Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1924 1984

THE GENERAL MUSIC STORE
While the Ideal of the Exclusive Store Is Ad-
mirable, Proposition Is Unsound,
Is Contention.
The spread of the general music store in the United
States is one of the remarkable phases of the busi-
ness within recent years. And looking back, many
dealers confess they were stampeded in. A great
number who lost their exclusiveness and expanded
their lines to fulfill the purposes of the general music
store admit it was a matter of necessity with them.
While the ideal of the exclusive store was admir-
able, as a business proposition it was unsound, they
claimed. Music dealers took their cue from other
trades. The exclusive clothier added haberdashery
and followed with shoes and hats. They found it
was not sound policy to make a customer divide his
purchasing, buying each separate article in a differ-
ent store.
The music store devoted to one line exclusively is
considered by many the survival of an effort to main-
tain an ideal. But they allow the ideal is admirable
but impossible so long as all the dealers do not agree
to maintain it. There are still exclusive piano stores
and exclusive phonograph stores, but owing to the
changed and continually changing character of the
music business and new features of competition, the
number of these grows less at the passing of every
year.
When" the phonograph was proved a merchantable
commodity the then exclusive piano stores began to
lose their exclusiveness and in time the phonographs
and records became associated with the pianos,
players and music rolls in most of the stores. Soon
came the necessity for further expanding of the lines
to include musical merchandise. The general music
stores became remarkable in their very numbers.
In the music business the dealer who wants to
build up a reputation for excellence in one line has
to deal with competitors who have no such stand-
ards to preserve and who offer the allurements of
staple lines in every branch rather than a rich as-
sortment in one line.
SELL PORTABLE PHONOGRAPHS
Line Presented by Specialty Phonograph and Acces-
sories Co. Has Big Call.
This is the period of the year when the portable
phonograph makes a special appeal. The fact is evi-
denced by the great increase in orders for the Travel-
phone Portable made-by the Specialty Phonograph
and Accessories Company, 210-212 East 113th street,
New York City. This machine of quality and guar-
anteed service provides the energetic dealer with a
model that can be retailed at an alluring price.
The new descriptive catalog of the Specialties
Phonograph and Accessories Co. tells all about this
opportunity for dealers.'. It also provides a means to
preparedness. The talking machine dealer who
knows where he can quickly replace a necessary
phonograph part in the shortest possible time has the
power to serve his repair trade. That phase of the
talking machine dealer's business is continually be-
coming of greater importance, so that preparedness
really consists in the ability to procure needed parts
of superior quality with a minimum of delay.
That is why' the talking machine dealer should
possess the new descriptive catalog of the Specialties
Phonograph and Accessories Co., 210 and 212 East
113th street, New York. The company manufactures
"Specialty Brand" products, necessary to the dealer
ambitious to serve the repair wants of the phonograph
The "Bilger"
Steel Cable Hoist
23
PRESTO
August 2, 1924.
owners. The "Specialty Brand" products include
main springs, motors and all repair parts and supe-
rior quality is a characteristic of every commodity.
The descriptive catalog and price list of the company
is of great interest and value to every dealer.
NEW GENNETT RECORDS
Specials, Solos and Danc'ng Numbers in Latest Issue
by Starr Piano Co.
The following are among the new Gennett records
issued by the Starr Piano Co., Richmond, Ind.:
The Elks' Record—Address, of Welcome to Benev-
olent Protective Order of Elks (Boston, July 7,
1924). and The Elks' Eleven O'Clock Toast, Honor-
able James M. Curley.
This is the address Mayor James M. Curley of
Boston made at the opening of the Benevolent and
Protective Order of Elks Convention held in Boston
recently. It w T as given a tremendous ovation and
every red blooded, two-fisted Elk will want to hear
this tremendous message as well as every other good
citizen of the country.
For Dancing—Hard Hearted Hannah, fox trot,
Hellen-Bigelow-Bates, and Bringing Home the Ba-
con, fox trot, Bannister-Colwell-Van-Schenk, (Windy
City Jazzers with banjo and piano accompaniment).
Xo. 5468—When the Wind Blows North (Then I
Start Going South), fox trot, Davis-Shuster-Phil-
lips, and Jimminy Gee, fox trot, Little-Mailie-Finch,
(Bernie Cummins and His Orchestra).
Piano Solo—Perfect Rag, and New Orleans (Blues)
Joys, (Ferd (Jelly Roll) Morton).
Irish Numbers—Tenpenny Bit (Irish Jigs), (Tom
J. Morrison, flute), and The Banks of Ireland and
the Ships Are Sailing (Irish reels) (P. J. Conlon, T.
Morrison and T. Higgins, piano accompaniment).
Chicken Reel—Tweedy Brothers—Fiddle Solo with
piano accompaniment, and Repaz Band, Charles W.
Tweedy, piano solo.
N E W Q R S RELEASES.
