Music Trade Review

Issue: 1932 Vol. 91 N. 5

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE M U S I C TRADE REVIEW, May. 1932
RADIO TRADE FILES PROTEST AGAINST
DISCRIMINATORY FEDERAL SALES TAX
NFAIR discrimination against radio by
the proposed 5% special sales tax of the
House Revenue Bill was stressed by
leading Tadio manufacturers at a hearing be-
fore the Senate Finance Committee on April
18. The hearing was accorded the Radio
Manufacturers' Association, representing over
95% of radio manufacturers. Disaster as well
as discrimination would result from the House
bill, the Senate Committee was told at the
R. M. A. hearing. Reduction at least to 3%,
on the same basis as the proposed automobile
tax, was urged and the Senators were told
that a general sales tax, or a general manu-
facturers' tax, exempting food, clothing, medi-
cine, etc., would be distinctly preferable and
more fair than the proposed discriminatory tax
of the House bill. It was urged that the lat-
ter is an undeserved penalty on a few indus-
tries.
The radio industry hearing before the Sen-
ate Committee was in general charge of Mr.
Frank D. Scott, Washington legislative coun-
U
sel of the R. M. A. It followed a conference
in Washington last week of a large number
of leading receiving set and tube manufac-
turers of the R. M. A. The radio industry
hearing was represented by a committee in-
cluding Messrs. Frank D. Scott, James M.
Skinner, president of the Philadelphia Storage
Battery Company, and Paul B. Klugh, of the
Zenith Radio Corporation.
Following the Senate Committee hearings,
the R. M. A. Legislative Committee, of which
Mr. H. B. Richmond, of Cambridge, Mass.,
is chairman, arranged for organized industry
support against the discriminatory 5% tax by
radio trade leaders of the industry. Promi-
nent jobbers and dealers of the R. M. A. Leg-
islative Committee in States having Senators
on the Finance Committee were sent bulletins
by Chairman Richmond, urging them to pro-
test to their respective Senators against the
special discriminatory tax proposed on radio
and to recommend reduction at least to the
3% rate proposed for automobiles.
H. E. WARD NOW PRESIDENT
OF COLUMBIA PHONOGRAPH
CAPEHART BUSINESS SHOWS
70 PER CENT GAIN IN MARCH
The Columbia Phonograph Co., Inc., has
announced the election of H. E. Ward of
Chicago as president and of H. Curtiss Ab-
bott of New York as vice-president in charge
of sales, merchandising and advertising. F. J.
Ames Temains treasurer. Messrs. Ward and
Abbott also were elected directors of the
company.
The voting trustees of the company an-
nounced at the close of 1931 that 78,000 of the
82,524 shares of the company's stock had been
sold to the Grigsby-Grunow Co. of Chicago
by an exchange of 4 4-10 shares of Grigsby-
Grunow stock for each share of Columbia
stock.
In connection with the reorganization of its
executive personnel, the Columbia Phonograph
Co., Inc., is entering into manufacturing and
merchandising of Tadio receiving sets. Mr.
Ward announced that the company had no
debts, that cash on hand was sufficient for
effective operation and that there were no
plant maintenance costs.
According to a report made by F. W.
Gigax, general manager of the recently re-
oTganized Capehart Corp., Fort Wayne, Ind.,
manufacturers of automatic record changing
phonographs and radio-phonographs, the
month of March, this year, saw a seventy
per cent increase in business over the pre-
vious month of February and was the largest
month in the last nine with the exception
of December and its holiday business.
This heavy increase in business is made
doubly impressive because the prices of the
Capehart products are in the higher brackets
and thus appeal primarily to the quality mar-
ket. Incidentally, the company's export mar-
kets are increasing steadily, with the demand
for both the phonographs and the radio com-
binations.
FADA RADIO & ELECTRIC
CORPORATION ORGANIZED
The Fada Radio & Electric Corp., recently
organized in New York with F. A. D.
Andrea as president, has announced the pur-
chase of the business and assets of the An-
drea Mfg. Co. and all the capital stock not
previously owned of Fada Radio, Ltd., To-
ronto, Can.
For the past eight years the Andrea Mfg.
Co. has operated as a manufacturing organ-
ization producing products for sale by F. A.
