Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1925 2018

PRESTO
ALEXANDER STEINERT, JR.,
IN SERIES OF CONCERTS
Gifted Young Pianist, Son of Boston Piano
Manufacturer, Comes from Paris to Make
His Debut with Symphony Orchestra.
Alexander Steinert, Jr., came over from Paris re-
cently, where he has been residing for the past year
or more, to play with the Boston Symphony Orches-
tra at its concerts in Boston, New York and Brook-
lyn. The first of this series of five concerts, at
Symphony Hall, Boston, this week, Friday afternoon
and Saturday evening.
The work is "Prometheus, a Poem of Fire," for or-
chestra and piano, with organ and chorus, by the
Russian composer, Scriabin. The chorus will be sung
by the Cecilia Society of Boston. The next appear-
ance will be at Carnegie Hall, New York, April 9;
then at Brooklyn, for a matinee, and again at Car-
negie HalJ the evening of April 10.
Alexander Steinert, Sr., who has been in Florida
for several weeks, returned to Boston Thursday after-
noon of this week to be present at this great event of
his young and talented son. A little later on young
Steinert will return to Paris to continue his studies
in piano and orchestral composition. The Steinway
is the piano to be used at these concerts.
JACOB BECKER DIED
AFTER BRIEF ILLNESS
Head of the Long Established New York In-
dustry, Cause of Deep Regret in
Wide Circle.
Jacob H. Becker, head and founder of the piano
industry of Becker Bros., Fifty-second street and
Tenth avenue, New York, died on Tuesday evening
of this week. Mr. Becker was seemingly in good
health until two weeks ago, at which time he was
taken ill. On the day of his death he had held con-
versation by phone with his office.
Jacob Becker was a thorough piano maker. He
understood every branch of the industry, and he was
an earnest, conscientious business man, who had built
up a profitable industry by the force of his own will
and character. The factory of Becker Bros., at Tenth
avenue and Fifty-second street, New York, is a large
one and its products are of the kind that win respect
and hold trade.
Mr. Becker was in the fifty-eighth year of his age.
TRADE HAPPENINGS
RELATED IN BRIEF
Views and Beliefs of Live Piano Merchants Are
Presented.
The B. & B. Music Shop, Palatka, Fla., has been
formed by G. D. Bogue and L. R. Bigewet.
Cohen Bros., Jacksonville, Fla., has removed its
Victrola and radio departments to a store on Duval
street.
Virgil Lewis has succeeded Ralph Hervey as man-
ager of the Adams Music Co., Canton, 111.
A charter has been granted to the Decatur Music
Shop, Decatur, 111., which will operate with a capital
of $1,000.
C. W. Strawn has been appointed manager of the
Duo-Art reproducing and playerpiano departments of
the Lyon & Healy, Inc., Chicago, 111.
Gunkler's Music Shop, Oak Park, 111., has been
opened by H. C. Gunkler at Lake and Marion street.
The E. E. Forbes Piano Co., Birmingham, Ala., re-
cently made Maurice D. Manning general manager of
the store.
The Kerr Music Co., 27 South Central avenue,
Phoenix, Ariz., formally opened its new warerooms
recently.
BALDWIN FOR SCHOOL.
The Baldwin Piano Co., Cincinnati, is particularly
proud of the selection of the Baldwin piano as the
official instrument of the well-known Bradbury
School of Music in Duluth, Minn., which was estab-
lished in 1900, and is both the oldest and largest
school of music in northern Minnesota. The Brad-
bury School employs twenty-five instructors and
every branch of musical learning is included in the
curriculum. Each year a Baldwin-made grand is pre-
sented as a prize to the student in the piano depart-
ment who makes the greatest progress during the
school year.
FEATURE GRANDS IN MILWAUKEE.
Grand pianos of the Baldwin line are being featured
in an effective way by the Wm. A. Kaun Music Co.,
Milwaukee, and excellent results are pointed out by
Ralph L. Pettit, manager. "Our business continues
to run mostly to grands and reproducing grands,"
said Mr. Pettit this week. Two large Baldwin con-
cert grands were selected for the studio of WHAD,
the Marquette University-Milwaukee Journal broad-
casting station, and they were recently used in an
evening's program from this station.
IMPROVES HARTFORD STORE.
