Presto Buyers' Guide
Analyzes and Classifies
All American P i a n o s
and in Detail Tells of
rheir Makers.
PRESTO
. THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
Presto Trade Lists
Three Uniform B o o k -
lets, the Only Complete
Directories of the Music
Industries.
to c. n t, t $M.OO « J W
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1924
INNOVATION IN
THE PLAYER FIELD
Waltham Piano Co., of Milwaukee, Starts Na-
tional Advertising Campaign to Introduce
a New Style Instrument Possessing
Some Novel Features.
IT IS THE "HARPENOLA"
Beginning with Wisconsin, Indiana, Michigan and
Ohio, the Entire Country Will Receive Wide-
spread Printer's Ink Stimulation.
One of the western piano industries that is going
after trade in a large way is the Waltham Piano Co.,
of Milwaukee. Beginning with the third of this
month, the Waltham Piano Co. inaugurated a broad-
cast advertising campaign, in which some notable im-
provements and new features, in the already famous
instruments, are to be made known to the piano
buying public everywhere.
Of General Interest.
Of course all piano dealers are interested directly
in the campaign of an industry that has something
new to offer, in which there are opportunities for re-
newed stimulus and increased pos'sibilities of busi-
ness and profit. The Waltham publicity will feature
a new playerpiano presenting twelve points of special
interest and novelty. The instrument is known as
the "Harpenola," and the name at once suggests the
characteristic quality, or added attractiveness of the
instrument from Milwaukee.
There have been piano "attachments," designed to
imitate every instrument, from a zither to a bagpipe.
But in the new Waltham "Harpenola" there is a dis-
tinct departure from anything that has already been
introduced. Of course its basis is the Waltham itself,
which has attained to a place unchallenged in both
material and musical results. A complete detailed
description of the new instrument will shortly appear,
and there are hundreds of dealers who will be more
than ready to investigate the claims of the newest
thing in the piano line.
By Way of Introduction.
And, as an intellectual appetizer, the page opposite
will serve a good purpose. For it outlines some of
the "Harpenola" qualities, and tells of the innovation
and its possibilities in the home and in the stores.
The publicity campaign of the Waltham Piano
Company will at first be vigorously applied to the
states of Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
Later it will be extended until the entire country shall
have been thoroughly covered. Dealers will at once
see the possibilities of results to themselves, and the
forward movement already insured will be greatly
augmented by the power of printer's ink as an ad-
vance agent for sales at retail.
Will Stimulate Enthusiasm.
President Paul F. Netzow r , of the Waltham Piano
Co., is very enthusiastic about the new "Harpenola"
playerpiano. He believes that in the practicability of
the innovation there is a field for general advertising
which must exert the influence for dealers which is
needed to instill the new desire on the public's part to
buy pianos. And the publicity will not be confined to
the magazines, but will be extended also to the farm
and home papers, until the ease with which a harp
solo may be played upon the Waltham, with or with-
out accompaniment, will be understood in all music
loving communities.
The Waltham Piano Co. has a descriptive booklet
in press, in which the "Harpenola" is fully described.
It will be mailed to any address on application, and,
of course, all Waltham dealers will be supplied with
quantities of it for local distribution.
It is believed, furthermore, that the innovation will
prove a great help to the Waltham merchandizing
plan which many dealers are adopting, and find desir-
able and applicable to profitable business. It is cer-
tain that any new ideas which may stimulate the
piano trade must be welcome. The Waltham Piano
Co. is going after trade with the faith that in the new
instrument there is a basis of still greater success,
and the national advertising will help to that end.
Presto is concerned in anything and everything
that can be helpful to music and the music trade.
Therefore the Waltham enterprise is of special in-'
terest at this time, and will be followed further in
subsequent issues.
DR. GOODSPEED ADDRESSES
PIANO CLUB OF CHICAGO
And Miss Hunt, Famous Canadian Violinist, Con-
tributed to the Joy of Luncheon This Week.
Dr. Edgar J. Goodspeed, member of the faculty and
secretary to the president of the University of Chi-
cago, addressed the Piano Club of Chicago on a sub-
ject brimful of interest, information and wit at the
Monday luncheon this week.
Miss Helen Hunt, one of Canada's most famous
violinists, shared her talent with the members during
the enjoyable hour at the Illinois Athletic Club.
