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The Muaclrade
Published Monthly
FEDERATED BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS, INC.
420 Lexington Are.
New York
Serving
Music
the Entire " ^ g ^ * *
Industry
Vol. 89
October, 1930
•
No. 10
Single Copiaa
Twenty Centi
Annual Subscription
Two Dollars
•
Apartments
Include
Pianos
in
their Plans
The renting agents of London Terrace, New
York's latest apartment house development,
set a good example by a grand piano in the
typical layouts of their various suites
T
AKE a look at the living room in this
apartment layout—the big room at the
lower left-hand corner. If you are a
piano man, rub your eyes and take an-
other look. It's true. In the distant corner of
this model living room in one of New York's
latest and most successful apartment develop-
ments is shown a grand piano as a part of the
accepted furnishings.
It may be that similar layouts have also
shown pianos, but if so they have been few and
far between and were certainly not conspicuous
in metropolitan newspapers. Certainly the ab-
sence of any desire to provide for a piano in the
modern apartment has been the subject of much
comment among piano men generally and of a
special campaign conducted by the executive
secretary of the National Association of Musio
Merchants to have architects of small homes
and apartments make such provision.
The layout sketched is one of the model three
room suites in London Terrace occupying a
full square block in the old Chelsea section of
New York, with over 1,000 apartments of most
modern character available. The rapidity with
which the apartments have been leased indicates
their popularity and if each tenant follows the
suggestion of the renting agent and the layout
there are some piano sales to be looked forward
to.
The main point is that the sketch offers con-
crete evidence that apartment house builders
are realizing the importance of the piano, and
piano dealers located in sections where such
recognition has not been evident might well
call the attention of their local architects to
the sketch as representing the last word in New
York activity.
It may be argued that the sketch of a piano
in an apartment layout will not influence di-
rectly any great number of sales, but it cer-
tainly represents just another piece of propa-
ganda in favor of the instrument, and it is the
constant hounding in the matter of publicity
that finally gets the real results. It is signifi-
cant that where pianos are included in the fur-
nishings of the numerous model homes exhib-
ited throughout the country, the dealer who
makes the installation always realizes at least
a few sales made to those who have seen the
piano and have been impressed with its attrac-
tiveness, even though they themselves may not
have a model home. The same rule should hold
good in the case of apartments, and where, as
is often the case, the renting agents furnish an
apartment as a model, the live dealer will do
well to endeavor to have a piano included. The
publicity will be worth while, even though the
direct sales may not be numerous.
Those who are familiar with the modern and
highly developed apartments of two, three and
four rooms, particularly in the larger cities,
realize that the placing of a piano in the living
room represents no problem for the reason that,
in practically every case, the rooms are large,
as large, or larger, than the living rooms in a
majority of moderate-priced private homes. The
main idea, therefore, is to put over the idea, in
the rental plans or in the descriptive text, that
there is a definite place for the piano in order
to make the home complete. If London Ter-
race could present the idea voluntarily, and, ap-
parently, without prompting, then there are
many other sponsors of apartment and home
developments who could be persuaded to do the
same if the matter was presented to them oron-
crly.
Meanwhile, here is what one of the latest New
York apartments has done about placing the
piano in the living room. The ice is broken
and the trade should see that it stays broken.
As a result of the campaign carried on among
architects and decorators by the National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants, these interests
should be in a receptive mood for suggestions
from local music merchants that wherever pos-
sible a piano should be installed in model homes
or shown in illustrations and diagrams of vari-
ous fine homes and apartments, simply as a
suggestion.