Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1924 1993

October 4, 1924.
PRESTO
MAKING THE PIANO HAMMERS
The hammer department in the factory
of the Baldwin Piano Co., Cincinnati, is
one that keenly interests visitors. The
making of hammers is an interesting art
and the intricate nature of the work
causes the dealers and musicians to linger
in the neighborhood.of the machines. The
accompanying cut shows a general view
of the hammer department in the Bald-
win Piano Co.'s factory.
Wood and glue and felt and reinforc-
ing wires go to make up the hammer
head and each of these must be specially
prepared. The glue is the strongest that
is made and yet is so treated that it "sets"
quickly and does not penetrate the felt
and affect the tone.
Why must nothing but wool be used
for the covering of the hammer? Exam-
ine a fiber of wool with the microscope
and you will see the little surface plates
like scales that interlock as the felt is
bent and hammered and worked in the
making of the felt and which readily ex-
plains why wool will felt and smooth
fibered cotton and silk and hemp will not.
Not every kind of wool is suitable for
MAKING HAMMERS IN
piano hammers. Climate and the breed-
THE BALDWIN
ing of the animal from which it comes
FACTORY.
are important. Some long fibers are nec-
essary and some shorter fibers must be
used for proper texture and elasticity. Hammer wool
the mold to hold the fibers in perpetual tension, sur-
is a blend of special selections of the most resilient
prising tension when you try to do with your hands
fibers.
what the press is doing in forming the felt around
the hammer molding.
The hammer must not remain in contact with the
string any longer than is necessary to set it into
The more you study this important part of the
musical vibration, so, above all things, the hammer
piano tone producing mechanism, the more you real-
must be elastic. That is why the men in the picture
ize that the piano hammer is an admirable work of
are using such force in crowding the felt down into
art.
P. A. STARCK PIANO CO.
VICTOR IN THREE SUITS
Cases in Which Copyrights to Advertisements
Were Claimed by Boston Piano Co. and
Union Piano Co. Are Dismissed.
Three suits against the P. A. Starck Piano Co.,
Chicago, by the Boston Piano Co. and the Union
Piano Co., operated by Samuel E. Moist, in the
same city, were dismissed in the Federal Court last
week. The basis of the suits was that the plaintiffs
held and owned copyrights to certain advertisements.
Damages in large sums were asked.
On July 21 Judge Wilkerson sustained the motion
to dismiss on behalf of the defendants in both cases,
and gave to the complainants sixty days to file an
amended petition.
Roy D. Keehn, attorney for the P. A. Starck Piano
Co., called the Court's attention to the fact that this
was a sworn bill and that no amendment could be
made changing the allegations as to prior publica-
tion. Mr. Carpenter told the Court that it was not
his intention to make any such change, but said that
he wanted to make some additional parties defendant.
In a letter of that date Mr. Keehn said: "I prom-
ised to send Mr. Carpenter some authorities to the
effect that jurisdiction could not be vested in the
Federal Court merely by making some one or more
non-resident parties defendant in these actions and
he told me that if that was the fact, he would dis-
miss these proceedings. I am satisfied that Mr. Car-
penter will determine, upon an examination of the
authorities, that I am correct and that these suits, to-
gether with the other suit now pending in the Federal
Court will be dismissed.
"I would suggest that you notify the newspapers
of the Court's action this morning in holding the
copyright as alleged in the bill of complaint invalid
and dismissing the cause for want of jurisdiction."
In a letter dated July 22, to the P. A. Starck Co.,
Mr. Keehn said:
"Sixty days was given to the complainants to
amend their bill, but inasmuch as the allegations of
this bill are sworn to, I do not see how it can pos-
sibly be amended."
In his letter dated September 23, to the P. A.
Starck Piano Company, Mr. Keehn told of the dis-
missal of the cases:
"We are pleased to inform you that in the Federal
Court this morning the following suits were dis-
missed on our motion:
"Union Piano Company vs. P. A. Starck Piano
Co., No. 34356.
"Union Piano Company, a corporation, vs. P. A.
Starck Piano Company, a corporation, Phillip T,
Starck, doing business as Cut Rate Piano House, and
Alfred L. Owen, No. 3965.
