Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1945 Vol. 104 N. 3

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
the least costly method that you can.
You are going to be in competition
with all kinds of commodities for the
consumer's dollar. You are going to
have to give that consumer the maxi-
mum value that you conceivably can.
The OPA may be rendering a serv-
ice to the music merchants of America
in keeping the ceiling prices of pianos
low. Without our knowing it. they
may be forcing us to become better
business men. The maximum margin
that they allow under the present pro-
posed ceiling prices gives us a gross
of 43.98%, all the way down to
40.22 r f—and, gentlemen, if you are
going to survive in this music busi-
ness at margins of that kind in one of
your major departments, you are go-
ing to have to be good business men.
We might just as well begin to recog-
nize it, and we might just as well begin
telling the piano merchants and the
music merchants of this country that
these are the conditions that are con-
fronting us, because if we don't realize
it, we are going to go broke, and there
is no fun doing that.
More Capital Will Be Needed
The other subject that I would like
to call to your attention might be re-
garded as a division of the other.
That is the amount of capital you are
going to need to run your business.
In surveying the probable require-
ments of our own business, we pro-
ceeded on the assumption that we
would do the same proportionate
amount of business in our various de-
partments that we did in 1939, '40 and
'41, in cash, charge and installment.
By "charge" I mean thirty or sixty-
day payments. We assumed that our
merchandise would cost us 15 per cent
more, and then we projected our an-
ticipated capital requirements over a
two-year experience, and I don't mind
telling you it was quite a jolt.
Most of us in the music business
have liquidated our installment ac-
counts down to the point where they
are almost non-existent. Most of us
have substantially liquidated our in-
ventory of merchandise. But the time
is going to come, within the next year,
the next two, three, five years, when a
normal supply of merchandise is
available, when we will have to once
more indulge in that happy practice
of trying to sell merchandise. To the
extent that we are successful, we are
going to increase our investment in
our business, and we are going to do
it quite rapidly.
Keep Money Liquid
We might counsel members of our
Association to give some thought to
that. I was talking with a merchant
within the past two months, who heads
a long-established business. His com-
pany normally did from a hundred to
a hundred and fifty thousand dollars'
worth of business. They carried an in-
ventory, normally, of about fifty thou-
sand dollars at cost. Their current
inventory was between five and ten
thousand dollars. Their accounts re-
ceivable were practically liquidated.
I said, "Well, where's the money?"
He said, "We put it in real estate."
I said, "Well, how are you going
to go back into the music business
when they start shipping new band in-
struments, pianos and radios, etc.
He said he was getting to the point
where he too was beginning to wonder
about that.
Now, that is an actual case; it is
not a figment of my imagination. I
hope that the backbone of our music
industry, our retail merchants from
one end of the country, to the other,
haven't done that.
Sooner or later we are all going to
be confronted with the necessity of
getting more capital invested in our
business, temporarily borrowing it if
necessary. If we can't do that, we are
going to have to curtail our operations
so that the volume of business we do
is voluntarily kept within the limits of
the capital we employ in the business.
Guaranteed Serurit'es
Mr. Edmund Gram. Milwaukee,
then asked, "We have put our surplus
money into Government Bonds, not
into real estate. What do you think
the banks will do after we need the
capital for our business, to buy goods?
Do you think we can cash in on the
bonds through the banks?"
Mr. LaMair: "The Government it-
self has told you they can be cashed
on sixty day's notice. The point I
am trying to make is that if you have
been able to do business in the past
on, for instance, a hundred thousand
dollars in capital, to do an equal
physical volume of business in the
future, you are going to require a
substantially larger amount of money.
Survey your own requirements on
some such plan as I suggested, and
find out approximately how much ad-
ditional capital is required, remember-
ing that you may be selling pianos
again that will carry over two or three
years, as they did in the old days."
When asked if there will be a ten-
dency of forcing dealers into that
method of selling, Mr. LaMair said:
"If you buy a piano for five hun-
dred dollars and put a list price of a
thousand on it, with a 10% down
payment—one hundred dollars down
payment—in order to replace that
piano you have to obtain from some
place four hundred dollars, plus the
expense of doing business, plus the
tax on the profit you have made, so
that you are actually financing as
much as 96% of your volume of busi-
ness and getting as little as 10% of
the proceeds of your sale in cash."
