Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, JUNE, 1941
Chicago &
Midwest
Joint Meet of Tuners Society
and Illinois Association June 16-18
Final arrangements are being com-
pleted for the Joint Conventions of the
American Society of Piano Tuner-Techni-
cians and the Piano Tuners Association
of Illinois, which will be held at Hotel
Sherman, Chicago, June 16. 17 and 18.
1941. This is the first convention of the
new national Society but the eighth of the
Illinois Association.
The Joint Convention Committee, under
the chairmanship of Alfred H. Utterberg,
reports that the following piano manufac-
turers and Supply Houses have already
arranged to put on displays and exhibits:
American Steel & Wire Co., Baldwin Piano
Co., Cable Piano Co., J. C. Deagan, Inc.,
The Gulbransen Co., Haddorff Piano Co.,
W. W. Kimball Co., Krakauer Bros., Pratt,
Read & Co., Schaff Piano String Co.,
Charles Frederick Stein, Steinway & Sons,
Tonk Bros. Co., The Rudolph Wurlitzer Co.
Included in the program will be grand
and upright action regulating classes for
visiting tuners as well as on voicing by
Charles Frederick Stein, Granville Ward
of Steinway & Sons, J. M. Broadhurst of
the Baldwin Piano Co. and Ralph W. E.
Sherry of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co. A
demonstration by Mr. Stein of his own
method of installing a set of hammers in
a grand piano.
A technical talk on the making of bass
strings with hints to tuners as to correctly
specifying for repair strings and sets oi
strings.
An illustrated talk by Dr. William Braid
White on The Production of Tone in the
Piano, using the oscilloscope and other
scientific apparatus.
An historical talk on the History and
Development of the Pianoforte by Ovid
Seamon of the Illinois Association.
A demonstration by the Illinois Bell
Telephone Co. of the Voice Mirror, where-
by it is possible to hear one's own voice
as others hear it.
Other speakers will include: Robert
Fanning, Chicago manager Baldwin Piano
Co., P. E. Mason, salesmanager of Had-
dorff Piano Co., Clare O. Musser of J. C.
Deagan. Inc., and Lawrence Selz the pub-
licity counsel of the National Piano Mfrs.
Ass'n.
A special feature will be a conducted
visit to the famous Chicago Theatre in the
Loop, where the visitors will be taken
through the $50,000 organ by Harry Nel-
son of the Illinois Association, who for
nineteen years has been tuner and tech-
nician in charge of the great instrument.
The Piano Tuners Association of Illinois
is offering a special $10 registration prize.
The joint banquet of the American So-
ciety and of the Illinois Association will
take place in the famous Bal Tabarin room
of the Hotel Sherman on Wednesday eve-
ning June 18th at 6 p. m. The master of
ceremonies will be Paul Ludwigs, presi-
dent of the Piano Tuners Association of
Illinois.
It is planned to hold the business meet-
ings of the American Society of Piano
Tuner Technicians during the mornings.
Five Kordevon
Pianos in Show
Just across the street from the Wurlitzei
retail store in Brooklyn, New York, is the
Fabian Fox Theatre where the WMCA
Amateur Hour eminates. Some time ago
a Wurlitzer Spinette, Model 410-7, blond
maple finished in White Kordevon was
chosen to be used for solo work for ama-
teurs. Recently four more of these pianos
were added for the show's feature at-
traction, "Al Curtis and His Forty Fingers
of Rhythm."
The WMCA network includes seven
stations covering New York. Connecticut,
Pennsylvania and Maryland.
1ft
Kimball Aids
Cover Wide Scope
Kimball dealers throughout the country
get a wealth of valuable information from
the Kimball headquarters in Chicago each
month which is issued under the able
direction of Ben Duvall, secretary and
sales manager of the company. This is
all distributed under the caption "Piano
Merchandising for Kimball Dealers" and
each dealer is supplied with a binder in
which these various monthly sales helps
can be bound. When bound the dealer
has at his disposal most everything he
may need in the way of suggestions for
sales efforts such as spot announcements
for radio, running from nine to one hun-
dred words, bulletins on how Kimball
dealers have just put over successful sales
promotions, letters for dealers to send
prospects, new thoughts on renting pianos
with advertising mats on this subject, let-
ters to send prospects return cards and
contract blanks, and many other ideas.
The series also contains a large display
of advertising mats to be used in news-
paper advertising both half-tone and line
cuts with suggestions for advertising copy
and a special series for fall and holiday
advertiing with a Christmas Club plan.
There is a spirit of cooperation which
runs through this series of promotions
which comes from Kimball dealers them-
selves whose successful efforts along a
given line are imparted to other Kimball
dealers for use in their respective terri-
tories. Not only is the content of these
bulletins confined to sales promotion but
also to general new items of business
management which may in some way
make the problems of Kimball dealers eas-
ier. In this manner, aids for all phases
of a dealers business are advanced by the
W. W. Kimball Co.
Wurlitzers in the Belgian Congo
Three Wurlitzer Spinettes, finished with
Kordevon, were recently purchased by the
Director of Military Music at Elizabeth-
ville, Belgian Congo. The pianos were
sold by Paul C. Bothner, head of C. Both-
ner & Sons, Wurlitzer dealer at Capetown,
Union of South Africa. Mr. Bothner stated
that the Belgian Congo is buying a large
portion of its requirements from the Union
and there has been an average of 400 visi-
tors monthly during the past six months.