Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1923 1904

Presto Buyers' Guide
Presto Trade Lists
Analyzes and Classifies
All American Pianos
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
Three Uniform Boole-
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Music
Industries.
£*-*«.w/«<
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1923
E. H. STORY VISITS
CHICAGO OFFICES
President of the Story & Clark Piano Co. Is
Again at His Home Headquarters, Fresh
from Beautiful Pasadena, California,
for a Brief Stay.
President E. H. Story, of the Story & Clark Piano
Co., arrived in Chicago early this week, coming di-
rect from his home in Pasadena, Cal., to look after
some special business of his house. It is little more
for Mr. Story to make the trip from the Golden
State to the borders of Lake Michigan, than it is
for some of us to come to the loop district from Glen
ing of details among those who may be specially
deputized to attend to them, and giving attention to
the larger things by which the details are made pos-
sible and insured their proper relation to the whole.
Certainly the Story & Clark Piano Co. has moved
steadily ahead during the past few years, and to day
it is not only one of the most productive in the in-
dustry, but equally one of the best conducted and
most highly respected among the musical instrument
manufacturers of this country. And not only are
the factories of the Story & Clark Piano Co. busy;
the chain of large retail houses, in the larger cities,
are no less so.
Mr. Story's stay in Chicago this time will be brief,
and his friends are wondering' how he could pull
away from the beauties of California in the dead of
winter when Chicago, even in an unusually mild
season, is comparatively bleak. But as he says,
"business first."
CONDITION OF BUSINESS
FAVORABLE TO PROGRESS
Sensible Management of Business Means Substantial
Growth, Says Head of South Haven Factory.
The policy of important piano factories at present
and during the next few months is to decide the real
significance of the great increase in business which
has occurred in the industry for the past few months,
said T. L. Powell, president of the Cable-Nelson
Piano Co., of South Haven, Mich., in a recent inter-
view. The indications are now that piano factory
executives, directors and managers are looking at
things sensibly, and that the condition is favorable to
real progress instead of killing the goose that laid
the golden eggs.
"Inflated ideas of the present prosperity would be
harmful and detrimental to the solidity of any com-
pany," said Mr. Powell. "The task at present is to
formulate judicious policies for the management of
the factory and operation of the business."
Mr.
Powell has just returned from a trip to New York
and Boston, and talks with manufacturers of those
cities indicate that the industry is, on a sound basis,
he said.
PIANO CLUB OF CHICAGO
HEARS FAMOUS COMEDIAN
E. H. STORY
Ellyn or Hyde Park. And, whether in his Chicago
office, on the transcontinental train, or in his study
at Pasadena, Mr. Story is busy with the problems of
the Story & Clark business and its customers all
over the country—yes, all over the world.
A Good Year.
"This will be a great year for the piano business"
said Mr. Story to a Presto representative on Wednes-
day morning. "It promises to be even better than
last year—and that was a good one with our house."
Mr. Story has been quoted many times on the sub-
ject of the possibility of change or improvement, in
the piano. He has given a great deal of thought
to the possibilities of something absolutely new, and
he has taken no small part in the development of
the product of the factories at Grand Haven, Michi-
gan. Whether he has anything of radical nature
somewhere in his researches we do not know, but it
is certain that whatever may appear in the piano in-
dustry, of distinctive kind, the Story & Clark Piano
Mfg. Co. is more than likely to have a hand in it,
in the future as in the past.
Leaves Details to Others.
When Mr. Story was in Chicago a year ago, a
Presto interview quoted him as finding it just as
easy to keep busy while one thousand or more miles
away from the offices as if he were right at hand.
"I have never worked harder, or to better results,"
he said, "even when tied closely to my desk in Chi-
cago. At a distance it seems easy to accomplish
more in a broad way than as if I were occupied with
the details of the business."
It is the same rule that other men of affairs have
often referred to when they have advised the divid-
Organization Making Plans for Sheet Music Enter-
tainment at Next Monday Noon Meeting.
The meeting of the Piano Club of Chicago last
Monday noon was what might be called an overflow
meeting, since all the seats at the tables were taken,
as there were several visitors at the club, among them
being A. L. Smith, of New York, secretary and man-
ager of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce,
and A. M. Johnstone, of the Standard Pneumatic Ac-
tion Co., New York.
The guest of honor at the meeting was Eddie Can-
tor, renowned comedian and entertainer, now playing
at one of the Chicago theaters. Eddie told a number
of original stories, much to the amusement of the
club, after which he was voted not only a good story-
teller but a "good fellow."
