PRESTO
PRESTO
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SATURDAY, JUNE 26, 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.
NOT SO BAD
In an address before the Federation of Women's Clubs, at Des
Moines, Iowa, Mrs. Max Obendorfer made a startling statement. It
was that "ninety per cent" of the popular music of the day "is un-
speakable," and "would not be allowed through the mails if it were
literature."
We are certain that the lady placed the proportion too high. It will
not be disputed that much of the song stuff of the day belongs in the
list of the taboo, but ninety per cent is too much even if applied alone
to the heart of Hit Alley. Nor can there be much doubt about the
need of censorship in the matter of the flood of suggestive "song
wanted" verse that is being set to "music" by the "editors" and con-
tributors to the publishers whose top story enterprises keep the sheet
music dealers guessing a good share of the time. And yet we be-
lieve that, were Mrs. Obendorfer to employ less hysteria, and fix her
charge at about forty per cent, she would be nearer the mark.
There are still a good many high-class music publishers in
America. And there are a good many reputable sheet music mer-
chants who would not permit much of the sloppy, and often obscene,
order to find place upon their counters. As long as we have the
Schirmers, Fischers, Booseys, McKinleys, Ditsons, Jacobs-Bonds,
Summys, Gambles, Williss,' and others of their kind, there will be
no dearth of good music, both vocal and instrumental.
At a time when the personal appetites and tastes of people are
safeguarded by law, when what is not good for either the head or
the stomach is controlled or prohibited, it may seem to lovers of mu-
sic that there might be some way by which to save the highest of
all the intellectual and moral influences from contamination. And,
if there is any necessity for placing a muzzle upon such delights
of the people as Dickens, Burns, Sterne, and practically all of the
intellectual dreamers gloried in certainly there seems a still better
chance for purification in the kind of songs we sing or are forced
June 26, 1920.
to hear sung. The censorship of "popular" songs doesn't seem any
less needed than the other purposes of the purification brigades just
now so active.
And so let us have it, and there may be no more such plaints
as that of the lady who talked at Des Moines, and whose charges
are going the rounds of the newspaper press to the injury of the
innocent as well as a challenge to the evil. If it were true that
ninety per cent of the American music were "indecent," the inspira-
tion of the real composers, and the enterprise of the better class of
publishers would soon become hopeless. The flood of the "unspeak-
able" in "music" would submerge the struggling ten per cent and the
sheet music trade would soon become extinct.
But it isn't so. There are many reputable sheet music pub-
lishers and there are many high class music dealers, who prefer to en-
courage the sale of good music, even if now and then they are obliged
to reply to a call for trash that they haven't it in stock. The time
may come when the music dealers will announce their unreadiness
to sell the "unspeakable" to which Mrs. Obendorfer draws attention.
And a good way to do it will be to have signs bearing the names
of the reputable publishers whose prints they sell as being worthy of
the dealer's attention and the music loving public's confidence.
A FEATURE FOR PIANO SHOW
A ragged little boy on his way to the recent Chicago dog-show
was leading a very "ornery purp," when Frank Hood, of the Schiller
Piano Company, said: "My boy, you can never expect to win a prize
for showing that kind of a dog." "Oh, yes I can, Mister," replied the
boy. "I can if they give a prize for showin' the kind o' dog dat no
dog ought to be."
Now here are two good suggestions for the coming piano show—
if another one is coming: Show the kind of piano that no piano ought
to be, and show the kind of piano man that no piano man ought
to be. The piano man must necessarily be a good actor, especially must
he be able to portray the villain; the piano that he will pretend to be
selling must be one of the very kind that has caused so much trouble
in the trade.
Here will be a test of the power of ridicule—one of the greatest
forces known to the human race. The reason we have bad piano men
is because we tolerate them, and thereby give them direct encourage-
ment to perpetuate their forms of impudence. The reason we have bad
pianos is because we tolerate their existence.
OVER SWIFT ROADS
Just now the problem of transportation is worrying the piano
manufacturers—all lines of industry. The time is coming when it
won't make much difference whether there are any freight cars to be
had or not; it won't disturb the manufacturers to know that miles of
"empties" are strung along rusted and unused tracks, nearby or a
thousand miles away.
The manufacturers will not be using the rails for purposes of
delivering the goods, as they are now doing—when they can—and as
they have been doing ever since steam supplanted ox-power. For
the millions of dollars now rusting in rails and box cars will be
diverted into road-making and the cities and towns will be linked by
smooth highways, upon which the great motor trucks will speed along
with the ease and certainty of the fastest freight. A hundred miles
will be as nothing, and five hundred miles will be covered in a day,
because the hard, smooth road, especially designed for heavy traffic,
will run direct, with no detours between central points, from which
spurs will lead to the smaller places. The millions now poured into
railroads will be invested in the newer roads and the passenger or
pleasure travel will have highways of its own.
And in that way travel will be both safer and swifter. It will be
no more cause of industrial paralysis that the freight handlers have
"struck," for these swiftly moving giant trucks will carry the "goods"
right from factory to store, just as if the producer and his customer
were near neighbors, even if they are 250 miles or more apart.
And when pianos are delivered in that way there will be less
lamenting about the lack of supplies. The raw materials will be
brought from the fields, and the mines, and the forests, and the first
causes of difficulty will be overcome. It will be the industrial mil-
lennium—perhaps!
But, just a moment! You must not lay any plans based upon
the new improved methods of transporting freight. It is being done
already, in a small way—comparatively small. It will take time for
the world—even our part of the world, which always leads—to get
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