Presto

RE8TO
November 13, 1920.
STATE ASSOCIATION
FOR PENNSYLVANIA
handed and the demand for playerpianos continues
at high-tide, making it necessary to provide for still
larger output. The attainment of the H. C. Bay
Company, within a few years, is one of the remark-
able developments of the industry.
WEAVER PIANO GO'S
PUBLICITY HELPS
Activity of Pittsburgh Piano Merchants' Asso-
ciation May Lead to Organization of
Greater Influence for Music Trade.
RAYMOND HODGE WINNER
IN PIANO SALES CONTEST
York, Pa., Piano Manufacturers Note with
Pleasure Wide Effects of Saturday
Evening Post Pages.
A state association of music merchants in Penn-
sylvania is promised through the activity of the
Piano Merchants' Association of Pittsburgh, which
has taken steps toward this end.
An active committee of the Pittsburgh Associa-
tion, headed by W. C. Dierks, of the C. C. Mellor
Co., as chairman, sent out a questionnaire to music
merchants throughout Pennsylvania and received
favorable responses from 250 dealers, who have sig-
nified their willingness to join hands in the forma-
tion of a state association. This information is con-
tained in a report from C. C. Latus, executive secre-
tary of the Pittsburgh association, to C. L. Dennis,
secretary of the National Association of Music Mer-
chants. M. V. DeForrest of Sharon, Pa., who is
vice-president of the national association, was a vis-
itor at the national headquarters in New York last
week, and on his way home to Sharon conferred
with President W. C. Hamilton and Secretary Latus
of the Pittsburgh association. As a result, it was
arranged to hold the next meeting of the Pittsburgh
association at Sharon, on November 18, during the
week of the Music Festival, to be held in that city.
At this meeting the Pittsburgh committee on the
state association will submit a report of the returns
from its questionnaire and determine upon calling a
siate convention. Replies have been received favor-
ing 1 Pittsburgh, Philadelphia or Harrisburg as the
prospective meeting place. Committees will be ap-
pointed at Sharon to carry out the plans for a state
convention. The Pittsburgh committee is made up
of W. C. Dierks, chairman; E. C. Hays, E. B.
Heyser, C. L. Dawson and W. C. Hamilton, ex
officio. President Hamilton of the Pittsburgh asso-
ciation wrote to Mr. DeForrest prior to their con-
ference as follows:
"Our meeting last Monday night was a success,
although unfortunately I was called to Washington
and was unable to be present. We had an attend-
ance of 140, and enjoyed addresses from three mem-
bers of the faculty of the Psychological Department
of Carnegie Technical School, dealing particularly
with the matter of salesmanship.
"Some time later in the winter we shall probably
have another of these gatherings of the sales person-
nel of all the various houses, and it may be possible
to inject some personal trade interest that will bring
the various sales forces closer together on a com-
mon ground of understanding."
DAYTON, OHIO, TUNERS
FORM NEW ASSOCIATION
National Secretary W. F. McClellan Aids in Forma-
tion of Branch in Ohio City.
The Dayton, Ohio, piano tuners held a meeting at
the Hotel Gibbons, November 2, formed a temporary
organization of a branch of the National Association
of Piano Tuners, Inc., and elected the following offi-
cers: Chairman, Chas. E. Forsythe; vice-chairman,
Wm. J. Krebs; secretary and treasurer, F. J. Allsup.
The new branch is the latest result of the active
propaganda of the national association of which
W. F. McClellan is secretary and treasurer. Mr.
McClellan's work as an organizer has added con-
siderably to the numerical strength of the tuners'
national organization.
BIO PLAYER INDUSTRY WILL
BE GREATLY INCREASED
Stock of H. C. Bay Company to Be More Than
Trebled for Larger Productiveness.
When H. C. Bay established the industry that
bears his name, and of which he is the head, he
probably had no idea that it would develop so
rapidly as to call for greatly increased facilities of
productiveness within a few years from its start.
