Presto

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
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
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
application.
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen
in the smaller cities are the best occasional corre-
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1295.
THE ACHING TOOTH
serve the interests of the manufacturers, as
well as their own, by seeing to it that the in-
struments are not "silent" for need of the
expert attention which only a good tuner can
be expected to give them? Here is the nib
of the thought.
Several plans for keeping the player mech-
anisms in condition have been presented.
Few of them seem to have met with dealers'
approval to any large extent. Some plan that
all dealers will adopt is needed.
The better way would be for the national
associations, and the local associations also,
to take hold of the matter earnestly and fix
upon some plan by which the player rolls
would become more profitable, and through
the music roll, the sale of playerpianos be
greatly increased. See Mr. Thomas Pletch-
er's letters to the trade, and see also the Q R S
advs. on this subject. And, whether by plans
of the associations or by proper enterprise
by the local dealers as individuals,' it will pay
to keep the players in playing condition. This
would be true if only because of the enhanced
demand for new music rolls. It is doubly
true because of the increased love of, and re-
spect for, the players themselves.
Keep faith with your customers. Don't sell
a player to a prospect who has faith that the
instrument will "wear a lifetime" and yet
doesn't understand the need of care, or even
how to get relief when the tooth aches. Help
the entire industry and trade by helping your-
self.
January 24, 1925.
ticulars, and much less is it inspiring to youth
and innocence to sing the praises of genius
in jail for alleged robbery.
Some of the world's greatest newspapers,
notably the New York Times, featured an
address by Mr. A. G. Gulbransen on the His-
tory of the Piano. It was the now famous
speech in which Mr. Gulbransen concluded
with the statement that "roll-playing upright
pianos represent more than half the total
piano production in the United States."
* * *
There are still confiding souls in business
who do not hesitate to sign contracts, even
notes and checks, in blank, trusting some one
else to "fill in" the terms and amounts. Con-
fidence of that kind often leads to trouble for
a succession of innocent, if less confiding,
business men.
* * *
The recently deceased "tin plate king,"
Daniel G. Reid, who left an estate estimated
at $40,000,000, began his money-getting career
as a bank teller. A part of his profits came
from discounting, or "shaving," piano pap€r
in his home town of Richmond, Indiana.
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
(January 24, 1895.)
In years gone by it was customary for the
. The Presto acknowledges receipt of a beautifully
trade papers to present extended, and often
printed invitation to the "Twelfth Anniversary and
eloquent, reviews of everything the industry
Reception tendered to Mr. C. G. Conn by his employees,
Tuesday evening, Jan. 29, 1895, Bucklen's Opera House,
and trade had done during the year deceased,
GENIUS IN JAIL
Elkhart, Ind."
with fanciful forecasts of the still greater
The first Singer piano came from the factory this
For weeks past the newspapers have been
things to be done in the year just born. But publishing praises of the remarkable pianism week and is now—or was yesterday—on exhibition at
Steger & Co.'s warcrooms. The Singer Piano Co. is
all that is over, and something more practical of a gentleman in jail. The radio fans have a distinct corporation, and Steger & Co. are the sole
distributors
of the instruments.
is today regarded as better. And there is one grown excited over the music that has been
In one of the wards of a New Haven hospital lies
thought which must have weight with every "put on the air" at the Missouri State Prison the original inventor of the octave coupler on pianos,
man in the music business who likes to plan at Jefferson. And finally the dispatches an- Dr. Geo. W. Sterns. Dr. Sterns is a paralytic and has
been an inmate of the New Haven hospital for more
with profit and general good to his business nounced that the great "radio pianist" had been than two years.
Boston pianomakers are preparing to dine together
in view.
released, and that he would make a tour of about
March 1st. At a recent meeting a committee,
The thought just now has to do with the the country or, in some other public way, composed of Messrs. George Chickering, Edward P.
