Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1923 1931

PRESTO
July 28, 1923
CHRISTMAN
Grand
when embodied with
Has The Appeal That
WINS THE BEST TRADE
The Summer Season is Made
Profitable to Dealers who
Sell this Remarkable Instru-
ment, for it has many Points
that no Other can claim.
YOU ARE LOSING SALES
Every day you are without
the influence of the
CHRISTMAN
Studio Grand
A WONDERFUL SMALL GRAND
only five feet long which embodies all
the advantages of the larger grands
and possessing a tone volume and
range of expression surprisingly broad.
Musicians quickly recognize the
characteristic tone qualities of the
CHRISTMAN GRAND
SEEING IS BELIEVING
The First Touch Tells t 9
Reg. U. S. Pat
Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
LATE NEWS FROM
THE PORTLAND FIELD
Important Sociable as Well as Business Events
in the Recent Items From the Oregon
City.
James L. Jones, who was manager of the musical
department of the Davis-Kaser Co., of Walla Walla,
Wash., has been promoted to general manager of
the establishment, after making an enviable record
in the music department. His place has been filled
in the music department by George Cooper, formerly
of the firm of Long & Cooper, who has a music store
in Corvallis, Ore.
The McCormick Music Company of Portland,
Ore., has just received another large shipment of
Kimball pianos, which have been placed on the dis-
play floor. Mr, McCormick says that sales are very
good for the summer, the volume far exceeding that
of last year.
Thomas Young, the proprietor of the Economy
Drug Company of Pendleton, Ore., has moved into
his handsome new quarters. He has two stores side
by side, one for drugs and the other a complete
music shop. He handles the Gulbransen pianos and
the Edison, Brunswick and Victor phonographs.
The employe force of Sherman, Clay & Co. held
a picnic July 8th at Gales Creek, about twelve miles
south of Portland. Headed by J. H. Dundore, man-
ager of the retail department, and Elmer Hunt, of
the wholesale department, and with Art Stein in
charge of the big Sherman, Clay truck loaded with
eats that brought up the rear, the caravan headed
south. A delightful outing was enjoyed by the force
and their friends. The day was spent in baseball,
races, swimming and games of all sorts and a royal
time was enjoyed.
COLUMBUS, IND., MUSIC
HOUSE HOLDS LIVELY SALE
Charles T. Mitchell Purchases Fine Stock of Pearson
Piano Co. There.
The Columbus Music House, Columbus, Ind., which
recently bought the Williams Music Store at 427 Third
street and moved the stock of the Pearson Piano Com-
pany from Washington street to the Columbus Music
House's location on Third street, began a two-day
opening sale at the latter location last week.
This is proving a quite successful one, with large
numbers of customers calling at the new store. The
Columbus Music House has the agency for the Pear-
son Piano Company in this territory and is carrying
in stock that company's pianos, talking machines,
rolls, records, etc.
The removal of the stock of the Pearson Piano
Company's store from the location on Washington
street to the Columbus Music House's store on Third
street, was completed last week. The stock of the
Pearson company was purchased by Charles T.
Mitchell, owner of the Columbus Music House. The
Pearson company will not maintain a store in Colum-
bus in the future. James S. Rice is manager of the
store, which is located at 427 Third street.
THE PRICE MAINTENANCE
QUESTION NOT SETTLED
Government Discovers New Angle to Be Considered
in Suit Under Anti-Trust Laws.
Just when everybody had settled down with a feel-
ing of satisfaction, in the belief that the problem of
price maintenance had been solved, comes along a
new angle of it to create more litigation and uncer-
tainty. Decisions so far have determined that a
manufacturer may choose his own customers and,
consequently, may refuse to sell to such as do not
maintain resale prices. But he cannot bind his cus-
tomers not to resell to retailers indulging in cut rates.
A new feature, says the New York Times, is pre-
sented in a suit brought against the American Chain
Company by the Government under the anti-trust
'laws. The company, it appears, has obtained control
of certain patents on automobile bumpers, and, it is
charged, is trying to get a monopoly of the trade,
said to amount to $20,000,000 a year. Under ordi-
nary circumstances, the ownership of a patent is in-
tended to give one a monopoly. In the present in-
stance this might be entirely legal and proper, and
no allegations are made of wrongful practices. But
it seems that the company has licensed manufacturers
to make its devices, exacting from them the agree-
ment not to sell except at certain fixed prices.
