Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1922 1892

PRESTO
MARCELLUS ROPER CO'S.
OPENING IN WORCESTER
Over Three Thousand of City's Most Representative
People Admire New Warerooms.
The new store of the Marcellus Roper Co., recently
opened in Worcester, Mass., is aptly described, as
"four stories of everything known in music." In the
architectural designing, in locating the various depart-
ments, in decorating and furnishing, in the applica-
tion of every modern method in doing business, rare
judgment and taste have been used by the company.
The opening, October 14th, was attended by about
9,000 of Worcester's representative people, who ad-
mired what had been accomplished to make one of
the most successful and magnificent music houses in
the country. Mr. Roper has featured the Knabe and
Vose for 26 years in.addition to the Lester, Ludwig
and the American Piano Co.'s lines. Band instru-
ments, sheet music and musical merchandise are also
handled.
GODOWSKY PLAYS KNABE
IN SOUTH AMERICA
Brilliant Tour of Famous Artist with Great Piano
Described by Buenos Aires Press.
The appearance of Leopold Godowsky, the famous
Russian pianist and composer, with the Knabe piano,
in the Argentine is being hailed by public and critics
alike with the highest admiration, and both the artist
and his instrument are the subjects of considerable
praise and appreciation. In a letter to Mr. Berthold
Neuer, artist manager of the American Piano Com-
pany, New York, Mr. Godowsky speaks interestingly
of the cordial attitude of Spanish-Americans towards
artists from the northern continent.
The Argen-
tinian, he says, is invariably a musician and enthu-
siast. The reviews of the succeeding Godowsky re-
citals fully prove the diagnosis right. All speak of
large and enthusiastic audiences, and all heap glow-
ing admiration on the pianist.
The Buenos Aires El Diario Espano, for example,
said: "The celebrated pianist, Leopold Godowsky,
achieved an artistic success yesterday afternoon in
El Nuevo Theater during the fine interpretation
which he gave the various works included in the
eclectic program."
La Argentina of Buenos Aires printed the follow-
ing: "Yesterday afternoon the great pianist, Leopold
Godowsky, presented himself once more before our
public in El Neuvo Theater, confirming all that we
said in advance, based upon his first concert."
In La Republica, Buenos Aires, of July 5th, was
the following: • "Before a well filled hall, the re-
nowned Polish pianist, Leopold Godowsky, in his
second recital realized the same success as he ob-
tained on his first presentation, and confirmed in a
most complete way his high musical comprehension."
Reviewing the entire series of concerts which Mr.
Godowsky, completed the series of his concerts yes-
terday in El Nuevo Theater with a program dedi-
cated especially to Chopin. The great Polish com-
poser could not have found a clearer or more perfect
interpreter than the great Russian pianist."
The
same important periodical, only a week earlier, had
spoken of Godowsky's technical skill as "bordering
on the prodigious," and had told that he "received a
prolonged ovation in all parts of the program."
RALPH WAITE'S LOCATION.
The R. B. Waite Company has established its
headquarters at 334 West Sixty-third street, Chi-
cago, in the same building where George B. Dow,
the well-known Englewood piano dealer, has been
located for many years. A full line of sample in-
struments of the Waite Company will be kept there.
Ralph B. Waite, whose headquarters have been at
Elgin, 111., for the past year or so, will now be at
the Chicago office much of the time and will give
special attention to developing his growing business
with dealers.
CHANGE IN MERIDEN, CONN.
James F. Gill, who has conducted a music store in
Meriden, Conn., for the last forty years, has sold his
business to Miss Laura L. Farrell of New Britain,
Conn., and retired. Mr. Gill's experiences in the
musical affairs of the city really extend back fifty
years. He had become widely known and the store
at 56 West Main street had come to be considered a
congenial meeting place for musicians, lay and pro-
fessional. His successor, Miss Farrell, is competent
to continue the business along the old successful lines.
PROMINENT DEALER OF PEORIA.
Alonzo Wookey, of Peoria, 111., one of the foremost
piano merchants of the,Middle West, was in Chicago
one day last week. Mr. Wookey bears the enviable
reputation of having, for many years, conducted a
strictly one-price establishment, where only good in-
struments have been sold. He is a piano man who
has faith in the efficacy of principle to business. And
that he has Jiiade that attitude successful disproves
the pessimistic assertions of a few not so successful.
