Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American Pianos
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
PRESTO
E*abn.h.d /«M? THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Trade Lists
Three Uniform Book-
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Music
Industries.
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CHICAGO, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1922
VETERAN SALESMAN TIES
TO W. P. HAINES & CO.
I. N. Rice Will Henceforth Devote His Ener-
gies to Adding to the Friends and Repre-
sentatives of New York Industry.
It's a good combination. It fixes permanently one
of the most popular and experienced piano salesmen
with one of the live, ambitious and successful of the
New York piano industries. And this by way of in-
troducing the fact that I. N. Rice has become the
wholesale Pacific Coast representative of the W. P.
Haines & Co., manufacturers of the W. P. Ilaines,
the instruments of W. P. Haines & Co. is based upon
a close knowledge of their makers, as well as upon
his own understanding of pianos and their possi-
bilities to the dealers.
Mr. Rice was never so fired with ambition as now.
He believes that his line justifies his confidence in
the future. "He feels that he is better prepared to
meet his friends in the trade and to offer them what
thy want, and he will put in the better part of his
time in the Far West, with headquarters in San
Francisco. His address until December 15th will be
care Platt Music Co., Los Angeles, and thereafter,
during the winter, care of Clark Wis-e & Co., San
Francisco. He will be glad to hear from his friends
everywhere, at either address, and, as ever, he adds,
he "will be ready to serve them in any piano way
possible."
EVIDENCE OF SUCCESS OF
HENRY Q. JOHNSON CO.
Industry at Bellevue, Iowa, Is Producing and Ship-
ping Twenty Pianos Every Day.
An instance of remarkable progress in piano man-
ufacture is seen in the productiveness of the Henry
G. Johnson Piano Mfg. Co., of Bellevue, Iowa. It is
one of the most pronounced evidences of success in
the piano industry in years.
At the present time the industry at Bellevue is
making and shipping an average of tw r enty instru-
ments every day, and on the first of December the
factory will be on a basis of 25 every day. Consider-
ing the comparatively short time in which the Henry
G. Johnson Piano Mfg. Co. has been in active opera-
tion, it is plain that the Bellevue industry is setting
the pace for many older manufacturers. And the
satisfaction reported by dealers who receive their
supplies from the Bellevue industry is all the evi-
dence needed to insure the continued prosperity of
the Johnson players. It affords a trade paper item of
more than ordinary interest, and one that Presto is
glad to place on record at this time.
I. N". RICE.
Bradbury, and Webster instruments. Of course the
line includes everything in the way of fine pianos—
the "'straight/' the playerpiano, the Grand, and the
Reproducing Grands. And it's a good line—one of
the best from every standpoint and interpretation of
the word.
I. N. Rice may rightly claim to be the veteran of
the piano travelers. He has run the entire gamut of
the piano business, from conducting a store in a
second-class city to operating a large factory in a
great city, and finally to making his life work that of
selling at wholesale, for other manufacturers, to the
trade. Ke knows more piano dealers than any other
man alive. He is personally liked by more piano
dealers than any others, so far as the records go at
this writing. There may be others, who dispute this
statement, and perhaps successfully, but, in any event,
I. N. Rice, has so many dealer-friends that it would
require a trade directory to check them all up.
And now that Mr. Rice has decided to stick to the
piano business—to "die in the harness," as he ex-
presses it—it is interesting to the trade to know that
lie has "tied up" with W. P. Haines & Co., of New
York, a live house, from whose factories come the
W. P. Haines & Co., the Bradbury, and the Webster
instruments. Mr. Rice realizes that those instru-
ments have great prestige, and to that prestige he
adds his own influence in the determination to let the
trade of the west have its share in the growing ad-
vance of the New York industry and the selling
opportunities of the instruments there produced.
Added to his faith and his absolute knowledge of
the products of W. P. Haines & Co. is the long
acquaintance and friendly association which he has
had with the Haines family, through many years.
He was a personal friend of the late Thos. Floyd-
Jones, son of Napoleon J. Haines, and he has the
greatest faith in the present generation, of which T.
Linton Floyd-Jones, president of W. P. Haines &
Co., is the representative.
He was personally at-
tached also to W. P. Haines, who formed the present
company twenty years ago. So that Mr. Rice's faith in
DALY MUSIC CO. BUILDING.
The new building of the Daly Music Co., of Wis-
consin Rapids, Wis., is approaching completion. It
will be the future home of the music company which,
for more than forty years has represented The Cable
Co 's line of pianos. The formal opening of the new
Daly building will take place early in December. In
a recent letter, P'rancis Daly writes: "We have
bought pianos of George Slawson since 1886 and feel
that he is as much responsible for the Daly Music
Co. as any one else connected with it." The Wis-
consin Rapids house is one of the most successful
in the Badger State.
