November 1, 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
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mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Bntered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1924.
THE PIANO SELLER
A piano salesman is not just a seller of
things. He is not the same as a clerk who
measures, or weighs, the goods, hands them
to a wrapper and takes the money.
The piano salesman is not an automaton.
If he is a good one he must be a real person.
He must possess what is implied by that
greatly abused and overworked word, person-
ality. And that doesn't mean impertinence,
impudence, nor even over-persistency. It is
intelligence, and the kind of forcefulness that
dominates by reason of superior information
in a special line of understanding or experi-
ence.
In other words, the competent piano sales-
man must possess the ability to create convic-
tion where doubt may exist. To overcome
prejudice and to subdue competition by rea-
son of the insinuating kind that compels with-
out being offensive to even refined judgments.
Not all men, even if highly educated, can
meet the requirements suggested. It is pos-
sible that too much education along certain
lines may rather hurt salesmanship than help.
The dividing line is hard to find. It is where
the edge of vigor, virility, may be blunted by
the kind of sensitiveness that comes from
introspection and reflection upon one's own
failures. The piano salesman is wise who
keeps in mind his successes, forgetting his
failures and looking forward to what he feels
sure he will accomplish in the days and weeks
to come.
A good many years ago a newspaper writer
said that "personality depends upon moods;
character endures." And, if the two attri-
butes are not identical, they are nearly so.
The chief difference is that personality comes
more largely from experience, while character
is a matter of inheritance, environment and
the instinct that governs and sustains circum-
stances through life, from start to finish.
The notion that personality is related to
psychology is often exaggerated. It may
dominate the learned and the near-illiterate.
That is why we sometimes see men of very
little learning who are good salesmen. They
possess intelligence and are persevering and
ambitious.
The good piano salesman "tells" his pros-
pect. He may at times permit his customer
to think he is doing the telling. But if he is
really a salesman he will convince his cus-
tomer by changing his viewpoint and dispel-
ling his doubts without seeming to do so. And
if the salesman finds that his work is not in-
spiring, or lacks interest, he should get out
of it. He will never get far and the world is
filled with other kinds of work for which he
is better fitted.
CITY FACTORIES
The disadvantages, or inconveniences, of
large factories in crowded cities is being
stirred up in New York. It is proposed to
push industrial plants out of Manhattan's busy
streets into the country. The movement in
other cities of some lines of manufacture from
urban surroundings has been going on for a
good many years past. This is true of piano
factories.
Of course, New York City has a bigger
problem to contend with in this respect than
some of the other large centers of population
and industry. The land area is comparatively
smaller there, in proportion to population,
than any other great center. And, so far as
concerns piano manufacture, there has, until
recent years, been a larger productiveness in
New York City than at any other point. And
in New York the piano factories have, to a
large extent, clustered together in the Bronx
district, at the northern end of the city.
This has been going on for a great many
years and, whereas a quarter-century ago the
middle section possessed a full share of piano
factories, today there are few remaining be-
low the Harlem river, the notable exceptions
being a few of the old and thoroughly rooted
industries west of Tenth avenue, of which the
Kohler Industries is the largest, if not the
most famous otherwise.
Inside Chicago's city limits the piano fac-
tories are no longer numerous, many of them
having been transferred to the Michigan
shore, and others being located in Illinois,
within easy reach. And the prospect is that
more of them will move away from the threat
of labor disturbances and the perpetual dis-
tractions of other kinds.
In New York the old custom of employing
lofts for piano manufacturing purposes is still
quite common. There is little of it in Chicago.
In the infancy of the piano industry all piano
factories were close to the roof. Today a
majority of pianos are manufactured where
space is ample and the inspiration of fresh air,
the restful beauties of verdant fields, the
whispering trees and clear skies lend zest to
the workers, which seems essential to the
toilers whose lives are devoted to the making
of the things of beauty to the eye and ear
combined.
The retail piano man who thinks that a piano
in the store window, and a willingness to do
business, will create a demand is mistaken. It
is a long way from desire to demand, with the
dealer at the far end of the proposition. His
store may be ever so attractive and his line of
pianos first class and filled with possibilities.
But unless his ambition is just as forceful as
his pianos, he will not get far. He must have
the right men outside to stir up the prospects,
to interest the possibilities and to bring in the
buyers. That will mean business. Nothing
else will. Good local advertising alone will
not suffice. It will help very much, but it re-
quires the skillful presentation by the forceful
salesman to land the sales.
* * *
J. S. Easterly, of Jacksonville. Fla., had a
concession to cut 7,000,000 acres of fine mahog-
any in Honduras. He "let in" a New York
speculator who advanced $2,500 with which to
clinch the deal. Mr. Easterly gave the sum
named to the Honduras Treasurer in form of
a check drawn by the New York promoter.
The check was protested by the bank upon
which it was drawn, and Mr. Easterly lost his
concession, and Heaven knows what the piano
industry lost in missing the fine mahogany.
* * *
Abuse of radio, by turning it into an adver-
tising medium, threatens to kill its popularity.
When a family head invests in a radio receiver,
and has it nicely installed in the living room
of his home, he expects to afford educational
advantages, as well as entertainment, for his
family.
:j:
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*
A remarkable after-the-war development is
seen in the progress of the British piano indus-
tries. The London trade papers display a
larger amount of enterprise on the part of the
English piano manufacturers than ever before
in the most peaceful and prosperous days.
->-
t-
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The plague of "political" songs has been
peculiarly mild during this year's presidential
campaign. Even the "Three Years More for
Coolidge" and the "Bob, Bob, We'll Bob Him,
Too," and the "Wheel Wheeler Off the Track"
order of stuff has not been strident.
Will there ever come a marked change in the
upright case designs? The French and Ger-
man manufacturers seem to have done some-
thing in that direction, but the American piano
makers seem satisfied with what they already
have.
A London manufacturer, in the straining for
something new in advertising, has designated
his instrument as the "No-trouble piano." If
he means it, he has attained to the seventh
heaven of a much-troubled business.
* * *
It is actually reported that at least one large
manufacturer of plaverpianos has declared that
next year he will return to the exclusive pro-
duction of hand-played small grands.
* * *
This year's presidential campaign will pass
into history as the first to be conducted largely
by radio.
PRESTOLAFS AND PARAGRAFS
When hubby heard the doctor say
He'd triplets on his hand, •
"I am," he groaned, and turned away,
"Some Reproducing Grand."
* * *
Victor Talking Machine spent $1,142,000 in adver-
tising. Vote the Republican ticket. It knows its
master's voice, says the Democratic N. Y. Times.
* * *
It's the soldier's duty to take orders. To the sales-
man it's a pleasure.
* * *
A Chicago piano manufacturer received an order
for a number of instruments with this reservation
written into the order: "To be cancelled auto-
matically if Coolidge is defeated."
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