Presto

Issue: 1925 2007

January 10, 1925.
PRESTO
when Presto's correspondent called; the store was
full of customers, yet Mr. Lewis found a moment to
treat the caller courteously, a thing every caller ap-
preciates. He said that conditions gave fair promise
to become better after the first of the year. It had
been a little rough for a short time, owing to the
factories laying off so many men temporarily. But,
in a cheerier tone, he added that that would be only
for two or three weeks. So he believed the coming
year would be a fair one.
Why a short lay-off in factory men should mean
so much cannot be understood in cities devoted less
to manufacturing than Detroit. If twenty per cent
of the automobile workers alone were laid off it would
mean 50,000 high-priced workers deprived of their
pay. But while Detroit's fame is hooked up among
the ignorant everywhere with autos alone, it is the
greatest manufacturing city in the world in many
another line, as far from autos as the East is from
the West.
At J. L. Hudson Co.'s.
The J. L. Hudson Company, Detroit, is one of the
largest department stores in the world, but its music
business is conducted in a separate building a block
away from the gigantic headquarters. The Hudson
music store is at 1250 Library avenue. General
Manager Andrew was busy with his advertising man
when the call for Presto was made, but Presto's man
talked with C. H. Kesler, who is in charge of the
piano department.
Mr. Kesler said that trade for the last month had
been mostly in the highest-priced goods. The com-
pany is handling the Brambach small grands, the
Chickering, the Ampico, the Marshall & Wendell, the
Schumann, the Estey, also Gulbransen playerpianos.
"Trade, which had been slow until the 12th of De-
cember," said Mr. Kesler, "has picked up very much
since then, so that now it is very good. We handle
radio phonographs, sheet music and small goods. All
our sheet music is high-grade; no popular stuff."
Starr Piano Company.
W. H. Huttie, manager of the Detroit branch of
the Starr Piano Company, at 1500 Broadway, is very
busy these days selling goods produced in the great
factories of the Starr house at Richmond, Ind.
Mr. Huttie calls himself "Bill," but those who
know the successful business man do not descend to
such familiarity. "Trade has been pretty fair," said
Mr. Huttie; "and of course we are handling nothing
but Starr goods."
Bush & Lane.
The Bush & Lane Detroit store is located on the
fifth floor of the building at 1514 Woodward avenue,
in the very heart of the best shopping district of De-
troit. The trade for the last two weeks has been in
grands and reproducing pianos mostly—the very
highest-priced goods of the Bush & Lane factories in
Holland, Mich.
Of course there is a steady trade in Cecilian player-
pianos from the same factory, and many sales of
phonographs with radio; the company's own make of
phonographs. Calls were made at the Bush & Lane
Detroit store a few days ago by Walter Lane and
by W. H. Beach, of the company.
Woodbridge avenue; Western Music Shop, 1944
Hastings street.
Willard Bryant, 1425 Broadway; Cadillac Music
Shop, 9947 East Forest avenue; Central Music Shop,
9239 Joseph Campau avenue; Columbia Graphophone
Co , 439 East Fort street; Consolidated Talking Ma-
chine Co., 2953 Gratiot avenue; T. V. Davies, 4107
Hamilton avenue; Wm. P. Davies, 4577 West Warren
avenue; Detroit Phonograph Company, 7601 Gratiot
avenue.
A Few More.
Phonograph Record Exchange, 1512 Broadway;
Portophone Sales, 1316 East Grand boulevard; Q R S
Music Company, 2831 Gratiot avenue; Max Reich,
3334 Michigan avenue; Reitdorf's Music House, 2956
Michigan avenue; Jos. Rogozynski, 4751 Chene street;
Sadowski Music House, 6469 Chene street; Sager
Music Shop, 1539 Broadway; San Carlo Music Store,
3590 Riopelle street.
Adler Music House, 2412 Michigan avenue; Avery's
Music House, 10603' West Jefferson avenue; Barnes
& Farrell, 11024 East Jefferson avenue; M. M.
