Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1923 1911

Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyses and Classifies
All American Pianos
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
PRESTO
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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, MARCH 10, 1923
MASON & HAMLIN CO.
LEASES NEW BUILDING
Entire Four-Story Building in Boston Secured
by Famous Industry for Larger
Offices and Warerooms.
Another forward step in the career of the Mason
& Hamlin Co., of Boston, is the leasing by that
industry of the four-story and basement building at
146 Boylston street, Boston, to be used entirely for
executive and general offices, and also for the retail
warerooms. The building has been leased for the
term of twenty years.
The latest acquisition in the development of the
distinguished Boston industry here noted, speaks
conclusively of the substantial growth of the Mason
& Hamlin interests. It is a moderate statement to
say that no other piano industry has made greater
progress during the past ten years. The Mason &
Hamlin is the foremost instrument in many of the
most conspicuous piano houses of the country. It
has attained to a place among the very highest in-
struments the world over.
It is only a short time ago that particulars of the
new Mason & Hamlin factory in Boston were given
followed shortly after by further account of the
acquisition of a supplementary factory for special
branches of piano manufacture. And now we have
the word of the Mason & Hamlin Co. taking an en-
tire building on Boston's foremost street for dis-
play rooms and offices. It would be impossible to
produce better evidence of the power of the artistic
merit in pianos. And it is one of the genuinely en-
couraging proofs that the trade and public find a
power in what is called "quality" now, as scarcely
ever before.
ADAM SCHAAF NEW MODEL
UPRIGHT INTERESTS TRADE
Style 100, Recently Presented, Characterized by
Merit Associated with Products of Company.
The new Style 100 upright grand recently an-
nounced by the Adam Schaaf, Inc., Chicago, has won
favor, as is shown by the numerous orders for this
style, according to members of the firm. The Adam
Schaaf line has proved ever-popular during the half
century of the history of this company. The* thor-
oughness with which Adam Schaaf has explored the
possibilities of piano manufacturing is well illus-
trated in the perfection of the new styles.
The new Style 100 Adam Schaaf is another fulfill-
ment of ideals which have won appreciation in an un-
precedented degree; another addition to a line of in-
struments time-tested by thousands of satisfied and
enthusiastic owners.
STARTING PLACE OF PIANO
ASSOCIATIONS PASSES AWAY
Old Brighton Beach Hotel, Where First Organiza-
tion Was Formed, Will Soon Be No More.
The Brighton Beach Hotel and Music Hall adjoin-
ing, near New York City, have been sold to a real
estate syndicate, and the old structures will be
razed. The point of special interest, so far as the
music trade is concerned, is in the fact that the first
meeting of the National Piano Manufacturers' Asso-
ciation was held at the Brighton Beach Hotel. It
was there that the organization was formed, the first
dinner eaten, and the first fierce speeches delivered.
And that first meeting to form the association of
piano men was noted by the heated discourses by
the music trade editors. Talks were ma.de by the
late Marc Blumeberg, Wm. L. Thorns and E. Lyman
Bill. All of the trade editors still living also par-
ticipated.
The list of prominent piano men who were at that
time very active and who have since passed away
would fill a column of Presto. In fact, none of the
original workers in the organization are still active
in it.
The Brighton Beach Hotel was built in 1878 and
was one of the finest along the Atlantic Coast at that
time. Ten years after the hotel was built the ocean
had encroached on the beach to such an extent that
it was necessary to move the hotel back several
hundred feet.
BIG MAIL ORDER HOUSE
WILL JOB THE "CROWN'
Said that Sears, Roebuck Co. Will Undertake to
Distribute Quantities of Pianos.
It is now reported that the Chicago mail order
house of Sears, Roebuck & Co. will go largely into
jobbing the "Crown" piano. Several years ago the
concern named bought the Crown industry from Geo.
P. Bent, and later disposed of the factory at Wash-
ington boulevard and Sangamon street, Chicago.
Since that the once famous "Crown" piano has been
dormant. The report is that the mail order house,
which has long been selling popular pianos, will job
the pianos which are to bear the name made famous
by Mr. Bent.
