Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1929 Vol. 88 N. 14

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
WESTERN COMMENT
The Portent at Chicago
Oi'FKK, CHICAGO, I I I . , April 1. Y)2 { ).
T H E appointment of Adam Schneider to be Executive Secretary
of the Chicago Piano and Organ Association may seem to be a small
matter, but in fact it involves considerations
transcending the mere local importance of the
Merely
event. What has happened may be better ex-
Local
plained by saying that in the second city of the land
a representative body, holding within its membership all the leading
houses of the music industries, has decided to endow one man with
very wide powers and responsibilities in order that the triction.
enmity and bad feeling, in normal times considered almost essential
to the conduct of business, may in these abnormal times so far as
possible be eliminated. In fact, if one may judge from the verbal
expressions which have been heard since Mr. Schneider accepted
the ap[H>intment, a generally present feeling is that his powers ought
if anything to have been made even wider and more summary. To
anyone who knows the practical conditions in which the piano busi-
ness has been carried on in Chicago during these many years, the
action of the Piano & Organ Association comes as cause for admira-
tion, not unmixed with astonishment.
RLVIKW
O F course, when skies are clear and all is merry as a marriage bell,
business men spend a little time taking thought how they should con-
duct themselves in business. They are content to
What's
] e t fig Ures speak for them and to assume that all
is well if only the earnings are satisfactory to the
day. It is w'hen skies are clouded and the bottom
seems to have dropped out of business that men begin to take
thought of their conduct and to ask themselves whether they can
rind salvation by an eleventh-hour act of repentance. Assuredly it
would be better to repent in days of prosperity; but to wait until
the tide has turned to an ebb of distressing rapidity is after all
very human. Instead, then, of taking the opportunity to say smart
things, let us ask ourselves what this new move—for it is a new-
one in this particular sense—is likely to signify for the industry
in general.
I F we put aside, as we ought to, all non-essential considerations,
we have to admit that the present difficulties of the piano industry
are mainly to be found in the domain of merchan-
Healer
dising. Changes in merchandising may be made,
of
happily, overnight. Changes in technical matters,
Wounds
in the nature of the instrument, must unhappily
have always to wait upon, first the realization and then the solu-
tion of many obscure problems. In a word, it takes a, year to
change a piano but you can change your way of selling that piano
in two minutes. Now, the retail end of the piano industry has been
going through very deep waters during the last year or so. Well-
established houses have had to fight to keep themselves going. In
the natural cause of events, a good deal of intra-trade bitterness,
a good many bad practices and a general letting down,of,the ethical
bars not unnaturally have developed. On the other hand, the wiser
men in the Chicago trade have clearly seen that just now what is
needed is certainly not anything that will further weaken the cause
of trade solidarity. They have seen that it is the height'of Tolly to in-
dulge in factional warfare among themselves while the enemy is at-
tacking. And so thev have induced their associates to consent to the
other trades and again of outside agencies, such as school boards,
better business bureaus and so on, to this trade. The gentlemen
who have done this may not realize what a large step forward they
have taken. But it is absolutely certain that if they back up their
promises by performance, they will soon find themselves wondering
how they ever did manage for so long in the old way.
L\ every industry at this time similar movements seem to be under-
way. The history of the garment trades during recent years offers
a case in point. Those who know how a bitter and
Organization disastrous guerrilla warfare of years' standing, be-
and
tween employers and employed, has been turned
Solidarity
into peaceable agreement and how steps have been
taken to arbitrate business difficulties which of old were fought out
to the death, realize that here the old order can never be born
again. Those who discern the signs of the times are well aware
that the whole industrial tendency is towards gigantic struggles of
one industry against another, struggles compared with which the
bitterest fights inside any one industry become as child's play. The
music industries are in the irritating position of being at once small
in magnitude and loose in organization. They deal in essential
goods, which nevertheless must be sold always against plausible
and formidable counter-attraction. They are old-established, but
they have never been able to build up their annual turnover to very
large figures, so that their most important manufacturing units are
relatively small and of relatively slight financial resources. They
need, as no other industry needs, organization and a sense of soli-
darity. Precisely this is what they have alwavs lacked, but precisely
th:s is what the Chicago move makes one hope is not altogether im-
possible. The music trades have been very slow to wake up. Rut
it does begin to appear that at least the preliminary stirrings are
under wav.
