Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1922 1896

PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
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 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 Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will De 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 ana 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 fnelr value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are In-
rited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
November 25, 1922.
the illustrated section printed in sepia ink and upon very finely cal-
endered paper. Of late the Times colored section has had a full page
adv. of the Steinway piano. It is, probably, the most artistic com-
mingling of the artistic and commercial in connection with pianos.
Every page has carried a remarkable portrait of one of the immortals
in music—perhaps a copy of some great painting, as of Liszt at the
piano, or some more modern artist. And what the Steinway has been
doing in the New York Times other piano manufacturers have also
done elsewhere.
Naturally the advertising of most direct interest to the piano
dealers is that which appears in their trade papers. They all see the
trade paper advertising and study it. And among the really artistic
pages of the manufacturers it would be impossible not to comment
favorably upon the printed promotion of the instruments of the
American Piano Co.. (especially the Ampico), the Cable Company,
Steger & Sons Piano Co., Gulbransen-Dickinson Co., Baldwin Com-
pany, Sohmer & Co., Chase-Hackley Piano Co., Starr Piano Co,,
Lyon & Healy, and some others. Last Sunday's Chicago Tribune
also, by the way. had an unusually artistic display of the Adam
Schaaf, Inc.
But we are not trying to name all of the contributors to artistic
modern advertising. Our purpose is, most of all, to commend the
enterprise of the piano manufacturers who display the progressive-
ness by which investment in special talent for artistic advertising is
giving to the piano a forward movement quite in keeping with mod-
ern enterprise in other great lines of industry.
CHOOSING A JOB
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1922.
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
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.
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.
ARTISTIC PIANO ADS
Of late the piano manufacturers have given evidence that they
believe that things of art are deserving of artistic presentation to the
reading public. In some instances the piano manufacturers have
adopted a style of printed display in which there is the feeling, even
at times .the sentiment, which cannot be inseparable from music.
And in this the trade papers have taken on a new aspect, so far as
the special promotion of certain instruments are concerned.
There can be no doubt that the retail piano merchants and their
salesmen find the artistic printed page in the trade paper a substan-
tial help in their business. It has, from time immemorial,
been customary to discuss the degree of sentiment that should go
into any business. Many who do not think much have said that there
is no room at all for sentiment in business. But the world at large
knows better. And people who love music, and devote some share of
their time to its expression, know that sentiment has a place in
everything—even in the most material concerns of life.
There would have been no such universal response to the player-
piano were there no sentiment in business. There could be no such
exploitation of great pianos as exercises the concert goers, without
the sentimental side of it. And artistic things always are seasoned
with sentiment. So with the modern-time artistic piano advertise-
ments, which frequently appear in Presto and other music trade
papers.
Perhaps the greatest daily newspaper in the world is -the New
York Times. The Sunday edition of that paper makes a feature of
There is going to be a demand for pianos exceeding the possi-
bilities of supply, as the industries are equipped at this time. It is
generally understood that there is a shortage of skilled workers in
some departments of the industry. Few of the piano makers now in
the factories have come from abroad, of late years, and immigration
restrictions will not permit of recruits from foreign countries in any
considerable numbers.
The logical procedure is for the piano manufacturers to train
native ability. It is being done in some of the western factories.
Several piano factories of considerable size are manned almost en-
tirely by local workers, AVIIO have gained their full understanding and
skill in the home plants. And the products of their home-made ex-
pertness is all that any industry could want.
But, if there is a lack of factory skill in the piano business, there
is no less a shortage in piano selling ability. Piano salesmanship is
also needed if all the demands, or possibilities, of the trade are to be
filled, or nearly filled, during the next three years.
And this is something for the bright-witted young men to con-
sider. The army of future business men who possess the kind of am-
bition that prompts an aversion to desks and counters, may find an
independent and boundless field for the exercise of their energies in
the sale of musical instruments.
It is true that not all young men are adapted to the business of
selling pianos. The genius of salesmanship is almost as rare as that
of authorship or the bringing forth of poetry. But in no line of work
are the strivers equally matched. There are always a few that over-
top the crowd. But the average is always productive, and even the
second-rate piano salesman is useful and capable of earning more
than the best of the plodding clerks in the conventional stores.
