Presto

PRESTO
CHRISTMAS TRADE
IN SAN FRANCISCO
November 22, 1924.
DISPLAY AIDS FOR BOSTON STORE
Energies of Dealers All Over State of Califor-
nia Directed to Making Grands and Re-
producing Pianos Big Factor in
Holiday Sales.
ACTIVITIES IN SELLING
Extent and Character of Advertising Show How
Trade Appraises Selling Possibilities of
Weeks Before Christmas.
The energies of the music dealers of San Francisco
and of the state of California generally are seemingly
directed towards getting the public into the Christ-
mas buying frame of mind. And the music dealers
go further than reminding the public to do its Christ-
mas shopping early. They alluringly point out with
pictures and text the desirable musical things that
are certain to fulfill the requirement of a desirable
gift.
If the San Francisco newspaper readers do not
becoTie more familiar than ever with the small grand
and the reproducing piano and impressed with the de-
sirability of the instruments for Christmas buying
purposes, it will not be the fault of the piano dealers.
Some of the advertisers say the prominent featuring
of the instruments named is only a recognition of the
general bent of customers who enter piano stores.
Various Tastes.
The musical families whose pride in their pianos is
as strong as their delight in fine music, as a rule
spontaneously seek a grand when a piano is about to
be purchased. Well-to-do families with a number of
young people not necessarily proficient pianists but
who love good music, are naturally interested in the
playerpianos. These are trade facts well proven by
the outside salesmen and by people generally in the
pianos stores. So the statement of the advertising
men that the grand and reproducing piano featuring
is but a reflection of the evident tastes of the buyers
sounds plausible.
Good Piano Publicity.
Considerable prominence to fine grands and their
relation to tasteful surroundings was given by certain
energetic dealers in two well-attended exhibitions
held in San Francisco recently. The Better Homes
Exposition, sponsored by the Federation of Women's
Club, Business and Professional Women's League
Home Builders' Association, Retail Furniture Asso-
ciation and the Chamber of Commerce had a num-
ber of model homes in which the rooms were fur-
nished with pianos. The furnishing of the instru-
ments in several instances was a pleasant bit of pub-
licity for Sherman, Clay & Co. In a model home
erected by the Sterling Furniture Co. an A. B. Chase
grand had a place of honor in a tastefully arranged
living room.
In the Fourth California Industries Exposition held
in the Exposition Auditorium in San Francisco, the
Baldwin Piano Co., Sherman, Clay & Co., and the
Wiley B. Allen Co., made pianos prominent in a vast
display of manufactured commodities. The two first
mentioned houses had extensive displays in booths
and the Wiley B. Allen Co. showed the great music
merits of. the Ludwig reproducing piano in a rest
parlor provided by the Pacific Electric Co.
Dealers Elsewhere.
But all the enterprise of the California music trade
is not confined to the merchants in the bigger cities.
The Saladin Music House of Santa Barbara and
Santa Maria recently performed a stroke of publicity
that sold a carload of playerpianos in a short time.
The company offered prizes for the best advertise-
ments on Culbransen pianos written by amateurs, the
copy being restricted in wards to one hundred and
five. The company used the amateur ads in conjunc-
tion with its Christmas Club publicity, crediting the
writer and thereby giving a personal touch to every
display that made it especially strong in certain
localities.
Upwards of 15,000 square feet of showroom space
is contained in the new four-story concrete structure
built and occupied last week by the J. Raymond
Smith Co , at 1506-1510 Fillmore street, San Francisco.
The new building adjoins the old one in which the
company has been located for many years.
A Popular Basement.
Kohler & Chase, San Francisco, is proving how a
spacious and well illuminated basement may compete
in patronage with the choice floors if the advantage-
ous character of the goods offered are judiciously ad-
vertised. A year ago the basement was limited to the
showing of used pianos but in time a well equipped
MAKES PIANO ROW MORE ATTRACTIVE.
The new display windows completed at the Henry was made of small musical merchandise and sheet
F. Miller Store, Boston, have a background con- music carried in the new department recently added
structed in a neat panel design and finished in light to the store. The instruments were attractively set
cream with gold trimmings. At either end is a rich off by blue velvet.
gray colored portiere. The metal and woodwork on
New lighting effects make the windows the bright-
the outside of the windows has been refinished in est on Boston's piano row and their attractiveness is
bronze. A platform in either window brings the dis- noticeable, even from across the street. The beauti-
play to the correct height.
ful oriental rugs and the many artistic paintings
The first display in the new windows was espe- which are prized possessions of the Henry F. Miller
cially attractive. In one window was a Henry F. Store will be used from time to time for settings in
Miller Baby Grand, displayed with just enough addi- the window displays.
tional furniture to give it a pleasing setting which
The new windows are in keeping with Henry F.
adequately showed up the beauty of the instrument. Miller traditions and the progressive policies of the
In the other window an exceptionally good display company.
