Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1929 Vol. 88 N. 5

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WESTERN COMMENT
Schools, Fairs and Telephones
REVIEW OFFICE, CHICAGO, I I I . , JANUARY 28,
1929.
year we all felt so bad, or so it should seem, that when the
program of the annual dinner of the Chicago Piano & Organ Asso-
ciation was under consideration, nothing sug-
gested itself as a feature except something a
thousand miles distant from the piano industry.
Difference
So we listened to a teller of funny stories.
This time, however, it was different. Chicago piano men ap-
parently felt that any industry which could go through a year
like 1928 and survive the experience must be too tough to kill;
and so they made up their minds to sit up and take notice;
to face the facts and to grapple with actualities again. And so
we had two speeches at the P. & O. dinner last Thursday which
had a bearing, very directly and decidedly, on our business.
One of these was by the distinguished musician who is in charge
of music in the Chicago public schools. The other was by the
assistant to President Rufus Dawes of the Chicago 1933 World's
Fair Commission. Dr. Lewis Browne had much to say that was
interesting. In fact, despite his modest disclamor of any accom-
plishments in the line of public speaking, he made a very good talk,
packed full of information, every word of which had an immediate
and vital interest for the piano industry. As might have been ex-
pected, he spoke especially about the experiences of the public
school system of Chicago in offering class instruction in piano to
grammar school pupils at a nominal fee. This experiment has been
going on during some five months. Despite a great and lamentable
shortage of pianos, which Doctor Browne both confessed and de-
plored, it appears that classes are now being held in some two
hundred and fifty schools with almost 7,500 children enrolled. Dr.
Browne alluded to the very generous offer by the Chicago piano
trade, of one hundred pianos on free loan to the Board of Educa-
tion until the end of the present half-year, and he said that this
timely help would probably immediately increase the number of
children taking class piano lessons to 20,000. Now, it must be
perfectly evident that twenty thousand piano pupils in the public
schools will represent at the very least five thousand new and
live prospects for pianos. Dr. Browne told some interesting stories
of children persuading parents to buy cheap second-hand uprights
in order that there might be some sort of piano in the home on
which the child might practice at leisure the lessons learned in
LAST
thought that this has been because of the practice, hitherto always
adopted, of treating it as a sort of entertainment and considering
its providers as amusement concessionaires. The Chicago Fair of
1933 will not only improve the practice, but radically will change
the principle. Music will be presented as one of the great Fine
Arts, will be treated educationally, dramatically, audibly and visibly
on the largest possible scale. Efforts will be made to obtain a co-
operative exhibition, on an adequate scale of magnitude detailing the
history of music and musical instruments, the science of music, the
technology of music and the practice of music as it is, or will be
then. Dr. Albert expects to see music placed in its proper and
rightful high position and he believes that the public will respond
to the occasion.
So much for that, which, by the way, is all to the good and deserves
more than passing attention. Personally I believe that within the
next four years we shall have developments
The
in the sciences which will enable listeners in
Great
all parts of the world to hear every note of
Challenge
music, every speech, every address, delivered
at the Centennial World's Fair. I hardly expect that television
will have become practical on a large scale by that time; but
of course one cannot tell. At any rate, here is something to
be thought of with very great care: Within four years the
music industries of the United States will have presented to them
the opportunity to rise to a great occasion. Music is the modern
art par excellence, the one art which perfectly fits into the modern
rhythm of life. In every other of the liberal arts technical advances
are constantly being made. Consider the case of applied electrical
engineering with its constant output of new and useful appliances.
Consider even the conservative and established furniture industry.
Consider the photographic, optical, graphic and plastic arts. All
are showing technical advances. But the musical arts, for some
extraordinary reason, combine great advances in expression with
complete stagnation in instrumental means. The piano . . . but why
tell an old tale again? Do we not all know that the piano of 1928
is the piano of 1878? And are we not all familiar with the ges-
ture of contempt which greets every effort to stir up new facts and
new ideas? It is an old story and only too well we know it. But
we cannot escape its consequences. 1933 stands ahead of us. Are
we to be the one and only industry, four years from now, boasting
that it is old-fashioned, bragging that it is the same yesterday, to-day
and forever? Are we to take to the Chicago Centennial the plans
and technique which we showed at the Philadelphia Centennial?
the school-classes.
• .
