Presto

April 18, 1925.
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, APRIL 18, 1925.
THE AMATEURS' TRADE
In the musical merchandise trade the am-
ateurs, of course, exceed the professionals as
customers. Rut in his advertising the music
merchant directs his advertising- to the pro-
fessional as well as to the amateur. Of course,
there is a certain amount of prestige in the
possession of a clientele of professionals, and
profit as well as distinction in it, but the pro-
fessional business, even in the larger cities,
is necessarily limited. On the other hand, the
amateur field is proportionate to the size of
the population of the community.
A musical merchandise department manager
this week pointed out an admirable feature of
the amateur trade that is growing rapidly. He
says the amateur business is the best on which
to build a connection ; and that it is capable
of growth is shown by results that may be
noted in every part of the country. The violin
business is largely an amateur one, and what
was experienced in violin sales has been dupli-
cated in an enormously larger way in other
instruments.
Nothing in the history of musical merchan-
dise sales has equalled the business in saxo-
phones in the past five years. The sales of
ukuleles, too, since the beginning of the boom
for the little instrument, have been remarkable.
Professionals have required saxophones, and
call for them every day, but the vastness of
the saxophone business has been caused by
amateurs.
The public no longer considers music a lux-
ury, or even in the nature of an amusement,
but is impressed with it for its educational ad-
vantages. Until comparatively recent years
the piano was considered the only instrument
of importance for making music in the home.
A scattering of families had violins. But to-
day the family orchestra is common, and varies
in size according to the size of the musical
family. Saxophones, banjos, guitars, cornets,
trumpets, 'cellos, clarinets, flutes and even
drums, all or in part go to the making up of
a family orchestra.
In the public schools the music departments
are being highly developed, and thousands of
young people in every state are taking a prac-
tical interest in music. Membership in the
school bands or orchestras makes the boys or
girls prospective buyers of musical instru-
ments, of one variety or another, when the
school years are over. By fostering that kind
of trade the musical merchandise dealer in any
town can build up a valuable trade connection.
And it is to this end that some of the brainiest
and most progressive manufacturers in the
music industry turn enthusiastically to the
educational side of music in their work of
broadening the music trade. A notable illus-
tration is seen in the propaganda originated
and developed by Mr. W. Otto Miessner of
Milwaukee, whose work in stores and schools
is just now gaining national, or even interna-
tional notice.
TRADE THRILLS
It was told of Hugh Chalmers, genius of the
automobile, that he once said: "When I see a
man driving a Chalmers car, I get a thrill.
Any man who gets a thrill when he see a
Chalmers car can sell Chalmers cars."
Apply that point of view to selling pianos
and see how true it is, here as everywhere
else, in lines of trade that demand salesman-
ship. For you will notice that the really suc-
cessful piano salesman doesn't pretend that all
pianos are alike to him. He is a Chickering
salesman, or a Packard salesman, or a Story
& Clark salesman, or a Steinway salesman, or
a Gulbransen salesman—or a salesman of any
other good piano that he thoroughly knows,
loves and likes to sell. If, however, he can
"sell any old piano" just as well, he isn't a
salesman in the best sense. He is a clerk,
and his only selling argument is the price,
which must always be low.
The man who is filled with enthusiasm in
some particular piano—any good piano—will
thrill at the name and sound of that particular
piano. He may find it necessary to sell other
pianos. That is to be expected, just as good
poets and authors write "pot boilers," and good
painters make pictures with which to furnish
board and clothing. But the thrill comes only
when the piano salesman is selling the instru-
ment of his choice.
Mr. Chalmers also declared that a man who
doesn't love his work is always a poor sales-
man. And how can a piano man, of musical
understanding and who knows a fine piano
from the other kind, work up selling enthusi-
asm and the thrill of success in the sale of a
poor piano? It can't be done. And that is
one of the secrets—though it isn't really a
secret—of the value of a great piano name.
