PRESTO
PRESTO
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Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois,
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under Act of March 3, 1S79.
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• u a r g e i n U . S. p o s s e s s i o n s , C a n a d a . C u b a a n d M e x i c o .
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'No «xtr»
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Ratesi-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
24, 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 musical
instrument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually 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.
2 Items of news, photographs and other matter of general Interest to the muH*
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communications to
Presto Publishing Co., Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 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.
ALMOST THE LAST
When an automobile, last week Tuesday, ran down Hsnry
Lindeman, it crushed the useful life of almost the last of the old-
school New York piano makers. Mr. Lindeman was contemporaneous,
in his earlier activities, with such men as Henry Steinway, William
Knabe, Myron A. Decker, Henry Hazelton, C. Frank Chickering,
Albert Weber, Napoleon J. Haines, Ernest Gabler, George Steck,
Frederick Mathushek and the rest of the glorious list of old-time
creators and doers in the industry sixty years ago and more. Mr.
Lindeman was the youngest in the list and he survived to an age
corresponding to the eldest of them. In fact we believe he had more
years to his credit than any other in the list we have named.
It is a remarkable career that any biographer of Henry Lindeman
must relate. For in the entire history of the industry we do not recall
another that discloses such a long and unbroken ambition sustained
by so great energy and love of work. Within his years there were at
least three starting points. Born into the piano industry, and begin-
ning as his father's partner, when still very young, Henry Lindeman
seemed imbued with the enthusiasm of the inventor almost to his
last day. He established three successive industries, and when his first
passed from his control he displayed no least sign of discouragement,
but proceeded to lay the foundation for another. And when that, too,
fell from him, with the same energy he started a third. And he left
a name for what he actually accomplished, not in making a giant in-
dustry, but for what he did to improve the piano and to lift it away
from the; commonplace.
Perhaps not many in the trade of today can remember the
"Cycloid" piano, invented by Henry Lindeman. But during the Civil
war days that unique instrument bade fair to supplant the square and
even to challenge the grand. Even today it would win attention
though, because of the small grand, it could gain no permanent place.
April 24, 1920.
But even if Mr. Lindeman's pianos are not widely known today, his
influence in the industry still persists. And his personality will re-
main one of the best legacies that any man could bequeath to his
friends and associates.
Mr. Lindeman was an inspiration to younger men in the business
whose good fortune it was to know him well. A kindlier soul never
lived, and there was no limit to his patience and generosity. To the
writer of this article the influence of Mr. Lindeman's example and
counsel will continue to bless his memory. For there's never a greater
help to youth than the man of maturity who pauses in his busy work
to listen to the unripe questionings of the voice that seeks, more than
all, the encouragement of experience. And it was as long ago as 1884
that Henry Lindeman stood at his bench in his factory and told the
then youthful seeker after advice—and advertising—what he must
expect and how to realize those expectations.
The list of old time New York piano makers and experts has
been exhausted by the inexorable hand of death. But we have in their
place a newer generation, equally expert even if perhaps not quite so
kindly, because of their larger activities and greater responsibility.
HOUSE ORGANS
The "house organ" has come again. Far back in the history of
the music trade, the special publications designed to cement the
interests of workers in individual concerns, and to increase public
interest in the same concerns, were plentiful. But for nearly forty
years they had not been a part of the industrial life, to any great
extent, until a few years ago. Today they have become more numer-
ous than ever and, in some instances, they rise above the plane of the
old-time house organs and challenge the best work of the independent
magazines.
Today the house organs in the trade may be placed in three
classes. They are: first, educational; second, entertaining; third, ad-
vertising circulars. And in all of them is, back of all, the purpose of
bringing together the interest of the workers in the ranks of the
house organ publishers, cementing their ambitions and stimulating
their loyalty. The methods depended upon to attain results are clearly
shown in the manner in which the various house organs are con-
ducted. While some of them are given permanent value by articles
bordering upon the scientific or technical, others depend for their in-
fluence upon such matter as appeals to the trade, with special refer-
ence to customers of the publishers. Still others make themselves
readable particularly to workers in the factories by whose ingenuity
and watchfulness the publications are supplied with matter.
It would be worth while to name and classify all of the house
organs put forth in the music trade. There would be something to
say about them all, to show the diversity of subjects treated and the
versatility of the office and factory workers who do the planning and
editing. The house organ names alone indicate their purposes, and
often suggest their classification. Among the most conspicuous of
them at this time are the "Standard Player Monthly," one of the edu-
cational publications, in which everyone concerned in the construc-
tion and care of playerpianos must find invaluable information; the
"Packard Bulletin," which, for beauty of typography and entertaining
descriptive matter pertaining to retail stores, could not be better; the
"Simplex Unit," in which the inside workings of a great factory are
revealed, and the secrets of fine work discussed; the "Symphonola
News," edited by the Price & Teeple Piano Co. workers, for the pur-
pose of unification of factory interests. There are, too, the "Steger
Employes' Magazine," filled with sketches and miscellaneous reading
matter of a kind to interest and entertain, with just enough attention
to the big industries of Steger, 111., to serve the purposes of publicity
work; and the "Gulbransen-Dickinson Co.'s Bulletin" one of the
brainiest and snappiest publications put forth in any trade.
And there are several others equally as good and doing the work
impossible to the daily, weekly, or even the regular trade press. Read-
ers of Presto frequently find in this paper extracts from the house
organs, always credited plainly to the same. And we believe that the
space taken by the ideas and suggestions of the actual workers in the
industry is well invested.
The difference between the house organs of old and those of
today, at least in the music trade, is that, while once the publications
were the work of specialists whose business was editorial, now they
are written and made up by practical workers in the industry.. And
that is a very great difference. It is alcng the lines of just yy^at the
industrial world needs, and in fact must have. It suggests''-the out-
working of the educational side of the industries. It is common at this
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