Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1923 1912

PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
Editors
C. A. DANIELL 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 as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office,
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Chicago. Illinois,
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 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 Pianps and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 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 PJANO 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.
OLD PIANO NAMES
There are indications that even the men responsible for the pro-
motion of some pianos do not know much about the possibilities of
their offices. They have in charge pianos whose very names might
be made to work wonders ; names of traditional power, the magic of
which might be the basis of quick fortunes. But the men in charge
seem to have little understanding of the latent influences which may
have become obscured by the mold or the debris of a few inert or
neglected years.
On the other hand, there are instances wherein the lamps of
Aladdin have been polished, and pianos which had fallen to forgetful-
ness have been restored to power and attendant profits. The names
of such pianos are familiar to experienced dealers, and the public
knows them and readily adds to their value because the names are
there.
What is the commercial advantage of a great piano name? How-
does it happen to possess a value counted up in the thousands—per-
haps hundreds of thousands? It isn't always because the piano itself
is vastly better than all other pianos.
Of course, a piano bearing a great name must be a good one ; it
must be so. good as to withstand comparison with the best. But the
commercial influence is in the fact that the name in itself is a guaran-
tee to the public of merit. Every piano salesman knows that a good
proportion of his prospects will at once consider an instrument of
established name. A few will have no other. The name is an abso-
March 17, 1923
lute sign and signal that the piano is a good one, or even an artistic
one. And in such cases the sale is assured and the profit is adequate.
The dealer may not pay a penny for the name, but it nevertheless has
a very considerable value.
And yet, as has been said, there are pianos today the value of
which is not realized by the men who promote them. They are put
forth by powerful industries with the bare statement that they are
well made and possess the requisite variety of case designs. They
may be announced, or coming through, in "uprights, Grands and re-
producing pianos," but beyond that little is said to stimulate trade or
public by making it clear that the instruments possess records of long
and ambitious strivings, and, possibly, of an origin so remote as to add
luster to the names they bear.
A good name "is a long way to success," wrote Chamfort about
people. It applies just as well to pianos. And the ancient Pope said
that the world is "ravished with the whistling of a name." If certain
of the promoters of pianos seemed to know more about the pianos
the progress of which is in their charge, they would do more and bet-
ter whistling about them.
SNOW PICTURES
A good many years ago a composer named Challoner wrote a
piano piece called "Snow Pictures." It was supposed to tell, in the
mystic language of sound, just what the fleecy particles suggested as
they came floating down, and the silhouettes on the frosted window
panes were also deciphered in the pretty melodies and dainty
arpeggios.
During the late brief blizzard in Chicago, the snow banks along
Lake Michigan's shore were utilized to tell other stories, much more
clearly. One of the messages of the snow is repeated elsewhere in
this issue of Presto. It is that of The Cable Company's representa-
tion of the Zenith Radio department. Accompanying the story, as it
came to Presto, was a photograph of the snow into which had been
traced, by many feet, in giant letters, the line that told at once of
The Cable Company's advertising enterprise and the location of the
Zenith supplies. It is to be regretted that the photograph was not
sufficiently strong to serve for the half-tone engravers' purposes,
else a reproduction of the huge sign in the snow would appear with
the story.
The incident of The Cable Company's snow sign of the Zenith
Radio presents one of the latest developments of advertising
ingenuity. Taken from the tall McCormick building, which faces the
lake, at Michigan avenue and Van Buren street, the sign in the snow
gave no intimation that it has been tramped out and not actually
drawn upon an immense white sheet—the sheet of the snow. It was
made by the walkers while the snow was still clean, the soot of the
I. C. R. R. just beginning to fleck the glistening blanket and affording
the needed color which by the tramping feet gave to it the dark
outlines of the great letters, forty feet in height.
Advertising, in this time of the world's progress, is the power that
makes things move. There are piano industries, and retailers, also,
from which issue promotion plans equal to the best of the other en-
terprises in whatever line. And the ingenuity employed with which
to present something absolutely new demands a strain as great in
its department as is the effort, in office and factory, to keep the pianos
themselves at the forefront by reason of beauty of design and per-
fection of musical results.
The piano has grown up out of the lesser things in advertising
into the broadest light of publicity in every possible form until it has
become a kind of guarantee of excellence. And the dissolving snow
is the very latest evidence of it.
SELLING BY SUGGESTION
As with everything else, .advertising changes in its methods no
less than its results. There was a time when advertising that did not
clearly tell what was for sale, and at what price, would not be con-
sidered profitable. Then came the alluring announcements of some-
thing for nothing—the advertising bait designed to pull people into
the stores where salesmen might do the rest. In the piano business
the next step was the publication of puzzle pictures, with large prizes
attached for the successful guessers. And then the coupon contests
which brought the business to the verge of a sort of commercial dis-
repute.
Most of those doubtful systems of printed promotion have passed.