.
i
DR. ALLEN ALBERT, assistant to the president of the Chicago
World's Fair Centennial Celebration of 1933, was equally interest-
ing and equally to the point, albeit in quite an-
F° u r
other way. He came particularly to tell the
Years
assembled piano men what is planned for music,
Ahead
and what part music is to take in the great Fair
which will bring, it is believed, millions of visitors to Chicago
four years from now. Dr. Albert talked a lot of good sense
about something which is of the utmost importance to every
Chicagoan, and for that matter to every other citizen of the
United States. After showing a very interesting group of pic-
tures illustrating the planning and execution of the physical
framework of every great World's Fair since 1893, with pointed
observations on the strong and weak points of each, he went
on to point out that the 1933 event will avoid entirely the old-
time plan of staging competing exhibits in the industries and
arts. Instead, each great industry will be invited to put on a co-
operative exhibit of large size, showing what is being done in that
industry as a whole. Moreover, the music plans are likewise to be
thought out in a new way. Music, strange to sa.y, has always been
one of the weak points of previous World's Fairs, and Dr. Albert
THREE cheers for the Baldwin house. Reports tell us that the
number of pianos made and sold in the various factories and stores
of this great company during the very bad
Cheers
twenty thousand. The
y e a r jo^g w a s a i m o s t
Baldwin
Baldwin people are in the piano business and
they are of the opinion that pianos were made
to be sold. Yesterday a Baldwin canvasser called my telephone
while I was writing some memoranda on recent laboratory work-
in piano tone. He turned out to be a young man to whom
had been assigned all the Whites in the Chicago Telephone di-
rectory and who had been going patiently through them, calling
every number in turn and talking Baldwin piano wherever he could
get a hearing. Hard work, as he confessed, but it is selling pianos.
With three grands in the laboratory and one in the apartment, I
could not promise to buy another, but we had an interesting talk
about piano selling. I have kept account for some six years and
find that three-fourths of the few piano canvassers I have encount-
ered have been Baldwin.
—W. B. W.
10
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
CHICAGO AND THE MIDDLE WEST
Frank W. Kirk, Manager, 333 North Michigan Avenue, Chicago
Modern Merchandising
Demands Concentration
By A. G. Gulbransen
Piano sales that "came easy" in years past
led to some serious abuses, one of them being
the buying and selling of many different lines.
The merchant bought this—the merchant bought
that—it did not make a great deal of difference;
they would all sell.
But in this modern day that policy will not
do. Wise piano merchants realize it and many
of them have cut their lines down to one or
two makes of pianos.
Concentration has proved its soundness in
most other lines of business. The public will
not stand for confusion. Trying to pick a
piano in a store crammed full of different makes
is an almost impossible task. Frequently, after
seeing a customer led through a maze of differ-
ent makes, I wonder how any of them buy in
such a store, YTou can see the look of absolute
bewilderment on their faces as they murmur
that they "will come in again some other time."
The enlightened public to-day expects a mer-
chant who knows his business to pick a good
line, to place his personal endorsement on it,
to have an adequate stock of that particular
line from which to make a choice.
The public expects the merchant to sell
enough of a particular line so that he will be
justified in building up a service department
that will know that product in all its phases.
The public expects the merchant to sell
enough of a product so that he can afford to
make a study of it—to know it in every par-
ticular—to be qualified to talk intelligently.
The public expects salesmen to be trained in
talking up a product. It expects them to have
visited the plant where they are manufactured
and thus to be in position to give some first-
hand facts about it.
No merchant handling 57 varieties can send
his men to 57 different factories to learn the
facts. No merchant can expect his men to as-
similate and understand the actual merits of 57
different varieties of pianos.
l h e merchant can hardly expect the manu-
facturer to take much of an interest in him,
knowing that he, the dealer, is spreading his
interest over such a wide field.
The merchant cannot expect to keep down
his inventory, his investment, as long as he
persists in scattering his purchases. In the keen
battle for business to-day reduced stocks, quick
turnover open the doorway to satisfactory
profits.
The progressive merchant picks a line of
pianos that ha,s a record of consistent success
and growth back of it. He picks a line that has
shown its practicability for the dealer to handle;
a line that has always kept faith with the pub-
lic and that has won respect through proved
satisfaction in actual home service.
Another important angle that the merchant
looks into is the financial responsibility of the
manufacturer. If the dealer is expected to tie
up his money in a line, to put advertising and
selling effort back of it, he has the right to in-
quire into, and should by all means be assured
of, the stability and permanence of the pro-
ducer.
I refer to price last of all because the other
merits must be there; price alone cannot hold
up any proposition. The merchant must care-
fully scrutinize value; must see to it that dol-
lar's-worth is in the product. The public to-day
demands it. Concentration in manufacturing,
in selling, makes it possible to give the people
the great dollar-value that they insist on having.
