Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1759

PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones: Chicago Tel. Co., Harrison 234; Auto. Tel. Co., Automatic 61-701.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code),
"PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois,
A
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable in advance. 'No «tr&
•uarge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico. '
~
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates*=»Three dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertion*.
Six dollars per inch per month, less twenty-five per cent on yearly contracts. Ths
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
wlll.be Indicated by the word "advertisement*' in accordance with the Act of August
14, \9\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
•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 m
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
& Items of news, photographs and other matter of general Interest to the must*
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communications to
Prtst* Publishing Co., Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, APRIL 10, 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 NEWS-
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
WESTERN PIANOS
Unfortunately for the Western piano, it made its first record on
a quantity basis.. The Western factories became famous for their
large outputs and the dealers acquired the habit of presenting eastern
pianos as their leaders and filling in with western instruments when
something less expensive was wanted. But today that is no longer
so to any appreciable extent. For there are western pianos that have
won places at the top, and are recognized in the East just as surely
as are the leaders from New York or Boston.
Piano men of experience know just what Western instruments
have contributed to the elevation of the Western piano. They know
that the A. B. Chase, the Bauer,' the Baldwin, the Starr, the Packard,
the Chase Brothers, the Haddorff, the Steger, the Acoustigrande, the
Schumann, the Conover, the French & Sons, the Starck, the Bush &
Gerts, the Story & Clark, and a few more of the Western pianos,
have won their places because they have consistently aimed high
and have developed upward. No matter how they started—and most
of them started as high grade products—they have all kept out of
the highway of "commercialism" and followed the upward road to
artistic attainment.
A few days ago a prominent Eastern piano man was discussing
this very subject in Presto offices. "If I had control of a certain
Chicago piano," he said, "I'd make the quickest fortune in the history
of the piano industry." And, in reply to the natural inquiry, he said
that the piano he had in mind is the new Bauer. "That creation of
Mr. William Bauer's he continued, "has greater possibilities than any
instrument in existence. It is practically of all-metal construction;
it is simplicity itself in its details, and it possesses a most remarkable
tone. Besides, while a high-class instrument, under certain condi-
tions it can be manufactured for less money than any other of its
class in the world!"
That was an enthusiastic estimate. And it was sincere, even if
April 10, 1920.
comparatively few are familiar with the remarkable instrument to
which the tribute was paid. West of Chicago, less than a hundred
miles, is a piano industry as comparatively new as the Bauer is old.
It, too, is producing a remarkable line of instruments. The Haddorff
has literally forced its way upward by the strength of its peculiar
merits. The Haddorff started less than twenty years ago and, al-
most instantly, the originality of its cases attracted attention in the
trade. Steadily the musical powers of the Rockford instruments
improved and Mr. Chas. A. Haddorff began to be a figure in the in-
dustry. His scales commanded favorable criticism and the novelty
of the case designs was eclipsed by the character of the Haddorffs
as instruments of music. In time the pianos from Rockford found
ready demand in the far West, and the East also began to know and
want them. There is today no piano center where the Haddorff is
not a favorite, and the trade everywhere wants it because of the
quality that wins success and holds it.
The Packard, of Ft. Wayne, is one of the oldest of the Western
pianos. It has been a representative instrument from the first, and
it has never known any suggestion of a slip from leadership. The
same may be applied to the Chase Brothers, from Muskegon, Mich-
igan. In the half-century since it first appeared, there has been only
the ambition of quality and never of quantity. It would be mere
repetition of words to refer to all of the pianos whose names we have
mentioned, with any view to their classification. From the old Story
& Clark to the Starr, the Western pianos present a series of interest
ing histories. Some of them are like fairy tales in their almost in-
credible development.
The Starr, for instance reveals a remarkable story of pluck, per-
severance and steady progress. It is probable that Mr. Henry Gennett
could write a book more fascinating than fiction, to piano men, in
which the central thought would see the growth of the Richmond
industry from the little factory by the Whitewater to the giant plant
that spreads for miles along the foothills to the thriving Quaker City
of the West.
But the point of it all is that the Western piano has pushed its
way forward until there is no longer any discrimination as between
Chicago or Cincinnati, or Ft. Wayne or Richmond and Boston or
New York or elsewhere. Fine pianos are now made all over the
country—at least wherever pianos are made at all. Western pianos
are sold in New York just as New York pianos have for so long
been sold in Chicago. It is no longer a matter of locality. It is al-
together a question of quality. And today the Western pianos, in
some instances, have their executive offices in the East, even if the
big factories continue to hum in the smaller cities of the West. For
the pianos' names have become universal.
