Presto

25
PRESTO
December 23, 1922.
COINOLAS
FOR
RESTAURANTS, CAFES and
AMUSEMENT CENTERS
Style SO
FROM THE BIGGEST
ORCHESTRION
NOVEMBER REPORT OF
MUSIC ADVANCEMENT
Director of Bureau Tells of Great Extent of
Work Accomplished by Organization
for Eleventh Month.
The November report of the National Bureau for
the Advancement _of Music, mailed this week to all
members of the Music Advancement Committee of
the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce, clearly
sets forth the activities and explains the purposes of
the Bureau. The report is clear and as far as
possible concise, and enables one who glances through
it to grasp the excellent methods and the size of the
job of which C. M. Tremaine is director.
The report is only for a month but it enables the
reader to realize what the National Bureau for the
Advancement of Music is accomplishing. The report
is typical of the work of other months, although in
details it differs from other months of the year. It
includes for instance, the achievements of the Christ-
mas caroling campaign which has made the caroling
movement an activity of national dimensions.
The November report also describes the great
activity in music memory contests which have been
larger in that month than in any month since the be-
ginning of the school year. Eighty cities are now
interested in plans for contests and have applied to
the bureau for assistance, in preparing for them. In
addition to cities there are states enrolled in the
music memory contest column. Indiana and Texas
are preparing for big events.
The campaigns to arouse interest in music weeks,
the newspaper publicity and the miscellaneous activi-
ties of the bureau are succinctly set forth in the re-
port for November. The amount of the literature
mailed during November accounts for the growth of
interest among the people in the various activities
fostered.
Two telegrams from California and a long-distance
telephone call from Rochester, New York, which
have been received by the National Bureau for the
Advancement of Music within the past week bear
irrefutable testimony to the high esteem in which the
work of the Bureau is held and the importance
which is placed upon securing its assistance without
delay in a timely matter.
The Morning Echo of Bakersfield, Calif., tele-
graphed to C. M. Tremaine, director of the National
Bureau for the Advancement of Music, as follows:
"Want to start Christmas Carol movement. Please
send six books immediately. Send anything helpful.
Welcome publicity matter right along. Put us on
list." A telegram bearing a similar request was re-
ceived from the San Francisco Journal, and E. C.
Rogers, publisher of the Rochester, New York, Jour-
nal and American, called Mr. Tremaine on the long-
distance phone and asked him to rush a supply of
material for starting a weekly music page.
The noteworthy feature of the Bureau's relations
with the press is the eagerness of the latter to secure
prompt and complete information about the Bureau's
numerous activities, as contrasted with the difficulty
which is often experienced in getting newspapers to
give the desired amount of publicity to any cause.
WRITES STRONG PLEA FOR
THE PAINTED PIANO CASE
Possible Suggestion to Prospective Buyers Seen in
Article That Is Widely Reprinted.
Tiny Coinola
THE SMALLEST
KEYLESS
Manufactured by
The Operators Piano Co.
16 to 22 South Peoria St.
CHICAGO
That the mahogany and walnut pianos have domi-
nated things in an aggressive way in modern rooms
is a belief expressed by a woman writer whose
newspaper article is going the rounds of the ex-
changes as a welcome vagrant for the women's pages.
The eagerness with which the article is clipped and
printed shows that the fair editors are awake to an
interesting revival in the finishing of pianos which
observant piano dealers have been observing for
some time. The demand for the painted piano case
is not yet very loud and urgent, but if many new
buyers read the vagrant article it may have an influ-
ence strong enough to shake the placidity of several
factory superintendents.
This is what is being
copied and printed:
We all know the utter detachment of the grand
piano which refuses to blend with the furnishings of
any but a music room, and the uncompromising
rigidity of the upright. They have been the quintes-
sence of aloofness. But now the problem of the
small grand piano has been solved. They may be as
"intimate" as the spinet of other days. These were
considered a precious possession, and in Italy, espe-
cially, worthy of decoration by great artists. One,
which was brought to America recently, has exquisite
paintings on a soft sea green ground. The colors of
the ancient instruments have all been softened by
time to tones of infinite beauty, but the skill of our
present day craftsmen and artists has produced some
exquisite examples of decorated pianos worthy to be
compared with the ancient spinets. Whatever the
note of one's room—Jacobean, Colonial, Italian, Span-
ish, or one of the French periods—it is possible now
to have one's piano finished so that it will blend with
the decorations and not dominate aggressively as
this imperious instrument was wont to do.
POPULARITY OF PIANOS AND
PHONOGRAPHS IN CHINA
Recent Report from Hankow Tells of Favored
Musical Instruments with Celestials.
Foreign music is growing more popular with the
foreign-educated Chinese, who are constantly increas-
ing in number. They cultivate this taste while study-
ing in the schools and colleges conducted under the
auspices of the various foreign governments and mis-
sion societies. Piano, organ, and phonograph music
are equally popular with them.
Phonographs, which are comparatively cheaper in
price, are very popular in China, and nearly every
foreign family and wealthy Chinese family in the
treaty ports, which has come under foreign influ-
ence, possesses one. They are purchased from sell-
ing agents in Shanghai. While phonographs have
only a limited sale among the natives, because of their
price, it would seem that an instrument of moderate
price would have a wide distribution if it were prop-
erly advertised and marketed. Chinese records should
be sold with any machine intended for the Chinese.
In order to bring American musical instruments to
the attention of the Chinese it would seem neces-
sary to work through one of the long-established for-
eign firms at Hankow.
WILMINGTON STORE ENLARGED.
A new lease made by the Jacob Bros. Co., Wil-
mington, Del., provides for additional space and a
long term at the present address, 416 Market street.
The 4,000 square feet acquired under the new lease
will provide larger wareroom space for all depart-
ments. The remodeling plans are now being car-
ried out.
WILL STAY IN U. S.
H. A. Ruthven, formerly connected with the R. S.
Williams Company, a music concern of Toronto,
Canada, is in Chicago visiting with friends in the
piano business. Mr. Ruthven, who is a Gulbransen
enthusiast, says that his plans have not been made,
but that he will probably locate somewhere in this
country.
In Three Parts:
1. Instruments of Established
Names and Character.
2. Instruments that bear Spe-
cial Names or Trade Marks.
3. Manufacturers of Pianos
and Player-Pianos with Chap-
ters on Piano Building and Buy-
ing designed for the guidance
of prospective purchasers.
Fac-simile Fall-
board Names of Leading Pianos
and Player-Pianos in Colors
Revised
Annually
NO PIANO DEALER OR SALESMAN
CAN~AFFORD TO BE WITHOUT IT.
IF YOU DON'T CONSULT "PRESTO
BUYERS' GUIDE" YOU ARE MISSING
OPPORTUNITIES. G E T I T NOW.
Give a copy to each of your salesmen.
Price 50 cents per copy.
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
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