Announcement was made that the next meeting of
the club, next Monday noon, would be especially
given up to the sheet music section of the industry.
A feature of this meeting will be the playing of a
number of new selections of exceptional merit, it
being the intention of song promoters to bring out
at this time some of the songs which are expected to
be the hits of the coming season.
E. L. HADLEY ON WEDDING TRIP.
Earl L. Hadley, advertising manager of The Cable
Company, Chicago, and his bride, formerly Miss Mary
McCleary, of Johnstown, Pa., have left for a two
weeks' honeymoon through the South, following the
marriage at Johnstown on Thursday of this week.
Mr. Hadley is of particular prominence in the music
trades of Chicago, having established himself as the
able manager of the advertising department of one
of the largest industries of the middle west. The
couple will return to Chicago to live.
SOME OF THE LESSONS
OF THE YEAR JUST PAST
Digest of Conditions by Which Expectancy of
This Year in the Piano Business May
Be Predicated.
By J. J. GILBERT.
One year ago the musical instrument and allied in-
dustries entered upon a stage which dealers in the
trade are disposed to label "hysteria." From the very
outset of the readjustment period, the experience of
dealers disclosed that it was one of uncertainty and
depression. For some months this condition pre-
vailed, during which time the sloughing off of values
and a woeful lack of demand were very much in
evidence.
Several causes have been advanced by store man-
agers as being instrumental in bringing about this
business depression. The consensus of opinion
points to the lack of confidence among the laboring
classes, which naturally resulted in the prolonged
labor unrest of the first of the year just past. Along
with the labor unrest came the question of providing
adequate housing. The inadequate housing, coupled
with the vague, mental unrest which swept the coun-
try like a plague, was largely responsible for the
business lethargy of the first few months.
After reviewing the serious conditions which char-
acterized the beginning of the past year, there are
several important facts which remain unchanged.
Despite the serious conditions threatening the trade,
there have been but very few failures. In fact, this
industry has met with fewer failures than any other.
The large concerns, though hard pressed, have been
sound at the base, thus insuring the financial in-
tegrity of all the lesser concerns dependent upon
them.
Even now, after having successfully emerged from
the "doldrums" incident to the readjustment, and
other causes, piano dealers are frank in saying that
there can only be a normal increase in business.
They admit that while conditions seem to be right
for a g'eneral run of prosperity, they do not anticipate
any pronounced business boom, and if there is any
such boom it will be very short-lived. This is the
opinion of the Baldwin Piano Company, of Dayton,
Ohio, and others who have been interviewed by the
Presto representative.
Compared with one year ago, business conditions
show a decided improvement.
The conditions of
sales are as follows: 46 per cent, three years; 25 per
cent, one year; 16 per cent, two years; 13 per cent,
cash.
Musical instrument dealers say that the business
revival is dependent upon the prevailing confidence
among the laboring classes. Postal savings, first in-
crease in this class of savings for years, reflect this
feeling.
The greatest problem with which manufacturers
have been confronted is the necessity of cutting costs
to a minimum. This problem was made more diffi-
cult when it was realized that it would be impossible
to reduce the price of first-hand supplies. They had
witnessed the widespread and sporadic efforts of other
industries to bring about a reduction, without con-
sidering the fact that both the commodity and the
price were pre-war. They forebore to follow suit
and plunge into the already overcrowded maelstrom
of failure.
About the month of August business in the retail
piano trade was slack, but September witnessed an
encouraging increase. The fact that there has been
a huge increase in savings for the laboring classes is
indicative of a more pronounced buying power, thus
explaining the increase of the trade volume.
A general feeling of optimism for the future seems
to pervade the music trades atmosphere. Mr.
Jenckes, of the Baldwin Piano Company, who is with-
out a doubt one of the most successful of Dayton
merchants, radiates this general optimism:
"Business is definitely improving, and, further, is
based on a sound foundation of confidence.
We
should, however, exercise care not to undermine the
solidity of the business by quoting cheap terms,
prices, etc. Now is the time to plan for a period of
sane business expansion we will surely enjoy for the
next few years."
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).
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PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DAN 1 ELL 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 ai 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 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 Eastern and 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
•f their 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.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 1923.
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 P.IANO MERCHANT8 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.
LYON & HEALY STOCK
Music as a business has broadened until it now belongs to the
world-interests just as much as do any of the other lines of industrial
and commercial enterprises. For a great many years—from the very
first beginning until comparatively recent times—music as a trade
has seemed to belong to the almost exclusive order of life's activities.
The music stores have seemed as the links between profession and
public; the half-way places at which Orpheus, Apollo and the gods
rested between their flights into the empyrean. People did not re-
gard them as they did the shopping places of the more "material"
things.
