Presto

Issue: 1924 1988

August 30, 1924.
PRESTO
ANNUAL CONVENTION TO
BE OPENED WITH GOLF
Henry Dreher, of Cleveland, Is Able Manager
of Tournament to Precede Meeting of
State Association.
The fifth annual golf tournament in connection
with the fifteenth annual meeting of the Music Mer-
chants' Association of Ohio will take place at West-
wood Country Club, Cleveland, Ohio. Those desir-
ing to enter the tournament should communicate with
Henry Dreher, 1226 Huron road, Cleveland, Ohio, re-
garding green fees, etc.
The prizes are: Eighteen holes—Low gross, large
cup; runner-up, pitcher; low net, small cup; runner-
up, pitcher; perfect average, cocktail shaker; and
consolation, flask.
Nine holes—Low gross, first 9, vase; low net, first
9, flask; low gross, second 9, vase; low net, second 9,
centerpiece.
Eleventh prize—One special consolation prize for
poorest total score. All prizes donated by the Cleve-
land dealers, jobbers and manufacturers.
The date is Monday, September 8, the day before
the opening of the convention. Entire tournament is
to be in charge of Mr. Henry Dreher. Golfers play
all day at Westwood Country Club, Detroit road,
Rocky River, Ohio (a Cleveland suburb). A fine
dinner will be served all participants in the evening
at the clubhouse, as guests of the Cleveland Enter-
tainment Committee, Henry Dreher, toastmaster.
There will be speeches and presentation of prizes to
the winners.
MANY THEATER OWNERS
NOT WORRIED BY STRIKE
The Possible Walkout of Musicians in Chicago Show
Houses Viewed with Calm.
There will be no strike of union musicians in the
Chicago musical comedy burlesque, vaudeville, and
dramatic theaters on Labor day, Sept. 1.
This week representatives of the theater owners
ironed out the differences between the owners and
officials of the Chicago Federation of Musicians on
the demands of the latter for a wage boost of 10 per
cent for the 700 musicians employed in the show
houses. Under the plan of settlement the musicians
are given a wage 'increase which ranges from 5 per
cent to 7y-z per cent. Their present salaries range
from $64 to $_7 a week.
If the threatened strike of 700 Chicago musicians
who play in musical comedy, dramatic and vaudeville
theaters took place September 1 it was the intention
of a number of the largest theatrical men to close
their show houses indefinitely, instead of attempting
to fight the strike. Other houses had decided to
continue to operate, using the music provided by or-
gans.
The effective character of the instruments now pro-
vided for theaters and motion picture houses has
been proven in previous w T alkouts by the musicians.
Many motion picture house owners are not worried
by a possible strike of the musicians. The organs,
STRICH & ZEIDLER, Inc.
GRAND, UPRIGHT and PLAYER
AND
HOMER PIANOS
740-742 East 136th Street
NEW YORK
Becker Bros-
Manufacturer* of
HIGH GRADE PIANOS
and PLAYER PIANOS
Factory and Wareroom*
767-769 Tenth Avenue, New York
orchestrions and pianos especially designed for their
purposes enable them to view the absence of the
musicians with equanimity. The line from which the
motion picture house owners not yet equipped may
make selections is of genuine musical merit with
mechanism of exceptional reliability.
PROGRESSIVE MISSOURI
FIRM BUYS NEW BUILDING
Shroyer Music Company, Bethany, Now Enabled to
Carry Out Big Expansion Plans.
Harry Shroyer, head of the Shroyer Music Co.,
Bethany, Mo., last week purchased a new brick build-
ing, recently occupied by the Rowland Mercantile
Co., from L. E. Wise, of Chicago, at a price reputed
to have been m6re than $10,000. The Shroyer Music
Co. will be moved to it October 1. The Deal Build-
ing, by which name the structure is known, was
erected a few years ago. It is one of the best, if not
the best, business buildings in town.
The building will give the Shroyer Music Company
the opportunity to equip the largest business of its
kind in that immediate section of Missouri—an op-
portunity which Mr. Shroyer says it desires to dis-
play its stock. Besides the stock of instruments now
on the floor at the .present location, he has several
storerooms filled with phonographs and pianos.
