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
d e p a r t m e n t s to P R E S T O PUBLISHING
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
CO., 417 South
SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 1925.
PIANO PALACES
Last week's announcement of the new
Aeolian Building, to go up on Fifth avenue,
New York, gives emphasis to the remarkable
series of piano trade palaces which have of
late been added to the imposing structures in
the comparatively new business section of that
city. It is safe to say that no other industry
can boast of a finer array of skyscrapers de-
signed, from architect's desk to the last detail,
for the purposes of a special line of industry.
Selling pianos is, as is so often said, just
like all other lines of trade in its essential fea-
tures. But in the detail of its performance,
making and selling pianos is not just like all
other kinds of business. To successfully manu-
facture fine pianos, or any other musical in-
struments, requires special skill of scientific
nature. It demands even more, for it calls
for a close intimacy with what is going-on
within the range of both trade and industry,
without much reference to what other lines are
doing. In other words, the connection be-
tween pianos and other lines is not close, and
the ties are not intimate.
And in the retail piano trade there is a dif-
ference, in that the selling of the instrument
is more largely a matter of personal acquaint-
ance and "follow-up" on the part of the mer-
chant and his salesmen. It is only necessary
for the general store, or house in almost any
line, to have a good general standing. The
man at the head of the business may not be
even known by sight. His name is all that
concerns the public so long as the goods are
right and the methods of the store attractive
to the people. With the piano the name of
the instrument is the center of the store's in-
fluence.
The piano business, in the larger cities,
stands forth conspicuously by reason of the
artistic impressiveness of the warerooms of
the manufacturer. In New York the new Stein-
way Hall, the new Chickering Building, the
Aeolian Building, and the splendid ware-
rooms of such houses as Story & Clark, Soh-
mer & Co., American Piano Co., Hardman,
Peck & Co., and a dozen more in the Piano
Row of the metropolis, are of incalculable
value to the entire trade and industry to the
points most remote. They are towering ad-
vertisements of the power and progress of
music in its material development, no less than
artistic. The great New York structures, sup-
plemented by others in Chicago, Cincinnati,
St. Louis, Los Angeles and San Francisco,
present inescapable proof that the piano has
kept pace with other things and that, as an in-
dustry and trade, the making and selling of
musical instruments is not lacking in substan-
tial results and in the accumulation of the
largeness of modern times. They are the evi-
dence indisputable that the dullards in the
business are wrong and that there is nothing
the matter with the business, even it there is
really something the matter with some of its
malcontents themselves.
PRICE LEVELS
April 11, 1925.
their part to correct that habit. They should
consider that prices are never "too high" if
the piano is a fine one bearing a name that, is
at once recognized. Think "Steinway," for
instance, and the price becomes a matter of
no consideration to people who understand.
And so with other pianos the makers of which
have been consistent in promoting the merits
of their instruments and in protecting their
good will by keeping the names their pianos
bear conspicuously before the trade and pub-
lic. The low price argument is never powerful
except in selling indifferent instruments to a
cheap class of prospects.
It is understood that Mr. Geo. P. Bent's in-
vitation is not to be so construed that any
youthful derelicts or ancient cripples wearing
false white whiskers or imitation bald heads
will be admitted to his dinner.
Everything
must be genuine but teeth, toupees and tem-
peraments.
* * *
The New York piano manufacturers do not
seem over-enthusiastic about making exhibits
at the Drake during the June convention. But
there will be enough of them to make it
interesting.
As long as the notion exists that prices are
high there is the expectation that prices will
soon be lower. Therefore, in piano selling it
is especially foolish for salesmen to refer to
high price conditions at all.
But it is very common to hear piano sales-
men start their sales discussions with some
statement concerning the "high cost of things"
or some apology for the price they are asking.
Waiting is the normal condition of the day—
From the Files of Presto
of all days. In the piano trade the urge of
actual necessity seldom exists. In some lines
(April 11, 1895.)
Do you ever find anything important in the other
of business there is always the pressing need
that you have not already read in Presto?
of the things offered for sale. The people papers
Teacher—"How do you spell piano, my young
must have food and clothing. Consequently friend?" Pupil (sotto voce)—"That's an easy one";
S-O-H-M-E-R; Teacher—"Correct; go to the
the market reports possess vital interest to (aloud):
head of the class."
the merchants who deal in such essential com-
The story of a curious lawsuit comes from Lon-
modities. Not in the piano trade. You will don. It was an action brought by a fond father
against the London College of Music to recover fees
never see price quotations in this connection which had been paid for testing the pianistic abilities
of his daughter.
except in the advertising columns.
We believe that the first case of cremation touch-
It is not uncommon to hear piano men— ing the piano trade is that of the late Mr. C. C.
especially manufacturers—say that the trade Colby, whose remains were incinerated at Pittsburgh
today. He was a man of advanced ideas and this is
papers would be read with more avidity if they in accordance with his express desire.
An exclusive piano and allied trades exposition
could publish something like t the market re-
would be a success in this country. Why doesn't
ports in the daily newspapers. But there is some enterprising individual try it? The host of
no such feature possible. The purpose of the dealers who would attend would make it pay the
management, and the good to the participating man-
trade paper is in no way speculative. It is ufacturers would be very considerable.
"I've come," he says, "to say a word
to suggest to the merchants what to sell and
About our Upright Grands,
how to sell it, and to put the manufacturers
Their tone is finest ever heard"—
And thus his tale expands;
in touch with the men who are in constant
And ere again he turns about
touch with the buying public.
He proves how nerve will win,
For soon the worn out "Square" goes out—
There is no absolute law of price fluctua-
The new UJpright goes in!
tion in the piano that is any nearer than the
changing cost of materials and labor. And
to prognosticate prices on that basis is im-
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
possible. That problem is for the individual
manufacturer and dealer. And for the latter
(From Presto, April 13, 1905.)
there is only one way by which to predicate
A well-known manufacturer in the East believes
his selling prices. That is the amount he must that
in time the square piano will again come into
pay for his goods, or his instruments. The vogue. He says that he thinks lie already sees in-
dication of this return to the "full round corners"
fluctuation in cost of supplies and labor is a and
the plinthe mouldings and the "carved legs" in
matter, and a complicated one, for the manu- the rage for small grands.
"*
The second regular meeting for 1905 of the New
facturer to adjust.
York Piano Manufacturers' Association took place
Consequently it is a big mistake for the Wednesday evening at the Murray Hill Hotel.
piano dealer to discuss the cost of his instru- There was the customary dinner previous to the
meeting. At the subsequent meeting there was an
ments in their making. The retail prospect interesting discussion of topics of interest to the
can have little interest in what the separate trade.
Boston was alive with piano men on Tuesday of
supplies cost. His concern is in the completed this week. It was the occasion of the convention of
Chickering representatives, and the dealers came
instrument, and to confuse his mind with the from
all parts of the country. From the far west
details of construction cost is not good sales- were such men as Hy Filers of 'Frisco, Carl Hoff-
mann of Kansas City, D. S. Johnston of Tacoma,
manship.
and a lot more.
As a matter of fact, the piano is never "too
A piano man in Cincinnati had been induced by a
salesman to take on another piano. As
high priced." It has been sold below value for traveling
they were about to close a contract the traveler said:
a good many years. Competition has gradu- "I've talked so long I'm thirsty as a red herring.
Let's go out and get a drink." He hadn't figured
ally hammered down the prices and the profits. out
his customer correctly, for the latter recon-
It is wisdom on the part of the salesmen to do sidered after taking the "nip" and no sale was made.
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
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