Presto

Issue: 1923 1942

10
PRESTO
October 13, 1923
but who may find it necessary to take care of their
regular work, i.e., two afternoon classes and two eve-
ning classes.
There is also another very important feature in con-
nection with our school, and that is that, on complet-
ing this study, both a technical and practical exam-
Plans of the Service Department of the Ameri- ination will be given covering the mechanisms thor- Two Plants of the Photo Players Company
oughly, and if the student passes the tests he will
can Piano Co. Present No Severe Re-
Resumes and Orders Reported Plentiful
be presented with a "credential" authorizing him as
strictions Upon Students.
for Organs and Fotoplayers.
competent to inspect and test the Ampico or the
Artecho.
All students are requested to get in touch with our
OLD HOUSE CHANGES NAME
Mr. E. J. Piquette, who will be located at the Fort
Dearborn Hotel, Chicago, during the period our
is to be carried on in Chicago.
Interest in Educational Movement Has Stirred Great school
Thanking you for the publicity you have given this General Music Goods Character Planned for Re-
Interest Among Practical Tuners in the West.
modeled Store at 1072 Market Street.
new plan of ours, we are
Very truly yours,
AMERICAN PIANO COMPANY,
Last week's Presto gave, briefly, some particulars
The Photo Player Company, San Francisco, has
E. S. WEROLINE,
of the Ampico Tuners' School which has been in-
opened both of its plants and the making of Robert-
Service Department.
augurated by the American Piano Co., of New-
Morton organs at Van Nuys and of Fotoplayers at
York, and which will have classes in several of the
Berkeley has been resumed. Many orders arc on file
larger centers throughout the country, The plan is
for both organs and Fotoplayers, according to J. A.
one of much value to the men who make their living
G. Schiller, general manager. Little difficulty was
by keeping the pianos and playerpianos in good con-
experienced in resuming activities although many
dition. And there is no playerpiano which can be
of the old employes had taken new positions. Most
proof against the minor defects of time's making by
of them, however, have returned to their old places.
which the instrument may become inoperative if too Structure on 57th Street, New York, to Cost
The old firm of Ingalsbe & Robertson, 1072 Market
long neglected.
$2,000,000, Will Be Rushed.
street, San Francisco, has been succeeded by the
Following is a communication, from the head of the
Granada Music House and a more general music
New Steinway Hall, New York, a monumental goods character is being planned for the store. The
Service Department, in which valuable details of the
plans of the Ampico School are clearly set forth. structure which will cost $2,000,000, will be ready to store has been remodeled and a new arrangement
All tuners will read what is here said with unusual usher in the fall music season of 1924. Steinway & of the department space is in evidence. The band
Sons announced this week that their new home on instrument goods have been removed to the basement
interest.
Fifty-seventh and Fifty-eighth streets, between Sixth where fine accommodation has been allotted to the
Letter From Service Department.
and Seventh avenues, New York, will be started soon stock.
and the construction work pushed along at the great-
New York, October 4, 1923.
The change in name occurred when Mr. Robertson
Editor Presto: Your paper, under the heading, est possible speed.
retired to enter another line of business. L. Ingalsbe
"Ampico Tuners' School," suggests that there must
Fifteen stories will be the height of the building continues with the business. The new manager of
be some misunderstanding regarding the qualifica- above the street level. It will be faced with stone the talking machine department is Mark Goodman
tions for entering this school. We note you specify except at the tenth and thirteenth floors, which will who has a wide experience on the Pacific coast.
a high school education is required, and for your in- be tile. The building has been designed with the
Leon M. Lang, who recently resigned from the
formation we wish to state that the only qualifications character of the concern and its many years in busi- management
of the piano department of Kohler &
which we shall insist on are:
ness in mind. Active in the house, as most music Chase, has returned
to his old associations- with
men
know,
are
eight
grandsons
and
great-grandsons
(a) A practical knowledge of piano and ordinary
Sherman, Clay & Co., for whom he has become sales
of
Henry
E.
