Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1746

PRESTO
PRESTO
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scriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Business notices
will be Indicated by the word "advertisement" in accordance with the Act of August
84, 1912.
Rates for advertising in the Tear Book issue and Export Supplements of The
Presto will be made known upon application. The Presto Year Book and Export
Issues have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical
instrument trades an.i Industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
era hemispheres.
The Presto Buyeis' Guide Is the only reliable Index to the American MusiesJ
Instruments; it analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimates ef
tb«ir values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
$ Items of news, photographs and other matter of general interest to the music
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communications to
Presto Publishing Co., Chicago, III.
January 8, 1920.
which have to do with propaganda and the purification of the retail
methods of doing business.
All of these things must so far concern every branch of the in-
dustry and trade as to attract attendance of the thinking class of both
manufacturers and merchants.
From letters which have come to this paper, it is plain that there
are piano dealers who think the Music Show is the dominating pur-
pose of next month's meeting. That is a mistaken notion. The
Music Show is of a collateral interest, but so great as to be a drawing
card by which the interest of both public and trade may be very
greatly enhanced. The public will have occasion to know more
about the practical and commercial sides of the things of music,
while it will be entertained, also, by a high class of interpretative
talent.
The dealers will be given the opportunity of seeing a great many
makes of pianos, and many novelties together in one vast exposition,
and to hear the instruments played by experts and explained by the
men who make them. It will be a music show surpassing everything
that has gone before, and even comparing in interest with the favored
Section I, of the Columbian Exposition, which is still fresh in the
memory of veterans in the trade.
Is there not enough of promise in next month's New York con-
vention to draw crowds of piano men? Is there any live piano mer-
chant who can afford the trip who does not see the advantages of
being there?
Finally, as a special favor, Presto requests that all readers of
this paper who expect to attend the convention and Music Show,
advise us of their plans, giving their New York address. And please
do it soon. If there is any information or advice by which we can
be of help let us know that, also.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 8, 1920.
A LIVE TRIO
*BooK J^umber
RESOLUTION FOR NINETEEN TWENTY.
Whereas, The New Year dawns with the promise of
new opportunities for men of vision and energy,
be it Resolved,
That we bury all old grudges and grievances, strifes
and strikes;
That we give ourselves to producing the wealth the
world needs;
That we make each day count for a full measure of
honest toil;
That we put new emphasis on service and co-opera-
tion as the keynotes of happiness, peace and
prosperity;
That we spend less extravagantly and more intelli-
gently;
That we subordinate class advantage to the com-
mon welfare, and
That we dedicate 1920 to a revival of the American
spirit of enterprise, energy and achievement.—
Associate Business Men.
THE CONVENTION
The convention in New York next month will present some ex-
perimental features. First of all, the change from blossoming spring
to chilly winter as the time of meeting will present some new condi-
tions. And it is possible that, coming at the season when trade is
usually quiet with the retailers, the change may be a good one re-
sulting in larger attendance.
The prominence given to the Music Show is another innovation.
For, while there have been expositions at convention times, they have
created a division of opinion among manufacturers, at one time
approaching a split in the association. This time the feeling seems
to be almost unanimously in favor of the show. This time, too, will
be the first at which may be possible a full consideration and weigh-
ing of the auxiliary branches of the central organization of music men
Three names have grown with almost peculiar significance into
the records of the music industry and trade during the past twelve
months, or a little more. They are the names of men whose work
has been auxiliary to that of the manufacturers or merchants. They
are names of men who have neither made pianos nor sold them. But
their work has, without question, helped all along the line, and added
to the possibilities of the future of both makers and sellers.
It would have been considered a proposition almost grotesque—
say twenty years ago—to suggest a special counsel to look after the
larger interests of the piano industry. Perhaps not a man in the
business at that time would have said that the affairs of the piano
trade required any special safe-guarding, or any influence by which
to avoid unjust legislation or unfair discrimination on the part of
the law-makers who regulate the public revenues.
