PRESTO
NEARLY A HALF MILLION
FOR OLD STEINWAY HALL
Famous Building on Fourteenth Street, New
York, Will Soon Pass to Other Purposes
than Pianos.
The splendid new Steinway Hall, on West Fifty-
seventh street, New York, is well along toward com-
pletion, but Steinway & Sons do not expect to become
settled there before next Spring. The removal of the
general offices and salesrooms to the new building
presents something of a feat. The old headquarters
have been so long occupied that things arc so rooted
there as to present a formidable task in the change.
Deeds in the sale of the old Steinway Hall prop-
erty at 107 and 109 East Fourteenth street and 108
to 114 East Fifteenth street by Steinway & Sons to
the S. Klein Union Square Realty Corporation placed
on record reveal a stated consideration of $475,000.
It is a four-story structure fronting seventy-one
feet on Fourteenth street and one hundred feet on
Fifteenth street, and was purchased by the new own-
ers in May, 1923.
PERHAPS THIS IS A CASE
OF "BEG YOUR PARDON'
But as Offending Letter Was Signed by Member of
Firm, Where Shall We Bow.
A few weeks back an article appeared in which
credit was given to a member of a firm of piano
dealers at Akron, Ohio, for expert salesmanship,
shown in the disposition of a number of Francis
Bacon pianos. When the article appeared the partner
of the expert salesman wrote a letter asking that
correction be made, inasmuch as, he said, others had
shared in the expert salesmanship.
The letter of one partner referring to the other part-
ner appeared. And it bore the signature of the part-
ner who had written it. And now comes a letter
from the other partner, who seems to think that
Presto is to blame for responding to the seemingly
reasonable request of his partner.
In a partnership both members arc equally respon-
sible. Presto is in no way to blame for anything but
trying to do everything possible to help both partners
be happy. Here is the latest—and last—letter on the
subject of the Akron salesmanship, which carries
with it the customary "beg your pardon," to which
every partner in the firm of Smith & Mitten may
cither deserve it or lay claim to it:
Editor Presto: I just note an article printed in
your paper under date of October 11th, page 7, every Resold by Recent Buyers at a Profit Said to
Be at Least $1,000,000 Over the Figure
word of which Is a falsehood, and I will hold your
company responsible.
Paid for It Three Months
I am entitled to damages and shall expect it. The
Ago.
original of this was furnished you by the Bacon
Piano Co., New York, and had you asked them
about it they would have corrected the error for
you, I am sure.
Akron, Ohio, October 21, 1924.
ERNEST E. SMITH.
Famous Home of the "Pianola" and the "Weber"
Piano Proved a Big Money-Maker for "Real-
tors" of Manhattan.
SECOND SALE OF
AEOLIAN BUILDING
BETTER THAN CAR=L0AD LOTS
OLD MUSKEGON INDUSTRY
IS FINANCIALLY SOUND
Report that the Chase-Hackley Piano Co. was
in Hands of a Creditors' Committee
Unfounded.
Within the past three weeks there has been talk
in the trade about the condition of the Chase-Hackley
Piano Co., of Muskegon, Mich. The representative
of a large financing company which makes a business
of handling piano ''paper" was quoted as having said
that the old Michigan factory was in the hands of
a creditors' committee, for the purpose of liquidation.
The Chase-Hackley Piano Co. has been recognized
as one of the strongest in the industry. For several
years past it has not been as active as formerly,
because of discontent among the stockholders as to
the best policy to pursue. But, aside from that,
conditions at Muskegon are as solid as ever. When
the reports, on false gossip, alluded to, reached the
management at Muskegon the following telegram was
dispatched to Presto—one day this week:
"Chase-Hackley Piano Co. has assets of six hun-
dred thousand and liabilities of about one-tenth of
that amount, or sixty thousand outside of the capital
stock. We trust you will deny emphatically any
rumors."
SPECIAL ATTRACTION AT
CHICAGO PIANO CLUB MEETING
Monday's Session Will Be One of Unusual Interest,
with "Deep Stuff" Included.
Miss Grace Wilson, of vaudeville and radio fame,
will be the guest of honor of the Piano Club of Chi-
cago Monday, October 27th, at the Illinois Athletic
Club. Miss Wilson is nationally known as the "girl
with a million friends."
At the first two meetings of the present year the
Piano Club has broken attendance records and mem-
bers are urged to be on hand early to get good seats.
The meeting last Monday adjourned at 1:40. Presi-
dent Schoenwald is faithfully keeping his promise of
closing on time. This arrangement seems to meet
the wishes of most of the members as they are
anxious to get back to business. "Deep stuff will
positively appear next week," adds Secretary Gordon
Laughead.