"Boston Piano Company, a corporation, vs. P. A.
Starck Piano Company, a corporation, Phillip T.
Starck, doing business as Cut Rate Piano House, and
Alfred L. Owen, No. 3964.
"This disposes of all of the litigation against your
companies pending in the Federal Court, and leaves
pending only the matters in the State Court, one of
which cases will not be amended and but two cases
will be amended, and an endeavor made by our op-
ponents to try them."
FARMER'S INFLUENCE ON
SEASON'S PIANO TRADE
Edgar B. Jones, President of Schiller Piano
Co., Sees Good Crops as Potent Factor
in Sales.
Edgar B. Jones, president of the Schiller Piano Co.,
Oregon, 111., has taken keen interest in the conditions
of the farmers as it is generally conceded that pros-
perous farmers are the best piano customers.
The crop conditions of the middle west are in good
shape and piano merchants have noted a general
picking-up in the trade, due to the farmer's purchases.
Mr. Jones has acquainted himself with crop con-
ditions in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois,
Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, and is of the opinion
that the farmers were never in better shape to buy
pianos. When seen at the Chicago office of the
Schiller Piano Co., last week, he expressed an opti-
mistic viewpoint of future business conditions from
the agricultural standpoint and its relation to the
piano trade.
"Everybody knows that the farmers are the back-
bone of the country. Their condition influences gen-
eral business and the piano trade particularly. The
farmers of the middle west will have a prosperous,
year. Wheat and corn crops are good, especially the
wheat crops of Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas.
The influence these successful farmers will have on
the piano trade will be far reaching," said Mr.
Jones
Not only has the Schiller line had a good demand
in the aforementioned states, but a gratifying increase
is noted from the southwest and southern sections of
the country, where the Schiller line is popular seller.
OHIO BRANCH CLOSED.
The P. F. Sarver Music Store was closed at St.
Marys, O., this week, at the conclusion of a special
removal sale, and all unsold goods were removed to
the company's store at Wapakoneta, O. The P. F.
Sarver Music Stores will cpntinue to run in Piqua,
Sidney, and Wapakoneta as they have for the past
thirty-five years.
'jBl onduring"
GEORGE T. SMITH OPENS NEW
JOHN CHURCH CO.'S STORE
Experienced Piano Man Transferred from Peoria, 111.,
to Detroit, Mich., Last Week.
George T. Smith, manager of the Peoria, 111.,
branch of John Church Company, since its opening
two years ago, left last week for Detroit to open a
new store for this same firm. E. A. Elmer of Dan-
ville, 111., a man of wide experience in musical mer-
chandising, assumed charge of the Peoria store upon
Mr. Smith's departure.
Mr. Smith has been with the John Church Com-
pany's chain of piano stores for the past seven years,
and while he has always ranked among the best in that
organization, the record he has made in the Peoria
store has been exceptional. He started in a small,
one-room establishment on Liberty street, employing
but two men, and in sixteen months' time had built
up one of the largest piano businesses in central Illi-
nois. The growth of this store eventually necessi-
tated a move into the large double store room at 512-
514 South Adams street.
^'[Hardman
The Shfardman £ine
is a complete line
It comprises a range of artisti-
cally worthy instruments to
please practically every purse:
The Hardman, official piano of
the Metropolitan Opera House;
the Harrington and the Hensel
Pianos in which is found that in-
builtdurabilitythatcharacterizes
all Hardman-made instruments;
the wonderful Hardman Repro-
ducing Piano; the Hardman
Autotone (the perfect player-
piano); and the popular Playo-
tone.
KENTUCKY BUSINESS SOLD.
The stock of the Shaw Music Store, Bowling
Green, Ky., has been disposed of in retail sales and
the Brunswick phonograph agency transferred to
Bailey & Son, of that place. Will Shaw, the owner
of the store and also former editor of the Aledo Dem-
ocrat, and family, left last week Saturday via Santa
Fe for Coronado, Calif., where he will become man-
aging editor, and probably part owner of the Cor-
onado Journal. He made the trip by automobile.
GOOD REPORT FROM SOUTH.