RUNNING FULL CAPACITY
AT M. SCHULZ CO. FACTORY
Orders From Dealers and Roadmen for January and
February Show Increases Over 1922.
The factory of the M. Schulz Co., Chicago, is being
run to full capacity to keep up with the orders for
pianos. The salesmen are active, among them being
R. K. Maynard, who has been sending in a good
number of orders from the Pacific Coast, and Otto
M. Heintzman, who is finding a ready market in the
eastern states. "We have been doing a whale" of a
business," said Fred Bassett, vice-president of the
company. "The months of January and February
ran three times as heavy as the same two months of
last year."
But the efforts to supply the biggest and most urg-
ent demands do not embarrass department managers,
shipping room officials or the superintendent of a fac-
tory remarkable for its efficiency in every particular.
Known to the trade as one of the biggest producers
of pianos and player pianos, the M. Schulz Co. can
make its output equal any strain in the order depart-
ment.
GRANDS IN NEWARK, N. J.
The favor for grands noticed by the Griffith Piano
Co., 60S Broad street, Newark, N. J., is in a great
measure a response to lively grand advertising. The
claim of the grand piano is one continuously made
by the Griffith Piano Co. in its admirable newspaper
displays. This was said in a recent issue of the local
papers: "If every home could have a grand piano to
beautiful its living room or parlor and to glorify the
spirits of those who dwell therein, the effect would
be far-reaching. Nearly every home can now have a
grand or reproducing grand piano under our con-
venient payment plan of selling the illustrious in-
struments that are gathered together in our ware-
rooms."
CLEVER AD WRITER.
Miss Lucile McNaughton is the clever young lady
who manages the advertising department of the J. W.
Jenkins Sons' Music Co., Kansas City, Mo., and pro-
duces most of the forceful copy that makes sales.
She is well known in advertising circles in that city,
and was vice-president of the Kansas City Ad Club
last year.
AMPICO IN WATERBURY.
The Ampico demonstrations in the store of Mc-
Coy's, Inc., Waterbury, Conn., are attractive musical
features in that city. The demonstrations are of an
educational quality that Franklin V. McCoy believes
conducive to a keener interest in playerpianos by
the public.
RESULTS ANNOUNCED IN
KRAKAUER BROS. CONTEST
C. R. Stone, Fargo, N. D., Dealer, Wins
Krakauer Grand Style 16 for Best Essay
on Given Topic.
C. R. Stone, of the Stone Piano Co., Fargo, N. D.,
has been declared winner of the first prize in a contest
promoted by Krakauer Bros., New York, and which
invited essays on "How I Sell the Krakauer Piano."
Mr. Stone's reward is a Krakauer Style 16 grand
piano.
The second prize, fifty dollars in gold, was won by
E. B. Worden, of Earl B. Worden & Co., Utica,
N. Y., and the third prize, twenty-five dollars in
gold, by R. G. Ehman, of the D. I. Lerch Co.,
Canton, O.
The contest was promoted to celebrate the com-
pletion of the 50,000th piano by Krakauer Bros., and
the piano won by Mr. Stone bore the proud serial
number 50,000. The judges' committee consisted of
Don M. Parker of the "Century Magazine"; Louis C.
Brockway, of "Scribner's Magazine," and George W.
Bricka, of the Bricka-Ford-Paris Advertising Agency,
New York.
The great number of essays submitted in the con-
test and the high character of the contributions were
notable facts in the event. It was no small task for
the judges to declare a result of the contest,'which
closed December 31, 1922.
The following contestants were awarded honorable
mention and ten dollars in gold: A. H. Marchant,
Marchant Music Co., Inc., Orangeburg, S. C.; L. B.
