Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1756

THE PRESTO BUYERS*
GUIDE CLASSIFIES ALL
FIANOS AND PLAYERS
AND THEIR MAKERS
PRESTO
E,tabu.hed 1884 THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
GOLFERS'GIFT FROM
T. M. PLETCHER
New President of Chicago Piano Golf Asso-
ciation at Annual Meeting Provides
Fund with Which Members Agreed
to Buy Cup.
At the annual meeting and dinner of the Chicago
Piano Golf Association, held in Marshall Field's
grill room on March 11, Thomas M. Pletcher was
elected president; E. B. Bartlett, vice-president, and
X. A. Fegen was re-elected secretary and treasurer.
Roy E. Waite, president of the club last year, pre-
sided. The office of vice-president was newly cre-
ated in order to expedite the transaction of club
business.
Mr. Pletcher, the newly-elected president, spoke
very enthusiastically of the benefits and pleasure
he derived from the monthly tournaments of the
club. He said that he had always felt that he got
vastly more out of the club than he put into it
« c*nt. } $2.00 <. r^r
nent nature, such as cups, medals and the like,
for each tournament. The prizes and methods of
distribution are left to the discretion of the handi-
cap committee.
It was further determined that two prizes to the
value of $15 and $10, respectively, originally in-
tended as awards for 1919 play, were to be carried
over for 1920 play and to be given one for the best
average low net of the season in class A and the
other for the best average low net in class B.
Competition for both cups is conditional upon the
member playing in at least four tournaments.
Classes A and R are to be arranged by the handi-
cap committee. In view of the interest and enthu-
siasm in the club and the greatly increased value
of the prizes, it was unanimously voted to make the
annual dues $10 hereafter instead of $5.
The newly-elected president then appointed the
following as the handicap committee: E. B. Bart-
lett, chairman; K. W. Curtis and Roy E. Waite.
The duties of the handicap committee are varied
and important this year. This committee will ar-
range the handicaps, purchase the prizes, with the
exception of the Pletcher cup, arrange the details
of the tournaments, and determine the winners.
A vote of thanks was tendered the officers who
have guided the destinies of the club for the past
year.
RUSHING CHICKERING BROS. PLANT.
"1 hear that Chickering Bros, are making forty
small grand pianos a month," said a Presto repre-
sentative to Wallace W. Chickering, of that con-
cern, on Friday last. "Forty!" exclaimed Mr.
Chickering, "why we'll be making fifty before the
year is out if we can only get the material. Con-
ditions for getting supplies through from the East
have been the worst in the history of piano manu-
facture for the last five or six weeks. We have
several carloads of piano plates sidetracked some-
where between Cleveland and Chicago.
True
enough, we have the rush, and we'll continue to in-
crease production if we can only get the material
and supplies."
EDITOR BOOSTS SONG.
The editor of the Pine Bluff, Ark., Commercial ap-
pealed to local pride when he printed the following
this week: "A recent competition in musical circles
that is destined to become popular is the song "The
Rose I Wore for You,' by Mrs. Maude White Key.
Airs. Key is known as a writer of delightful verse,
but has excelled all her previous compositions in
the tender sentiment of the song. Local artists will
no doubt appreciate the opportunity that is pre-
sented them to include in their programs a selection
from a local composer."
THOMAS M. 1'LETCH UK.
through the monthly dues, and he thereupon pre-
sented the club with a fund of $200 to be used as
the members thought tit in the purchase and dis-
tribution of prizes. Mr. Pletcher's gift was ac-
cepted with great enthusiasm and he was compelled
to receive a unanimous vote of thanks.
To Buy Cup.
It was then voted that a portion of Mr. Pletch-
er's gift should be used for the purchase of a cup
to be known as the Pletcher Cup, which will be
played for by the members of the club. The win-
ner will be he who has the lowest average net
score from his four best tournament games in any
one year, but one game in each tournament to
count. That means that a man will have to play
in at least four tournaments in a season to qualify
for the cup. His best medal score of the day will
count, whether played in the morning or afternoon.
