Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1922 1895

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.
n c.n<., ,t.w . i w
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.
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/
\
PRESTO
November 18, 1922.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1922.
rate of any compilation, by government experts, within our knowl-
edge. And it shows, most of all, that prices were maintained at a bet-
ter ratio in 1921 than before in many years. It proves, also, that there
must be a shortage of instruments in the stores throughout the coun-
try at this time. This is something that has been realized, and the
present-time activities of the manufacturers are justified and will be
rewarded.
A surprising disclosure of the comparative figures for 1919 and
1921, is that in the former year the number of playerpianos in excess
of straight pianos over 1921 was only 2,650, the number of reproduc-
ing pianos, given at 5.209, making a total excess of players over the
straight pianos of 7,059. The figures show, too, a remarkable devel-
opment of the most expensive type of instruments—the reproduc-
ing pianos. But the most significant item is that, whereas both
straight pianos and players show a falling off in numbers in 1921,
as compared with 1919, the grands increased a trifle—just 163 in-
struments, to be exact; Thus, with a drop of 32.5 per cent in straight
pianos in 1921, and of 35.4 per cent in players, the manufacture of
grands showed a slight growth in numbers.
If that means anything, it is, of course, that the grand piano is
to be reckoned with as a very large factor in the retail trade of
next year. And the fact that we now have several exclusive grand
industries, and the experiment of exclusive grand retail stores, is
equally significant.
Altogether the present year will make a much better showing
than the last, and the coming twelve months and beyond promises
to develop an activity not known since the great days before the war.
The pianos that are well promoted, and the dealers who recognise the
situation, and their opportunities, are in for a period of prosperity
in proportion to their activities.
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
PIANO PUBLICITY
IT IS NOT CUSTOMARY WITH THIS PAPER TO PUBLISH REGU-
LAR CORRESPONDENCE FROM ANY POINTS. WE, HOWEVER,
HAVE RESIDENT REPRESENTATIVES IN NEW YORK, BOSTON,
SAN FRANCISCO, PORTLAND, CINCINNATI, INDIANAPOLIS, MIL-
WAUKEE AND OTHER LEADING MUSIC TRADE CENTERS, WHO
KEEP THIS PAPER INFORMED OF TRADE EVENTS AS THEY HAP-
PEN. AND PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE REAL NEWS
OF THE TRADE FROM WHATEVER SOURCES ANYWHERE AND
MATTER FROM SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS, IF USED, WILL BE
PAID FOR AT SPACE RATES. USUALLY PIANO MERCHANTS OR
SALESMEN IN THE SMALLER CITIES, ARE THE BEST OCCA-
SIONAL CORRESPONDENTS, AND THEIR ASSISTANCE IS INVITED.
But for the enthusiasm of the retail dealers and their salesmen,
there would be comparatively few pianos sold at a profit. The piano
is an article the demand for which is very largely forced. It is, like
life insurance, one of the most useful of investments. But also like
life insurance, its need is not realized until possession overcomes
neglect, indifference or lack of understanding.
The piano is one of the most essential of all things in the home
of intelligence. That it is a part of the equipment of refinement is
a statement altogether superfluous. That point is obvious. And yet
the average head of the average family doesn't know that a piano is
wanted until his attention is drawn to the fact by some ambitious
piano dealer or his salesman.
Any active piano merchant will, we believe, indorse what has
been said. And, this being true, notwithstanding, the piano is one
of the most difficult things to advertise to advantage—we mean the
average piano. There are a few r pianos—a very few—whose stand-
ing with the public is such that their mere names suggest just what
the names stand for—music and beauty, and absolute excellence. But
the majority of pianos must be assiduously promoted, locally, by the
dealers and their salesmen. It is this that makes a loyal represen-
tative in any city of great value to the individual manufacturer.
The men who wear out their shoes, and often the seat of their
pants, in the work of impressing the absolute need of pianos by the
people—and of some particular pianos, especially—are the mission-
aries. They are the hard-working men who earn their wages by
doing a real good in their communities.
No printed page of fifty million circulation—if there could be
such a publication—could do the good for the average piano that a
thousand hard-working dealers and their salesmen can do—and often
do for individual makes of pianos. The style of competition which
holds good in the piano trade, can and does kill the best printed ad-
vertising" of "broadcast" kind that the most shrewd word-twister
can produce.
The earnest statement in opposition to the "best, in the world" of
the magazine advertisement, can divert the prospects from the ad-
vertised instrument to the least known and. perhaps, far less repre-
sentative instrument. For the piano is still, after all, an unknown
quantity to the citizens of the town. They buy because the dealer
advises them to buy. And they buy the piano the local dealer strongly
recommends. And in what terms the enthusiastic salesman "com-
mends" his piano is known to all manufacturers who watch their dis-
tributing departments.
If the public could be made to pause and consider that the Bolo
piano recommended by the local dealer as the "greatest on earth"
is not the only "best bet," the case might be different. But, in about
forty cases in every hundred, the retail piano buyer cannot even tell
The American Music Trade Weekly
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 United States possessions, 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 1 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.
Photographs of general trade interest are always welcome, and when used, If of
special concern, a charge will be made to cover cost of the engravings.
Rates for advertising in Presto Tear 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 Dastern and west-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Piano* and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimate!
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are ln-
rited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
ADVERTISING INFORMATION
Forms close promptly at noon every Thursday. News matter for
publication should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the same
day. Advertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, five p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
hand by Monday noon preceding publication day. Want advs. for cur-
rent week, to insure classification, must be at office of publication not
later than Wednesday noon.
THE PIANO CENSUS
Last week's Presto published the latest census figures in the
piano industry. And the tables must have been interesting to all in
the trade. They must, also, have aroused some curiosity as to accu-
racy of statement, contrasted with the understanding of experienced
piano men, concerning statistics in their own line of work.
It is not to be expected that the compilers of data pertaining to
special lines of industry can be wholly accurate. But the latest of-
ficial reports are much nearer correct than has been customary. In
the piano business there are merchants who, either by association or
design, pose as manufacturers, whereas they have never made a piano
or invested in anything short of the completed instrument. In the
reports as published, whatever inaccuracies there may be are due to
the condition alluded to. The census report says: "Of the 185 estab-
lishments reported in 1921, 78 were located in New York; 35 in Illi-
nois ; 14 in Massachusetts; 9 in Ohio; 8 in Wisconsin; 7 each in Indi-
ana, Michigan and Pennsylvania; 6 in New Jersey; 5 in Connecticut;
3 in Maryland; 2 each in Kentucky and Minnesota; one each in Cali-
fornia and Iowa. New York, the leading state in the industry, in 1921
produced 40.7 per cent of the total value of products in that year."
That, of course, has to do with pianos, and not the music indus-
tries generally. It also suggests that there may be a discrepancy in
the final totals as pertains to output and values. There are, to illus-
trate, not eight piano industries in Ohio; we can find but 5. In Wis-
consin there are not eight piano industries; we have a record of six.
But on the whole the 1921 piano census is the nearest to being accu-
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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