McCoys, Inc , Hartford, Conn., is stimulating busi-
ness by strong advertising in the newspapers. The
company recently purchased from Silver Bros, the
building at 87-91 Asylum street, and since taking pos-
session of this building the music store management
has made a number of improvements, including the
installation of a new front, a battery of elevators, and
a new fire protection system. The structure is four
stories high, has a frontage of 30 feet on Asylum
street and a depth of 101 feet.
PORTLAND PREPARES FOR ELKS.
Plans are already being made in Portland, Ore.,
for the national convention of the Elks, which is set
for July 13 to 18, inclusive, at which time, it has been
announced, between sixty and seventy bands will be
in the city. W. A. McDougall, of the McDougall-
Conn Music Co., and the leader of the Portland Elks'
band, has its store in the new million-dollar Elks
building, which will be the headquarters of all of the
visiting bandsmen while in the city.
March 28, 1925.
WHAT IS HAPPENING
IN INDIANAPOLIS
Indiana's State Capital Affords Some Interest-
ing Items of General Concern and Suggest-
ing Trade Improvement.
The Wilking Music Company, local representatives
of the Jesse French & Sons pianos, reports some good
sales in the style G grand, the style A upright, and
new style H. H. Business in this line has been good,
and the Melville Clark special school piano has also
enjoyed a very good business. The company reports
the sale of eight of these special school pianos to the
public schools recently.
Rapp & Lennox are doing some spring house clean-
ing. A special sale of second-hands has been very
successful, and outlook for business is promising.
The Pearson Piano Company is planning an elab-
orate display at the Home Complete Exposition to be
held at the State Fair Grounds the first part of April.
Curtis S. Miller, of the Schaff Bros. Piano Company,
Huntington, Indiana, was a recent visitor.
The Christena Teague Company is also busy mak-
ing preparations for a display at the Home Complete
Exposition. Mr. Christene says: "Unless we have
a few quiet weeks occasionally we don't appreciate
the good ones." Frank Edgar, sales manager of the
Aeolian Company, was a recent visitor.
The Fuller Ryde Music Company, representatives
of the Conn band instruments at Indianapolis, is dis-
playing the line in a novel manner. The window is
arranged with an arch in the background, and a scenic
effect, while embedded in triple silk plush are several
of the popular instruments. The arrangement of the
instruments could not be improved. The company
report business very good and, since they have taken
on the famous Conn line, they have derived much
benefit from its national reputation.
The new Baldwin building is described elsewhere in
this issue of Presto.
WAR AGAINST HOUSE SALES.
The Better Business Bureau is continuing its cam-
paign against dealers advertising furniture at private
houses in St. Louis. Several dealers are to be pro-
ceeded against as a result of the Bureau's vigilance.
Karl Bensinger, 1129A Walton avenue, was let off by
Judge Matthews with the payment of costs recently
when he claimed that he did not know he was violat-
ing the law.
C. N. KIMBALL LEAVES FOR FLORIDA.
C. N. Kimball, president of the W. W. Kimball
Co., Chicago, departed this week for the sunny cli-
mate of Florida, where he will spend the remaining
days of March and the month of April. While in the
famous winter resort state Mr. Kimball will visit old
friends in the trade and will not overlook one of his
favorite pastimes—golfing.
Q R S WINDOW SHOWS.
Windows featuring Q R S music rolls are frequent
sights that make the stores of San Francisco attrac-
tive. Out of compliment to the Q R S Girl, Sherman,
Clay & Co. recently had a "Girl" window, showing
Q R S rolls and the sheet music of the numbers re-
produced by the Q R S Music Co. To carry out the
motif the sheet music shown had girls on the title
pages, one being Sherman, Clay & Co.'s song success,
"That's My Girl."
OPENS PROGRAM WITH ROLL.
A special Q R S music roll was recently used to
open and close the programs sent out from the local
School of Engineering broadcasting station WSOE,
Milwaukee. Officials of the station have adopted
"The Land of the Sky Blue Waters," and through
arrangement with the Q R S Music Co. a special roll
of this selection, suitable for use at the beginning and
end of the programs, was made.
THE BOWEN LOADER
makes of the Ford Roadster the Ideal piano truck,—most Convenient, most Economical and most Efficient.—Goes anywhere, over any
kind of roads, and distance makes no difference.
