Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1920 1788

Page 4 Text:

PR£STO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable in advance. No extra
charge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be indicated by the word "advertisement" in accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument 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.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY,
OCTOBER
30, 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—E&PECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
WHAT DO YOU WANT?
There is one subject which, more than most others, will bear
repeated discussion. It affects every man in business, whether he
happens to be the head of the house, a top-notcher of a salesman or
the genius who dusts the counters and keeps the front door-knob
bright. The subject is courtesy. It is one of such deep interest that,
if neglected in practice as in the average day's programme, no very
small proportion of failures may be traced back to its utter neglect.
We believe that twenty per cent of the piano sales lost by the average
otherwise well-equipped piano house are due to the lack of courtesy
somewhere along the line.
The other day a man of decent appearance, but very mild in
manner, entered a large piano store in a great city. The salesman
in charge happened to be at the moment engaged in an animated dis-
cussion of the comparative values of some automobiles a visiting
salesman in that line was trying to describe, with catalogue in hand.
The piano manager signalled to his assistant, pointing with his thumb
to the mild-mannered caller just inside the door. The assistant
moved leisurely toward the stranger and, when within firing distance,
said: "Well, what do you want?"
The stranger's mild eyes opened wide and he evidently resented
the manner of the challenge. And this is precisely what he said in
reply: "I did want to buy a piano I was looking at here yesterday,
but I have just decided I'd better look around first." And he left
before the crackle-brained salesman could sufficiently gather his
wits to interpose an apology. This incident is not imaginary. The
writer happened to be an eye and ear witness to it.
And what of it? From a purely business point of view, perhaps
the house lost only a single sale. The manager probably learned
something about automobiles . and his assistant couldn't have had
wit enough to realize that drawing his salary for such work is worse
than theft. So that is one illustration of our statement that lack
of courtesy means loss of trade and the endangering of local prestige
October 30, 1920.
which no piano house, however strong financially, can be content
to withstand.
Another case, as reported by a representative of this paper. A
gentleman of capacity, intellectually, if not capitalistically, had occa-
sion to call at the upstairs offices of one of the really great music
houses in a very great city. He wanted merely a little information
which was to be used to the benefit of the great music house. He
had waited patiently for a considerable time when he caught the eye
of a young woman comfortably ensconced at a desk a few feet from
the office railing. The caller made bold to motion to the heiress in
a way to indicate that he was really there and waiting. Whereupon
the young lady spoke to an older suffragette, drawing attention to
the male biped at the outer gate. And then what? The keeper of
the office dignity raised her right hand, palm out, and gave the sign
of outraged silence, intimating that no violation of her utter seclusion
was permissible. She must not be disturbed, not at all! And the
caller finally appealed to an office boy, who piloted him to some source
of information higher up in authority but not so lofty in frigid self-
importance.
It sometimes seems that- the big business houses that devote
time and money to purposes of the bodily and mental means of rec-
reation of employees, might as well pay attention also to this matter
of courtesy or the code of manners. The man of affairs who has, by
years of carefully applied enterprise and energy, built up a large busi-
ness, is placed at a disadvantage by uncouth, uncivil and careless
employees. It can not do very much for a force of workers, either
in factory or office, to discourse sweet music, by orchestra, piano or
voice, to a lot of people who do not understand that one of the first
requisites of success is the dispensation of a cheerful order of courtesy.
We do not agree, as Tolstoy said to Gorky, that "where you
want to have slaves, there you should have as much music as pos-
sible." On the contrary, our custom and our convictions are to
commend music, and more music, always. But we do believe, with
Bovee, that "The small courtesies sweeten life," and that Lord Lytton
was right when he said that "Courtesy is a duty public servants owe
to the humblest members of the public." And if there is any place
in the world where courtesy should be expected, it is in the establish-
ment devoted to the things which, in their very nature, suggest re-
finement—in the place where pianos and other musical things are
displayed and sold.
The piano merchant who discovers that his business is endan-
gered by the incivility of employees lacking in courtesy should re-
move the disturbing element regardless of what place in the organi-
zation the uncouth member sustains. His abilities may be great, but
seldom so great as to justify his possibilities of evil.
And every piano salesman, or office worker, whose intuitive
faculties are so dull as to render possible the discourtesy of a blatant
and metallic "What do you want?" should be promptly informed as
to what it is that the house doesn't want.
MANDOLIN "ATTACHMENTS"
A practical piano tuner has something to say on another page
this week about the butchery of some of the so-called "mandolin
attachments." It is perhaps natural that a good many people want
something that jingles in connection with their rag-time perform-
ances, but in supplying that particular demand the dealers and their
tuners owe something to the manufacturers and the individual own-
ers of the pianos. And many of the mandolin "attachments" are so
crude in construction, and so utterly harmful to the instrument, as
to call for something more than a mild protest.