At a recent meeting of the stockholders, in the
Chicago offices, there were for discussion and action
plans to increase the capital stock of that go-ahead
industry for purposes of still further extending the
fast-growing business.
The present capitalization is $200,000 and the plan
is to authorize a capitalization of $1,000,000. The
committee was authorized to work in conjunction
with the others of the company in adoption of plans
for the expansion of the company and to co-
operate in plans to that end.
The factory at Bluffton, Ind., is running full-
Clever Young Salesman Victor in Exciting Tourna-
ment in the Retail Piano Field.
Two Ampico sales made
R a y m o n d Hodge high
man in sales for the
month of October in the
Baltimore and Washing-
ton stores of K n a b e
Warerooms, Inc., of which
J. H. Williams is presi-
dent.
Never was the fight so
hard for leadership on
sales in the stores of the
Knabe Warerooms, Inc.,
as it was during the
month of October.
Six
salesmen in the two stores
were running neck and
neck until the last day,
RAYMOND HODGE.
when Raymond Hodge put
Jover two nice Ampico deals that he had "up his
sleeve," which made him winner by a large ma-
jority.
In employing new men to train as salesmen, Knabe
Warerooms, Inc., has made it a rule to take men
who have had absolutely no selling experience what-
ever. In the case of Raymond Hodge, he was a pay-
master with the Fred T. Ley Construction Co., home
offices at Springfield, Mass., for seven years, with
the exception of two years that he was in the navy
chief petty officer.
Raymond Hodge was born in Springfield, Mass.,
is 28 years old and his spare time has been devoted
to athletic sports of some kind. He is very well
known in Springfield, and is one of the best basket
ball players in that section of the country.
Mr. Hodge's success is more phenomenal because
of his slight experience in the piano business, but
he made up his mind he would learn and learn it
quick. There is no piano trade paper published that
he does not devour from start to finish and al-
though he has had a very short experience, there is
hardly a question you can ask him about pianos,
playerpianos and reproducing pianos that he cannot
answer, because he studies the business end of it.
During the month of September, Raymond Hodge
missed first prize by only $200. This did not dis-
courage him, however, for in October he finished at
the top with a very large majority.
FOUR TIMES ACROSS CONTINENT.
Col. W. B. Brinkerhoff, of the M. Schulz Com-
pany, returned on Saturday last from the Pacific
Coast. This trip completed his second run to the
Pacific Coast for the house this year. The Colonel
has also been at the Atlantic Coast twice this year
for the M. Schulz Company, and he has called twice
at all the leading dealers' places of business in the
United States. Furthermore, his employers declare
he has done very well in taking good orders in each
of his trips. When it is considered that Col. Brink-
erhoff is upwards of 70 years old, the younger trav-
elers should take off their hats to him when they
meet him. Some of his orders were big ones, too.
LEM KLINE GOES WEST.
On a month's tour westward, after more busi-
ness, Lem Kline, president of the Rex Piano Co.,
left Chicago early this week. He will visit the
prominent cities as far west as Salt Lake City and
further northwest, and without doubt will return
with orders enough to keep the Rex Piano Co.'s
factory busy well into the new year. It is expected
that the Chicago factory of the Rex Piano Co., on
Larrabee street, will be running full handed within
a week more. And it will be one of the most pro-
ductive piano industries in the West.
FAREWELL DINNER IN LOS ANGELES,
Tuesday night of this week Geo. P. Bent gave
the last of his dinners to friends before his departure
for a trip around the world. The event took place
at the Jonathan Club in Los Angeles, Cal., and
between forty and fifty were in attendance. The
affair was enjoyed as are all such events in which
Mr. Bent's friends participate. The host will sail
from Seattle, Wash., on the 19th of this month and,
as elsewhere noted, Presto has been promised a
series of letters of observation from Mr. Bent from
prominent points to be visited.