It will greatly assist any energetic Salesman, City or Country, but is indispensable for successful country work.
It's the best outfit for making collections and repossessions.
Our latest model is fool-proof and indestructible, and the price has been reduced to $95.00 including an extra good water-proof
moving cover. Satisfaction guaranteed or money refunded.
BOWEN PIANO LOADER CO.,
Winston-Salem, N. C.
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/
March 28, 1925.
PRESTO
Recognition
Precedes
Success
OLD TRADE FEUD
HAPPILY ENDED
Peace Follows When One Party to a Life-
Long Dealers' Scrap Becomes Humanized
in His Attitude Towards a Bitter
Contender.
AN ASSOCIATION RESULT
Two on the Mourners' Bench at Luncheon-Meeting
Was Edifying Sight for All Members and
Visitors.
SEEBURG
DEALERS
HAVE DISCOVERED
THE KEY TO
POSITIVE.
PROFITS
There are many styles
in the
COMPLETE
SEEBURG LINE
to interest you
RELIABLE REPRE-
SENTATION INVITED
WRITE
J. P. SEEBURG
PIANO CO.
"Leaders in the
Automatic Field"
1508-1514 Dayton St.
CHICAGO
This is a story of magnanimity which Matt Ken-
nedy might use as material for propaganda for the
new membership drive of the National Association
of Music Merchants. It is suitable for that purpose
because that noble emotion possessed a dealer who
saw the light after almost a lifetime of hate, scorn,
loathing and abomination in feeling and verbal exe-
cration for a competitor. His humanization followed
and was the plain result of joining a local music
trade association.
The story is well told by a traveler who is familiar
with all the persons and circumstances involved. It
had a beginning away back in what you might call
the medieval period of the piano business; when the
commission fiend was a real personage of either sex
and of various conditions of servitude to the god
Mammon; when the stencil piano occupied the same
position in commerce that bootleg booze does today;
when ethics were sought to be enforced by associa-
tion by-laws instead of being left to horsesense to
suggest the wisdom of their practice; when—but the
conditions stated are enough to suggest the time to
any piano man old enough to have voted for gold
or silver in the memorable Bryan-McKinley contest
for the presidency.
Recalling the Start.
Two dealers were neighborly enough until a mis-
understanding occurred which grew to the dimensions
of a quarrel. Only garbled tradition accounts for the
causes of the fight but every piano traveler calling to
that particular town was always made aware of the
belligerency of the party of the first part whom we
will call the "dealer" and the party of the second part
called the "competitor" for purposes of distinction.
Anyway the dealer began to allude to the pianos of
the competitor as false alarms and worse; mere cre-
ators of din, uproar, clangor, racket, blare and hulla-
baloo. The competitor retorted in kind and frankly
announced that the so-called pianos of the dealer
were agonizing, torturing and harassing in sound
with an odoriferous pungency that made the skunk
smell like attar of roses or words' to that effect.
From piano repartee they passed in time to personali-
ties. The quarrel grew and endured. It became an
institution in that town like the octagonal tower on
the railroad depot or the iron dog in the lawn of the
dealer.
And T h e n -
Some months ago the competitor was one of an
ardent group, of music goods dealers who established
a local trade association. The membership is small
but the benefits to each are large. They meet twice
a month and eat lunch together and grow more
human at every meeting. The dealer, however,
stayed on the outside scowling in. That is, he re-
mained so until recently. But that's anticipating.
The dealer has been representative of a certain fine
piano in his town for a great number of years and
on every occasion of a recital by a certain great artist
who plays that particular piano he has provided a
new instrument out of stock for the occasion. The
great pianist's playing advertises the instrument of
course and he knows it. Anyway it is well known
that he is insistent on getting a piano tuned to a
nicety. He knows what's what and gives everybody
a temperamental bawling out if the piano doesn't
sound just so.
Things Begin to Happen.
The great artist was scheduled for a recital in the
town recently and according to custom the dealer
sent a concert grand of the make desired to the opera
house. He also directed his tuner to give a going
over to the instrument when it had reached the stage.
And here is where the plot thickens and the first in-
cident of the thrilling climax happens. The tuner,
equipped with his bag of tools and distorted in form
by a strange bump or protuberance in the region of
his right hip, set out to the opera house. Here we
will change reels to switch the scene to the home of
the dealer, who is discovered calmly eating supper.