The tuner whose letter appears this week has sent to this paper
a sample of the mandolin "attachment" which aroused his righteous
anger. It is about as bungling a piece of vandalism as has ever come
to notice since the old time device of the tuner who gouged holes in
hammer-heads for the insertion of hard rubber tubing, to bring back
the elasticity of the felts and recreate a "beautiful tone." No doubt
there are more such mandolin "attachments" being nailed upon the
hammer rails of good pianos. Perhaps as this is written more than
one resourceful but reckless piano tuner is ruining fine uprights with
the salf-made outrageously awkward noise makers, the application of
which may leave the piano irrevocably ruined.
Is there nothing in this that calls for a warning? Is the owner
of a valuable piano entitled to any protection from the vandal who
in search of an extra fee, ruthlessly nails a piece of coarse oil-cloth,
into which have been inserted a series of large brass discs—stationers'
pins—and calls his destructive appliance a "mandolin attachment"?
The average piano owner has little idea of the delicate parts of his
instrument. He wants something and he doesn't stop to study the
means by which he is supplied with it. He hears the jangle of the
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).
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Page 5 Text:

PRESTO
October 30, 1920.
metal against the strings, and his applause is ready. And so is the
price of the vandalism.
If the local piano dealer is responsible, he is liable for restitu-
tion. If the nomadic tuner does the work he should be kicked out
of the profession and warning given by the reputable piano men.
Tramp piano tuners are not so plentiful as they once were. The pro-
fession of piano tuning has taken on a new dignity. Still there must
be irresponsibles as long as the "mandolin attachment" bungling goes
on. There seems to be here a duty on the part of the tuners' associa-
tion. The dealers, as well as the manufacturers, have an interest
sufficient to stir them to the protection of the instruments they have
sold or manufactured.
THE SMALL DEALER
. Whether we recognize it or not, the "small dealer" is about the
biggest thing in the piano business. He is the mainstay of the new
piano industry that starts out with high hopes and an ambition to
win a place far up among the brightest stars in the constellation. He
is the center and the inspiration of the large class of piano manu-
facturers who, having neither the capial nor the desire to boast a
giant output, aim to enlist a few of the appreciative and enthusiastic
dealers wherever they may be found. And the small dealer thus be-
comes the real foundation of a new and ambitious piano's fame.
Isn't the small dealer, then, well worth while? Isn't his hard
work just what a piano—new or old—must have if fame is to be made
or perpetuated ? How does the ideal small dealer go about it? What
are his chances of success, and in what is his claim to recognition?
He is not often credited with having capital enough to do much
business. But he is, nevertheless, as often a responsible merchant
and his orders are filled with the kind of promptness and dispatch
that suggest a bank account. He doesn't ask for large credit, and
he keeps his store free of dead stock, selling what he has before he
places orders for more. And he works—oh, how he works!
If you like to ramble over the good roads throughout the country,
no matter how little you may know about selling pianos in the rural
district, you must have seen the small dealer at work or on his way.
Perhaps you have noticed his flivver, to which a piano loader was
attached. You may have seen the outfit turn from the road into a
farmyard. If you watched you may have seen the piano loader tipped
to the ground and the hood lifted from the shining instrument. And
then the small dealer was at work again. The farmyard became his
wareroom. The sound of the instrument floated out over the wheat
fields and into the woods. Perhaps you heard it as you rambled on.
And if you came back that way, not long after, you may have seen
the flivver, with the empty loader attached, going on ahead toward
town.
It was a sale! The small dealer had won his cause. He had
done more than to merely sell a piano. He had lifted a farmer's
family from the commonplace into an atmosphere of refinement. In
a business way, and as pertains to the particular piano he had sold,
the small dealer had accomplished a better advertising act than an} r
expert "promoter" could do with a dozen pounds of printer's ink.
He had convinced the intelligent farm-folks that he knew what a
FEDERAL COMMISSION'S
HOLLAND PIANO REBUKE
Interest in the Case Has Caused Several Manufac-
turers to Ask for More Explicit Information.
An editorial in last week's Presto seems to have
stirred up unexpected interest in the matter of the
action of the Federal Trade Commission with ref-
erence to the stenciling of prices upon pianos of
the Holland Piano Co. The views of this paper
were expressed in the article already referred to.
But, in response to the questions of at least three
prominent manufacturers, it is deemed but fair to
say that the information which is printed came
from the Washington correspondent of Presto in
a dispatch which was not published at the time be-
cause it was desired to say nothing that might in
any way reflect upon the Minneapolis industry.
Here is the report, just as it came to this paper:
Washington, D. C, Oct. 18.—After full trial the
Federal Trade Commission today issued an order
requiring the Holland Piano Mfg. Co., of Minneapo-
lis, Minn., to refrain from certain methods of com-
petition in the manufacture and sale of pianos and
piano players.