Mason, Handel Pond, Colonel Moore, John N. Merrill
player roll as trade influence in the music busi- would still further demonstrate one phase of and
Willard Vose, was appointed to make all necessary
ness generally. It has seemingly been con- his versatility. Of course, fine piano playing arrangements.
music trade club is proposed with the business end
sidered by the average music dealer that when is always interesting. Possibly the fact that in A New
York. That is proper. In "Music Trades," Mr.
a player piano is sold that is the end of it. He it is "put on the air" adds to the interest of John C. Freund sets forth some valuable plans for the
club, even as to the arrangement of a suitable menu
is not much concerned about it until some some lovers of music. But just why Mr. new
for special occasions. He suggests that the comfort of
prospect comes along and perhaps intimates Snodgrass, alleged robber serving a term in club members be conserved by providing for each some
special dish for which he is known to have a penchant.
that he is not sure that the instrument sold prison, should be heralded with the character For
example he suggests "Chicago Tea" for P. J. Healy;
by that particular dealer is altogether reliable of his criminality affixed to his name, after "Pork and Beans" for Jno. C. Haynes; baseball cro-
for P. H. Powers; mush and milk for W. W.
because it "doesn't work as it should." Here's the manner of an intellectual distinction, or quettes
Kimball; a barrel of pilsner for Geo. Nembach; appol-
the aching tooth in the jaw of the piano trade hero of combat, is not so easy to understand. linaris for "Dan" Treacy; cigarettes for Wm. Decker;
the picture of a black cigar for Congressman Conn;
in many localities. And what about it for
From the beginning of time there have been gum drops and candy for F. G. Smith, and other deli-
the new year?
intellectual renegades and phenomenal social cacies for the rest of the party.
He must be a very dense music dealer who outcasts. Some of them have been of so great
doesn't realize that the player music roll is one genius as in their saner moments to have done
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
of the livest things associated with the business things of a kind to lend to them the mantle
when properly looked after. And no dealer who of historic immortality. But usually it is not
sells player pianos can properly look after his deemed a good plan to affix the jail number
(From Presto January 26, 1905.)
roll business unless he also takes particular until after the phenomenal prisoner has had
At the annual dinner of the Steinway Hall force
care to look after his playerpiano business time to prove his genius under more ennobling last Saturday night, Mr. Chas. H. Steinway, president
of Steinway & Sons, announced that Mr. Chas. F. Tret-
after the instruments have been sold and de- conditions.
bar would soon sever his connection with Steinway in-
terests and retire to private life in Germany.
livered. Unless the instruments are in good
Genius is usually supposed to be erratic. But
R. C. Kammerer, of Geo. Steck & Co., and one of
playing, or working condition, the need of, that is not a good reason for getting excited the most popular members of the trade, will hereafter
new music rolls will not be lively. If the over its possessor to such an extent that his be found at Aeolian Hall, the new home of the Steck
piano. Mr. Kammerer will be associated with R. W.
playerpianos are looked after, the sale of incarceration is headlined and made one of the Lawrence in the management of the retail piano de-
music rolls is certain to be one of the most chief points in his notable career. Better to partment.
"We are getting along splendidly," said President F.
profitable parts of the dealer's business. And keep in the background the fact of Mr. Snod- S. Cable Friday. "Our new factory at South Haven is
no dealer who reads the literature and adver- grass' having demonstrated his abilities while practically completed but we will take our time to move
as our lease here does not expire right away. We will
tisements of such an industry as the Q R S in jail, and permit his wings to sprout and probably be cutting up lumber by the middle of next
Music Co., for instance, need be told this, for spread in the flights of his penitent freedom. month at the new factory."
If anything more were needed to prove the great
he knows it.
It may be true that Rossini wrote his greatest development of the piano player industry it would be
found in the announcement of the Autopiano Company
Now, how many retail piano dealers look opera under duress, and that Beethoven kicked of
New York, which has just been incorporated with
$100,000
capital. This is the player already made con-
after the playerpianos after they are in the his cook to ease off his fits of inspiration. But
spicuous by Kohler & Campbell. The Autopiano is
homes of their purchasers? How many con- it is hardly worth while wasting time on par- destined to play a large part in the trade.
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