Steinway,
who
founded
the
business.
player repairs, and its principles of operation; (b) at
manager of the piano department of the Oakland
least a good grammer school education; (c) good
The structure will measure 63 feet on Fifty-seventh branch.
eyesight and hearing.
street and 100 feet on Fifty-eighth street. The first
Don C. Preston, music merchant, Bakersfield, Cal.,
We shall, therefore, appreciate if you will make this four floors will be used by Steinway & Sons. Each is celebrating the fourth anniversary of the establish-
correction in the next issue of your paper, and we floor will have 8,000 square feet.
ment of his business and states that the success of
Would also be glad if you would point out that it is
Old Steinway Hal! in Fourteenth street, one of the his venture is indicated by the fact that the half
our intention to conduct four daily sessions for the well-known concert centers of years gone by, was million dollar mark in sales was passed some time
convenience of those men who may wish to take this sold recently by Steinway & Sons. It will be re- ago. He started the business in 1919. He has a
course of instruction on the Ampico or the Artecho, placed with an office building.
prosperous branch in Taft.
TRADE NEWS FROM
SAN FRANCISCO FIELD
FURTHER PARTICULARS OF
AMPICO TUNERS' SCHOOL
PLAYER KNOWLEDGE NECESSARY
NEW STEINWAY HALL
READY FOR NEXT SEASON
B. K. SETTERGREN CO.
Exclusive Manufacturers ot
HIGH GRADE SMALL GRANDS
35 Years' Experience in Piano Building
BLUFFTON, IND.
Grand, Upright and Player Pianos
New Haven and New York
SWAN PIANOS
SWAN ORGANS
Mathushek Piano Manufacturing Co.
are of the highest grade
t h a t c a n be obtained
through over 50 years of
p r a c t i c a l experience in
piano and organ building.
Illustrations a n d c a t a -
logues of various styles
will be furnished p i a n o
merchants on application
The tremendous superi-
ority of the SWAM Reed
Organs over all others lies
in the absolute mechanism
and scientific perfection ii>'
the bellows action and stop
action, making it the best
value in modern o r g a o
building •
132nd St. and Alexander Ave., NEW YORK CITY
S. N. SWAN & SONS, « « • FREEPORT, ILL
For QUALITY, SATISFACTION and PROFIT
NEWMAN BROTHERS PIANOS
NEWMAN BROS. CO.
Established 1870
Factories, 816 DIX ST., Chicago, I|
Place That Want Ad in The Presto
E. Leins Piano Company
Makers of Pianos That Are Leaders
in Any Reliable Store
NEW FACTORY. 304 W. 42nd St.. NEW TORK
BRINKERHOFF
Player-Pianos and Pianos
The Line That Sell* Easily and Satisfies Always
BRINKERHOFF PIANO CO. 0 ^ n =
t
r CHICAGO
Kindler & Collins
Pianos
520-524 W. 48th S
NEW YORK
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
October 13, 1923
ESTABLISHED 1854
THE
BRADBURY PIANO
FOR ITS
ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE
FOR ITS
INESTIMABLE AGENCY VALUE
THE CHOICE OF
Representative Dealers the World Over
Now Produced in Several
New Models
WRITE FOR TERRITORY
Factory
Leomimter,
Ma.f.
Executive Offices
138th St. and Walton Ave.
New York
Division W. P. HAINES & CO., Inc.
For a
Bigger and Better
Business
There Is nothing to compare
with the complete line of
M. SCHULZ CO.
The Players are RIGHT in
everything that means
money to the dealers and
satisfaction to the public.
You wilt n*vr dm mnything bettt
than u>A«n you gmt in touch with
M. SCHULZ CO.
711 Milwaukee Avenue
CHICAGO
tOUtHNW BRANCH* 730 Cudkr BMfe ATLANTA, STEGER
STEGER & SONS
Piano Manufacturing Company
Manufacturers of
STEGER Pianos and Player Pianos
REED & Sons Pianos and Player Pianos
SINGER Pianos and Player Pianos
THOMPSON Pianos and Player Pianos
ARTEMIS Pianos and Player Pianos
STEGER Stools, Benches, Music Cabinets
STEGER Phonographs
STEGER Polish
General Offices and Salesrooms: Stager Build-
ing, Wabash and Jackson, Chicago.
