Presto

presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DANIELL 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, $2 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 d : splay 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 31, 1924.
THE ROLL DEPARTMENT
PRESTO
can not be done properly and profitably unless
conducted systematically and with an eye to
the prompt service with which all sheet music
dealers are familiar. For the player roll of
today is in the same relation to the buying
public that sheet music has always been, ever
since the first song was published and the
first "piece" put before the public for daily
practice.
THE CONVENTION
Last week's Presto contained very full par-
ticulars of the plans for the big convention
of men of music who will get together at the
Waldorf-Astoria, New York. A week will be
devoted to discussing trade topics, dinners,
speeches by famous leaders in the world's af-
fairs, and a study of the big things of New
York, above earth and in the subways be-
neath.
To a good many members of the*retail trade.
New York is as new as its old name. The
men of music will find enough excitement on
Fifth avenue and Broadway, and the uptown
piano streets, to keep them very busy, day
and night. And they will !earn a good deal
about retail piano warerooms. for there are a
few in New York which are beyond compari-
son with those in any other city on earth.
Wabash avenue. Chicago, has some fine
piano warerooms—almost as splendid as those
on Fifth avenue, or even Fifty-seventh street.
But to many of the smaller-town dealers, who
do not get to either Chicago or New York
very often, the newer establishments in the
latter city alone will present interest enough
to justify the trip irrespective of the doings
at the Waldorf-Astoria, or even the exhibits
at the McAlpin.
And if the visitors look closely they will
find that quite a number of New York's fine
retail piano stores bear names that show large-
ly upon western factories. And so the nation
becomes cemented in the music industry as
in other things.
This issue of Presto comes out right be-
tween dusk and daylight, so far as concerns
the New York convention. It is too early
to give reports of what will be done—even
the things already in hand; and it is too late
to do much good by commenting upon those
things. But it is neither too early nor too late
to advise all visiting dealers to take part in
the business meetings at the Waldorf, and to
linger long at the displays of instruments at
the McAlpin. Nor will it be wise to neglect
the opportunity for visiting the famous New
York factories and getting acquainted with
men whose names are alreadv familiar.
Do the p i a n o manufacturers, generally
speaking, realize how closely related to their
interests is the industry of the player roll?
When a playerpiano is put into the shipping
case and sent to some far-off dealer, the in-
terest in the instrument does not cease for
its manufacturer. He expects to hear further
concerning it. He knows just what will hap-
pen when the box is opened and the player-
piano is to have its first trial.
The dealer, or his expert salesman, will be-
gin by putting a favorite music roll in the
spool box. The pedals will be pressed with
some eagerness, and the result will settle the
fate of the instrument in its relations with the
future of the store.
Suppose no music roll was about the place.
Of course, the quality of the instrument would
remain an uncertainty until a suitable music
roll could be secured. And then, if no new
rolls were supplied, the effect of the single
roll upon both the hearers and the instrument,
itself, might prove the reverse of advantage-
ous. The music roll is as essential to the play-
er as powder to the gun, or as food to the
living being. It is what actually sells the
playerpiano, and without it there could be
no use for the instrument in thousands of
THE PIANO'S FUTURE
homes where it is now a delight.
There has been a good deal of foolish talk
And yet how many piano manufacturers do
anything to stimulate the distribution of music about what radio may do to music and the
rolls? And what proportion of piang dea 1 ers piano. But what can it do? Has radio driven
put anything like adequate interest and energy the telegraph wires from their poles? Has
radio -disturbed the telephone in the homes ?
into the sale of music rolls?
Of course, many piano dealers carry stocks Why will it interfere with music and the in-
of good rolls. And they realize the results struments of music?
which come from that branch of enterprise.
Already the reaction in the piano world is
But is it true, or not. that the average piano making itself felt. When this year ends and
store either carries a small, shabby stock of its piano activities are figured up it will sur-
rolls, or seems to regard that item of the bus- prise the glooms in the trade to find that the
mess of little concern, and that concern grow- output of the factories will measure favorably
ing less, in the individual sense, after the with any since the record periods of before
piano-player sale has been closed?
the war and just after.
Wise piano dealers will invest both money
It may seem remarkable that even now, this
and enterprise in the music roll departments. very week, there is an advertisement in the
It is a substantial part of the business which classified columns of Presto calling for car-
May 31, 1924.
loads of "straight" pianos. There can be no
violation of confidences in saying that only two
replies had come to the advertiser when this
issue of the paper went to press. One was
from a large industry which was willing to
"cut up" cases and fill every order, however
large, within a few months' time. The other
was from an old industry that has been mak-
ing up its reserve supplies with a' view to
liquidating.
It may be said that the facts stated do not
prove that the piano industry is normally busy.
But it does indicate that there is a demand
for pianos that is not meeting with a response.
It sliows that more pianos can be sold than
are being produced.
Any talk about radio, or anything else,
"killing" the piano, or seriously interfering
with its sale, can have its only shadow of veri-
fication in the effect it may have upon the sub-
conscious minds of those who give any atten-
tion to ta T k, or suggestion, of that kind.
The piano is all right. It is all right as an
industry, and as a trade. The piano will be a
better article of profitable sale a hundred
years hence than it is today or has ever been
since Cristofori made its perfection possible
more than two centuries ago.
PLEASANT COMPARISONS BY
HALLET & DAVIS PIANO CO.
Steady Growth of Domestic and Export Business
Cheering to Boston Company.
Looking backward for the past few years discovers
many pleasant comparisons for the Hallet & Davis
Piano Co., Boston. "Never better," is a phrase that
the company uses to describe the business at the
present time. One of the pleasant comparisons is that
of factory conditions. The house was always a stick-
ler for the best possible in the means to piano mak-
ing and for sanitary and pleasant surroundings for
the workers. Rut the 'daylight" feature of the new
plant at Neponset is not the only admirable thing in
the conditions there. The new factory is ideal in
every respect: in manufacturing methods and safe and
healthful conditions for the employes.
Another suggestion for a pleasant comparison is
the state of the export business of the company. This
is excellent and continues to grow. The Wilcox &
White shipments abroad keep up to normal of past
few years.
The small grands and reproducing grands trade of
the Hallet & Davis Piano Co., is remarkable for a
steady demand. The Wilcox & White Line of
players is now made at the factory at Neponset. The
roll business alone is done at the old Meridcn factory.
MOVES IN CHATTANOOGA.
The Southern-Standard Music Company, Chat-
tanooga, Term., has moved to its attractive new quar-
ters at 724 Market street from the building adjoin-
ing the Palace. The new store is very attractively
finished and decorated, and gives a considerably
larger floor space than was possible at the old loca-
tion. The phonograph department has been enlarged
and booths are located ui the rear of the new store.
The Southern-Standard is an old established firm.
Lee Dearing is owner. Mr. Dearing recently secured
a ten-year lease on the building now occupied by the
store. The formal opening was on May 21 with
music by the Hotel Patton Orchestra.
STIMULATES STARR SALES.
A recent leaflet from the Starr Piano Company,
Richmond, Ind., and designed for distribution by
dealers and salesmen is potent for creating interest
in the Starr grand pianos. The Starr Minum Grand
and Starr Princess Grand are pictured in halftone in
the leaflet and the interest of the reader is further
stimulated by the accompanying reading matter.
LOCATES IN TRINIDAD, COLO.
M. B. Beidleman, with twenty-six years' experience
in the piano business, wholesale and retail, and who
has.served several years with the .P>aldwin Piano
Company as a wholesale representative and with sev-
eral music houses of the country, has located in
Trinidad, Colo., where he is associated with H. B.
Stratton of the Baldwin Piano Rooms.
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