Presto

PRESTO
presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DAN I ELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
- Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, 92 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4.
Payable In advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
application.
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre-
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1924.
THE PIANO ALWAYS
A few years ago one of the New York
music trade papers, in an indigo streak, called
attention to the large number of pianos ad-
vertised for sale in the newspapers. Later it
was discovered that a good proportion of the
advertisements were those of the "family
leaving town," or the distressed "widow's," or
the smart piano salesman in search of "pros-
pects." And the piano trade kept growing
greater and the piano industry increased
steadily.
After awhile the phonograph began to as-
sume proportions. The piano dealers consid-
ered the advisability of taking it in and divid-
ing the results with the "shops" which had
become thick everywhere. And in time the
piano stores were doing the phonograph busi-
ness. It was a good "side line," and it has
never been anything else. The piano continued
to be the center of interest and the object of
first concern and profit.
In time the automobile grew great in public
interest. Even long-headed piano men re-
garded it as a menace to their business. People
couldn't be out joy-riding and have time to
study music and play the piano. The end of
the piano business seemed in sight. But peo-
ple went right on making their homes happy
Avith music, and the cars began to deliver
pianos in increased numbers. The playerpiano
grew in its endurance, and learning to play
the piano was no longer really necessary. It
played itself.
And at last came radio. It swept over the
world like a fire and the timid kind of piano
men again shook their heads in alarm. Radio
meant ruin. Some piano houses took it in,
and a few built up a big radio business—usu-
ally as jobbers. And then radio came under
judicial regulations of a kind impossible to
music and its interpreter, the piano. Radio
rages today. It is still a novelty. As a piano
trade proposition it will fade away in half
the time it took the phonograph to lose its
interest.
While all these interferences were develop-
ing and spreading, the small grand piano was
coming into its own. It has arrived and it
will stay. Unlike the phonograph and radio,
it is still a piano—the real instrument of
music. And music is a large thing in the life
of the people—an indispensable thing. The
piano, in its newer development, will remain
in favor as long as the upright held sway.
As the old squares disappeared, so will the
old uprights pass away. Where they will go
doesn't matter. They will go. The small
grand may also have a successor. There are
a few piano men, still living, who can remem-
ber the melodeon and its passing, to be fol-
lowed by the harmonium. And then the piano,
with its great case and four legs. They e:isiiy
recall the cabinet organ and its decline, to
make full place for the upright piano.
As the spinet and the clavichord became in-
adequate, and called for the piano, so have the
newer and better instruments come, as they
were needed, and passed when something still
better was wanted.
And all through, from the very first, it has
been the principle of the piano that has per-
sisted. And the piano will continue to persist,
until the world ends and all piano dealers shall
be handed the harps of their celestial dreams.
PIANO CONDITIONS
It is not uncommon, at this time, to hear
men of ordinarily good judgment tell of spot-
ted' conditions in the piano trade. A few of
them will tell you that things are less active
than they have been "for years." But they do
not say how many years ago it was when
things were much better. As a matter of
fact, things were not so good in 1921. and
they have been worse at several earlier periods
than they were three years ago.
It is a matter of custom. But, thank heaven,
it is not a custom exclusive to the piano bus-
iness. It is just as prevalent in other lines
and, presumably, just as groundless or just as
senseless.
Just for the comfort that is said to come
with company, take a look at some other lines
of industry and trade. Is the piano business
in any worse "condition" than that of shoos,
or clothing, or a hundred other, things? Is
there any business more certain of a quick re-
turn to a better "condition"?
Do you know of any other article of every-
day sale that is more satisfactory in the re-
sults of its sale than pianos ? Do you know of
anything the sale of which gives greater satis-
faction to either buyer or seller? And, hon-
estly, if no one told you that piano "condi-
tions" are "bad" would you know it? Isn't
it a fact that you have the average number of
prospects, and that it is no more difficult to
close a sale now than in the years we love to
call "good ones"?
Don't let anyone make you believe that the
piano business is anywhere within sight of the
tail end of things. It is one of the best lines
of business now, as ever before. It is just as
"bad," or just as "good," as you make it. It is
about the only business that permits a live
man to work off his surplus energy with prof-
itable results all of the time.
