Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1923 1925

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 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
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, JUNE 16, 1923.
PRESTO CORRESPONDENCE
I f 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 P1TANO 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.
A TRAGEDY
The uncertainty of life was brought shockingly home to the
trade by the death of Joseph Rada, superintendent of the Waltham
Piano Co.'s factory on Friday evening- of last week.
Mr. Rada had been in attendance at the Chicago convention,
where he made a fine impression and won many new friends among
piano men. When he left the happy scenes of the Drake Hotel on
Friday evening, he could have had no presentiment that he would
never reach his Milwaukee home alive, and his partings with inti-
mates in Chicago were those of the hopefully enthusiastic piano man
who had seen his latest work crowned with success.
The smooth road between the two cities was familiar to the
piano expert. He had driven his car over it many times, and the
memories of the week closing were blended with anticipations of a
return to the work he loved. And suddenly, with scarcely a mo-
ment's warning, death, in one of its most tragic moods, reached out
and the end of Joseph Rada's ambitions and useful life had come.
Moralists are always ready to point a reason and a purpose in
such tragedies. But the men of action who met Joseph Rada at the
displays of the Waltham Piano Co. in Chicago, can have a vision
only of a strong man, vital with the enthusiasms of his skill, and
filled with the determination to attain still more triumphs in the
work he loved. To him piano making was in itself a kind of religion.
He had completed the new "Waverly" piano, and it had pleased him.
He had other ideas stored up in the recesses of his experience, and
he was eager to get back to his place in the factory, where he might
June 16, 1923
work them out to practical results. And, no matter how we may view
the sudden taking away of a useful worker in any special calling, there
remains the mystery of it, and the big, lowering question to which
comes no answer.
Seneca, the wise, said that "it is uncertain at what place death
awaits thee. Wait, then, for it at every place." The advice is even
older than Seneca, but no modern man cares to consider it, and so
the sudden shock of such a death as that of Joseph Rada conies as
inexplicable in its purpose today as ever.
The Waltham Piano Co. has the sympathy of all who know its
personnel. Mr. Paul Netzow. to whom the factory expert had be-
came endeared, feels the loss of a friend as well as a loyal helper.
And though another will take his place, and the Milwaukee piano
industry will move along just as if there had been no tragedy to
mar for its offiical staff the memories of the 1923 convention, it will
be long before the useful life and genial personality of Joseph Rada
will be forgotten.
A PIANO MAN
Fvery now and then a busy life in the piano trade ends and
leaves a heritage of such honor that his name becomes a perpetual
inspiration. Recent issues of the newspapers of Memphis contained
notable tributes to the memory of O. K. Houck, whose heroic
passing closed a career of more than local distinction.
"Ollie" Houck was a man in whose make-up nature had com-
bined all of the elements that win friends and hold them. He was
a large man in his view of life, and he was popular because he pos-
sessed the self-control of an even temper, and a sense of fairness
that played no favorites in the game of life. His pride in affairs
of his home city was shared in the attainments of the business into
which he had invested his energies and his money. There was never
a time when he would not devote the best there was in him to the
general good of the music trade, and he was consulted in matters
of the Piano Merchants' Association and contributed to every event
of local character by which music might be benefited.
Perhaps, as much as anything, the manner in which "Ollie"
Houck faced the supreme crisis drew upon him the admiration of
his friends. He had, for a year or more before the end, possessed
a full consciousness that death was just ahead. But there was
nothing in that knowledge to cause him to falter in his earthly efforts.
If anything, he put still more vigor into the fulfillment of his
plans. He wrote, a very beautiful message in which he declared his
faith in the continuity of life, and in words courageous gave expres-
sion to the love he held for his friends and his appreciation of what
his life had held of joy and success. It is not strange that the busy
press, two years after his death, should reprint the piano man's
message, as a model and an inspiration to those who are still here
and in need of such an example.
We can not have enough such lives as that of "Ollie" Houck,
with which to sweeten the mass of pushing, struggling humanity in
such a time as this. It is good newspaper work to repeat the
message of such a man, dying, to the world that is just beginning
to live, as it is in the heat of the maddening crush for conquest. It
is like a cool, refreshing, courage-giving breeze to the toiler in the
heat of a sultry day.
And the music trade may take to itself a pride and satisfaction
that "Ollie" Houck was a part of it, and that his share in its progress
and purification has left an influence which has not even yet been
lost. He was a rare character. We need more like him.
PLAYER ROLL SALES
Disappointment has been expressed that the music roll men did
not make more noise at the recent convention. There seems to be
need of some deeper agitation of the music roll than has yet been
developed. For, if the playerpiano is to remain a leading force and
factor in the trade, there must be a bigger distribution of the essen-
tials to its performance.