N. Y. TRIBUNE FAVORS MUSIC.
The omission of music from the "Model Home' 1
Exhibit of the New York Tribune during "Better
Homes" demonstration week was due to physical
limitations, rather than failure to recognize the impor-
tance of this factor in American home life. The
managing editor, Julain S. Mason, has written to this
effect in answer to the protest of the Music Industries
Chamber of Commerce.
LEASE NEW LOCATION.
The Samuels-Bittel Music Co., of Owensboro, Ky.,
has leased a new three-story and basement building in
the heart of Owenboro's business section. The firm,
now at 105 West 3rd street, expects to be in the new
location shortly, probably within the next week. The
Owensboro Enquirer on October 22 published an en-
tire section devoted to the Samuels-Bittel Company's
new location.
SWAN PIANOS
SWAN ORGANS
are of the highest grade
t h a t c a n be obtained
through over 50 years of
p r a c t i c a l experience in
piano and organ building.
Illustrations a n d c a t a -
logues of various styles
will be furnished p i a n o
merchants on application,
The tremendous superi-
ority of the 8WAM Reed
Organs over all others lies
in the absolute mechanism
and scientific perfection it
the bellows action and stop
action, making it the best
value in modern o r g a n
building,
S. N. SWAN & SONS,
V*\
fia
f*\
October 28, 1922.
FREEPORT. ILL
"JONES THE PIANO MAN"
OPENS IN SIOUX CITY, IA
Old Firm Burned Out a Year Ago Reopens in Nev
Quarters.
The L. H. Jones Piano Co., Sioux City, la., ha
opened up new warerooms at 317 Fourth street, an<
in a manner that continues the character of the housi
for up-to-date methods of doing business. This old
established house has been one of the leaders in th>
piano and talking machine business for many years
L. H. Jones having established the business in the 90s
The store of the L. H. Jones Piano Co. at Fourtl
and Jackson streets was destroyed in the fire whicl
consumed a quarter block on the evening of Decem
ber 24, 1921. Since that time Harrod M. Jones na
maintained an office in the United Bank building. Hi
will sell the same makes of pianos carried by hin
before the fire, including the Vose & Sons, Story &
Clark and other pianos. He will also carry two line
of talking machines.
BOLD ROBBER STOLE RING
FROM MUSIC CLERK'S FINGEF
Daughter of Chicago Music Dealer Lost Her En
gagement Diamond to Affable Stranger.
"I'd like to see some good sheet music for th<
piano," he remarked with the air of a connoisseur, a
he dropped into the Crystal Palace Music Store, 264'.
West North avenue, Chicago. "Something reall]
good," he added. "Tschaikowsky, or possibly sotm
little thing in Debussy's."
Miss Norma Kay, daughter of William Kay, thi
proprietor, who was engaged in tending shop whili
her father was at lunch, felt a handkerchief heavib
saturated with chloroform being pressed to her face
There was a tug at two diamond rings on her hand
and the stranger made a hasty exit from the musii
store and escaped capture.
Miss Kay said that one of the sparklers was he:
engagement ring, valued at $1,600, and the other on<
was worth $200. "I'd rather he'd taken the wholi
stock of sheet music," she sobbed.
ORGANIZING THE TUNERS.
W. F. McClellan, secretary of the National Asso
ciation of Piano Tuners, is preparing for a tour o
several states to organize local divisions of the piam
tuners' association. This tour will probably las'
until the first of next year, it is expected. He wil
complete the organization of South Dakota first, anc
then go direct to Texas to spend some time.
TRIP FOR E, A. KIESELHORST.
E. A. Kieselhorst, president of the Keiselhorsi
Piano Co., St. Louis, Mo., and Mrs. Kieselhorst wil
leave for a trip to Panama, next month. They wil'
sail from New Orleans November 11 with the part>
in the Chamber of Commerce Good Will Tour.
The Greatness of a Piano should be Measured
by its Scale, not by the name on the Fallboard.
The scales from which we build
are designed and originated by C. C. Chickering wh°
commands a fund of piano tradition and experience reach-
ing back into the very beginnings of the piano industry.
CHICKERING BROTHERS
Office and Factory:
South Park Avenue and 23rd Street
WESER BROS., Inc.
WRITE FOR CATALOGUE AND DETAILS
OF TERRITORY AVAILABLE
520 to 528 W. 43rd St., New York
Manufacturers Pianos—Player-Pianos
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/
Chicago
PRESTO
October 28, 1922.
Christman
"The
First
Touch
Tells''
(Reg. U. S. Pal. Off.)
Why Christman Pianos Excel
Others in Selling Power and
Win Trade that others can
not have. Proof may be had
by an examination of the
wonderful
Studio Grand
Only 5 feet Long
Different in Tone, in Touch,
in Appearance, and in all that
makes a piano beautiful.
And the Christman
REPRODUCING GRAND
stands alone in its class,
which is the highest.
QULBRANSEN FACTORY
DOUBLES ITS OUTPUT
Recent Additions and Equipment Required
by Increasing Demand, Which Is Larger
Than Ever Before in Company's History.
By November 1st, the output of the Gulbransen-
Dickinson Company's factory, Chicago, will be
increased to exactly double the capacity of one year
ago, it is announced.
Recent improvements in the dry kilns, plating de-
partment, and machine shops, which have been
referred to in Presto, are responsible for this increase
in producing capacity. The capacity now, double
that of last year's, corresponds to five times the out-
put in 1916, figures of the factory show.
The new improved machine shop, which is equipped
with modern automatic machinery, is connected with
the main part of the factory by a track across Sawyer
avenue, facilitating the work to a large degree. The
dry kilns have only recently been completed, the first
lumber now being stored in them.
The improvements in the plating department will be
completed within a few days, at any rate before No-
vember 1st, the date set by the factory for the
doubling of its output. Minor improvements have
been going on in other parts of the factory, to install
more equipment or to replace old fixtures.
Shipments have been far behind the orders, so
that in spite of the increased producing capacity, the
factory is being run overtime to catch up with the
demand. All the new men that can be secured are
being put to work in the factory, in the effort to
utilize every possibility for faster production.
TALKING FILMS WILL
BE HEARD AND SEEN
Stages Are Padded with Felt and Leather-Lunged
Directors Use Only Signs.
Members of the retail trade and their customers
will be interested to know that inventors, scientists
and motion picture directors are engaged in a race
to be first before the public with a technically per-
fect talking film. Three, and possibly four, types of
speaking movies will be tried out on the New York
public in the next few months.
The most, serious competition will be probably
between the General Electric Company, which is re-
ported to be perfecting its talking film in a studio
on Long Island, and Dr. Lee de Forest, who is
working with motion picture actors and directors at
a studio near this city.
The General Electric talking film and the Lee de
Forest invention both consist of films in which the
voice and other sounds are photographed at the edge
of the motion picture film itself. The photographed
sound wav.es are reproduced in each case with the
aid of the photographic cell. Those who have heard
the Lee de Forest phono film and the General Elec-
tric talking film say they have both reached a high
degree of perfection and reproduce the human voice,
music and all kinds of sounds with great fidelity.
and qn the longest terms. It will pay every manu-
facturer, merchant and salesman to study piano ad-
vertising during this contest. It will enable them
to reach conclusions which will be very enlightening
and serve to place the entire industry eventually on
a higher plane, from the standpoint of advertising
and selling."
STARR FEATURED IN
MICHIGAN BRANCH STORE
Success with the Instrument Cited by Elbel Bros.
Open'ng New Store.
Elbel Bros., South Bend, Ind., have opened a
branch store in Niles, Mich. The new store is at
108 North Front street, in the most desirable part
of the 'lively Michigan city. That the store is per-
manent is told in a statement in the local newspapers:
"This store is a direct branch of the well-known
Elbel Bros, of South Bend—the largest and most
reliable piano house in this section."
In referring to the store, Mr. Elbel said: "We
come into Niles, not as strangers, but with the con-
fidence of your people. We have sold hundreds of
Starr piancs in Niles homes during our 36 years of
business."
NOVEMBER OFFERINGS IN
NEW AMPICO RECORDINGS
Classical Numbers, Songs With Words and Popu-
lar Music, Well Represented.
Eight splendid selections of classical music are
given first place in the advance list of Ampico Record-
ings for November. They are as follows, name of re-
cording artist printed last: Arabesque No. 1 E Major
(Debussy) Ornstein; Capriccio Op. 76, No. 1, F
Sharp Minor (Brahms) van den Berg; Gavotte and
Air (van Katwyk), van Katwyk; A Japanese Sun-
set (Deppen) Delcamp; Les Preludes part 2 (Liszt),
Pelletier and Loesser, conducted by Artur Bodan-
zky; Dream of Youth (Reve de Jeunesse) (Winter-
r.itz), Kreisler; Scherzino Op. 18, No. 2 (Moszkow-
ski), Braun; Serenata Op. 6 (Baumann), MacNabb.
Favorite songs with words in the November list
are as follows: Carissima G (Penn), Kmita; I'll
Forget You Ab (Ball), Fairchild.
New popular music with words in Ampico rolls
for November are: Chicago (That Toddling Town)
Fox Trot F (Fisher), The Original Piano Trio; Hot
Lips, Fox Trot Ab (Busse, Lange and DavisJ, Clair
assisted by Fairchild; Tomorrow (I'll Be in My Dixie
Home Again), Fox Trot Db (Turk and Robinson),
Fairchild; I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise, "George
White's Scandals" Fox Trot Db (Gershwin), Original
Piano Trio; Ji-Ji-Boo, Fox Trot Ab (White and
Meyer), Original Piano Trio; Blue, Fox Trot Bb
(Handman), Fairchild and Dilworth; While the Years
Roll By, Waltz G (Austin), Dilworth and Clair;
You Remind Me of My Mother, "Little Nellie Kelly,"
Fox Trot, Db (Cohan), Lane; Away Down South,
Fox Trot Ab (Akst), Clair; When the Leaves Come
Tumbling Down, Fox Trot Eb (Howard), Clair.
FINE DE LUXE ROLLS.
Don't neglect to investi-
gate what the Christman
can do for you.
"The
First
Touch
Tells"
(Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.)
Why the live Dealer takes
the Christman Line.
Write to-day for
particulars.
Christman Piano Co.
597 E. 137th Street
New York
RETAIL ADVERTISING
CONTEST DRAWS ATTENTION
Charles E. Byrne, One of the Judges, Analyzes the
Possibilities of Event.
The attention attracted by the Retail Advertising
Contest for members of the National Association of
Music Merchants recently announced by the Music
Industries Chamber of Commerce, is not confined
to the music trade or the professional advertising
field. A news story in the Dallas (Tex.) Journal of
October 13, nearly a column in length, gives full de-
tails of the contest. Charles E. Byrne, secretary-
treasurer of the Steger & Sons Piano Mfg. Co.,
Chicago, member of the Association of National Ad-
vertisers, who has accepted a position as judge of the
contest, analyzes the possibilities of the advertising
contest in a communication on the subject.
"Many members of the trade have not considered
the great significance of this competition. It will point
the way to better advertising and is certain to prove
that constructive publicity methods are the best;
from a money-making standpoint. Such i_ contest
is needed at present. The trade is flooded with de-
structive advertisements, which are responsible for
the lack of confidence in the integrity of the piano-
business on the part of the public," said Mr. Byrne.
"Some manufacturers have allowed their adver-
tising to deteriorate until it has become so extrava-
gantly cheap, in representing that new pianos and
playerpianos are practically given, away, it is no
wonder the sales produced are at the lowest prices
Mrs. Albert Smith, of Dallas, Tex., a soprano of
more than local fame and a teacher of high standing,
has recorded her interpretation of three delightful
song accompaniment rolls for the De Luxe Roll Cor-
poration, New York. In recording these three rolls,
Mrs. Smith was accompanied by Miss Olive Robert-
son, who has rendered an authoritative and sym-
' pathetic interpretation of the songs. Other admirable
recordings for the De Luxe Roll Corporation were by
Mrs. Robert H. Morton, Dallas, Tex., a lyric
soprano, who recorded three songs with Miss Olive
Robertson at the piano.
COMPARISON TEST IN PITTSBURGH;
The annual autumn musical given yearly by Boggs
& Buhl, of Pittsburgh, Pa., this year eclipsed all pre-
vious events of the same character. This progressive
department store of Pittsburgh, Pa., has for years
past conducted this autumn recital, and it has^ gradu-
ally become an event that many of the patrons of the
store look forward to with intense pleasure and an-
ticipation. In addition to an excellent array of both
vocal and instrumental artists'this year, the Welte-
Mignon (Licensee) Reproducing piano was presented
in an excellent comparison test.
CALLED AT GULBRANSEN'S.
R. A. McKee, of the McKee Music Company,
Charleston, W. Va., was one of the noteworthy call-
ers at the Gulbransen-Dickinson Co. factory last
week. Fred B. Watson, who operates a music store
under his own name at Mt. Vernon, 111., was another
of the dealers in the city for a few days.
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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