The methods of piano advertising are again clean and in keeping with
the character of the business. And another phase of it has recently
developed which has promise of good results. It is the advertise-
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/
March 17, 1923
PRESTO
ment in which suggestion is the central force. Of late the dailv news-
papers in some of the large cities have been carrying advertisements
of that kind in connection with the piano trade.
One day last week a New York piano house ran a two-column
display of which the leading line was an invitation to attend an after-
noon concert. In small letters, the suggestion was added that "the
recital will consume less than an hour, leaving ample time for you to
inspect a complete line of the instruments used by the great artists
who will participate."
There wasn't a word about special pianos, nor any suggestion of
selling, prices or terms. It was just an invitation to a fine concert.
And there are other piano advertisements of suggestion in which
similarly high-toned methods are employed. Last Sunday's Chicago
Tribune had a,.well-displayed Cable Company advertisement in which
the artistic outline of a Grand piano was shown, with the following-
short suggestion beneath it:
"Did it ever occur to you that, owing to its long life and trifling
upkeep, a fine piano in your home costs only a few pennies a day?"
In very inobscure letters the line "Home of the Celebrated Mason
& Hamlin" appeared. Not a word about "bargains" nor any talk
about the "best in the world" was anywhere to be seen. To piano
lovers who follow the Sunday advertisements and are tired of the
commonplace type of advertising, that Cable announcement must
have been a relief. And we are inclined to think that it stirred more
"prospects" with a desire to go to the Cable building on Monday, for
the purpose of buying fine pianos, than could possibly have been in-
fluenced by the other kind of advertising.
Suggestion is a very subtle influence. It often starts people
thinking and awakens the desire of possession when the ballyhoo
style of advertising may turn the reader away in something like dis-
gust. Nor does this mean that the "big bargain" style of advertising
is always lost. It may be the most resultful of all publicity for the
department store, or in special cases where cheap things' are sought.
Cheap things call for the assurance of cheap prices. But are pianos
ever cheap things? Can they be without spoiling the pianos business?
When the advertising expert of the Chase-Hackley Piano Co.
adopted the line "Known since the days of Barbara Fritchie," histori-
cal critics exclaimed that the grey-haired heroine of Frederick was
a myth. An interesting story in this issue of Presto sets the dis-
cussion at rest. The Quaker poet, Whittier, years ago affirmed his
faith in the patriot who defied the hosts of Stonewall Jackson, and
S. ERNEST PHILPITT AND
WIFE IN AUTO ACCIDENT
Prominent Florida Dealer Suffers in Collision With
Wrecked Automobile Near Orlando, Fla.
S. Ernest Philpitt, head of the S. Ernest Philpitt
Music Co., Miami, Ela., and president of the Sheet
Music Dealers Association, was, with Mrs. Philpitt,
painfuly injured in an accident near Orlando, Fla.,
last week when their car collided with a wrecked car
on the highway. Mr. Philpitt, who has music stores
in Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville, is well known
throughout Florida, where his stores sell goods of
high character and are conducted on policies that
make for progress.
But music dealers in all parts of the country, es-
pecially those associated with the sheet music phase
of the business, will be particularly interested in the
nature of Mr. Philpitt's injuries and those of his wife.
While said to be painful, the injuries of the pair are
not considered dangerous.
BALDWIN ARTISTS' SERIES
OF ADS FOR DEALERS
Uniform Set with Portraits and Testimonials of
Great Singers Appreciated by Trade.
A series of fourteen advertisements prepared by the
Baldwin Piano Co., Cincinnati, provide a splendid
succession of displays for Baldwin dealers. They are
double-column newspaper size and convey the fact
in a convincing way that the Baldwin is the choice of
very clever and prominent artists who have chosen
the piano. The ads are similar in layout, show a
portrait of the artist, a cut of the Baldwin grand,
the artist's name in prominent type and his testi-
monial, including a facsimile of his or her signature.
The Baldwin ads feature the following artists:
Georgio Polacco, Feodor Chaliapin, Rosa Raisa, For-
rest Lamont, Georges Baklanoff, Edith Mason,
Claudia Muzio, Cesare Formichi, tna Bourskaya,
even at this late day he has the corroboration of one who has per-
sonal knowledge. As usual, the advertising man was right.
* * *
A well conducted trade paper, reaching active piano dealers, read
by energetic salesmen, and devoted to the systems of selling and in-
spiring the real piano workers, is worth more as an advertising me-
dium than the most widely circulated sketch and picture paper in the
world. In this age of concentration and specialization, the secret of
success lies in the direct aim. Hap-hazzard, scattering effort is waste
of energy and a loss in the expense account.
* * *
The railroads oppose the order of the Interstate Commission that
mileage books for traveling salesmen be issued at reduced rates. But
the commercial tourists have their fighting togs on and will not give
up without a lively tussle. The piano travelers' association consti-
tutes a brigade which will go over the top with the loud pedal on, and
with a louder slogan than "Give a little thought to music." And
they'll win.