Factories: Steger, Illinois, where the "Lincoln"
and "Disie" Highways Meet.
WHAT INFLUENCES
THE PIANO CHOICE?
The Reasons, Too Numerous to Define, Are
Barely Touched Upon Here, But the
Interest Possibilities of Topic Are
Made Clear.
SUBJECT TOO COMPLEX
But on Hasty Analysis the Reasons May Be Com-
piled Into a Comparatively Brief List of Wise
and Unwise Ones.
Why people buy certain pianos in preference to
others suggests a complexity of thought. To tell the
whyso would be to present a wide range of mental
attitudes. Indeed the various reasons why people
buy certain pianos are something to be mastered by
the gentlemen of the publicity departments. y They
are always interesting topics for piano w areroom
conversation, enlightening themes for the learned
trade paper article by the staff psychologists and
ever-ready and never-stale suggestions for the piano
trade convention discourse.
Why people buy certain pianos is a question that
presents the piano complex. It is a topic that dis-
covers a wide range of individual preferences. It in-
volves consideration of your old friend, the personal
equation, the position of loyal ones to loved instru-
ments, the persuasiveness of the advertising, the force
and cleverness of the demonstration and the unde-
pendable backing of the pianos by the purely sordid
folk—the commission fiends.
Why They Do It.
But it is an analysis of the forces that make ulti-
mate consumers of the piano prospects that is sug-
gested in the opening lines. Sometimes there are sev-
eral reasons why a person buys a certain piano.
Sometimes there are no reasons at all in the transac-
tion on the buyer's part. Hence the piano complex.
If there were no complexities the piano field would be
a fightless one and the aggressive ad men would be in
less interesting lines.
Every frank dealer will admit that many people buy
blindly with no reason for their own for choosing the
particular piano or playerpiano. Some, for instance,
accept the first lemon, presented as a peach, by the
ethicless dealer. Surely there is no reason there. But
the persuasion of the dealer or sordid piano teacher
may be called a reasonless cause leading to a desired
but undesirable effect.
Sound Reasoning.
But very often the piano is bought for the good and
sufficient reason that the purchaser knows it is a good
one and the one of his choice. Various things and
conditions lead to such happenings. The glad pur-
chase of the piano may be the effect of an impression
that might be called hereditary. The buyer may be a
member of a family with the habit of buying that
particular piano in successive generations. Every-
where are families with the Steinway habit. There
are families where the presentation of a Baldwin piano
as a bridal gift to young brides is practiced as a kind
of marriage rite. In the publicity department of the
Vose & Sons Piano Co., Boston, are the epistolary
evidences that the Vose piano is a delightful habit in
hundreds of prominent families.
But there are different reasons why certain pianos
are chosen above all others; reasonable reasons and
reasonless ones and they call for analysis and orderly
presentation.
And in analyzing the reasons the
writer or speaker can find texts galore for moral dis-
sertation. In the analysis might be found sufficient
causes for congratulatory crowing. The piano edu-
cation of the piano buying public has been sys-
tematized for many years past and dealers now more
than ever before appeal to the intelligence of the
prospective buyers. The advertising writers of the
retail houses do not stop short at saying the piano or
playerpiano is good, but they also tell why it is good.
They explain the reasons for the instrument's worthi-
ness in a musical and structural way and in a man-
ner understood by the untechnical minds.
Reasons Not Many.
But after all the reasons why certain pianos are
selected above others are comparatively few. The
pianos have an ancestry perhaps, a character for
worth handed down through several generations of
the maker's family. The character for goodness may
even be preserved by an impersonal firm jealously
preserving the fine character established by a family
of makers. And the reasons in a great many cases
why one good piano is chosen before another and
equally good piano may be that fame of one may have
been judiciously kept aljve by advertising, while that
11
of the other may have been allowed to become a dim
memory to a few.
