Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1932 Vol. 91 N. 6

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
OBITUARY
Ernest D. Moore
Ernest D. Moore, treasurer of the Moore
& Fisher Mfg. Co., Deep River, Conn.,
manufacturers of piano and organ supplies,
and widely known as an ivory trader and
author, died at his home in Chester, Conn.,
on June 5, from a heart attack.
Horn in Boston on January 18, 1884,
descendant of several generations of ivory
traders, Mr. Moore went to Africa in 1908
to carry on the family tradition as repre-
sentative of Arnold Cheney & Co., of New
York. He helped to entertain Theodore
Roosevelt at Mombasa when the former
President visited there on his African hunt-
ng trip and sent back the first photographs
I : Colonel Roosevelt from Africa, showing
i/\m riding on the pilot of a train.
Mr. Moore also was stationed at Zanzibar
an^ for a time at Aden. The story of his
contacts and of the history of ivory gathering
wa i told in "Ivory: Scourge of Africa," pub-
lished last year by Harper & Brothers. He
wrote of himself that he had handled as
much ivory in his time as any man living.
He also published many magazine stories
about the romance, adventure and misery in-
volved in gathering ivory.
In 1912 Mr. Moore returned to the United
States to become secretary of Pratt, Read
& Co., of Deep River, Conn., makers of
pianos. Later he became vice-president of
the company. About a year ago he resigned
from that company to organize the Moore
& Fisher Mfg. Co.
Soon after his return to the United States,
Mr. Moore married Miss Elsie Warner of
Chester. He is survived by his widow and
five children and by two brothers.
Howard Bailey Moremus
Howard Bailey Moremus, for many years
prominent in the piano trade as a salesman
and executive, died at his home in LaPorte,
Ind., on May 22, after a short illness. He
was in his sixty-third year.
Mr. Moremus was born in New York
State and in 1893 married Martha Strong
Cable, the daughter of the late Hobart M.
Cable. When the latter resigned from the
Cable Company, to organize the Hobart M.
Cable Co., Mr. Moremus joined him and
became vice-president of the new concern,
which post he held for over twenty years.
During that period he traveled throughout
the United States and developed a host of
June-July,
1932
15
friends among the dealers in all sections of
the country.
During the last few years Mr. Moremus
maintained an office in LaPorte and engaged
in the wholesaling of the Vogue piano, which
was made especially for him. He was a mem-
ber of the Masonic and Elks fraternities
and of the LaPorte Country Club. He is
survived b\ a son, Richard C. Moremus.
Charles H. Addams
Charles H. Addams, who was associated
with the Aeolian Co. for nearly thirty years,
died at his home in Westfield, N. J., on May
26 after a short illness. He was in his fifty-
ninth year.
Mr. Addams was born in Canton, O., and
upon his graduation from the Webb Acad-
emy became a naval architect, working for
the United States Government for a number
of years. In 190+ he joined the Aeolian Co.
as a member of the outside force of the retail
department and so promptly proved his abil-
ity that he was soon transferred to the whole-
sale department, where he remained to the
time of his death.
During his career Mr. Addams traveled
through every part of the country many times
and developed a host of friends among the
dealers with whom his pleasing personality
and genial character made him very popular.
Surviving Mr. Addams are his widow,
Mrs. Grace Spear Addams; a son, Charles
S., his father and a sister. A large dele-
gation of his former associates attended the
funeral services.
Sey
Furth
Seymour Furth, well-known writer of
popular songs and librettos for musical come-
dies, died at his home in Boston on May
22. He was 55 years old and is survived by
his widow, his mother and one brother.
Probably the best known of Mr. Furth's
songs were "No Wedding Bells for Me" and
"My Old New Hampshire Home." He had
also written a number of other songs that
attained a fair measure of popularity.
Philip H. Pierce
Philip H. Pierce, for many years engaged
in the retail music business in Lawrence,
Kans., died in that city on June 2 following
an operation. He was seventy-five years old.
Mr. Pierce was born in Indiana, but came
to Kansas when a young man. About thirty
years ago he started a drygoods business and
later added pianos and other musical instru-
ments, which he handled exclusively during
recent years. He is survived by his widow.
A DEMONSTRATION PLAN
(Continued from page 10)
''Following the serving of food we let the
guests look over the merchandise, and the
salesmen of the different departments are on
hand at the displays in much the same man-
ner as at a radio show. An attempt is made
to find out just what each visitor is interested
in, and the contact achieved at this time is
followed up at a later date.
"Three days after the meeting we send a
