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SXO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
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partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, a t the Post Office, Chicago, Illinois,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
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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, DECEMBER 25, 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.
IS "WURLITZER" WIZARDRY?
In this issue Presto steps a little aside from its rule of strict
reciprocity to give place to a remarkable and suggestive showing of
the house of the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, of Cincinnati, and many
other large cities, including New York and Chicago. When the house,
of Wurlitzer was already old this paper was young. And it is possible
that very few in the trade today, and certainly none engaged in w T hat
is fondly known as "trade journalism," has a so-far-back knowledge
of the Cincinnati house, and its traditions, as the writer of this article.
When the late Mr. Rudolph Wurlitzer was still active in the man-
agement of his house, the writer was working hard within a block of
the music house. At that time the Wurlitzers were handling the
Knabe pianos, just as they are today. They were also advertising the
Henry F. Miller piano and the Geo. Woods & Co. organs. And they
were building securely the foundations, even the superstructure, of
the present great house.
In those days the present heads of the house, sons of one of the
founders were boys in school. They started in to help their elders at
a comparatively early age and they were industrious—rare condition
in such cases, where papa has already created a fortune and things
look rosy and fairly easy for the youngsters. But the younger Wur-
litzers excelled their father in breadth of vision and the rare instinct
for organization. They seemed to recognize no limitations to their
ambitions and their confidence in the music business was unbounded.
To them it has, from the first, been a large field unworked.
They proposed to develop it. They have done so with such suc-
cess that the regulation cry of "luck" has been uttered by less pro-
gressive rivals. To some in the business, who do not understand the
underlying causes of Wurlitzer success, it has almost seemed like a
demonstration of wizardry, for the Alladin lamp has shed the glow of
a new success every time the Wurlitzers have rubbed it.
But there is no wizardry about it. The prosperity which has at-
tended the successive openings of the' steadily lengthening chain of
Wurlitzer houses has been based upon fixed plans well carried out,
December 25. 1920.
and a sort of enterprise which, while having the outward aspect of
daring, has been nothing but carefully weighed and substantially sus-
tained conservatism. There has been little left to chance, and the
Wurlitzers have never made a move until they felt sure that they
possessed assistants competent as themselves to take charge of each
plant, store or operation as soon as it should be launched. It is only
the wizardry of good judgment, accurate measurement of men, and
the almost absolute certainty that the new move, whatever it may
have been, presented small margin of risk or uncertainty.
And the Wurlitzer house has been built by the Wurlitzers. It is
not infrequent that some wise members of the trade whispers that
credit for the phenomenal growth of the Cincinnati house is due to
some other of the forceful members of the Wurlitzer staff. "That
man Clancey," they will say, "has the brains of the organization."
Or "that man Uhl; he's the silent adviser"; or some other of a half-
hundred strong men and managers. But who believes it has little
knowledge of the Wurlitzers and their way of doing things. The gen-
tlemen named, as having credit in the great house, deserve it, but only
as lieutenants loyal to their ranking officers.
The house of Wurlitzer has grown to be a great one, and it is one
that proves the bigness of the music business. Nor is this an ad-
vertisement of the Wurlitzer house. On the contrary, this paper has
never received a dollar's worth of business from the Cincinnati con-
cern, or its branches, on advertising account. It is only that the
Wurlitzer wizardry, if you like that term, is setting a new mark on
the record of the American music trade. Whether we like the house
or not, the evidence seems to show that the music loving public likes
it and is buying its productions. And that is reason enough for pre-
senting the remarkable story of the recent entertainmnt in Cincin-
nati, in which the Wurlitzer workers participated and which event
has prompted this article.
AT THE YEAR'S END
In some respects it has been a remarkable year. It came in
clamoring for more pianos and it goes out with a demand for more
buyers. It has been a surprisingly clean year in the matter of in-
dustrial failures in the musical instrument line. And it has been so
filled with doubt and uncertainty that the commercial nervous sys-
tem has experienced no little strain. But, as compared with some
other departments of business, the making and selling of things mus-
ical has more than "held its own." Therefore congratulations and a
bright look ahead—at least fairly bright.
The question of prices has been stirring the still waters of trade
during the closing months of the year. It has even been a source of
dispute within the ranks of the industry. While some manufacturers
have seemed willing to stake their industrial lives upon the opinion
that prices would not, should not and could not, come down, others
have declared to the contrary and, in a few instances, proved the
correctness of their forecast by putting them down. But the year
will, nevertheless, go out with no general letting- down of prices so
far as concerns the rank and file of instruments. Certainly there has
been no intimation of anything like a return to pre-war figures nor
old-time methods of doing the wholesale business.
It is the most reasonable thing to expect piano prices to follow
the trend of the other and commoner things in everyday business.
When rents drop appreciably, and clothing comes down, and food
stuffs decline, the wage scale will follow as a natural consequence.
And then pianos will be produced for less and, of course, when that
condition exists the retailers will know it, and they will not be slow
in passing the good news along to the public. But if anyone expects
that pianos will ever again return to the prices to which they had
fallen in 1914, that expectant person may live a century without
realizing his anticipation. The time will, probably, never come when
such a scandal as six-for-five-hundred will even be whispered in this
department of trade. It was the industrial doad-line in piano history
and, in attempting to cross it, some piano industries died suddenly.
In the judgment of many who are familiar with the piano trade,
the absolute necessity of price-advance was a blessing in disguise. It
would have been impossible to foretell the fate of the business had
nothing happened to put a stop to the heardlong stampede of bad
practices in the retail trade and the ingrowing irresponsibilities by
which the manufacturing departments had become infected. As one
prominent manufacturer expressed it. "the war has returned the
piano to something like the place of dignity to which it belongs." No
one wants it to again slip from that place, and the promise is that it
will not.
The year has produced more instruments tha.n any other twelve-
month since 1909. That is giving a giant credit to troubled and doubt-
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