This presents the question whether an act which is
lawful and proper for a principal becomes an offense
against the law when it is done by an agent. The
case will probably go to the court of last resort be-
cause of the principle involved, affecting, as it does,
the monopolistic right which underlies the granting
of any and all patents.
STORY & CLARK MANAGER
PLEASED WITH JULY SALES
Completion of Great Number of New Homes Makes
Summer Business Boom.
The store of the Story & Clark Piano Co., 1105
Chestnut street, Philadelphia, is being remodeled.
An important part of the work is the enlargement of
the elevator shaft. The heavy work of placing iron
girders for the extension of the space will be com-
pleted this week, according to General Manager Jules
Kohnheim.
July sales of instruments in all departments have
been very satisfactory so far. The completion of a
great number of new homes in the city and suburbs
has had a stimulating effect on piano sales. Phila-
delphia is having a building boom, or, rather, the in-
terrupted boom has been resumed. On the theory
that every newly occupied home requires a new
piano, player or reproducing piano, even if the new
occupants own an old instrument, the alert sales staff
of the Story & Clark Piano Co. has proceeded to
locate the owners. In many cases sales of pianos
were made before the new homes had been
completed.
FRANK A. VANDERLIP
DISCUSSES CONDITIONS
In Prominent Financier's View Wholesomeness of
General Conditions Is Pointed Out.
"The prosperity of this country, or perhaps I
should say the wholesomeness of general conditions,
today is unprecedented," said Frank A. Vanderlip in
New York this week.
"Labor is more efficient than ever, wages are high
and undoubtedly will remain high. We have a 100
per cent purchasing power and production is going
ahead at a high level. Recently there was a slight
slowing up, which must be viewed favorably and it
is safe to say that this conservatism prevented indus-
try from being accelerated at too rapid a pace. This
conservative attitude on the part of business only
means our evident prosperity will be prolonged.
"I firmly believe, despite the small outlet to foreign
countries of our enormous production, the United
States can within itself continue a prosperous na-
tion. Despite all industrial activity the potential
credit-expanding power of the country has not been
touched. The banks are in a position to meet still
larger credit demands. We now hold so much gold
the federal reserve system in an endeavor to conceal
it is forcing it into circulation."
USES OF COST ACCOUNTING.
In the preface to a book released by the Depart-
ment of Commerce, Secretary Herbert Hoover al-
ludes to growing desire for cost accounting in the
various trades. On this topic he says: "The truly
remarkable findings of Government agencies in the
war years gave the knowledge and understand-
ing of costs in production and distribution. Losses
often were confused with profits, those investigations
showed, all for the lack of knowledge of the funda-
mentals of cost accounting. Today, the trade asso-
ciation is proving itself the most potent organized in-
fluence in the study of costs in industry and trade,
aiming towards standard systems applicable to pecu-
liar conditions. All of which tend to more scientific
knowledge of business and ultimately lowered costs."
F. E. STORY BUYS SUMMER HOME.
F. E. Story, vice-president and treasurer of the
Story & Clark Piano Co., Chicago, recently pur-
chased a beautiful summer home on Green Lake,
Wis., in an ideal location about thirty miles west of
Fond du Lac. Mr. Story is elated over his purchase,
and at present is spending a short vacation there. He
plans, however, to be back in Chicago soon to re-
sume his business.
NORTHWEST PROSPEROUS.
W. R. Oswald, dealer at 1216 West Broadway,
Spokane, Wash., who was a visitor in Chicago this
week, speaks encouragingly of general conditions
in the northwest coast country. He believes things
all point to continued prosperity and good business
in the music trade. Mr. Oswald left for home on
Wednesday.
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/
July 28, 1923
PRESTO
NO IMPOSSIBLE
PIANO PROSPECTS
And the Correctness of the Statement Is
Borne Out by the Story Told This Week
by W. R. Oswald, the Spokane
Dealer.
There are some piano men so naturally courteous
and polite they hardly deserve credit for presenting
the suave and peaceful front on occasions which test
their serenity. On the other hand, are the unfor-
tunates who are so temperamentally equipped that
every hour of their lives has its moments when the
desire to flare up must be suppressed. To these spir-
ited, hair-trigger chaps belong the whitest wings and
brightest halos, for theirs is the eternal struggle to
keep the peace amid the vexations of the piano ware-
room or the strenuous stunts of the sales on the out-
side.
He Was Reminded.
