Presto

January IS, 1920.
PRESTO
PHONOGRAPH STOCK WHAT TIME DO YOU GO TO IT?
IN WALL STREET Here's a Serious Effort to Find the Toiler in the Trade Who Beats the
Interesting Communication from New York
Gives Some Large Figures About a Large
Industry from Viewpoint of the
Promoters.
A communication—evidently manifolded for news-
paper purposes—came to Presto yesterday in which
there is much of interest to talking machine people.
We publish the letter just as it came. That there
are some inaccuracies in the communication will not
alter what has just been said and the inaccuracies
have to do with statistical points concerning the age
of the phonograph industry and selling prices. But
there is certainly no coloring of facts, and the state-
ments rather underestimate the promise of the
phonograph than otherwise. This communication
comes from Montgomery & Co., of Wall street,
New York City, though it is unsigned.
A Stock Offering.
Offerings of phonograph stocks, of which the
latest is a million dollars of 8 per cent stock brought
out by Montgomery & Co., have led to investigation
of the whole phonograph industry. The results of
this investigation show that there are now more
than 300 phonograph manufacturing concerns.
Their capacity is estimated at 2,500,000 machines an-
nually. There are 75 companies rated as makers of
high grade instruments, but the bulk of the output
is confined to a dozen manufacturers.
About 30,000 dealers are engaged in the distribu-
tion of phonographs, records and supplies. The
total production of records is unknown, but its size
may be gauged from the fact that one of the larger
concerns has an output of 30,000 records per day.
There are 18 companies marketing records under
their own names.
Is It So Young?
The industry is only 10 years old, but it is said
by authorities in the trade that there are now about
3,250,000 flat-disc machines in use. In spite of the
greatly increased production, it is below the de-
mand, partly owing to decreased output during the
war, but also because of increased demand. This is
attributed in trade circles to the high wages now re-
ceived by labor and the development of the "talking
machine" to a point where it is accepted as a mu-
sical instrument of high quality.
In price the machines vary from $25 to $950.
During the holidays the sales reached millions of
dollars daily. One New York department store
sold $30,000 worth of nine different machines in a
day. New York dealers report that their only diffi-
culty is in securing phonographs and records in suf-
ficient quantity to supply their customers.
Millions Behind Orders.
Neither the small nor large manufacturers report
the actual number of machines produced annually.
The president of one of the two largest companies
in a statement which will appear next week states
that his company had at the close of business last
year unfilled orders amounting to $168,000,000. In
the absence of accurate reports this is as good an
indication as could be given of the proportions at-
tained by the phonograph industry in the last
decade.
CHICAGO TRADE VISITORS ARE
BECOMING MORE NUMEROUS
Most of Them Find That Pianos Are Harder to
Get Than Even Before Christmas.
Trade visitors from the four quarters of the
United States began to flock into Chicago during
the last week. All are eagerly seeking goods, and
the majority are finding it more difficult to get their
orders filled than it was in that unprecedented time
of difficulty—just before Christmas, 1919.
Oscar Stranburg, of the Stranburg Music Com-
pany, Jamestown, N. Y., was a caller Saturday on
some of the Chicago manufacturers, looking for
goods. He visited W. T. Brinkerhoff, of the Brin-
kerhoff Piano Company, among others.
J. H. Witamayer, piano dealer of South Bend,
Ind., was in Chicago on Saturday. He said that
he could sell ever so many more pianos and player-
pianos that he can get delivered to him.
N. A. Lehman, piano merchant of Nappanee, Ind.,
was in Chicago on Friday.
Mr. and Mrs. Guy Miller, of Dixon, 111., were in
Chicago Saturday. Mr. Miller placed orders for
more goods.
Mr. Freeman, dealer in automobiles and player-
pianos at McGregor, Iowa, was in Chicago order-
ing goods in the latter part of last week. One of
Early Bird in Race for the Wiggling Worms of Success.
A letter in last week's Presto from Edwin Jarrett,
of the Kroeger Piano Co., took exception to the
claim of E. P. McMurray, of Pontiac, 111., as the
original early riser of the trade. Mr. McMurray
had told how he gets up before the cock even thinks
of crowing, and hies himself to Chicago in search
of more and more M. Schulz pianos. He has been
doing it continuously for twenty years and, natur-
ally, there must be others in the trade who also get
up early and go to it before the cock crows. Who
are they? Where are they?
We present a good portrait of Mr. Jarrett, who
is the latest claimant and who appears to be the
most successful candidate to date. If you think you
can shade his record, as already stated in Presto,
let the particulars be known. Mr. Jarrett says he
gets the 6:45 train from New York to Stamford,
Conn., every morning, and has been doing it with-
out intermission for a long time.
