Presto

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 display 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, SEPTEMBER 13, 1924.
ROUGH ON RADIO
The development of radio appliances, of
commercial kind, has been remarkable, in
keeping with the phenomena itself. But from
the point of musical transmission it cannot
yet be said to have attained to any great popu-
lar success.
Probably never before was opportunity so
quickly and multitudinouslv seized upon.
Radio in every conceivable form has been
grasped by enterprising inventors, manufac-
turers and merchants, as perhaps no earlier
means to commercial ends was taken hold of.
And naturally music has been the very core of
the ambitions of the broadcasters. Around
music has centered the only conflict of any
proportions that radio has projected into pub-
lic notice. It took form in the demands of
composers and publishers for royalties from
the broadcasters.
But the musical effects of radio have not
been wholly satisfactory, and, as a business,
radio has not been nearly as successful as
might have been expected. The public has
not been convinced that it is just what it
really is—a practical means of higher enter-
tainment as.easy of domestic access as water
and light.
The onlv way by which the music loving
public can quickly be informed of the means
to the fulfillment of their needs is the music
ftore—the merchant who makes it his business
to keep his customers informed. Usually he
is the livest merchant in his community. He
is awake to opportunities, and he must be so
if he is to succeed. The music merchants are
kept informed of developments in his line by
his trade paper—as are merchants in other
lines by their trade papers. But when radio
entered the field the makers of the new ap-
paratus of sound transmission did not realize
that music would be an important element in
their business. They did not take advantage
of a field ready and waiting, which might be
instantly reached by means of the music trade
press. They waited for a new lot of trade
papers which could have no influence, and
must wait for years to win the recognition-that
September 13, 1924.
creates trade influence. For this reason radio
progress in the music trade has been slow, and
equally retarded because of the perfectly
natural opposition of the music industry itself.
And even today the public has not been
taught that radio is a home entertainer in any
such sense as the instruments of music. The
newspaper writers have not yet accepted it as
just what its promoters proclaim it. The situ-
ation is still much as the famous Mr. Dooley
puts it in Finley Peter Dunne's latest essay on
the '"Wonders of Science," which closes with
the following significantly luminous sugges-
tion, which may seem a little rough on radio:
young publications, of whatever age, to boast of
their vast circulation. For forty years Presto
has been challenged by the little ones in their
eager quest for fame. But, knowing that our am-
bitious contemporaries know better, we have
q.uietly submitted to claims that the only differ-
ence between Presto and some others, in the mat-
ter of circulation, is that the littlest numeral gets
mixed in its association with the cyphers, so that
where the other trade papers have about 1,000,000
circulation. Presto has nearer 000,000,1 circula-
tion. Still, we'll gladly compare our little one to
the others' million. It's a small matter, anyway.
"I found Hogan seated at th' radio with th' re-
ceivers sthrapped to his ears an' a wild look in his
eyes. Th' fam'ly were gathered round glarin' at
him over th' tops iv books an' newspapers that they
were pretindin' to r-read. He waved at me as 1
come in. 'I think I've got it,' he said. "Thry will
ye an' see if ye don't hear something sthrange," he
says. An' this is what I heerd: 'Zizz, buzz, r-r-r-r
Ladies an' Gentlemen, T wish to state why did I kiss
that girl why oh why oh why an' little childer wanst
upon a time there were two turnips that grew up to-
gether".' An' that was Hogan's message fr'm Mars."
"D'ye think," said Mr. Hennessy. "th' people on
Mars ar-re more civilized thin us?"
"I don't know," said Mr. Dooley. "I'm wan iv th'
few rale scientists in th' wurruld because 1 don't
know. But I'll say this, if we're not as civilized as
th' people iv Mars we're prob'bly more indulgent.
Th' invintor iv th' radio is still at large."
In many piano stores the old "prospect" book
has been accumulating dust through the summer
time. This is the season in which to blow away
the dust and copy the names and get out after the
doubtful fellow citizens who want something vital
to their happiness and don't seem to know it.
* * *
A. popular song just now is called, "Say That
You Forgive Me," and a member of Presto's
staff will do that if acknowledgment is made that
a song, written by him, and which appeared many
years ago, was much like and equally better than
the new one.