The present stock will be increased when it is
moved, Mr. Shroyer says, by the addition of grand
pianos. Phonographs will be displayed on the bal-
conies, and the heavier instruments on the ground
floor.
The Shroyer Music Company is one of the oldest
firms in Bethany, and the present head of it has been
in the music business for 31 years. All this time was
spent at Bethany excepting six years that he was in
charge of a branch store at Albany. The business
has been located at the northwest corner of the
square for the last 20 years. It is interesting to
note that removal will be made on Mr. Shroyer's
birthday, which is the date when his lease expires on
the building his business now occupies.
MISS M. E. BROWN MADE
U. S. MUSIC CO. DIRECTOR
Manager of Arranging and Recording Department
Honored at Annual Meeting.
Miss M. E. Brown was elected to the directorate of
the United States Music Company, Chicago, at its
annual meeting on August 19.
Miss Brown is not only the largest minority stock-
holder, but enjoys the distinction of being the only
woman manager of an arranging and recording de-
partment in this and kindred industries. The in-
creasing popularity of U. S. Music Rolls is a tribute
that leaves no question as to her ability in this field
of endeavor.
All of the officers were re-elected as follows:
President, Arthur A. Friestedt; vice-presidents,
Geo. L. Ames and Geo. H. Bliss; treasurer, John G.
Crotsley; and secretary, Delbert A. Clithero.
STARR MANAGER RESIGNS
AT INDIANAPOLIS BRANCH
T. H. Bracken, District Chief for Past Seven Years,
Succeeded by H. G. Hook.
T. H. Bracken, district manager in Indianapolis for
the Starr Piano Company, Richmond, Ind., with of-
fices on Monument Circle, last week announced his
resignation, effective this week. Mr. Bracken has
been succeeded as manager of the company in the
Indianapolis district by H. G. Hook, an employe of
the Starr Piano Company in Indianapolis.
Mr. Bracken had been district manager for the
company for the past seven years, coming to In-
dianapolis from Cleveland, O. He will take a short
vacation trip, but has not decided on plans for the
future, he said.
Employes of the company, who have worked under
the direction of Mr. Bracken in Indianapolis pre-
sented him with a valuable Masonic ring. He is a
member of Mystic Tie Lodge, F. and A. M.
TO MOVE IN CLINTON, IA.
C. A. Evans of the Evans Piano Company, 403
South Sixth street, Clinton, la., announced this week
that he would move his business early in September
to the Disbrow building, 322 Main street. The Evans
Piano store will be a valuable addition to Main street.
Mr. Evans has been in the piano business in that vi-
cinity for twenty years, and he plans to have a very
modern and up-to-date store.
OLD ALLENTOWN, PA.,
HOUSE HAS GOOD RECORD
Kramer's Music House Is New Name for
Firm for Forty-four Years Associated
with Dependable Goods.
Kramer's Music House is the new name of one
of the oldest firms in Allentown, Pa., that for which
the name of Fred F. Kramer has provided a title
for forty-four years. The change of firm name was
an event of the recent observance of the anni-
versary. In the newly incorporated company Fred F.
Kramer is president and associated with him are his
brother, John T. Kramer; his son, Fred F. Kramer,
Jr., and Ray J. G. Ritter.
The head of the incorporated firm gives the ben-
efit of his forty-four years' experience to the busi-
ness and assures its further development along the
progressive lines which has distinguished the well
known name in Allentown. The house of Fred F.
Kramer has always been associated with "full" value
for the money" in all its deals. The staple char-
acter of the house and the dependable quality of the
merchandise presented has been a matter of common
knowledge all through eastern Pennsylvania.
John T. Kramer has been associated with his
brother in the Allentown music store for a great
many years and has aided in realizing the aspirations
and ambitions of the firm. Mr. Kramer's son, Fred
E. Kramer, Jr., has been active in the business for
eleven years. He is a veteran of the World War and
highly popular in his city, and Ray J. C. Ritter for
over fifteen years has been a successful salesman
for the store.
Fred F. Kramer was well known to the profes-
sional musicians even as far back as his first modest
start in the selling of music goods. The veterans of
the music profession who can look back forty-four
years can recall the little store on South Center street.