That is a condition of the past. Music in its commercial aspects
has become as substantial and practically productive in a larger way
as other lines of everyday and universal attainment. This is now rec-
ognized by the world of finance. Investment is discovering that cap-
ital is safe and that dividends are as liberally certain in the music
business as anywhere else.
That's why two great general music houses have of late Invited
the public to share in the results of their development and enterprise.
And one of the two is such a business institution as presents an ab-
solute guarantee to investors. Lyon & Healy, of Chicago, has thrown
open the possibilities of its great name, and its nearly sixty years of
steady growth, to the public. Stock to the sum of $2,500,000 will be
distributed among investors who realize that 7'Jo interest guaranteed
January 20, 1923.
opens opportunities not often presented in this day of closing gates
and drawing in of generous dividends
When in 1864 the late Mr. P. J- Healy went from Boston to Chi-
cago and established the house which long ago became famous he
could have had no vision of the dimensions of the business as it is to-
day. Chicago was then but little more than a frontier town. The
Civil War was still raging, and the outlook could not have been very
bright. But the then new house of Lyon & Healy was founded upon
a rock. It grew rapidly and despite a series of disasters by fire—one
of which totally wiped away all vestige of Mr. Healy's great attain-
ment, save those intangible but most valuable assets, of honor, credit
and courage—the house has persisted and is today the strongest and
"largest in the world."
Particulars of the popular distribution of stock in the house of
Lyon & Healy were given in last week's Presto. Further details are
told this week. And the broadening of the great business is, we, re-
peat, the best possible evidence of the larger place to which music,
in its industrial and commercial aspects, has attained within the past
few years.
. And the distribution of Lyon & Healy stock opens an unusual
avenue of opportunity for conservative investors.
•f
A CHICKERING CENTENARY
In less than three months more the Chickering piano will enter
upon the second century of its distinguished career. The mere state-
ment is enough to cause a thrill of pride in any piano man who likes
to follow the history of American music. A hundred years ! A full
century of a stately, on-moving piano industry, in which there is not
a blemish, not a blot, upon the written story of its ambitions.
That is a great deal for the lovers of American art to consider.
I t is a large and never-failing asset in the affairs of every piano dealer
who may be so fortunate as to be an accredited Chickering represen-
tative. And it must be interesting to any piano man, possessed of
even small imagination, to picture conditions in the piano world at the
time Jonas Chickering and his partner, John McKay, opened the
little factory in Tremont street, Boston, on April 14, 1823.
In a brochure designed to celebrate the eightieth anniversary of
the Chickering piano, published in 1903, the story of the oldest em-
ployee of the Boston industry appeared. It reproduced the contract
made between David T. Haraden and Jonas Chickering, by which the
apprentice agreed to "come to his work early and stay in the factory
or warerooms till nine of clock in the evening." The agreement was
to continue for six years, and the compensation, which in that early
period was considered ample, was $6 per week for the first year, with
an increase of $1 weekly for each succeeding year. The contract
bears date of February 25, 1836, or seven years after the dickering
industry began. Consider that, you piano toilers of today who "draw
down" from $5,000 to $25,000 annually and are still not satisfied.
And the hours of work by the apprentice were the same as those
of Jonas Chickering himself! That was the way the "father of the
American piano" worked. It was the way the pioneers in all branches
of business toiled when the nation was young. And the Chickering
piano has made history incomparable in the piano world. It has
moved forward in the dignified and splendid manner of an industrial
victor. There is nothing in its history that does not reflect credit
upon the piano industry and trade. No other name seems to shed so
great a luster upon the business by which the world is made better and
the higher aspirations of all classes of people are encouraged and made
secure.
April 14, 1923. is a date of great significance to the piano trade.
The Chickering is the first American piano to pass the century mark,
with a continuous career of unchanged ambitions arid a name to the
fame of which generations of one family have succeeded, until the
immediate male line became extinct. And even then the continuity of
energy and progress still rested upon the descendants of the first
workers in the old Boston industry.
There are men in most of the Chickering departments today
whose forebears worked there before them. The noble factory itself
is the same that was planned by the founder of the house and com-
pleted shortly after his death. Three sons of Jonas Chickering de-
voted their lives and their genius to carrying forward the ambitions
of their father. And they passed on after long lives of consistent
striving and left, in turn, the added impress of their own distinctions,
by which the Chickering piano had profitted and pressed forward.
One hundred years seems a long time for an American piano to
have lived. It suggests that we must cease to regard our country as
one that is "young"! But it suggests also that the American 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/

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