Keep busy and this will not seem like a bad
year for the piano trade. New prospects are
reaching the age of discretion and intellectual
desire. How much better than the tiresome
and often senseless repetition of the grunt
about "bad business conditions" is the asser-
tion of a prominent traveler that "the possi-
bilities of the piano are better today than ever
before since the world began."
May 3, 1924.
PLAYER INDUSTRY
AND MUSIC ROLLS
How a Two Hundred Million Dollar Business
Depends for Prosperity on the Con-
tinuous Sale of Rolls, Told
by T. M. Pletcher.
LESSON IN SAD PACTS
In Rousing Letter to Trade, President of Q R S
Music Co. Cites Some Happenings That
Should Stimulate Roll Interest.
Another stimulating letter from Thomas M.
Pletcher, president of the Q R S Music Co., Chicago,
has been mailed to the trade and in it Mr. Pletcher
again reminds the earnest playerpiano dealers of the
importance of rolls in the scheme of playerpiano
salts. With sound reasoning he impresses the fact
that it is vital to the continuation of the player busi-
ness that the dealers should stimulate the roll sales
and sell the customer the best he can afford:
Mr. Pletcher's Letter.
April 25th, 1924.
(ientlemen:
Over two hundred million dollars ($200,000,000) is
the estimated investment in the Playerpiano industry.
Without music rolls the industry could not live.
The music roll is the stepping-stone of the Playerpi-
ano industry. If that stepping-stone is pushed under
the water someone would get their feet wet, and yet
someone is always trying to pound the thing down
below the water level, and the very ones who are
constantly calling for cheaper,—cheaper,—cheaper,—-
in music rolls, would be the first ones to get panicky
if every piano and player manufacturer in the United
Slates would all of a sudden decide to make nothing
hut the very cheapest pianos and playerpianos, be-
cause they would say,—How are we going to take
care of our better class of trade?
Points to Fact.
It is a tragic fact that twelve (12) player roll man-
ufacturers have either failed or discontinued during
the past five years. This is about fifty per cent
(50%) of every roll manufacturer that was in busi-
ness. They were selling their rolls for $1.00 or less.
Did they quit because they made so much money
they didn't know what to do with it?
It costs just as much or a little more, to make a
good music roll now as it ever did; therefore, Q R S
prices are not going up nor going down, but we
shall continue to make a fine music roll, advertise it
nationally, and give you the best service possible.
Yours truly,
T H E Q R S MUSIC COMPANY.
T. M. PLETCHER,
President.
P. S.—Why not sell every customer the best he
can afford, as you do in playerpianos or other mer-
chandise. You are not satisfied to sell your cus-
tomers the cheapest thing of its kind, whatever it is.
PROMINENT PORTLAND DEALER
VISITS EASTERN POINTS
G. F. Johnson, Oregon, Leader in Trade Sees How
Packard Pianos Are Made.
G. F. Johnson of the G. F. Johnson Piano Co. of
Portland, Oregon, has returned to that city after a
six weeks' trip to the principal cities of the East,
during which he visited the prominent dealers and
the factories with which he has business connections.
Among the places visited were Chicago, Fort Wayne.
Washington, New York and Boston. At Fort Wayne
he visited the Packard factory, of which fine instru-
ment his house is a representative.
Mr. Johnson is the Northwest distributor of the
Cheney phonograph and when he visited the factory
at Grand Rapids he found them getting ready to put
out some new models of distinctive and unusual type.
The Cheney is now being equipped with the radio,
and the factory will be kept running at full capacity
for the rest of the year to meet the demand.
C. H. SMITH, PRESIDENT.
C. H. Smith was elected president of the Smith-
Reiss Piano Co., St. Louis, at a meeting held recently.
Other officers elected are: Dr. J. H. Wolfenden.
vice-president; Val Reiss, treasurer and Philip Bard-
enheier, secretary. The report read by the secretary
showed excellent results in sales for the past year
and a profitable condition generally in the operation
of the business. The officers anticipate a much better
business in the year ahead, beliefs based on a lively
condition in sales this spring and the assurance of
its continuation.
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