October 11, 1924.
ANTON HOSPE'S
50TH ANNIVERSARY
On October 23 Head of A. Hospe Co., Omaha,
Will Celebrate Completion of Half a
Century of Interesting Work
as a Music Dealer.
INTERESTING HISTORY
Events in Art and Music Merchants' Career Made
Every Day One of Approach Towards Achieve-
ments Seen Today.
On October 23 Anton Hospe, head of the A. Hospe
Co., Omaha, will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of
his arrival in that city. The event will provide the
newspapers with an opportunity for an historic
sketch by star writers with the Owen Wister or Zane
Gray touch. But in Mr. Hospe's case romantic facts
are the basis of an absorbing story of courage, am-
bition, vicissitudes, opportunities and triumphs.
In Omaha, where he had arrived from his birth-
place, Cincinnati, on October 23, 1874, he engaged in
his placid profession of making gold picture frames.
He had been induced to go there by the Rev. Mr.
Dickman, an arduous Omaha booster, whom he en-
countered in Tiffin, O., while traveling for a picture
house. "Young man, Omaha is the place for you,"
advised the clergyman. "It is now a roaring
metropolis of eighteen thousand vigorous inhabitants,
and competition in the picture business is practically
nil."
Competitors Were Many.
When he arrived, however, he found the competi-
tion plentiful. But he hopefully rented a store room
in a one-story building, size about 12x24, a cottage
converted into a store, which was located on 15th
street, about .four doors from Douglas, where the
Rialto Theater is now located. He paid the rent,
which was $25, out of the $65 in cash he had with
him. A roll of pictures that he carried to Omaha,
valued at about $10, constituted the first inventory.
He rigged up a table over which he sold and took
orders for picture frames, and this table at night was
converted into a folding bed, making the store his
home.
Enter Fate.
Then one day Fate, in the guise of an organ sales-
man, walked into the store and talked in the delight-
fully conversational and anecdotal way that impressed
the early organ prospects.
"Pictures and picture frames, eh?" said the organ
salesman in the frank, bluff way of the West. "Huh,"
he sniffed, "picture frames are all right, but their
power to open a Nebraska wajlet is yet woefully
limited. Now, what a young fellow of your sagacity,
ability and energy should woo fortune with are
organs. The art Nebraskans are most easily inter-
ested in is that which may be expressed by them-
selves by means of the reed organ on the parlor
floor and not by that which may be only gazed at
inside a gold frame on the parlor wall."
Adds Music to Pictures.
The organ salesman- won. Mr. Hospe confesses
he does not know whether to credit his entry into
the field of music to his own foresight or the elo-
quence of the organ salesman. A little while later
he moved to the north side of Dodge street, between
15th and 16th streets, in which he added organs con-
signed to him by the W. W. Kimball Company, of
Chicago. Those to be sold and then paid for. The
Dodge street store was also a home as well as a busi-
ness place. He had added music to his growing pic-
ture frame business. Five years thereafter, in 1879,
he moved across the street to the south side of Dodge
street, where he put in another five years. In 1884
he moved to the present location, 1513-1515 Douglas
street, which latter location has been occupied by
him for forty years.
The Pioneer Thrills.
The younger generation of Omahans do not realize
their happy civic conditions. It takes the reminis-
cences of a man like Mr. Hospe to conjure up com-
parisons of the joys of today with the unpleasantnesses,
even the hardships of the pioneers. Omaha in 1874
was in many respects little more than a country vil-
lage. When it rained the streets were muddy, and
when dry very dusty. The sidewalks were made of
planking and not very good walking.
Sometimes the volunteer fire department, of which
Mr. Hospe was a member, got stuck in the mud on
the way to a fire and free play was given to the
blaze. But it was an effective department in the
early days and Mr. Hospe's fireman experiences are
full of thrills, delightful to look back to.
The grasshoppers unpleasantly associated with
11
PRESTO
Nebraska's early history put a quietus on business in
1875, and the four panics which Mr. Hospe outlived
i;i the fifty years of his business life in Omaha will
always be remembered by him. But even the worst
memories have their compensating joys. He took
pleasure in every bit of the work. In the first ten
years of his business life, not having a capital to
hire every branch of the business done, he was his
own purchasing agent, salesman, delivery clerk and
collector.
His Progress.
In the early QO's Mr. Hospe built a two story fac-
tory at 1614 Izard street to carry the wholesale line
of moulding, pictures, frames and picture frame ac-
cessories, also warehousing his pianos and phono-
graphs. At that time he had two salesmen on the
read and two for the city business. In the year of
1920 the new factory and wholesale house was built
situated at 109-111 South 10th street, size 44x133, six
floors and basement, built of reinforced concrete. This
building contains the wholesale store of moulding,
pictures, frames and art accessories. One floor is
used for a piano factory, another floor for storing
pianos and another floor for the manufacturing of
picture frames and stock storage.
The slogan of this house is "Everything in Art and
Music, Wholesale and Retail." This covers fine
frames, art pictures, mirrors, lamps, bric-a-brac,
which comprises fine leather goods, vases and artists'
material, etc. Then on the music side, pianos, grands
and uprights, playerpianos, reproducing pianos and
Victrolas and Brunswick phonographs, records and
player rolls. Radio is another addition to this art and
music business.
