Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1925 2011

February 7, 1925.
PRESTO
PROBLEMS OF THE
SUBURBAN DEALER
They Are Similar to Those of Music Merchant
in Outlying Districts of Big City and
Differ from Those of Country
Dealer.
PUBLICITY WAYS FEW
every dealer
knew what
successful
SEEBURG
dealers know
about conduct-
ing and oper-
ating auto-
matic piano
businesses,
every dealer
would be en-
gaged in the
business!
J. P. SEEBURG
PIANO CO.
CHICAGO
"Leaders in the
Automatic Line"
General Offices: 1510 Dayton St.
Factory 1508-16 Dayton St.
Local Weeklies Not Much Use So Business Is
Achieved Mostly by Personal Solicita-
tion.
The music merchant in the big city and his brother
in the country town have each their problems but
they are different from those of the dealer in the out-
lying districts or suburbs of the big city. In fact,
the conditions surrounding all three make them like
three separate trades as far as methods are con-
cerned. But the difficulties of the first two are com-
paratively easy compared with those of the last men-
tioned.
The neighborhood dealer has his publicity troubles
and they are mostly in the scarcity of advertising
media. He is in competition with the dealers within
the city and in a measure with the dealers in the
live country towns nearest to his own suburban field.
The suburban papers are mostly social and church
registers and conveyors of realtor's opportunities.
Any attempt to direct attention to a piano, for in-
stance, is rendered abortive by the inducements of
the city dealers in the big dailies. And another of
his complaints is that piano manufacturers, usually
generous to the city and the country town merchant,
have developed no co-operative means to suit his
particular requirements.
Business Big in Aggregate.
The music business of the suburban merchant
may seem small to the person taking a hasty glance
at the situation but the keen men in some of the
wholesale and jobbing houses in the musical mer-
chandise trade hold a different opinion. A vast
amount of musical instruments and accessories is
handled by the dealers in the outskirts of big cities.
The number of legitimate dealers within a radius of
the city limits of the important cities would amaze
the analysts of the music trade. The number of
stores within the fifty mile radius of Chicago, for in-
stance, exceeds that of all the rest of the state. And
drug stores carrying counter cases and sheet music
racks are not included in the count.
His Publicity Problem.
As far as publicity is concerned the dealer of that
class must necessarily be a law unto himself. And
to apply the law he must have brains, horse sense
and initiative. Prohibitive rates cut him off the use
of the big city's dailies. Advertising in the suburban
tea table weekly is usually futile and when he uses
the big city dailies it is always to advertise used
piano bargains. For printed aids his mainstay is the
handbill but this fails of its object when too often re-
peated. He can use the mails but this is expensive
when done continuously.
When everything is said and done the dealer in
the outlying districts of the big city must rely on a
few aids for interesting the music goods buyer. The
window display is a reliable and cheap way to tell
his story. His store necessarily being in a business
center of a residential section, it is available to local
shoppers and the women of the families who are the
people the suburban music dealer is after, pass in
front of his windows several times every week, in
doing their household shopping.
Doorbell Ringing.
Then there is the old reliable activity of doorbell
ringing. And in presenting his card the local dealer
begins with the advantage of "belonging." The local
dealer is the taxpayer and the more of his kind there
are to share the burden the better for all. In the
outlying districts or the suburbs, the householders
are more ready to listen to the opening spiel of the
doorbell ringers than those of the city.
Of course the dealer of that kind has not provided
his first aid to prospect-finding until he has made a
thorough canvass of his field and made a proper cen-
sus. -The bright active dealers who have made a suc-
cess of outside stores have made census compiling a
part of the first thorough chase for prospects. Tak-
ing census is not as easy as it sounds. The people
as a rule resent blunt questioning and diplomatic
treatment is a requirement. The manner of the cen-
sus takers should not offend anybody. Every family
is a possible prospect for a piano or some article of
music goods.
A General Store.
