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The Music Trade Review
ffiWFW
(Registered in the U. S. Patent Office)
Published Every Saturday by
Federated Business Publications, Inc.
at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
President, Raymond Bill; Vice-Presidents, J. B. Spillane, Randolph Brown; Secre-
tary and Treasurer, Edward Lyman Bill; Assistant Secretary, L. B. McDonald;
Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
B. BRITTAIN WILSON, Editor
CARLETOD CHACE, Business Manager
would have lagged and been subordinated to many other factors.
Especially is it important at such times as this, when the in-
dustry is slowly but surely returning to the first principle of music,
when through solidarity of thought and action it is steadily spread-
ing the gospel of personal enjoyment and creation through the med-
ium of the keyboard, that such recognition and encouragement came
as a stimulant to continue this creative road of accomplishment.
No one could have better summed up the life work of Mr.
Urchs than has Mr. Downes in this article. And every piano man,
be he manufacturer, traveler, dealer or retail salesman, will read
it with a feeling of deep gratitude that the industry of which he is
part has been capable of developing such men and has given more
than it has received through the example of such careers, a gratitude
mixed with deep regrets that the vital contribution which Mr.
Urchs made, not only to American culture and artistic appreciation
but to the basic development of the industry which can fully claim
him, ended only too soon.
W. H. MCCLEARY, Managing Editor
RAY BIIA, Associate Editor
F. L. AVERY, Circulation Manager
E. B. MUNCH, Eastern Representative
WESTERN DIVISION:
BOSTON OFFICE:
FRANK W. KIRK, Manager
E. J. NEALY
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
333 No. Michigan Ave., Chicago
Telephone: State 1266
Telephone:
Telephone: Main 6950
Lexington 1760-71
Cable:
Elbill New York
No. 4
July 28, 1928
Vol. 87
N
JULY 28, 1928
The Late Ernest Urchs
O greater recognition has ever come to the piano in-
dustry in its relationship to music than the tribute to
the late Ernest Urchs, by Olin Downes, which ap-
peared in the New York Times, and which is reprinted on another
page of this issue of The Review. Nor has any article ever more
implicity emphasized the great work which has been accomplished
by the piano industry in fostering and developing music among the
American public.
It is such personalities as that of Mr. Urchs and such work as
is carried on by the House of Steinway, for so many years under
his direction, that basically is the justification of the piano industry's
existence and continuance as a vital element in the cultural forces
of the country. We of the industry have long recognized this fact.
Too often it is neglected, however, in the commercial side of the
industry's development. Too widely the public have passed it over
and forgotten it. Yet without that work the great artistic contribu-
tion which the industry has made to the country could never have
taken place, and the commercial development of the industry itself
Where Remedies Must Start
ONCENTRATION means piano sales. That is the con-
clusion to which Dan F. Summey, of Cincinnati, came
after a trip of weeks' duration through the territory
which he covers as a wholesale representative for two of the leading
piano manufacturers in the industry.
Mr. Summey's reaction to his personal discoveries in the field
differs little from that of many other men who have made similar
personal investigations. The wide variation found in the sales
method of dealers working in the same territory they have found
almost invariably reflected in the wide variation of piano sales vol-
ume which these dealers report. More and more is the conclusion
growing, a conclusion forced by concrete evidence, that laxity in
selling work on the part of many dealers is the primary cause of
the depression through which the piano industry is passing at the
present time.
Retail specialty selling has been revolutionized during the past
decade, a revolution created by new elements of competition which
the retail piano dealer has been forced to meet. Unless he has
changed his own methods to meet these changed conditions he is
suffering. Those who nave intelligently realized this change and
who have modified their methods to meet it have successfully over-
come these new elements and are selling. Those who have failed
to do this find -sales far between. For the trouble to-day is not with
the piano, its popularity, the position it occupies in the public's
estimation, the basic demand that exists for it; the trouble is with
the way the piano is sold and the selling energy and intelligence
which are placed behind it. From the realization of that fact all
remedies must start.
Music Pays Tribute
B. D. Karraker Manager of
Frank Bayley Moves
Lyon & Healy, Evanston
to Late Ernest Urchs
Detroit Music Store
(Continued from page 7)
little disrespectful and frivolous. He could not
sing, since, unlike his father, he had not many
notes in his voice, but he could whistle any
measure you please of "Meistersinger" or "Got-
terdammerung," or repeat you much of the text.
But he literally could not whistle a bar of
"popular" music!
How much more could be said of this true
and heartening companion, friend and, as it was
happily put a few days ago, "sponsor of music"!
How little can ever be expressed or inscribed of
the realities of a man's life and nature, and the
things that they mean to his fellows! But those
that gathered to pay the last respects, those that
sent messages from all over America and from
much of the rest of the world on that occasion,
and those who were silent but who remembered,
know his reality, feel his handicap, and under-
stand him. And they know that he has not left
us.
Coulter's, Music Shop has moved from 417
Main street, Joplin, Mo., to new quarters at
210 West Fourth street, where additional dis-
play space is available.
EVANSTON, I I I . , July 21.—A new local branch
of Lyon & Healy, Inc., Chicago, was opened
recently in the Artcraft Building on Davis
street with B. D. Karraker as manager. The
company has leased the first floor of the build-
ing for twenty-six years and has spent about
$30,000 on alterations. The warerooms present
an attractive appearance with two arcade win-
dows and the body of the first floor has been
finished in walnut and plaster. A full line of
pianos, phonograyhs, sheet music, records and
radio is handled at the new branch, which is the
largest of the company's four branch stores and
the first one to be opened by Lyon & Healy in
the Chicago suburbs.
Logan & Jeffords Open
Ernest Logan and Delphine Jeffords have
opened the Gateway Music House in the Estes
Arcade Building, Haines City, Fla., handling
a full stock of music goods.
Consult
the Universal
The Review.
Want
Directory of
DKTROIT,
MICH.,
July
25.—Frank
Bayley has
moved his music store to 1455 Broadway—
about a half-block north of his former location.
His new store is much larger and will permit
of carrying larger stocks. One important an-
nouncement by Mr. Bayley is that he is now
handling a complete line of Victor Orthophonic
machines and Victor records, in addition to
more radio lines, sheet music and some small
goods.
W. F. Troup Dies
HARRISBURC, PA., July 18.—W. F. Troup, a mem-*
her of the firm of Troup Bros., piano and music
merchants at 8 North Market square, this city,
died in the Harrisburg Hospital following an
attack of heart disease while in the store. He
was sixty-nine years of age and had been a
member of the firm for the past twenty years.
His widow, a son and a daughter and three
brothers, Abram C , Louis A. and John H.
Troup, survive, as well as three sisters. He is
a member of a family widely known in retail
musical instrument selling.