Permanent possession of the cup will go to him
who has the lowest average net score, subject to
the above conditions, for two seasons, though not
necessarily in consecutive years.
The Pletcher cup will be purchased immediately
and will be placed on display in Mr. Pletcher's
office, as a result of the unanimous decision of the
club members present at the meeting. N. A. Fegen.
K. W r . Curtis and Edgar Smith were appointed a
committee to purchase the cup.
Decide on Prizes.
The club then decided to appropriate from its
own funds and from the remainder of the Pletcher
Fund, an amount not to exceed $320, of which not
to exceed $40 may be spent in prizes of a perma-
THE PRESTO YEAR BOOK
IS THE ONLY ANNUAL
REVIEW OP
THE MUSIC TRADES
FAILS TO CRACK SAFE.
One hundred dollars was taken by a thief last
week from the desk of J. N. Freeman, manager of
the United Piano Co., Cedar Rapids, la. It was
discovered also that an attempt had been made to
crack the safe. J. E. Leming, a former employe of
the company, was arrested later and charged with
the ofTense. The combination of the safe, which
contained $1,600 in currency and checks, had been
broken and the hinges practically torn off, but the
door was found intact.
NEW DISTRIBUTOR OF
REPUBLIC PLAYER ROLLS
C. J. Van Houton & Zoon, Chicago, to Act as Re-
public Distributors in Illinois and Iowa.
The Republic Player Roll Corporation, New
York, announces that arrangements have been
made with C. J. Van Houton & Zoon, 140 South
Dearborn street, Chicago, to act as their repre-
sentatives and distributors in the territory lying in
Illinois and Iowa. This news will be of interest to
all Republic dealers in the territory mentioned as
it will facilitate to a considerable extent the rapid
delivery of timely Republic Player Rolls.
C. J. Van Houton & Zoon rank with the fore-
most dealers in things musical in Chicago. The
company at present is distributor for Sonora prod-
ucts and also OkeH records. The personnel of the
company is progressive. The company has made
a specialty of merchandising musical products and
is thoroughly familiar with the territory lying in
both Illinois and Iowa. C. J. Van Houton & Zoon
became intensively interested in the progressive-
ness of Republic Player Roll Corp., and having
recognized the merits of Republic rolls will push
their sale with the united efforts of the entire or-
ganization. Walter Hamlin, general manager of
Van Houton & Zoon, predicts a big future for the
Republic product.
The arrangement with C. J. Van Houton & Zoon
for distribution of Republic Player Rolls is an-
other evidence of sales expansion which the Re-
public Player Roll Corporation has under way. The
Republic list of jobbers is increasing continually.
The company has already established distributing
centers in New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Mil-
waukee, Chicago and Baltimore. Several contracts
are now pending for the distribution in several
other lar;.>;e cities of the United States.
BALDWIN PIANO CO. LEASES
BUILDING IN CINCINNATI
Structure, Seven Stories High at 136 West Fourth
Street, Will Be Occupied by Company.
The Baldwin Piano Company, Cincinnati, O., has
leased the entire building adjoining its storeroom
at 136 West Fourth street for an indefinite period.
The building leased is seven stories high. At pres-
ent the company occupies the four top floors of
this building. Lucien Wulsin, treasurer, said the
reason the lease was taken for an indefinite period
is that it has not been decided whether the com-
pany will move its downtown establishment to the
new plant when completed. Work on the new
plant has been suspended owing to the carpenters'
strike.
Roswell B. Burchard, newly elected president of
the John Church Company, arrived in Cincinnati
last week and took up his new duties. Mr. Burch-
ard was formerly lieutenant-governor of Rhode
Island and came here from Providence. He an-
nounced that the organization will remain intact.
B. C. Waters, secretary and treasurer of the
Morrison-Waters Piano Company, left last week
for an extended business trip to Grand Rapids,
Mich., and other Northern cities.
ST. LOUIS WANTS UKULELES.
