PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
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Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois.
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Advertising Rates t=-Three dollars per Inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
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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
24, 19*2.
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 and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
ern hemispheres.
The Presto Buyeis' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Musical
Instruments; it analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimates «t
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
£ Items of news, photographs and other matter of general Interest to the musts
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communications U<
Presto Publishing Co.. Chicago, III.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 22, 1920.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE NEWS OF THE
TRADE—ALL KINDS OF NEWS EXCEPT PERSONAL SLANDER
AND STORIES OF PETTY MISDEEDS BY INDIVIDUALS. PRESTO
WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SEND IN
"GOOD STUFF" OR ARE ON THE REGULAR STAFF. DON'T SEND
ANY PRETTY SKETCHES, LITERARY ARTICLES OR "PEN-PIC-
TURES." JUST PLAIN NEWS ABOUT THE TRADE—NOT ABOUT
CONCERTS OR AMATEUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS, BUT
ABOUT THE MEN WHO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
THOSE WHO SELL THEM. REPORTS OF NEW STORES AND
THE MEN WHO MAKE RECORDS AS SALESMEN ARE GOOD. OF-
TEN THE PIANO SALESMEN ARE THE BEST CORRESPONDENTS
BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE TO READ AND HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINDING OUT WHAT IS "DOING" IN
THE TRADE IN THEIR VICINITY. SEND IN THE N E W S -
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
THE FULL PAGE
Something recently said by a well-posted piano man directs at-
tention to the subject of the development of advertising enterprise in
the music industry. Until comparatively recent years the piano
manufacturers did not display much appreciation, of the potency of
printers' ink in the same ratio that has marked some other lines of
trade.
From the first appearance of the American piano there has been
some advertising done by the manufacturers. When John Jacob As-
tor brought over a few instruments bearing his ancestral name he ad-
vertised them in the primitive manner of the time. And when Jonas
Chickering began to make pianos, a quarter century later, he was the
first to advertise his product in anything like the modern way. He
even went so far into advanced methods as to interest the artists
from abroad in his instruments. He entertained visiting pianists and
singers, and they were glad to avail themselves of the opportunity
to use the Chickering in their concerts.
And in the days of the Civil War, when it might be supposed
that pianos could have no call, the New York weekly papers carried
the Steinway, the Knabe and the Chickering cards, conspicuously
among the few ether announcements cf business nature.
And in time came the music trade papers. That was the begin-
ning of real piano publicity by printer's ink in this country. For a
long time the small cards filled a modest page or two. Then the
"displays" began to appear. But the first of the "full page" out-
bursts were in the interest of reed organs rather than pianos. The
reed organ makers were for seme years the more liberal advertisers.
But when the piano manufacturers did open up with the big guns,
some of them went at it "right."
One of the largest believers in trade paper "space" in the old
days, was the late Hugo Sohmer. He wanted good display and had
a habit of contracting for ample room for his trade mark "across top
January 22, 1920.
of back cover." No one can doubt that Mr. Sohmer's enterprise as a
trade paper advertiser is largely responsible for the place the Sohmer
piano still holds, notwithstanding that today its sale is chiefly a local
New York retail business. And there never was a keener piano man
than Hugo Sohmer; he was a fair match for other great piano mak-
ers of his day, in New York, including William Steinway, Albert
Weber, F. G. Smith, and the Haines Brothers.
Today, the trade-paper full page display is not a novelty. Many
of the ambitious younger industries and some of the older ones, also,
appreciate the power of the printed argument as it impresses the
trade and, in turn, inspires the public. For it is the retail dealer
who is, after all, the greater advertising influence. Start him by
means of the trade paper—give him the ideas and the impetus—and
he will wear out his high-priced shoe-leather, and exhaust his mental
energies, passing along the word to the public. And that's the ulti-
mate end of all advertising.
Nor is the "full page" any longer the final proof of printer's ink
ambition on the part of the piano manufacturers. Today the "spread"
—the two-page argument—is not infrequent in the music trade paper.
Not long ago a representative of the younger school of piano energy
told, in a readable article, why his house believed in the trade papers.
He declared his faith in trade paper publicity. And Mr. C. C. Con-
way is proving the earnestness of his words by the manner in which
the instruments of his industry are being promoted. And no one who
thinks at all will doubt that the results of his enterprise will be
adequate.
There was a time when some piano men hesitated about entrust-
ing the fame and fate of their instruments to the trade papers. To-
day only the class of piano manufacturers who are known as "dead
ones" take that view of it. And there never was a time when trade
paper advertising could contribute such a many-sided influence to
good pianos as the time in which we now live and do business.
CHANGED CONDITIONS
The proportion of piano men who proclaim the national prohibi-
tion enactment a blow at personal liberty is such that, had the prob-
lem been left to them, the result would have been a deadlock. And
for once the anti-booze law has afforded a case where the drys have
found no fault with the wets and the wets have had little open com-
plaint against the drys. It has been a big question mark with think-
ing men and, whatever their personal opinions, most of them have
seen somewhere a moral salve for the physical and "spiritual" self-
denial.
It has not even been said, so far as we have observed, that there
seemed to be a return of the laws of Augustus of Rome. Not even
the Vox Poppers in the daily newspapers have compared the stern
prohibition to the ancient sumptuary laws of three hundred years
before the Christian era. The piano men, in fact, seem to recognize
a reform which, even if edged in a dull grey and a dimming of the
social side of things, may result in large compensations. They see a
betterment in the home life of the people by which music may be
even more universal than before. They see a larger proportion of
the people enabled to enjoy the instruments of music, and thus an
even still greater distribution of pianos and kindred things.
And so very many piano men stifle their complaints and, to the
American loyalty to the nation's laws, add their faith in increased
material prosperity. They believe that large sums of money which
have heretofore gone across the mahogany bar may now go into
mahogany-cased pianos. And so comes compensation to the piano
dealers, to which some of the manufacturers add a sense of satis-
faction in the thought of better conditions in the factories. They
believe that the workers will be possessed of more steady hands and
more contented minds.
Whether the individual reader shares in the cheerful viewpoints
just expressed or not, they are the right ones to accept under the
circumstances. The fact that a new law has been added to the na-
tion's constitution is all the argument now needed in favor of pro-
hibition. When slavery was declared illegal there were many who
opposed the change. It would be folly to hope that any law based
upon moral principles, real or assumed, could be accepted unani-
mously. But in business a reform that turns the glittering side up
must be considered favorably, even by its enemies.
As a rule, men of music do not wear their hair long as a sign
of their spiritual or moral predelictions. If their hirsute adornment
happens to be conspicuous it may be because they are expert pianists
who can play Liszt without the aid of music rolls. And, if we must
be truthful, there have been evidences at the annual conventions, and
even at the daily piano clubs, of a tendency to personal liberty in the
pleasures of the desert. It is perhaps fair to say that the caw of
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