Bejnars, 11900 Joseph Campau avenue; R. L! Bloom-
field, 8537 Twelfth street; Blount & Wilson, 3017
Gratiot avenue; Boulevard Music Shop, 6523 Grand
River avenue; Henry S. Doran Company, 1416 Wash-
ington boulevard; Drogosch Music Shop, 10433 Mack
avenue; East Detroit Music House, 1040 Gratiot
avenue.
Stephen Farco, 2318 East Davisou avenue; John
Garrison, 9531 Gratiot avenue; Grand Music Shop,
3541 Grand River avenue; Sydney J. Guest, 4737 Dix
avenue; W. W. Gunn Music House, 1961 Grand River
avenue; Hamtramck Music & Sewing Machine Co.,
9720 Joseph Campau avenue; Sarchet Music Co., 6008
West Fort street; Shecter Music Co., 8737 Twelfth
street; Lewis Sokolin, 3507 Hastings street; Song
Shop, 1146 Griswold street; Starr Phonograph Shop,
14053 Woodward avenue; Story & Clark Piano Com-
pany, 1246 Washington boulevard; Max Strasburg
Co, 1264 Library avenue; Symphony Music House,
6567 Chene street; E. A. Telkman, 2678 Gratiot ave-
nue; Harmony Music House, 3460 St. Antoine street.
And Then Some.
W. J. Melin, 1001 Joseph Campau avenue; Italian
Music & Book Company, 634 Joseph Campau avenue;
Melody Music Shop, 1529 Hastings street; Jewett
Phonograph Shop, 8355 Grand River avenue; Mills
Novelty Sales Co., 333 State street; Lampe & Tanner,
13131 East Jefferson avenue; Mitchell Phonograph
Corporation, 2957 Gratiot street; Leeds Phonograph
Co., 206 East Grand River avenue; Moody Music
SCHILLER SUPER=GRAND HAS
MADE GREAT PROGRESS
Last Year One of Best in History of the Industry at
Oregon, 111.
With the Schiller Piano Company the past year
was a period of steady and conservative advancement;
of constructive Schiller trade development and fac-
tory output. Many new agencies and valuable ac-
counts were secured. "In fact," says Mr. E. B.
Jones, president of the Schiller Piano Company, "a
casual review of our business at this moment shows
over a hundred new agencies, including some of the
largest and most important concerns of the country,
while Schiller production for 1924 surpassed, by a
goodly number, that of 1923."
These excellent conditions have again necessitated
the making of more floor space during the holiday
season, and the ten days of inventory and stocktak-
ing, changes and additions have been under way in
the factory, to secure the additional space particularly
in the production of Schiller Super-Grands.
These additional facilities will probably take care
of present and immediate future requirements, but
the near future demands are going to soon require
still more room. To meet those contingencies the
land adjoining the main factory building on the north
has been purchased by the Schiller Piano Company
in contemplation of building factory additions the
coming spring of 1925.
Store, 12825 Oakman avenue; S. E. Lind, Inc., 2765
West Fort street; Music Shoppe, 8537 Twelfth street;
Little Music Box, 408 West Grand River avenue; M.
Naimark Company, 4707 Michigan avenue.
Mack Avenue Music House, 8912 Mack avenue; Na-
tional Music Company, 4239 Woodward avenue;
Markowitz & Zuroff, 2813 Hastings street; Sperello
Phonograph Co., 242 West Lafayette avenue; C. L.
Marshall Company, Inc., 514 Griswold street; Phono-
graph Company of Detroit, 1540 Woodward avenue.
Predicts Good New Year.
As Ford goes, so goes manufacturing in Detroit,
and the whole nation for that matter. But in a
statement issued at the end of the year by the Ford
Motor Company announcement is made of a steady
increase in the demand for and production of its
products, and Mr. Ford anticipates a good year ahead.
ARTISTIC BALDWIN CALENDAR
Ling Piano House.
Paul H. Simons, manager of the Ling Piano House,
located on the 4th floor of 1266 Library avenue, is a
pleasant man to meet. Mr. Ling says the company
is now handling the Krakauer Grand and Upright.