Mr. Kepler's Courtesies.
•J. R. Kepler, secretary A. Hospe Co., Omaha,
Neb., has sent to several of his personal friends and
friends of Mr. Hospe, cards of the Omaha Athletic
Club extending to the recipients the courtesies of the
club during the months of October and November,
which period covers the Hospe Fiftieth Anniversary
of October 22-23. It is expected a score or more
from Chicago will go out to help Mr. Hospe on this
occasion. The party will leave Chicago Tuesday
evening the 21st, arriving at Omaha Wednesday
morning, on which day a golf game has been planned
so that the Chicagoans are intending to take their
golf clubs with them. On Thursday more golf is
expected and in the evening a banquet, followed by
a dance, which is put down as an informal affair.
Mr. Kepler writes his friends that he and his asso-
ciates are aiming to make this event one long to be
remembered. Reservations have been made for the
visitors at the Omaha Athletic Club available from
the morning of arrival.
Mr. Hospe's mainstay for the last twenty-two
years is J. P. Kepler, manager as well as the secre-
tary of the A. Hospe Co., to whose entire efforts
and devotion the founder points to with pride. An-
other old timer is Wm. Zitman who is now in his
twenty-sixth year in charge of the retail floor. He
also is one of those with the A. Hospe Co. whose
judgment is always sought among the many em-
ployes, who range in point of service from ten to
twentv vears.
NEW SAN FRANCISCO FIRM.
The store at 34 Golden Gate avenue, San Fran-
cisco, will be opened shortly by "The Modern Music
House and School of Music." Ralph Eliaser, for-
merly manager of the H. C. Hanson Music House,
has consolidated with the Barbee Music Co. in open-
ing the new store. The new firm consists of E.
Barbee and Eugene Shalk, of the Barbee Music Co.,
161 Taylor street, and Ralph Eliaser, and the busi-
ness will be conducted along original and modern
lines, according to Mr. Eliaser, who is known as the
author of Jazz-Ar-Mon-Ie and Sar-Ar-Mon-Ie, books
written especially for orchestra players.
WESSEIX, NICKEL & GROSS
MAKES GOOD REPORT
Activity in Plant of New York Action Makers
Reflects Awakening Retail Trade Through-
out the Country.
Active days in the factories of Wessell, Nickel &
Gross, Forty-fifth street, Tenth avenue and West
Forty-sixth street, New York, are the signs of an
enlivened time in the piano trade, for activity with
the piano merchants is most accurately reflected in
the action making industry. Even the assurance of
business in the near future transmitted by the piano
dealer to the piano manufacturer influences the work-
ing conditions in the piano action factory. So the
cheerful reports from the men who retail the pianos
are reflected in the pleasant activity in the factories
of Wessell, Nickel & Gross.
The character of the Wessell, Nickel & Gross prod-
ucts is conveyed in the descriptive phrases, "Highest
Grade" and "One Grade Only," used in reference to
its actions. The rule of the house is to make one
grade of action and that the most commendable that
the best facilities and the most efficient craftsmanship
can produce. In a way it simplifies operations, but
there is always the effort to make the work result
in the most satisfactory type of piano action.
In some of the best pianos made in America the
Wessell, Nickel & Gross action is a guarantee of the
grade of the instrument. The artists of the piano,
the dealers who sell it, and appreciative buyers gen-
erally rely on the presence of the Wessell, Nickel &
Gross action in an instrument as an evidence of meri-
torious character.
TRADE HAPPENINGS
RELATED IN BRIEF
Views and Beliefs of Live Piano Merchants Are
Presented.
Contracts have been let for the erection of a
$35,000 store building to be owned and occupied by
L. F. Bidinger, proprietor of a piano store, at 458
Market street, Kenosha, Wis. Specifications call for
a two-story building and basement, 32 by 100 feet,
of brick construction with a terra-cotta front.
The George H. Eucker Music Co., Milwaukee, was
recently incorporated with a capital stock of
$10,000. George H., W. 1L and Erna Eucker are
the incorporators.
A branch of the Bates Furniture & Music Co., of
Provo, has just been opened in the Busy Bee Build-
ing, Price, Utah. Ashley Bartlett has been appointed
manager of the music department.
The formal opening of the Poppler Piano Co.,
Grand Forks, N. D., was held recently in its new
store.
T'he music business of IT. L. Stiles, Mt. Holly,
N. J., has been purchased by his son, Henry H. Stiles,
who will carry on this department.
Will Shaw, Aledo, 111., dealer in musical and radio
merchandise, closed out his stock last week and left
with his family to take up newspaper work in Cali-
fornia.
ADDS MUSIC TO DRY GOODS.
The Akron Drygoods Co., Akron, O., one of the
largest downtown department stores, has opened a
new music department, located on the first floor of
the Howard street arcade, and will feature, in addi-
tion to pianos and phonographs, small music goods,
player rolls, records and everything in musical mer-
chandise.
The True Test
Compare the new Jesse French & Sons Piano
Jesse French & Sons Style BB
with any other strictly high grade piano in tone,
touch and general construction, and you will be
convinced at once that t h e y offer the most
exceptional v a l u e s to be found anywhere.
Write today fa catalog and prices
"They are the one best buy on the market"
JESSE FRENCH & SONS PIANO CO.
NEW CASTLE,
INDIANA
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