Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Music Trade Review
>'
A P R I L 6, 192$
•'••<„••.
Two New Sonora Models Are Popular
instead of at harps is beyond me. I suppose
the freight rates to Paradise are too heavy.
These ideas arc not the emanations of my
own brilliant mind. I am simply passing on
to you the well grounded and positive convic-
tions of the men of thought and experience in
cur piano trade.
So let us keep plugging and hammering at
it, and we will soon pass out of the fog we
are now in—into clear weather, and to partici-
pate in some of this prosperity that Washing-
ton tells us is lying around loose all over the
land.
-- - - ; .
Yours,
'
E. Bennett Fox
Sherman, Clay & Go. Give
Figures on 1928 Business
The Sonora A-30 Console Model
*T*WO of the most popular models in the
line of the Sonora Phonograph Co., Inc.,
are the radio receivers A-32, in an attractive
highboy casing, and the A-30, an effective con-
sole style. Both models are selling well in
every part of the country, which indicates the
full acceptance by the public.
The recent downward division of prices on
the various models in the Sonora line has served
to further increase an already substantial de-
mand for the company's products, according to
A. J. Kendrick, vice-president and general sales
manager.
The A-32 in Attractive Highboy Cabinet.
The Voice of a Piano Traveler
U* DITOR, The Music Trade Review:—
^
In these times of stress and uncertainty
in our piano trade, we are often given to medi-
tating on current conditions, and the devils
of doubt often creep in as to what, if any, is
the future in the piano business.
For some time the hue and cry was "What
is the matter with the piano business." After
many of us had taken a crack at guessing what
that matter was, time, as it generally does, dis-
closed what it was. The changing life in the
country had had much to do with causing the
let down in the piano buying, and the atten-
tion of the people has temporarily been turned
to other things. Yes, the much hammered at
radio and autmobiles are having their influence.
But it cannot be emphasized too strongly that
this present condition of the trade is only tem-
porary.
In traveling about in the trade, I have naturally
had opportunity to discuss conditions with
many of the most able, experienced, and far-
sighted men in the business, such as H. H.
MacDonald, MacDonald & Schwartz, Boston;
Charles E. Jackson, Cable Co., Chicago; Ed-
ward Keiselhorst and Phillip Lehman, St.
Louis; Eugene Whclan, Fred S. Moffet, and
James V. Sill, of W. W. Kimball Co., Chicago,
and others.
It has been a great source of encouragement
to realize that these men are united in an un-
shaken faith in the excellent future for the
piano business.
They also universally agree on these salient
points: that piano playing instruction classes
in the various methods now in use, both among
the dealers and in public schools, such as Curtis
System, Melody Way, Fun Method, etc., com-
bined with piano playing contests, are building
a firm and solid foundation for a steady and
perpetual market for pianos, checking the per-
iodic (for that is all the present condition is)
reaction in the business, operating much as
the Federal Reserve System does in checking
financial depressions.
•These influences should naturally, in a time,
have their effect on the foreign piano business and
so-build up a substantial export trade for those
of our factories which cater to this feature.
All this will naturally take tiine, possibly a
couple of years, as it will not spring up over-
night. Anything permanent and worth while,
as we all know, is not passed around on silver
platters, but takes much planning and work,
such as the Music Industries Chamber of Com-
merce is doing continuously.
It is pretty hard for many in the retail trade
to see this yet, of course. The poor old dealer
has been much railed at for not working hard
enough, selling too much radio, etc., but in his
defense I tell you \n his daily grind, whether
he be in a fine piano salon on Wabash avenue,
or Fifth avenue, or on Main street, South
Applesauce, Ohio, the repeated rebuffs he re-
ceives at the hands of his prospects gets under
the skin, eventually, of the best man.
It's the same old story in all localities—"We
never use our old pianos, so why buy a new
one," "My brother's family never play theirs
and I can have it any time I want it," "We
are seldom home, and when we are we turn
en the radio and get all the music we want,"
and ad infinitum. It takes strong arguments to
leap these hurdles, and we are not all strong
salesmen.
If general business conditions in a town are
at low ebb, it swings the piano to near the last
among the necessities. But if we can just keep
plugging at it a little while longer the tide will
commence to turn.
There will always be radio business in vol-
ume, but a receiving set in the home will be
taken as a matter of course and not an ob-
jective. Incidentally, improvements in con-
struction and merchandising methods of sets
will stabilize the radio business to permit bet-
ter profits to the dealers.
Meanwhile we will be resuscitating the piano
and putting it back on its pedestal as the
greatest and most glorious musical instrument
that God ordained man to make. Why our
artists have never put the angels at keyboards
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., March 29.—Figures were
given out yesterday regarding Sherman, Clay &
Co.'s 1928 operations, although net results for
the year were not announced. The company's
total revenue in 1928 was reported as $7,547,809
which compares with $8,111,570 for 1927. The
current position of the business as indicated by
the annual balance sheet will show ratio of 4'A
to 1, it was stated, against approximately 5 to 1
the previous year.
Profits for 1928 were affected by develop-
ments in" the radio field and the consequent
necessity the company was under of having to
close out large quantities of battery sets at re-
duced prices to make room for the new elec-
trically-operated sets. The company's piano
business was nearly normal, and total prospects
for 1929 are considered excellent.
Pittsburgh Dealers Pass
Resolution on New Radios
Strongly Oppose Practice of Introducing New
Lines of Instruments Immediately Following
Fall and Holiday Selling Season
PITTSBURGH, PA., April 1.—The executive
committee of the Radio Council of the Pitts-
burgh Chamber of Commerce, A. A. Buelin,
chairman, adopted the following recommenda-
tion, which is self-explanatory:
"Upon motion made and duly seconded, it is
the action of this council that it recommend as
a matter of record, its wish to strongly oppose
the practice of introducing new radio sets di-
rectly following the large retail selling season
of the late Fall and holiday season, because of
the disturbing influence of such practice on
existing and newly negotiated leases, on which
very small payments have been made; and
further, that copies of this resolution be sent
to all radio associations, including the Feder-
ated Radio Trade Association, the Radio Manu-
facturers Association, a,nd Associated Manufac-
turers of Electrical Supplies, encouraging that
these organizations lend their influence and sup-
port to carry out the procedure set forth in this
recommendation."
Breakfast Glub Formed
SAN FRANCISCO, CAI.., March 30.—A breakfast
club of radio retailers was organized here re-
cently and E. Roy Nash, president of the retail-
ers' group of the Pacific Radio Trade Associa-
tion, was in general charge of the meeting in
the roof garden of the Hotel Whitcomb. The
chief speaker was Ray Brouillot, who gave out
a lot of rapid-fire sales energy, a,s becomes one
who is conducting sales campaigns for several
companies, and is editor of several books on
salesmanship.
Wesit rwlt Terhune, district manager for the
Columbia Phonograph Co., was in New Orleans
for f wo days last week and visited William
Stundki, president of the Standke Music Co.,
as well as other local Columbia dealers.