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
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Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago, Illinois,
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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.
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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
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to insure preferred position. Full page display copy should be in
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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
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