The Jolt.
No student of psychodynamics has explained the
phenomena of the subconscious mind. But every
day people are given the evidence of its workings.
The dealer, calmly masticating the supper meat was
talking over with his family plans for a new garage,
with mind fully intent on that purpose. Then he was
jolted by a horrible possibility presented by his sub-
conscious mind. Nothing in the garage topic sug-
gested the tuner, at that moment supposedly getting
the concert grand into shape for the great artist who
was to play it in a couple of hours. But the sub-
conscious thought was vivid and insistent. And
strange to say the thought of the tuner which ramped
as you might say, into the subconscious section of
the dealer's mind was synchronal with an odor of fur-
niture polish or linament or something with an alco-
holic basis. Naturally it was followed by the memory
that the tuner was at one time known as a firm
individual who "could take it or leave it alone,"
but who frequently chose the former.
The Horrible Truth.
Swallowing the half masticated mouthful of meat
the dealer grabbed his hat and rushed frantically
from the house. Jumping into the faithful flivver
he made new speed records in getting to the opera
house. There he realized his worst expectation. The
suggestion of his subconscious mind was verified.
The tuner was drunk. The jag was not a disguised,
well-carried illumination but a condition of souse
technically known as putrid. Quarrelsome, too. The
despairing dealer rushed to the telephone to seek
tuning aid to avert a catastrophe when the time of
the concert arrived.
But the search seemed vain. He knew all four
tuners in town and failed to make connection with
any of them. Three were away in the country on
assignments and one was in the hospital with a
broken leg. The thing was maddening and he was
relieving his feelings by telling about it over the
'phone to another dealer with whom he was friendly.
More Subconscious Stuff.
The friend sympathized with him but was power-
less to give help in the predicament. He didn't know
a thing about tuning, and shook his head sadly when
the dealer hung up. He resumed reading the history
of the Great War and was keeping close to the U. S.
Marines chasing the Jerries through Belleau Wood
when—"ring-a-ding-ring-a-ding" went the bell in his
subconscious mind. Dropping the war history he
asked aloud:
"Wasn't Mr.
(meaning the competitor) a
swell piano tuner in the old days before he quit work-
ing and began to take life easy selling pianos?"
"How should I know anything about your old
days?" said his wife who is in the early twenties, and
to whom any event previous to 1910 is archaic.
But the friend of the harassed dealer didn't hear
a word she said. He was at the telephone trying to
locate the competitor who was a past master in the
art of tuning pianos. He wasn't at his home or his
store nor at two other places tried but at last he
located him at a garage just as he was about to try
a new car.
Mr. Competitor was told the painful circumstances
and the plight of his old contender brought no joy
to his mind. There was a time, he felt, when the tor-
tures of the dealer would cause him to laugh out
loud in raucous mirth. But now he felt the righteous
glow of a trade association member.
Saved!
"Wait, Bill, until I pick up a few tools and we'll
go over to the opera house and get that hard-boiled
old sinner out of hell," he called back.
"Lafayette, we are here!" said the competitor in a
joyous and friendly way, as with the mutual friend
he came onto the stage. "Bill has told me about the
awful situation."
"Awful is right, but gee, this is providential," said
the beaming dealer. "I couldn't even dream of you
as a forlorn hope, although I recalled what a peach
of a tuner you were—"
"Yes, in a previous existence before you and I
began acting like two damn fools," the competitor
finished. "Here, let's shake before I start in to make
a passable piano out of 'this loud-smelling old thump-
box,' " he added, quoting humorously from his old
wartime description. They shook.
FEATURES STORY & £LARK PLAYER.
The Arthur P. Griggs Piano Company, 1413 Sixth
avenue, Moline, 111., is doing very forceful advertis-
ing for the playerpiano of Story & Clark, Chicago.
In a special display for the instrument this week, this
is said: "This beautiful little Story & Clark player,
1925 model, called the baby bungalow, finished in
brown mahogany, including all the new Story &
Clark features. The manufacturers of this piano
were established in 1857. Their standing is unques-
tionable, having a capital and surplus of over $4,000,-
000. Only the highest quality of workmanship and
material has been employed in the manufacture of
this player. Guaranteed by the manufacturer and
Griggs.
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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