A recent report from Henry P. Veatch, southern
representative for the wholesale piano department of
Lyon & Healy, Chicago, tells of a generous increase
in business. Mr. Veatch is now spending a week
with the Phonograph Shop, Corpus Christi, Texas,
conducting a special sales campaign for Lyon &
Healy pianos.
c
c
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/
October 4, 1924.
PRESTO
CHRISTMAN
"The First Touch
Tells"
BIG CHANCE FOR
MUTUAL HELPING
But Need of Co-operation Between People
Who Sell Music and Those Who Give In-
struction on the Instruments Too
Often Not Recognized.
MORE PUPILS MORE SALES
That Teachers' Recital and Dealers' Store Demon-
stration Have Similar Ends Is Plain to
Thoughtful People.
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.
PIANO
DEALERS
who are posted in their business know 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.
If you have sold these instruments
you prefer to sell them to all others.
And you know, too, that no ambitious
Piano Merchant can be sure that he
has the best, most profitable and sat-
isfactory Line until he has examined
the Christman and compared it with
whatever competitor may be winning
local trade.
"The First Touch
Tells"
Reg. U S. Pat. Off.
Christman Piano Co.
597 East 137th St.
New York
There is not sufficient co-operation between the
music dealer and the music teachers and the situa-
tion shows a strange neglect of opportunities. Plainly
the purpose of the music merchant is to sell goods
and it is his duty to avail himself of every means to
that end. And it may be agreed on. that the more
musical instruments existing in a community, the
more music there will be and the greater the interest
in the instruction the music teacher has to offer.
Now take for instance a city of ten thousand in-
habitants, or even smaller; the so-called "farmers'
towns" that depend on the surrounding farmer popula-
tion. Such towns get to be a certain size and then the
population remains at a steady figure from year to
year. Their prosperity increases with the good for-
tunes of the farmers. In such a place there is the
necessity for continuous stimulation of trade in the
limited population. Now it is clearly the task of the
music dealer to cultivate the desires for music in
his public and this he can be aided in doing by the
help of the music teacher, piano, violin, and other
stringed instruments; by the baud leader and by the
vocal instructor.
Lesson in Other Trades.
In observing things in other trades in the big and
little places one is particularly struck with the ener-
getic methods of the sporting goods dealers. They
identify themselves with every movement of a sport-
ing nature and they encourage every event in which
sporting goods are employed. In fact the stores
of the men handling sporting goods are usually the
meeting place of the people who indulge in the vari-
ous sports. The sporting goods dealers are promi-
nent in organizing athletic field days, golf tourna-
ments, shooting matches, and competitive tests in
games of all kinds. The places are the headquarters
for the semi-pro and "bush" baseball clubs and allur-
ing places for the baseball fans. It will be noticed,
too, that the young men and young women as well,
employed in the sales departments, are adepts at the
sports for which they sell the equipments. That lat-
ter fact is a suggestion for the music dealer who
strives for music goods sales with musicless salesmen
and saleswomen.
Should Be "Mixer."
The music dealer is not enough of a mixer in music
affairs or with musical people. The music teacher is
blind to the fact that every musical instrument sold
by the dealer means a job for the music teacher.
Some dealers do not see any-possibilities for piano
sales in the piano pupils; some music teachers fail to
realize that their fortunes are improved by the in-
crease in the number of pianos sold by the dealer.
Dealers and teachers of the kind are blind to the
advantages of co-operation.
The Teacher's End.
Besides teaching pupils the piano or other instru-
ments, the teacher has a second mission to fulfill
and that is to help educate the general public in an
appreciation of music and its relation to life. And
on the activity of his mission depends the number
of music goods sales achieved by the music dealers.
So it is plainly necessitous that the music dealer and
music teacher should co-operate in making the pub-
lic want better music and more music and the instru-
ments with which to make it. The teachers' work is
creating a love of music and developing natural taste;
the dealer's opportunity is to further the ends of
the teacher thereby helping himself. The teacher's
recital and the dealer's store demonstration have simi-
lar ends.
In contrast to the dealers who don't realize on
their opportunities or even recognize them are the
ones who are active in everything that assures sales.