There can be no doubt that the cost of a music roll as compared
with that of a piece of sheet music, has a good deal to do with the
quicker decline of the home interest in, and use of the playerpiano
than was the case with the older instrument. It required time to
learn to play the piano. Very few who buy playerpianos think that
they must learn how to perform upon that instrument. Most people
believe that all the intelligence really needed is contained in the
feet and pumping capacity. There have been attempts to establish
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 16, 1923
PRESTO
regular courses of playerpiano instruction, but pupils have been too
scarce to justify the enterprise. And so the instrument too often
serves to soon satisfy the curiosity of its owner and to weary the
family with the constant repetition of some popular piece of music.
And then the term of silence ensues.
It is a matter of education and of trade cultivation. The music
dealers must be made to understand that music rolls are profitable
items in their business. It was customary with sheet music dealers
to carry all of the popular publications and never to miss a new
number that promised to sell at all. The publishers had standing
orders to send every new issue, and a music store that did not carrry
all of the latest w r as not considered alive.
There are hundreds of pieces of sheet music put forth to every
music roll. And yet the average music house waits until a roll be-
comes popular, and is called for, before it is ordered. The life of
the music roll trade is not even yet comparable to that of sheet music
even today. There must be a pressure aside from the difference in
price.
$
Nevertheless, what has been said in this editorial must be quali-
fied to the degree that the actual output of music rolls is today enor-
mous, as compared with the estimate of productiveness as it would
probably be stated by one not posted. For, according to a prominent
member of the roll industry, the present output does not fall far
short of 15,000.000 rolls a year. That would allow approximately
two rolls for each playerpiano every month. Does that seem enough
to justify our stage of music love and progress? And of course
not all of the rolls manufactured are actually sold and distributed.
Perhaps Mr. Geo. L. Ames, of the United States Music Co., has
hit upon the right, or wrong, spot. He believes that the dealers are
to blame. And Mr. Ames suggests that the manufacturers of player-
pianos affix a notice to every instrument, advising the dealers to urge
the ultimate buyers of playerpianos to secure suitable music rolls
as they are issued. Mr. Ames believes that by pushing the sale of
the better rolls—the ones that interpret a fine class of compositions
—the public taste may be improved and the playerpiano itself made
to perform a more useful mission in life.
Some such plan as that proposed by Mr. Ames is needed if the
playerpiano is to be of real value to its buyer after it leaves the store.
The music roll is not doing its full share in the world of home music.
There are not enough music rolls made and sold, and the decimated
list of the manufacturers is the most convincing evidence of the
conditions. The retail music dealers should push their roll trade,
or the piano dealers should more generally install music roll de-
partments.
Several large piano industries have notified their customers that
no new orders for shipment until after July can be accepted. It is
almost impossible to find a carload of pianos ready for shipment in
any factory where medium priced pianos are produced.
* * *
A very small proportion of the instruments displayed during
convention week was shipped back to the factories. In many in-
stances every piano in the room was tagged for private purchasers
days before the week ended.
* * *
The first picture of a "built-in" piano is given in this issue of
Presto. Will the time come when there will be in-a-door uprights
in kitchenette apartments?
A few years ago a great effort was made to induce furniture
stores to put in pianos. Very little of that kind of piano trade is
being sought for now.
* * *
At last the song writers of New York are to have a club. They've
deserved one for years ! Appropriately, too, the club is to be called
"Tin Pan Hall."
* * *
It is estimated that the aggregate amount of piano business
transacted at last week's convention in Chicago exceeded $200,000.
SUGGESTS CHANGES IN
NEXT CONVENTION PLANS
trade gathering—the showing of the goods and the
meeting of piano dealer with piano traveler and piano
manufacturer.
Piano Traveler's Views Expressed in Follow-
ing Letter May Sound Revolutionary
to Many in Trade.
BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT
PLEASES OREGON TRADE
Editor Presto: The annual trade conventions for
1923 are over and that the occasion has been a suc-
cess from all points of view is generally admitted.
But to me the necessity for certain changes in pro-
cedure is clear. My views, too, are shared by a num-
ber of piano dealers, manufacturers and travelers with
whom I have discussed the subject.
For one thing, the convention period should ex-
tend from Sunday to Sunday. Three days, Monday,
Tuesday and Wednesday, might be given over to the
meetings of the different trade associations, with the
evenings after five o'clock free for social functions ar-
ranged by the manufacturers for the entertainment
of their dealers or for whatever pleasures the in-
dividual may select from those provided by the big
cities in which the conventions are now invariably
held. But the piano exhibits should not be con-
sidered open until Thursday.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, all day, should be
declared an exhibit period, with nothing else to in-
terfere with a most important feature of a trade con-
vention. Three clear days would give the desirable
time for the manufacturer to do a sufficient business
to compensate him for his expenses in making an ex-
hibit at a headquarters hotel or other point in the
convention city.
