Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
OCTOBER, 1930
Long-Distance Piano
Playing Attracts Crowds
AN FRANCISCO, CAL.— Everyone here-
about, with sporting blood in his or her
veins, was all pepped up over the piano-playing
Marathon conducted by Sherman, Clay & Co.
On Thursday, September 3, Billy Hajek
started playing the piano in the northeast
window of the firm's main store, Sutter and
Kearny streets. He wanted to establish the
world's endurance piano-playing record.
He stopped playing the piano at ten minutes
to eight a. m., September 11, having played
continuously for 187 hours, 50 minutes and 40
seconds, with the exception of a rest period of
ten minutes in each hour. Prior to leaving the
store window of Sherman, Clay & Co., Hajek
announced on the air that he could have carried
on longer, but he had broken the world's endur-
ance record for piano playing and was going
tor a swim and a long sleep.
Two trainers and a doctor watched over him.
In the ten-minute rest periods he took nourish-
11
The Music Trade Review
KRANICH 8 BACH
F
S
O
U
N
D
E
D
quAL/ry
I
B
S
*
P/ANOS
Offices and Salesrooms
2 3 7 East 2 3 rd Street
Telephone Algonquin 8886
NEW YORK
Sept. 22, 1930,
Editor,
Music Trade Review,
420 Lexington Ave.,
N.Y.C.
Dear Sir:
If, as we are told, present conditions
of business in, tills country are largely due to
"psychological" causes existing in the public
mind - then, Optimism, and Stability, on the
part of business interests, are what are needed.
The House of Kranich & Bach is Optimistic,
and Confident of the early resumption of a normal
demand for fine pianos 1
As for Stability - no organization could
stand more staunchly for Quality-and-^rice
Maintenance - or for Integrity and Loyalty to
business relationships.
^ours for trie right sort of psychology,
fostered by courage and nourished by faithi
Sincerely,
Piano-Playing Champion Being Shaved in
Sherman, Clay & Co. Window
ment, washed and was shaved in full view of
the public. Crowds of sight-seers struggled all
day and far into the night to get a glimpse of
the world's endurance piano player. Even
when the crowds were thinned in the small
hours of the morning, Hajek went on playing.
Every hour the continuous number of hours
Hajek played was written on the score board
in the firm's window, close to the piano on
which he was conducting his piano-playing
Marathon.
Harald Pracht, manager of Sherman, Clay &
Co.'s at Kearny and Sutter streets, an 11-story
building devoted entirely to the firm's musical
merchandise, was asked to give an inside view
of the piano Marathon for The Review.
Mr. Pracht took the view that this famous
music merchandising house has done what it
wanted, namely, they have directed people's
thoughts to the piano in San Francisco and on
the Pacific Coast. People have been reading of
the piano and talking of it. Serious daily
newspapers have even had editorials on the
Marathon.
Mr. Pracht said: "The public interest was*
terrific. There were crowds continuously at the
store window. We broadcast Hajek's playing
and descriptions of the Marathon by remote
control. This caused every person in San Fran-
cisco and vicinity to mention PIANOS, a word
that many people seem to have forgotten.
"There was naturally some criticism by the
'intelligentsia' of a piano Marathon, undertaken
by a house of the dignified standing of Sherman,
Clay & Co., but as the test went on a large
percentage, even of those inclined to criticize,
became interested in spite of themselves.
Numerous inquiries came in regarding the
piano-playing endurance test. People interested
in music wrote to express their opinion of the
desirability of the test and have also showed
interest in the way the piano stood up under
almost continuous playing without tuning. In
fact, many people seem to look on the Marathon
as a piano-endurance test for the instrument as
well as for the performer.
"This is, of course, a radical departure from
7
President,
JBS/ER
How the President of Kranich & Bach Views the Situation
Sherman, Clay & Co.'s conservative policy, but
it would seem that the piano business, at the
present time, demands aggressive measures to
bring the piano back to the notice of the great
mass of the people."
perience in the music industry. That the sales
methods evolved by Mr. Capehart are funda-
mentally sound is evidenced by the fact that
from a five-room cottage in Huntington, Ind., in
1928, the firm's business has expanded to its
present 100,000 square feet floor space, doing an
annual volume of $3,000,000 worth of business.
Success of Sales Training
Plan of Capehart Corp. Mark Daniels Praises
W. W. Kimball Grand
Carrying sales technique to salesmen in the
field is the new promotional device adopted by
the Capehart Corp., Fort Wayne, Ind., makers
of the Capehart Orchestrope and the Capehart
Amperion.
W. C. Peterson, director of sales training for
the Capehart company, has been traveling
through the eastern states in the Capehart
aerocar, which, attached to an automobile, can
be taken anywhere. During the month of
August Mr. Peterson operated in the middle
western states. The aerocar, which is shaped
like the cabin of a dirigible, holds ten or more
passengers, thus enabling Mr. Peterson to take
groups of Capehart salesmen to points where
actual demonstrations of sales and psychology
can be made.
The Capehart Institute of Creative Selling,
which has had an important part in building up
the sales of the phenomenal Capehart products,
has been conducted weekly at the Capehart fac-
tory at Fort Wayne. It has been a mecca for
Capehart salesmen from all parts of the coun-
try, who come to learn the principles of sales-
manship as developed by H. E. Capehart, presi-
dent of the company, from his own ripe ex-
The Kimball grands continue to get the en-
thusiastic endorsement of noted musicians,
singers as well as pianists. Mark Daniels, bari-
tone, who has starred with the Chicago Civic
Light Opera Co., wrote to the W. W. Kimball
Co. about the piano he used and said:
"Such is my pleasure and satisfaction in the
Kimball Grand piano which I have just selected
that I am prompted to write this note to you.
That such artists as Adelina Patti, Alexander
Kipnis and countless others should have select-
ed the Kimball piano I feel is adequate assur-
ance of the wiseness of my choice. The instru-
ment has a lovely singing tone which lends it-
self particularly well to the accompaniment of
the voice. With such a wide variety of sizes
and styles the selection was a difficult one as
each instrument was indeed splendid."
The National Sales Co., Milwaukee, Wis., has
been incorporated to deal in all kinds of musi-
cal instruments, sheet music, etc. The incor-
porators are Charles Swidler, Pearl Paul and
Z. Cohen.