DICKINSON BACK FROM WEST.
The ukulele craze has struck St. Louis with great
force and the constant effort of the stores handling
the goods there is to keep up the supplies. The
growth in the American manufacture of ukuleles is
pioving a savior for the music goods houses because
St. Louis dealers believe dependence on Hawaiian
instruments would mean a very small retail busi-
ness for American firms. The Famous & Barr Co.,
the Ludwig Music House, the Shattinger Music Co.,
and others are reaping the benefits of the demand
for the ukuleles.
H. C. Dickinson, vice-president of the Baldwin
Piano Company, was at his desk in Chicago on
Monday of this week, having just returned from
a six-weeks' trip to California. He was sunburned
and rugged from his stay in that clear-weather
country. a r i d pitched into a piled-up desk with vim.
He left on Tuesday noon for Cincinnati, where
the company is erecting one of the largest piano
factories in the world.
CLOSES PROSPEROUS YEAR.
The Clark Music Co., Syracuse, N. Y., held the
annual meeting recently, and from the report sub-
mitted the fiscal year just closed was the most pros-
perous experienced in several years. A 33 per cent
increase over any previous year was shown in the
returns. A cash dividend of 7 per cent was de-
clared on all preferred stock.
C. C. CONWAY IN EUROPE.
Business will be combined with pleasure in the
trip to Europe of Carl C. Conway, vice-president
of the llallet & Davis Piano Co., Boston. Mr.
Conway, who sailed from New York last week,
will be abroad for close on to a month. London,
Paris and Brussels are cities included in his itin-
erary. It is possible too that Mr. Conway may
take a look at the picturesque wonders of Switzer-
land.
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).
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RE8TO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C A. DANIELL anrl FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones: Chicago Tel. Co., Harrison 234; Auto. Tel. Co., Automatic 61-703.
U O O ^ T S 1 ] ? 1 ^ , t 0 a " Departments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code),
P R t S T O , ' Chicago.
i&iiromd as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois.
*_
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable In advance. No «Ktr*
««»ar?c m U 8. possessions, Canada. Cuba and Mexico
~~
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Ratest—Three dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions
Six dollars per inch per month, less twenty-five per cent on yearly contracts. Th«
Presto does not sell Its editorial space. Payment is not accepted for articles of de-
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 musicai
Instrument trades and 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 Music*!
Instruments; it analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimates *t
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
5 Items of news, photographs and other matter of general interest to the rnuil*
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communications to
Prvst* Publishing Co.. Chicago. III.
THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 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.
THIS CHANGING TRADE
Unlike most other lines of industry and trade, that of the piano
has been one of almost complete change, and changes many times
repeated. With other manufactured articles, growing out of inven-
tion and eventually general adoption of the thing created, the piano
is the result not only of change in details of construction, but very
largely in fundamentals and in the ultimate results of its performance
or operation.
Watt's engine has changed from the first little stove-pipe smoke-
stack and diminutive power, to the giant locomotive of today. Ful-
ton's little steamboat has grown to the monster floating palaces and
terrifying dreadnaughts of the seas; Gutenberg's clumsy wooden
types have steadily refined until we have the endless varieties of the
printer's art, and so on through the mighty lists of progress. But the
original specimens, as they came at bid of the creative brain, persist
and the changes have been along the line of improvement of kind, and
not departure into new species or principles.
With the musical instrument the sequence of creative chapters
discloses many inventors and a succession of instruments each follow-
ing its predecessor, as the chrysalis falls away and leaves the more
beautiful creature of evolution. The dawn of the piano, in the mono-
chord did not give much promise of the spinet, and the spinet gave
little hint of what Cristofori would do two thousand years after. The
upright piano, which came in time, could have given little suggestion
of the player-piano, and the piano-phone could not have been fore-
shadowed by the player roll but for the invention of the phonograph
and its wedding to the player-piano.