My third suggestion is that the big association
banquets be discontinued. They are hoary customs,
but really are not necessary in the scheme of friendli-
ness in the annual gatherings. They are highly profit-
able, no doubt to the hotels, but the purchase of ban-
quet tickets by manufacturers to give to dealers is a
big drag on the expense account of the piano fac-
tory sales department.
I am a traveler and realize the advantages generally
of the conventions. The business sessions are an
educational necessity to the dealers. There is always
something to be discussed in a friendly way by the
manufacturers, the outcome of which is usually bene-
ficial to the trade in all its phases. The working of
their national association makes an annual meeting
necessary to the travelers. But the business of
associations should be transacted in the first three
days of a convention week, leaving the three full days
and evenings for a most important purpose of a
Indication for Future in Southern Part of State Par-
ticularly Bright, Says Dealer.
PIANO TRAVELER.
Stanto Powell, of Grant's Pass, Ore., was a recent
visitor to Portland, and said that business in southern
Oregon was very much improved and the indications
for the future were very bright. Mr. Powell is the
owner and proprietor of "The Music & Photo House"
of Grant's Pass, and has just erected a handsome new
building for his own use and has one of the most
complete and up-to-date music houses in southern
Oregon. Mr. Powell carries the Gulbransen line of
pianos, and the Victor and Brunswick phonographs
and records and a complete line of musical merchan-
dise and sheet music.
The piano house of the G. F. Johnson Company of
Portland, Ore., was burglarized May 27 and four
Martin saxophones valued at $500 were taken and
two pairs of pliers. The culprits were two young
men who were apprehended and the' two pairs of
pliers were found on them. They confessed and led
the officers to the hiding place of the saxophones
which were returned to Mr. Johnson uninjured.
Seth Laraway of the Laraway Music House of
Eugene, Ore., was a recent visitor to Portland and
while in the City of Roses announced that he had
taken over the agency for the Kimball piano and that
business was booming in the University City.
JOHN MARTIN'S ENTHUSIASM.
It is seldom that a manufacturer is privileged to
have a dealer so enthusiastic that he will gladly de-
vote his own time to acquainting his fellow dealers
with his method of presenting a product to the pub-
lic. Such, however, is the case with the Gulbransen
and John Martin, Los Angeles representative of the
playerpiano. All week long during the recent con-
vention scores of dealers sat alongside of Mr. Martin
and got from him hints and practice in the correct
musical presentation of the Gulbransen; heard him
explain the things that can be done on a Gulbransen
and on no other playerpiano—the things that appeal
to practically every prospect at once and that make
even the most competent pianists sit up and take
notice.
NEW NAME FOR THE
GULBRANSEN PLAYER
The Gulbransen Registering Piano Supersedes
Old Names Considered Inadequate to De-
scribe Special Merits of Instrument.
Concluding a week of unparalleled convention ac-
tivity, the (lUlbransen-Dickinson Co., Chicago, made
several announcements of widespread interest to the
music trade and industry. At the Thursday morning
breakfast at the Drake Hotel, at which Gulbransen
dealers were the guests, a new name for the Gulbran-
sen product was made public. It is "Gulbransen
Registering Piano."
For some time the company and many of its dealers
have felt that the term "playerpiano" has fallen short
of describing the Gulbransen, which is not alone a
"playerpiano," as the term is generally understood,
but goes further and actually "registers" one's touch,
"registers" one's time, "registers" one's expression
and individuality.
When the name was announced at the breakfast by
John Martin, Gulbransen dealer, Los Angeles, Cal.,
it was received very favorably. The dealers' attitude
was one of feeling that they had at last been given
something to distinguish the Gulbransen from other
playerpianos.
The first announcement of the new
name in a national publication will be made in a July
issue of The Saturday Evening Post.
The Gulbransen-Dickinson Co. also announces that
as soon as practicable from a manufacturing stand-
point, Gulbransen playerpianos will be furnished so
as to play all music rolls, whether cut for player-
pianos, reproducing or expression pianos. The value
of offering a piano that "plays any roll" will be
quickly realized.
TWO HUNDRED GUESTS.
The Gulbransen-Dickinson Co.'s breakfast at the
Drake Hotel last week was attended by about 200
dealers and their wives. The feature attraction was
the playing of "La Cinquantaine" and "Valse Co-
quette," on the Gulbransen by John Martin, the Gul-
bransen representative in Los Angeles, Cal.
CHANGES FIRM NAME.
In adding a line of pianos and playerpianos the
Hyatt Talking Machine Co., Portland, Ore., recently
changed the firm title to the Hyatt Music Co. Await-
ing the completion of its own building the company
will occupy larger quarters at 386 Morrison street.
The new piano line will soon be announced.
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/

Download Page 4: PDF File | Image

Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).

Pro Tip: You can flip pages on the issue easily by using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard.