Presto

October 4, 1924.
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), " P R E S T O , " 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
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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, OCTOBER 4, 1924.
AN ANOMALY
A recent item about the advertising of the
Griffith Piano Co., in Newark, N. J., called
forth a vigorous protest. The item suggested
that the otherwise fine newspaper publicity
of the Newark house was weakened by in-
serting in the list of famous instruments the
name of the concern itself in such a way as
to infer that it was also manufacturing pianos.
There arose the ghost of the old "stencil
racket," by which local competition is afforded
the opportunity to play unfairly.
In the item which drew criticism there was
not a word that bore upon the character of
the Newark house or the quality of the "Grif-
fith" piano. It was only a question of judg-
ment so far as it concerned the effect upon the
otherwise unusually fine list of pianos. As a
matter of fact, the "Griffith" piano is a dis-
tinctly good one. Bearing its real name—the
name by which it is everywhere recognized-
it is an instrument of such character that no
one would challenge its quality.
The case is one that seems to emphasize the
need of some other way than the so-called
"stencil." If the "Griffith" piano were sold
bearing its own name to several dealers in
Newark, it would have ^multiplied local in-
fluence and it would be proof against the kind
of competition that may be experienced under
the reputable name of even the most respons-
ible of retail houses that is known not to be
in the manufacturing business.
In another line of merchandising, within a
month past, the Federal Trade Commission
ordered a retail house to desist from having
its name placed on goods in such way as to
imply that it was the maker of the goods sold.
It is probable that most piano manufacturers,
and many dealers, would like to see that rul-
ing applied to their trade also.
And yet, as showing the difficulty of regu-
lating the use of piano names, years ago
Judge Kohlsaat, in Chicago, ruled that a piano
might bear a proper name as that of the manu-
facturer, but not as the distinctive name of
the piano itself. A sane legal opinion, pos-
sibly, but in piano vernacular an absurdity.
Returning for a moment to the Griffith ad-
vertisement, and the good piano in local dis-
guise, somewhere in "Presto Buyers' Guide"
it is stated that a piano that bears a name
other than that of its maker's may be safely
judged by the character of the house that
sells it. If the house is a reliable one, the
buyer of the piano is as secure as if he had the
guarantee of the actual manufacturer, in some
cases even more so. And that applies, of
course, to the case of Griffith. And in the
item to which protest was raised, there was
no challenge of the piano itself, even if there
was a mild criticism of the ancient, and now
respectable, because accepted, custom of sell-
ing "stencil" pianos. Perhaps no sane trade
paper should any longer mention the habit in
anything like a critical tone.
Sixty years of continuous business, in a
comparatively new city, is the great record
of the house of Lyon & Healy. The very
name of Healy is an inspiration in the music
business. Starting as an offshoot of the Bos-
ton house of Oliver Ditson, two young clerks
of that house opened a store on Washington
street, Chicago, in the troubled year of 1864.
No man with less courage and determination
than the late P. J. Healy could have brought
the business through the trials which have
beset the mid-west metropolis since that
time. And today the sixty-year-old house of
Lyon & Healy is as vigorous and progressive
as ever in its career. It is still the "greatest
music store in the world."
that are so radical as to necessitate a change
in the education of the pianist, or to render
obsolete the characteristics of the instrument
itself are not wanted. Better struggle to cre-
ate something entirely new if the piano needs
a complete revolution.
* * *
There is marked activity in the pipe organ de-
mand and indeed in the demand for organs of all
kinds such as for public places. The organ de-
partment is no longer a sideline with a large num-
ber of houses.
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s!;
Take advantage of the demand for small grands
which is now at its height. If you don't know
what particular grands may meet your trade with
profit to yourself, let us advise you.
-!=
*
*
The piano action manufacturers report a
marked increase in orders and output. Nothing
could more positively tell of a general advance in
the piano itself.
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
October 6, 1894.
Kohler & Campbell are doing a big business. Over
four hundred pianos have been shipped from the
factory during the past four weeks. The player busi-
ness is also growing at a surprising rate.
The opening of the new Straube factory at Ham-
mond, Ind., is set for next Tuesday, tbe 11th. A first-
class caterer will set out a delectable spread and it
goes without saying that wit and good cheer will
abound.
