PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 407 South Dearborn
Street, Old Colony Building, Chicago, 111.
the other items of news and comment be-
tween.
The suggestion is made merely to see whai
you think about a trade paper that prints
something that doesn't all come from the
"regular correspondents," the clipping bureaus
nor from the statesmen at Washington.
AUTOMATIC PIANOS
The tax on automatic pianos is a hardship
to an enterprising section of the piano in-
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234.
dustry. Of late years that particular branch
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
of the industry has centered very largely in
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the the west, and Chicago is the chief producing
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
point. Of course, the manufacturers are all
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. of the kind to meet the burden of the special
Payable in advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
tax, unaccountable as it may seem to them,
application.
but it is a hardship in its manner of appli-
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
cation, nevertheless.
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for
There is one phase of the automatic, or coin-
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre- operated types of pianos, in their relation to
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
the dealers, which is surprising. It is that in
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat- many, perhaps even a majority, of cases the
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before retailers do not put the right kind of effort
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full into selling the kind of instruments that give
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current entertainment to the public generally. Not a
week, to insure classification, must not be later than great many piano dealers pay attention to the
Wednesday noon.
profits that may accrue from attention to the
Address all communications for the editorial or business
automatic instruments. But we could name
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 407 So.
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
some of them whose efforts have produced fine
results and the others are missing oppor-
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1923.
tunities.
The same thing applies to pipe and church
organs.
But particularly the automatic pianos
A SUGGESTION
may be made a profitable feature of any piano
And, now, if the line isn't busy, we'd like dealer's business. In Chicago there are sales-
to broadcast a few words about some topics men who devote their entire efforts to that
which may edify and instruct readers of a kind of pianos, and to a good end. Every city
trade paper devoted, with undeviating effort, and town has automatic piano prospects.
to the men who earn their living by making All they need is some stimulation to produce
and selling musical instruments. Their fam- results. And with such lines as the operators,
ilies are, of course, included, for it is a fact the Seeburg and the Nelson-Wiggen to work
that scores of their wives, sons and daughters with, there is no excuse for any lack of inter-
also read Presto, and some of them have at est on the part of any retail piano dealer or
times written in to ask why the paper has not salesman who is really alive.
come to the homes. We do not make it a
business, in such cases, to explain, but usually
the office, factory or store knows more about
IMPEDING THE TRAFFIC
it than we do, and we try to play safe.
A piano jobber, whose specialty is to handle
But the way a trade paper is written must second-hand instruments, recently made a
be important. We are told, every week, how shipment of two carloads of more or less
not to do it, and sometimes we think over the antiquated specimens. The dealer who had
suggestions. A ^Chicago newspaper is just bargained for them is said to be diverting his
now printing a new "translation" of the new principal energies to convincing his prospects
Testament, in one section, while in another it that "used" pianos are just as good, if not
runs cartoons of all kinds of men—business and actually better, than new ones. He is, of
others. The "translation" is neither news nor course, resorting to the untruthful argument
a betterment of the old book which was read that pianos were made "better" in years past
to us at our mother's side, and has been re- than they are today. It is an unfair variation
peated the world over, without any comment upon the cheapening processes in piano build-
of critical kind. It is reading that can not be ing. And it is—also "of course"—a develop-
re-edited successfully. But a trade paper must ment of the "stencil" in which play is made
be "translated" every week if it's alive. And upon the fact that the old instruments, more
this week there are several special evidences than the flood of newer ones, carry the actual
in Presto that this paper is edited, and not names of "famous" manufacturers.
made with the scissors.
Is there a problem in it? Is it nothing that
Not long ago a writer in Pittsburgh said a specialist in old pianos can buy instruments,
he'd like more wit and humor. Read the story fix them up a little, and sell them again at
this week of how Hank Davis with his player- prices averaging about $50 each? Does this
piano and ever-ready Bowen Loader knocked kind of business serve to clog the piano busi-
out the radio in an impromptu encounter ness and make it harder for the larger number
in Missouri. Likewise the article on pre- of retailers who must meet that kind of com-
serving the piano; its reputation must be petition?
preserved or it may be lost to its manufac-
In short, can there be too many pianos?
turer.
We've an idea that there can be too many.
And in turning to these two articles— But to our mind, it is a matter of the "survival
named not because they are better than all the of the fittest" so far as concerns the new ones.
rest, but because they are "different," read all As long as the public remains ignorant con-
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT -
- Editors
October 6, 1923
cerning pianos, and what they must be to
have intrinsic value—as long as the people
will buy antiques when good new instruments
may be had for little more money—the prob-
lem will grow.
The automobile business is done differently.
There the .old-timers on wheels are trans-
formed into shapeless junk. The new ma-
chines have a better field, and a "used" car
must be a mighty good one or it goes straight
to the scrap heap. Could the Music Industries
do something really valuable to trade and
industry by giving this phase of the subject a
little thought, and then putting some action
into it?
LAUGHS AND PARAGRAPHS
Picking Up.
A piano man. hustling along; after prospects, was
asked by a passing friend:
"Well, is business picking up?"
"Not exactly; but I'm out picking up some busi-
Competition.
An automobile store and a piano store were next
one another on a busy street. A sign in the auto
window read:
"Come in and look. Why not ride? Life is short
at best."
The piano dealer thought he saw an opportunity
and put this one in his window:
"Come in and listen. Why not sing? You will
live longer."
Hand Insurance.
The banks tell about their "cash in hand." Pade-
rewski has had his insured for $30,000. It's his sec-
ond hand accident insurance policy.
Pipe or Flute?
(From Prof. Goodspeed's translation of Gospel
of St. Matthew.)
"We have played the flute for you, and you would
not dance."
(From King James' Translation.)
"We have piped for you, and ye have not danced."
Isn't it a blessed thing that inasmuch as Prof.
Goodspeed is "translating" only the New Testament,
he can't spoil the beauty of King Solomon's songs?
The Player's Love Song.
Press my pedals soft and low;
Let my music sweet
Rise and fall, in ebb and flow,
'Neath thy daintv feet!
Her Noisy Darling.
The old black mammy was fond of her charge,
who was out of sight humming a song.
"Who making all dat noise?" Mammy asked and,
seeing the source of it, added:
"Yo' sure done sing sweet, honey!' 1
"Oh, no Mammy, I cain't sing!"
"Well, den, honey, yo' just go right 'long making
mo' o' dat noise."
Retaliation.
This story makes one think of the way some piano
trade competition progresses:
"A patron of the expatriated American bar—our
one definite contribution to European reconstruction
since the peace of Versailles—seized a bust of Gari-
baldi from a vender's stand and smashed it upon the
pavement, whereat Tony grabbed the plaster present-
ment of the first president of the United States and
treated it to the same fate, saying, "You smasha de
Garibaldi; I smasha de George Wash!"
Not Set to Music.
(From the London Mail.)
maid, to guest inside: "Did you
Linen
ring
madam?"
Distressed Voice: "Yes, we have no pajamas!"
Ain't It Awful?
Weird "jazz" strains born on the plantations of
the south, wafted onward and wedded to the swift,
the fantastic, the bold, daring and frenzied music of
the Viennese, the Russian, the Turkish, and the
Latin, have produced in Europe a veritable "hysteria"
of dance and composition, according to Frederick A.
Stock, director of the Chicago Symphony orchestra,
who has just returned from abroad.
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