Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1923 1924

Page 4 Text:

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
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Office,
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 partH 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
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general Interest to the music trades are ln-
jited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, JUNE 9, 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 P1IANO 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.
THE PIANO TODAY
The piano is the uppermost thing in the minds of the music
loving public and it will remain so. All the other means to music-
making are collateral, or associate members of the "art divine." Of
course the violin, and some other of the so-called small instruments
will always be means to great musical attainment. Older than the
piano and, in a sense more personal in their possibilities of expres-
sion, they belong to music as almost nothing else can. But, in the
popular sense, the piano is the people's instrument.
And, for the reason suggested, the piano manufacturers, and
especially the piano merchants, should confine their enthusiasms to
the piano, and not divide their energies with any other forms of
music-making. It was a mistake when so many piano factories de-
voted a considerable share of their energies to the production of
cheap phonographs. Very few of them are doing it now, but un-
doubtedly for the time they helped along a competition—ephemeral,
to be sure, but hurtful to their own interests.
Today it is radio that is pushing itself into every possible place
of vantage. It is radio that is forming propaganda and seeking the
time and influence of the piano merchants. And former piano men
are often at the head of it and sacrificing their influence and their
skill in the piano business to the new-comer. It may be well for the
piano men to consider where radio may lead the piano, and wherein
they can possibly spoil a good business for a doubtful one.
Piano men should continue to develop the demand for pianos.
The fine old instrument which has steadily advanced since the day of
June 9, 1923
Cristofori is as fertile today as ever. It is better than ever, and its
possibilities are larger than before. The piano business of today
displays signs of such a revival as few other lines of industry can
show. It is altogether a question of dealers' energy and enterprise.
They can make the the piano business better and bigger in the near
future than ever before in the history of musical instruments. And
we believe that they are going to do it.
A GREAT EVENT
It was a big convention. We speak in the past tense although the
week is not yet over, and the visitors in Chicago have slowed down but
little since the formal proceedings ended. It is certain that no man
who has been in Chicago all this week will ever forget his experience
or the enthusiasms which have surged in and about the Drake Hotel;
the reunions of friends; the splendid displays of the manufacturers;
the throb and thrill of the music; the eloquence of the speakers, and
the delights of the banquets of which Wednesday brought the climax.
There are piano men who will say that at none of the earlier con-
ventions has the sense of satisfactory sequence of events, or of sub-
stantial accomplishments, been more complete. To some, of the
older members of the association, there may have been a feeling of
disappointment that quite a number of the Old Guard were absent.
But that is the inescapable penalty of time. The large enthusiasms
of the younger members fully compensated, and in numbers the
gathering was perhaps larger than at any of the preceding meetings,
though on this point there is discussion.
The pivot of interest, to most of the visiting members of the
trade was in the displays, of which there were 74 at the Drake. And
without exception the exhibits displayed an advance in the character
of the instruments exhibited over any earlier event of the kind. It
was a great piano exposition, larger than the famed Section 1 of the
greatest World's Fair the peoples of the globe had ever seen.
From first to last the formal proceedings of the convention were
of unusual interest. The addresses were characteristically instructive.
The meat of them all appears in this issue of Presto, and it will pay
any serious piano man to clip and preserve most of them. To active
members of the associations w r hich constitute the Music Industries
Chamber of Commerce, there may be pride in the treasurer's report,
in which the monetary stability of the trade is outlined. It would,
only a few years back, have been considered impossible to finance
an organization such as has now been developed by the enterprise
and liberality of the manufacturers and merchants. It speaks well
for the trade that so considerable a contribution to the general cause
of music as the reports indicate, may be credited to the business.
For $37,059.29 devoted to the advancement of music, as a stimu-
lus to public investment in the instruments of music, is not an in-
significant sum, especially as it represents but one branch of the
Chamber's activities. And the other official reports are scarcely
less significant of the determination of the manufacturers and mer-
chants to sustain their organization.
It has been a great week. The convention has done a lot of good.
It will continue to spread its influence far along into the twelve
months ahead until the time comes for another convention in New
York City.
THE AUTOMATIC PIANO
In offering an apology to the J. P. Seeburg Piano Co. for an
almost unpardonable mistake of a re-write editor in last week's
Presto, there is presented also an opportunity to discuss a some-
what remarkable phase of the music industry and trade. The error
was in referring to the progressive Seeburg industry as makers of
playerpianos in the ordinary sense, and also in locating the offices at
the old plant on Erie street, Chicago, which was abandoned two
years ago for the present plant at 1510-1516 Dayton street.
Of course, under ordinary circumstances there could be no spe-
cial harm in the mistakes referred to. But in a trade paper, the
annoyance to the industry, and to the retail dealers, may be con-
siderable. And, too, a publication devoted to any special line of
business is supposed to apply the rule of accuracy in such matters.