To a salesman who knows the enthusiasm
to which Mr. Chalmers referred, the mere-
name on the fallboard of his piano is all the
thrill that is required to insure the sale. And
there are piano dealers all over the country
who understand this. It would be impossible
to cause them to drop the piano of their choice
for any other. To them price has no great
appeal. They know their piano. They like to
sell it. To supplant it as a leader in the store
would be as great a sacrifice as the loss of a
near friend.
And it is the consideration which Mr. Chal-
mers had in mind that gives to a few of the
pianos a priceless value. They hold their rep-
resentatives by a tie as much stronger than
price as the power of the sun's ray is greater
than the glitter of the arc light. There are
a few piano manufacturers and more than a
few piano dealers who do not even yet fully
understand the Chalmers thrill. But they will
find out before they arrive at the point of
reallv great success.
The Boston Post says that in the relative
standing of American cities in advertising line-
age of musical instruments "Boston is pre-
ceded only by Cincinnati and Chicago." That
must place little old New York r,o better than
third at best.
The federal commission on business methods
is taking hold of the subject of goods mis-
branded. That will, of course, reopen the
ancient discussion of stencil pianos. And many
in the industry and trade think it is time.
*h
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This is the season when the Flivver and the
Bowen Loader make a matchless combination
for piano men in the smaller towns and rural
districts. Don't let the springtime prospects
escape.
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
(April 18, 1895.)
There were no fewer than five "removal sales" in
pianos advertised in the Chicago papers last Sunday
morning.
We are glad to welcome Mr. W. B. Williams back
into the fold of the faithful. It is not easy for so
good a member of the flock to wander far away, and
when Mr. Williams left the "Everett" piano and
undertook life-insurance he was warned by Presto
that he "could not stay away."
Every one who goes to the music halls, or attends
the theater where the soubrette kicks up her slippers
and warbles, has heard it—
"The Bowery, the Bowery,
I'll never go there any more."
So the refrain goes. And it is asserted that this little
song has so hurt the good name of the "Bowery,"
has so injured the business in the Bowery, as almost
to ruin it.
"I'm particularly glad to know you," said Platt
Gibbs, warmly shaking hands with George Grass.
"I'll tell you why," continued Mr. Platt, "the very
first piano 1 sold was a Steck, and I'll never forget
how proud I was." Next day Mr. Gibbs entered
the Wellington Hotel and, spying Mr. Grass across
the room, crossed over to him. "I want to correct
a statement 1 made yesterday," he said. "I have
told you that the lirst piano I ever sold was a Steck.
I have since remembered that the first piano I ever
sold was not a Steck. It was an organ!"
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
(From Presto, April 20, 1905.)
William H. Daniels, of Denton, of Cottier & Dan-
iels piano house, Buffalo, N. Y., is mentioned as a
possible Republican nominee for governor this year.
President James C. Miller has made his appoint-
ments of the various committees of arrangements and
reception to serve in connection with the coming con-
vention at Put-in-Bay, June 20, 21 and 22.
R. B. Gregory, treasurer of Lyon & Healy, is
expected to arrive at New York on May 2 from
Bremen. C. N. Post, vice-president of the Lyon &
Healy corporation, Chicago, has gone east for a tw r o
weeks' trip.
The following are the officers of the Straube Piano
Company as elected on Monday: James F. Broderick,
president; W. P. Parker, vice-president; E. R. Jacob-
son, secretary.
Everything runs smoothly in the Cable-Nelson
moving operations and none of the disturbing inci-
dents usually associated with like migrations are evi-
dent. May will tind the complete force transferred
to South Haven and business running without a hitch.
President E. H. Story, of the Story & Clark Piano
Company, has in his office some old pictures showing
the condition years ago of the grounds upon which
the big factory of Story & Clark now stands. Mr.
Story thinks a good deal of these pictures and has
just had them rescued from a dusty drawer and
framed. One represents the tearing away of some
primitive cottages to make room for the first Story
& Clark building in Grand Haven.
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