Presto

October 25, 1924.
PRESTO
Presto
paper save this one that will expose its sub-
scription list to all comers who have a right
to know.
come down than to go up. That applies to
prices, and to selling things, as well as to
almost everything else.
* * *
REFLECTED LIGHT
Carry cheap pianos in stock, for you will
have cheap customers. But instruct your buy-
ers to want something as good as they will buy
and you will make friends and build a better
business.
* * *
Crowds are attracted by light. One quality
which is a determining factor in compelling in-
terest in a music store show window is its
lighting, although one rarely thinks of the
lighting when looking at a window.
* * *
The Checkering & Sons division of the
American Piano Co. appears to have embarked
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY. upon a somewhat new kind of promotion.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn More properly speaking, it is a new phase of
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
an old kind of piano selling appeal. It is the
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
- Editors
elevation, or indorsing 1 , or boosting, of the
commercial class of instruments by associa-
Telephines, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
tion with the time-honored Boston name. It
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
is, in a way, lending brilliancy to the some-
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896. at the
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
what commonplace by the reflected rays of
the bright star in the constellation.
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
We do not know of any similar employ-
application.
ment of a really great piano name. It is not,
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if we presume, in any sense subject of adverse
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for criticism. It is only because of the unusual
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre- nature of the situation that any mention is
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
made of it at all. The conspicuous advertis-
ing
of the "Brewster" as "the lowest priced
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the grand piano that is worthy of the name—it is
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full in this belief that it is offered by Chickering
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon & Sons," suggests the reflected light and sell-
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current ing influence of the old Boston house rather
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
than any special claim of the instrument from
Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business Rochester.
d e p a r t m e n t s to P R E S T O P U B L I S H I N G CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
The experiment is a new one. We do not
know of any other great piano name that has
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1924.
been used in a similar way. Perhaps other
great piano names have been similarly em-
ployed, but if so the effect upon them as
THE GENTLE KNOCKER
works of art has not been recorded. If the
It is the general understanding that the Weber, for instance, was ever used to boost
world detests a knocker. If the understand- the "Stuyvesant," or if the Knabe was ever
ing is not accurately reported, then there is used to sustain the "Franklin," the fact has
something wrong with the world, which, of escaped us. The result of the Chickering in-
course, nowadays, nobody believes.
novation will be watched with respect to the
Anyway, accepting that as the attitude of advisability of further effort along similar
the world, and assuming that the music ttade lines.
constitutes a rather important part of the
In any event, it will be interesting to ob-
world, what can be the general opinion, where serve what the effect of the latest enterprise
pianos are made and sold, of any man. or of the American Piano Co.'s advertising de-
other thing on legs, than can go around talk- partment may be. And we believe that, inso-
ing about what its, or his, competitors lack in far as the sales of the "Brewster" are con-
the race for perfection ?
cerned, the plan will prove nn effective one,
For several months past agile young met: at least locally.
who represent the American Music Trade
Weekly have reported that, in several pianu
The latest is a craze for very old furniture.
offices, they have been told, by reputable gen- It has grown to such a degree that the manu-
tlemen, that some mysterious caller has said facture of "old" chairs and tables has been dis-
that the American Music Trade Weekly is covered. Why not a similar fever for old
lacking in its subscription department. In pianos ? And it wouldn't be necessary to fake
other words, in a vain attempt to justify his them either.
own littleness of influence, and brevity of
* * *
mailing lists, the knocker has attempted that
If no hitch in the plans takes place an en-
most ancient of all journalistic offenses, mali- tirely new piano industry may be established
cious lying.
in which will be linked two of the most famous
It is not necessary for this old music trade names in the trade. Chicago will be the head-
paper to point out why any possible rival quarters.
* * *
should worry his little head to distort the
truth in a way to hurt a contemporary. For
If you happened to have owned a fine build-
forty years this trade paper has been coming ing on a fine street in a fine little town, and
out and all through the forty years it has been you sold it, and a few weeks after the pur-
striving by honest means to win the class of chaser sold it again for a million dollars more
readers that mean influence to its friends and than you got for it, how would you feel about
advertisers. It has taken more subscriptions, it? That's what happened to the Aeolian Com-
we verily believe, than any other trade paper pany and the sale of the building on Forty-
in its line. Today it has as many readers as second street, New York.
any publication in its line and, we believe—
* * *
we cannot know—that it has more subscribers
It's right to carry cheap pianos in stock.
than any other at this time.
They will be called for and not every customer
who
wants a piano can pay the price of a fine
We may be wrong, but we will pay the price
one,
or
often if he can he won't. But don't
of fifty subscriptions to any other trade paper
make
it
a rule to press attention to the lowest
that can make a showing to shatter our con-
price
in
the store without finding out what
viction, just expressed. And we may almost
your
customer
wants. Usually it is easier to
say that we know that there is no music trade
The "One-Price" question is one usually in-
cluded in the program of music trade conven-
tions, although "One-Price" is a closed issue.
Now one-price is a foremost clause in the code
of every well-conducted music store.
*
*
*
Gimbel's Store, New York, is advertising
small grands for $265. Where do they get
that kind?
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
(October 25, 1894.)
Mr. E. S. Conway, ardent Republican, is in the
thick of the present contest, making speeches (mighty
good ones, too) and working hard for Republican
success next month.
The Board of Directors of the Starr Piano Co.,
Richmond, Ind., held their semi-annual meeting two
weeks ago, and express themselves as highly gratified
with the business that has been done since the fac-
tory was rebuilt.
Retail trade in New York City is remarkably good
this fall. All of the prominent warerooms are filled
with customers most of the time, and an average
of ten pianos a day does not surprise some of the
leading retailers just now.
A telegram received on Tuesday afternoon told
that to Henry Wegman the end had come. He was
not able to stand the last operation. After weeks of
suffering, after a strong fight against death in which
every effort that medical science could devise and
the most careful attention could promote was brought
to his assistance, he succumbed to the expected.
In the piano trade also is there "nothing in a
name?" It may be true that a "rose by any other
name would smell as sweet," but how about a piano
with another name? Is it possible that even a Stein-
way, or a Chickering, or a Knabe, or an Everett, or
others equally ready to mind, would "smell as sweet"
in popular esteem "by any other name?" We do
not believe it.
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
(From Presto, October 27, 1904.)
P. J. Healy still makes regular trips to his office
in the Lyon & Healy building. He usually comes
down in the family carriage accompanied by some
member of his family.
While the official announcement of the commission
in charge of the musical instrument exhibit at the
World's Fair is being withheld from the public,
Presto gives here a list of the principal awards.
Almost every week brings to light other player-
pianos in course of preparation for the market. It
looks as though the piano manufacturers are taking
hold of this instrument with more energy than they
ever thought of devoting to the pianoplayers.
"The trade of the Price & Teeple Co. is phenome-
nal" is the way President W\ B. Price puts it, and he
adds: "This will be by more than 20 per cent the
largest month's shipments the Price & Teeple Piano
Co. have ever had, and the beauty about it is that 75
per cent of it is cash."
Buyers' Guides are not different in the piano trade
from guides in other lines. The industry and trade
could possibly get along without them. So they
could get along without trade editors—in a way. But
the manufacturers and dealers wouldn't like to do it,
presumably.
Lucien Wulsin, president of D. IT. Baldwin_& Co.,
Cincinnati, arrived in Chicago Tuesday morning for
two days' stay about the western headquarters of that
big house. Mr. Wulsin has been so busy that this
is his first visit to the big store in Chicago or the
Hamilton factory at Chicago Heights in about a
year.
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