Certainly Presto tries hard to adhere to that rule, and it is rare that
mistakes of the kind occur.
The apology now presented to the J. P. Seeburg Piano Co. may
also serve to illustrate one of the difficulties by which all business
papers all papers of any kind, in fact—are beset. How such mis-
takes happen is something that no one can satisfactorily explain. It
is not lack of information, nor is it lapse of alertness, altogether.
It is more like the fate we find so elaborately discussed and analyzed
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/

Page 5 Text:

June 9, 1923
PRESTO
in the modern novel. "To step aside is human," said Burns. And if
there is any place in life's walk that presents a more slippery stepping
place than printers' ink it.has not yet been discovered.
There are. instances wherein the greatest cause has given birth
to the' most ludicrous and vexatious errors, as in the rare edition of
the Bible, the publishers of which had offered a large reward for any
error, however slight. When the book came off the press the very
first buyer of a copy drew attention to three capital B's in "Bible"
on the illuminated inside title. A few years ago an elaborate edition
of the Rubaiyat appeared, in which was a slip promising a reward to
any one who could detect an error in the book. Almost everyone
who had a copy must have discovered "enow" spelled with an "a."
During one of the Cincinnati May Festivals a new edition of "Elijah"
appeared for the occasion, with one entire page omitted.
And so the errors go, and we fear always will. Notwithstanding
wise Cicero's statement that "any man may commit a mistake, but
norte'but a fool will continue in it." And in a trade paper the printed
mistakes, of the kind for which Presto here offers apology to the
J, P. Seeburg Piano Co., usually arise, not from lack of understand-
ing, but from hasty work. In the particular case in mind, it came
from an old descriptive circular which in some way found lodgement
with current memoranda, upon the re-write editor's desk, and was
automatically treated as something new. In that way a Seeburg
style which has long been discontinued was described. We regret the
annoyance to the manufacturers and their customers. To most mem-
bers of the trade it is not necessary to say that the J. P. Seeburg
Piano Co. is making a live line of electric and automatic instruments,
and no ordinary players.
Dealers who are awake to the opportunities of profit in that
class of instruments, know the Seeburg products and represent
them. And dealers who permit the opportunities of the small
theaters and the thousands of other places of entertainment to pass
unsolicited and unsupplied are short-sighted and lacking in some of
the elements by which the piano business is developed and made
to prosper.
What is the matter with the music roll makers? They, as a rule,
complain of slow progress and still neglect to apply the very oil of
motion—trade paper publicity. Only that kind of advertising can
help largely, except in a general way. Music-love propaganda is
TRAFFIC WORK IS
UNSEEN BUT VITAL
Edward A. Leveille's Hard Work as Head of
Traffic Committee, in Caring for Transpor-
tation for Convention.
The average convention visitor, viewing the sixty
odd exhibits with their two hundred different pianos,
concerned himself little with such matters of detail
as to consider how and by whom the work of gather-
ing all these instruments together was accomplished.
Very likely, he fails to see that there was any very
great work to it.
Yet the task of superintending the shipment of all
these pianos, hauling them from the freight yards to
a warehouse, and then Monday morning to trans-
port them all to their rooms at the Drake, wiping,
tuning, and conditioning them, all this was one of the
detailed, unappreciated parts of the work of organ-
izing a big convention.
Edward A. Leveille, chairman of the traffic commit-
tee, is the man who took care of all this work. The
service of the traffic committee was invaluable, es-
pecially for the manufacturers from other cities,
in New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, Indiana, and
other states. For such firms, all the work of taking
care of their instruments, even to polishing, was done
by the traffic committee.
Arrangements were made to meet all instruments
at the railroad yards, ship them to the Drake, tune
them and polish them. All day Sunday and Mon-
day morning trucks which had been contracted for
the purpose hauled pianos into the Drake. When the
representatives of the companies arrived, their ex-
hibit was all ready for them.
In addition, Mr. Leveille arranged the reception of
the train bearing the New York delegation. At Gary,
the train was met by the reception committee from
Chicago and by the Gary school band. Arrange-
ments had to be made to have the special stop at
Gary, for this town is not a regular stop. Special ar-
rangements also had to be made to have the train
which carried the reception committee down to Gary
stop there.
The traffic work was complicated and detailed, but
having special attention by organized associations. The specific en-
terprise of the music roll industries must have special music trade
promotion.
* * *
In most lines of business there is a feeling that the time limit
under which sales are made must be cut down. Manufacturers are
inclined to consider the reduction of the period allowed to dealers,
so as to have a clearer outlook upon the future. Pianos have been
sold on too long time, in view of the readjustments promised in all
lines of business.
