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THE
MUSIC
CHARLES JACOB TURNS OVER BUSINESS
INTERESTS TO BROTHER AND NEPHEWS
MOVE of great interest and impor-
tance to the piano trade took place
on December 30, 1931, when C.
Albert Jacob and his sons, C. Albert Jacob,
Jr., and Charles Hall Jacob, acquired the
entire interests of Charles Jacob in the old
established piano house of Jacob Bros. Co.,
and its affiliated industries, which include the
Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co., James & Holm-
strom Piano Co., Wellington Piano Case Co.,
and several real estate corporations.
In disposing of his interests, Charles Jacob
finally severed his connection with the piano
industries in which he has been an active
factor since 1878. For the past few years
he has not taken an active p%rt in the con-
duct of the piano industries in which he
was interested, the management of these com-
panies having been under the guidance of
the three members of the Jacob family who
now have taken over his interests.
C. Al. Jacob, now senior member of the
varied Jacob Bros, interests, has been an able
and active partner in the business activities
of the two brothers since 1878, and his sons,
Albert, Jr., and Charles H., have been asso-
ciated in business with their father since 1911
and 191+ respectively. It is therefore to be
assumed that the past success of these indus-
tries will be continued into the future. The
A
SCHUBERT PIANO CO. IS
INCORPORATED IN NEW YORK
Just as THE REVIEW went to press an-
nouncement was made of the incorporation
of the Schubert Piano Co., New York, with
200 shares of common stock of no par value.
The Schubert Piano Co. of New York was
dissolved late in January, after having func-
tioned for a number of years, and it is under-
stood that Peter S. Duffy, Jr., formerly active
in the old company is, with others, interested
in the new corporation.
You're Right,
Dr. White!
A Piano Advertisement by S. L. Curtis
As Dr. White said in these pages last month,
"the most pressing problem" is to be
found in the piano's resonance apparatus.
He declares that "at present the complaint
justly made as to every piano is that its
majestic sonorous bass region is ill-
matched . . . by its treble."
Piano Men of America: In the hundred-year-
old Grotrian-Steinweg Piano you will find
the exclusive, patented Homogeneous
Sounding-Board, an amazing resonance
innovation; also, a modern, 1932 (not
1870!) frame, and the marvelous silent
action, and many other new features.
Get the facts about the most enduring piano
—wear-proof, climate-proof, age-proof.
Ask for your copy of The Musical Truth,
describing the immortal Grotrian-Stein-
weg: "World's Finest Instrument."
Curtis Distributing Corp.
119 West 57th Street
NEW YORK
officers of these corporations will now be C.
Albert Jacob, president; C. Albert Jacob, Jr.,
vice-president and treasurer, and Charles
Hall Jacob, secretary. Curtis F. Wellington
will continue as president of the Wellington
Piano Case Co., and John H. Gettell as sec-
retary of Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co.
Charles Jacob resigned as treasurer of the
National Piano Manufacturers Association
last year, after filling that office for many
years, and his nephew, C. Albert Jacob, Jr.,
was elected to that office. Free from all
TRADE
REVIEW,
January, 1932
business ties as he now is, Charles Jacob will
have ample leisure to pursue his favorite
hobby, and the fish in Florida waters during
the winter and the bays of Long Island dur-
ing the summer undoubtedly will learn this
news to their sorrow.
Mr. Jacob is well deserving of a rest after
over a half century of earnest work in the
piano business, in the course of which he
and his company met with a full measure of
success. Jacob Bros, was established in 1878
as a partnership, and was incorporated as a
stock company in 1908. Despite the incor-
poration, however, declares Mr. Jacob, it has
always been a partnership in spirit, which
fact has contributed in no small measure to
the company's progress.
CONTROL OF COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH CO.
PASSES TO CRICSBY-GRUNOW CO.
OTING trustees of the Columbia
Phonograph Co. announced late last
month an agreement to sell 78,000 of
the 82,524 shares of Columbia stock out-
standing to the Grigsby-Grunow Co., the
prominent radio manufacturers of Chicago.
Control of Columbia Phonograph Co., a
New York corporation, formerly was held
by the Columbia Graphophone Co., Ltd., of
England. When the English company and
the H. M. V. Gramophone Co., Ltd., were
merged into Electric and Musical Industries,
Ltd., in which the Radio Corporation of
America owns a substantial minority interest,
the merger committee undertook to place
shares of the Columbia Phonograph Co. in a
voting trust to eliminate the American prop-
erties from the consolidation.
Announcement of the stock sale was made
by H. C. Cox, president of the Columbia
Phonograph Co., Inc.; Artemus L. Gates,
president of the New York Trust Co., and
Fred W. Shibley, vice-president of the Bank-
V
ers Trust Co., voting trustees of the com-
pany. The statement said also:
"This will give practical control of Colum-
bia in North and South America to the
Grisgby-Grunovv Co., Chicago manufacturer
of Majestic radios and refrigerators, as over
78,000 shares of a total of 82,524 issued
shares of Columbia Phonograph Co., Inc.,
have already been deposited with the voting
trustees.
"It is understood that prior to the sale of
shares Columbia will distribute a capital
dividend of $10 per share. The Grigsby-
Grunow Co. will exchange approximately
4 4/10 shares of its stock for each share of
Columbia. Therefore Columbia stockholders
will receive $10 cash and approximately
4 4/10 shares of Grigsby-Grunow stock, less
certain expenses of the voting trust, for each
share of Columbia deposited with the voting
trustees."
The merged company will have plants in
Chicago, Bridgeport, Conn., and Los Angeles.
ELLAS MARX SEES GOOD
RETAIL PIANO TRADE AHEAD
the Hotel Pennsylvania and were in recog-
nition of the successful work of the various
manufacturers in the preventing of accidents.
Ellas Marx, head of the Ellas Marx Mu-
sic Co., Sacramento, Cal., is confident that
the retail piano business will show a
marked improvement during the year just
opening. In a recent interview he said:
''The year closing showed a drop in the
sale of new pianos. Reverts were greater
than usual. We believe this is the principal
cause of new piano slump. This, of course,
applies to uprights. Our grand piano sales
are going ahead of last year. While we are
not forecasting a record-breaking year for
1932, we are now laying plans to build
up the piano end of our business. We ex-
pect to do twice the business in 1932 that
was done in 1931."
PIANO MANUFACTURERS
WIN SAFETY AWARDS
The Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co., New
York, and Steinway & Sons, Long Island
City, were among the manufacturing con-
cerns in the metropolitan area of New York
who received 100 per cent certificates from
the Greater New York Safety Contest. The
awards were made recently at a dinner at
NEW YORK PIANO TRADE
HOLDS YEAR-END LUNCHEON
The annual Year-End Luncheon of the
New York piano trade, an institution of over
twenty years' standing, was celebrated on
December 30, at the Republican Club, with
some thirty members of the industry or re-
tired members present. The luncheon was
arranged by the permanent committee, con-
sisting of Ben H. Janssen, A. Dalrymple and
Albert Behning, and afforded the occasion
for the expression of some optimistic thoughts
regarding the future.
The first speaker was John J. Glynn, who
drew upon his inexhaustible fund of Irish
stories for a number that reflected common
sense and optimism. Then, in turn, came
Theodore Cassebeer, Mark P. Campbell, A.
H. Kayton, long retired from the trade; Jerome
Ackerly, and finally Richard W. Lawrence,
who outlined what was being done by the
government to remedy the business situation
particularly in relation to the functions of
the newly created reconstruction corporation
in steadying the country's finances.