Today, Mr. George W. Pound is a strong factor in the affairs
of the piano and its well-being. As a smoother-out of many troubles
he has done good work and made a name for himself in connection
with the industry.
Where, in earlier times, would it have been possible to find
a piano man ready to say that a special stirrer-up of music-lovers,
and a distributor of music propaganda, could be of appreciable influ-
ence in the sale of pianos ? In the early days of the piano the only
literature of music was the criticisms of concerts, the cynical or hu-
morous items about piano playing and the paid puffs concerning the
public performers. Today a fair number of large newspapers are
printing full pages of music-matter, well written and attractive, in
a popular sense.
It is the work of the bureau of music conducted by Mr. C. M.
Tremaine, who has shown himself equal to an effort which to many
at first seemed almost hopeless. And if there has been a special
call for good pianos, and a better understanding among the people
of good pianos, it is fair to give considerable credit, also, to Mr. Tre-
maine.
There was a time—not so very long ago—when piano advertis-
ing threatened to bring the trade into disrepute. The methods of the
dealers in their publicity efforts sometimes barely escaped being
fraudulent. This paper opposed the rising tide of the puzzle
schemers, the coupons and imitation bank checks, which were used
as lures for the little-informed. In several instances piano dealers
who had overstepped the lines of the law w.ere indicted and fined,
and the public had begun to scan piano advertising with open sus-
picion.
Today, all that has been changed. Some of the cleanest and
most efficient publicity experts in the advertising world are now
handling piano promotion in the press. The public is forgetting the
past in recognition of the fine enterprise of the music industries of
the present. And it is only fair to give much of the credit to the
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
January 8, 1920.
better advertising bureau, of which Mr. C. L. Dennis is the active
influence.
And so we have three names that have risen into trade promi-
nence because of their good work for the piano and its better, as
well as bigger, business. If Messrs. Dennis, Tremaine and Pound
keep at it, we expect that in another year their work will have
more than trebled the record already to the credit of that live trio.
STACCAT-TO
SUCCESSFUL STYLES
It is a good many years since the first publication of the Success-
ful Styles of the Year was a feature in this paper. The idea was sug-
gested by a request which came from a large retail piano house for
as many catalogues as we could furnish. The dealer wanted to com-
pare the case designs of the prominent manufacturers. It was at a
time when decorative effects were largely in vogue—just before the
extreme was reached in the once-popular marquetry effects and the
hand-painted panels.
Public taste runs to extremes in such things, as in everything
else. There is ever the recurring ebb and flow, and piano cases go)
from "grave to gay," and from plain to fancy, just as do the styles
of clothing and the absurd colorings of men's hats. And so it was
decided by Presto to present as many styles of good pianos as pos-
sible. The result was that one issue of this paper contained more
than 150 pictures of handsome pianos.
This week the number of styles is not nearly so large. But
there are enough to afford a good idea of the prevailing tastes and
the preferences of the manufacturers. That there are not more of
them is the fault—if that word is applicable—of the manufacturers,
for all were invited to contribute. No doubt, too, the reason all did
not avail themselves of the opportunity may be found in the abnor-
mal demand for pianos. Manufacturers may have thought that no
special further interest is desirable just now; or they may have
thought that because they have nothing new to offer they had better
stay out of the symposium; or a few may have hesitated because
they did not like to seem to be accepting gratuitous publicity as non-
advertisers in the columns of Presto.
All who may have reasoned thus are wrong. They overlook the
essential point that a trade paper owes its first thought and best en-
terprise to its subscribers. The dealers look to the trade paper for
ideas, and for suggestions, and for practical assistance. Presto is
one of the homely kind of trade papers that likes to work in working
clothes. It tries to be useful rather than beautiful. And it knows
that its plan is one that wins. How does it know this?