The piano is one of the articles of commerce which can never be
over-sold. It will always be a live item of trade, and it will always
be kept alive by the activities of the salesmen. The demand can never
be the same as with the things of mere ability. The fine discrimina-
tions by which pianos differ one from another will always render
salesmanship necessary. Even should the public ever become so
versed in piano construction, and so sensitive to the gradations of
quality and tone, as to make piano buying perfectly simple, there
would still be the need of salesmanship.
And this because, were it possible to have all pianos equally
good, evenly reliable, and uniformly valuable, in a money sense, it
would still be necessary to awaken the piano -desire, and to stimulate
the demand. In this the piano is unlike many other things and, as
the world fills up with the things that divert the mind from the
thoughts of intellectual and spiritual beauty, to those of excitement
and bodily delights, salesmanship in things of the higher senses
will be the more needed. This is something that suggests nothing at
all discouraging. It merely emphasizes the opportunities for piano
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/
November 25, 1922.
PRESTO
salesmanship, and suggests the permanency of the work and the
broadening of the opening to profitable fields of special activities.
There may be other lines of work as attractive to young men.
Selling things that are not marked in private symbols is always at-
tractive to men of diversified abilities. It is the same spirit that stirs
the young blood when the bugle blows or the drum beats. There is
conquest ahead. And every piano salesman knows the joy of over-
coming uncertainty, defeating competition, and winning against seem-
ing odds. No line of salesmanship presents that thrill and satisfac-
tion to the same degree as in piano selling. In no field of salesman-
ship will the seller work harder or with such eager determination to
come out ahead. And the man who can win without the sacrifice of
either self-respect or price, is the man who may properly tag himself
as a real salesman.
Just now there is a demand for competent piano salesmen. No
man ever qualified unless he made a start. And there is never a
better time for starting, whether in factory, in the salesroom, or
on the road, than today. The road men are, however, being held in
leash for the time being, because the factories are not well stocked.
But in all branches of the business there is a busy season just ahead.
Piano dealers who employ salesmen on the commission basis
should have the conditions clearly defined in writing. While piano
salesmen are, as a rule, perfectly dependable and honest, self-interest
may sometimes intervene to make trouble for the employers. A com-
mission salesman is really in business for himself, subject to the
restrictions placed upon him by the head of the house for which he
operates. It is not always easy for parties to such a co-operative
effort to define the rights of both. Commissions paid should coincide
with commissions earned—and that is not the way commission
workers always prefer to make their adjustments.
* * *
Whether understanding^ or not, the New York piano house of
Spector & Son seems to be making free with the property of the
great Chicago industry of Lyon & Healy. Last Sunday's New York
newspapers contained a displayed advertisement of Spector & Son
in which that house announces its "Apartment Grand," with picture
attached. The designation "Apartment Grand" has been employed
to describe the Lyon & Healy instrument for several years. It
doesn't seem fair, to say the least, for the Grand street concern to
kidnap the 'Baby Grand of Wabash avenue with which to captivate
the New Yorkers.
* # *
An eastern business organization has been discussing the "over-
turn of salesmen." Figures on the proportion of the order-getters
who remain with their employers long enough to talk about "Our
house," as compared with those who "quit" or get "fired," are pre-
sented. And the "overturn" is characterized as a source of loss. In
the piano industry and trade there is very little "overturn" and a
good deal of turn-in and turn-about.
* * *
Piano men who keep eye open for the unusual in the things of
their business are interested in the way instruments are promoted,
or advertised. Some of the late piano advertising enters upon the
SOUTH DAKOTA PIANO
TUNERS ARE ORGANIZED
W. F. McClellan, Secretary of National Association,
Presides at Meeting in Sioux Falls.
No state organization of South Dakota piano tun-
ers was formed at the meeting held last week at the
Cataract Hotel, Sioux Falls, but instead of the ex-
pected unit of the national organization a state board
of the latter was appointed. The following members
were appointed to the board: J. A. Mueller of Mit-
chell, Edward P. Amley of Madison, E. C. Glazier of
Huron, H. R. Siegrist of Gregory, Fred Haberman of
Watertown, A. D. Disbrow of Madison and Edward
E. Hyde of Sioux Falls, who will act as chairman
of board.
W. F. McClellan of Chicago, secretary and direc-
tor of the National Association of Piano Tuners, was
present to help iii the work of organization. The
state board will have charge of applications for mem-
bership to the association and will promote educa-
tional work with musical clubs.