D. Andrea, Inc. Henceforth both the manu-
facturing and marketing organizations will
operate as a single unit under the new name,
manufacturing and selling Fada radio and
other electrical products.
This change will in no way affect the pTes-
ent general policies, control or personnel, and
business •will continue as usual at the same
address.
RCA-VICTOR ANNOUNCES
NEW RADIO DEVELOPMENT
(Continued from page 16)
Output Radiotrons, a new R. F. Amplifier
Pentode, and the new General Purpose out-
put tube.
7. A new loudspeaker development pro-
vides for the greater output delivered to it
at peak loads by the new circuit.
8. A high-quality cabinet, of quilted
maple and butt walnut which provides an
acoustically correct baffle area that assists in
the creation of fine tone quality.
The new RCA Victor "Bi-Acoustic" R-78
will retail at a suggested list price of $139.50.
Its cabinet dimensions are: Height, 43 inches;
width, 2%% inches; depth, 13 15-16 inches.
It employs the following new Radiotrons: 4
RCA-58 Pentodes, 5 RCA-56 General Purpose
tubes, 2 RCA-46 Dual Grid Class "B" Am-
plifiers, and 1 RCA-82 Mercury Vapor Rec-
tifier.
T. K. Bellamy, factory representative of
the Kimball Piano Co., has opened a retail
store in Walla Walla, Wash.
17
NBC MAKES AWARDS FOR
SYMPHONIC WORKS
;
O
N May 8, five composers received
checks totaling $10,000, represent-
ing the NBC Awards for original
symphonic works by American musicians.
The awards were made by M. H. Ayles-
worth, president of the National Broadcast-
ing Co. The names of the composers—four
men and one woman—together with the
amounts of the awards, and the titles of the
compositions, follow:
1. Philip James, New York—"Station
WGZBX"—$5,000.
2. Max Wald, Paris—"The Dancer Dead"
$2,500.
3. Carl Eppert, Milwaukee—"Traffic"—
$1,250.
4. Florence Grandland Galajikian, May-
wood, 111.—"Symphonic Intermezzo"—
$750.
5. Nicolai Berezowsky, New York—"Sin-
fonietta"—$500.
All the composers are American citizens,
as stipulated in the rules governing the
awards. Berezowsky is a naturalized citizen,
having been born in Russia some thirty years
ago; the others are all native Americans.
The five manuscripts were chosen, after
months of study, from a total of 573 sub-
mitted. They were selected by a jury com-
posed of Walter Danvrosch, Tullio Serafin,
Nikolai Sokoloff, Frederick Stock and Leopold
Stokowski, but these famous musicians did
not rank them in order of merit. This diffi-
cult task was entrusted to a National Com-
mittee of Award, composed of 150 men and
women scattered all over the United States,
who were chosen as representing a cross-
section of the country's most enlightened
musical opinion.
These men and women sat before their
radios, in their own homes, on May 1, and
listened to the NBC Symphony Orchestra in
New York, which played the five symphonic
compositions under the direction of Eugene
Goossens, conductor of the Cincinnati Or-
chestra. Immediately after the broadcast the
members of the National Committee tele-
graphed their ranking of the works to the
NBC in New York, and their votes were
tabulated.
On May 8 the compositions were played
again, this time according to the order of
the award, and the composers spoke briefly
during the program over an NBC network.
Goossens again conducted and Aylesworth
presented the checks. Wald being in Paris,
it was necessary to bring his voice across the
Atlantic by short-wave, and the playing of
his composition was short-waved back to
Europe, so that he might hear it.
Myron E. McConagle, who has been en-
gaged in the sale of musical instruments in
Minneapolis for over thirty-five years, has
joined the staff of the Cable Piano Co.
Peter D'Amico and Angelo D'Amico, Jr..
have purchased the Sheridan Music Co.,
Sheridan, Wyo., from S. L. Caple. The name
of the store will be changed to the Sheridan
Melody Shop.
