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CHICAGO AND THE MIDDLE WEST
Frank W. Kirk, Manager, 333 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Charles Frederick Stein to Show
Four New Grands at the Convention
Wellman Appointed
Radio Sales Director
usual fact that the Chas. Frederick Stein grand
piano business continues to be highly satisfac-
tory to Mr. Stein in the sense that he has all
the orders at the moment he can fill with his
present organization. This unusual position at
the present time he attributes to the growing
appreciation by professional pianists of his in-
struments and the enthusiasm of the dealers
who have his franchise.
A local concert pianist of note, M. Ziolkowski,
who is head of the Columbia School of Music
in Chicago, used a Chas. Frederick Stein 7-foot
grand for the second time at a concert given
here May 2, and the next day wrote the follow-
ing unsolicited letter:
"Charles Frederick Stein Prano Co., 3047 Car-
roll avenue, Chicago. My dear Mr. Stein:—I
can't help telling you how much I enjoyed your
concert grand. Your piano is to me what a
palette is to the painter. As the painter is able
to put all his artistic ideas on the canvas by
means of his palette, so am I able to express all
my musical thoughts on your piano by means
of the rich modulation of the keyboard.
"With best wishes for the Charles Frederick
Stein grands, I remain, Very sincerely yours,
Mieczyslaw Ziolkowski
(signed) M. Ziolkowski."
and his present plan is to exhibit four Stein
This praise is of the same character as the
grands, a 5-foot 2-inch, 6-foot and a 7-foot, each
comment
of Carl Schleur, of Cleveland, D., who,
of them of the Colonial period in mahogany
in a recent concert, used Style E 7-foot Stein
cases, and a 5-foot 2-inch Queen Anne in wal-
grand, and after the concert told the Cleveland
nut. Mr. Stein and Mr. Madden will make their
agent, A. H. Miller, "It is all that any pianist
headquarters there during convention week.
could wish for."
Meanwhile, an important business connection
Another gratifying feature of the growing
called the founder of the house to the East and
prestige of the Stein piano in the eyes of its
he will visit Boston and several other New Eng-
maker is the way it is being advertised by its
land points before returning to Chicago.
agents, and their success in selling to the musi-
Mention has previously been made of the un-
cally cultured and wealthy residents of the
communities where the Stein piano has a repre-
sentative. These sales are made on a quality
basis, not on price appeal, as this class select
home equipment on artistic merit.
vice-president of the Electrical Research Lab-
oratories, has been appointed director of radio
CHICAGO, II.I., May 27.—Fred Wellman, former
p H A S , FREDERICK STEIN, maker of the
^ ^ fine grand bearing his name, announces that
he has secured rooms R211-214 in the Hotel
Drake for the week of the piano convention,
Marshall Finds Fighting
Dealers Getting Business
Sales Manager of Packard Piano Co., on Re-
turn From Extended Western Trip, Has
Some Pertinent Comments to Make
FT. WAYNE,
IND., May 25.—W. B. Marshall,
..ales manager of the Packard Co., is back at
the Ft. Wayne plant, after an extended trip
.n the West, and on the Pacific Coast His
observations emphasize the fact that the dealer
who is fighting hard for piano business is get-
ting it, though business in the main was some-
what spotty. As he told a representative of
The Review:
"A great many houses are pitching in hard
for piano business, in spite of the fact that
some dealers seemed to be mentally sick, and
to have temporarily lost their pep, and those
aggressive dealers were getting a very satis-
factory amount of piano business. This proves
very conclusively that there is piano business to
be had if the dealers and their salesmen will go
after it, but they have got to go after it. I
found many stores that seemed to be selling
nothing but second-hand pianos. But on the
other hand, many more firms who were fight-
ing the second-hand menace very strongly, and
those who were doing so were selling new
pianos rather than second-hands, to their
greater profit.
"One thing that struck me as especially sig-
nificant and cheerful was the fact that these
dealers who were selling new pianos and
fighting aggressively for business were making
a great success with an effective argument
they were using to sell to homes where there
were children. As they put it to the parents:
'Why should you purchase a second-hand piano
for a finely furnished home, when you would
not dream of going down to some of the shops
and purchasing second-hand shoes, second-hand
clothes or a second-hand hat for those chil-
dren? A child will practice much more happily
on a new instrument than he or she will on
an old worn-out piano, and parents have no
right, when they can afford better things, to
expect their children to get anywhere if they
do not give them the right kind of an instru-
ment to practice on.' "
Simon Cooper to Display
Sostenuto Piano in Chicago
Simon Cooper, Brooklyn, N. Y., inventor of
a new magnetic system for developing and
sustaining the tone of the piano, and who has
shown an instrument equipped with this inven-
tion in the East on several occasions, will
have one of his instruments, which he calls the
"Sostenuto" piano, on exhibition in one of the
studios in the Cable Company building, Jack-
son and Wabash avenues, Chicago, during the
convention.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review.
11
Fred Wellman
sales of the (lulbransen Co., following the an-
nouncement of the new radio mass production
program of the company.
Mr. Wellman brings to the Gulbranscn Co.
an intimate knowledge of radio merchandising
gained through experience dating back to the
industry's earliest days. As one of the found-
ers of the Radio Manufacturers' Association,
Mr. Wellman has proved for years an unob-
trusive but effective agency for the betterment
of radio in all its phases, and a consistent ad-
vocate of co-operative relations between vari-
ous branches of the industry designed to pro-
mote the welfare and prosperity of each.
Dreibelbis to Remodel
The Dreibelbis Music Co., Butte, Mont, has
let contracts for the remodeling of the Balti-
more Block in that city, which will be occu-
pied by the company when alterations are com-
pleted. The work will cost in the neighbor-
hood of $35,000, and, when it is completed,
several new departments will be added, includ-
ing art goods, housefurnishings, etc.
The Florida Music House, Tampa, Fla., has
been incorporated with capital stock of $10,-
000 by M. E. Turner, G. W. King and Kathryn
Vance.
Carl Seder's Music store, Jewell Bldg., Trum-
bell Square, Worcester, Mass., has suffered a
smoke loss as the result of a fire in that build-
ing.
BOARDMAN 6c GRAY
Reproducing (Welte Lic'e) Grand and Up-
right Pianos are pianists' and tuners' favor-
ites for Quality and Durability. Est. 1837.
Art Styles a Specialty—Send for Catalog
Factory and Wardrooms
7, 9 & 11 Jay St., Albany, N. Y.