Mr. Jarrett is secretary of the Kroeger Piano Co.,
and is one of the widely known members of the
piano industry. But is he the earliest riser in the
business?
the representatives of Stolpher Bros., of Plymouth,
Wis., was also in Chicago ordering more pianos.
J. F. Reynolds, of Macomb, 111., and E. M. Rey-
nolds, of Canton, 111., both piano merchants, were
in Chicago on Friday last and placed liberal orders
for more instruments.
E. E. Baker, piano dealer of Harrisburg, 111., was
in Chicago on Saturday and left substantial orders
for instruments.
E. O. Jackson, of Paducah, Ky., was in Chicago
in the latter part of last week and bought player-
pianos and pianos for his trade.
C. M. Alford, of Alford & Fryar, piano dealers of
Canton, Ohio, was in Chicago this week ordering
playerpianos and pianos.
D. J. Massey, piano merchant of Des Moines,
Iowa, was another of the dealers who came to Chi-
cago this week and left orders for instruments.
Among the live dealers who were in Chicago this
week none are more alert to trade conditions than
L. Earl Elsham, of the Leader department store,
St. Joseph, Mo. Mr. Elsham predicts a very great
year in the piano trade of the Southwest. He is the
son of George Trafford Elsham, of Mason City,
Iowa, one of the oldest in years of service of the
Iowa piano merchants. In fact, young Mr. Elsham
was born into the piano trade.
Frank Jordan, traveling representative of the
American Photoplayer Company, came into Chicago
Monday night from New Orleans, La., and after
transacting some business left for New York. Mr.
Jordan is well known in the piano trade, having been
for several years with the Smith, Barnes & Strohber
Co., of Chicago. The American Photoplayer Com-
pany, manufacturer of the Fotoplayer Piano, has its
original factory at Berkeley, Calif., and a branch fac-
tory at Highland Park, near St. Louis, Mo.
UNIT PLAYER ACTION CO., INC.
A new incorporation of general trade interest is
that of the Unit Player Action Co., Inc., Bronx,
New York, to manufacture playerpiano actions. It
is capitalized for $200,000. The incorporator is C.
A. Ericson, New York City. The name is that of
one of the most widely known and popular piano
manufacturers. Mr. Ericson is a practical man and,
as head of Ludwig & Co., he has made a place in the
industry which insures the power of the new cor-
poration. The product is already so well known
that it requires no special description now.
Calvin Miller, a Dayton, O,, negro, was recently
held under $1,000 bond for the alleged robbery of
the Hunter Music House at 210 East Fifth street.
He is said to have forced his way into the store
and departed, carrying with him merchandise to
the value of more than $100.
Quality—Supc«macy~EBE—New York
AN AMERICAN BY CHOICE
IS PIANO MAN L A. PERES
Native of Jerusalem, Tried France and Bel-
gium—Came Over to America and Finds
Here the Promised Land.
L. A. Peres, successful proprietor of a retail piano
business at Albemarle, N. C, was at the Lyon &
Healy factory at Healy Station, 111., on Tuesday of
this week ordering a shipment of pianos and player-
pianos.
This man's success is just another of the remark-
able examples of what the United States can do
for a man of ambition who has been tied down by
the antiquated methods that prevail in so many of
the countries of Europe.
He has been in this country only since 1911, and
yet he is very prosperous. He was born in Jerusa-
lem, of Jewish parents, and his relatives still reside
there. He became a business man in Jerusalem and
had a good trade, but he did not like the govern-
ment under the Turks, so sold out and departed.
His next attempt at trade was in France. This
proved hard "sledding" for him, and he went to Bel-
gium, which country proved equally discouraging
for a man with little capital.
Then he lifted up his eyes to America—the land
of the brave and the home of the free. Now he" is
patriotic to the core. He said to the men at Lyon
& Healy's store Tuesday morning: "You gentle-
men were born in America; therefore you are all
gq>od Americans. But I claim to be more earnest in
my Americanism than you, because I am an Amer-
ican by choice. This certainly is the country of
hope, of freedom and of opportunity; it gives every
man a chance to show what he can do."
Mr. Peres sells the Washburn piano, of Lyon &
Healy make, over a very large district in North
Carolina. He left an order Tuesday morning for
36 Washburns. And he wanted them all shipped
immediately. He said he had made most of his suc-
cess by means of advertising.
"What did you do when you first arrived in this
country, unable to speak English, as you say?" he
was asked. "Did you seek work as a laborer?"
"Oh, no," he replied. "I started on the road as a
salesman, and I gradually picked up enough of the
language to get along."
MUCH INQUIRY FOR GOODS.
"We are having a great deal of inquiry for our
goods, and are selling all we can get," said Arthur
Bissell, of the Bissell-Weisert Company, 4th floor
of the Fine Arts Building, Chicago, on Monday of
this week. "There is still as much difficulty as ever
to get instruments manufactured fast enough to
meet the demand."
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