Harding, Dunham's Music House, Asheville, N. C ;
S. F. Lundberg, B. Dreher & Sons Co., Cleveland, O.;
J. E. Sipprell, Kinney Bros. & Sipprell, Everett,
Wash.; C. E. Richardson, Kneupfer & Dimmick,
Lawrence, Mass.; C. A. Pinson, O. K. Houck Piano
Co., Memphis, Tcnn.; W. C. Wright, Sherman, Clay
& Co., Portland, Ore.; J. A. Hodges, Sherman, Clay
& Co., Vallejo, Cal.; A. B. Clinton, A. B. Clinton Co.,
New Haven, Conn.; Robert Jones, B. Dreher's Sons
Co., Cleveland, Ohio; H. H. Drummond, Denton,
Cottier & Daniels, Buffalo, N. Y.; G. Vargas, Sher-
man, Clay & Co., San Francisco, Cal.; H. J. McDade,
Knuepfer & Dimmock, Lawrence, Mass.; F. Schock,
Miller Music Co., Lebanon, Pa.; S. D. Forward, Den-
ver Music Co., Denver, Colo.; J. H. Ling, Ling Piano
House, Detroit, Mich.; H. A. Bruggeman, Jacobs
Music House, Fort Wayne, Ind.; O. G. Robertson,
Benjamin Temple of Music, Danville, 111.; Ewing W.
Bonnell, Davis, Burkham & Tyler Co., Wheeling, W.
Va.; L. E. Fetter, Denver Music Co., Lamar, Colo.
BUSY IN MUSCATINE, IA.
W. J. Burnett, manager of the Muscatine Music
House, recently opened in Muscatine, la., reports a
lively response to the newspaper advertising of the
firm. The musical public of Muscatine and sur-
rounding country is well served in the handsome
warerooms at 210 Iowa avenue. Mr. Burnett is a
piano man of wide experience in the Iowa trade. On
his sales staff is Miss Mabel Appel, who has achieved
a very creditable piano sales record.
PREPARATIONS IN GEORGIA.
D. A. Ahlers, manager of the store of the Phillips
& Crew Co., Atlanta, Ga., is confident of a good
spring business in pianos and playerpianos. That
section of Georgia is assured of trade activity owing
to the confidence arising from stable agricultural con-
ditions. Mr. Ahlers has shown his trust in prosper-
ous conditions in 1923 by preparing for a big piano
business by providing a big stock of alluring instru-
ments.
STEINWAY IN HARTFORD.
Steinway advertising is a notable feature of Wat-
kins Brothers, Inc., 241 Asylum street, Hartford,
Conn. The house is known as "the home of the
Steinway piano and the Steinway Duo-Art Repro-
ducing Piano." The firm alludes to the leader of
the line as the "Thorough-bred Steinway Piano,
Thorough in Every Detail."
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.
C. A. DAN I ELL 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,
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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 fts editorial space. Payment Is not accefted 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 whan used, If of
•pedal 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 Tear Book and Export, issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the
strument trades and Industries in aU parts of the world, and reach compl
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the BSasti
era hemispheres.
PVssto Bayers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Plav«r-P[anos, It analyses all Instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
»f their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Itenjs 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, MARCH 10, 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 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.
OPPORTUNITIES
Do you know of any other business in which little old Oppor-
tunity is hanging around for candidates as in piano selling? What
business is it? You don't know? We thought so!
And yet it isn't uncommon to hear some piano man telling of the
degeneracy of the work in which he is engaged. It isn't unusual to
have some dealer, salesman or even manufacturer, roar about con-
ditions by which profits are cut and the clouds of doubt are threaten-
ing to eclipse the sun of prosperity.
But that's only the view of a disordered liver, or some result of
recent disappointment. In the case of the discontented dealer, it is
due to the rise in the cost of his favorite piano—just a few dollars'
increase. With the manufacturer it is because some good customer
has written that if he must pay that small advance he will discontinue
the agency. And the salesman is kicking because, whereas once he
found prospects easy, now they are hard to sell and seem fewer be-
tween. Perhaps his complaint is based upon facts, but probably it is
the result of his own slowing up which may grow into a habit and
spoil him for the business.
