Presto

PRESTO
April 10, 1920.
ITEMS SHOW ACTIVITIES
OF A. B. CHASE COMPANY
Good Publicity Work for the Famous Piano by the
San Carlos Opera Company.
A parlor grand A. B. Chase was recently sold to
Jonesboro High School, of Jonesboro, Arkansas, by
the O. K. Houck Piano Co., of Little Rock.
Excellent publicity is being done by many A. B.
Chase dealers where the San Carlo Opera Com-
pany has made its appearance. A very neat dis-
play was shown by Townsend, Wyatt & Wall, of St.
Joseph, during the visit of the above mentioned
opera company to the Missouri city.
L. A. Russell has just bought the building, in
which he has sold A. B. Chase instruments for ten
years, for $50,000, from Ty Cobb.
Mr. Perry, of the A. B. Chase Company, has just
returned to New York from a trip South, during
which he was very successful.
J. A. G. Schiller, the coast manager of Sherman,
Clay & Company, recently called at the A. B. Chase
offices in New York City on his trip East to visit
relatives.
PASADENA MAN INVENTS
A STEEL HARP WITH KEYS
Prof. Schenuit Also Has Plans for the Manufacture
of a Small Piano.
A factory for the manufacture of a steel harp and
a piano, suitable for small apartments and homes,
is to be started in Pasadena, Calif., according to
a dispatch from there. These are inventions of
Prof. H. Schenuit who will exhibit the harp
at a recital at the First Methodist Church in Pasa-
dena, April 22, under the auspices of the Minute
Men's class. Professor Schenuit will then take the
instrument on a tour to have it thoroughly tested
by musicians, following which arrangements for
its manufacture there will be made.
The two inventions are especially designed for
youthful students, and his small piano, the Mignon,
is for small homes. A company is being organized
which will likely be known as the "Mignon Piano
Company of Pasadena." A factory site is now be-
ing considered.
The steel harp to be manufactured is as large as
a baby grand piano and is built on a triangular
style, weighing 350 pounds. It is provided with a
regular set of piano keys which are mounted on
a keybed similar to a piano keybed. A set of lev-
ers are placed over the ends of the keys which ope-
rate the action shanks to which are fastened steel
vibrators. These vibrators engage the string from
underneath upward, thus producing a glancing blow,
giving a harp-like tone response, yet destinctive
enough to belong in a class by itself.
Other features of the steel harp include an iron
frame, damper muffler, universal shank regulator
and tremolo device, placed in front of the keyboard,
by which beautiful effects, similar to a violin quiver,
may be obtained.
"My new invention, the American Steel Harp,"'
says Professor Schenuit, "will no doubt interest
many lovers of music, and more especially those
who love the strains of a harp, but cannot perform
on it. By means of the piano keys on my steel
harp, any one who can play a piano can readily play
the instrument, and no special course of lessons
is necessary.
DEALER BUYS HOME.
Hugh W. Randall, president of the J. D. Brad-
ford Piano Co., 717 Summit avenue, Milwaukee,
has bought the unfinished home of Eugene F. Yahr
on Shepard avenue, north of Newport avenue. He
will remodel and decorate in the Italian rennais-
sance style and will occupy the house next Septem-
ber upon returning from his summer home.
L. Crittenton, credit manager of the W. W. Kim-
ball Piano Co., Chicago, will be the principal speaker
at the Community Father and Son banquet Friday,
April 16. He is a noted boys' worker and is an
authority pn boys' work and boys' relations to life.
11
MORRISON=WATERS CO.
MOVING FORWARD
Well Established Industry at Cincinnati
Freed from Receivership Is Now in
Better Shape Than Ever Before.
The Morrison-Waters Piano Co., of Cincinnati,
has been released from the, temporary receivership
which was appointed to conserve all its interests in
October last. The receivership was a friendly pro-
ceeding in which the members of the Cincinnati
industry took steps to conserve the interests of its
friends as well as themselves.
The attorney, Edward D. Woodward, who has
acted as receiver for the company, has notified Judge
Frank Gusweiler, of the Superior Court, that the
piano industry has settled with its creditors in full.
Ample capital has been provided for the larger ac-
tivities of the Morrison-Waters Piano Company.
The Smith & Nixon pianos will be produced in
larger numbers than ever, and the playerpiano de-
partment of the industry will be enlarged.
The company is making its own player actions,
and its instruments are favorites with the trade in
many sections of the country. In fact, in some
cities the old Smith & Nixon name is so greatly in
favor that the instruments from Cincinnati have the
call over nearly all others.
The officers of the Morrison-Waters Piano Co.
are the same as from the first. F. A. Morrison is
the president, and P>. C. Waters secretary and treas-
urer. Both gentlemen stand well in the industry
and trade. Mr. Waters has been prominent for
many years as a manufacturer and wholesaler. The
legal formalities for removing the receivership will
give satisfaction to friends of the Morrison-Waters
Piano Co. everywhere. It is certain that the Cin-
cinnati industry will now move forward with rein-
vigorated steps and dealers who sell its products
will have reason to be glad of it.
FEW LATE TRADE NOTES
FROM SAN FRANCISCO
W. N. Van Matre, Jr., of Schumann Piano Co.,
Visited Pacific Coast Representatives.
W. N. Van Matre, Jr., of the Schumann Piano
Company, Rockford, 111., was a recent visitor. He
later called on Schumann dealers in the Northwest.
Sherman, Clay & Co. have appointed J. A. G.
Schiller to be Coast manager of the retail sales
department of the Fotoplayers and Robert-Morton
organs. Mr. Schiller has been in Seattle establish-
ing demonstration quarters in that city.
Mr. Quimby, who has been connected with Oakland
sales of the Kohler & Chase organization for some
time, has been given the management of the Rich-
mond branch, succeeding Amie Dukas, who has
been appointed sales manager with the Bush &
Lane Piano Company of Portland, Oregon.
C. J. LaRoche, late manager of the Wiley B.
Allen branch store at Sacramento, and for a short
time connected with the Hauschildt Music Company,
in Oakland, has been appointed manager of the San
Francisco store of the Hauschildt Music Company.
Mr. LaRoche is well known in Eastern musical cir-
cles as well as on the Coast and at one time had
charge of the sales of the Starr Piano Company
in Cleveland, Ohio.
EXPORTS FOR JANUARY.
Pianos and playerpianos to the number of 837 and
valued at $204,000 were exported by the United
States to foreign countries during the month of
January. Of organs 155 instruments to the value
of $14,936 were sent abroad. Of the latter 31 went
to South Africa. The value of piano parts exported
was $199,714 and that of music rolls was $21,261.
The total value of musical instruments exported, in-
cluding talking machines, was $1,157,380.
GERMAN PIANOS IN ENGLAND.
the Autopiano Company
Paul Brown Kkujh Pres.
On-the-Hudson at >1 $T Streetfl-YG
Byron Mauzy - Jan Francisco.
According to a report from the American consul
in Liverpool, England, the piano dealers of the big
seaport city are not perpetuating any anti-German
feeling. The consul says there are more German-
made pianos than English ones in the music stores
there. The pianos are of the cheap grades, but
they appeal to customers who evidently do not
bother themselves about their origin.
JUDGING PEOPLE'S TASTE.
"Just as you unconsciously gauge the tastes of a
family by the musical instrument in the home, so
is your home judged. It is not so much the amount
of money you pay for a piano, as the careful selec-
tion of your instrument," says the Hollenberg Music
Co., Little Rock, Ark.
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