W. R. Oswald, the Spokane, Wash., dealer was
thinking of the latter kind when talking with a
Presto man in Chicago this week, and the thought
suggested a story about an old friend of his named
Joe Avery, when Joe was a piano salesman in a New
England town. Joe got a keen salesman's ability
from his Yankee father and a red head and a dyna-
mite temper from the suffragette side of the house.
Joe's mother was Scotch-Irish and in Joe the Irish
combustibility far outweighed the Scotch canniness,
according to Mr. Oswald, who said:
Subduing His Wrath.
"As a matter of fact, the poor chap's life up to
manhood was one tireless struggle to acquire suav-
ity; to govern his ready and truthful tongue and to
master his features, which naturally strove to reflect
his emotions. But he had his reward at last and got
himself so well in hand that only his nearest friends
could tell what sleeping volcanoes of wrath lay lulled
within him.
'"He proved it, too, when he tackled old Archibald
Goddard, taking him up as a piano prospect when
all the other piano folks had passed him up as im-
possible. Archibald was the local rich man and was
so crusty he repelled all advances to conversation
that didn't concern his bank, paint works or tile
factory.
"That was the kind of a piano prospect Joe Avery
took up when all the others retired, baffled and
defeated at old Goddard's crabbedness and unwill-
ingness to hear even the preambles to the eloquent
piano pleas.
"Goddard and his meek little wife had lived their
lives in the grim brick house on Elm street; had
raised their one girl there until they sent her to a
fashionable finishing school in Boston. The unlovely
old square house Goddard continued to consider good
enough for him. The wife agreed with him through
habit; but the daughter, a dashing, spirited girl,
stormed the old Croesus into building a new, modern
house after a plan .of her own selection.
Then Daughter Returned.
"You see, at the end of her school days she re-
fused to return home until the house of her choice
was built. The old man sent her a sulphurous nega-
tive by telegraph. The old home was good enough
for him and she could stay away and be blankety-
blanked for all he cared. She repeated her ulti-
matum and took a job as secretary or something in
Boston.
"Meanwhile the mother fretted and pined for the
daughter and old Goddard fumed and invented new
cuss words directed at daughter by his private wire-
less. But the girl was firm. No new home accord-
ing to plans supplied; no beautiful twenty-year-old
daughter to grace the domestic hearth. Daughter
won. Goddard had the house built and Marie re-
turned.
Marie's Ultimatum.
"Then came the question of decorations and furni-
ture. Marie had appropriate plans in these matters,
too, and every painter's job and every set of furni-
ture was the subject of a battle royal. The girl got
everything until it came to the furnishing of the
music room. There she insisted on a harp and
grand piano at prices that threw old crusty into fits.
The old parlor organ, good enough for mother, was
good enough for her. Daughter laughed scornfully
and put on the screws of the 1900 flapper. She in-
stigated persistent attacks on papa by every piano
house in the town, but in vain. Not a salesman could
get a hearing. It was then Joe Avery essayed to
win where others failed.
Siege Begins.
"Time and again Joe tried for an interview, but
to no purpose. He was tireless in his efforts though.
In his calm, firm way Joe had anticipated success
for his purpose if he succeeded in getting his victim
cornered. But Goddard hedged himself around with
watchful employes, who panted to bounce piano
salesmen. Joe, however, eluded their vigilance one
day and cornered the old man in his office.
"Then came the tornado of wrath from the penned
prospect, all of which Joe calmly heard. He sat un-
moved until the storm sunk to mere sputtering gusts
and eddies of profanity. Then he began to state
his proposition. Goddard got his second wind and
interrupted with sulpherous refusals to listen. 'Get
out, d'ye hear, get out!' he bellowed with a threaten-
ing movement towards the placid piano salesman.
'Don't you see I'm busy?'
Goaded Him.
" 'Well, since you're so busy today,' said the ur-
bane Joe, 'will you kindly tell me where and when
we can talk over these pianos and things you want
to buy?'
"'Go to hell!' shouted Goddard on the verge of
apoplexy.
" 'Thanks. I'll consider that an appointment,' was
the smiling response.
"The magnate sank back in his chair gasping, his
face working with contradictory emotions.
The
rigid mouth at last relaxed into something like a
smile.
" 'You win,' he said resignedly. 'What fool music
fixin's does that girl want?'
" 'She wants a grand piano and harp. These are
the styles and the makes are the best in the market.
And she also wants a pipe organ,' added Joe, driving
while the driving was good. 'Something to cost
about—'
" 'Oh, go the limit. Get out. Don't you see I'm
busy,' was the final bark."