HOW DIFFERENT
A few short years ago factory travelers were going about the
country responding to the demands of the dealers for "even money"
pianos. There was a time when a fool trade paper induced a piano
manufacturer to openly announce his instruments for $75, with a
discount for cash with order. Can you imagine such a condition
today? Doesn't it seem like a fairy tale? But "even money" pianos
were plentiful enough in the early 90's, and they kept coming until
the world began to tremble and the things of peace threatened to be
swallowed up in the upheaval.
But today how different! Piano dealers who once calmly com-
plained because they were asked as much as $120 for a good instru-
ment, and who had the nerve to offer $10 less with a privilege of
four months' "renewal," are now glad to pay nearly three times as
much for the same piano, and pay the cash at that. The piano buy-
ing public is no longer led to understand that pianos belong to the
"cheap" things, in which a sort of semi-fake plays a leading part. It
is now an article of art, and the old-time competition has faded away
into a memory. And how has the change affected this business
generally?
It is noticeable that failures in the piano business are almost
unknown. This year is nearly one-fourth gone and there has been
no notable break in the ranks. Most of the dealers are making money,
and their only complaint is that it is difficult to secure stock. Their
customers are impatient, but in many cases the dealers find it easy
to deliver whatever they may have in store. The old way of consult-
ing catalogues and selecting the very style that isn't on hand, is no
longer popular. The dealer now sells the instrument he has on hand,
gets the money for it and delivers it at a fair profit. No more dollar-
down and same every week business! No more $25 a quarter, some-
times paid and sometimes not! No more quibbling about interest
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/
PRESTO
April 10, 1920.
or deferred payments, and no more doubtful little installment notes
bearing "X, his mark," or other insecure indications of sales made
under pressure by over zealous solicitors.
Things have changed, and for the good of the piano business.
The piano has returned to its place of dignity and value. And the
player-piano is largely responsible for it. Had the player-piano not
arrived at the critical moment, no one can say where the piano trade
and industry would have been today. The player-piano has justified
the increased cost, in the mind of the public. The plain, or "straight"
piano would have come up in price, necessarily. But it could not
have sustained itself in a sufficient increase to justify the manufac-
turers in producing it and the dealers in selling it. The player-piano
arrived at its proper place in just the right time to save the industry
and trade.
Things will not continue as now for a very long time. The day
is not far ahead when something like the old-time effort must be
made to extend trade, or even to maintain its existing volume. The
energies and enterprise of the individual manufacturers will again
be arrayed one against the other, and the ones who think that the
quality of their products will alone be all-sufficient will again recede
to the rear. There will never return anything like the conditions
of old in the industry and trade. Things have changed permanently.
The piano has become an article of great power in the industrial
world. There are now industries of such financial and material
strength that they are greater than the combined power and produc-
tiveness of all the piano industries existing at the incoming of
the upright in the early 70's. And the piano dealers who expect to
stay in this business permanently must establish themselves now
upon a foundation so firm that the inevitable changes of the future
can not shake them.
TRADE PAPER SECRETS
A very intelligent piano factory executive writes to this paper
as follows:
The trade papers today are not making the effort to get the many thou-
sands of music dealers being created every day, and phonographs, etc., on
their mailing lists.
We believe that, as applied to most of the trade papers, that is
an exact statement. If the music trade journals have made any
special effort to secure paid subscribers they have done it so quietly
that only their office forces have found it out. We except of course,
Presto, for this paper has kept up a steady and persistent campaign
for new readers. This paper has sent repeated special propositions to
every retail member of the trade whose name has been accessible.
It may do no harm to refer directly to some of the special cam-
paigns which this paper has inaugurated during the last few years.
Of course since the post office authorities became so strict that enter-
prise along this line has been restricted it has not been possible to
exercise anything like the degree of enterprise in the subscription
department that marked the years before the war. But we hope to
return to it again soon.
A few years ago Presto had prepared for its special purposes of
inducing new subscribers a very attractive watch-fob, upon which
was a musical emblem and on the reverse the name of this paper.
Several thousands of the fob were distributed to members of the
trade and their employes. In one case a large piano house in the
East sent the names of fourteen salesmen, every one of whom was
made a subscriber and was presented with a fob.
