Presto

PRESTO
MEMPHIS FIRM
IS INCORPORATED
O. R. Bowman, Well Known Traveling Man,
Joins L. H. Floyd in Progressive
Retail Piano House in the
Tennessee City.
The business of the Floyd Piano Company, Inc.,
Memphis, Tenn., has grown from year to year and
now the company is known as one of the most pro-
gressive and most respected piano houses in the
South. In fact, the business has grown to such an
extent that L. H. Floyd has incorporated it for
$100,000, taking into the business as vice-president
were sweeping out and keeping the stock clean and
polished. For this work he received a salary of
$5.00 per week, which continued for one year. At
the end of this time he was advanced to the collec-
tion department working on the outside and was
general pinch-hitter doing odd jobs in the busi-
ness.
Then He Makes Good.
One day the manager suggested that he do some
house to house canvassing for prospects on com-
mission. He made good at this work and it is stated
by a reliable source that he kept three salesmen
busy. His success was so great that the manager
made him a regular salesman, along with collect-
ing and canvassing.
The first day of his salesmanship duties, he ran
across a live prospect and made an appointment for
that evening with the party. It was then that he
landed his first real sale. He stated that he stayed
up all night guarding the contract and check he had
received in payment for the piano and thinking about
the commission he had earned and the future in
store for him. When the manager arrived the next
morning, Mr. Floyd was there with a smile, that
to this day has not worn off. From that time he
was high man in sales each month and the star
salesman of the firm for seven ye^rs, until he finally
took over the business and made the name Floyd
Piano Company possible.
STORY & CLARK PIANO CO.'S
BRANCH IN PITTSBURGH, PA.
New Warerocms at 801 Liberty Avenue Are Well
Located and Equipped.
O. R. BOWMAN.
and manager, one of the livest wires in the piano
trade, O. R. Bowman, formerly western and south-
ern wholesale representative for Steger & Sons
Piano Manufacturing Company, Chicago and Steger,
111.
The Floyd Piano Company, Inc., will represent
the following lines: Steger & Sons,, Reed & Sons,
Singer, Thompson and Artemis, Lyon & Healy,
and Washburn pianos and playerpianos. One of the
most complete player roll stocks will also be found
at Floyd's. The store has been rebuilt and booths
cover the first floor. The complete line of Columbia
talking machines and the entire catalog of Columbia
records have been added.
The policy and operation of the Floyd Piano
Company will not be changed in any way. The
same honest and courteous treatment that has made
possible the growth of this business in the past
seven years, will be constantly maintained.
A Bit of History.
L. H. Floyd was born in 1888 on a Mississippi
farm, ten miles from the railroad, and was educated
The Story & Clark Piano Co.'s branch in Pitts-
burgh, Pa., which for many years has been at 539
Wood street, recently moved and last week for-
mally opened in the spacious new location at 801
Liberty avenue, opposite Wood street. This is one
of the most centrally located piano stores in the
city.
Fred Drake, the Pittsburgh manager, has spared
neither energy nor expense in making the new store
one of the finest and best-equipped piano sales-
rooms in the country. The interior is decorated a
beautiful gray scheme and has a number of sound-
proof player rooms.
An added feature in the new store is the player
roll department, which is located right inside the
door on the main floor, and rolls are displayed in
such a way that your selection can be made in an
instant. The same scheme has been worked out in
the piano department. All four floors are now
filled with a complete line of Story & Clark pianos,
players and grands.
IN WATERLOO FORTY-THREE YEARS.
L. S. Parsons, head of L. S. Parsons Music House,
Waterloo, Iowa, styles his store in his advertising
slogan, "The Old Reliable Store"." And well he may,
for another lineu sed in connection with the slogan
is "43 years in Waterloo." Forty-three years car-
ries us back to 1877—back to the time when this
country was beginning to recover from the great
panic of 1873. And what a record for the Parsons
house! How many lonely drives over mud roads to
sell organs to farmers in the old days! How differ-
ent today, with the best of automobiles booming
over the best of highways! Mr. Parsons has a rec-
ord of which to be proud, and today he is reaping
the reward of his pioneering by holding the agencies
for several of the highest-priced and best-made
pianos and playerpianos in the world.
BUYS IN RED LODGE, MONT.
The sale of the Orton Brothers music store at
Red Lodge, Mont., has bet:n made to the Ball Mu-
sic company, a new concern incorporated recently.