Regarding Regulation "W"
To the question, "Would the con-
tinuance of Regulation W, say, of the
eighteen-month regulation, be of any
benefit?" he replied:
"Not materially. We made two
studies, one, of our business under the
regulation, and the other, of our busi-
ness under the free and easy method
where we did what we pleased. The
difference is not as great as it might
appear to be on the surface. Of
course, there is a lower capital re-
quirement under the terms of Regula-
tion W than under two- and three-year
time payments. Where most people err
is that they think they have to replace
only the merchandise and that the
Qost of merchandise is the end of the
capital requirements. But it isn't. You
have to pay your sales clerks' commis-
sion; your rent to the landlord; your
newspaper advertising expense; your
income tax on your corporation profit,
so that the only party you don't have
to finance is the amount that you
lease in your earned surplus. If you
pay your stockholders dividends, you
even have to provide cash for that.
(Turn to page TU
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MARCH, 1945
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
Should Postwar Spinet Pianos
Be Over Forty Inches High?
O
WING to discussions throughout the industry regard-
ing the height. Spinet pianos should be for the postwar
era, T H E REVIEW asked dealers the above question.
According to the answers, some of which are published
herewith, approximately 75 per cent say Spinets should not
be made less than 40" high. Many rea'son it out as follows:
flo
Lester E. Fetter, Gewehr Piano Co., Wilmington, Del.
"I am very opposed to any piano under 40 inches in height. 1
do not like a drop action to begin with nor an action t h a t
slopes down in order to build a smaller piano.
"The design can be much b e t t e r proportioned in a 40 inch
size and of course the tone is more r e s o n a n t and better bal-
anced.
"My experience 1 has been that the buyer does not prefer a
smaller piano after they have been told and shown the differ-
ence, p a r t i c u l a r l y in tone.
"After all the piano has a l w a y s been sold as a musical in-
s t r u m e n t and not as a piece of furniture. To me the sale of
MirrApianos h a s proven that the height is not the biggest b a r -
rier, it h a s been the design of the case."
L. A. Shuler, Hartford Piano Co., Hartford, Conn.
" O u r o p i n i o n is t h a t a l l p i a n o s s h o u l d b e 40 t o 42 i n c h e s
h i g h . P r o s p e c t s will be m u c h b e t t e r s a t i s f i e d w i t h d u r a b i l i t y
a n d if t h e y d o n o t sell I! li o r :(7 inch c o n s o l e s , i t will b e e a s i e r
for d e a l e r s to sell 40 inch c o n s o l e s w i t h o u t t o o m u c h e x p l a n a -
tion.
T. R. Huston, Huston-Baldwin Stores, Milwaukee, Wis.
" W e have been a d v i s i n g all the m a n u f a c t u r e r s t h a t we h a v e
b e e n p u r c h a s i n g from, t h a t w e w o u l d p r e f e r 40 i n c h e s o r
h i g h e r . T h e s e :',»; inch w a s p o p u l a r o n l y b e c a u s e it w a s s m a l l .
"We have h a d r e m a r k a b l e success with t h e MirrApiano a n d
t h a t w a s d u e to t h e fact t h a t t h e tone i n v a r i a b l y w a s b e t t e r
t h a n t h e t o n e of t h e S p i n e t s , d u e to t h e Ions' s t r i n g s . "
E. Rob't Ilawken, Earl K. Hawken & Sons, Inc., Springfield, O.
"We think that the question you are bringing; us is very
timely. We have felt for some time that pianos should not be
made under 40 inches in height. There is no question but that
you get a better tone, especially with longer bass strings.
Then again you break down the tuner's resistance to small
pianos.
"We do, however, have to bear in mind that the cases must
be attractively designed. If we lose sight of this fact we will
be back where we started from. It was the Spinet that revived
the piano business as the sale of grands will always be limited
because of price and space in the average home. It seems to
us that a happy medium will have to be met even to sacrifice
of tone. Many sales are influenced by eye appeal rather than
tone and if we are to survive we will have to give the public
what they want. While it is true the musician and music
teacher and advanced student will be influenced by tone and
quality, there are many many pianos sold in homes where
nobody plays and it has been purchased in anticipation that
the child will learn to play. It is in this latter group that
case design and eye appeal play such an important part."