The following Q R S releases were announced for
Tuesday, July 29, and were shipped on standing
orders on that date. Orders from customers not on
the standing order list are being given prompt at-
tention: Just for Remembrance (Bring Me a Red,
Red Rose), ballad; June Night (Just Give Me a June
Night, the Moonlight and You), fox-trot; Hard-
Hearted Hannah (The Vamp of Savannah), fox-trot;
Moonlight Memories, waltz; Ray and His Little
Chevrolet, fox-trot; Caroline (Pal-o'-Mine), waltz;
San, fox-trot; Doodle Doo Doo, fox-trot.
B. J. Powell, who has been connected with the
Kokomo, Ind., store of the Pearson Piano Company,
Indianapolis, for the past five years, has been placed
in charge of the Logansport, Ind., store of the com-
pany.
CONN LINE IN IOWA
Lohr & Chase, Muscatine, Acquires Jobbing and Re-
tailing Rights for Southwestern Part of State.
Southeastern Iowa territory for the C. G. Conn,
Ltd., Elkhart, Ind., has been acquired by Lohr &
Chase, musical instrument dealers, Muscatine, la. The
territory will include twelve counties in southeastern
Iowa and western Illinois, the firm locating sub-
dealers in all large cities.
Although the Muscatine firm has just recently ac-
cepted the jobbing agency, it has already established
sub-dealers in Iowa City, Washington and Burling-
ton, who will carry a complete line of Conn instru-
ments. The local men will have their headquarters at
their instrument shop, 102 East Second street.
Band organizers will be sent from here to all sub-
dealers' territory to assist in organizing bands, and
arrangements are being made to give vocal and in-
strumental lessons through the Chase Music Studios
and the band instrument department of the organiza-
tion.
A grouch is a man who will pay to have his
car eat up gas when he is too stingy to feed
new music rolls to his playerpiano.
A Pneumatic Action bearing the name
STRAUCH BROS.
is your guide for unfailing quality.
The high quality which has characterized
the Strauch Bros. Piano Actions and Ham-
mers for almost sixty years, distinguishes
our latest product, the
STRAUCH BROS.
PNEUMATIC ACTIONS
Simple in construction they are
dependable in every particular.
STRAUCH BROS., INC.
327 Walnut Are.
New York City
C. G. CONN, Ltd., Elkhart, Ind.
C. D. GREENLEAF, Pres.
J. F. BOYER, Sec'y
World's largest manufacturers of High Grade Band and Orchestra Instruments. Employs 1,000
expert workmen.
All of the most celebrated Artists use and endorse Conn Instruments.
Famous Bandmasters and Orchestra Directors highly endorse and recommend the use of the
Conn Instruments in their organizations.
Conn Instruments are noted for their ease of playing, light and reliable valve or key action;
quick response, rich tonal quality, perfect intonation, tone carrying quality, artisticness of design,
beautiful finish and reliable construction.
Conn Instruments are sent to any point in the U. S. subject to ten days free trial. Branch store
or agencies will be found in all large cities. Write for catalogues, prices, etc.
C. G. CONN, Ltd.
DEPT. MS.
ELKHART, IND.
Sturdy Commercia
Body Changed
in a Minute
START RIGHT—ALWAYS RIGHT
USE THE
"BILGER" LINE
The "Honest To Goodness" Piano Movers Supplies.
The "BILGER" Goods mean 25 years piano moving A-No.-l goods, with 100 per cent efficiency in performance,
experience boiled down/
operation, results. Trade is just around the corner. Are
you ready for 100% business in 1924?
Our one man loader, one man hoist, self lifting trucks have
The "Go Get The Business" Equipment is here.
no superiors.
Let U* Serve You
with "The Good:"
PIANO MOVERS SUPPLY COMPANY, Lancaster, Pa.
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).
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24
PRESTO
EASTMAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC
How George Eastman, Its Founder, Conceived the
Idea Told by Himself.
George Eastman, millionaire industrialist and
philanthropist, and founder of the Rochester School
of Music, reached his seventieth birthday July 12.
As well as can be ascertained he celebrated the event
in Alaska, far from the little town of Waterville,
N. Y., where he was born, and from the city of
Rochester, where he won his business triumphs.
The wide world is a playground now for the man
who entered that city as a six-year-old boy, the son
of poor folk, long years ago.
The Eastman kodak and the kodak film owe their
parentage to the boy who got his first job in an
insurance office at $3 a week.
The School of Music he founded at Rochester
cost him $9,500,000. His great fondness for music
led him to build it. But apart from his personal in-
terest in the art, there was a human interest that
prompted the gift. He believes a people are formed
by the things they do in their leisure.
"It is necessary foe people to have an interest in
life outside of their occupations," he said, in speaking
of this project. "A very great deal of work is
drudgery. Leisure is unfruitful because it is not
used productively. We do not know how to use it
fruitfully. Do not imagine I am a reformer—far
from that. I am interested in music personally.
And I am led thereby merely to want to share my
pleasure with others."
Out of this grew the Rochester School of Music.
