PRESTO
BEST POSTED IN
SHEET MUSIC TRADE
Remarkable Demonstration of Expertness and
Memory of Old-Time Songs by Man Who
Could Win Ribbon in Any
Sheet Music Marathon.
One day a customer
of the Fifth Street Store
in Los Angeles, Cal.,
went to the music de-
partment and struggled
to tell a clerk about an
old song he wanted but
couldn't recall its title,
or any of the words. He
hummed a scrap of the
melody and tried to de-
scribe the subject, but
his outline was so vague
that he. was about to
give up in despair when
the manager of the sheet
music department was
appealed to. And here
the miracle was per-
formed.
ED. M. DE MOTTE.
It was a very old song
and one that had not been called for, probably, in
a quarter century. So the seeker told the manager.
And he began to hum the first strain, but hadn't
got far when the manager interrupted.
Knew It at Once.
"Oh, yes," he said, "that's one of the old suc-
cesses of Will S. Hays, a writer whose songs have
been dead and buried for so many years that some
of them are hard to get as green diamonds."
"But I want it badly," the customer exclaimed,
"for an old friend who knew it when he married the
wife who will help him celebrate their golden wed-
ding, and they want it for their grandchildren to
sing. Now, can you recall it?"
"I'll try," said the sheet music manager. And
he paused to go back to the time of Will S. Hays,
the song writer of fifty years ago, who made such
hits as "Mollie Darling," and "Evangeline," and
other good ones your granddady used to sell in his
little music store! And then—
"Yes, I have it!" the manager said. " ' I t ' s Write
Me a Letter from Home,' and in the last of the 60's
it was the biggest seller on earth. I sold thousands
of it myself in Chicago when it first came out."
And it was the song the customer had been try-
ing to find for a month before. That is the way the
story came to a Presto representative, and it was
told as a remarkable feat of the sheet music man.
Candidate For Prize Winner.
But it is safe to say that if there is anywhere on
earth a man who knows the song hits, or any other
music hits, from the old days to this day, that man
is Ed. M. DeMotte, of the Fifth Street Store, in
Los Angeles. If a prize were to be offered for the
best-posted sheet music man on earth today, it
would be safe to enter Mr. De Motte to win at the
regulation odds of 10 to 1 against all comers. And
it would be a sure-thing bet. For there is nowhere
another sheet music expert with a record to com-
pare with that of the Los Angeles man of music.
When a very young man, Mr. De Motte and his
brother, Tom, opened a music store at 93 Washing-
ton street, Chicago. But, even before that, Mr. De-
Motte had been employed by J. L. Peters, the vet-
eran music publisher, in Cincinnati and St. Louis.
Even then he was an expert in the trade. And he
has been at it, without intermission, ever since.
Who can beat it?
It is safe to say that there has not been a single
successful piece of music published during the past
fifty years that Ed. De Motte has not bought, sold,
wrapped up and handed to the public. Can any
other sheet music man match that record?
Young as Ever.
And today Mr. De Motte is just as active, alert
and enthusiastic as he was when he did business
in Chicago, or when later he assisted in the old
music store of S. T. Gordon, on East 14th street,
New York. He has lost none of his love of the
business and is just as popular in music circles now
as when his friends used to compare him to a great
actor of the earlier times, and wonder why Romeo
or Antonio or King Lear was selling sheet music
during the day and strutting the stage at night!
Some day, perhaps, some sportively inclined man
of music may arrange a contest of experience and
efficiency in the sheet music trade. And when that
takes place it is a certainty that, in all the points of
time in the business, memory of melody or words,
familiarity with composers' names and works, di-
versified knowledge of the "game"-—everything that
constitutes a walking encyclopedia of the sheet
music line, Ed. De Motte will win, hands down.
THE M. SCHULZ COMPANY IS
A GREAT HAPPY FAMILY
Presents and Happy Holiday Meetings Indicate
Loyalty and Joy.
Of course the M. Schulz Company's dealers all
know of the custom of the head of that concern,
with headquarters at 711 Milwaukee avenue, Chi-
cago, of sending them a book with his good wishes
for a happy new year. But not all of them know
of other expressions of goodwill at home—among
the M. Schulz Company's workers and officers.
The selection of a book is more difficult than one
would think. It is easy to get a few hundreds of a
certain book, but when the purchase is upwards of
a thousand, as in the case of the M. Schulz Com-
pany's requirements, it becomes a very difficult
matter.
Each of the M. Schulz Company's factory em-
ployes received a goose this year at holiday time,
according to an annual custom of the house. Ap-
ples were also distributed.
Perhaps the trade has never heard of the three
holiday parties that have become annual customs
with the heads of the M. Schulz Company. First
it was a Thanksgiving Day party at the residence
of Fred A. Luhnow, secretary and treasurer; then
a Christmas party at the residence of Otto Schulz,
president; and last a New Year's party at the resi-
dence of Frederick P. Bassett, vice-president. The
three families make a party of about twenty-five
persons, including wives and children, and they
enjoy themselves at these gatherings thoroughly.
FINE PIANOS SELL FREELY
IN PORTLAND, ORE. STORES
Splendid Business for December Just Ended Re-
ported by All the Firms.
Several Mason & Hamlin grands were sold by E.
E. Gabriel and George Darrell of the Wiley B. Allen
Co., Portland, Ore., during the rolidays. While there
is not a single Mason & Hamlin grand in stock, the
instruments were sold on their merits and the well-
informed purchasers have no doubts regarding the
superiority of the pianos they have selected.
