Presto

Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American Pianos
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
PRESTO
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Trade Lists
Three Uniform Book-
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Mui
Industries.
/• &««, $UH\ • r**
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1923
PIANO PUBLICITY IN THE NOT-LONG PAST
A Study of the High=Priced Magazine Pages of the First
Decade of This Century with an Analysis of the Possible
Results of a Very Considerable Investment in
Artistic Printer's Ink Display
Some Significant Lapses in the Lists of One-
time Ambitious Industries as Contrasted
with Other Sturdy and Perhaps Wiser and
More Persistent Promoters of Fine Instru-
ments Which Have Wen Progressive
Success.
It is customary to talk about "the survival of the
fittest" in whatever walk of life or line of industry
we may happen to have under discussion. Naturally,
to the man whose active hours are devoted to mak-
ing, selling and buying the instruments of music,
no subject could possess much, more interest than
that of the trend of their trade, and the causes by
which its progress may have been developed.
Of course no one will deny that advertising has
been the driving power behind the wheels of progress
in this industry and trade, as in all others of any im-
portance. It may be interesting, therefore, to take a
look through the first decade and more of the
present century and see how piano advertising has
been done, who has been doing it, and what the
results of its potency.
A Fortunate "Find."
By an accident it happens that files of several of
the foremost popular magazines, in a quiet, secluded
nook afar in the woods of New York state, were
placed at the writer's disposal. • He selected from
them copies of the most representative from the
publicity point of view, and picked out the most
striking and significant pages for which the several
leading piano manufacturers a few years back parted
with a considerable portion of their profits.
And before beginning it must be very suggestive
of the uncertainties of business, to say nothing of the
question of judicious selection of publicity mediums,
to notice the number of one-time ambitious industries
which are now out of the list or, if still in existence,
have changed control and names, or have been ab-
sorbed by other companies.
And in this consideration it may serve a purpose
to see what proportion of the "loved and lost" in-
vested heavily in "broadcast" publicity, as compared
with the vigorous survivors which are, and have
been, large believers in trade paper advertising as
the best means for reaching the public through the
loyal and hard-working retailers.
The Player Had Arrived.
When the new century began the playerpiano was
breaking its way to the front. It was no longer ago
than the year 1896 that the humorous pages of one
of the magazines, which will be quoted in this article,
printed a cartoon showing a pianist at the instru-
ment and a small boy addressing his mother, saying:
"Oh, Mamma, see the man playing a piano with his
feet!" It was still a curiosity. And with the arrival
of the playerpiauo in anything like a commercial
way, the advertising experts got busy and put forth
the kind of publicity that is supposed to do the
business.
In 1901 The Aeolian Company began a campaign
of full-page magazine advertising headed "The word
'Pianola' is not a term applicable to playerpianos in
general but the specific name of the instrument manu-
factured and sold by The Aeolian Company and its
recognized agents."
The advertising featured Paderewski by saying
that the Pianola differed from other "piano-players,"
and gave emphasis to the "metrostyle," which is no
longer accentuated in Pianola publicity. It was,
perhaps, the first heavy campaign of the playerpiano.
At the time the Vose carried forward a publicity
campaign in which two-color display told of the
"50 years" of that famous Boston piano's existence.
Two That Fell Out.
In 1902-3 one of the most elaborate advertisers
was the late Wilcox & White Co. in the promoting of
their "artistic piano-player, the Melodant-Angelus.
The greater your love of music, the deeper your ap-
preciation ,of music perfectly rendered. . . . The
Melodant-Angelus is the only piano-player by whose
aid the most artistic results may be accomplished."
The "Melodant-Angelus" was a cabinet, designed
to place before the piano a form of player mechanism
which many in the trade believe will eventually return
to popular vogue.
Of all the big advertisers during 1905-6, none in
this line of industry surpassed the Everett Piano Co.
In Harper's Magazine retail prices began to appear,
running from $450, with grands for $650 to $1,200.
Compare those figures with any of the fine pianos
today!
The Steinway continued its fine publicity and the
Columbia Phonograph Co. took the lead in that
branch of the business.
In 1907 the large piano advertisers were still the
Wilcox & White "Melodant"; The Aeolian's "Pianola
piano," which is announced as the "piano invented
just for you"; the Chickering, with its "departure in
tone production," and the Everett. The latter was
announced as the instrument selected by Teresa Car-
reno in these words:
"During her 1907-08 American tour Carreno will
exploit the merits of the Everett piano, which in its
rich tonal quality—its plenitude of artistic and poetic
beauty—appeals to the world's great artists.
"The Everett is the piano of Carreno, Neitzel, Reis-
enaur, Burmeister, Nordica, Bispham, Gabrilowitsch,
Campanari and a host of others whose places are
secure in Music's Hall of Fame."
