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How the Piano Business Is Being
by OPA
The Jiusk fy&de
REVIEW
;
Established 1879
CARLETON CHACE, Editor
E. L. Easton
Alexander Hart
Associate Editor
Technical Editor
Betty B. Borin
Circulation Manager
Published monthly at 510 RKO Building, Radio
City, 1270 Sixth Avenue, New York 20, N. Y.
Telephones: Cl rcle 7 - 5842 - 5843 - 5844
Vol. 104
SEPTEMBER, 1945
No. 9
Stymied
JAINOS cannot be made without piano plates. There
are ordinarily four piano plate manufacturers sup-
plying the piano manufacturers.' To day there is one
who is running two shifts and producing 145 plates per
day and another who at last reports is producing 18 plates
per day. The third manufacturer who leased his plant for
st :rage purposes when war was declared is planning to
re-ume. but will not do so until OPA grants him sufficient
price ceiling so he can operate without a loss. I 1 or this he
can't be blamed. The fourth manufacturer who perhaps
may be making a few plates says that conditions in his area
are in such a chaotic state that he cannot predict at this
time when he will be ble to be of much help. The two
manufacturers who are producing are losing money on
every plate they produce, have tried to get the War Labor
Board to permit them to lower war time wages and the
answer was that the WLB wanted them to put wages up. If
it should come to pass that these plate manufacturers
should continue to lose money to the extent that they just
can't stand it any longer and they were forced to close
down, it doesn't take much stretch of imagination to realize
what would happen to the piano business. These manu-
facturers need relief in the matter of an adequate price
ceiling so that they can at least break even. Until they get
it piano production must be very limited.
Don't Let Up on Your Congressman
Business —As We See It
Tf" V the OPA has other industries stymied as it has the
I piano industry, and it looks as if it has. according to
-^*- the reports we have been reading, then all this talk we
hear about a boom and prosperity is just wishful thinking.
We hope that the Congress will take cognizance of this
fact and do something about it or else the dream of sixty
million jobs which we used to hear
about will resolve itself into one
of those gigantic political vote
getting strategies which John Q.
Citizen is just about fed up with.
The situation in the piano industry
seems to be a very good example
of what is happening elsewhere.
Dealers needn't think they are going
to get new pianos in any appreci-
able quantity until some time next
year the way matters stand at pre-
sent. It is the fault of the system
pursued by OPA. Labor is more
plentiful than it was. There are no
Carleton Chaee
restrictions on hiring people. Ma-
terials, aside from lumber, are quite available. However,
in the case of lumber, allocations have been asked by the
WPB. So the actual green light is entirely up to the OPA.
10
I
F you have written your Senator and Congressman you
have done the best thing that can be done under the
circumstances. But now that the Congress is back in
session and we haven't seen any action yet don't let up on
them—write again and keep on writing until we do get
results. There are some three thousand piano dealers in
the country. If each one writes their Congressman twice
each month and keeps pointing out the dire need for mer-
chandise he will be helping the efforts of both the National
Piano Manufactureers Association and the National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants. You can point out to him
that under present conditions each dealer would receive 5
new pianos in the next four months- At the present rate
piano plates are being manufactured there will be approxi-
mately' 16,000 produced in the last four months of this
year. With no surplus of new pianos anywhere it can
readily be figured out just about how many pianos each
dealer will get on the average. So if you get more than
one piano and a quarter of another each month think your-
self fortunate. You can also point out that in the last four
months of 1941, over 41,000 pianos were produced and
there were as many if not more on the dealers floors at
that time. Statistics show, therefore, that 100,000 pianos
could be handled and disposed of without difficulty this
fall if dealers had them. Stress the point that, after all,
pianos should now be taken off the controlled list and that
the ten per cent excise tax should be eliminated as they
are a cultural and educational asset toward maintaining
morale throughout the reconversion period.
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1945