wm. J.
Haussler, president, National Musical Merchan-
dise Association; Robert N. Watkin, Dallas,
Tex.; Hermann Irion, president of the Chamber;
H. E. Lawrence, of the Standard Pneumatic
Action Co.; E. S. Boykin, executive secretary of
the Sales Promotion Committee of the National
Piano Manufacturers' Association; Franklin
Dunham, director of the Educational Depart-
ment of the Aeolian Co.; R. E. Hopkins, of the
Victor Talking Machine Co.; Kenneth Clark, of
the National Bureau for the Advancement of
Music, and several others.
Fire Damages Stettner
Fire caused considerable damage recently in
the establishment of the Stettner Phonograph
Corp., located on the third floor at 318 East
Seventy-fifth street, New York, when a blaze
started in the drying room of the concern. Sev-
eral radio cabinets in process of construction
were destroyed by the flames.
Pratt Read
Products
P i a n o Ivory
Piano Keys
P i a n o Actions
Player Actions
Chamber of Commerce Committee Reviews
Progress of the Bureau's Work—Educators
Testify to Great Value of Organization
An important meeting of the Music Advance
ment Committee of the Music Industries Cham-
ber of Commerce was held at the headquarters
of the Chamber in New York on Wednesday
of this week to observe the progress that has
been made in the work of the National Bureau
for the Advancement of Music, and to discuss
plans for the future with the very definite idea
in mind of enlarging on that work so far as
possible. Particular attention was given to the
question of the promotion of class-piano instruc-
tion in the schools of the country, and to other
phases of the Bureau's work.
In the course of the meeting Dr. Hollis Dann,
professor of Music Education of New York
University; Lee F. Hammer, Department of
Recreation of the Russell Sage Foundation;
Joseph E. Maddy, chairman of Instrumental
Affairs of the Music Supervisors' National Con-
ference, and Dr. W. Dykema, head of the music
department of Teachers' College, Columbia Uni-
versity, took occasion to express their high ap-
preciation of the work of the Bureau for the
cause of music and music appreciation generally,
and stated that the Bureau had placed at the
command of musical interests a great fund of
Established in
1806
at Deep River, Conn.
Still There
Standard Service and Highest
Quality
Special Repair Departments
Maintained for Convenience
of Dealers
PRATT, READ & CO.
THE PRATT READ
PLAYER ACTION CO.
Oldest and Best
THIS YEAR IT'S LUDWIG PIANOS