"Don't miss the Piano Club beefsteak dinner and
frolic, April 7, at the Belmont Hotel, 6:30 p. m. Stag
—positively informal," was the admonition of John
McKenna, president, and Harry D. Schoenwald, sec-
retary, at the close of the luncheon.
The drive for i\ve hundred new members now being
made by the Piano Club of Chicago is now well under
way and results even this early in the movement are
entirely satisfactory. Many applications from Chi-
cago have been received in response to the circular
letter and application blanks sent out and other cities
have created considerable interest in Chicago Piano
Club membership. For instance, New York city sent
a good quota and numerous excellent letters have been
received.
NOW WHOLESALE CORRESPONDENT.
TRADE PAPER TALKS
5—TRAVELING SALESMEN AS INVES-
TIGATORS OF TRADE PAPER
CIRCULATION.
At intervals there is talk of what some piano
manufacturer or other "organization" has been
doing to settle the question of trade paper
circulation. The result is certain to be as un-
convincing as the average research in problems
of the occult. And it must be a very dead trade
paper that does not proclaim itself the real-for-
sure Greatest Ever, especially in its circulation
department.
But, absurd as the situation may be, the
processes by which the fool's cap may be ad-
justed is of some trade interest.
It :s now about twenty-five years since the
first attempt by a piano manufacturer was
made to settle the question of comparative
trade paper circulation. The manufacturer
was the late Malcolm Love, at the time mak-
ing pianos at Waterloo, N. Y. As the result
of his "investigations," Mr. Love declared that
Presto seemed the most influential in bringing
sales. He did not say much about "circula-
tion," because he found that the dealers who
actually read the trade papers considered it a
waste of time to fill out blanks, and an imper-
tinence on the part of the questioner.
Later, a Chicago supply manufacturer tried
the same plan for discovering how many copies
of a trade paper could be profitably circulated.
His efforts met with no satisfactory results be-
cause he had employed a Boston music trade
directory from which he took names of such
dealers as he knew were "important," and he
added the names of his own customers. And
it occurred to him as strange that only a few
of his customers were rated in the directory
and that he had so few of the ones named in
the directory in his own list of "prospects."
Of recent years it has been considered a mat-
ter of education, with one or two piano manu-
facturers, to have their traveling salesmen re-
port as to which of the trade papers they found
in the stores at which they called. No one
who understands the ways of the piano man
will doubt the result. The traveler will visit
the large cities and towns. In the big stores
he will find trade papers. Some of the papers
will be found unrolled on the top of the mail
clerk's desk. Perhaps the trade paper that is
read will not be there. It may have been
taken home by "the boss." It may not be
there because "the boss" will not pay the little
price of subscription and the publishers are too
self-respecting to send the paper as free as any
common circular.
Is there any value in reports from the trav-
elers? They know nothing of the dealers in
the smaller places who take one or more of the
trade papers because they need them, and often
for the purpose of reading the advertisements
W. L. Stephenson, who for the past three years
represented Lyon & Healy in the South, and who is
well known to all the trade in Georgia, Florida, Ten-
nessee, North and South Carolina, Mississippi and
Virginia has been promoted to the position of cor-
respondence in the Lyon & Healy wholesale. Mr.
Stephenson has a host of friends who will be glad to
hear of his well-merited advancement.
ANNUAL MEETING ANNOUNCED.
The annual meeting of the New York Piano Mer-
chants' Association is set for April 21, at which time
the election of officers will take place. A special pro-
gram of entertainment is planned for the annual meet-
ing, according to C. T. Purdy, president.
no less than the suggestions and constructive
articles.
The traveler who attends to his own busi-
ness—his employer's business—cannot take
tally of any side issue. He has personal
friends in all the trade papers and he is not
a "knocker." Presto could name at least
twenty traveling salesmen who owe their posi-
tions to this paper, and there are others who
are its loyal friends and as good salesmen as
friends. Not a few of them have added many
subscribers to Presto's mailing list.
No reputable piano manufacturer would per-
mit his travelers to go nosing about the coun-
try in such a silly attempt at finding out what
they may know by applying at the offices of
the trade papers themselves. And don't you
believe any trade paper that says any piano
manufacturer has been doing it. Further
proofs of Presto circulation and influence will
appear next week.
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