Shortly thereafter, the publishers of this paper arranged with
a Connecticut industry for a large number of small combination-case
watches, which were offered to new subscribers together with the
fob, making a very handsome premium which, of course, cost about
as much as the subscription price. But the result was attained and
about two thousand of the watches were distributed and, no doubt,
are now telling the time for as many workers in the trade who read
Presto, and in most cases, are still reading it.
Following the watch-and-fob campaign the publishers of Presto
contracted with a Chicago novelty industry for a large number of
pocket knives of special design. On one side of the knives was the
name of this paper. On the other side was the name of the sub-
scriber. Of course to print the individual names, in enamel and
colors, was an expensive process, but, by ordering a lot of them, it
was possible to present every new subscriber with the knife and a
year's Presto for $2. About two thousand piano and music men are
probably still using the Presto pocket knives and most of them are
still reading this paper every week.
The success of the subscription campaigns was such that Presto's
publishers decided to do something even more directly in line with
the practical needs of the trade. A series of business-building sys-
tems was thought out and developed. It consisted of three clearly
defined plans for retail piano merchants, by which actual sales in
practically unlimited number, might easily be insured. The formulas
were: first, a prospect-finding plan by which the country schools
were enlisted in a campaign for securing pianos without cost, as a
return for interesting the pupils in having instruments in their homes;
second, a series of follow-up letters for uses of local dealers; third,
a set of advertisements specially adapted to local newspaper publicity,
with suitable cuts. The watch-fob also went with the formulas, and
the latter embraced complete letters, circulars and other materials
by which many dealers secured a great many sales—so they reported.
In connection with all of the special premium campaigns, Presto
Buyers' Guide was also presented to all new subscribers. The fact
that about five thousand of the "book that sells pianos" were dis-
tributed in connection with the fobs, the watches, the knives and the
piano selling formulas, seems to us very conclusive proof that the
results were adequate, so far as Presto advertisers are concerned,
irrespective of the cost to the publishers.
In showing a little of the inside workings of the publication busi-
ness, we know that there has been a prejudice against the premium
plan of securing new subscribers. The subscription agencies do not
approve. Some of the advertising agencies do not approve. But
we know positively that no paper can serve its advertisers unless it
has a paid circulation. And we know, too, that no trade paper can
do good work unless it has a changing circulation—new readers, in
other words. Presto has some readers who have been on the mailing
lists for from ten to twenty years, without intermission. Those
readers rely upon what this paper says, and have faith in its ad-
vertisers. But new readers are the buyers who must choose from
the advertising columns.
Furthermore, we do not believe there is a piano dealer, large
or small, who doesn't know Presto, or who doesn't at times, if not
regularly, see it and read it. To explain this part of the inside of
the circulation department would demand more space than can be
given to it. Besides, it wouldn't be interesting. What we have said
was suggested by the writer of the letter from which an extract is
made at the beginning of this article. Perhaps some other music
trade paper can tell a similar story. We doubt it.
This is a good time for the wise dealer to pay particular attention
to the trade-ins. Never before was there so good a value in second-
hand pianos as now. That is, to the retail dealer, and it is probable
the basements and back rooms contain many used pianos that could
be put back into stock after the necessary going over in the repair
shop. It is a strange fact that there are a few dealers who do not
realize a plain chance for profit today.
The sheet music trade is profitable if the dealer knows how to
make it pay. A dealer from the West said, in Presto offices one
day last week, that he had built up a large and very profitable sheet
music business by confining his counter to one large catalogue and
pushing it. The line that is paying the dealer is the McKinley, and
there are many other dealers who are having the same experience.
*
•
*
Some time back there was a good deal said about the adapt-
ability of women to piano selling. We don't hear much of it today,
but the army of female workers in the factories grows steadily. An
article in this week's Presto advises merchants to employ the wiles
of women freely in business.
* # *
That was a striking tribute by Mary Garden to a great piano
in last week's Presto. There was a handsome portrait of the famous
singer and this autographed dedication, "To the only piano for the
voice! To my piano—Knabe."
i'f
;'fi
*
There was a fine article in last week's Presto on "The Evils of
Bargain Sales." By some inadvertency credit to the author of the
article was omitted. The article was written for this paper by Mr.
Warfield Webb of Cincinnati.
What do you suppose all the piano travelers are doing these
days? Some are still straightening out the old accounts; some are'
resting, and many, we hope, are just clipping coupons and cashing
them.
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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