letter to each person who attended the dem-
onstration. The letter thanks them for their
interest, and again calls their attention to the
commission offer. Then five days afterward
the salesmen call at the home. At this time
prospects are closed, and suggestions of
friends who might be interested are obtained.
Many of these leads are of course worthless,
but out of the lot of them we always get
some good ones.
"Meanwhile, the contact woman has been
telephoning the president of the group from
time to time and reminding him of the possi-
bility of the organization making some addi-
tional money through suggesting prospects.
We put a time limit on the commission offer,
however, in order to avoid complications that
might arise from prolonging it too much. At
the same time the time limit is a stimulus to
the individual to turn in names immediately,
for as the days go by the enthusiasm dies
down.
"We do not need to advertise the meetings,
for they advertise themselves. The cost of
holding them is negligible. To bring in fifty
people will cost only about $15. And out of
this number there are sure to be at least two
or three hot prospects. We might spend $500
on advertising to get people into the store
and out of this get comparatively few real
prospects. Of course, we have carried on our
regular advertising, and have used the dem-
onstrations as a form of publicity in them-
selves. And results show that this is a val-
uable way to get business. Often we find
individuals coming in months afterward and
buying something, declaring that they had
been at the store during one of the demonstra-
tions and had been sold on it at that time."
SpinetGrand at Convention
The Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co. had the
distinction of having the only trade exhibit at
the Commodore Hotel, New York, during the
recent meeting of the Board of Control of
the National Association of Music Merchants.
One of the company's Spinet Grands was lo-
cated in the lobby of the hotel where it is
played in concert with the hotel orchestra.
STARR PIANOS
STARR ELECTRIC REFRIGERATORS
CHAMPION and GENNETT RECORDS
ELECTRICAL TRANSCRIPTIONS for RADIO BROADCASTING
THE STARR PIANO COMPANY
ESTABLISHED 1872
RICHMOND, INDIANA
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
16
MUSIC
TRADE
There IS no finer piano than a
KRANICH & BACH
Made under one family's supervision
since 1864
RANICH f BACH
237 EAST 2 3 " STREET
New York
REVIEW,
June-July, 1932
for the purpose of mapping out the program.
A feature of the Portsmouth meeting will
be an exhibition of pianos, band and orches-
tra instruments, radios and various home elec-
trical appliances.
Leading manufacturers
will be invited to make displays during the
convention and they will be open to the gen-
eral public.
In order to increase the membership rolls
of the Association before the convention, the
annual dues were reduced to $5.00. President
Carl E. Summers and Secretary Clark F.
Gross, of the Association, have been devoting
much time and effort to the work of the
organization and are apparently getting re-
sults in holding the interest of the members.
VASSAR COLLEGE MUSEUM
HAS OLD INSTRUMENTS
The Belle Skinner Hall of Music recently
opened at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie,
N. V., already has the beginning of a splen-
did collection of old musical instruments. The
latest acquisition is a small residence pipe
might have been sold in the past four or five organ, built in the early part of the last cen-
tury. It was built by the same firm which
years.
made the original organ for Vassar, in 1865,
This brought up the question of pianos in
Messrs. Labagh & Kemp, and was in use on
storage and not used, and David W. Kimball
Governors Island, New York City, for some
told of his experiments through offers to pay
years, and was also installed at Princeton
cash for old pianos, in finding out how little
University during the time the firm was com-
truth existed in the popular gossip about
pleting an organ for that institution. It has
warehouses being full of pianos unused by
been in the Kemp family home in Jersey City
the owners and waiting sales. The Kimball
for the past fifty years and it is given jointly
Co. offers in the advertising columns of the
by Joseph M. Priaulx, son-in-law of Mr.
Chicago Tribune to pay cash for unwanted
Kemp, in memory of his wife, Isabelle Mor-
pianos brought ridiculously few offers, and
rison Kemp (Prialux), and Louis F. Mohr
for these few the owners, paying storage,
& Co., of New York City, the organ mainte-
wanted prices as high as new instruments at
nance firm, who have always taken care of
retail.
the instrument. The father of the present
Then Local Manager L. C. Wagner, of the
Baldwin Piano Co., told of a survey his or- members of the Mohr firm made the pipes
ganization had recently made of the pianos of the first Vassar College organ, built in
1865 and destroyed by fire in 1918.
