Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American P i a n o s
and in Detail Tells of
Their Makers.
PRESTO
E.tablUhed 1884.
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Trade Lists
Three Uniform B o o k -
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Music
Industries.
10 Cent,; $2.00 a Year
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1924
TRADE=IN SUBJECT
FIRST IN IMPORTANCE
Majority of Dealers Consider It Most Vital
Topic for Discussions by the National
Association at June Meeting.
Trade-in, shorter selling terms and maintenance of
retail prices arc the first three subjects, in the order
of their importance that members of the National
Association of Music Merchants desire to hear dis-
cussed at the National Music Industries Convention
at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York the week
of June 1, according to figures compiled by Matt J.
Kennedy, secretary, from replies received from mem-
bers of the association to a questionnaire sent them
by Robert X. Watkin, president.
In his query to the members of the association Mr.
Watkin requested that they indicate on a postcard
enclosed for tTie purpose what subjects they would
like to hear discussed by their fellow merchants at
the various sessions of the convention. He added
that this year a general membership drive was not
being put on, as the officers of the association felt
that the main idea was not members but deeds, re-
sults, something accomplished.
Replies were received from 254 members. Their
wishes are shown in the following list of votes tabu-
lated by Mr. Kennedy: Trade-in problem, 144;
"shorter selling terms, 138; maintenance of retail
prices, 136; legitimate commissions, 127; training
salesmen, 115; overhead as affecting profits, 106; col-
lections, 98; better advertising, 95; quick turnover
of merchandise, 88; better credits, 49; co-operative
insurance, 46.
Mr. Watkin now is in communication with the
Music Industries Chamber of Commerce and others
as to the men best suited to present these subjects
for discussion at the convention. Stereotyped ad-
dresses will be eliminated from the merchants' meet-
ings, according to Mr. Watkin. Instead there will be
general discussions by the 250 dealers expected to
attend the convention of matters selected by them-
selves for consideration.
A Review of the Progress of the Favorite In-
strument from Its Crude Beginning to
Its Latest Facility of Expression
and Power.
NEW MONTEREY, CAL., FIRM.
TELLS OF REPRO=PHRASO
T. Reynolds Van Vleck, Monterey, Cal., and C. E.
Roberts, jeweler, have opened a music store known
as the Roberts-Van Vleck Music Shoppe, at 418
Alvarado street. Mr. Roberts needs no introduction
to the people of the Peninsula, having conducted a
jewelry establishment in Monterey for several years,
recently having also added a line of phonographs.
Mr. Van Vleck has had a wide experience in the
music business. The new firm will carry pianos,
phonographs, records, band and string instruments,
and sheet music and player rolls.
EARL ALDEN'S NEW STORE.
Earl (I. Alden, well known in Waukegan, 111., as a
piano tuner and dealer, has built and equipped a fine
new piano store at 14 South Sheridan road. A new
group of stores has started at the place, and Mr.
Alden feels that Sheridan road in Waukegan is the
same to the piano business that Wabash avenue is to
Chicago. He is handling the Price & Teeple line
and The Cable Company's goods.
TRADE PAPER TALKS
4—CIRCULATION AMONG BIG HOUSES
VS. READERS IN SMALL PLACES.
There is a broad margin of difference be-
tween "circulation" and readers. The circu-
lation of a trade paper, while never really great,
because of the character and limitations of the
clientele, must appeal to the strugglers in the
work of the world, even more largely than to
the big buyers and the dilettante in trade liter-
ature.
It is, of course, desirable that such piano
houses as Kohler & Chase, J. W. Jenkins &
Sons, Sherman, Clay & Co., Grinnell Brothers,
Lyon & Healy, Rudolph Wurlitzer & Bro.—
all or any of the large piano houses, and some
of the big department houses that have piano
departments—read, or at least receive, the
trade paper. But that is not what the average
piano advertiser invests his money for. It is
to spread the radius of his business; to find
more diversified outlet for his industry, to in-
sure better profits for his hard work.
The "big" houses do not really need trade
paper suggestion. There is but one thing of
deep interest that the trade paper can say to
the big department store buyer. It is that
some piano manufacturer "needs the money";
that some piano manufacturer has "cut the
price" ; that some piano manufacturer has failed
and is to be "sold at auction," or otherwise,
wherein "bargains" loom high—or low.
