PRESTO
August 2, 1924.
CREATING
A
SENSATION
IN
THE PIANO
WORLD
Never has the're been cre-
ated a line of automatic
pianos so e s p e c i a l l y
adapted for handling by
the regular piano trade
as the
SEEBURG
Pianos of genuine musical
merit, a pneumatic mech-
anism of exceptional reli-
ability # and durability and
art case designs which
mark a new departure in
this class of instruments.
LATE TRADE ITEMS FROM PIANO MAN READ THE
THE CITY OF PORTLAND FIRST "EXAMINER" PROOF
Many Travelers from the East Visit the Ore- Los Angeles Newspaper Interviews T. C.
Mercer, of Gulbransen Company, and
gon Metropolis and Find Both Business and
Presents Interesting Trades News Item.
Pleasure Plentiful Considering the Heat.
The Portland, Ore., trade had a welcome visit from
a pioneer traveling man in the person of F. G.
Ells of the Holtzman Bench company of Chicago and
Columbus, Ohio.
Among recent visitors to the trade in Portland,
Ore., were B. Patterson of the M. E. McCreary
Bench company of .Los Angeles and P. H. Lasher
from San Francisco, the sales representative of the
Q R S Co.
The G. F. Johnson Piano Co. of Portland, Ore.,
was recently visited by H. W. Hulme, coast represen-
tative of the Packard Piano Co., of Ft. Wayne, Ind.
He has his headquarters at Seattle. Mr. Hulme was
en route to California on business and stopped off to
see the Johnson company, who are the Portland
representatives of the fine Packard line.
According to Harold S. Gilbert, of the Gilbert
Piano Co., of Portland, Ore., who carries the Kind-
ler & Collins, Estey, and the R. S. Howard pianos,
all of his lines are enjoying a good volume of busi-
ness.
The Sherman, Clay & Co. store, of Portland, Ore.,
have installed a $15,000 Robert Morton orchestral or-
gan in the Heilig theater of Eugene, Ore. Elbert
Lachele of Salem, Ore., has been appointed organist.
The Portland, Ore., rmisic dealers were visited
recently by Harry Stadlmair of Stadlmair Co., Inc.,
of New York, representative of foreign and domestic
manufacturers of musical instruments, who is making
his semi-annual visit to the trade in the Pacific North-
west.
The Seiberling, Lucas Music Company of Port-
land, Ore., have disposed of their piano department to
H. H. Thompson and Mr. Thompson will operate
the department from the Seiberling-Lucas establish-
ment at 151 Fourth street. Mr. Thompson was for
20 years connected with the Lipman, Wolfe & Co.,
one of Portland's largest department stores; and while
with them started the Portland Piano Co. For the
past year he has been associated with the, Reed-
French Piano Company. He will feature the Gul-
bransen and the Kranich & Bach pianos.
Among Portland, Ore., visitors recently were Mrs.
Waite and Mrs. Cress, of Chicago, relatives of F. D.
Abbott, of Presto Publishing Co. While in Port-
land the visitors were entertained by Frank M.
Case, manager of the Portland branch of the Wiley
B. Allen Company, to a trip over the Columbia river
highway. The visitors expressed regret to Presto's
Portland correspondent that their time was so limited,
and promised to return to Portland in the near future
and enjoy more of the beautiful Oregon country.
From the standpoint of the Los Angeles Examiner,
T. J. Mercer's visit to the Coast possessed an element
of unusual interest, for Mr. Mercer was the man who
read the first proof of the Examiner back in 1904.
Here is what the Los Angeles Examiner published
on July 19th, relating to Mr. Mercer's visit to the city
under the headlines:
"L. A. PRAISED BY EASTERNER. Gulbran-
sen Firm's Sales Manager Declares City Need Not
Fear Any Permanent Reverses." And the article it-
self follows:
The man who read the first proof on the Los An-
gejes Examiner, in 1904, when this newspaper was
born at Fifth street and Broadway, yesterday re-
turned as salesmanager of the Gulbransen Company
of Chicago, makers of the Gulbransen Registering
piano, to announce that this city has outstripped all
others in the United States in buying his firm's out-
put, even though the local representative, the Martin
Music Company, at 734 South Hill street, is only two
and one-half years old.
The man is T. J. Mercer, member of the original
"Examiner Club," and yesterday he visited the Ex-
aminer's composing room and greeted among others
Fred Dunn and Arthur Hay, co-members with him
and still active in the business of publishing the paper.
"There is a great thrill in returning to this, my old
home city, to find an amazing progress in every field,
including that which I represent," said Mercer. "And
it is gratifying to lind the Martin Music Co., world
leaders in the sale of Gulbransen pianos, attributing
much of their success to the fact that in the first
year of their operations here they used the Examiner
almost exclusively as an advertising medium. When
I first read proof on the Examiner the paper had
35,000 circulation, a mighty big start for a brand new
publication, in the Los Angeles of twenty years ago.
Today they tell me it circulates to more than ten
times that number on Sundays.
"This city need not fear any permanent setbacks.
I've been traveling all over the country and there is
more and better business and greater optimism here
than anywhere else. This is considered a real city
in the East, and is not looked upon as a boom center.
Eastern money wants to and is coming out here, and
you are due for substantial, steady growth."
Mr. Mercer, who was accompanied by Mr. Martin,
in his Los Angeles Examiner visit, attended the West-
ern Convention of Music Dealers, in San Francisco,
as representative of the big Chicago industry. The
Examiner's reference to his newspaper work in 1904
will be an item of news to Mr. Mercer's friends, not-
withstanding that it is generally known that he was a
"newspaper man" before he became a "piano man."
THIRTY-SIX CABLE "MIDGETS" FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Style "K T" with its
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J. P. SEEBURG
PIANO CO.
CHICAGO
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Factory 1508-16 Dayton St.
CABLE MIDGETS BEING SHIPPED FROM CABLE FACTORY AT ST. CHARLES, ILL.
Thirty-six Cable Midget Uprights were shipped re-
cently from the great Cable factory at St. Charles,
111., to Lechner & Schoenberger, Cable representa-
tives in Pittsburgh, Pa., to fill an order placed by the
school board of Pittsburgh, Pa., for three dozen
Cable Midget Pianos to be used in their city schools.
The Pittsburgh school system is one of the most
progressive in the country and their schools are pro-
vided with the finest equipment possible. Many
types of school pianos were carefully inspected be-
fore the order was placed for the three dozen Cable
Midget uprights.
In a very short time the Cable Midget has won a
pre-eminent place in the piano field because of its
lightness, its great durability and its true musical
qualities.
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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/