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The Jtusi
REVIEW
Established 1879
CARLETON CHACE, Editor
Alex H. Kolbe, Publisher
A. C. Osborne
Alexander Hart
Associate Editor
Technical Editor
V. T. Costello
Terry Ruffolo
A Unique
Production Manager
Circulation Manager
Published monthly at 510 Americas Building, Radio
City, 1270 Sixth Avenue, New York 20, N. Y.
Telephone: Circle 7-5842-5843-5844
Vol. 113
in Brooklyn. In the middle west, there were also 90
manufacturers, distributed mostly in the states of Illinois,
Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota. In the east there were
18 manufacturers in New York State outside of New York
City, 8 in New Jersey, 8 in Philadelphia and 7 in Penn-
sylvania outside of Philadelphia. In Massachusetts there
were 23, Connecticut 4, 3 in Baltimore, Md. and 1 each
in the Stales of Maine, New Hampshire and Oregon. By
comparison today, we find 12 manufacturers in the mid-
dle west, 2 in the Bronx, 5 in Manhattan, 1 in New York
State outside the metropolitan area, 1 in Pennsylvania, 1
in Philadelphia and 1 in Tennessee, a grand total of 23.
Suppliers in 1908 numbered 18 piano action manufactur-
ers, 17 piano case manufacturers, 15 manufacturers of
felt, 42 hardware manufacturers, 18 piano hammer mak-
ers, 10 piano key manufacturers, 3 sounding board manu-
facturers, 25 manufacturers of piano benches and stools,
8 bass string winders, 12 makers of piano wire, 12 piano
plate manufacturers and 18 music roll manufacturers. At
the present time there are 2 piano action manufacturers,
no piano case makers, a few felt manufacturers, 3 piano
hammer makers, 2 piano key manufacturers, 2 sounding
board manufacturers, 5 piano bench makers, 3 bass string
winders, 5 piano plate manufacturers and one music roll
producer.
MARCH. 1954
No. 3
Business-As We See It
IT WENT IN THERE BUT CAME OUT HERE.
Introduction
TN looking back on that first introduction to the music
•*• industry, our memory brings to mind the instructions
which we received. We were told that in writing copy
for a trade paper, laudatory adjectives were particularly
permissible, in contrast to the copy which we had been
writing, that we might call "hard" newspaper copy, for
lhe New York Journal of Commerce and the old New
York World. These were the instructions of the Assistant
Editor at that time, Frank W. Kirk, who I discovered to
be rather an exacting person, but whom 1 had the priv-
ilege of sending to Chicago as our middle western repre-
sentative many years afterward when he had been uncere-
moniously let out of the publication with which he had
been identified for a great many years. Our first experi-
ence in calling on the industry resulted in a rather hum-
orous but severe reprimand. We called on one of the top
officials of one of the large companies, received a cordial
welcome and on our return to the office wrote a small,
one-stick item stating that this official seemed to be quite
pleased with the business situation at that time and that
his firm was doing a splendid business. No sooner had
the paper been distributed, than there was a telephone
call to our assistant editor from the executive who wanted
to know who the new reporter was, and stated that he
wanted it distinctly understood that when he told a re-
porter that business was good he never wanted any men-
tion of it in the paper, because he didn't want his com-
petition to know what his firm was doing.
r
| ^ H K E E years before we were horn, The Music Trade
Review was serving the industry. It was the first
trade publication to dispense news of the industry and
as has been recorded in the years that have followed, to
have led the way to the establishing of many organiza-
tions which today are active in the industry. Our intro-
duction to the music industry took place on the day
after Labor Day, 1908. It will probably be interesting to
many to know that at that time there were 254 piano
manufacturers. 92 of these were located in the metro-
politan area of New York City. 50 were operating in the
Bronx Borough, 40 in the Borough of Manhattan and 2
Looking Back Over the Years
r
I ^HE last 45 years have been filled witli many interest-
-*- ing experiences. Once we were asked by an official
of one of the larger companies what we ever got out of
continuing in the music trade publication business. We
assumed that he was thinking of the monetary aspect of
the business. Granted that there has never been a fortune
in it, but there is such a thing as getting untold satisfac-
tion out of something one likes to do. This may be called
personal vanity or whatnot, but as long as one is unhappy
in his daily occupation, life just becomes a drudgery and
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, MARCH, 1954