The large piano house would have to bar its
doors to keep the alert and ambitious piano
travelers away from the buyer's desk. No
trade paper announcement can have a selling
influence for them against the presentation by
the silver-tongued salesman.
Why, then, try to judge of a trade paper's
circulation by counting noses in the offices of
big stores or department houses? Presto is
sent to all such concerns that think it wise to
invest the price of subscription, which is only
$2, with one copy of "Presto Buyers' Guide"
thrown in. Presto is not a "free" proposition.
It is firm in the belief that, to be of real adver-
tising value, the trade paper must go to the
kind of piano dealers who read it for instruc-
tion and for opportunity to get the kind of in-
struments needed with which to make a living,
and a little more. High-brows do not read
trade papers to the profit of piano manufac-
turers. We believe in the tank-town piano
salesmen—the hard workers who own Bowen
Loaders and hitch them to their Fords, and
get out after business.
And more dealers of that kind read Presto
than all the other trade papers combined, if
reports direct from the field can be relied upon.
If it is to be an open expose of trade paper
circulation, and not merely a partisan discus-
sion based upon the butt-in propensities of any
one or two individuals, who think much and
know little, then Presto stands ready to show
what it has got, if results of its time and
trouble in so doing are made adequate. Mere
"bunk" of other trade paper proclamations is
not impressive. We discuss only facts.
Further proofs of circulation and influence
will be set forth for several weeks to come.
DEVELOPMENT OF
THE PLAYER PIANO
Frank F. Story, of the Story & Clark Piano Co.,
Contributes Instructive Chapter on a Subject
of General Trade Interest.
The piano of today is the perfection of the Italian
harp, the accepted instrument of music in its day as
the piano is in these modern times. The ingenuity
of man overcame the limitation of technique present
in the harp by adding the keyboard, and giving us
the first pianos.
Inventive genius worked its wonders and the piano
passed from its necessarily crude and limited be-
ginnings into the magnificent instruments we know
today.
It was inevitable, however, that man would find
a way eventually to bring the silent strings of the
pianoforte to life by other means than the hands of
trained pianists. And the mechanical player was
created. But the evolution of the playcrpiano was a
slow process.
Probably no man today knows better tli'e long trail
of development of the player-piano than F. V. Story,
\ice-pres&lent of the Story & Clark Piano Company.
f ^.*™\v Beginning of Playerpiano.
Tn disclosing the evolution of the playerpiano from
its first, and crude beginnings, Mr. Story said:
"Probably most of us who have reached middle
age remember the days when the first mechanical
devices for playing the piano were put forth.
"The day of the old-fashioned cabinet piano-player,
with levers to operate the keys, that had to be
wheeled up to the keyboard every time some music-
hungry soul, who was unable to play by hand, wanted
music, seems far in the past.
"For want of something better these crude, cum-
bersome 'piano players' were eagerly bought by
those whose means permitted. But the 'music' they
produced was so mechanical, so unmusical, that only
the most courageous seeker after melody could long
endure their humdrum monotony and weird music.
Later Development.
'"Later on the playing mechanism was introduced
into the-piano itself, becoming an integral part of the
instrument. That was the first playerpiano.
It
brought greater convenience to the person who oper-
ated it, but it did not appreciably improve the qual-
ity of the music it produced. It was still purely
mechanical; it played a music roll and faithfully re-
peated the notes; but it did not permit the player him-
self to exercise any discretion as to how it was to be
played, beyond allowing him to 'play' loud or louder,
soft or softer.
'"There were no means by which he could express
himself in the music, no way by which his personal
ideas of how the composition should be played could
be carried out. The limitations of the purely me-
chanical playing of the music roll were his limit.
"Then ingenious minds set to work to create de-
vices that would broaden the musical possibilities of
the playerpiano. They called upon electricity to help
them achieve what they were searching for. And
they built electrically manipulated instruments that
would play specially made music rolls, with an ap-
proach to musical feeling.
Lacked Individuality.
"But the very ingenuity of this instrument took
away the last vestige of individual participation in the
playing, for you had no more control of how the
composition would be played than if you had been
in China with the piano in your home somewhere in
America. These electrically manipulated pianos nat-
urally were costly and, because of their price, beyond
the reach of the ordinary purse.
(Continued on next page.)
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/