PRESTO
SUES TO COMPEL PIANO
COMPANY TO SELL OUT
Very Unusual Cause of Litigation Against a Small
Concern in California Town.
Here is something new in the good old piano busi-
ness. Not infrequently we hear of lawsuits to cor-
rect alleged infringements of patents or other rights
in the piano world, but here is a lawsuit to compel
a dealer to sell out his business.
Alleging that L. J. Danz of the Danz Piano Com-
pany, Anaheim, Calif., agreed to sell his business,
and then refused to fulfill the agreement, the Rudolph
Wurlitzer Company, New York branch, filed suit for
specific performance of the asserted contract.
According to the complaint, a large initial deposit
was to be made and monthly payments of $2,000 were
to follow. The change was to take effect May 10,
(recording to the suit, but when the time came Mr.
Danz had changed his mind. The price was to have
been $32,000.
CHICAGO PIANO MANUFACTURER
PRAISES LONG BEACH, CAL.
C. C. Chickering Sees a Future Industrial Center in
the Beautiful Coast City.
Business men of Long Beach, Calif., are quite
elated over a letter from C. C. Chickering, head of
the Chicago industry which manufactures the artis-
tic Acoustigrande piano, who recently toured Cali-
fornia. While Mr. Chickering has no thought of es-
tablishing any branch factory and is a Chicago man-
ufacturer through and through, he was greatly taken
with beautiful Long Beach. He said to a friend there
that the logical place for a western factory would
be either Long Beach or Los Angeles, and in a let-
ter quoted by a local newspaper, Mr. Chickering said:
"I have been favorably impressed with your city,
having been in it on several occasions. In all I ex-
pect I have been in Long Beach at least eight times
and naturally I know of the wonderful progress
July 14, 1923
which has been made and is being made in the city's
growth.
"If 1 had my choice for locating a factory on the
west coast I would choose either Los Angeles or
Long Beach, and in many respects Long Beach has
the advantage, being located at tidewater and in di-
rect connection with ocean ports throughout the
world. When you have constructed a proper harbor
you will have gone a long way toward attracting
manufacturing enterprises of all kinds."
SOME OF THE LATE CHANGES
IN RETAIL PIANO TRADE
Changes, Renewals and New Enterprises in Different
Parts of the Country.
The Berefield-Motley Furniture Co., Danville, Va.,
has added a music department in charge of E. D.
Gibson.
The Pratt Piano Co., Montreal, Canada, is now lo-
cated in its new store on Notre Dame street.
William Young, the Fort Wayne, Ind., music
dealer, has purchased the store and stock of Guy
Conklin in the same city and has moved his business
to the Conklin store.
Harry W. Wachtel has opened a music store in a
good location in Oelwein, la. He carries a general
stock of music goods.
Edmund A. Francis is the owner of a new music
business opened recently in Galesburg, 111.
Andrew Seibak is owner of a new music business
opened last week in Antioch, Cal. The Seibak Music
Co. is the title of the business.
Black & Derges recently opened a store at 505
Main street, Peoria, 111.
A new store at 208 Meadow street, New Haven,
Conn., was recently opened by John T. Law.
Ernest W. Guillemette is proprietor and manager
of a new music store at 782 Elm street, Manchester,
N. H.
J. O. King is the active owner of a new music
business at Ephraim, Utah.
P. M. Oyler recently opened a music goods store
in Bendersville, Pa.
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The W. F. Frederick Piano Co., of Pittsburgh, em-
ploys the fine art of publicity in all its forms. In
its newspaper advertising every sentence is made to
convey a fact that leads to the determination to buy
the thing advertised. The generality, however glit-
tering, is considered weak in appeal by the clever ad
writer of the company. The good piano advertise-
ment, for instance, should be something more than a
nice arrangement of type and handsome cuts, he
thinks. It should compel the reader to buy.
•' * : * * m M
Another advertising feature of the W. F. Frederick
Piano Co. is the window display. Here, too, another
publicity artist of the Pittsburgh house bunches his
hits. Window shows in the store are always displays
with a purpose. An accompanying cut of an ar-
rangement of Q R S music rolls is a case in point.
This window, which was suggested by Clarence
Lucore, sales manager of the company, sold the rolls
in great quantities and sold them quickly.
REMARKABLE PROGRESS
OF LESTER PIANO CO.
Philadelphia Industry and the Forces by
Which It Has Won a Leading Place
with Trade and Public.
History has not yet fully settled the question
whether the first American piano was made in Phila-
delphia or not. Certainly some of the very earliest
pianos were made there. And, from the first, Phila-
delphia has been a piano manufacturing city.
Today there is one Philadelphia piano industry
which illustrates vividly what may be done in piano
manufacture by well-directed ambition, skill and
energy.
No one who enters the Philadelphia offices of the
Lester Piano Co. can fail to recognize the spirit of
success which prevails there. And to the experi-
GEORGE MILLER.
enced piano man familiar with the origin of the fore-
most industries, the Lester Piano Co. presents one
of the finest illustrations of what a comparatively
short time may accomplish under the right circum-
stances. For it is not long since the Lester was a
comparatively small industry. Today it is by far the
most important piano industry in Philadelphia, and
one of the most conspicuous in the United States.
As is usual where great concerns develop quickly
from small beginnings, the Lester Piano Co. owes its
rapid advance to the energy, determination and
organizing will of one man. Not but that the large or-
ganization of today includes many adroit and experi-
enced men, but it is to the administration of George
Miller, the company's treasurer, that the greater
credit is due. Mr. Miller took hold of the Lester at
a time when there was apparently little to work upon.
He set it going along lines based upon piano merit.
The Lester piano was made fit to cope with the best.
And it has won.
It has been said that George Miller's achievement
in making the Lester Piano Co. the powerful indus-
try it now is, and in creating the Lester piano and its
place in the world as it is today, reads like a fairy
tale. But to him it has been a serious matter—an
attainment due to hard work and unlimited con-
fidence in the American music lovers and the piano
trade generally. And from the small start the Les-
ter Piano Co. has grown to proportions which would
astonish the larger part of the trade at this time. The
development has been done quietly and the great fac-
tories, at Lester, Pa., have been steadily increased
until they represent possibilities of production which
are equalled by few others in the piano industry.
The Lester plant has been erected in Delaware
County, where a tract of twenty acres was secured
when it became clear that the Philadelphia factory
had been outgrown. The town of Lester has several
thousand residents, a good proportion of them being
actively engaged in the piano factories. There are
fine schools there, a bank, and several industries in
other lines.
And the Lester piano of today is handled by an
army of satisfied dealers throughout the country—
throughout the world, in fact. The name of Lester
has become a power in the trade. The people who
buy pianos know the name, and in it they recognize
the kind of instruments their homes prefer. That is
achievement in the piano industry. And members
of the trade visiting Philadelphia will find it well
worth their while to visit the Lester warerooms, and,
if possible, to find their way to the private office of
President Miller.
SMALL NEW YORK FAILURE.
Temistolle Mattioli, doing business as Metropol-
itan Music Store, 720 East 187th street, New York,
has been thrown into bankruptcy by C. Bruno &
Son, Inc., on a claim of $1,123.
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