SPOKE TO EMPLOYERS.
Alfred L. Smith, of New York, head of the National
Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, was in
Chicago Wednesday afternoon to address a meeting
of the employers of wood workers in Chicago, at the
Drake Hotel. Mr. Smith was also the guest of honor
at the meeting of the Chicago Piano and Organ As-
sociation, at which the election of officers was held.
Mr. Smith stated that movements were under way
for legislation to affect the immigration of skilled
wood workers from northern Europe, but that noth-
ing definite could be announced.
PROBLEM OF TONE PRODUCTION.
The third annual session of the Forest Products
Division of the American Society of Mechanical En-
gineers will be held at the Engineers' Building, 29
West 39th Street, New York City, on Thursday, De-
cember 7th, at 2:30 p. m. A paper of special interest
to the music industry will be presented by William
Braid White on the subject of "Tone Production
As An Engineering Problem."
HERE FOR OPERA SEASON.
W. B. Murray, of New York, arrived this week to
stay in Chicago for the season of the civic opera.
Mr. Murray is acting as representative of the Bald-
win Piano Company, of Chicago.
JESSE FRENCH & SON
PIANOS FOR SCHOOLS
Boards of Education in Progressive Alabama
County Unanimous in Selecting New
Castle, Ind., Products.
All the public schools of Montgomery County;, Ala-
bama, have been equipped with pianos made by the
Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New Castle, Ind.
The following are the favored ones: Cloverdale Con-
solidated School, Pine Level Junior High School,
Grady Elementary School, Pintlala Junior High
School, Catoma Junior High School, Chisholm
Junior High School, LaPiiie Elementary School, and
the Pike Road Consolidated School.
These pianos were selected by the various school
boards of the county schools after a very careful ex-
amination into their quality and merits.
The fact
that the Jesse French & Sons piano was the choice
of eight different school boards in as many different
parts of the county proves conclusively the wonder-
ful reputation of this piano as well as its outstanding
popularity.
Naturally the management of the Jesse French &
Sons Piano Company is elated over the selection of
its instruments over all others for continuous and
permanent use in the various schools in the county.
In a page advertisement in the Montgomery Journal
of recent date the proud facts are displayed.by the
Jesse French & Sons Piano Co.'s Montgomery branch
of which L. O. Parsons is the efficient manager. This
statement was made:
"Merely placing these instruments in the schools or
for that matter, in any home, is only the beginning of
service rendered our customers. We take an inter-
ested consideration after the purchase even greater
and more vital than the pre-sale interest.
Service
such as we render is hardly possible to obtain else-
where—looking toward the upkeep of the instrument
in and out of the city."
In the page advertisement printed in the Mont-
gomery newspaper fine half-tone pictures of the
schools are printed. They illustrate the truth of the
following eulogy of the. county schools:
No other county in the United States can boast of
as fine and complete system of rural schools as Mont-
gomery County. Leading educators from the North
who have visited Montgomery County also emphasize
the fact that Montgomery has provided the best rural
school facilities in the country. There are IS schools
in the county for the instruction of white children.
Five are junior high schools, which employ from five
to seven teachers each. There are also three senior
high schools, which employ from twelve to sixteen
teachers each. Assuming that the personnel of the
teaching force is satisfactory, it is safe to say that
the rural children of Montgomery County during the
present year will have equal educational opportunities
with the children of most cities and towns of America.
HALLET & DAVIS DISTRIBUTOR.
The new manager of the Direct Equipment Co.,
New Haven, Conn., is G. H. Appel, well known in
the music trade of New England. The house is
prominently known as a distributor of the pianos and
phonographs of the Hallet & Davis Piano Co., in
the state of Connecticut. Band instruments, musical
merchandise generally and rolls and records are han-
dled by the Direct Equipment Co., which has spa-
cious showrooms in the Metropolitan Building.
JACOB GIMBEL DIES.
Jacob Gimbel, of Gimbel Bros., New York, Phila-
delphia and Milwaukee, died in Atlantic City, N. J.,
last week at the age of seventy-three. He was the
oldest of the six brothers who control the big de-
partment stores each of which has a music goods
department.
HERE FROM DUBUQUE.
Ralph Ranier and his sister, Miss Ranier, of the
Ranier Music Company, of Dubuque, were among the
late visitors in Chicago last week. The Ranier com-
pany has recently taken the Dubuque agency for the
Lyon & Healy line of pianos and other instruments.
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