Music Trade Review

Issue: 1932 Vol. 91 N. 3

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
iddle
Chicane
West
FRANK W . KIRK
Manager
333 NO. MICHIGAN
AVENUE
ANNUAL DINNER OF CHICAGO PIANO
& ORGAN ASSOCIATION WELL ATTENDED
HE Annual Dinner of the Chicago
Piano Sc Organ Association, with which
the Piano Club of Chicago is now
merged, was held at the Union League Club
last month. President George L. Hall pre-
sided, and Adam Schneider acted as toast-
master.
The largest delegation present was from
the W. W. Kimball Co., including David W.
Kimball, W. W. Kimball, E. B. Blanchard,
F. P. Whitmore, W. W. Lufkin, George B.
Lufkin, J. V. Sill, B. F. Duvall, Eugene
Whalen, F. S. Moffett, William Gross and
Harold VanSteenderen. From the Cable Co.
were present George J. Dowling, George L.
Hall, R. J. Cook, Stanley Morrow, Fred Ryder
and Thure Johansen. From the Baldwin Co.,
Louis C. Wagner and Frank Bennett. F. P.
Bassett represented M. Schulz Co. and Percy
Tonk, president, the Tonk Manufacturing
Co. Others present were Henry E. Weissert,
John Weissert, S. D. Harris, Ben Strub, J. S.
Weible, E. A. Leville, Frank J. Weiser, Platt
P. Gibbs, L. B. Malecki, Marshall Solberg
and A. A. Huesby.
A letter was read from Dr. J. Lewis
Browne, supervisor of music in the public
schools of Chicago, expressing his regret that
lie could not be present, but recording the ap-
preciation to the local piano trade for the loan
of some 187 pianos now used in the public
schools or" Chicago for group piano instruc-
tion, these loans having been made because of
insufficient funds of the School Board prevent-
ing any more purchases at present.
Paul Klugh, of the Zenith Radio Corp., told
of his recent trip to England to arrange for
making Zenith radios there. He lauded the
licensing system for home auditions on
radios in Great Britain, and spoke of the
necessity for united trade opposition to the
efforts now being made in Congress to con-
trol advertising on radio. He argued that
radio broadcasting of advertising alone made
possible the broadcasting of entertainment to
the American public.
Herbert Witherspoon, director of the Chi-
cago Civic Opera, and Chairman of the
musical activities for the Chicago World's
Fair of 193 3, made the principal speech. He
explained the superiority of opera such as is
given in Chicago to European opera as pre-
sented to the public there, and made a plea
T
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
for more general support of this great civic
enterprise, which has been made possible
through the efforts of a few wealthy local men
who have cheerfully paid the annual deficits
year after year. However, he warned the
public that the drain on these men, while
lessening, was so great that there is a strong
possibility of opera here passing out unless
the general public supports it better by at-
tendance and subscription.
His comments on what the Chicago Fair
authorities are preparing for the musical
activities in 1933 are interesting.
He an-
nounced, as he said, with authority, that the
Fair would certainly be held as planned next
year, notwithstanding local reports to the
contrary.
Among the plans of the music division for
properly representing music to the American
public is the erection of a hall to seat 5,000
people and to contain an orchestra of one
hundred and a chorus of eight hundred. In
addition, there will be several smaller halls
for various musical events.
The purpose now is to give 120 days of
musical activities of various kinds during
the time of the Fair. It is also planned to
give an elaborate series of operas in Soldiers'
Field, Chicago, to audiences of up to 20,000
people.
GREATER CHICAGO DIVISION OF TUNERS
HOLDS FIRST REGIONAL CONVENTION
T
HE first regional convention held by
the Greater Chicago Division of the Na-
tional Association of Piano Tuners, at
the Auditorium Hotel, Chicago, February 15-
16, was a distinct success. Quite a number
of tuners from outside the Chicago area were
present, and sixty-five people sat down to the
banquet which ended the two days' sessions.
It was an earnest working body, with interest-
ing discussions generally following the trade
speeches.
A large number of music teachers had been
invited, and some forty attended the Tuesday
session, where the mutual benefits of coopera-
tion between the tuner and the music teacher
to the ultimate benefit of the entire trade were
explained and applauded.
The discussions also developed the fact that
a large number of the tuners are becoming
interested in piano sales, and it is quite evi-
dent that from the ranks of these practical
and earnest men will come a large number
of piano dealers of the future.
Tuesday afternoon Dr. J. Lewis Browne,
director of music in the public schools of
Chicago, addressed the body, and made a re-
sume of the work of music instruction which
his department had planned and supervised.
