Presto

September 18, 1920.
25
RESTO
TALKI
NEEDLES AND DISCS.
There is a good deal of complaint about the
kind of phonograph needles in the market,
and the quality of the records sometimes sup-
plied to the retail trade. A phonograph may
be good or indifferent in proportion to the kind
and quality of the needle used and the compo-
sition of the record employed. If the needle
is too hard, and digs into the record, it is not
desirable. If the record is made of gritty sub-
stances, or cinders not sufficiently ground, the •
best needle will not seem to equalize the de-
fects.
It is seemingly a law of trade that, after near
perfection has been attained in the production
of any specialty, the genius of many is em-
ployed to cheapen the initial cost of the article.
So, apparently, with some of the records which
have been placed in the phonograph field. We
have complaints under this head so often that
it almost seems the high-cost-of-everything
has caught the phonograph in its most sensi-
tive places, and threatens to spoil the chances
of very good possibilities.
To the average owner of a talking machine
the record is—a record. There can be no dif-
ference except that some are msde ornate by
the fine colorings of the labels. They look
alike and they revolve with equal ease upon
the little turn tables of the machine. But they
don't give forth the same kind of musical re-
sults. They are not uniformly clear when
Harry Lauder rolls his sibilants or Schuman-
Heinck her r's. And the needles don't last at
all. They scrape and they blur akrmingly.
And they are condemned and thrown away.
It would surprise the phonograph loving
public to know what pains have been taken to
produce the little needles that vibrate in sym-
pathy with the almost unseen indentations
that stir the sensitive diaphragm. It is certain
that scores of kinds of needles have been in-
vented. They are made of metal and of fibre.
And some of them are composed of cunning
combinations by which both strength and th?
most delicate sensitiveness are obtained. Of
this latter kind there is nothing more sugges-
tive of care in small things, and attainment r.s
the result of that care, than is csen in tha
"Tonofone" needles. To make a single needle
of that kind would cost nearly as much as to
produce a small phonograph. By their produc-
tion in great quantities the "Tonofone" needle
is made at a cost but little more than the ordi-
nary fibre needle. It is an essential fixture of
the phonograph which has proved so effective
as to have grown into a large industry. Its
makers have developed a demand so great as
to keep extensive facilities going continually,
and dealers in nearly every kind of phonograph
—especially the better ones—handle the
"Tonofone" as an indispensable feature in
their business. To be satisfactory in its per-
formance, there is no machine, however good,
that can be operated without the best possible
quality of record and the most perfect of
needles.
AIRING A PROTEST
MAKES PHONOGRAPH CABINETS
Bank Furniture Company of Indianapolis Turns to
Manufacture of New Line.
The Indianapolis Bank and Store Fixture Com-
pany, Indianapolis, Ind., which formerly manufac-
tured bank and store fixtures, but now manufactures
cabinets for the Columbia Graphophone Company,
has bought the property it has been occupying as
a tenant at 312-14-16 South New Jersey street from
Levi S. Pearson.
The property has a frontage of 167 feet 6 inches
on New Jersey street and a depth of 195 feet. The
building is a three-story brick with 21,000 square
feet of floor space. The company plans to erect on
the rear of the lot another building of about the
same size and build a switch track from the elevated
railroad tracks.
The company took an option on the site five
years ago, at which time the sale price was fixed
at $25,000 for the property, on which terms the
deal was negotiated. A. F. Krieg is president of
the company, J. F. Mellen is secretary and L. W.
is the treasurer.
In a recent address before the National
Association of Masters of Dancing, Paul B.
Klugh, president of the Autopiano Co., and
the Republic Player Roll Corp., New York,
said: "And here it is refreshing to say that
one of the largest phonograph companies man-
ufacturing records, finds that the old Blue
Danube Waltz is the greatest selling dance
record they have ever catalogued."
Mr. Klugh was discussing records and rolls,
songs and dance music and pointing out cer-
tain disagreeable characteristics of each and
he took the fact he quoted as an encouraging
sign that the greatest of all censors—public
Miller's Music House, Lebanon, Pa., is a big dis-
opinion—was showing effectiveness towards tributor of talking machines. The five warerooms
are at 738 Cumberland street.
good.
The men he was addressing were free in
their criticism of certain publishers of popular
songs. They felt that the smut song has been
an aid to the means that have got dancing
and dancing masters "in bad" with a large
Talking Machines
section of the public. The immoral song is
Challenge Comparison in
an opportunity for the unmoral music com-
every point from cabinets to
tonal results.
poser. Mr. Klugh realized it when he said:
"Does it not seem natural, therefore, that if a
Prices attractive for fine
goods. Write us.
scng starts out with a suggestive title and
lyrics, and a jazz orchestra provides sugges-
Deterling Mfg. Co., Inc.
tive syncopation, the resulting dance becomes
TIPTON, IND.
suggestive?"
The speaker did hot countenance any
sweeping denunciation of the music publish-
THE WONDERFUL
ers. The representative publishing housss as
"FAIRY"
Phonograph Lamp
a rule frown upon the objectionable song.
Truly a Work of Art. Scientifically Cont true ted
This also he said in the publisher's defense:
Sale* Unprecedented. Secure Agency Now.
T h e greatest
"The type of syncopation practiced by the
practical nov-
elty offered to
modern jazz orchestra, and which you term
the Phonograph
trade—
'suggestive,' cannot be written with musical
The
notation. These suggestive syncopated twists
"FAIRY"
are created by the jazz orchestra itself, end
the publisher is entirely innocent in the mat-
Phonograph
ter."
Lamp
Mr. Klugh frankly reviewed the part of the
"looks" and
"s P e a k s" for
record and roll makers in the situation. They
itself. in ap-
pearance
luxur-
are not without fault, he said, but like himself
ious, It achieves
Us g r e a t e s t
nearly every one of them were heartily sick
triumph In its
tone.
of the species of music the masters of dancing
A newly pat-
ented s o u n d
condemned. In the meantime as a method of
K
chamber, radi-
coping with the objectionable song that in-
cally differing
from the con-
vited suggestive syncopation, he said it might
ventional
de-
signs, gives a
be well for the publishers themselves, in their
true m e l l o w
tone of volume
own organization, to arrange for a proper
equalling that
of most ex*
pensive Instru-
censorship.
DETERLING
Victor Talking Machine Co. has declared a divi-
dend of $15 on the common stock, payable October
15 to stock of record September 30. The usual
quarterly dividend of $1.75 on the preferred was
also declared payable on same date.
ments.
Electrically operated and equipped with a specially
designed invisible switch, regulator and tone modifier.
Let us tell how sales of the "FAIRY" have re-
quired our maximum output ever since its appear-
ance in 1918.
ENDLESS-GRAPH MANUFACTURING COMPANY
4200-02 W e s t Adams Street
CHICAGO, ILL.
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