It has been, a succession of many creations, an evolution from one
instrument of music to another and, as the point of perfection was
neared, a change from established conditions to something different,
something newer. What will be the next change no one can say with
certainty. The ambitious industries whose energies are devoted to the
March 18, 1920.
production of pianos in whose powers are included everything that
can reproduce musical sound, seem to be taking time by the forelock.
They do not appear to leave any opportunities unprofited. But even
their many-sided activities can give no absolute assurance that the
future will not evolve something so different from anything of the
past as to demand again complete changes of plan and purpose.
It would be interesting to know how a great piano man of fifty
years ago would regard conditions in the trade today. And it is
possible that were such men as Jonas Chickering, William Knabe,
Henry Hazelton, Henry Steinway, Myron A. Decker, George Steck
and Frederick Mathushek to come back and form a jury to pass upon
piano progress, from their time to this, they would not grow enthusi-
astic over the glories of the wonderful instruments of today. They
would, perhaps, point to the substantial and quaintly beautiful, but
silent, squares of their time and declare that no musical results by
mechanical means could compare with the possibilities that lay con-
cealed in them. For there is no such thing as lifting the present back
into the relatively primitive past. And what suits conditions and
people of today might not be expected to meet the approval of those
who lived and worked many years ago. It is a matter of mental evolu-
tion and adaptation no less than creative and material.
Nevertheless, we of today know that in all the piano's past there
has been nothing to compare, in tonal splendor, constructive beauty
or recreative powers, with some of the great instruments that are
coming forth, in increasing numbers, from the great industries of the
present time.
WHAT IS NEWS?
Last week a prominent retail piano merchant said, in a letter to
this paper, that because of late mail delivery the trade news was fre-
quently no longer fresh when he read it. He is not alone in his
protests against dilatory mail service. Daily newspapers everywhere
have published protests which explain the cause of their tardiness in
reaching the hands of a considerable share of their readers. And
from all appearances there is nothing that can be done, under existing
conditions, to expedite deliveries.
But there is another side of the subject. And that side suggests
that perhaps the real trade news is not of a kind to grow stale even
while the post office department struggles with seemingly insurmount-
able problems and the rain and the wind threaten to destroy the sec-
ond class matter—to which, of course, Presto and all other printed
matter belongs. For after all what is music trade news? What kind of
second class matter constitutes" first-class piano trade matter? And
can that first-class second class matter grow stale or seem to be late
in its delivery?
If we believed that the function of the trade paper could be to
give space to the record of small talk about the peccadillos of dishonest
or unfortunate workers whose fingers were as light as their heads; or
to. items of gossip by which the enterprise of manufacturers might be
upset by disclosure of the plans of their representatives; or to the
kind of stuff that shadows personal character, we would consider it a
poor business. But if, as is the case, we believe that trade news is of
the stuff that may educate, and encourage, and help, then it isn't easy
to see how a day or two, or even a full week's delay can make news
of that kind "stale."
From the point of useful, up-to-date trade journalism, we believe
that one such story—everything that goes in a modern newspaper is
called a story today—as the one in Presto two weeks ago about a new
piano industry to meet the famishing demand just now, is a bit of
rare news. It is just the news the piano dealers want, because they
want, most of all, to know how and where their need of instruments
may be fulfilled. We also know that it was news that awoke a re-
sponse, for the new piano industry was promptly the center of trade
interest, as the letters of inquiry amply proved.
And the news that every week in this paper tells of what the
established manufacturers are doing to increase supplies and to help
the retailers is equally of the kind that can not grow stale or lose any
interest because of the delays of the mails. Nor is the news of the
advertising columns any the less permanently interesting and valu-
able.
When the cover page of Presto carries a letter to the trade direct
from President Jesse French, Jr., of the big industry at New Castle,
Indiana, we feel that our first page presents a feature of distinct
value. When a new art style Reed & Sons player-piano is announced
in an art-page in which the beautiful veneer is shown to perfection
with the completed instrument shining through, that is trade paper
news. When the Starr Piano Co. presents a similarly artistic page
drawing attention to the timely records for Easter, that is fine trade
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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