THIS is the time for unity, not for separation. This is the time for
a common purpose and a common program, not for a struggle to
steal prospects from each other. The piano indus-
Time
try is in the middle of a fight for life. It is
for
threatened on every hand. The other music in-
Unity
dustries are in only a somewhat better position.
On all sides one can see the dangers, on all sides one can hear the
noise of a clamorous competition, well organized, well backed, ag-
gressive and confident. We piano men, and indeed we music men
generally, are indeed beginning to rouse ourselves from our slum-
ber. Hut we must not put off the complete awakening too long.
And it is such acts as the appointment of a responsible official to
^compose intra-trade differences which make one hope and believe
that the realization has come in time. The first great need is to
compose forthwith all differences among the members of the trade
in each community where enmity has been rife. The second is to
realize that the one hope of the music industries lies in promoting
active interest in the performance of music by as many persons as
can be induced to take up the task of learning to play a musical
instrument. It is not as if this were something novel and untried.
Trade associations really worth their salt, associations that make
practical use of- the} activities of officials clothed by them with
adequate powers, an be* weakened do at this moment exist in several
appointment of a local trade arbiter, in the person of, a..man i
fitted for the position and trusted by all as no other man,..in the com- ^ gjndustries, notably, tcj take one example only, in the automotive field'.
munity is trusted. And they have said in effect to £n!s "man that"" The thing is being done by.others. Cannot it then be done by us?
they will put in his hand, and abide- by his...d ; ecisi^ns/[OH^questip-n|\J) l^Carj^It Shall. It Will!
—W;B.
affecting the relations of one house to aho'therV"oT"this trade to
.
12
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13
The Music Trade Review
APRIL 6, 1929
1928 Proves a Record
Cable Co/s Style Show a Striking
Year for Steinway & Sons
Presentation of Artistic Models
Retail and Export Business Shows Marked
Increase During Year—Annual Meeting of
Stockholders
The annual meeting of the stockholders of
Steinway & Sons was held at the headquarters
>>f the company, 109 West Fifty-seventh street,
New York, on Monday of this week, at which
meeting a report of the business affairs of the
company was made and all officers and directors
from President Theodore E. Steinway down the
line re-elected.
In every way the annual report of the com-
pany was most satisfactory. More straight
pianos were sold during 1928 than during any
previous year in Steinway history. The retail
business in New York was of record-breaking
volume and the export trade of the company
was 10 per cent ahead of any previous year.
Wholesale business during 1928 was very sat-
isfactory and has continued to show gains
during the first three months of the current
year, as have all other departments of the com-
pany, including the retail branches in the Middle
West.
This report of Steinway & Sons would seem
to indicate that there is piano business to be
had not only in this country but throughout the
world for an organization with prestige in back
of it and the ability to capitalize sales possi-
bilities.
American Guild of Organists
to Convene in Memphis
March 30.—The annual con-
vention of the American Guild of Organists
will be held in Memphis June 4, 5 and 6, bring-
ing to the city between 400 and 500 of the lead-
ing organists of the country. The meeting is
to be held jointly with the convention of the
Tri-State Guild of Organists, and will mark
the first time that the organists of the Ameri-
can Guild has meet in the South. Adolph
Steuterman, dean of the Tennessee Chapter,
Memphis, is chairman of the convention
arrangements committee. Part of the program
will be devoted to exhibition playing. The ses-
sions will probably take place at the Auditorium
and there it will have the use of the new pipe
organ.
MEMPHIS, TK.NN.,
The D.Ttiks-FowIer Music Co. has opened a
new store at 817 I'roadway, Cape Girardeau,
Mo.
PHILIP W. OETTING & SON, Inc.
213 East 19th Street, New York
An Important Milestone in Trade Achievement Might Well Characterize
Piano Style Show of The Cable Co. Which Was Opened Late Last Month
pointed Salons of that Concern in the Cable Building, Chicago. A Pictorial
Models on Display Is Reproduced Above and Gi ves Some Idea of the Highly
of These New Models in Pianoforte Design and Finish
R. A. Burke Takes to Air
on Tour of West Indies
R. A. Burke, sales manager of the Story &
Clark Piano Co., Chicago, who is at present on
a tour of the West Indies, was last heard from
in Havana from which point a letter reached
headquarters from. Mr. Burke, in which he
stated that he had flown to that city from
Nassau via Miami. Mr. Burke had planned to
fly from l'orto Rico to Havana as a means of
saving time, but found the service discontinued
because of inadequate landing fields.