This paper receives more cash subscriptions every day than any
other publication in the music trade. That is a challenge for the
accuracy of which a good sum is hanging up for delivery to any
good cause in the event of successful disavowal. More than that, we
believe that this paper receives more cash subscriptions than all the
other trade music papers combined. Is that a large statement?
Very well; we are honest in making it, and having had experience
with other trade papers, we have had opportunity upon which to
base conclusions.
It is, furthermore, our opinion that the Successful Styles feature
which forms a good part of this week's Presto, is the most interest-
ing, even the most valuable, that could appear in a music trade pub-
lication, We wish it could have been two or three times larger than
it is. What do you active piano dealers say about it?
THE TUNING PROFESSION
What does the average piano owner know about piano tuning?
How many pianists understand the principles of the tuner's work?
If you could interrogate a thousand intelligent people on the sub-
ject, you would be surprised to discover how general is the utter
ignorance on the subject.
There are people, well informed in other matters, who do not
know, or do not care to realize, that sound is a matter of air-dis-
turbance and that tone is the result of that phenomenon and not a
problem of muscular effort, or of pounding upon a string or a solid
substance.
It would be too much to expect that people who are thus indif-
ferent to causes would know anything about acoustics, or the science
of "laying the bearing" and synchronizing the octaves, which creates
the work of the tuner. Consequently, it isn't strange that the piano
tuners are not always accorded their proper places in the world of
music.
But the piano tuner is advancing. He is much larger in the eyes
of the intelligent world than he used to be. He is not nearly so
liable to be defrauded and discredited by reason of false pretenders,
'MORE OF THAT
CLASSICAL, MUSIC AGAIN!"
—From Life.
as he once was. It is no longer possible, in most communities, for a
nomad, wholly irresponsible, to masquerade as a piano tuner because
of his disguise of a hammer and mute.
There is hope in all this. There is promise of better treatment
of the piano, and better treatment of the tuners themselves. And
what is working the change for the better?
First of all, the betterment is due to the piano manufacturers.
They realize that it hurts to have their good names shining above the
keyboards of instruments in bad condition. And they are co-operat-
ing with the dealers for the better care of pianos once sold.
Next, there is the growing improvement in the kind of men that
sell pianos as a business. The day has gone when any impecunious
local character out of work could get a piano "on consignment" and
dispose of it at any price and on any terms that seemed to him right.
The piano merchants now are men of standing, and of moral as well
as financial responsibility—most of them.
Nor must the influence and effect of the piano tuners' associa-
tion be overlooked in the sum of improvement which has helped the
public to a better understanding of the instrument and how to take
care of it. This sum of credit must also be considered through legit-
imate piano tuning schools, of which there are now several in this
country. The only danger here is in the "mail order" tuning schools,
essentially fraudulent, and in the mechanical devices wholly imprac-
tical and worthless.
Piano tuning is a profession requiring all of the qualities of
most other professions, pertaining not a little to that of the physi-
cian, and not far removed, in point of skill, patience and application,
from the work of the dentist and optician.
There are some special and well-displayed full-page advertise-
ments in this issue of Presto. Study them carefully; file them for
future reference. Perhaps the manufacturers may not be able to
ship any car load lots on demand, just now, but if they are not repre-
sented in your territory try to make arrangements for the future.
* * *
It has been necessary for Presto to pull in its belt this week to
avoid being a "fat" trade paper. But we believe the field has been
pretty well covered, and there will be fifty more weeks coming be-
fore the next annual reviews.
* * *
Perhaps never again, in all your life, will you have such oppor-
tunities of interest and instruction as New York will offer next
month. Go to the convention and see the Music Show, if you pos-
sibly can.
* * *
All roads lead to New York. And the ticket agent in your city
or town is ready to fix you up for your journey to the Hotel Com-
modore and the Grand Central Palace, February second to seventh.
* * *
See if your best seller is shown in the Successful Styles feature
of this week's Presto. And if it isn't there, ask us why?
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

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