They remember too, that from the first he put the
stamp of dependability on his business. Naturally it
grew and in a very few years he moved to larger quar-
ters on the present site of the company. A disas-
trous fire in 1903 burned his store and stock but did
not damp his ardor or decrease his energy. In a
few days he opened a new store at 538 Hamilton
street and two years later moved back to the old
location at 544 Hamilton street, where the business
is now situated.
Kramer's Music House handles a fine line of pi-
anos, including the Steinway, Hardman, Lester, and
Harrington, and also strongly features the Victor
line of phonographs.
FINE ARRAY OF GRANDS.
The J. B. Bradford Piano Co., Milwaukee, Wis., is
remodeling the third floor of its building on Broad-
way in order to make a grand piano salon that will
compare in size with any grand piano department in
the country. The merits of the line will be consid-
ered the most important fact about the grand piano
salon. The company handles the Mason & Hamlin,
Sohmer, Weber, Conover, Vose, Stack, Cable, Lud-
wig and Brambach grands.
D. W. Miles, of Dallas, Tex., and A. A. Meyers,
of Wichita, Kan., have opened a new store on North
Market street.
THE
W. P. HAINES & COMPANY
PIANOS
THE PIANOS OF QUALITY
Three Generations of Piano Makers
AH Styles—Ready Sellers
Attractive Prices
GRANDS
REPRODUCING GRANDS
UPRIGHTS and PLAYERS
AVAILABLE TERRITORY OPEN
W. P. HAINES & CO., Inc.
138th St. and Walton ATC.
N«w York City
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/
]
1
PRESTO
August 30, 1924.
CHRISTMAN
"The First Touch Tells"
PIANO DEALERS
who are posted in their business know that
The
CHRISTMAN
Reproducing Grand
has attained to a place preeminent be-
cause of its absolute dependability,
precise reproduction of the playing of
the world's artists and beauty of con-
struction.
If you have sold this instrument you
prefer to sell it to all others. And you
know, too, that
The Famous
Studio Grand
(only 5 ft. long)
has won its fame by its unique chal-
lenge of all larger Grands in tone vol-
ume, richness of quality and beauty
of case outline.
No Other Small Grand
has attained to equal distinction or
won better demand by dealers who
value permanency above temporary
profit.
No ambitious Piano Merchant can
be sure that he has the best, most
profitable and satisfactory Line until
he has examined the Christman and
compared it with whatever competitor
may be winning local trade.
The First Touch Tells
9 t
Re». U S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
E. H. STORY CITES
CONDITIONS IN WEST
President of Story & Clark Piano Company
Says Trade Is Good in Southern Cali-
fornia After Quarantine.
E. H. Story, president of the Story & Clark
Piano Co., 31-5 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, who re-
cently came to headquarters from his home in Pasa-
dena, Calif., is optimistic in regard to trade condi-
tions in the Pacific Coast States, and particularly
Southern California where the trade is increasing in
admirable fashion since the eradication of the hoof
and mouth disease among cattle, which necessitated
a quarantine, in certain ways disturbing to business.
Mr. Story, who has been a resident in Southern
California for several years, is well acquainted with
conditions in that state as well as in states to the
north and east, and expressed his belief to a Presto
representative last week that the fall season would
be a good piano season in that section.
"The Southern California trade has been good all
this year except during the period of the hoof and
mouth disease which was the direct cause of the
summer slump," said Mr. Story.
Farmers were quarantined and salesmen found it
impossible to reach them. Even sales made imme-
diately before the quarantine took place were held up
as no pianos could be delivered.
"The trade in Northern California, Oregon and
Washington is exceptionally good. The lumber in-
dustry which is the basis of prosperity in Wash-
ington has reflected materially on the piano trade in
that state," continued Mr. Story. "I recently mo-
tored through Northern California, Oregon and
Washington, visiting our dealers in those sections
and was elated over the progressive spirit shown
in their work and the welcome extended to me was
most gratifying. The chain stores of Sherman &
Clay, San Francisco, which is representing the Story
& Clark line were visited and they are all up-to-date
and progressive in detail."