The handling of small goods has become an impor-
tant thing in the stores on the outskirts of the big
cities and now radio is adding to the attractive force
of the stores. As a rule small goods and sheet music
have been sold in connection with pianos and talking
machines. In every branch of the business he has
the advantage of not carrying a large stock. In fact
his stock may be little more than a line of samples
and still he may do a good business. Supplies are
always available in the nearby big centers. A great
number of the music dealers in this category are
tuners and in building up a clientele for a tuning
business they also increase a music goods business.
The sane man who makes a start in the outlying
district or the suburb never is tempted to increase his
overhead by making a show, such as taking a larger
store than required or one in a more expensive build-
ing in order to impress the neighbors. As a rule, the
trade built up is of the friendly kind and the cus-
tomers consider the goods and the man rather than
the showiness of the store.
DIVIDEND OF 20%
ON GULBRANSEN STOCK
Directors at Annual Meeting Also Declare
Two Per Cent on Common Stock and
Re-elect All Officers.
At the annual meeting of the Gulbransen Co., Chi-
cago, last week. A. G. Gulbransen was re-elected
president and treasurer. C. Gulbransen was also re-
elected vice-president, and Edward B. Healy, secre-
tary.
The following comprise the board of directors also
named at the meeting: A. G. Gulbransen, G. Gul-
bransen, Edward B. Healy, L. W. Peterson, A. H.
Boettcher, George McDermott and C. H. Berggren.
The directors declared' a stock dividend of 20%
and a cash dividend of 2% on outstanding common
stock.
There are probably few concerns the size of the
Gulbransen Company—a $5,000,000 corporation—that
have been built up within themselves as has this
Company. A restricted group of stockholders are
on the books, most of them having been with the
company practically since its inception. These men
have grown with the company, investing compara-
tively small amounts and seeing their holdings in-
crease in value year after year, out of the earnings.
There has been no stock manipulation in the Gul-
bransen Company, no "schemes" whereby any indi-
viduals or organizations have put in large sums and
thus earned any undue advantages for themselves.
All the stockholders have grown with the Company,
prospering as it has prospered out of its own
earnings.
This 20% stock dividend and the 50% stock divi-
dend declared last year give some idea of how the
men who have stock in the Gulbransen company
have seen their holdings pyramid year after year
until their initial investment became a very small
item.
The bulk of Gulbransen stock is held by officers,
department heads and other employes of the com-
pany, and the financial returns on their stock in-
vestment have been a factor in keeping them ever-
lasting "on their toes" and mindful of the best in-
terests and progress of their company.
No other piano manufacturing institution has any
stock interest in the Gulbransen company, there are
no subsidiary companies and all instruments pro-
duced bear the one name, "Gulbransen."
DALLAS ASSOCIATION MEETS.
The first luncheon for 1925 of the Dallas Music
Industries Association was made the occasion of the
annual election of officers when the following were
chosen: President, William Howard Beasley, of the
D. L. Whittle Music Co.; vice-president, W. H. Hum-
phries of the Brunswick, Balke-Collender district
office, and Jules H. Corder of Sanger Bros., secre-
tary-treasurer. The directors for the ensuing year
are:
Paul E.. Burling, Robert N. Watkin, C. L.
Mahaney, J. J. Clegg and E. G. Council. Interesting
plans for the coming year were discussed and a ten-
tative program laid out.
BOSTON STORE ADDS MUSIC.
A varied line of musical instruments has just been
added to the stock of the phonograph department of
The Shepard Stores, Winter street, Boston, Mass.
At present it ranges from harmonicas to excellent
violins, and will be added to from time to time. In
between are to be found ukuleles, banjos, mandolins
and other instruments. The store stands ready to
take care of all customers in the matter of service,
and will order any instrument not in stock, for a
patron.
Cortese Bros, owns the Central Musical Bureau,
with offices at the O. K. Houck Piano Co., Mem-
phis, Tenn.
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
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
• Editors
Telephcnes, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com*
merclal Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Knterpd 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, 94.
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 nocn.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1925.
