SHEET MUSIC TRADE
TO PUBLISHERS
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
THE COMBINED CIRCULATION
OF PRESTO (EST. 1884), AND MUS-
ICAL TIMES (EST. 1881), IS BY FAR
THE LARGEST IN THE FIELD OF
THE MUSIC TRADE. COMBINA-
TION RATES OF SPECIAL AT-
TRACTIVENESS FOR ADVERTIS-
ING SPACE IN BOTH PAPERS
WILL BE MADE TO MUSIC PUB-
LISHERS.
This department is designed to advance the sales
of sheet music, and give any current information in
the Sheet Music Trade.
This publication believes that Sheet Music will
pay the dealer, just as any other commodity pays
those who merchandise it properly.
The conductor of this department will review
any numbers that are sent in for the purpose. It is
not the intent to criticise, but to review these offer-
ings, giving particular information of the theme and
a description of the musical setting of the number
discussed.
Address all communications to Conductor Sheet
Music Dept., Presto, 407 S. Dearborn, Chicago, 111.
SHEET MUSIC IN SAN FRANCISCO
Big Department Stores in California Report Success
in New Sections Recently Installed.
The music merchants and department stores in
San Francisco are responding to the greater interest
in sheet music by adding sheet music departments or
by increasing the space and facilities of those already
in existence. The fact that a considerable number of
new songs is published in the city is accountable for
much of the interest but the city has always been con-
sidered a good sheet music place.
The sheet music department recently installed by
the City of Paris Dry Goods Store is achieving
greater success than was even anticipated by the
company. The new department on the first gallery
of the annex is remarkable for taste in arrangement
and the artistic surroundings generally. A large
stock of popular music is provided for a growing
clientele.
Two sheet music departments have been provided
in the Pacific Stores, Inc., 981 to 983 Market street,
one on the main floor and one in the basement. In
this store, too, the line of music is largely popular.
The "hits" are featured in a lively way that furthers
sales.
MAKE SHOW WINDOW SALES
Effective Displays at the Front of the Store Most
Economical Form of Advertising.
The window display is the most economical kind of
advertising for the sheet music dealer. No matter
how big or effective his display inside may be or no
matter how effectively he may feature the music at
the counter, the activities are supplemented with tell-
ing force by the show in the front windows. Many
a wayfarer casually glancing at the window layout
pauses for a closer and more attentive view, sees
something that prompts an investigation of the stock
inside.
Of course the sheet music show window is consid-
ered an essential proceeding by the owners of large
music houses. There the sheet music department is an
independent profit-making part of the business. It
is the dealer who carries a limited stock of sheet
music as an expected accessory who features the
sheet music in a perfunctory way and who does not
consider sheet music worthy of the dignity of a place
in the front window.
Sheet music buyers are the same in California or
Nebraska as they are in Illinois, Ohio, Massachusetts
or New York; they will not buy if unaware of the
existence of the music. Showing the public what it
might want is a preliminary to selling it what it
wants as far as sheet music is concerned.
The Roat Music Co., Battle Creek, Mich., has
studied the psychology of the sheet music buyer in
a most effective way. The house is a big publisher of
music and the preliminary local tests of its new music
is considered a good guide as to the ultimate fate
of the publications. Of course the show window is
an essential part of the test which is used in conjunc-
tion with demonstrations in the store and a profuse
use of printed slips in the windows and elsewhere
throughout the store. A recent try-out of a new
number resulted in the retail sale of three hundred
copies in a single day.
But even the window displays will not sell trashy
stuff. The appeal of the window must be augmented
by the appeal of the song itself. Showing the really
good song in a good way in the window will make
the cash register ring with delightful frequency.
REMICK MUSIC FOR MOVIES
Theater Orchestra Leader Finds Rich Vein of Ma-
terial in the Popular Numbers.
The list of songs of Jerome H. Remick & Co. pro-
vides much of the music with which the Columbia
Theater Orchestra, Portland, Ore., makes the house
one of the most attractive amusement places in the
city. Harry Linden, the leader, shows his apprecia-
tion of Remick melodies by including something from
the Remick list at every performance.
Mr. Linden draws considerably on the Remick
productions in arranging appropriate musical scores
for the photoplays. For instance when "A Wild
Party" was produced on the screen recently Mr. Lin-
den's music had "First, Last and Always" as a prin-
cipal theme. "Watchin' the Moon Rise" and "Nearer
and Dearer" were also made more familiar to Colum-
bia Theater audiences by their use for melodramatic
music for screen plays.
AIDING MUSIC DEALERS.
