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 Boolc-
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Music
Industries.
" c. nt ., HJM « i w
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1923
HOW MUSIC ROLLS
MAY SELL PLAYERS
Comprehensive Publicity on the Part of the
Q R S Music Company Was Plan of
Head of That Enterprise, as Will Be
Remembered.
NEW $80,000 APPROPRIATION
Pages as They Appear in National Magazines, Will
Also Be Presented to Dealers in Trade
Papers.
Editor Presto: Since the following 1 is going to all
trade papers, you can handle it in any manner you
see fit.
Chicago, U. S. A., Aug. 14, 1923.
You will perhaps recall that some two years ago
the writer advocated an expenditure of at least $250,-
OOO.(K) a year for national co-operative advertising
of the playerpiano by the playerpiano manufac-
turers, and so confident was I that it would increase
the player sales, that I offered, in behalf of The
Q R S Music Co., to contribute $50,000.00 of the
$250,000.00. In other words, we offered to contribute
20 per cent of the entire appropriation spent by all
the manufacturers.
Many applauded the idea.
There isn't much invested in a hand-clasp.
Hundreds of dealers wrote to me expressing their
willingness to pay their share of this publicity by
way of an increased price on playerpianos. Some
manufacturers sincerely believed in it; some were
skeptical as to the sincerity of our offer; but we spent
that fall nearly $75,000.00 in full pages in national
magazines, newspapers, etc., saying "'BUY A
PLAYERPIANO."
We contained that program of publicity. We have
just now placed our order for $80,000.00 worth of
space to be taken this fall in the national mediums
such as Cosmopolitan, Saturday Evening Post, Liter-
ary Digest, etc.. including newspapers, and it is all
playerpiano propaganda, inserts of which will be
forwarded to you as they appear.
There seems to have been quite an increase in the
advertising of playerpianos by several manufacturers,
and we are inclined to believe that more player-
pianos have been sold, since our June and July busi-
ness was the largest of any mid-season's business in
our history. Why shouldn't we believe in advertis-
ing?
Yours truly,
TOM PLETCHER,
President.
"Handling" Would Spoil It.
Inasmuch as there is no one about Presto offices—
or any other trade paper office—who could say what
Mr. Fletcher says with greater force, or clearer un-
derstanding, we 'see no better way of handling his
communication than to print it just as he dictated it
to his own stenographer. It will be read, as it stands,
and it will prove effective in at least three important
—very important—points.
Probably most piano dealers and salesmen remem-
ber the proposition, to which Mr. Pletcher draws at-
tention again, in which the Q R S Music Co. offered
to pay a large share of the advertising expenses of
an extensive playerpiano publicity campaign. And
no one will doubt that the $50,000 would have been
promptly forthcoming had the manufacturers equally
interested displayed a proportionate degree of enter-
prise. It would have beaten any stamp scheme, or
any brass-band contest endeavor, out of sight—and
hearing also.
Wise Words About Applause.
All will enjoy Mr. Pleteher's cryptic analysis of the
applause that comes so freely and is so inexpensive.
It would do for one of piano club's "high spots," and
it is peculiarly applicable to the trade paper's too
often honest, but fruitless, labors in the music indus-
try.
I Jut, while without shadow of doubt, the Q R S
campaign, carrying the famous slogan, did sell in-
struments—many of them—the matter of price cut-
ting remains the sore thumb of the trade. It is an
error which can't be concealed by any poultice, and
it kills the best efforts of both manufacturers and
dealers. A single large house, determined upon the
policy of price-cutting, even to slaughtering the small
grand piano, in the.effort to kill the competition that
is absolutely necessary to success, can destroy any
business, and the finer it is the more quickly.
And in this may be seen the practical value of two-
fold results of Mr. Pleteher's proposition. For, even
if the players are sold at cut prices, or even at loss
to the dealers, the sale of rolls must be augmented
by the distribution of playerpianos. A playerpiano is
worse than the "dead" or "silent" piano unless there
are rolls to give to it voice and life. Mr. Pleteher's
•plan involving a price increase would permanently
help the piano manufacturers as well as the dealers.
Presto Will Present Them.
Evidently Mr. Pletcher "believes in advertising."
He has been proving that from his beginning. And
it is, naturally, a pleasing promise that the dealers
will be permitted the opportunity of seeing the hand-
some Q R S advertisements in Presto as they appear
in the great metropolitan magazines. Nor does this
seem to render out of place the suggestion that, in
the belief of this trade paper—not altogether unsel-
fish, perhaps, but just as sincere—that a better pro-
portion of the Q R S publicity directly to the active
piano dealers would produce larger proportionate re-
sults.
For the dealers are, after all, the advertisers of the
goods they sell. A general campaign to advertise
any particular roll is fine. It will send the public to
the music stores. Advertising to the dealers will
stimulate the sale still more, by inducing them to
locally promote the rolls and, especially, to meet and
co-operate in the work of the general publicity.
Mr. Pleteher's vision is large. The results of his
advertising will greatly help all of the piano manu-
facturers. No doubt about that.
