PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
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"PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois.
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will be Indicated by the word "advertisement" in accordance with the Act of August
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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 ancl industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
•ffectually 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 «f
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
^ Items of news, photographs and other matter of general interest to the muili
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communication* to
Presto Publishing Co., Chicago. III.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 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.
MUSIC SHOW RESULTS
Now that the big music show week has flashed its splendors and
proved its values, both spectacular and practical, it is time to measure
its effect upon the trade, in proportion to its cost to the exhibitors.
And we believe that Mr. C. C. Conway has done this perfectly. He
has "sized up" the show as accurately as the weather man foretells the
storm—when the weather man happens to get it correctly.
And it would not be human on Presto's part not to feel some
sense of satisfaction in Mr. Conway's estimate of the Show results.
For his views are in exact concord with the ideas more than once ex-
pressed, in advance, by this paper. To be sure Mr. Conway speaks
more fully and clearly than anything said in these columns. A trade
paper could have no right to discourage in advance any effort of the
industry and trade in which there might by any possibility be great
promise. Presto has never felt that a big music show could be made
permanently profitable along purely exposition lines designed to draw
miscellaneous crowds. At one time leaders in the industry were so
opposed to exhibitions in connection with the annual conventions that
pianos were not permitted even in the hotels where the meetings were
held.
As is usual in such things, the judgment was reversed and the
extreme opposites of the earlier views were put into operation in New
York last week. And the show demonstrated, at least, the largeness
and enterprise of the manufacturers whose products were so splen-
didly displayed. Still the affair was essentially a local show. It was
thronged by the people of New York and vicinity and the hard-work-
ing members of the retail trade at large had little part in it. That
alone shows that the lasting good so far as concerns the trade, can
not be of lasting importance beyond what must come from the pub-
licity given to the event by the trade press.
The big music show was planned by men who know how to make
such things attractive to the public. The manager is 1 a showman who
February 19, 1920.
has had experience with national expositions. He is the second to
arrange a large music show in New York City. Naturally, with un-
stinted financial support, and backed by some of the largest and most
influential industries in the world, Mr. Green could not have missed
making a great show, from the viewpoint of public interest within the
scope of skilled and effective local promotion. The idea of a general
music week was also fine, and in some places it was carried out.
However, as a national music show for the trade we believe that
Mr. Conway has "sized up" last week's big event accurately. To do
any great good to the trade, the show must be an industrial show. To
prove really profitable to the industries the show must attract great
numbers of the dealers throughout the country. To do this something
different from a music week, with our heads in the clouds, must be
devised. Plans of special interest to the dealers must be thought out
and better use of the trade press must be put into application.
In earlier exhibitions this has been done. We recall! one event in
which manufacturers made provisions for their dealers which actually
drew them from their distant stores to the show. At the last Chicago
music show at least one piano industry had arranged a special plan
by which every dealer who did business at its booth was reimbursed
for every dollar of expense accrued from the trip to Chicago. We
expect to see more music shows, but we believe that Mr. Conway
has started the right line of thought, and that the results will be
good.
DULL FINISH AGAIN
It was expected, by some piano men, that one of the topics of
special interest at last week's convention would be that of the dull
finish—or French finish, as it is commonly termed. There were piano
men who even predicted that, as a result of the New York discussion,
it would be decided to make one more serious effort to popularize
the dull finish, and that the manufacturers would jointly announce to
their customers the determination to deliver no more polished cases
except by special order or understanding.
How much truth there may have been in the dull finish talk
we do not know. As in politics, there is liability, even in the piano
trade, of rumor taking the place of fact. And here, as elsewhere, the
"wish is father to the thought" in some instances.
In any event, it is now nearly twenty years since the last excite-
ment over the subject of a concerted movement designed to get away
from the lustrous piano cases in favor of the foreign art-styles. And
when the piano manufacturers, in convention assembled, agreed long
ago to adopt the dull finish, and to urge their trade to adopt it,
many articles appeared in the trade papers, several large industries
put forth pamphlets, and some booklets on the subject were dis-
tributed. And a good share of the factories completed instruments in
accordance with the resolutions.
But there was some uncertainty as to how the dull finish might
best be produced. The secret of the English and French systems did
not seem to be available, and there were theories to the effect that
our climate, and some of the other elements, have not been favorable.
Some of the manufacturers sent abroad for experts to take charge
of the special work, and to produce the desired effects without the
added cost which experimental cases had entailed. And a number of
very handsome dull-finish instruments were shown in prominent
warerooms.
But the movement did not persist. The reason is not hard to
find. It was simply that the average piano buyer demanded the cases
that "shine." The American people preferred the pianos to which
they had been accustomed. To them the lusterless pianos did not
look right. Their owners wanted to see their own faces smiling back
at them from the "Empire" desks and the shining sides. To them
it was not a question of art, or of what the Old World wanted. It
was what they themselves wanted, and they wouldn't take into
consideration the trouble the dealer had to keep the cases free from
checking or from finger marks and "smoke."
And so the manufacturers scon gave up the laudable effort to
teach the public what was best for it. The dull finish propaganda was
abandoned and the rubbing machines were set going faster than ever.
Whether the subject of dull finish will ever again receive the serious
attention of all the piano manufacturers remains to the future, and
the changing fancy of the people.
No one doubts that a substitute for the necessarily short-lived
lustre of today would be a benefit to the trade and tend to keep piano
owners happy. But no mere resolution, or other formal declaration,
of even the best informed, can bring about the reform. It must come,
like justice, by slow steps. And when it does come it will stay, to
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