Samuel Schwartz, Boylslon Piano Co., Boston, Mass.
"Korty inches is low enough.
too short a string length."
Anything lower would give
D. O. Keeney, O. C. Keeney & Sons, Annapolis, Ind.
"Tt is my opinion t h a t the 40 inch piano would be b e t t e r
than those smaller. T think it is s t r e t c h i n g it a point to make
them as small as 34 or even 3G inches.
H. E. Miller, Cen'l Mgr., Kirk Johnson & Co., Lancaster, Pa.
"Tt is my personal opinion that the public are becoming
educated to the larger console and for everyone concerned,
it would be best, when manufacturing is resumed, that pianos
should not be made lower than forty inches. The customer
would be better pleased and the dealer will feel much better
and there won't be any sales lost."
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MARCH, 1945
C. Vee, Kramer Piano Co., New York, N. Y.
"We firmly believe no "piano should be made lower than 40
inches. It is impossible to obtain the volume of tone in a
lower instrument, and a difference of a few inches in the
height will not affect the saleability of the instrument."
Raymond C. Hemming, Loomis Temple of Music, New Haven,
Conn.
"We do not believe that the new pianos should he less than
40 inches in height. The tone was very poor in the flat top
pianos that were made in the past, and Steinway has not built
a piano less than 40 inches, and they have the finest toned
pianos in the world, as far as we are concerned, and we are
not in favor of any piano being less than 40 inches, and higher
than that would not be out of order.
"If the public can be educated to higher pianos with a direct
blow action, and still not take up any more floor space, we
would have the perfect piano, both for appearance and tone
and durability."
W. L. Friedman, Milton Music Co., Norfolk, Va.
"We think that 40 inches is plenty low for a vertical piano."
Charles V. Darring, W. Doyle Marks, Inc., Elmira, N. Y.
"We agree with those manufacturers who contend that
vertical pianos should not be made lower than 40 inches. We
believe that a piano lower than 40 inches imples an undesir-
able sacrifice in quality of tone and efficiency of action.
"We have discussed this matter with a number of our
-customers and have found that they also prefer a piano at
least 40 inches high.
B. E. Neal, President, Neal-Clark-Neal, Buffalo, IN. Y.
"I certainly would be pleased to see pianos made not less
than 40 inches high. There will be a big sale of many pianos
higher than that. The MirrApianos which we have sold have
pleased all of our customers."
E. W. Patterson, Patterson Piano Co., Akron, Ohio
"I can frankly state, through our many years in the piano
business, that no upright piano should be made less than
42 inches in height to be able to insure depth and quality of
tone. The manufacturers, in the past, that made 34 to 37 inch
console pianos expected the piano to be sold as a decorative
piece of furniture not a musical instrument.
"Would be very pleased to learn that small scales be com-
pletely discontinued in the future."
H. R. Dickinson, Mgr. Piano Dep't, Pearson Co., Inc.,
Indianapolis, Ind.
"We heartily agree with the contention of many tuners and
musicians that the forty inch scale piano is preferable from a
musical standpoint. However, in our opinion it would be a
mistake to discontinue the manufacture of the small models
as many of these are sold due to the eye appeal. It may seem
that some four or five inches in height would not distract
from the decorative value, but it has been our experience that
many times with the two sized pianos setting in the same
display room, the buyer, particularly if a woman, will be much
more attracted to the smaller model. We hope this answers
your question and we will he interested to learn the thought
of other dealers and manufacturers."
W. M. Smith, Smith's Music Store, Jackson, Miss.
"We are very much in favor of from 40 inches up to at
least 48 inches. The two main reasons are tone and action.
The writer was a tuner by trade before going in business and
the opinion is that a piano lower than 40 inches cannot have
a satisfactory tone, especially in the bass. Then, we are not
in favor of any kind of a drop action and a direct blow action
can be used in any piano 40 inches high. Even 40 inches does
not quite measure up to what a piano ought to be but will
get by if well made and a direct blow action used."
A. P. A very, A very Piano Co., Providence, R. I.
"I am in favor or a 40 inch piano because of the great
difference in the, tonal quality due to longer strings and
greater sounding- board area; and for another reason, it is
possible to have a direct blow action in a 40 inch piano. I
would not object to a piano being 1 a bit smaller than 40 inches
providing a direct blow action could be used in it.

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