in sixty-five Chicago warehouses. Assertions
that there were hundreds proved to be true.
The instrument just given has five stops:
The owners continued to pay storage and only
open diapason, dulciana, stopped diapason,
thirteen were willing to sell their grands, and
principal and fifteenth. The open diapason
of these only three were resalable if the Bald-
and dulciana begin at tenor G, the lower
win Company had made the purchase. They
seventeen pipes of the stopped diapason are
did not. But the experience of the Kimball
used also as the lower notes of the open
and the Baldwin houses effectively disposed
diapason. The stop knobs are placed in a
of the myth about thousands of people want-
horizontal row directly above the keys. There
ing to get rid of their pianos, a useful fact
are no pedal stops, the pedal keys being per-
to know when one considers that the Baldwin
manently coupled to the manual keys. The
survey included sixty-five warehouses in Chi- organ is not enclosed in a swell box. It con-
cago, which is certainly comprehensive.
tains 236 pipes. The organ can be blown by
Then the veteran Adam Schneider wound
a foot pedal or by a bellows handle extend-
up this interesting round-table discussion by
ing forward and placed directly at the right
reminding his hearers that there were 500,000
of the bench. The casework is of mahogany
children in Chicago, graduates of public
and richly hand-carved.
schools, and 385,000 more from the parochial
The organ is installed in the midst of a
schools, each of whose parents were certainly
number of interesting exhibits. On its left
the best of prospects for piano sales.
stands an especially good model of an early
Resolutions of sympathy with the family of
American Melodion made by R. Burnbacker,
the late James Weibley were passed, and the of Washington, N. J., and on its right is a
next meeting is scheduled for September.
Broadwood piano of 1796, originally sold bv
John Jacob Astor to Hon. Edmund Living-
stone of Poughkeepsie.
MAY MEETING OF CHICAGO PIANO AND
ORGAN ASSOCIATION VERY INTERESTING
HE May luncheon meeting of the Chi-
cago Piano and Organ Association was
held May 19 at the Auditorium Hotel,
with President George L. Hall, Vice-presi-
dent Wagner, Secretary David W. Kimball,
Executive Secretary Adam Schneider and a
representative number of members present.
Excellent vocal music was furnished by a
quintet provided by Frank Bennett, of the
Baldwin Piano Co.'s local branch, and re-
ceived the thanks of the association in a for-
mal vote.
Adam Schneider reported on behalf of the
ways and means committee that it had been
decided not to make a formal protest to Con-
gress as an organization, as there did not
seem to be any probability of a sales tax be-
ing imposed this session on pianos.
He also reported on the situation of music
instruction in the public schools of Chicago,
and it was noted with satisfaction by the
members that out of all the pianos loaned to
the Chicago School Board for class piano in
struction by local dealers and manufacturers
only seven were idle, all the rest being in
daily use, and over seven thousand children
are now taking class piano instruction in the
local public schools.
Vice-President W. E. Guylee, of the Cable
Co., being called on for some remarks on the
trade, made a number of interesting points.
He spoke of the changed public attitude
toward the piano, and said that emphatically
the public no longer bought pianos as a mat-
ter of pride to make their homes complete,
but their enjoyment of the piano and of piano
music was evident from the national use of
the piano over the radio, since the programs,
after all, indicated more or less faithfully
what the public wanted in music.
But there was in Mr. Guvlee's opinion a
great reservoir of piano sales yet unmade, and
this could be profitably worked, in other sales
made, if we employ salesmen who know the
PLANNING PROGRAM FOR
piano and who can sell the piano as a musical
OHIO ASS'N CONVENTION
instrument. When that is done you have an
ever-growing influence for more sales. So if
Plans are now being whipped into shape
dealers and salesmen develop the thought that for the annual convention of the Music Mer-
the piano as a musical instrument, not as a
chants' Association of Ohio which will be
mere piece of furniture, is a bigger selling
held in Portsmouth, O., on September 13 and
force than ever before, our trade can recover
14, following an executive meeting of the
a large part of the million pianos which association officers held recently in Columbus
T
For Moths in Pianos Use
The Schall Laboratories
Piano-Moth-e X
Ten-year (Jiiiwantcr
Dealers - Tuners - Write :
TIIK SCHALL I.A HOKATOK1 KS
Madison Ave.,
l.a<'r«Ks.-, VVis.

Download Page 15: PDF File | Image

Download Page 16 PDF File | Image

Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).

Pro Tip: You can flip pages on the issue easily by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.