The new deal involves a large stock of goods and a
trade territory of imposing dimensions and wonder-
ful future. While no figures were given out it is
understood that the sum of money involved in the
sale was considerable. W. C. Ball, who is president
and manager of the concern, will continue his resi-
dence at Red Lodge and his business there and will
be active manager of the new corporation from that
place. Nick Nelson, well known in Red Lodge, will
continue in the position of store manager at Bil-
lings.
L. H. FLOYD.
in the country schools of that state. He did not
have the advantages of city schools or an opportu-
nity to learn of the outside world until he was six-
teen years old.
He went to Memphis, Tenn., when a boy, and after
a careful survey of the city decided the piano busi-
ness offered a wide field for a hustler. He accepted
a position in a Memphis store where his first duties
EVERYBODY LOOKS FOR MELODY.
"Everywhere the public looks for a bit of melody
to gladden the routine of shop and office," says the
Omaha World-Herald editorially. "The world has
had enough of sorrow; it's time to have a season
of gladness. That is why the musical lovers will
SMpport musical interests, until some day the city
shall have a symphony orchestra equal to that of
Minneapolis."
April 24, 1920.
MUSIC FOR CHICAGO
SHOPS AND FACTORIES
Great Work Being Done Along That Line by
Chicago Piano & Organ Association,
Report This Week.
The regular monthly meeting of the Chicago
Piano & Organ Association was held at the Chi-
cago Automobile Club, 317 Plymouth court, on
Thursday of this week. Among other important
business, the license and legislative committees pre-
sented a report.
At the monthly meeting of the association, held
in February, the co-operation of the association, col-
lectively and individually, was pledged in carrying
out the plan for introducing music into the indus-
trial plants of Chicago, including factories, shops,
warehouses and offices. A list of over three hun-
dred such plants has been prepared and, wherever
practicable, the name of the manager supplied.
Each member of the association has been allotted
a quota of plants and has been requested to get in
touch at once with the proper official, explain to
him the use of music, vocal and instrumental, in
allaying unrest, stimulating interest, checking ab-
senteeism and increasing production.
In a letter sent the members by F. E. Morton,
chairman of the ways and means committee, the
following method is suggested:
"Find a man or woman in his employ who can
sing and who is in sympathy with the idea and in-
struct them to agitate the matter among their fel-
low workmen in order that the request for music
may come from within rather than from without.
The time selected and the period of time used for
music must of necessity be adapted to the local
needs. In some plants the introduction of music
at the noon hour may suffice. In others, ten min-
utes in the forenoon and ten minutes in the after-
noon can be given and is found most effective.
"Attention also may be called to a school con-
ducted at Sherman Park by the Community Service
of Chicago, where men and women are given an in-
tensive course of training to fit them for this work.
At present this training is free. Information rela-
tive thereto may be had by addressing Mr. Eugene
T. Lies, Secretary and Executive Director, Suite
1021, 108 S. La Salle Street. Telephone Franklin
3340, and where the
proper person is not found to
inaugurate this w T ork, assistance may be secured by
calling up Mr. Lies and stating the case.
"You are requested to report progress to and keep
in touch with the writer and to feel perfectly free
to call upon him for any further instructions or sug-
gestions. When the people of Chicago sing as they
work, the existence of the music industry will be
justified."
KEEPING LOUISIANA POSTED
ON BEST MUSICAL NEWS
Clever Little Publication of Philip Werlein, Ltd.,
New Orleans, Read by 10,000.
The matter in the New Orleans Musical News
is potent for the encouragement of music and di-
rectly for the creation of the desire to buy music
goods. It is an eight-page monthly published by
Philip Werlein, Ltd., and it goes to 10,000 eager
subscribers selected carefully from a mailing list
that covers the wide territory served by the firm.
The little publication is both newsy and instruc-
tive. It is gossipy in a musical way that makes it
more highly appreciated by its musical readers. It
is (illustrated cleverly and its front cover each
month is made a page of fame. The cover is oc-
cupied by the portrait of some Louisiana person
prominent in musical circles.
Of course the publication is made the vehicle
for all information about musical societies and
organizations and the dates of recitals and musical
functions generally. The most important service of
the little paper is the interest it creates in the latest
music rolls and records. The editor is Harry
Brunswick Loeb, manager of the artistic depart-
ment in Philip Werlein, Ltd.
A LIVE STORE AT FOND DU LAC.
E. R. Sweeney, who is reorganizing his music
shop at Fond du Lac, W r is., was in Chicago this
week. Some time ago J. W. Trout, of Fond du
Lac, sold out his music store to W. E. Fox, and
now Sweeney & Parker have the shop and have
reorganized the company. Sweeney & Parker are
rejuvenating the store, and while they are running
right along, they expect to hold a formal opening
on the second week in May.
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/