The problem of the choice of music teachers for the
talented young people of the town is one for the
music dealer among others. Every community in
America has its musical tragedies, gifted young peo-
ple who have wasted money on the wrong instruc-
tion. The dealer is serving his own best interests
when he makes sure that the teachers he may be
called upon to recommend have the ability to give
value for the money charged for lessons.
Pupils Prospective Buyers.
In these days of keen competition of the piano, the
music dealer should overlook no aids to the making
of prospective piano buyers. It is incomprehensible
the amount of money that is wasted in the musical
education of talented young people and wasted be-
cause the parents or guardians do not know the
value of what they are buying. There is a common
idea that if the teacher is a foreigner he must be
worth more than an American. Or if an American
the desirable one is he who charges an exorbitant
sum for lessons. It is reasoned that the man who
charges so much must be worth it.
Advertising the teacher with ability by the effective
recommendation to customers, piano buyers and pro-
spective piano buyers, is also advertising for the piano
dealer himself. It should be part of the tacit or
clearly understood scheme of mutual helpfulness.
Apart from the possibilities of commissions, the
clever music teacher is sensibly aware of the ability
of the piano dealer to say the decisive word that
means a new pupil.
PIANO CLUB OF CHICAGO
HEARS SALESMANSHIP TALK
George Edwin Robinson, Vocational Counselor, Tells
About the Psychological Moment.
The Piano Club of Chicago at the weekly lunch-
eon this week heard George Edwin Robinson, sales-
manship expert, vocational counselor and author of
college text books, with twenty-seven years' prac-
tical selling experience and specialized study in Amer-
ica and Europe. His subject was "The Psycholog-
ical Moment."
Mr. Robinson is head of Salesmanship Research
and the Bureau of Vocational Guidance of the
American College of Scientific Salesmanship, Chi-
cago, where he daily solves difficult sales and
advertising problems in selling service. One of the
firms whose sales policy he directs, sells more than
one million dollars worth of specialty merchandising
yearly.
The members were again reminded by John Mc-
Kenna, president, of the dinner, vaudeville stars,
music, entertainment and joy generally of the annual
meeting and election of officers October 8, at the
Edgewater Beach Hotel. "Reservation blanks will
be mailed you in a few days. Bring as many guests
as you want to," advised Mr. McKenna.
STORY & CLARK LEADERS
IN ATTRACTIVE WINDOW
Repro-Phraso Instrument and Mechanism and Italian
Art Model Grand Are Prominently Featured.
A unique display featuring two leaders in the line
of the Story & Clark Piano Co., Chicago, is the out-
standing attraction along Chicago's Piano Row this
week. The popular Repro-Phraso occupies one of
the large show windows of the Story & Clark Co.'s
store, 315-317 South Wabash avenue, and provides
a very interesting and instructive showing in which
the mechanism and fundamental parts are made plain
to the onlookers.
The Repro-Phraso is characterized as a three-way
player, reflecting the mood of the player of the
moment, and requiring no special roll. Standing close
by the instrument is a devise showing the pressure
required in playing the Repro-Phraso while the in-
strument itself is in operation. The pressure as reg-
istered is very low and without much variation, which
is proof of the responsiveness of the instrument.
The other Story & Clark product featured this
week is a period design grand piano in the seven-
teenth century Italian art model which is described
on an engraved card as follows: "To those of you
with a faultless taste in home furnishings, this in-
strument of unquestionable superiority fills perfectly
the chosen corner of the living or music room."
GULBRANSEN VISITORS.
E. A. Kieselhorst, president of the Kieselhorst
Piano Co., St. Louis, was a visitor to the factory of
the Gulbransen Co., Chicago, last week. Mr. Kiesel-
horst, who has been traveling in Europe for the past
two months, was on his way to the Missouri city. Lee
S. Roberts of the Q R S Music Co., New York City,
also called at the big Chicago industry last week.
BUYS REPAIR SHOP.
C. L. Montgomery, Rockwood, Term., has bought
out the repair shop of Walter Lyon, and has installed
a full line of equipment and repair parts for all kinds
of phonographs and talking machines.
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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