But he did not for a moment let himself be fooled
by the idea that all he had to do was to give the
people good music, and they would flock to hear it.
Hardly.
He did what the wise physician does. He sugar-
coated his pill. The Rochester School of Music
made its appeal to the people of that city because the
best motion pictures were shown there. To them
it was a new type of "movie" house, beautiful,
strangely and satisfactorily different, yet a "movie"
house. The music they got with the program was
better than that of the old rickety pianos. That
much they understood, but how much better the
new music was they didn't know at first. Before
long, however, they came to the theatre and waited
for the musical numbers with as great interest as
they waited for the feature on the screen. More,
they even stood in line to get tickets on those days
of the week when only musical programs were
given.
It was the desire to give his workers something
fine and constructive for their leisure hours that
primarily prompted the idea, but from it has grown
a temple of art for the City of Rochester.
NEW BOOK FOR STUDENTS.
A new handbook covering music theory for piano
students has been issued by the Oliver Ditson Co.,
Boston, and is described as a manual of fundamentals
and keyboard harmony. "The Music Student's Piano
Course" is the title and Book I just out covers the
years one and two of music study. It has been pre-
pared by Clarence G. Hamilton, Dr. Percy Goet-
schius, John P. Marshall and Will Earhart. The
manual opens with an introduction covering the pur-
poses of the series which, in complete form, covers
the first four years of "The Music Students Piano
Course." These manuals, however, are not confined
to the course, as they will be found equally available
for use with any other type of piano instruction. The
contents are brief, clear and well illustrated.
NO JAZZ FOR SWEDES.
Jazz music has a limited popularity in Sweden,
and dealers state that they are afraid to purchase
any quantities of this type of music, because it may
very quickly lose its demand. In that country jazz
music has a limited degree of popularity, the well-
expressed preference being for the classical kind,
according to U. S. Consul Walter A. Leonard, at
Stockholm, who says: "The average Swede is of
artistic temperament, and hence classical music and
selections, in general, from operas are popular. Al-
though most of these artists' records are supplied
from Europe, a small number come from America."
New York has a Jewish population of consider-
ably more than three million. The subway cars con-
tain Jewish advertising signs, and a fair proportion of
the people who ride in the subway trains are reading
newspapers printed in Hebrew text.
But there are few Jews in the piano business.
Why?
August 2, 1924.
IN SMALL GOODS DEPARTMENT
Growth of the Musical Merchandise Business Shown
by New Stores and Extensions.
Ehrenfried & Staff, pioneer music merchants of
Buffalo, N. Y., moved recently from 1645 Broadway
to 1070 Broadway.
J. R. Drake, of Rushville, Ind., took charge of the
Starr Piano Store on West Seventh street, Conners-
ville, Ind., June 1.
The Richard Spaniard Piano Company, of Mays-
ville, Ky., has opened a branch store at West Union,
in the same state.
The Bland Piano Co., Winston-Salem, N. C, has
opened a branch store in the Huntley-Hill-Stockton
Co.'s building on West Fifth street.
The Bungalow Music Co. has leased a room in
Taylorville, 111., and has opened a music store, sell-
ing pianos, talking machines, etc.
GOOD TENANTS.
It pays landlords to have music stores for their
tenants. There is a quaintly fine old building on
West Fourth street, near Vine, in Cincinnati, which
bears the fourth or fifth "For Rent" sign within as
many years. And yet that same building was at one
time occupied by a music house for at least twenty
consecutive years. It was the place where the late
John Church and his partner John B. Trevor made
their fortunes and built up the great business of John
Church & Co. And the great music house began to
decline when it moved away from the familiar place.
H O T E L SERVICE.
The vast improvement in hotel management and
service has made it difficult for some of the best of
them to keep up. A piano man who went straight
from the Pennsylvania, New York, to the Sinton, in
Cincinnati, barely escaped a Dempsy-Firpo argument
in the latter hotel last week.
The traveler had been used to pushing the knob
for ice water and watching the limpid flow at the
Pennsylvania, whereas at the Sinton he had sounded
the gong four times and received nothing but the
meek voice of the "operator."
He was finally pacified by the information that the
manager is somewhere in Ireland.
T
HE commonest challenge by many advertisers concerns
the paper's circulation.
It is with them a question
altogether of quantity. But the best things about piano
advertising, from the manufacturer's point of view, have other
arguments besides quantity.
In a trade paper quality circulation is more important than
quantity circulation, for bulk of circulation is not what sells pianos
at wholesale. Nevertheless, Presto is certain that in quantity, as
well as quality circulation, it will compare favorably with any of
the piano trade papers.
Presto produces results for its advertisers. It does not ask the advertisers to
pay for waste paper or mere bulk. It covers the field, and its advertising rates are
as low as any trade paper, with anything like the same circulation, can accept.
PRESTO
The American Music Trade Weekly
417 So. Dearborn St.
CHICAGO
Carries Advertising For More Live Piano Manufacturers Than Any Other Trade Paper
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/

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