Trie Goetze Music Co. has moved to new
quarters at 100 North Fourth street, Mober-
ly, Mo.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PIANO FACTORY and
PIANO SERVICING
DR. W M . BRAID WHITE
Technical Editor
The Piano Tuner
and His Future
Business Possibilities
DR. WM. BRAID WHITE
SUPPOSE that my tuner friends, es-
pecially the older men, will profess them-
selves, at the least, astonished to hear that
actually there are young men taking up
the craft for the first time and positively
looking forward to making a living out of
it. I say that I expect such astonishment,
and this because I have become accustomed
to hearing, of late, only complaints about
the general collapse of everything connected
with the noble arts of tuning and of seTvic-
ing pianofortes. For a good many reasons
I have never quite believed all the tales of
woe; and now here comes Jesse Bowen, Jr.,
from Winston-Salem, down in North Caro-
lina, who says that he is actually taking up
the art and finding something to do at it.
He comes to me for some information; but
before I give him this I must let him tell
his story, for it is far too good to be omitted,
I assure you.
I
HIS OWN STORY
This young gentleman is 18 years old and
is a student at Guilford College. His
father is a veteran piano man well known
to the manufacturers and travelers of this
industry. Young Mr. Bowen devotes himself
to his studies and in his spare time practices
the tuning art. He says that last year he
did pretty well. He averaged $30 a week,
which certainly seems by no means bad for
a spare-time occupation. He goes on to say:
"I worked for myself, depending upon no
one. I made what money I did through hard,
honest work. The tuners around home are
all down and out and are very blue, saying
that there is no business. But I believe that
there is some tuning and some money to
be made in tuning, if it is done in the right
way. Some tuners I know have cut their
18
prices to three and four dollars. Thus far
I have held my price up to five dollars for
a good honest tuning. Do you think that it
would help my business if I should cut my
prices?
"Meanwhile, do you know any modern
methods of getting tuning jobs? This may
seem to you a most absurd question, but I
should like to know all the same. Is there
any other way besides canvassing and my
small amount of advertising which I could
use to get tuning jobs? So far I have not
advertised extensively. What do you think
about advertising for tuning?
"What do you think of the future piano
business? Has it any possibilities? I like
it very much and feel that 1 could make a
success of it if success be at all possible."
ANSWERING DIFFICULT QUESTIONS
I take genuine pleasure in answering this
letter, which its author will forgive me for
saying is naive but with a naivete alto-
gether attractive. The questions he brings
up are important and it is not likely that
I shall be able to propose answers to them
really decisive. I can, however, doubtless
furnish some useful hints, than which noth-
ing more need be expected, considering the
peculiar state of present affairs in the piano-
forte realm.
And so I shall say in the first place that
I do really believe in the future of the
pianoforte. I believe in its future because
I cannot see that any possible substitute for
it at present existing or in sight can take
its place. Of course this does not mean that
there is any likelihood of the piano indus-
try's again arriving at an annual production
' of three hundred thousands of instruments.
In all probability, social currents have set
for good in directions which forbid the
restoration of the pianoforte to its pristine
place as principal domestic decoration and
treasure. It seems to me that the furniture
phase of the pianoforte has passed away and
that we now enter, probably forever, a purely
musical phase during which it will be owned
only by persons who wish to play upon it
or to hear it played upon. In a word, a
pianoforte will be found henceforth, domes-
tically, only where one might as likely find
THE
MUSIC
a violin or a violoncello. It resumes its
place as a musical instrument pure and sim-
ple, the principal ornament and treasure of
the musical home.
Now, if what I anticipate does actually
occur, then obviously the day of the really
cheap pianoforte is past. The tendency now
must be towards instruments finer and finer,
with more beautiful tone quality, more deli-
cate action, more splendid sonority and
greater duration of sound. I do not think
that artificial means of prolonging the vibra-
tions of the strings are likely to afford the
proper direction along which the modern
evolution will take place. On the contrary,
for improvements in tone quality, tone dura-
tion and mechanical delicacy I look to more
perfect understanding of the functions of
string, soundboard and hammer, understand-
ing arising out of researches which are now-
going on in more than one laboratory and
experimental room. In a word, I believe that
the pianoforte will be developed during
future years along natural and not along
unnatural lines.
HOW ABOUT THE TUNER?
What effect, however, are new social facts
and commercial trends likely to have upon
the art of tuning and upon the tuners who
practice that art? It seems unquestionable
that the number of pianos found in homes
and in public places of the restaurant and
Estate*
d
MANUFACTURER
01'
BUCKSKIN.
1049—3rd St.
NORTH BERGEN. N. J.
Tel.: 7—4367
TRADE
REVIEW,
May,
1932

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