The trial disclosed that this company stenciled
upon its pianos, and piano players, prices which did
not represent bona fide resale prices, but represented
good piano must be. He had shown them that he represented that
kind of a piano, and he had exchanged the instrument for cash or its
equivalent.
No city salesman, selling for a large dealer, wins results like
that. The city stores do not work to close a sale as if there were
no other sales to follow. The city store calls customers to it. The
splendid array of instruments fascinates the prospective buyers and
the "closing" is largely a matter of detail. The small dealer in the
country regards each individual prospect as a battle ground in which
wit, energy, loyalty to ideals and tireless work must be the winning
weapons. And in that kind of a peaceful conquest the single sale,
and the single piano involved, enlist every resource of the salesman.
It is to him anything but a "small" matter. For the time, it is the
all-absorbing problem and the momentous event in life. He simply
must make that sale. No competitor must break in and rob him of it.
Whether daylight or darkness, the work goes on until the transaction
is closed, and the road homeward is easy and filled with the satisfac-
tion of success.
There is no "small" piano dealer, in reality. Whether he sells
one piano a week, or even one in a month, his intelligence, his grit
and his enthusiasm may be invaluable to the piano he represents.
And the better the piano the bigger the value of the "small" dealer.
The Leader-Republican of Gloversville, N. Y., conveys the sur-
prising bit of piano intelligence that "in 1867 the piano was an-
nounced as a novelty at a concert given in Covent Garden, London."
As far back as 1820 English piano manufacturers were stirred by the
invention of a new sticker upright action. Before 1840 there had
been sixteen English piano industries established, one of them dating
back to 1723. The Crystal Palace exposition in London was held in
1851, at which a good display of grand and upright pianos was made.*
The misinformation of the newspapers about pianos is extensive to
the point of astonishment.
* * *
Every piano man knows that the dealers can effect the purpose
of trade stimulation by an ostensible reduction in selling prices. It
is, as we have repeatedly said, the manufacturer who feels the added
cost of pianos, and not the dealers. Properly conducted, there is
ample margin in the piano business to permit of a reduction in retail
prices for advertising purposes. For the retailer to continue to harp
upon high prices is a mistake which may put a check to the volume
of his business.
* * *
The Music Industries Chamber of Commerce has compiled figures
which show that the increase in cost of making and marketing pianos
has been greater than even the experts have realized. In view of the
facts, it isn't easy to see how any general reduction in prices can be
expected for a long time to come.
* * *
A change in the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce slogan
makes it "Give More Thought to Music." It's a synonym of Give
More Thought to Good Business—or doing all the business you can
in the right way.
abnormally high, fictitious values, "so stenciled in
order to permit retail dealers to make radical re-
ductions far below the stenciled prices, thereby de-
ceiving the purchasers as to true values," accord-
ing to a statement issued by the Commission.
"Based upon the foregoing record," adds the state-
ment, "the Commission's order requires the Holland
Piano Mfg. Co. to refrain from stenciling or in any
manner marking upon its pianos and piano players,
fictitious or misleading prices grossly in excess of
the prices at which they are usually sold at retail."
HARRY WARD.
A. S. BOND VISITS CHICAGO.
A. S. Bond, president of the Packard Piano Com-
pany. Fort Wayne, Ind., was interviewed on the
wing on Wednesday of this week in Chicago by a
Presto representative. Mr. Bond said that no ju-
dicious dealer was expecting reductions in prices or
planning to cut retail prices a cent just now, as
the thing was impossible. The wise dealers, which
he believed to be over 95 per cent of all the piano
merchants, were telling their customers the truth;
namely, that a reduction in prices was out of the
question at present. And men who were selling
pianos on that basis were selling lots of them.
"Investigate our easy payment plan" is the ad-
vice of the Benedict Music House to Galesburg, 111.,
prospective piano buyers. The handsome ware-
rooms of the company are at 64 South Cherry street.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF
MANUFACTURERS MEETS
Session Was Held This Week in Hotel Iroquois,
Buffalo, Otto Schulz Presiding.
Otto Schulz of Chicago, president of the National
Piano Manufacturers' Association, left this week
for Buffalo, N. Y., to preside over the sessions of
the Executive Committee of that body, which met
in the Hotel Iroquois.
Before leaving Chicago, Mr. Schulz said to a
Presto representative.
"This is to be the regular annual meeting of the
Executive Committee, which is usually held about
this time of year. We will discuss the trade situa-
tion and outlook for business generally. Reports
of various kinds will be heard."
"Will you take any action regarding a change in
the time of year for holding the annual convention
of the National Piano Manufacturers' Association,
Mr. Schulz?"
"As to that, I can not say in advance," replied
Mr. Schulz. "We will be governed in any such
move by what the other bodies affiliated with the
Music Industries Chamber of Commerce decides to
do in the matter."
Lucien Muratore, the famous tenor, owns a White
House Model Gulbransen playerpiano.
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/

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