PRESTO
PRESTO
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 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.
ORDERS DEFERRED
The somewhat novel proposition by Mr. Mark P. Campbell, of
the Brambach Piano Co., was one of the features in last week's
Presto. The originality of it was discussed in these columns and
very general interest was evinced in the trade. It had been widely
understood that the piano dealers labored under the mistaken idea
that prices were likely to drop at any time, and that, by withholding
orders till later, advantage might be taken of the presumptive decline.
Mr. Campbell very effectively obliterated the ill-advised notion, and
made his assurance stronger by guaranteeing dealers against any loss
by reason of a price decline during this year. No reasoning man
could hesitate, or hold back orders for fall and winter supplies, after
reading the offer of the president of the Brambach Piano Co.
Since Mr. Campbell's unique message was issued, a number of
the other alert piano manufacturers have fallen into line and given
the same assurance to their customers. They have told their repre-
sentatives that the offer made by the New York gentleman will be,
in effect, duplicated by the same terms and conditions. So that it
is not probable that the trade will withhold orders on any basis of
decline in prices this year.
But there is another cause for the hesitation in placing orders
which has marked the trade this summer. It is that the impression
exists very generally that there are no instruments to be had. There-
fore, reason the dealers, what is the use of ordering? That is another
mistake. It is, of course, due to the fact that a few months ago the
condition intimated really did exist. The factories were denuded of
stock, and in New York the industries had been tied up by a pro-
longed strike. It was, therefore, a common thing for dealers to
frantically call for what they could not get. The western piano fac-
tories could not supply the demands of the entire nation. Dealers
came to Chicago, from East as well as West, seeking for the instru-
ments absolutely needed to supply customers who, in many instances,
had actually paid for the pianos in advance, hoping thereby to hasten
the deliveries. Instances of that kind came directly to the notice of
August 28, 1920.
this paper, and many requests came from reliable dealers in the hope
that we might help them to find finished stock.
Naturally the notion that instruments were impossible to get,
still sticks to the trade in a large degree. But, as a matter of fact,
instruments are now comparatively easy to secure. Within a week
this paper has had attention drawn to large numbers of unusually
attractive pianos and players, in factory warerooms, ready to be
shipped on orders. Things, with respect to piano supplies, are again
approaching normal. It is true that it is still difficult for the player
action makers to secure the smaller metal parts, in the quantities
needed, but as a rule the condition has so fer improved that finished
instruments are coming through satisfactorily. If dealers do not
know how and where to turn for the instruments they need, they
may imagine that it isn't worth while placing their orders. And so
the manufacturers are blocked in their productiveness at the very
time when the cry is that production is insufficient.
There are instruments to be had—good ones. Your regular
source of supplies will tell you so. If there is a lsck of some special
case designs, a little salesmanship may overcome that. But, in view
of what has been said, and especially in view of what Mr. Mark P.
Campbell said last week, there is no reason for withholding orders.
And certainly, in view of the general prosperity, there is no reason
why this should not be a season brimming over with business for
the piano trade.
PHILADELPHIA PIANOS
Doesn't it seem a little strange that the first American "piano
town" is today pretty nearly at the foot of the class, in point of
musical instrument manufacture? Philadelphia is, probably cor-
rectly, credited with being the birthplace of the first American piano.
According to tradition, the instrument bore the name of Meyer, and
it was, of course, a little square, with almost as many spindle legs
as a centipede. And after the first Philadelphia piano, there followed
many more, until the seat of our first national capital became a
genuine center of the early music industries.
There could be no more entertaining chapter in any piano history
than the one which would tell of the beginnings of the industry in
Philadelphia. And there would be references to some remarkable
men in that chapter, from the first down to the late Col. Grey, whose
stormy career was so closely interwoven with the one-time famous
Schomacker piano, now almost a memory—though it is still in the
market in a retail way. There was a time when the Schomacker am-
bition reached out and, when Chicago was a town of about 200,000
people, a leading piano store on Clark street not only bore the Phila-
delphia name, but was under the personal management of a son of
the Schomacker piano's founder.
Today Philadelphia cuts a small figure in the American piano
industry. Even the comparatively few instruments produced there
are sold at retail by their manufacturers. And the most conspicuous
piano maker in Philadelphia today is known as the "merchant prince,"
whose fortune has rolled in through the doors of a department store.
His big stores sell other pianos than his own, also; in fact, his leaders
are from other factories, and probably Philadelphians in most cases
do not know that any of the instruments on display are from factories
controlled by the local merchant. Outside of that store, the pianos
are no more seen and, naturally, the once great value of their name
and good will has been lost.
And so Philadelphia has permitted her place to slip away. The
few remaining piano industries there are content to do a local busi-
ness. One of the industries, of more than local distinction, is owned
by a piano man who prefers the retail end of it and, having the repu-
tation of being an honest scrapper, he bristles with aggressiveness
and won't permit his competitors to do any more business than seems
to him good for the Cunningham piano.
It is true that Philadelphia has the name of being a sluggish
town of large size. Usually you can cross the street in the middle of
a block without lifting your eyes from your newspaper. The vehicles
obey the traffic regulations. So do the piano advertisements. The
old-time riot in the piano store windows has subsided. No longer
does a piano dealer in Philadelphia stick signs in his front window
declaring his neighbor to be a blackleg and his instruments the lowest
of imitations. All that has gone. And with the subsidence of the
window signs, made famous first by Col. Grey, the life of the local
trade seems to have died down till the degree of sub-normal respecta-
bility hovers over Chestnut street, and no rasping challenge is any
longer heard. The old-time fiction that citizens used to loiter around
the corner of Eleventh and Chestnut, to settle bets as to which end
of disgruntled customers would hit the pavement first, no longer
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