POPULAR PIANO MAN RETURNS
FROM HOME IN SWEDEN
Gust Ad. Anderson Renews His Youth By a Visit to
the Scenes of His Boyhood.
Who is there in the business of selling pianos, or
making them either, for that matter, that doesn't
know "Gus" Anderson? The varied experiences of
that gentleman in the piano world, entitle him to a
place well to the front as a popular member. Mr.
Anderson recently returned from the first visit to his
boyhood home, in Sweden, since his arrival on Uncle
.Sam's welcoming shores nearly forty years ago. Per-
haps this is not accurate history, but nearly so—ask
him, for you will have the opportunity as soon as
more pianos need selling, and Mr. Anderson's smile
again radiates the music stores throughout the
country.
Mr. Anderson put in most of his time abroad in
Stockholm, where his early friends and relatives
greeted him with wide open arms. He found it more
trying at times to carry himself gracefully through
all the social affairs than it does to sell carloads of
pianos to total strangers. It is expected that, after
a brief rest, Mr. Anderson w r ill again "take the road"
for some strong piano industry.
HONOR FOR FRANK A. SEDGWICK.
Frank A. Sedgwick, head of Sedgwick & Casey,
the prominent piano house of Hartford, Conn., has
been elected manager of the Philharmonic Orches-
tra. Mr. Sedgwick has always been active in the
promotion of good music in his city. He was chosen
as manager of the famous Hartford orchestra at the
twenty-fifth annual meeting of the Hartford Phil-
harmonic Society.
TOO BUSY TO SERVE.
Owing to the urgent demands of his growing piano
manufacturing business, W. Otto Miessner, president
of the Miessner Piano Co., Milwaukee, recently re-
signed as head of the department of music in the
Milwaukee Normal School.
LADY MANAGER AT SAPULPA.
Mrs. A. L. Moore, of Sapulpa, Okla., has joined
the Baldwin Music Shoppe, of that place. Mrs.
Moore was formerly manager of the T. J. White
Music Co. in Sapulpa, and is unusually competent at
piano selling.
PIANO TUNERS
HOLD CONVENTION
Great Increase in Membership Encouraging
Feature of Association Pointed Out in
Cheering Report of Both President
and Secretary of National Body.
PRESIDENT'S KEYNOTE MESSAGE
"Eliminate Free Tuning and Promise of Such,"
Substance of Clever
Address.
At the Wednesday session of the National Asso-
ciation of Piano Tuners' Convention at the Hotel
Claridge, St. Louis, this week the old officers were
re-elected to serve another term: President, Chas.
Deutschmann, Chicago; first vice-president, Emil
Koll, Cincinnati; second vice-president, Charles L.
Merkel, Milwaukee; secretary-treasurer, W. F. Mc-
Clellan, Chicago.
Milwaukee was chosen as location for the conven-
tion of 1924, date to be named later.
The annual convention of the National Association
of Piano Tuners at the Hotel Claridge, St. Louis,
opened on Monday of this week by President Charles
Deutchmann. There was a good attendance and the
roll of new members showed that the movement for
a bigger merrr&ership was already showing effects.
At the opening session the entire St. Louis division
served as a reception committee, and the opening
meeting was characterized by more than its usual
enthusiasm.
The keynote message of President Deutschmann
expressed the spirit of the association when he said:
"We shall ever strive to establish and maintain
the highest technical and moral standards in the pro-
fession of piano tuning."
Mr. Deutschmann's Address.
Mr. Deutschmann told how in order to bring about
the education of the public on the nature and care
of the piano the association had issued a pamphlet
of a very enlightening character for piano owners.
He said:
"The adoption and distribution of this pamphlet,
'Care of the Piano,' was the pivotal point in the his-
tory of the N. A. of P. T., and has gained for our
association the praise and commendation of the en-
tire piano trade. Its good results are being mani-
fested every day; in fact, it was the most construc-
tive agency ever launched in the piano trade, so good,
indeed, that the New York Music Merchants' Asso-
ciation has published one for its members, using
ours as a guide."
Mr. Deutschmann dwelt upon the importance of
Article III in the constitution, the pledge to eliminate
free tuning, or the promise of free tuning. "On this
point w r e have made rapid strides and the practice
is gradually dying a natural death, as do all disease
germs when exposed to the light," he said. Con-
tinuing, he recommended that every division hold at
least one large open meeting during the year to
which it will invite all tuners, sales managers and
other persons in the neighborhood interested in the
sale of pianos, also invite a national officer to repre-
sent the N. A. of P. T. at the gathering.
"This coming together on common ground has a
very wholesome and beneficial effect and we hear
only good reports from all such meetings thus far
held," he said.
T H E SECRETARY'S REPORT.
The annual report of Secretary W. P. McClellan
was an enlightening review of the achievements of
the period since the last convention and a historical
synopsis at the same time. "But," said Mr. Mc-
Clellan, "it might be well for us to take a squint into
the future to discover, if possible, what lies before
us, and being in the center of the movement, or on
the inside, as it were, we perhaps are in a better
position to observe a great many things that are not
(Continued on page 10.)
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