Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1923 1929

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.
DISPLAY SOLD Q R S MUSIC ROLLS
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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.
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/
PRESTO
July 14, 1923
The
Dominant
Line
J.P.SEEBUR6 PIANO GO.
A full and complete
line of better coin
operated pianos and
orchestrions.
14 Styles
from the smallest to the largest
14 Styles
from the largest to the smallest
Sold on a protected
territory system that
will interest you.
Write for Details
J. P. SEEBURG PIANO CO.
1510 Dayton Street
CHICAGO
INFLUENCING PIANO
PROSPECT'S MIND
Theory and Fact About Talking Points Set
Forth and a Few Instances of Expedient
Action in the Sales Field
Are Told.
The talking point is the means to sales in the piano
business. In setting out on the prospect conquest
the salesman carries the offensive into the fortress
of his friend the enemy, the prospective buyer. His
biggest and best gun is his talking point. It is the
continuous firing of.this that wears down opposition.
The form of the talking point is not rigidly fixed
by theory. In devising his talking point the piano
salesman is a law unto himself. Like Gen. Sheridan,
he shapes the campaign to suit the circumstances
and drat the printed rules of war.
Every talking
point is different from the others, and its nature is a
matter of selection, depending on the intelligence and
perspicacity of the salesman. Piano selling is a game
of war, and, like all games appealing to the thinking
man, its progress is governed by circumstances, and
durn your hoary theories.
Necessity of Drilling.
But, as in the science of war, the recruit in the
piano sales army is in the need of preliminary drill-
ing. It is well for the piano salesman to inform him-
self with every feature of the piano he sells. It is a
good thing to fill his thought storage with all the
admirable features of the piano he daily talks about.
Then possibly if he is very new to the game he will
provide himself with handy mouthfuls of wareroom
dope to put the spell on the prospects on his rural
route. Perhaps he will absorb some of the sales
pointers, theories repeated and reprinted since the
year of the big wind. But in time he will forget the
theories or ignore them and nose out his own spon-
taneous talking points. Then he will be on the way
to success at piano selling.
Everything and everybody is a source of talking
points for the piano salesman. A most important
talking point and by many considered the most valu-
able material of all is the customer himself. It may
be laid down as a general proposition that the more
the salesman senses about his prospect the better
argument he can put forth and the stronger and more
effective talk he can make.
How Does He Do It?
What, do you think, is the talking point of the
young salesman in a certain midwest city who has
made a record for selling the highest type of repro-
ducing piano to the most musically cultured people
in his city? According to the theories he has noth-
ing in his make-up to warrant success of that kind.
He doesn't know the first thing about music. A
cantata to him might mean a new Ford part. He
knows nothing about Richard Wagner, music com-
poser, but everything about Hans Wagner, baseball
player. In fact, he is frankly ignorant about every-
thing you'd think he ought to know to find a medium
of conversation with his musically highbrow
customers.
"He just dopes 'em," is the humorous explanation
of his friends. And it is about as exact an explana-
tion as any. This Philistine leaves the store non-
chalantly remarking that he is "going up to sell Mrs.
Van Uppish a repro. for her swell music function
tomorrow night." Just like that. And the boys in
the store no longer wonder when he returns and
orders the tuner to "ping up" a reproducing grand
and be darn snappy about it.
Can't Feaze Him.
The good piano salesman can make his talking
point translatable into any language. The linguistic
variety at the Tower of Babel wouldn't have feazed
a good salesman who would have sold jewsharps and
timbrels to every mason and hod carrier on the job.
A young man who had always sold pianos got an as-
signment from the musical merchandise department
of a big Chicago music house a few months ago. He
was sent to Mclrose Park, a western suburb of the
city to sell accordions to citizens of Italian birth or
ancestry.
"It looks like a pipe," he said, knowing the attrac-
tion of accordion for this music-loving people. But
he was disillusioned. He found the old-timers more
interested in the banana industry or the manufacture
of light and not so light wines than in the supposedly
national musical instrument. The second generation,
he was surprised to find, gave him the laugh. It got
its music per the jazz band at the dance halls.