*
player roll department was added. The success of
the latter suggested the opening of a sheet music sec-
tion there. Lamps, scarfs and accessories came next
and every new department added to the popularity
of the basement. Now cabinets, benches and other
requirements of the buyers are to be found there.
KENTUCKY MUSIC COMPANY
INCORPORATED THIS WEEK
W. S. Samuels, H. W. Bittel and Others Interested
in Samuels-Bittel Music Co., Owensboro.
Articles of incorporation of the Samuels-Bittel
Music Company, Owensboro, Ky., were filed in
county clerk's office this week. The company is to
do business at the old stand, 112 West 00th street,
and will continue to deal in pianos and musical goods
generally at retail, with a wholesale department added.
The capital is fixed at $50,000, divided into 500
shares at $100 per share. The following have stock
in the company: W. S. Samuels, 293 snares; H. W.
Bittel, 60 shares; Lee Atherton, 91 shares; and 23
shares are owned by others.
The music company will continue for a period of
twenty-five years. The highest amount of indebt-
edness or liability that the corporation may at any
time incur is fixed at $25,000, just one-half of the
capital stock.
CREDITORS OF RAY SAUER.
Collinsville, 111., is debtor to several piano manufac-
turers by reason of the late business of Ray A. Sauer,
who had sold a good many instruments, including
small grands, before he discontinued somewhat un-
expectedly. His creditors, one of whom is a Chi-
cago manufacturer holding the bag for $750, do not
anticipate any considerable proportion of Mr. Sauer's
indebtedness in the way of dividends. Whether the
Collinsville piano man will continue selling grands
is not known, though he is a good salesman.
ALTERATIONS A NECESSITY.
The widening of Hohman street, north of Russell
street, Hammond, Ind., will necessitate extensive
changes in the store of the Straube Piano & Music
Co. It is possible that the work of widening the
street will not be begun until the holiday business is
over. The Christmas sales of pianos and players are
expected to exceed anything of that variety of piano
sales in previous years.
WHY NOVEMBER BUSINESS
SHOULD BE UNUSUALLY GOOD
Lionel Tompkins, Sales Manager for The Cable Piano
Co., Chicago, Gives Ten Reasons.
Lionel Tompkins, sales manager for The Cable
Piano Company, Chicago, believes in the potency of
favorable psychological influences to make people
feel in a buying mood and also to evoke greater
efforts towards sales on the part of salesmen. A
neatly printed card bearing "Ten Reasons Why Your I
Business for November Should Be Good," distributed
by the energetic sales manager, is in line with His |
beliefs. The reasons are:
(1) Bank clearings were one billion and a quarter|
more in September than a year ago.
(2) Our exports to foreign countries were forty-six|
millions more than a year ago.
(3) The balance of trade in our favor is fourteenl
millions more than a year ago.
(4) Dividend and interest disbursements were fifty-|
five millions more than a year ago.
(5) Bond sales increased sixty-nine per cent over a|
year ago.
(6) New life insurance premiums increased nine-|
teen millions over a year ago.
(7) Freight car loadings averaged sixty-three thou-|
sand cars per week more than a month ago.
(8) Building permits increased $1,000,000 over
year ago.
(9) Silk consumption increased thirty-five per cent
over a year ago.
(10) Crude rubber imports increased 151 per cent
over a year ago.
NEW STORE FOR ATLANTA FIRM.
The new showrooms of the Carder Piano Co., 61
North Pryor street, Atlanta, Ga., were opened rej
cently. Over 7,000 square feet of floor space i^
available in which to exhibit pianos. In addition tc
main display room, there are smaller rooms for prij
vate demonstrations, including one somewhat largej
than the rest, for the display of reproducing grant
pianos. Hallet & Davis, Kurtzmann and Miltoi
pianos, Virtuolo playerpianos and the Welte Mignoil
(Licensee) and Angelus reproducing pianos are feal
tured by this concern. The Victrola and Sonora del
partment, under the direction of LeRoy Webb, alsJ
is a splendid feature of the display rooms. Includej
in the service of the phonograph department is a rec
ord counter where record may be obtained in haste.
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