* ' * *
The very latest illustration of the power of music comes in the
story of the prisoner in a New York jail whose singing in his cell
caused the judge to discharge him. Next thing we know some Or-
pheus will be twanging his lyre outside some jewelry shop and cause
the diamonds to chase him down the street.
>{C
5jC
Sp
A department store is advertising Columbia $100 phonographs for
$27.50, at retail. Aren't you glad you didn't divide your piano factory
with the talking machine industry? There's nothing quite so good
as a good piano.
Last week Presto said that more pianos would be sold in Chicago
this week than before in twelve months. Perhaps not, but there were
factory representatives present who went home with order books
well filled.
* * *
It is a delight to turn the pages of a piano catalogue that treats
of, and represents, artistic pianos in an artistic manner. The new
Mason & Hamlin catalogue is reviewed briefly in this issue of Presto.
*
*
*
It was a great convention. No music man who was so fortunate
as to be in Chicago this week will ever forget it. And the permanent
good to the industry and trade is beyond computation.
* * *
Compulsory study of music in the public schools is advocated in
New York. A vastly better suggestion than nine-tenths of the propo-
sitions presented by political and fanatical influences.
it was carried off without a hitch. In spite of the late
shipments of some of the out-of-town manufacturers,
every piano was safely received in Chicago and sent
to its exhibition rooms. Labor was scarce, but men
were rounded up for the wiping and polishing of
every piano which needed conditioning.
Mr. Leveille also arranged with a warehouse firm
for the repacking and reshipping of the pianos after
the convention was over.
It is the drab, indispensable details like those taken
care of by Mr. Leveille at the expense of his own
work, which is usually taken for granted by the
visitors and left unappreciated.
A. H. HOWES OF DETROIT
WINS MEMBER CONTEST
Music Merchants' Contest for New Members Won
by Manager of Grinnell Bros.
A. H. Howes, manager of the piano department of
Grinnell Bros., Detroit, won the first prize in the
membership contest of the Music Merchants' Asso-
ciation. Mr. Howes is state commissioner in Michi-
gan for the association, and gained most of his new
members through an active letter campaign.
''Hard work," said Mr. Howes, "is the only trick
I used to get members." He kept up his work until
the last minute, even getting a good part of his mem-
bers at the Drake after the convention had opened.
Mr. Howes has been with Grinnell Bros, for thirty-
one years.
MEMORY CONTEST FOR CANAL ZONE.
Striking evidence of the extent to which the Music
Memory Contests inaugurated by the National Bu-
reau for the Advancement of Music have spread, is
furnished by a letter received by C. M. Tremaine,
director of the bureau, from Miss Helen L. Currier,
of Balboa, chairman of the Music Supervisors' Ad-
visory Committee for the Canal Zone, in which that
lady asks for information, adding that "I should like
to have that work conducted on the Canal Zone."
W. R. Truax has closed out his music store in
East Rochester, N. Y.
THE RIGHT THOUGHT IN
THE PIANO ADVERTISEMENT
Opportunity of the Better Homes Idea Gives Sug-
gestion to Mark P. Campbell.
Mark Campbell, president of the Brambach Piano
Co., New York, is an enthusiastic endorser of the
Better Homes in America idea. He has had two
very fine illustrations made up with the Better
Homes idea in mind to send out to the Brambach
dealers all over the country. These advertisements
are an exception to Mr. Campbell's usual method of
procedure. Before a campaign is sent to dealers, it
is usually tried out by some representative of the
Brambach Piano Company to give it a test to see
how it works out. The dealer who has never experi-
enced having a good appearing ad fail to pull is in-
deed the exception. No matter how fine advertising
sometimes looks, it may lack that something which
produces business.
There are three more advertisements sent out with
these two Better Homes Week ads, on the June
Bride, which have been tried out and found to be ex-
cellent advertising. The way that dealers all over the
country are subscribing to the idea is best evidenced,
according to Mr. Campbell, by the way they have
sent in for mats and electros of these advertisements.
"It has been a revelation to me," continued Mr.
Campbell, "the number of dealers that have asked for
these, many dealers whom we have considered small
dealers and who never do very much advertising, have
risen to the occasion and asked for a full set of ser-
vice for this advertising.
'"The first step to better homes, or at least one of
the first steps, is a piano. So it is my opinion that
every piano manufacturer, dealer, and supply man
should get back of this movement. I want to con-
gratulate the Music Industries Chamber of Com-
merce on the very aggressive support they have
given to the movement," said Mr. Campbell.
G. W. Wickman, owner of a music shop in St.
Ignace, Michigan, stopped off at the Chicago branch
of the Columbia Graphophone Company on his return
home from a winter's stay in Florida.
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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