A LOOK BEHIND
From the Files of Presto
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
The little patches from the past, on this
September 13, 1894.
page, in form of extracts from Presto's col-
The Story & Clark Co. are now rebuilding their Lon-
umns of 30 and 20 years ago, are often of don factory. They have had three very advantageous
peculiar interest. This week they tell us that offers for their lease which has six years to run.
Col. Win. Moore of the Everett Piano Co. is now in
this very week in 1904 the late Hobart M. Cincinnati,
the guest of Mr. Frank A. Lee of the John
Cable was waging war against the saloon in Church Co. Col. Moore will visit Chicago before re-
La Porte, Ind., to which city his piano factory turning east.
Mr. Albert Krell, Jr., of Cincinnati is making an ex-
had just been removed. Those were wet days tended
tour among the agents of the Krell pianos. He
will be in Chicago on the 8th and again on the 29th of
before Mr. Volstead had spoken.
Another of the twenty years ago items re- this The month.
Mason & Hamlin Co. are ready to occupy their
calls two of the most popular piano men of new Boston warerooms. They will have superb quarters
that period. And both were enthusiastic and a concert hall that will add to their attractiveness
as headquarters for music people.
workers in the interests of the same industry
Even if the tariff question is settled for the time being
—the Steck. It was before the famous piano and business is again looking up, Mr. E. S. Conway is
relaxing his interest in politics or allowing an oppor-
had become a part of the Aeolian organiza- rot
tunity to pass to show which side of the fence he is on.
tion, of which Robt. Kammerer also.became He was the presiding officer at the great Republican mass
held in Central Music Hall last Saturday night.
a part, after the almost equally loved George meeting
The short speech he made in opening the proceedings
Grass had died.
was sharp and to the point, as is everything Mr. Con-
A thirty-years-ago item speaks of the new way says.
the group of the jury of musical instruments at
Story & Clark factory in London. At the the In Antwerp
Exposition, which adorns the title page of
time both Melville Clark and "Charlie" Wag- this issue of The Presto, are several faces more or
less familiar on this side of the Atlantic. Others are
ner were with the old Chicago industry which, rot
familiar and we, ourselves, are unable to name them
even that far back, had spread its influence all in their respective positions as they stand here. At
right, standing in off-hand manner and enjoying his
beyond the borders of its native land. And the
rigar. Mr. E. P. Carpenter, the representative from the
memories of Col. Moore of the Everett piano United States on the jury, is readily recognized, while
his right stands V. J. Hlavac, of St. Petersburgh, a
and Col. Conway of the Kimball, are recalled at
familiar face to habitues of the Chicago World's Fair
by other items picked from the long-time ago. last summer, and particularly in and about "Section I."
The reminder of the Antwerp Exposition
of 1894 brings to mind again a member of
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
the industry who once figured largely and then
sank from sight in a cloud of disrepute. What
became of E. P. Carpenter who. as an organ
From Presto, September 15, 19C4.
manufacturer was very active, no one seems
Tf there are odds to be placed on that saloon fracas
La Porte, Ind., we advise the sportively inclined to
to know. His escapades were many and at
place their money on the Hobart M. Cable Co., even if
varied. Another gentleman of marked activ- the odds seem excessive.
No re'ail piano man can afford to ignore the women
ity thirty years and less ago, is happily still
in his advertising. The new slogan of the advertiser is :
very much alive, though no longer engaged "Men must work and women must buy." Even if the
in the piano business. Mr. Albert Krell, after man does make the purchase it is generally because th,e
of his household have done a little shopping first.
founding several industries, dropped out and women
Robt. E. Kammerer, of the Steck house, is due in
entered municipal enterprises in Cincinnati.
New York the latter part of this week from St. Louis,
where he has been for three weeks acting as the im-
It's not a bad idea to now and then look perial
representative of the German emperor at the
behind us and see how and what men and Olympian games. Geo. N. Grass has remained steadily
the Steck warerooms all through the summer.
things were doing in the years that have at As
showing to what good advantage the dealers em-
passed—years in which most of us learned ploy Presto's Buyers' Guide, here is an extract from an
of Anderson's Piano House of Eagle,
our lessons and perhaps still profit by them. advertisement
N. D.: "When you get ready to buy a piano and have
Back in the dark ages of what is fondly re-
ferred to as "journalism," it was customary with
made up your mind about a certain kind, call at Ander-
son's and ask him to show you the piano Buyers' Guide
—The Blue Book. It tells all about pianos and organs
and you will not get something you don't want."
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