PRESTO
May 24, 1924.
IN THE HEART OF NEW
YORK^SOLD PIANO ROW
Fourteenth Street When It Was Renowned as the Glory of Manhattan's
Crowds of Shoppers and Sight=Seers
STENCIL WARS, THE BURNING OF
THE
"SQUARES,"
AND OTHER
TOPICS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING.
Some Suggestions for Visitors at the Waldorf
Next Month.
The Earlier Conventions and What They Worried
Over and Discussed.
In one of his recent New York letters, O. O. Mc-
Intyre (Copyright 1924, by Mclntyre Syndicate, Inc.)
says:—
Fourteenth street, redolent of romance and spiced
with high adventure, seems to be donning the wind-
ing sheet. There are scores of vacant stores on the
thoroughfare that was once the hub of the town—the
the patience to run a music journal. He liked to
travel, and that takes money also. So the Chickering
"organ" did not last, but was absorbed by one of its
struggling contemporaries. Nevertheless, the cause
of its being also discontinued, and perhaps Mr. Chick-
ering felt that he had accomplished his purpose.
* * *
Some have said that what threatened to grow into
a ruction followed the declaration by certain piano
of the piano trade glories of the Union Square dis-
trict will have departed.
And probably never again, the world over, will
there be such a piano street, or any locality so
crowded with reminiscence and musical history as
that part of Fourteenth street, P"ourth avenue and
Broadway, within a block of Union Square.
* * *
A score or more of America's famous pianos had
their start there. Every one of the music trade
papers of New York was first established there. The
first offices and warerooms of some of the great
piano industries, such as the Mason & Hamlin,
Sohmer, Steck, Krakauer and others, were opened
there. And never anywhere else such famous lunch-
ing places and loafing places for music men as the
old Union Square, and Everett hotels, and the equally
popular Morton House.
If the ghosts of all piano men now no more with
FOURTEENTH STREKT. LOOKING EAST KKOM
FIFTH AVENUK.
(Picture taken about 1900.)
FOURTEENTH STREET, LOOKING WEST FROM
(Picture taken about 1SS6.)
high spot of theatrical and cafe life.
ing gallery there is soon to close.
The last shoot-
Poor old Fourteenth street! Once the Piano Row
of New York. .Can't you old fellows remember when
all of these famous pianos were headquartered on that
thoroughfare: Steinway, Steck, Behning, Bradbury,
Sterling. Hardman, Sohmer, and several lesser ones?
Today, the once busy piano center is almost a cold,
cold corpse.
* * *
Most of the old-timers in the piano trade at the
coming convention will go down to Fourteenth street
just to live again for a few moments the thrill of
memory. They will not have a long walk, down Fifth
avenue from the Waldorf, and they will turn eastward
on Fourteenth street to Fourth avenue, and a few-
steps beyond to stop at the quaintly beautiful old
Steinway Hall, which still dominates that section,
with its white marble front and dignified columns.
And many of the visiting piano men will cross the
street to the famous former shrine of Bacchus and
good lunches. Possibly a few tears may fall at re-
membrance of the genial good times for which
Liichow's was so long noted. It was the meeting
place of the men of the music trade for more than
thirty years.
Few out-of-town members of the trade visiting New
York were not taken around to Liichow's, and his
marvelous flow of Miinchner and Pilschner, when
noon time arrived.
But it's little more than a memory now.
* * *
And when Steinway & Sons move away from Four-
teenth street to take possession of the new and even
more palatial Steinway Hall on 54th street, the last
BROADWAY.
us ever gather in those places, as once they did in the
flesh, the crowds must be great and the happiness
still greater.
* * *
Speaking of the fact that the Fourteenth street sec-
tion of New York was the birthplace of all the east-
ern trade papers recalls the little known attempt of
the late Frank Chickering to establish a music jour-
nal, designed to overcome the spite of a certain jour-
nalist who had inaugurated a campaign against the
old Boston piano.-
At the time, Chickering Hall, at Fifth avenue and
17th street, was in the splendor of its declining days.
The finances of- Chickering & Sons had run low.
Nevertheless Mr. Chickering, with characteristic
profligacy in money matters, wanted a special jour-
nalistic "organ." And he got one, although it soon
developed that he couldn't pay for it. So it quit after
a brilliant but brief career.
* * *
In those days the music trade paper offices were
distributed as follows: The late Marc Blumenberg
had his "Courier" on Broadway at the corner of Four-
teenth street. John C. Freund and his "Music &
Drama" were on Fourteenth street near Broadway.
The late Wm. M. Thorns, with his "American Art
Journal," was on Broadway just north of Fourteenth,
and the Chickering paper was on Fourteenth a few
doors west of Broadway.
The Behnings had a store in the same building, and
at intervals it was remarked as strange that the mili-
tary-looking goatee of the Master of Chickering Hall
should be seen seemingly entering the shop of the
Behning piano.
But Frank Chickering had neither the money nor
makers that they would conduct a music show in
connection with the New York convention. For it
had been announced that no pianos for exhibition
purposes would be permitted in the Waldorf Hotel.
But the wishes of the Music Industries Chamber of
Commerce were disregarded, and some of the piano
manufacturers announced plans of a display at the
McAlpin. only a block away from the convention
headquarters.
This matter of convention exhibits has been a bone
of contention from almost the beginning. It reached
its highest point at the time of the Detroit meeting.
At that time, the Ponchartrain Hotel had con-
tracted to permit no pianos to enter its portals during
the convention. This ruling was so strictly adhered
to that it was reported several Detroit music houses
complained that sales had been spoiled because guests
of the Ponchartrain were denied the privilege of re-
ceiving their instruments.
But, as is certain to be the case under such condi-
tions, piano salesmen found rooms in tollildings con-
veniently near where they entertained visiting dealers,
displayed their "samples," and took orders for car-
load lot deliveries. That for a time settled the no-
exposition laws.
* * *
As a result, the idea of big special music trade
expositions developed. One was arranged to be held
at Madison Square Garden, New York. It was a
financial failure, as might have been expected. Then
followed the equally big shows at Chicago and Rich-
mond, Va. They were also failures in a financial
sense.
But the big shows carried lessons of value. They
proved that, whereas as public attractions the music
trade expositions were hopeless, the display of in-
struments for the trade meant business. And so the
individual exhibits in hotel rooms was tried and met
the requirements. At the Drake Hotel in Chicago
the highest point of success was reached. Manufac-
turers declared that they had been amply paid for
their trouble and investment.
And the visiting dealers said that they had made
the convention pay them more by what they had
bought than by what they had heard and learned.
When the opposition to exhibits developed this
year, scores of retail piano men protested, and Presto
received at least fifty letters in favor of a repetition
of the plan which had proved profitable last year at
the Drake in Chicago.
* * *
Whatever is of concern to the convention has spe-
cial interest for discussion in this issue of Presto, in
which so much matter pertaining to the New York
meeting appears. And a subject of interest is that of
the foremost topics which have stirred the gathering
as the years have sped by.
From the first meeting at Manhattan Beach, in the
fall of 1897, to this time the uppermost subjects of
discussion have varied, just as the dominating person-
alities of the conventions have changed.
When the late Henry F. Miller called the Manhat-
tan Beach meeting to order, there were few present
who seemed to know what order meant. The forum
(Continued on page 11.)
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