In showing the pianos and playerpianos today the
dealers not only tell about, but also show the quali-
ties that make them desirable things to buy. In fact,
the day of the glittering generality is over. The
obvious is pointed out in piano literature and the
intelligent customer today goes to buy a piano and
choose a particular kind with reason, with his eyes
open and his mind instructed.
The Sensible Sort.
People buy particular pianos because they have be-
lief in their worth and trust in their makers' claims.
Others buy particular pianos because they know
pianos and find the requisite and desirable qualities in
the pianos they choose. These are among the rea-
sonable reasons. And it is good to think that the
reasonable reasons outnumber the reasonless ones.
But even if the reasonless reasons are fewer than
formerly, their number is distressing to contemplate.
One type of reasonless piano chooser is the person
who "tells the world" he doesn't know the first thing
about pianos and naively argues that where ignorance
is bliss 'tis folly to try to bluff a piano salesman who
has him hypnotized. This kind of piano prospect
conjures up no doubts about the piano that is picked
for him and is the finest kind of meat for the dealer
with an easy conscience and a hard line.
May His Type Decrease.
Another type of reasonless reasoner was more
common at one time than at present. It is the rea-
sonless chooser who picks out a piano because he
won a $97 coupon in a guessfest and believes in cash-
ing in as soon as possible on his winning bets. He
belongs in the sport category. He differs in his
mental processes from the easy mark who optimis-
tically accepts the Fencewire upright while under the
conversational anaesthetic of the piano salesman who
tells him the Fencewire is the greatest influence for
civilization since the invention of-movable type.
Honk to This Kind.
Another reasonless reasoner is the man who chooses
a playerpiano like he picked his flivver, because the
price is cut to the bone and if the blamed thing
doesn't go he can take it back to the dealer's service
station at any time to have its anatomy overhauled
free. What more could an optimist ask?
But the type of negative chooser whose reasons
may be considered sound enough is the man who con-
siders what he likes or doesn't like in the way of a
piano doesn't matter very much, so long as he signs
on the dotted line. What's the use worrying about
it? Daughter, backed by friend wife, wants a certain
piano. The combination is too much for him. They
win, the dealer wins and he considers himself a loser.
There are reasons innumerable why the prospects
should or should not buy this or that. Some are wise
and some are silly. Here is one that gets the capital
prize—a rubber corkscrew. It is the reason of the
man who believes it his duty as a philanthropic capi-
talist to buy a poor piano for a big price because the
dealer needs the money.
,
i
WEEK'S BIG RECORD OF
PREMIER GRAND SHIPMENTS
Figures for Six Days of Baby Grands Significant of
Public Interest in the Instruments.
The Premier Grand Piano Corporation, New York,
makers of baby grand pianos exclusively, shipped 202
instruments last week. This is a record without equal
in the piano industry, and a remarkable demonstra-
tion of the national popularity of the Premier baby
grand and the manner in which piano merchants
everywhere are pushing the sale of this famous
instrument.
Such a record is doubly significant, as the Premier
output for the entire month of September this year
showed a 50 per cent increase over the corresponding
month of a year ago. This wonderful showing is
naturally highly gratifying to the Premier Grand
Piano Corporation officials, and the best indication in
the world that the Premier baby grand is constantly
maintaining its position among America's foremost
popular prices small grands.
NEW ARIZONA BRANCH.
The Redewill Music Co., Phoenix, Ariz., will open
a branch store in Prescott, Ariz., in a few weeks.
Eugene Redewill, head of the company, is now in
the latter city making arrangements to that effect.
Sigmu Ingersoll, well known as a musician as well
as salesman, will be the manager of the new store.
A complete line of pianos, players and reproducing
pianos will be carried.
The Portland, Ore., store of Sherman, Clay & Co.
was recently visited by Randolph Trautner, the trav-
eling representative of the wholesale department, who
is in the Northwest making his semi-annual trip
from the San Francisco headquarters.
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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