RENEWS ATLANTA LEASE.
The lease of the Cable Piano Co. on the Cable
Piano Co. building, Atlanta, Ga., has just been re-
newed for ten years. The building is owned by Mrs.
Junius Oglesby and Mrs. W. S. Witham, who re-
ceive $25,000 yearly from three tenants, the others
being the Atlanta Conservatory of Music and the
Pictorial Review.
OFFICIAL RECORD OF
TRAVELERS' COMMITTEES
Various Lists of New Appointments by Presi-
dent W .C. Heaton Sent Out
by Secretary.
The new committees of the National Piano Travel-
ers' Association for 1923-1924 appointed by Presi-
dent W. C. Heaton are printed on the new letter-
head prepared by Secretary Albert Behning. The
complete list of officers is also officially set forth on
the stationery. The complete names and addresses
of the officers are:
President—W. C. Heaton, Auto Pneumatic Co.,
653 West 51st street, N. Y.; first vice-president, Chas.
J. Cunningham, Foster-Armstrong Co., Rochester,
N. Y.; second vice-president, George E. Mansfield,
C. Kurtzmann & Co., Buffalo, N. Y.; third vice-presi-
dent, James T. Bristol, 25 East Jackson Blvd., Chi-
cago, 111.; treasurer, W. B. Williams, 130 West 42nd
street, N. Y.; secretary, Albert Behning, 105 West
40th street, N. Y.
The following are the various committees for the
new term:
i
Advisory committee: former Presidents W. S. Rich,
W. M. Plaisted, A. Dalrymple, J. H. Shale, W. J.
Keeley, C. T. Purdy, G. W. Allen, W. E. Hall, O. W.
Williams, F. E. Edgar, D. E. Fabyan, J. A. Krumme,
A. A. Mahan, A. S. Shoninger, G. H. Bliss.
Executive Committee: The President, Chairman;
ex-officio, first vice-president, second vice-president,
third vice-president, treasurer, secretary; M. J. Ken-
nedy, 532 Republic Bldg., Chicago, 111.; Gordon
Laughead, Apollo Piano Co., DeKalb, 111.
Grievance Committee: Roger S. Brown, chairman,
Henry F. Miller Piano Co., Boston, Mass.; Ralph H.
Day, Ivers & Pond, 114 Boylston street, Boston,
Mass.; Paul Fink, Aeolian Co., 29 West 42nd street,
New York City.
Hotel Committee: Geo. E. McNally, chairman,
Estey Piano Co., 297 East 133rd street, New York
City; A. B. Furlong, Vocalstyle Co., Cincinnati, Ohio;
Alexander McDonald, Sohmer Co., 31 West 57th
street, New York City.
Railroad and Water Ways Committee: Gust.
Adolph Anderson, chairman, Van Wert, Ohio;
Thomas J. Mercer, Gulbransen-Dickinson Co., Chi-
cago, 111.; B. P. Sibley, Kohler Industries, San Fran-
cisco, Cal.; Roy S. Dunn, Straube Piano Co., Ham-
mond, Ind.
Delegates to National Council of Traveling Sales-
men's Ass'n: W. C. Heaton, Geo. W. Allen, W. B.
Williams, Albert Behning, Chas. McConville.
Alternates: D. D. Luxton, Kenneth W. Curtis,
Raymond E. Briggs, F. E. Edgar.
Delegates to Music Industries Chamber of Com-
merce: W. C. Heaton, F. E. Edgar, G. H. Bliss, M.
J. Kennedy, W. B. Williams.
STARR IN LOUISIANA.
Albert T. Thompson, representative in New Or-
leans for the Starr Piano Co., Richmond, recently
established three new out-of-town agencies, all in the
interior of Louisiana, and is fairly positive that grati-
fying results will be obtained from them as soon as
they get well under way. The first of these is the
Stewart Drug Co., at Amite, La.; the second the
Port Allen Music Co., Port Allen, La., and E. J.
Thoman, at Hammond, La. They will also handle
Starr phonographs and Gennett records.
LOGIC vs. ADVICE
If a Ford Roadster equipped with a Loader enables one man to do the work of two, enables the
salesman to sell at least 50 per cent more pianos than he can any other way, at a small expense,
then, isn't it Logical that it would pay you to have, one, or more, in your business? May we have
your answer?
BOWEN PIANO LOADER CO.,
Winston-Salem, N. C.
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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