The ^J-/ardman Jzine
is a complete line
It comprises a range of artisti-
cally w o r t h y 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-
built durability thatcharacterizes
all Hardman-made instruments;
the wonderful Hardman Repro-
ducing Piano; the Hardman
Autotone (the perfect player-
piano); and the popular Playo-
tone.
October 25, 1924.
AN IOWA CAMPAIGN.
A strong campaign for music in the home is being
operated by the Schmoller & Mueller Piano Co.,
Council Bluffs, Iowa, in which free piano or vocal
lessons with every piano sold during the campaign is
featured. A choice of prominent instructors with
every piano sold during the campaign is offered.
Steinway, Hardman, Emerson, McPhail, Steger &
Sons, Lindeman & Sons, Story & Clark, Behr Bros.,
Premier pianos and others are carried by the
company.
ADVERTISING THE LEADERS.
Attractive blotters have been distributed by the
Flanner-Hafsoos Music House, Inc., Milwaukee,
which give details of the attractions in the depart-
ments of the store. Below the firm name and the
slogan "Everything Musical" there are three
silhouettes, illustrating a Kurtzmann grand, a Conn
saxophone and an Edison phonograph, accompanied
bv the name of the instrument.
CARL E. PECK RETURNS.
Carl E. Peck, president of Hardman, Peck & Co.,
New York, returned recently from Europe on the
liner Reliance. Mr. Peck, who was accompanied
abroad by Mrs. Peck and their daughter Marjorie,
spent three months on the trip during which they
visited France, England, Switzerland and Italy.
Aeolian Hall, on Forty-Second street, New York,
has been sold again. The home of the Weber piano
and the Pianola, has become a center of interest in
Manhattan real estate transactions.
The latest
amounts almost to a sensation in the fact that the
"'realtors" realized a profit, estimated at a full mil-
lion, by the purchase of the famous building and
selling it again within a few weeks. It was better
than selling pianos—even.
The Aeolian Building is an eighteen-story structure
on West Forty-second street, opposite Bryant Park.
It was resold last week Friday by the Schulte Retail
Stores Corporation at a profit of close to $1,000,000
after an ownership of less than three months.
The buyer is Samuel Keller Jacobs, one of the
largest real estate operators in New York City, and,
according to the Charles F. Noyes Company, which
represented him, the transaction involved about
$7,000,000.
Runs Through Block.
The Aeolian Building, which is known as 29 and
33 West Forty-second street, runs through the block
to 32, 34 and 36 West Forty-third street, occupying
a plot front of 78 feet on both streets and having a
depth of 200 feet through the block.
It was sold about three months ago by The Aeolian
Company to the Schulte Retail Stores Corporation,
controlled by D. A. Schulte and the Schulte Cigar
Stores interests.
In selling the property the Aeolian Company took
back a lease for at least five years on the space which
it now occupies in the building.
Made Big Lease.
Following close upon the sale of the property came
the announcement that the Schulte interests had
leased the entire building to the F. W. Woolworth
Company as a location for a new five and ten cent
store.
This lease, which is one of the largest and most
important of the year involving Forty-second street
property, is for a period of sixty-three years at $400,-
000 a year for the first twenty-one years and $450,000
a year for the balance of the lease, forty-two years.
The aggregate rental runs into many millions of
dollars, not including taxes or operating charges.
The street floor of the building will be occupied
by the Woolworth Company as a branch store as
soon as the Aeolian Company vacates the premises,
which it may not do for several years to come.
New Sites for Aeolian.
The Aeolian Company is reported to have several
new sites under consideration in the new music centre
on Fifty-seventh street adjacent to Carnegie Hall.
Samuel Keller Jacobs, the new owner of the Aeo-
lian Building, who is one of New York's largest and
most active real estate operators, recently leased
three floors to Gimbel Brothers for executive offices
in his Cuyler Building, 116 West Thirty-second
street, running through to Thirty-first street, and re-
cently purchased the new Vantine Building-on Thirty-
ninth street, adjoining the northeast corner of Fifth
avenue.
This corner for years has been the site of the Wen-
del home and the Wendel estate has refus|d to either
sell or lease the corner property. It was this cor-
ner that the late Jacob Wendel refused to sell a few
years ago, saying that the family's pet dog needed it
for a playground.
SCHOOL PIANOS DEMOLISHED.
The Harper School, Sixty-fifth and Wood streets,
Chicago, was entered one night this week and its
equipment damaged $4,000. Clocks were torn from
the walls, desks wrecked, papers scattered about and
two new pianos had been demolished with axes. Every
room had been entered. The school has been the cen-
ter of a controversy between parents of pupils and
the Board of Education,, because of its conversion
from an ordinary grade school into a junior high.
W. A. Erwin and, J. J. Collins, are partners in an
upstairs piano wareroom in Portland, Ore.
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/