He stated that the departmental records show-
ed that since the group piano instruction had
been started in Chicago over four years ago,
inore than 36,000 pupils had taken this ele-
mentary instruction, and of these more than
REVIEW,
March,
1932
6,000 had been or are now pursuing ad-
vanced courses under various private teachers.
This, of course, is manifestly to the advantage
of the music teacher, and offers a tre-
mendously valuable field to the dealer and
manufacturer, since it is obvious that any
parents with sufficient pride in their child's
aptitude to pay for somewhat expensive pri-
vate instruction are the best of all pros-
pects for piano sales.
Clair O. Musser, acoustical engineer of J.
C. Deagan, made a scholarly and interest-
ing analysis and demonstration of combined
musical tones.
Walther Spry, of the Columbia School of
Music, talked on tuner cooperation, and one
of the members of the Byrd Expedition to
the South Pole—Richard Gale Brophy—told
of the food supplies and mechanical equip-
ment of the Expedition.
Charles Frederick Stein, maker of the piano
bearing his name, was selected by the tuners
as the principal trade speaker, and he ex-
plained in detail, from the purchasing and
treatment of the lumber up to the completion
for the concert platform, how pianos are built
and why so much care and technical skill is
required.
Also Tuesday afternoon, classes were form-
ed in grand action regulation, presided over
by Mr. Stein, and many of the tuners took
this unusual opportunity to get first-hand in-
struction from a master of that difficult art.
15
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16
THE
MUSIC
A PIANO KINDERGARTEN FOR YOUNG
BEGINNERS LAUNCHED IN MILWAUKEE
PIANO kindergarten, originated by soon purchased a number of them, filling an
John \V. Schaum, Milwaukee pianist, entire room with the instruments, for his in-
and winner last summer in the struction purposes.
"The effect on the children was magical,"
national contest of the National Federa-
tion of Music Clubs at San Francisco, is at- said Mr. Schaum. "They made three times
tracting widespread interest in Milwaukee, as as much progress. In no time I was enabled
a medium for group instruction of children, even to teach them the keyboard harmony,
and of making them lovers of piano music at and then easily make the switch to the larger
adult piano. The secret was that all fears
an early age.
"I can see, I think, why many do not un- were removed, and then—as important—they
dertake the study of music, in fact why many were able to study music not as work, but as
play," Mr. Schaum said.
grownups in other fields hesitate to undertake
"More and more people are being stimulated
the big thing that calls them," Mr. Schaum
by hearing radio music to undertake making
said. "They are afraid.
"The laddie is afraid of the great piano their own music," Mr. Schaum said. Many
before him, with its booming tones and huge of his students are those who come to learn
keyboard, with all the keys to play and to play some piece like "Liebestraum" which
master," he pointed out. "He lives in a land they have heard over the air.
He starts them even with the jazz pieces
of giants—big people, big pianos, and so on.
The grownup magnifies the difficulties and they like, and in a short time they are off into
objections to a big work until he is paralyzed the easier classics. Mr. Schaum plans on going
on with his concert career and his teaching,
for performance, except of menial tasks."
Schaum believed this the big problem, and too. He recently appeared as guest artist with
upon seeing a small piano made for Columbia the Milwaukee Philharmonic in one of its
Sundav concerts.
University he wrote the manufacturer, and
A
HEWITT AND PRINZ JOIN
KIMBALL WHOLESALE STAFF
The W. W. Kimball Co. has just added to
its wholesale staff two prominent members of
the trade. Henry D. Hewitt, for many years
sales manager of the M. Schulz Co., and one
of the widely known and popular members
of the industry, is now general sales repre-
sentative for the Kimball piano, and is now
in the field with an ample territory.
Mr. Hewitt, a former president of the
Piano Club, and now second vice-president
of the Chicago Piano & Organ Association,
has traveled for years throughout the United
States, and numbers hundreds of dealers
among his personal friends, having endeared
himself to them by his intelligence, integrity
and energy.
In his connection with the Kimball house,
that noted company obtains a strong addition
to their wholesale sales force, and Mr. Hewitt
has a great opportunity for effective work.
E. M. Prinz, who for a number of years
has represented M. Schulz Co. in the north-
west, has also become a W. W. Kimball
traveler, and will continue to serve his old
territory in the northwest, where he has been
particularly successful and is widely and
favorably known.
ness to stage any remarkable revival. How-
ever, a survey of the market indicates that
there is still a good demand for rolls, and
we feel warranted in adding the Staffnote
unit to our other activities. As manufacturers
of organ rolls and playing mechanisms we
shall be in position to produce piano rolls
advantageously and economically."
All the Staffnote machinery and equipment
will be moved at once to the factory of
Roesler-Hunholz at 114-118 E. Scott street.