A $2,450 W r elte Mignon was one of the good sales
accomplished by the G. F. Johnson Piano Co., Port-
land, Ore., during the month of December, a month
which shows the best and most profitable business
of any during the time they have been in business.
Both the piano and talking machine departments
did exceptionally well. A shipment of Chickering
Ampico pianos is on the way to Portland and the
G. F. Johnson Co. has already sold all that will
arrive.
A Hardman piano was used at the Tetrazzini
concert at the Public Auditorium on Monday, De-
cember 29. The pianist, Pietro Cimara, demon-
strated the beauty of the instrument in two beauti-
ful piano solos, and in the accompaniments, which
he played for the singer. Over 4,000 persons at-
tended the concert. The piano was furnished by
the Wiley B. Allen Co.
FEATURING SMALL GOODS.
Gilman's Music Store, 235 Fairfield avenue, Bridge-
port, Conn., features its small goods department
consistently and cleverly. A recent statement an-
nounced the arrival of "a large shipment of im-
ported musical instruments. All pre-war made
goods that were held for shipment since the war
began and just released by our government. You
will not get such goods in many years to come.
Not only are the workmen gone but even the fac-
tories destroyed. The fine musical qualities, mate-
rial and workmanship in these goods, only many
years of training can produce."
OHIO DEALERS TO MEET.
Officers of the Ohio State Piano Dealers' Associa-
tion will meet with the executive committee of that
organization at Columbus, O., January 15. for the
purpose of discussing all state legislation pertaining
to piano dealers and especially chattel mortgages.
During these times, when so many bills are being
passed by the state bodies, the dealers believe they
should be informed that no legislation that is a
detriment to their business be passed without a
voice from them.
And Idle Capital is as unsatisfactory as
Idle Labor.
January 8, 1920.
A BANNER YEAR
COMING IN TRADE
President of Brambach Piano Co. Sees End of
Labor Troubles and Increased Produc-
tion—Quotes from London Paper
on the Subject.
By Mark P. Campbell
I think next year is going to be the biggest the
piano industry has ever known for several reasons.
The general prosperity of the country is as great
as ever before. The labor troubles are over for the
present from all appearances. Failures throughout
the country were never so few as they are at pres-
ent; and everything within the United States re-
flects a continuance of prosperity.
It has been labor's ambition to eliminate seasonal
demands and to spread work over the entire year.
Formerly, it was necessary for painters to work
twelve and fourteen hours a day through the fall
and spring, and do nothing during the winter and
summer months. A similar condition has been true
in a great many lines. By the shortening of the day,
and in some lines, the shortening of the week, they
have been able to spread their energies and income
over the entire year. This, I think, everyone will
admit has been a good thing.
The activities of the rest of the world, and par-
ticularly England, have usually been reflected in the
United States from a year to two years later. If
you will recall from your history, you will remember
the Baring failure was reflected in the United States
in the panic of 1893, and, more recently, the great
European War did not draw the United States in
for two years.
I found an article in the "London Daily Times,"
which reads as follows:
Music—and the Home.
"The industrial Midlands heard piano stories dur-
ing the war. The burden of them was that the pros-
perous munition-maker, in his zeal for unaccustomed
luxuries, bought as many pianos as his money
would run to; a piano for every room in his house.
Based on fact, they were no doubt exaggerated.
Now that the war is over, London has apparently
inherited this craze for buying pianos. Adventures
in the show-rooms of musical instrument makers are
calculated to disturb quite seriously those few who
appreciate music when it is little and good. It will
certainly not be little, and can hardly be good, if
all the pianos that are being bought are destined to
be played upon. The piano which attracts but is not
definitely chosen today is gone tomorrow. A seller,
asked recently to let a purchase stand over till the
next day, replied that he could only grant an option
till five o'clock of the same day. Stocks are cleared
out sometimes in a few hours. The hard experi-
ence of would-be buyers shows that the tides of
the huge demand are no fictitious stimulants to
trade. With thousands of people in want of houses,
other thousands are in need of pianos. When there
are no new houses, where do all the new pianos
go? The possessors cannot surely lodge in them."
With such a condition in England, I am sure
that the United States will continue as in the past,
and 1920 will be a banner year.
BANQUET
RECEPTION
COMMITTEE.
Adam Schneider, president of the Chicago Piano
& Organ Association, has appointed the following—
all former presidents of the association—as the re-
ception committee for the coming banquet of the
organization: James F. Bowers, Edgar C. Smith.
Edwin H. Uhl, H. C. Dickinson, Otto Schulz, H. L.
Draper, E. B. Bartlett, C. C. Chickering and Platt
P. Gibbs. The entertainment committee has com-
pleted its arrangements. Charles M. Walker, the
speaker of the evening, who is to talk on the "City
Beautiful," will have his explanations amplified by
stereopticon views on a screen.
OPERATORS' COMPANY'S SUCCESS.
"We have had a good year," said Alfred Liv-
ingston, secretary and treasurer of the Operators'
Piano Company, 16 South Peoria street, Chicago,
on the morning of Jan. 2 to a Presto representa-
tive. "And things look brighter for 1920 than they,
did at the begining of 1919. We have had the
best year we ever had, and I think that is true of
all the Mid-Western manufacturers of musical in-
struments."
STEINWAY IN OKLAHOMA.
"There is nothing in the realm of piano construc-
tion that measures up to the Steinway standard.
Ask to see the Steinway New Styles K and V—they
are the most perfect pianos in the world," says the
J. W. Jenkins Sons' Music Co., Muskogee, Okla.
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