Did that young salesman assume a vanquished and
lowly mien and vacate the field? Not so. In the
cause of sales he became a reformer. In good Mel-
rose Park English he said, "Why leta da boys and
girls spenda da mon' in da dance halls? Buya da
playerpian' and make da jazz at home." Next day
he brought out a good but cheap playerpiano and a
suitable collection of rolls and gave a party at the
home of a leading citizen.
Everybody There.
There was never such a jazzy dance in that suburb,
and when the old folks and young folks realized what
a splendid aid and a quick one for the dance they
were easy to talk to. The price and the terms inter-
ested them, and nine sales resulted from the first
week's work following his memorable party. You
can't blind a good salesman to his talking point.
No correct statistics can be compiled of talking
points. Every piano has its talking point of course,
but the point of view of the prospect is also impor-
tant. In some pianos the talking points are con-
vincing; in others not so much so, and in others again
the talking points are faint whispers. A talking point
is a fact with emphasis. The degree of emphasis is
in proportion to the quality of the conviction. But
every salesman worth his salt has his own conception
of what constitutes the quality of conviction.
Set in His Ways.
The piano's virtues suggest talking points to some
salesmen and do so at all times. They conceive only
one angle at which the piano may be viewed and only
from that angle will they present it. They are hon-
est, but they would make the Melrose Park hero
laugh. If they can't make the customer's mind focus
on the virtues of the piano as they conceive them it
is all off. They do not know there are other ways
to make the prospect react. There are not many of
that kind, however.
The piano salesman who gets the greatest joy out
of his profession is the kind who finds a problem in
every sale. He views each customer with the in-
telligent eye of expediency. Any old angle is good
enough to view the piano from so long as the talking
point gets under the skin. The good salesman does
not necessarily have to be inspired. The mortal
mind is capable of some very fancy divining when
the salesman of the expedient order owns it.
SALEM, OREGON, HAS LARGEST
PIAN0=0RGAN IN THEATRE
Inventor of the Big Movie Instrument Is a Resident
of Seattle, Wash.
The second largest organ in the state of Oregon
is in a theater at Salem, the largest being in Port-
land. The instrument is of the piano-organ com-
bination kind, the piano being played either from its
own keys or from the keys of the pipe organ.
B. C. DaShiell, organ builder of Seattle, who con-
structed and installed the piano mechanism in its
entirety, states that there are more than three miles
of 25-gauge B. & S. wire used to operate the piano
as well as approximately 80 feet of solid coined silver
wire used in the make-and-break contacts.
The piano installation is to be considered in no
manner as an ordinary "player-piano," the same de-
gree of skill being required were the player seated
at the piano bench, and the mechanism only enabling
the player to render piano numbers from the organ
console at the same time being able to play the
piano with the organ. Similar instruments are to be
seen and heard in the large city cinema theaters.
The instrument at Salem is one of seven in the
United States and was built under the direction of
Mr. DaShiell, who owns patents covering its con-
struction.
OPENS IN CLAIRETON, PA.
Joe B. Kelly has opened a new music store on St.
Claire avenue, Claireton, Pa., representing the line of
Boggs & Buhl, Pittsburgh, Pa., and by the attendance
at the formal opening recently it is clear Mr. Kelly
is a first class advertiser. The firm of Boggs &
Buhl is the exclusive representative in western Penn-
sylvania for the Henry F. Miller, Poole, Janssen,
Behr Bros, and Solo-Concerto playerpiano, made by
the H. C. Bay Co., Chicago. A special feature of the
opening will be the presentation to every adult visi-
tor of a souvenir booklet of old-fashioned songs,
containing both words and music of famous old
favorites.
SUPER-GRAND SELLS EASILY.
Secretary-TreasurerL. B. Jones, of the Schiller
Piano Co., is still in the East visiting the trade. He
is having continuous success in placing the new
Super-Grand Schiller, which is meeting with the ap-
proval of dealers wherever introduced. The only
trouble at the office at Oregon, 111., is that supplies
are not coming forward as fast as is desirable. But a
steady output of better than a Super-Grand every
day is the present ratio, and soon it will be many
times that.
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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