John Schmitt, former manager of the Staffnote
Corp., and designer of much of the Staffnote
machinery, will be retained by Roesler-
Hunholz, Inc., to take charge of the piano
roll division.
Roesler-Hunholz expect to have their new
releases ready for the market shortly after
March 1.
BUSINESS FIRST AT
RADIO TRADE SHOW
Business, without any time-wasting bally-
hoo, again will be the keynote of the annual
conclave of radio manufacturers, jobbers and
dealers in Chicago next May for the Eighth
Annual RMA Convention and Trade Show.
The most business for dealers and jobbers
as well as manufacturers with a minimum
of time and expense is the basis of RMA
plans. Scheduled earlier than usual, May
PURCHASES STAFFNOTE
23-26, at the Stevens and Blackstone Hotels
PLAYER ROLL CORP.
in Chicago, the great annual industry gather-
The business of the Staffnote Player Roll ing has been shortened to four days. It is
Co., and The Staffnote Corp., Milwaukee, staged earlier to precede, with its display of
Wis., manufacturers of Staffnote and Playrite new radio, television and electrical products,
piano rolls, has just been purchased by the radio sales stimulation of the Republican
Roesler-Hunholz, Inc., also of Milwaukee. and Democratic presidential nominating con-
Roesler-Hunholz, Inc., are well known to the ventions which soon follow the trade show.
pipe organ trade as manufacturers of "Artis- For the first time it is expected that the
touch" reproducing organ units and organ political conventions will be televised as well
as broadcast. Display of the progress of
rolls.
In a recent interview Fred Roesler, presi- television also is a scheduled feature of the
trade show, affording an opportunity to job-
dent of Roesler-Hunholz, Inc., said:
"We are not expecting the piano roll busi- bers and dealers to view the latest television
TRADE
REVIEW,
March, 1932
as well as radio and electrical products of
RMA manufacturers. Admission to the trade
show, as usual, however, will be limited to
the trade. The public will not be admitted.
The official convention and trade show
hotels, the Stevens and Blackstone, already
have received advance reservations. Virtually
all prominent receiving set, tube, television,
refrigerator and other electrical manufac-
turers of the RMA have reserved exhibit
booths at the Stevens Hotel. A number have
increased their space reservations over last
year. Editors of the radio trade press will
be invited to conduct the drawings for trade
show space about March 15.
LEO J. ABERLE NOW WITH
WARD-BRODGE CO. STAFF
I.eo J. Aberle, former music instructor at
Palm Beach, Fla., has joined the staff of the
Ward-Brodge Music Co., Madison, Wis. Mr.
Aberle was formerly a member of the Wis-
consin School of Music faculty, before going
to Palm Beach. He teaches all forms of
stringed instruments. Broadcast* featuring
Mr. Aberle on various instruments are to be
presented over WIBA, Madison radio broad-
casting station.
THE REVIEW'S
WANT DIRECTORY
WANTED—Store managers and de-
partment managers for music, radio and
refrigerator stores. Address Box 3437,
Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington
Avenue, New York.
GOOD MUSICAL INSTRUMENT
MAN who is able to vigorously push the
business in city of about 100,000 popula-
tion, on percentage basis. Prefer one
who has had teaching experience. An
excellent opportunity. Write confiden-
tially. Box 3439, Music Trade Review,
420 Lexington Ave., New York.
RENT FREE to party who can oper-
ate sheet music department in city of
about 100,000. Please write us. Box
3438, Music Trade Review, 420 Lexing-
ton Avenue, New York.
POSITION WANTED—Salesmanager; IS years'
retail experience with Aeolian, Steinway and
American Piano Companies' lines in N. V*. C.
Clean record. Highest recommendations. Now on
coast.
Will go anywhere.
Address Box 3434,
Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington Avenue, New
York.
RADIO SERVICEMAN, PIANO TUNER and
REPAIRER, will buy half interest or a tuning
route. Prefer Western States. Address Box 3435,
Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington Avenue, New
York.
WILL RENT space in our music store for a
sheet music department—only one other such de-
partment in city of 300,000.
Excellent oppor-
tunity. Address Box 3427, Music Trade Review,
420 Lexington Ave., New York.
POSITION WANTED—Wholesale Representa-
tive, by man of 35. Can produce.
Willing to
accept compensation based on results.
Employed
now but have excellent reasons for changing.
Address Box 3430, Music Trade Review, 420
Lexington Ave., New York.
POSITION WANTED-Piano tuner, fully ex-
perienced. Age 42. Tuning, repairing, case re-
pairing and finishing. Pianist.
Available now
anywhere.
Single.
Address Box 3426, Music
Trade Review. 420 I.exineton Avenue. New York.

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