Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1756

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/
F>RESTO
March 18, 1920.
paper news. And when the fine old Chickering appears in a page
reminder of its splendors, that, too, is the best of trade news.
All of these very special news features appear in this week's
Presto. And we believe that they lend substantial backing to the
almost numberless lesser items of splendid news stories which are
scattered through the paper, from beginning to end.
It may be interesting, in connection with this discussion, to refer
to a peculiar illustration of the accuracy with which we place adver-
tising among the best of news stories. There is a popular monthly
magazine, now appearing in which the literary matter occupies less
than 30 of the 96 pages of the publication. And subscribers to the
magazine read the "letter press" almost solely because it diverts at-
tention to the advertising pages. No one will longer deny that the
same principle applies to other popular publications, from the Satur-
day Evening Post, up or down. We believe that in all the features of
this week's issue of the story paper just named, piano dealers, and all
others interested in player-pianos, there is nothing so good as the page
of the Q R S Company, which Presto also contained a week ago.
The best news in a trade paper, at all events, is the news that
helps the business, does nobody anything but good, and puts on perma-
nent record the facts that outlive the swiftly passing hour in building
the history of today into the progress of tomorrow.
AT WHAT AGE?
The very bad habit of discussing the age of a man's passing from
usefulness to not-wanted-ness in business subsided several years ago.
It is no longer the rule for employers to judge a man's capacity in
inverse ratio to his experience, nor to measure his abilities by the
changing of his hair from black or brown to grey. The narrow-
minded methods for approximating a worker's value by the wrinkles
in his brow, or by the condition of his teeth, are fortunately now dis-
regarded. And the vicious signs that used to give warning to appli-
cants that "men over 40 are not wanted," no longer insult brain and
brawn in the shops and stores. Things have grown better, and busi-
ness is getting proportionately bigger.
And this suggests a somewhat remarkable specimen of the kind
of men by whose courage and capacity the cruel and unreasoning
age limitations have been removed. The newspapers and public
speakers have helped, of course, but more than all has been the ex-
ample of the elderly men themselves in pulling down the barriers of
age.
In the piano business the rule that helped along the hair dye
industry also became effective, but not in the same degree as else-
where. And in the piano industry we have had some of the finest
examples of the way man's capacity and vigor and resourcefulness
may persist long after the period set, a few years back, by the unwise
employers who set the age limitation upon the usefulness of the
workers.
There are instances in the piano industry where factory workers
have remained in their places to the age of 70, and even 80. A few
days ago a Boston piano industry lost a worker who had been in its
employ more than seventy years. And, more to the point, perhaps,
is the case of a traveling representative of a western piano industry
who, nearing the scriptural measurement, is credited with doing more
business, and better, than any other in the same interests and doing
it along lines all his own. And the traveler has in his time been him-
self the employer of thousands of men.
It would help not at all to mention names. It might be offensive
to someone. But the man chosen to illustrate the point here dis-
cussed—the right age for man's best work—will soon start on a six
months' solid trip during which he will visit more than one country.
And he will accomplish better results than any other man in the
business, half his age.
And so, now, you piano men who have your own troubles and,
perhaps, feel that you work too hard yourself, how old are you?
THE PIANO'S NAME
When England's erotic genius, Oscar Wilde, returned home in
1883, from his second visit to the United States, he delivered a lecture
in which he gave emphasis to the homely names he had encountered
in this country. He also told the original story of the piano-player
of Leadville over whose instrument hung the sign "Don't shoot the
pianist; he's doing his best." The story has been appearing ever
since, credited to almost every writer, from Bret Harte to Jack
London. But Oscar Wilde told it first and, being himself a good
pianist, he had appreciated the wit of it.
Of course the English poet's ridicule of American names had
nothing to do with pianos, but referred to towns in the West. And
the special point of interest is in the difference between his mental
picture and that of a famous American poet who happened to select
a very similarly plain name with which to work the wizardry of his
genius. Wilde said this: "One place had such an ugly name that I
refused to lecture there. It was called Griggsville. Suppose I had
founded a school of art there—fancy 'Early Griggsville.' " And now
see how the American poet, in his homely way, made beautiful an
equally "ugly" and even very similar name—you remember "Griggs-
by's Station"—
What's in all this grand life and high situation,
And nary a pink nor hollyhock bloomin' at the door?
Le's go back to Griggsby's Station—
Back where we ust to be so happy and so pore!
The two quotations only serve to show the difference between
the mental characteristics of the two poets. And the point, so far as
concerns this paper and its readers, has to do with names common or
otherwise, as they may be applied to pianos. For it is often said that
a piano's name is its greatest asset, and if that is true, what kind of a
name should a fine piano have?
Perhaps if all piano buyers were poets it might be essential to
choose the instrument's name with special reference to symphony of
sight and sound. But inasmuch as pianos are made and sold by men
of substance, and bought by people of practical common sense, the
name doesn't seem to matter much until it has attained to distinction
because of its quality sustained by the enterprise of its manufacturer.
That is why we have some of the most famous pianos bearing names
which if considered aside from the fall-board itself, may seem plain
enough.
As a matter of fact, while some of the great pianos bear names
also unique by reason of their exclusiveness, we have others of equal
fame that have given distinction to trademarks, which but for their
musical association might have no special significance. The piano
makes the name—plus a well invested proportion of printer's ink,
It is the poetry of the piano that, as with the poet, Riley, glorifies
the "ugly" name and lifts it above anything commonplace. With
pianos, as with poets and ordinary people, it is what the name stands
for, and not merely how it is spelled, that counts.
And if there is any useful thought in what has been said here it
is that too much consideration of a name for the new piano may
easily mean waste of time and grey matter. Any good name is good
enough for any good piano. Whether it ever becomes a great piano
name will depend upon the piano itself and the degree of energy and
courage that are put into it.
The prospects for selling pianos in Yap, an island in the South
Pacific, seem remote, and the cash would be hard to lug away if a
sale could be made. Smooth, flat stones, with holes drilled in the
center, constitute the form of money the Yaps use. A Yap dollar
weighs two pounds. When the natives get on top of a mountain and
pitch pennies, it reminds one of a landslide. And, by the way, we
have heard of Yaps selling pianos to other Yaps in our own country
—not?
The establishment of a complete system of good roads all over
the country would help the piano business immeasurably. Good roads
would enable the farmer to market more cheaply, would greatly in-
crease the attractiveness of farm life and would help to keep at home
hundreds of thousands of farm boys who now migrate to the cities.
The gain in farm funds would put millions of dollars into musical
instruments to be used on these modern farms.
* * *
There is still a goodly grand total of piano prospects in the
United States. To get at their number, consider the number of fami-
lies in this great country of ours. It is estimated that there are about
27,000,000 families in the United States, with an average of four and
a fraction of persons in each family. No totalizer can guess how
many families have no piano at all, but the number is somewhere in
the millions.
* * *
Is the cheap stencil piano ever to come back? Will it get a new
lease of life as soon as the lower cost of living sets in? One never
can tell about that sort of thing. It may come back, very much as
the farmer's cat, unsuccessfully drowned, used to do in the good old
days—rather subdued and reticent, but not much changed.
Piano keys are expensive owing to the high cost of ivory. Luke
McLuke asks, "Why is ivory so expensive?" And he answers his
own question as follows: "After coming into contact with a few
thousands of your fellow men, you will discover that ivory is the most
plentiful thing in the world."
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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