Music Trade Review

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333 No. MICHIGAN
AVENUE
Piano Prices Must Increase,
Declares R. A. Burke
R. A. Burke, secretary of the Story & Clark
Piano Co., is of the opinion that instead of
being slashed to the bone, piano prices should
be increased in order to offset the falling off
of production and provide at least a fair margin
of profit for those who make and sell those in-
struments. In an interview with The Review
Mr. Burke said:
"Piano prices must increase. The desultory
buying program that has prevailed during the
past year or two in the piano industry has of
necessity justified manufacturers to a more lim-
ited production schedule. Some manufacturers
have even felt themselves obliged to entirely
discontinue manufacturing.
"Close-outs to clear shelves of obsolete styles
have put most of the manufacturers into a posi-
tion of limited completed stock on hand. With
even a small increase in retail sales, the coun-
try will experience a piano shortage of rather
serious proportions—as bad if not worse than
was faced during the war.
"Increased overhead expenses rise with cur-
tailed production, and since factory costs are
already out of proportion to wholesale selling,
present prices of necessity fail to show a profit.
Increased wholesale selling prices are inevi-
table.
"It is believed that the present buyer's mar-
ket will change, before very long, to a seller's
market—a market which always rules in pros-
perous times. Even the most pessimistic pes-
simist is about ready to admit that the present
depression has almost run its course, and that
the pendulum is due for a swing back in the
very near future.
"As a whole, the piano industry should take
an inventory of itself, just as each individual
connected with it should do, and the industry
enter the coming year with confidence, deter-
mination, and a realization of the fact that as
individuals and as an industry those connected
with the piano trade must either grow or go."
Foreign Dealers Visit
Plant of Capehart Corp.
Among recent visitors to the plant of the
Capehart Corp., Fort Wayne, Ind., manufacturer
of the Orchestrope and other types of coin
operated automatic phonographs, was Oscar
Payor, the large musical instrument dealer of
Bad Nauheim, Germany, who handles the Cape-
hart line in that territory, and expressed him-
self enthusiastically regarding the manner in
which the German people are accepting the in-
struments.
Another prominent visitor was H. R. Moore,
director and general manager of Giffens-Spares,
FRANK W. KIRK
Manager
Ltd., who was on a special trip to the United
States to make arrangements to distribute the
Capehart products in Great Britain.
Giffens-Spares, Ltd., maintain a large field
organization totaling twenty-six men who are
traveling constantly to cover every section of
the British Isles.
New Concern to Make
Pipe Organs in Milwaukee
MILWAUKEE, WIS.—The Verlinden, Weichard,
Dornoff Organ Co., recently organized at Mil-
waukee, has been established in a two-story
brick building at 703 South Thirty-ninth street.
The factory building is equipped with all mod-
ern facilities for organ manufacture and has a
large office and showroom in connection. Fine
quality pipe organs for churches, schools,
lodges, residences and mortuaries, manually
and electrically operated, will be designed and
built by the company.
The officers of the new organization are
Edmond Verlinden, president and treasurer;
Joseph Weichardt, vice-president and factory
superintendent; and Edward Dornoff, secretary
and sales manager.
Mr. Verlinden has had a wide experience in
organ building as a designer, architect, factory
manager and vice-president of the Wangerin
Organ Co. at Milwaukee. He was associated
with that company for the last twenty years,
until he resigned in October, 1930, to organize
his own concern.
Joseph Weichardt, son of the late George
Weichardt and himself a voicer of wide repute,
learned organ building in his father's factory
in 1904, and from that time on has been active
in the business.
Edward Dornoff was connected with the
Wangerin Organ Co. since 1922 as head of the
electrical department. In this capacity he had
the opportunity of making use of his knowl-
edg of electrical engineering.
Knabe, the Knabe-Ampico, Fischer and Schulz
pianos and a special department for Ampico
recordings. His selling organization has also
been increased and new business is being
profitably developed.
Starr Co. Offers Cash
Prizes for Oldest Pianos
The Starr Piano Co., Richmond, Ind., has of-
fered a series of seventeen cash prizes in
amounts from $200 down to the owners of the
seventeen oldest pianos as indicated by the
serial numbers of any make as of March 31,
1931, which are turned in as part payment on
the purchase of any style of Starr-made piano.
The prize money will be in addition to any
allowance made on the old instrument as part
payment for the new.
Those who buy Starr-made pianos during the
months of January, February and March, 1931,
are eligible. The contest closes on March 31,
1931, and all dealers must have their customers'
certificates giving the name and serial number
of the old piano in the hands of the Starr
Co. in Richmond, Ind., not later than April 30.
The first prize for the oldest piano will be
$200 cash, for the next two in age $100 each,
for the next four in age $25 each, and for the
next ten in age $10 each. In the case of a tie
for any prize a similar award will be made in
each instance.
The certificates will be examined by a com-
mittee selected by Delbert L. Loomis, execu-
tive secretary of the National Association of
Music Merchants, who will make the final
awards.
Starr dealers who have received preliminary
information regarding the prize offer are en-
thusiastic about it, believing that the chance of
getting a money award will serve to replace
many veteran instruments with new ones; for,
with seventeen prizes available several times
that number of pianos might logically be ex-
pected to be entered in the competition.
H. E. Weisert Quadruples Two New Clarion Radios
Retail Quarters in Chicago
Announced for New Year
The new quarters of Henry E. Weisert, in
Diana Court, one of the handsomest modern
buildings on Michigan avenue, were quadrupled
in size early in December, when he secured a
large amount of space adjoining his former
warerooms.
He has had the new quarters
handsomely decorated. It is Mr. Weisert's in-
tention to convert his original quarters into a
small recital room, having a seating capacity
of about 125, where local teachers can give
concerts and recitals at a modest rental fee.
The new and greatly enlarged space fronting
the Diana fountain will be devoted wholly to
salesrooms containing a fine display of the
22
The Transformer Corp. of America, which
has worked its four factories on a twenty-four-
hour schedule for several months past, has
cleaned up all its 1930 merchandise and is now
offering two new Clarion models for January.
President Siragusa says they represent, in his
opinion, "the ultimate in small sets." They
will be called models 61 and 70, to be sold
complete with tubes. The former is a mantel
type radio, six tubes, and the model 70 is what
they call a new small "large" set with seven
tubes.
Consult the Universal Want Directory