PACKARD MUSIC HOUSE
OPENS RADIO STUDIO
Radio Owners Over a Wide Radius Now Eagerly
Anticipate "Packard Night."
The new radio studio of the Packard Piano Com-
pany in the Packard Music House, Fort Wayne,
Ind., was formally opened last week. "Packard
Night" at the Quimby radio station has attained such
popularity from the quality of the programs arranged
each week over radio station WDBV that it was
deemed expedient to convert the piano showroom
into a modern studio for the reproduction of broad-
cast concerts.
The room is now done in cream and mulberry,
handsomely furnished and properly arranged to pre-
vent echo of the music sent out. This studio is con-
nected by special wires furnished through the cour-
tesy of the Home Telephone and Telegraph Com-
pany with the transmitting room in the Strand
Theater.
A special power speech amplifier is used in the
studio and a similar one at the station. The oper-
ator is in constant communication with the announcer
and is able to guide him in placing the artists before
the microphone. The new Packard studio is supe-
rior to anything of this nature in northern Indiana.
At the formal opening last week pictures were
taken of the crowd and of the studio. On the fol-
lowing night the radio program was given by the
local post of the American Legion and word sent to
other posts to listen in. The broadcasting was done
from the Strand studio.
PREPARING FOR A. HOSPE
CO.'S FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY
J. P. Kepler, Secretary of Company, Tells of Plans
in Visit to Chicago.
A Chicago visitor last week was J. P. Kepler, sec-
retary of the A. Hospe Co., of Omaha, Nebr. Mr.
Kepler is busy on plans to make the fiftieth anniver-
sary of A. Hospe Co., in October, a big affair.
Few houses can point to a similar record. Mr.
Hospe has been in business in the one place for fifty
years, without a break, and is still the active head of
the business. The handsome store at 513 Douglas
street is the center of a well organized system of
piano retailing which covers a wide area.
While in Chicago Mr. Kepler spent a day at the
big Gulbransen factories, whose product the A.
Hospe Company has handled ever since they were
first placed on the market.
MUSIC IN CINCINNATI.
A series of five buildings, the entire cost of which
is estimated at approximately $1,000,000, will be
erected by the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music,
under a plan that has been developed to take care of
the future needs of the institution. The plans have
just been turnd over to George R. Hauser, building
commissioner in Cincinnati, for approval. They have
been prepared by William Burnet Tuthill, New York
architect. It is likely that new pianos will be pur-
chased for the studios in the new buildings. The
first structure to be built will duplicate the wing of
the present school and will be located on Burnet ave-
nue. It will be of brick and terra cotta with steel
construction.
THE STROHBER DIMINUTIVE
The Smith, Barnes & Strohber
Co., 1872 Clybourn avenue, Chi-
cago, a division of the Con-
tinental Piano Co., Boston,
Mass., has given the trade a
very meritorious instrument in
the Strohber Diminutive, the
features of which are many.
Outstanding among them are
beauty of design, tone quality
and convenience. The first of
these three qualifications is ex-
emplified in the period designs
any example of which would be
a beautiful addition to the well
appointed home.
The popular period designs
are the Italian Renaissance and
Louis XVI, both of which are
artistic in detail and true, to the
period types. The Louis XVI
model shown herewith is a trade
winner wherever it is repre-
sented, and is extremely popular
in schools, small apartments,
summer homes, clubs, yachts,
and any place where space may
be economized. This plea to
teachers is printed in a new
STROHBER DIMINUTIVE STYLE LOUIS XVI.
booklet devoted to the little
piano:
no longer in use. Easily, the piano is moved from
"The one particular in which the Strohber Di-
room to room or out in the hall for the drill at the
minutive differs most from the usual upright piano
close of the day.
is in the height, which is only forty-three inches.
"Teachers appreciate this new piano with the mu-
This lessens the weight, permits the piano to fit the
sic in front of her and the children too. She can
out-of-the-way places in the room. Easily, two
without difficulty conduct the song and see just how
strong children move the piano to the front or cen- each pupil is singing. It affords her an opportunity
ter of the room and roll it out of the way when
to study the personality of her pupils."
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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