The Everett prices were still given and, evidently,
the purpose was to inaugurate a "direct to con-
sumer" trade, with what effect upon the dealer trade
may now be conjectured, since the once famous
"Everett" piano has been almost out of it for several
years past.
A full figure of Carreno illumined the Harper page
of the John Church Co. advertising in 1907. The
Columbia phonograph still persisted, and the Victor
was advertised as "the fireside theater."
High Class Exchange.
In 1907 the Kranich & Bach pages appeared, with
the slogan of "Supreme in the class of highest grade,"
and announcing that "old or unsatisfactory pianos
taken in exchange by all our dealers."
How suggestive of the change which has since
come over the piano trade. What manufacturer of
high-grade pianos would today invest in full-page
magazine displays with an invitation to bring in the
"old and unsatisfactory"?
The development of playerpiano interest was so
advanced by 1909 that the larger share of the adver-
tising was given over to it. There was no longer
any reference to "piano-players," and the transposi-
tion of the nouns constituting the description name
had become fixed. Even the Pianola had become a
"player-piano" notwithstanding that gradually the
trade-mark name had become so ingrained with the
trade that the public applied it.to all self-playing or
pneumatically-operated instruments of the kind.
Pre-Prohibition Days.
In 1909 the piano industries had attained to their
heights in the publicity field. All of the pianos
already mentioned were still using full pages in the
magazines. The handsome pictures of famous in-
struments appeared face to face with Hunter's rye,
Schlitz Milwaukee beer, and other now forbidden de-
lights. And new names—to magazine readers—began
to shine.
One was that of the Edison phonograph "played
with an Amboral record." Here came the first sug-
gestion of a competitor to the piano, in a picture
showing a performer at a grand piano whose back
was turned to a trio of ladies grouped before a
portable and giant-horned talking-machine. Another
was the Krell auto-grand, which bore the legend, "It
has the human voice," which was followed by a long
list of special features. Where is the Krell auto-
grand today with its "3 extra perforations at either
end of tracker board which enable the instrument to
accent the melody automatically without necessary
knowledge of music"?
And there was the quarter-page advertisement of
the Ivers & Pond pianos, 1909 models, "with at-
tractive systems of periodical payments" to attract
retail buyers without regard for the "overhead" of
the dealers.
And now came also the beautiful full-page of the
"Cecilian player pianos" of "the Farrand Company,
Dept. B, Detroit, Michigan." This was accompanied
by the announcement, "Plays the entire keyboard of
88 notes—not merely 65." A picture of Beethoven,
in shadowy outline, went with the picture of the
Cecilian under the manipulation of a mortal form.
Double-page advertisements of both Columbia and
Victor also appear—but no Victrola as yet, and prices
from $10 to $300.
Handsome pages of the Steinway pianos continued,
one of especial novelty, in McClure's of March, em-
bracing a letter from the wife of Col. Stanley Smith,
R. A., to Mr. Steinway, inclosing a "picture of a
Steinway piano on the move in central India." The
letter bore date of July 31, 1908, and told how the
Steinway piano withstood the change of temperature
from Bombay, "a warm, moist climate of 114 degrees
in the shade," to Japalpur central India, "in a winter
below freezing." There was a photograph showing
the Steinway grand en route.
Reaches High Point.
In 1910 the live piano industries reached a point in
advance of earlier periods in their publicity invest-
ments. The Aeolian Company increased its space
and the Baldwin Company began an extensive cam-
paign. Harper's carried full pages headed by an
animated picture of a great circle of children dancing,
while a young girl accompanied at a Baldwin player-
piano. The page started with the line "Invitation to
the dance," and gave the addresses of nine branch
locations. The "Victor Victrola" made its full-page
debut at the same time.
This year appeared also the display pages of
"Melville Clark, the Man and His Work." The
Apollo piano, "the original 88-note player," was the
subject of some of the best and most dignified pro-
motion. The pages carried, in addition to a picture
of the instrument, a good portrait of the late inven-
tors' genius and fine gentleman.
"There are only three player-pianos made that can
ever lay claim to being artistic," the advertisements
declared. How many more of the genuinely artistic
are there today? And how has the Apollo maintained
the ambitions of its creator? But that is a diversion.
Another large 1910 advertiser was the Knabe piano,
with "prices in plain figures." And such prices—as
compared with those of today! The upright style V,
"size 4 ft. 6 in., to retail at $550. The Mignonette
grand at $700." Today it seems almost incredible.
Educational Advertising.
In 1911 the Melville Clark Piano Company inaugu-
rated its famous series of educational advertising de-
signed to tell the public how to distinguish between
"human" and "mechanical" music as produced by the
player-piano. "Human side of the Apollo player-
piano," was the display line. It was high-class pro-
motion in which there was no suggestion of clap-trap
or price baiting. If Melville Clark had lived the
player industry would have benefited largely and
the trade would have had the kind of support it needs
even now.
The Kranich & Bach persisted and its line, "Edu-
(Continued on page 6.)
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