Following the meeting at the Cataract hotel an in-
formal supper was given for the local men and the
field of both literary and typographic art. Occasionally a pag? in
Presto proves, or illustrates, this fact. And unquestionably the full
page displays of the Steinway piano in the sepia section of the New
York Times touches the highest, spot thus far attained in the
printer's ink publicity. The Steinway pages are art in a very high
development.
* * *
For the first time in the history of the music industry a member
has this week been paid the international tribute of the world of
art. Mr. Henry B. Tremaine, of the Aeolian Company, New York,
is the gentleman thus distinguished. And no man could be more de-
serving of the unique recognition. Mr. Tremaine is a member of a
famous family of American piano men. His career in the industry
goes back to his beginning in mature life, and he has been a loyal
and consistent leader in musical affairs from the first.
* * *
Give thanks next Thursday that you are not in some other line of
business, where the potency of push and personal energy might count
for comparatively little. A counter-stock often moves slowly and
the overhead grows proportionately. In the piano business the re-
sults of special effort, personal drives and extraordinary effort, will
bring results in even the dullest days. Be thankful.
*H
*
•¥•
Because the makers of your favorite piano cannot promptly sup-
ply the instruments you want, is not a good reason for switching to
some other line. But it is good business to have something else good
enough to substitute for your leader in cases •where there is liability
of losing sales because of a shortage.
* * *
Thanksgiving is for all, and one way to make the manufacturers
give thanks is to send them settlements in full, with which to round
out the old year satisfactorily. If all the piano merchants will do
this, they will afford their best friends added cause for thanksgiving.
* * *
Give thanks that our country is at peace and that the things of
"peace will have their inning. The makers of music are numberless,
and the makers of the ins'troments of music have reason to be glad.
4
*
*
*
Give thanks that the dullest year in a long line of years has about
closed, and that you are in a business that is looming up large in pro-
portion to the energy you put into the future.
* * *
Be thankful that the year soon to dawn will be a good one. The
promise is that a bigger and better piano trade will come next year
than before since the busy days of 1919.
* * *
In your giving of thanks, don't forget to thank the sources of
your supplies, for prompt shipments, and for other assistance of a
kind known to all good piano men.
* * *
Give yourself more thanksgiving by making collections. Help
the delinquents to be thankful by getting after them. Make thanks-
giving collections!
visiting delegates. At this several made short talks
and the benefits of such an organization were stated
by members. It was said Charles McCaffree, secre-
tary of the chamber of commerce would co-operate
in work of the organization.
Those who were in attendance were: W. F. Mc-
Clellan of Chicago, A. J. Mueller, Joseph Erler of
Mitchell, Edward P. Amley of Aberdeen, O. R. Bren-
nan of Canton, E. O. Liaboe of Centerville, L. Han-
son of Dell Rapids, Ewald Hohlfeldt of Mitchell, H.
R. Siegrist of Gregory, R. G. Hoyt, Edward E. Hyde
and M. K. Heath of Sioux Falls.
GERMAN INSTRUMENT COMPETITION
Despite the present cheapness of German labor
costs and money, a gradual increase is being noted in
the ultimate cost to the foreign consumers of German
musical instruments. This is being noticed in Swit-
zerland,where Germany's advantageous geographical
position and unusually low prices have almost de-
fied competition. It now seems that the advantage
of prices will not last, and it is believed that when
conditions become normal American musical instru-
ment dealers will be able to compete in Switzerland.
Great effort should be exerted by American producers
to make their products known in this country.
BIRMINGHAM PIANO FIRM
ADOPTS UNIQUE PLAN
Inducement to Women to Visit Store Results in
Sales for E. E. Forbes & Son.
E. E. Forbes & Son Piano Company, Birmingham,
Ala., has adopted a unique plan to induce women to
visit its place of business. The firm has rented the
fourth floor of its building on Third avenue to the
Business Woman's Club.
Hundreds of women visit the club rooms every
day. Dinner is served in the club rooms every day,
except Sundays, to many women. The entrance to
the club rooms is through the piano store and then
to the fourth floor by elevator.
Not only club
women but other women of the city often take din-
ner there. Thus the sales of the company have
been increased by the large number of women visit-
ing the club dining room. Another feature of the
club room is that it keeps the store open until 9
o'clock at night, when other stores close at 6 p. m.
This gives many housewives the opportunity of mak-
ing purchases in musical instruments after supper.
In this way, too, the trade of the firm has been
increased.
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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