They still carry a few Newby & Evans pianos, but
have discontinued the agencies of several others in
their recent line. Trade had been slack until a week
ago. Mr. Simons attributed the slackness to the cut-
ting down of payrolls at great factories during the
summer months and the obligations assumed by so
many of the workers in buying homes for themselves
and their families.
Detroit a Musical City.
Detroit has been for more than a century a center
of education and progress. Its fame for the produc-
tion of chemicals on a gigantic scale reaches around
the globe; and it stands first in the world in many
other things as far from autos as is chemistry. De-
troit would hardly miss the auto business, it has so
many other lines of production; so stop worrying in
other cities, please, about what "poor old Detroit
would do were every auto works to shut shop."
It never for a moment forgets the finer things of
life, despite its terrific concentration upon the prac-
tical tasks at hand. Following are just a few of the
Detroit music shops at which the trade paper writer
did not get time to call:
Western Talking Machine Co., 2735 Hastings
street; Wojnicki Music Store, 5901 Chene street;
Woodmansee Music Store, 4515 Grand River avenue;
John Zenchenko, 2341 Hastings street; Urban Music
& Art Store, 3030 Gratiot avenue; Peter Uryga, 28
West Warren avenue; the Waite Store, 5636 Dix
avenue; Walker Music Co., 7626 West Jefferson ave-
nue; Warsaw Music Store, 8578 Joseph Campau ave-
nue; Wayne Music & Machine Company, 110 East
Carmen, one of the most beautiful operas ever
written, furnishes the theme for the 1925 Calendar
for Baldwin dealers. A scene from this opera, as
presented by the Chicago Civic Opera Company, is
pictured in five colors. It is most attractive. This
calendar is a very suitable gift for dealers to present
to prospects and customers as a New Year's greeting.
Imprinted with the dealer's name and address, it
will be a permanent advertisement of his business.
It will carry a constant reminder that Baldwin is
the official piano for the artists of the Chicago Civic
Opera.
"The best way to use the Baldwin calendar is to
order a few hundred for your store and send out
post cards to your prospects, notifying them if they
will call at your sales rooms you will be very
glad, indeed, to present them with one of the Baldwin
complimentary calendars free of charge," is the ad-
vice of the Baldwin Piano Co. to the trade.
"There are only a few thousand more of these
calendars available. Make your reservations now
through your Baldwin representative for the number
of these calendars you will wish to use."
The accompanying cut shows a reduced black and
white reproduction of the calendar.
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/
PRESTO
January 10, 1925.
IT PAYS
TO BUY
TONK BENCHES
Take
Policy
Good Will
Insurance
Deciding
Tonk Benches
E. A. FRANCIS SCORES
ADVICE BANALITIES
Galesburg, 111., Music Dealer Also Pens Good-
Natured Lesson for Piano Manufacturers
and Dealers.
Piano manufacturers and dealers have, in common
with the rest of the piano trade and its allied indus-
tries, read and listened to many dissertations on the
uplift of the business and how to succeed, how to get
rid of trade-ins, what makes to push, what kind of
advertising to use, what kind of salesmen to hire,
what to pay them, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
Most of this advice and criticism is confined to
those whose business is in cities of the .first class,
such as Chicago, New York, San Francisco, etc.
True, these centers are wonderful fields for such
criticism and are great marts in the piano and phono-
graph and now radio fields.
But what of the smaller cities and the "Main
Street" towns? The big dealer is, as a rule, capable
of solving his own problems financial and other-
wise, but the small merchant is practically depend-
ent on the manufacturer and trade paper for his
guidance and information, and the attitude of the
manufacturer has a lot to do with the making or
marring the success of the small dealer. Now to
suggest:
If he (the manufacturer) would confine the agency
of his product to men who know something of a
piano and not let men have it who handle it as a side-
line to coffins, picture framing or a cream station it
would help some.