Chicago Schools Play Leading Role
in Bringing Music Back to Home Life
Dr. J. Lewis Browne, Noted Music Educator, Gives Inspiring Address Before Piano
& Organ Association at 30th Annual Meeting—World's Fair Plans Outlined
f ^ H I C A G O , ILL., January 25.—The Chicago
^
schools are playing a leading role in bring-
ing music back into the home through the pro-
motion of piano class instruction and other in-
strumental work, it was disclosed at the thirtieth
annual dinner of the Chicago Piano & Organ
Association, held Thursday evening, January 24,
at the Union League Club.
Eighty-nine members and guests of the Asso-
ciation heard an important and interesting dis-
course on music in the Chicago public schools
and also the part that music will play in the
coming Chicago World's Fair.
R. J. Cook of the Cable Piano Co., the new
president of the Association launched into the
subject when he emphasized that the introduc-
tion of piano class instruction in the Chicago
schools is sound, and is meeting with a remark-
able response throughout the country.
He
stated that the many inquiries received by the
national bureau for the advancement of music
from cities who are interested in installing
group instruction and the interest shown by edu-
cators who are investigating the possibilities of
music in the schools show that music has its
day.
Dr. J. Lewis Browne, director of music in the
Chicago Public Schools, followed with an inspir-
ing talk on some of the ambitions for music
in the Chicago schools. Mr. Browne outlined
in brief what had been accomplished during the
past five months since the installation of group
piano instruction and what this part of the edu-
cational system means to the local music trade
from a business standpoint. He emphasized that
if the system is not practical from a business
standpoint it would not be artistically, but
assured the gathering from his observations that
it has all the elements of success.
"Plans for the organization of music work
in the Chicago public schools include many
phases," said Dr. Browne. "We are endeavoring
to teach the children to read music so they will
find themselves. In four months we have estab-
lished 432 classes in 283 schools with 349 teach-
ers and 7,398 regular pupils. We have not in-
stalled the system in the junior or senior high
schools, but the possibilities are equally great.
"There arc approximately one-third as many
pianos being manufactured to-day as there were
ten years ago, and since the advent of the radio,
the apartment and the auto, the only hope to
get the piano back into the home is through
the child. All advertising, too, should also
stress the real value of the piano in the home
to educate the people what the piano means.
"The retail dealer should keep a record of
what develops. One dealer who did this and
sold forty used pianos found that sixty-two per
cent came from the results of piano class in-
struction in the schools. The same salesman in
October sold twenty-seven pianos with the ratio
L
U
D
of sales made from class instruction slightly
above the former figure.
"If more pianos a,re not sold as a result of
the group piano class instruction it is not prac-
tical. If you gentlemen at the end of a year
say it is not worth while as a business success,
it will not be artistically. But the developments
show a growth in the system and the necessity
to train and prepare teachers.
"We are also organizing violin classes and
glee club contests as well as classes in vocal
instruction which will be carried out along the
same lines. As the piano is the basic musical
instrument it is necessary to have piano accom-
paniment with violin, voice and other instru-
ments, and if you will co-operate we will soon
open the pianos in 100,000 homes."
The other speaker of the evening Allen D.
Albert, Sc. D., assistant to president of Chicago
World's Fair Centennial Celebration, gave a*n in-
teresting illustrated lecture subject of music for
the celebration of Chicago's 1933 World's Fair.
He stated that the makers of pianos and organs
would unite in one exhibit showing a collective
display representing the beauty of what the
craft has accomplished.
He pointed out that an extensive musical pro-
gram would include an educational music dis-
play showing how music is being taught in the
schools. There will be an international musical
festival during the 1933 centennial celebration
bringing the world's greatest artists to the city.
Elimination contests will be held, while the final
tournaments will be made part of the musical
program of the fair. This will embrace con-
certs, choruses and oratorios, participated in by
orchestras and eminent musicians from all over
the world.
During the early part of the evening the fol-
lowing musical numbers were heard: Fannie
Cole Sample, soprano, Beulah Tayler Porter,
accompanist and Allen Spencer, pianist.
The committee who arranged this excellent
program included Henry E. Weisert, chairman,
E. V. Galloway, C. W. Hyde, L. Schoenwald.
Harry Schaaf and Eugene Whelan.
In New Quarters Soon
AKRON, O., January 28.—The A. B. Smith Co.
music store, now located at 133 East Market street,
will soon move into its new quarters, alteration
of which now is in progress, it was announced
by officials of the company the past week. The
store, now located in temporary and inadequate
quarters, will have one of the most modern
stores in this section.
H. P. Williams, music store operator of
Shelbyville, Ind., has opened a branch store in
Rushville, Ind., with Miss Margaret Barger as
manager.
W
I G
Grands—Uprights—Player Pianos—Reproducing Pianos
of the Highest Quality in Straight and Period Models
Ludwig & Co*, 136th St. and Willow Ave-, New York
li

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