Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1923 1942

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/
12
PRESTO
October 13, 1923
W. C. Heaton, president of the Auto Pneumatic
Baker, contralto, rendered a number of solos accom-
panied by the Welte-Mignon (Licensee).
Action Co., New York, acted as master of cere-
monies, assisting W. H. McConnell, manager of the
Boggs & Buhl piano department. An interesting and
unusual feature of the concert was the discovery by
Mr. Heaton of Miss Ruth Bingaman, noted pianist
and Welte-Mignon (Licensee) recording artist, in the
audience. Mr. Heaton requested her to add a num-
ber of her own to the concert. Miss Bingaman gra-
ciously complied to the great enthusiasm of the
audience.
The entire concert was broadcasted by radio, the
performers being announced as the artists in person
assisted by the Welte-Mignon (Licensee), after
which an explanatory talk concerning the Welte-
Mignon (Licensee) was delivered by Mr. Heaton.
The affair was an unqualified success, evoking great
interest and enthusiasm for the artistic achievement
of the Welte-Mignon (Licensee) reproducing piano.
Mr. McConnell received the heartiest, well-deserved
congratulations over the most successful concert ever
given by Boggs & Buhl.
KANKAKEE DEALER PAYS
VISIT TO BALDWIN CO.
Is Representing Fine Baldwin Line and Is Doing a
Good Fall Business.
E. E. Hershman, piano dealer, of Kankakee, 111.,
was a visitor to the Baldwin Piano Co., South
Wabash Avenue. Chicago, last Saturday and ex-
pressed his satisfaction with the business outlook for
the fall months.
Mr. Hershman, who is the Baldwin representative
in Kankakee, reports that the demand for instruments
has been unusually strong thus far this month. The
rural trade, due to improved condition of the farm-
ing community, has been responsible for the large in-
crease in the sales.
EFFECTIVE DEMONSTRATION
IN PITTSBURGH STORE
PIANO MOVERS ON STAGE
ADMONISHED BY GALLERY
Technic of Two Husky Nebraska Supers Em-
barrassingly Criticised by Friend During
Thrilling Scene in Richard III.
"One of the uncertainties of one-night stands is the
super," said Joe Devlin, who like Frank Mclntyre,
forsook the calm labors of the piano field for the
glitter of the stage. Originally his desertion was for
the "legit," but in time the movies claimed him. His
interest in the humors and problems of the piano
trade, however, continues keen and wherever he has a
chance to swap piano talk with anybody he avails
himself of the privilege.
"The supe is the bane of the local managers, for
on them depend the production of the super of fair
intelligence," he continued in a friendly chat with
Leo Snack, the piano dealer in Forest Park, the Chi-
cago suburb, where Mr. Devlin was visiting relatives
this week.
"Yes, yes, go on," encouraged Mr. Snack, who has
little interest in the stage, but who knew a piano
yarn was being unwound.
"In the smaller towns the supe is at his normal
Adams Music Co., in Temporary Location Since Fire duties
of butchering, baking or candlestick-making
Last Winter, Occupies Permanent Quarters.
until six or after and frantically rushes through his
After months of waiting in an effort to find a suit- supper in order to be at the theater in time for the
able permanent location for its business, since a dis- performance. This leaves little time for drill or re-
astrous fire last winter, the Adams Music Company, hearsal. If left to himself his attempts at make-up
formally opened, September 29, in its new location, are weird. But worst of all every inhabitant of the
little town knows him.
31 South Main street.
"I recall a night in Rushville, Neb. It was a one-
The store had been decorated, and, while the quar-
ters are not as large as those formerly occupied on night stand and the company was playing Richard
the east side of the square, the store will meet the III. Well, the outfit of supers that presented them-
selves at the last minute were the rawest that ever
needs of the firm fairly well for the present.
Burnett Ball, who has been employed by the got their feet tangled up in a spear. All went well
Adams Music Company the past six years, is the until the supe bearers with King Edward's body on
manager. Pianos and playerpianos, phonographs, a stretcher emerged from the wings.
records, player rolls and sheet music are carried.
" 'Set down your honorable load,' began Queen
Anne.
NOW OWNS PROVO STORE.
" 'And be very keerful, you Buck Reed and Steve
Walter Robinson, member of the Robinson Bros. Holley,' warned a voice from among the rafters.
Music Co., Salt Lake City and Provo, Utah, has ' 'Tis a corpse your movin' this time and not one of
purchased the controling interest in the Provo store, Brook's pianos.'
"I learned later that the supes thus admonished
and will hereafter run it on his own account. The
firm was established in Springville, Utah County, were movers for George Brook, the Rushville piano
twenty-one years ago.
CANTON, ILL., MUSIC FIRM
FINDS NEW LOCATION
Comparison Concert at Boggs & Buhl Features the
Welte Mignon (Licensee) and Daniel Wolf, Pianist.
Boggs & Buhl, one of the leading department stores
in Pittsburgh, Pa., on October 4, staged a highly suc-
cessful Welte-Mignon (Licensee) comparison con-
cert featuring the Welte-Mignon (Licensee) and the
well-known pianist, Daniel Wolf, in his own com-
positions. The entire first four floors of the great
store were given over to the occasion, which was
attended by approximately 4,000 people.
The fashionably attired audience was received by
ushers and hostesses in evening dress and directed to
the elevators. At each floor up to the fourth the
elevators were stopped for one minute to enable the
guests to appreciate the spectacle of an immense
sales room brilliantly lighted and richly decorated
with colored hangings especially for the occasion.
On the fourth floor is the piano salon, where the con-
cert was given.
Mr. Wolf played, alternating with the Welte-
Mignon (Licensee), the "Pastorale Variee," by
Mozart, and "The Lake," "Waterfall" and "The
Whistling Boy," his own compositions. Vincent
Kroen, tenor accompanied by the Welte-Mignon
(Licensee) sang three numbers. Miss Jean Wessner,
of Pittsburgh, played the 'cello, accompanied by the
Welte-Mignon (Licensee), and Alberta Murray
QUALITY GOLDSMITH
in Name and in Fact
TONE, MATERIALS, CONSTRUCTION, WORKMANSHIP,
DBSION—all in accord with the broadest experfeiK»--*re the
elements which give character to Bush & Lane Product*.
BUSH & LANE PIANOS
BUSH & LANE CECIL IAN PLAYER PIANO6
take hieh pUwe, therefore, In any comparison of high grade
pianos bexause of the individuality of character which distin-
guishes them in all essentials of merit and value.
Holland, Mich.
BUSH cV LANE PIANO CO.
Players and Pianos
Have Every Advantage in Quality and Results
to the Dealers
An Investigation Will Prove It
GOLDSMITH
PIANO
COMPANY
1223-1227 Miller Street. CHICAGO
QUALITY with QUANTITY
Chase-Hackley Piano Co.
(ESTABLISHED 1MJ—THE PIONEER PIANO INDUSTRY OF THE WEST)
MANUFACTURERS OF
Chase Bros,. Hack ley and
Carlisle Pianos
Chase Bros. Player de Luxe
Exceltone Player-Pianos
A FULL LINE OF FIVE LEADERS FOR THE TRADC
Factory and Main Offices:
Maximum Value in
PLAYERS, REPRODUCERS and GRANDS
MUSKEGON. MICHIGAN
CHICAGO
StelaTwSnS JBMIM Sts.
RICHMOND, VA.
Virginia Power and Railway
Building
Offices: 802-4 Republic Bldg.
CHICAGO, ILL.
New Edition Presto Buyers' Guide In Press
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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