Then the manufacturer might insist on a one-price
plan as the Gulbransen Co. does. He might also em-
ploy a salesman instead of a "traveling man," who
will spend at least three days in the year with each
dealer, helping him train salesmen and make sales,
instead of buying the dealer a dinner and telling him
a few stale stories. And manufacturers should not
allow branch houses to quote wholesale prices to re-
tail customers (name on request).
Now the dealer has his bit to do as well. If ever
the respect of the buying public is to be had, the
bad practice of leaving pianos and phonographs
around in homes for trial and storage, must stop.
The dealer should not leave the purchaser of a fine
instrument to the mercy of any itinerant tuner who
has no interest in the pianos other than getting a
few dollars and making a quick getaway.
We put these principles into practice and have
found that they have proven correct, giving us a nice
clean business and no grief. What we do and what
we don't do is conveyed to the public in a display in
the newspapers this week. This is said:
"We do buy our pianos, reproducing pianos and
phonographs direct from the factory. We do carry
in stock the late models of all these high class
makes—Packard, Ivers & Pond, Cable Co. products
and Gulbransen, Starr, Aeolian, Vitanola, radio
consoles, phonographs. We do give prompt service
and all our goods carry a double guarantee. We do
make the lowest price (quality considered) in the
state as our overhead is the lowest for the business
we do in the United States.
"We don't pay any commissions, or get our pianos
from the Chicago jobber. We don't hawk our in-
struments around from house to house, and finally
sell it for a new piano or phonograph, when it is
really a used one. We don't advertise pianos for
your inspection that we don't carry in stock.
"We have in our shops, rooms 4 and 20, Weinberg
Arcade, the finest display of pianos and phonographs
ever shown in Galesberg."
E. A. FRANCIS,
Francis Piano Co.
ANNUAL MEETING OF
SCHILLER PIANO COMPANY
Election of Officers and Other Important Business
Scheduled for January 13.
The annual meeting of the Schiller Piano Co., Ore-
gon, 111., will be held in that city on Tuesday, Janu-
ary 13. At this meeting a report of 1924, which was
a good year for the Schiller line, will be made and
other business transacted.
The Oregon, 111., industry has taken steps which
will increase the producing capacity materially and
facilitate service to dealers. In view of last year's
success and the widespread optimism of the new year,
the company expects a season of steady activity.
The election of officers for the new year will be a
big event of the meeting. The present officers are:
Edgar B. Jones, president; Frank M. Hood, vice-
president; Cyrus F. Jones, treasurer, and Benj. F.
Shelly, secretary.
FEATURES HARDMAN IN THEATERS.
The Hardman concert grand has been admirably
featured in eastern cities during the winter by Vilmos
Westony, who has been engaged to appear in vari-
ous Philadelphia motion picture theaters for six ad-
ditional weeks. This is his second appearance in
that city in similar programs this season.
Louis M. Sosna, dealer in musical merchandise,
Rock Island, 111., has opened a branch at 404 Fif-
teenth street, Moline, 111.
A POPULAR STODART UPRIGHT
1925
f
TONK MFG. CO.
1912 Lewis St.
Manufacturers
K-D 88
TONK BENCH
CHICAGO, ILL
Publishers
TONK
TOPICS
IT PAYS
TO BUY
THE BEST
Stodart Style 28 upright, made by the Stodart
Piano Co., New York, has a wide selling appeal based
oh an established reputation throughout the trade.
This popular instrument shown in the accompanying
illustration is made in mahogany, walnut and oak.
Stodart uprights as well as Stodart grands and
players are products of one of the oldest makers in
this country, the Stodart Company being established
in 1820.
The historical background and pioneer position of
this institution are evidenced by interesting facts.
There is a Stodart piano of 1832 in the collection of
musical instruments in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York. Another old Stodart instrument is
in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D. C.
A gold medal was awarded the Stodart by the
American Institute, New York, in 1835, one of the
earliest instances on record demonstrating the musi-
cal value and significance of an American-made
piano. Dealers are enthusiastic about the remark-
able combination of quality and attractive prices in
this line. The trade is invited to send for latest
Stodart literature and details. Address Stodart Piano
Co., Cypress avenue and Southern boulevard, New
York.
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/

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