A very high compliment was paid to Presto when Mr. Carlos
Doggenweiler, of Santiago, Chile, said that this paper is the best in its
field "because it helps the salesmen to close sales." That's just what
this paper has tried to do for nearly forty years, and 'tis a great satis-
faction to know Jhat its aims are effective. The political papers may
look after politics and the handsome portraits of the politicians.
* * *
The New York Times of last Sunday contained a leading editorial
on "New York's Music Week," telling of the newly incorporated
Music Week Association and its splendid plans. The column editorial
concluded with: "If only the people can be got to sing, it will, as
the Spanish proverb has it, drive away their troubles. A week of
singing ought, at any rate, to cheer up the world a bit."
*r
"fc
-r
One more small Grand piano industry is organizing in the Mid-
West. It will be a large one. The demand for little Grands must
be satisfied, and the enterprise of the industry will see that it is sat-
isfied fully.
=H
*
*
The call for consigned pianos grows every week. This paper has
received more than twenty requests for addresses of manufacturers
who consign within less than three weeks. Have "them days gone
forever ?"
Giacomo Rimini, Ettore Panizza, Guilio Crimi, Pietro
Cimini and Grace Hoist.
Here is what Feodor Chaliapin, the famous Rus-
sian bass, says: "I have chosen the Baldwin piano
in preference to others because 1 find it the most ad-
mirably suited to my accompaniments."
Polacco, of the Chicago Grand Opera Company,
says: "I cannot speak too highly of the Baldwin
piano. In tone and in brilliancy it fulfills the great-
est demands of an artist. It gives me, therefore,
great pleasure to recommend the Baldwin."
They are samples of what the great artists say
about the Baldwin piano.
SHOWS STAUNCH CHARACTER
OF KOHLER & CAMPBELL PIANO
Letter From Florida Customer Gives Valuable Tes-
timentory Evidence of Piano's Durability.
The following letter recently received by Kohler &
Campbell, Inc., New York, from a woman who had
purchased one of its pianos over thirteen years ago
is an eloquent tribute to the durability and tonal
qualities of the Kohler & Campbell piano:
"Thirteen years ago we bought one of your pianos
from your agent, Mr. Lansford, of Ocala, Fla. Nine
years ago we were moving and loaded the piano on a
wagon, just as the team moved the piano fell out of
the wagon bottom side up, and about three weeks ago
we had a piano tuner to stop and look it over. He
said it was not out of tune at all, it just needed
cleaning and a few new felts put in. I am sure well
pleased with it and can recommend your make to
any one wishing to buy one."'
WHY FRATERNAL ORDERS
NEED AUTOMATIC PIANOS
Most Men Are Music Lovers, But Poor Players,
Opines Manager of Operators' Co.
Dealers who handle automatic instruments may
well take a tip from the Operators' Piano Co., Chi-
cago, and develop the prospects they have in the
fraternal orders such as lodges in their communities.
In writing to a lodge committee recently, Manager
A. C. Stadler, of the Operators' Co., outlined several
reasons why a lodge needs an automatic piano, and
how it will profit the order.
. We are all susceptible to music, especially good
music, began Mr. Stadler. Most men, he said, join
an organization for the social amusements and pleas-
ure he can derive from it, and these are usually found
in a lodge or club of a fraternal nature. In this
social intercourse music is one of the necessities to
keep up interest. Now most men are poor players at
best, and the majority do not even know how to
play. An automatic placed in a lodge room provides
music at all occasions, either for the diversion of a
small group of early comers or for a dance, or any
other entertainment.
"I have seen lodges put in an automatic piano and
then watched the attendance grow steadily to fifty
or seventy-five per cent higher," Mr. Stadler told a
Presto representative. ''There is always the chance
to amuse oneself by the automatic while waiting for
the meeting to start. It takes away the dull mo-
ments, and leaves the members the feeling of refresh-
ing entertainment that they want from the club."
A. B. CHASE FOR HIGH SCHOOL.
SIOUX CITY HALL APPRECIATED.
The Recital Hall of the Pierce Piano Co., Sioux
City, la., is equipped with a Baldwin grand piano
which is used in accompaniments for solo and or-
chestra uses at the frequent concerts in the hall. At
the conclusion of a concert by the pupils of Miss
Mary Wall Dow, one of the city's foremost vocalists,
Miss Dow said: "It was a joy to sing with the
Baldwin."
The W. P. Van W'ickle Piano Co., Washington,
D. C, recently placed an A. B. Chase grand piano
in the music room of the new Eastern High School
just completed at a cost of $3,000,000 in the Capitol
Hill section of the city. It is another evidence of the
success of piano merit presented by the energetic
music company. It is an addition to a long list of
A. B. Chase pianos placed in prominent institutions
by the W. P. Van Wickle Piano Co.
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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