DEALERS LEARN TUNING
As this paper has repeated many times, an
essential part of the education of a well-
equipped piano dealer is the ability to tune the
instrument. In many places—even some of
the cities of considerable size—it is almost
impossible for the store to secure prompt and
capable tuning service. The instruments on
the floor should always be in good condition
or they can not be fit to offer for sale.
Some ambitious piano dealers are good
tuners, whether they practice it much or not.
Others exact that some, if not all, of their
salesmen have enough understanding of tun-
ing to smooth up the instrument after deliv-
ery—or before sale. Following is a commu-
nication from a dealer of that kind, followed
by a newspaper clipping, in which we believe
there is an example and a lesson:
Galesburg, 111., Feb. 2, 1925.
Editor Presto: You see we patronize your advertis-
ers.
The tuning proposition got so acute that it was up to
one of us to learn how. Personally, I think every sales-
man should know at least how to regulate an action
and repair a player.
We tried seven different tuners. None of them knew
players; some of them were bums, others crooked, so
we were obliged to take this course. Mrs. Francis is
doing finely and will graduate March 16, and we are
going to celebrate the event by holding a big sale. I
spent a week at Valparaiso, and think the head instruc-
tor, Mr. Shope, knows his "stuff."
Very sincerely yours,
E. A. FRANCIS.
The clipping referred to is from a Galesburg
paper and reads as follows :
Mrs. E. A. Francis, while in Indiana, is perfecting
herself in the art of tuning pianos, and is attending a
school that makes instruction in this its principal busi-
ness. When she returns, it is understood that she will
be prepared to do this, and in that case will be the only
woman piano tuner in this section.
It would not be possible for the Francis
piano house to present a better argument for
the consideration of prospective Galesburg
piano buyers. The fact that the house appre-
ciates the responsibility of knowing how to
put the instruments in tune, and keep them so,
is an assurance that the management is ca-
pable of keeping the piano in order after it is
sold and in the buyer's home.
A CRAWFORD EDITORIAL
There are few, except among the very
youngest recruits in the piano trade and in-
dustry, who do not know Mr. Henry W. Craw-
ford, long prominent as head of the old Smith
& Nixon Piano Co., of Cincinnati. Mr. Craw-
ford has not been active during the past four
years because of severe illness. But his mind
is as vigorous as ever, and Presto takes the
liberty to make use here of a private letter,
by the former very energetic piano manufac-
turer and salesman. The letter, from which
the following is taken, was written three years
ago and is the more interesting and valuable
because it was addressed by Mr. Crawford to
his son at Harvard college:
Fame and fortune are the ambitions of life, but not
its object. So prepare that you may be dependable and
do well that which you undertake to do.
Lack of thoroughness is the great defect of the human
race. Superficiality is the father of ignorance. Ignor-
ance is the father of fear. Fear makes slaves of men
and makes despotism possible. Aim to render such
service as to make the community happier and better
because you have lived in it. In the language of Lin-
coln's mother, "Be honest and be kind." "Know thyself"
and then you will know God."
Worry not, nor concern yourself about going to
heaven, or about the heaven after death. Concern
yourself with helping to make this place, here on earth,
a heaven and a decent place in which to live, both for
yourself and for others.
We are inclined to think that the letter,
from a piano man who has put a lifetime of
energy into the business, and who for years
was a dominating character in the industry,
is good enough to cause other piano men a
sense of pride. It is an admonitory address
of a kind to be of great value to any young
man about to start out in the world, whether
in the piano business or any other. And in
its eloquence we believe that it has so few
equals that we are glad to adopt it as an
editorial.
February 7, 1925.
is a lesson in that for many piano merchants
whose roll department is left to "run itself,"
whereas with competent management it might
be made one of the most profitable.
* * *
There is a demand for good retail salesmen
and managers. Presto has published adver-
tisements proving this demand, and several
competent men have found locations in this
way within two weeks past. It is a sign of
the revival which never permits the piano
business to become really "dull."