The Weaver Piano Company, Inc., York, Pa., is
celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of its founding
by J. C. Weaver, by assisting dealers handling its
product in a generous and effective way. Convincing
facts attractively set forth in the Saturday Evening
Post for September 1 were a foretaste of the array
prepared for issues to follow. The schedule of Sat-
urday Evening Post pages, which were prepared by
N. W. Ayer & Son, runs to September 1, 1921.
The whole thought back of the copy has been to
establish in the minds of the readers that the Weaver
Piano Company is entitled to the full confidence of
all. The idea of securing inquiries was entirely dis-
missed. N. W. Ayer & Son took the position that
since we were not selling by mail, and did not have
a "price proposition," we should depend upon im-
pressions from the advertising to help the men actu-
ally "doing the selling," explains the Weaver Piano
Co., Inc.
But the effect on the business of the dealers han-
dling the products of the York manufacturers was
unmistakable and pleasant. "Imagine our surprise
then, when inquiries began to come in from all over
the country. Many of these inquiries have resulted
in direct and profitable sales by dealers in whose
territories they were located," says the Weaver Piano
Co., Inc.
"The fact that these inquiries are coming in such
quantities shows that the advertising is reaching re-
sponsible and interested people. Only a small per-
centage of these will answer the advertisements.
The great bulk of them will wait for you to come and
present the facts to them. The circulation of the
papers containing these advertisements is so wide
you can never tell where you will find a favorably
inclined prospect. Therefore, our advice is to see
everybody in your territory and lay the Weaver prop-
osition before all of them. A gratifying number of
sales will undoubtedly result."
The Weaver Piano Co., Inc., while admitting
there arc more people today who cannot afford to
buy musical instruments than there were a year ago,
asks dealers to think back six or eight years. "There
are many more people able to buy now than then," is
the assurance. "It is only a matter of hunting them
out. They are scattered through every community.
The man who goes out enthusiastically and works
diligently among the prosperous folks in his terri-
tory and uses salesmanship as he did in the past
can get a good profitable volume of business.
"Let's enumerate some classes that are better off
today than six years ago: Railroad men in every
branch of the service, postal employes in nearly every
branch, school teachers in most localities, salaried
employes of the Federal, State, County and other
local governments, coal miners, salaried employes
in factories, stores and offices, people living on in-
comes from investments and now receiving 6 to 8
per cent or over instead of 3 to 5 per cent as for-
merly. These are some who are good prospects
today. Your territory no doubt has others that will
occur to you if you consider the matter carefully.
"Plan and carry out an intensive campaign to reach
everyone in your territory that can pay for a piano."
A VIEW IN FRISCO.
In the October 22nd number of "San Francisco
Business" on page 7 is a most interesting picture
of Union Square, in the Golden Gate City, at which
time Harold Locklear, the dare-devil flier, was en-
circling the Dewey monument. The Byron Mauzy
Music Building is seen directly behind the figure on
the statue. During the anticipated visit of Locklear
the Mauzy house played the Magnavox from its
fourth story window and entertained the crowds
gathered in the Square. It is significant to recall
that the entire mass of buildings shown in the pic-
ture was destroyed in the fire of 1906, and there was
not one brick left upon another in this section. Now
it is an imposing collection of great business blocks.
WALTHAM SECRETARY RESIGNS.
Ralph B. Waite has resigned from the Waltham
Piano Co., of Milwaukee, and will remove to Kan-
sas City, Mo., where he will be interested in the
oil business. Mr. Waite has occupied the position
of secretary of the Waltham Piano Co., in which
capacity he has been highly efficient. In his going
the Messrs. Netzow, of the Milwaukee industry,
lose a valuable aid. Mr. Waite is well known in
the piano trade, having been associated with prom-
inent Chicago houses before going to Milwaukee.
He began his career in connection with affairs musical
in the offices of Presto, which paper now takes occa-
sion to wish him the best of success in his new
association.
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