President Calvin Whitney, of the A. B. Chase Com-
pany, received a large sized check on Saturday last.
It was handed to Mr. Whitney in the office of the
piano factory, in Norwalk, Ohio, by C. P. Venus,
representing the New York Life Insurance Company,
the amount being $24,263.
Col. E. S. Conway, secretary of the W. W. Kim-
ball Company, Chicago, called at the sick room of
the esteemed president of that great house on
Wednesday to see his chief. Mr. Conway carried
with him a bunch of roses which he presented to
Mr. Kimball as a token to celebrate that he had
been with Mr. Kimball just one-third of a century
on that day.
To show the extent of The Cable Co.'s representa-
tion at the St. Louis Exposition in the state and for-
eign buildings the Conover uprights are to be seen
in the following buildings: Indian Territory, Utah,
Oklahoma, Iowa, Virginia. Nevada, Illinois, Idaho.
North Dakota (Agricultural Building), Temple of
Fraternity (2), Alaska, Washington, New Hamp-
shire, Georgia, Texas, Rhode Island, South Dakota,
Oregon, Minnesota, while the Conover grands are
found in this list: Kansas, Wisconsin, Illinois, Mex-
ico, Temple of Fraternity (2), Alaska, New Hamp-
shire, House of Hoo Hoo, Iowa, Italy, Indian Terri-
tory, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Arizona, and New
Mexico have the Kingsbury pianos.
The pathetic death of Ernest Knabe, Jr.,
bore traces of tragedy. It is probable that
no keener scientific mind has engaged in the
piano industry, and never a more gentlemanly
personality ever engaged in the work of de-
veloping the household and concert room in-
strument. Mr. Knabe was an all-around man,
who could discuss all phases of art and whose
only lack seems to have been that of acquis-
itiveness, from which great "business men"
are believed to evolve. Starting with every
promise of a great career in the piano indus-
try, Mr. Knabe experienced bitter disappoint-
ments and lived to see a priceless inheritance
pass from him. But he left many warm
friends and admirers.
* * *
Trade papers with a penchant for political
discussion should try not to forget, in their
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
fervid discussion of candidates, that their
adult readers are fairly well informed in ad-
From Presto, October 6, 1904.
ministrative affairs. Unlike the political news-
The factory of the Weaver Organ and Piano Co.,
papers, the journals of industry cannot pass York, Pa., is now running eleven hours a day. A
along advice with such good results as they pretty good indication that business is brisk.
Newman, the well known organ manufacturer
can by telling about the business in whose in- and John
member of Newman Bros. Co., this city, died at
terests they are supposed to exist. It's a case, his home, 529 Orchard street (Lake View) on Sun-
last.
perhaps, of where the shoemaker "should day Mr. night
H. D. Cable, the president of the Chicago
stick to his last." Nevertheless we, of course, Cottage Organ Co., spent a couple of days in Ohio
this week, and Mr. F. S. Cable, the Secretary, is in
also know the name of the next president.
St. Paul
today.
* * *
W r e understand that the Mason & Hamlin opening
at their new Boylston street store on Monday of this
Radio has at last found its place in trade. week was an elaborate and very interesting event.
Wm, Knabe, Jr., or Willie Knabe, as he is known
It belongs in the music stores, not as a com-
J)y everybody in and about the great Wm. Knabe &
petitor of the piano, which it isn't, but as a * Co.'s establishment, is expected in Chicago today
subsidiary or comrade and an addition to the en route westward.
Everywhere exhibited the Story & Clark organs
home equipment. Piano owners are the secure
first prizes. They get in "on the ground floor"
logical radio prospects. Consequently the at international expositions and at state and county
the Story & Clark instruments carry off the best
established piano store is the ready-made fairs
honors.
The trade and public in Chicago and elsewhere
radio station.
where the Chickering-Chase Bros. Co. do business,
* * *
have noticed that for some little time past they have
The trouble with genius that aches to "im- been advertising over their corporate name, and also
the name Chase Bros. Piano Co. It has natur-
prove" the piano is that it aims to transform over
ally been assumed that this style of advertising is but
the instrument into something else. Changes a step to dropping the name of Chickering altogether.
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