In any event, there is no stimulus quite equal to the example of
other workers in the same line of business. For there is plenty of
piano business and, so long as people buy, the manufacturers will
produce, the merchants will order supplies, and the salesmen will
draw salaries and commissions. By way of illustration—of prac-
March 10, 1923
tical proof—such things as the following advertisement which ap-
peared in a last Sunday's newspaper, seemed absolutely conclusive.
The headline, in black type, was, 'Tiano Salesmen Wanted":
Piano Salesmen Wanted—Several thoroughly experienced, ag-
gressive piano floor salesmen for excellent positions that are now
open in our Chicago retail store; also New York, Detroit, Cleveland,
St. Louis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, etc. Liberal salary, permanent posi-
tions. All floor work and an excellent opportunity to the right men
to become Branch Managers. Apply for personal interview to Mr.
Harris, care P. A. Starck Piano Co.,'210 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago.
That is but one of many similar announcements to the world that
the people want pianos, and that salesmen are needed to tell them so
and to explain the special desirability of certain instruments. It is
Opportunity knocking at the doors of competent men. It is the call
to competency, and a fine start in life, for intelligent, alert and ambi-
tious young men. It is the beckoning back to business of mature
men who have sold pianos in times past and dropped out when world
conditions seemed too dark for the joys of music in the homes.
Opportunity is not a persistent knocker. As with everything that
is good, the knock is not agreeable to Opportunity. And, as a poet has
prettily, if erroneously, said, Opportunity comes but once. It comes
many times to workers in the piano business, and just now it is mak-
ing itself heard. Take advantage of it.
THE PROBLEM OF CHANGE
Nothing could be more significant of the change which has come
over the piano business than the number of pictures of Grand pianos
now appearing in the newspaper advertisements. Nearly all of the
printed displays feature small Grands, and the prices attached are
about what called for big type in connection with ordinary player
pianos a few years ago.
Hundreds of piano men now active in the business can recall when
the upright piano began to appear in the newspaper advertising spaces.
And not a few active piano men of today can remember when the
squares were the only kind that were displayed.
While it is true, as Mr. E. H. Story recently said, that there has
been no radical change in the principles of piano construction within
fifty years, or more, it is clear that the evolution of the piano case
has kept pace with other things. In the "80V the square case was
fast disappearing. When this century began the upright filled the
field, with the player action monopolizing attention. Every attempt
to change piano construction was in abeyance, while inventive effort
was devoted to reducing the principles of the pneumatic player actions
to the minimum of space with maximum of efficiency.
With the player as nearly perfect as human ingenuity could make
it, attention turned to the application of electrical control of piano
mechanism, and the remarkable reproducing, or "re-enacting," piano
was the result. And then, naturally, the Grand Piano was enlisted
to make the development complete.
That stage of piano evolution brought about the condition by
which small Grands were needed. The rule of multum in parvo as-
serted itself, in response to a real demand, and the smallest Grand
piano the world has known was the result. It has thus required less
than fifty years to wholly revolutionize the piano industry, and again
the problem of what becomes of the old pianos begins to quiz the in-
dustrial statisticians.
We used to wonder where the thousands of old squares had dis-
appeared to. Then we wondered what had become of the tens of
thousands of uprights. We will soon be asking where are all the
playerpianos, and especially what has happened to their actions, which
at first were denounced as so "delicate," so "fragile" that only a very
short life could be hoped for them !
When the present demand for small Grands becomes satiated
what will follow? That is a useless conundrum. It is too early yet
to have any disconcerting suggestion. But it must in time be
answered. And, in view of the growing movement against "trade-
ins" in piano selling, it is not so difficult, even now, to prophecy the
progress of events, and to believe that the piano dealers of the far-
ahead will have no more trouble in closing sales than we have who
work so hard todav.
RURAL PIANO PROSPECTS
Express surprise to almost any small-town piano dealer who
tells you trade is dead, and he will explain that the farmers have
large stores of produce, or big herds of cattle, but no money and less
credit at the local bank. Of course it is true that we can't spend
money if we haven't got it, and the farmers have been "close run"
for some time past.
Whether that has been due to the determination to hang on to
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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