Geo. W. Thomas & Co., publishers of music, 428
Bowen avenue, Chicago, has provided dealers with
window strips of late songs, on Gennett Records and
Kimball rolls. Miss Tiny of Chicago, one of the new
singers for the Thomas Co., recorded six numbers on
Gennett records, Geo. W. Thomas at the piano. The
records are: "Up the Country Blues," "Houston
Blues," "Shorty George Blues," "I've Got a Man of
My Own," "I've Found a Sweetheart," "Sweet Baby
Doll." Miss Sippie Wallace of Chicago, another star
singer for the Thomas Company, has recorded two
songs on Okeh records. Hersal Thomas, the 10-year-
old musician, will turn over two of his late songs
to his brother, Geo. W. Thomas, head of the Thomas
Company.
MUSIC IN PORTLAND.
Maybelle Elliott, manager of the sheet music de-
partment of Seiberling-Lucas Music Company, Port-
land, Ore., says that the four leading numbers called
for are the following: "I Love You" (Fiest), "So
This Is Venice" (Clarke-Leslie), "Last Night on the
Back Porch" (Shipiro-Bernstein), and "Bring Back
That Old Fashioned Waltz" (Remick).
A very pleasant increase in business in the sheet
music department of the Southern California Music
Co., Los Angeles, is noticed since the business was
moved to the new building of the company on Broad-
way.
Music
Estim at £§
- 9est
Music Printers
A N Y PUBLISHER
\
OUR REFERENCE
BAYNEB, DALhJJEIM 6 Co:
25
PRESTO
February 2, 1924.
THE FEDERAL STATEMENT
Government Trade Commission Publishes Re-
sults of Sheet Music Trade Practice Submit-
tal Recently Held in New York.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a state-
ment with respect to the trade practice submittal re-
cently held before Commissioner Van Fleet by the
publishers of standard sheet music. At the request of
Alfred L. Smith, secretary of the Music Publishers
Association of the United States, the trade practice
submittal was held with the Federal Trade Commis-
sion on October 2, 1923, for the purpose of giving
those engaged in the industry an opportunity to ex-
press their views regarding the practice of marking
musical publications at fictitious prices. The confer-
ence was held at the New York office of the Com-
mission and was attended by publishers representing
95 per cent of the total output of standard sheet mu-
sic. There were also present a few publishers of
popular music. The following were represented:
Fred Kraft, Edward Schuberth & Co., New York;
Otto Jordan, Harms, Inc., New York; W. M. Bacon,
White-Smith Music Publishing Co., Boston; W. M.
Gamble, Gamble Hinged Music Co., Chicago; John
Hanna, Enoch & Sons, New York; M. Keane,
Boosey & Co., New York; C. C. Church, C. C.
Church & Co., Hartford, Conn.; M. E. Tompkins, G.
Schirmer, Inc., New York; H. W. Gray, H. W. Gray
Co., New York; E. F. Bitner, Leo Feist, Inc., New
York; Harold W. Robinson, B. F. Wood Music Co.,
Boston; C. A. Woodman, Oliver Ditson & Co., Bos-
ton; H. B. Crosby, Arthur P. Schmidt Co., Boston;
Clayton F. Summy, Clayton F. Summy Co., Chicago;
G. Fischer, J. Fischer & Brother, New York; W.
Deane Preston, Jr., B. F. Wood Music Co., Boston;
W. H. Witt, W. H. Witt Music Co., Pittsburgh; E.
C. Mills, Chairman, Music Publishers' Protective As-
sociation; W. L. Coghill, John Church Co., New
York; H. Engel, Richmond-Robbins, Inc., New York;
REMICK SONG HITS
Nearer and Dearer
Watchin' the Moon Rise
Until Tomorrow
Nobody Knows but My Pillow
and Me
The Old Folks at Home
Arizona Stars
Barney Google
Beside a Babbling Brook
You Can't Make a Fool Out of Me
Big Blond Mamma
First, Last and Always
Somebody's Wrong
Do You, Don't You, Will You,
Won't You?
Tweet, Tweet
Lou'siana
J. H. REMICK & CO.
New York
Chicago
Detroit
SONGS THAT SELL
"I Ain't No Sheik, Just Sweet Papa,
That's All."
"I've Got a Man of My Own."
"Houston Blues." "The Fives."
"Muscle Shoals Blues." "The Rocks."
"You Have a Home Somewhere."
"Up the Country Blues."
"Shorty George Blues."
"I've Found a Sweetheart."
"Mammy's Little Brown Rose."
and the Sensational Waltz Success
"AT SUNDOWN"
Order From Your Jobber or Direct,
>-
>"
WORK DONE B Y
ALL PROCESSES
2054-2060 W.Lake St., Chic ago, 111.
Geo. W. Thomas Music Co.
428 Bowen Ave.
Chicago, U. S. A.
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/