Contest Winner in Recital
Johanna Siragusa, the winner of Chicago's
Annual Piano-Placing Contest last year, gave a
complimentary recital in the recital hall on the
third floor of the Fine Arts Building, Tuesday,
March 26. A number of members of the trade
were present to hear this young promising
artist.
SO.'.E AGENTS FOR
WEICKERT
Hammer and Damper Felts
Goldberg Bros., Richmond, Va., local distribu-
tors for the Freshman radio line, will give a
dinner to the dealers in that city on April 10.
the Second Annual
in the Finely Ap-
Glimpse of the Art
Artistic Appearance
Weilage Made Retail Head
William H. Weilage has been appointed re-
tail manager for the three stores of the Baldwin
Piano Co. in Greater New York, located at 20
East Fifty-fourth street and also in Yonkers
and Jamaica. Mr. Weilage has been identified
with the main Baldwin showrooms for about
four years and has until recently been floor
manager there. He has been associated with
the piano business in New York for many years,
having previously been connected with Landay
Bros., Story & Clark Piano Co. and others.
Joseph Byrne, formerly a traveler for the J. P.
Seeburg Piano Co., Chicago, has been appointed
manager of the Norristown, Pa., store of the Cun-
ningham Piano Co.
The United Music Co., has opened a new
branch store in Olneyville, K. 1.
AMERICAN
PIANO WIRE
"Perfected"
"Crown"
AMERICAN STEEL & WIRE COMPANY
Subsidiary of I'nited States Steel Corporation
Chicago—New York—and all Principal Cities
THE REVIEW'S UNIVERSAL "WANT" DIRECTORY
NY member of the music trade may
forward to this office a "position
L
wanted" advertisement intended
for this Department, to occupy four
lines agate measure, and it will be in-
serted free. Replies will also be for-
warded without cost. Additional space
charged at the rate of 25c per line. If
bold-faced type is desired, the cost for
same will be 25c a line, 7 words to a line.
"Help Wanted" advertisements will be
charged for at the rate of 25c per Kne.
Cash must accompany order.
Business Opportunities and For Sale
advertisements inserted as display space
only at $7.00 per single column inch.
All advertisements intended for this
, department must be in hand on the Sat-
urday preceding date of issue.
A
WANTED—A competent, energetic sales-
man in piano department. Business is good in
this section and good with us. Will A. Watkin
Co., Dallas, Tex.
POSITION WANTED^Highly successful sales manager
for piano store. Thoroughly experienced in all branches
(if work, first-class salesman as well as executive with
good record. Seeks permanent connection where com-
pensation will be commensurate with performance. Ad
dress Box 3317, care The Music Trade Review, 420 Lex-
ington Avenue, New York City.
POSITION WANTED—by A-l tuner and player me-
chanic, steady and reliable. Address Box 3319, Music
Trade Review, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York City.
POSITION WANTED by fine tuner; reliable, competent
for all up-to-date piano work and instrument repairing.
Thirty years experience. Address Box 3318, care The
Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
City.
POSITION WANTED—First-class tuner and player
technician,'good character, very reliable and honest, seeks
.connection. Can furnish excellent references. Address
Box 3320, Music Trade Review, 120 Lexington Avenue,
New York City.
POSITION WANTED—By combination tuner, phono-
graph repairer and salesmen in store. Twelve years' ex
perience.
Excellent references.
Guaranteed mechanic,
can rebuild and refinish grand or player. Write Box 3313.
care The Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington Avenue,
New York.
POSITION WANTED—by tuner-playerman. Reliable
in character and ability. (References.) Extensive ex-
POSITION WANTED—Do
you need a sales manager
perience on playerwork. Competent and accurate me-
will increase your c ales and promote big business?
chanic. Write Box 3321, Music Trade Review, 420 Lcx- who
If you do, write A. C. llouck, 147 Beethoven Street, Bing-
uit*, Xsw-.York City,
.
hamton, - N. Y. —

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