* * *
At last the American Piano Co. has clinched
its sole right, without challenge or question, to
the great and, at one time vigorously dis-
puted, names of Chickering and Knabe. And
the American Piano Co. has achieved its great
assets honorably and conclusively.
* * *
Since the merger of two prominent piano
industries of Boston and Chicago, the name of
"Continental" seems to have become a favor-
ite in the music and allied industries. The
latest is a radio and music enterprise in Chi-
cago capitalized at $100,000.
* * *
It is a satisfaction to know that Mr. Albert
T. Strauch did not mean to desert the piano
business when he sold his interest in the old
action industry founded by his father. The
Strauch Piano Co. of New York City proves it.
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
(January 7, 1895.)
Several very important items of "news" which ap-
peared in our esteemed trade contemporaries last
week arc this week only important because untrue.
That's trade journalism as some see it.
This mysterious item appeared in the women's
edition of the Burlington "Hawkeye": "The Baptist
Baking Powder has exploded and killed 15,000 Chi-
nese, and Lang & Minton's Pianoforte is taken by
the japs." .
At the next trade dinner let someone propose that
a picnic be substituted for the sweltering indoor en-
tertainment when the summer comes. This seems a
suitable suggestion with the mercury below zero.
The steel frame is nearly up for the six-story fac-
tory of Geo. P. Bent, corner Washington boulevard
and Sangamon streets. It will be of pressed brick
and have a frontage on the boulevard of J26 feet, and
on Sangamon street of 182 feet.
It has always bee nthe aim of The Presto to create
a demand for the paper itself and to make the sub-
scription list an important source of revenue. The
axiom that what we get for nothing we value ac-
cordingly applies directly to the trade paper.
Two Boston inventors have secured a patent for a
process of making glass veneers which have many
peculiar properties. Glass piano cases would not be
quite an innovation, but as yet they have never been
found practicable.
We have had several requests and at least
two orders for Mr. Geo. P. Bent's "Tales of
Travel, Life and Love." One correspondent
asks : "Can the book be bought, and at what
price?" We don't know and in this way refer
it to Mr. Bent. Is the book to be had, and if
so on what terms—installment, easy payments
or otherwise? (P. S.—After the foregoing
had gone into type, Mr. Bent arrived from
Los Angeles and told us that any friends may
receive copy of his book by addressing him at
the Illinois Athletic Club, Chicago. The book
is not for sale.)
* * *
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
With the start of a new year, the matter
of a change in the time for annual summing
(From Presto February 9, 1905.)
up from the old calendar year to the fiscal
At the county clerk's office in Herkimer, N. Y.,
year plan, as proposed by Mr. Arthur Frie- last week was filed the certificate of incorporation of
stedt, is again arousing interest. Many news- Julius Breckwoldt & Co., of Dolgeville.
Hobart M. Cable, president of the Hobart M. Cable
papers and magazines are again discussing the Co., returned on Monday morning from a pleasant
plan, and it is understood that a number of trip to his old home in Walton, N. Y.
A new piano will be known as the "Carr & Payson
important industries, and other commercial Barless
Vertiparallel." That seems like a pretty
houses have adopted the more logical summer 'large name for the new piano, but it will in time be
period in which to make yearly readjustments. abbreviated to the "Vertiparallel."
A story in this issue tells of the enthusiasm
of a young lady in charge of the player roll
department of a retail store, who thinks little
of selling "$25 or $30 worth of rolls to a cus-
tomer," but is a little proud of selling $80
worth to one customer at one time." There
There is no end to advertising novelties and there
are piano industries sufficiently, enterprising to prove
it. The latest are the hand-painted water-color en-
velopes sent out by the Price & Teeple Piano Co.
Thomas F. Delaney, one of the stockholders in
Lyon & Healy's and head of their retail sheet music
department; Andrew J. Keefe,
another stockholder,
and Lyon & Healy traveling 1 salesman; A. G. Cram-
blitt and Jack Coffin, of the Aeolian Co., New York,
are among the northerners on trip with the Mexican
Tourists' Association.
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).
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