Presto

May 30, 1925.
PR E S T O
presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
ness, even anxiety, to do all the piano business in
sight.
The man who can drop the trail at times and, as
nearly as possible, forget that such a thing as a
piano exists in business, will profit by it. And
this is one of the little-discussed, but often the
best purpose of the annual conventions. The
dealers who come distances to be at the Drake
Hotel meeting next week will be great gainers by
it in the end.
• Editor*
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
merclal Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at th«
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. MAY 30, 1925.
HARD WORKERS
There is not much of ease in the piano business.
It is not, as a rule, a "cut and dried" kind of trade.
In most lines of business it is customary for the
merchant to begin at a fixed hour in the morn-
ing and close shop at a regular time in the evening.
In some kinds of trade the merchants have an un-
derstanding that their stores are to be closed on
certain afternoons and evenings every week.
And, usually, the merchant shuts of his eager
thought of selling when he shuts his store every
day. He doesn't carry his customers home with
him in his mind, of course—and dine with them,
sleep with them and worry with them. When the
day ends business ends, and there are hours of
rest.
What about it with the average piano man ?
We do not mean the heads of large establish-
ments. We have in mind the "small dealers"—
the hard-working piano dealers to whom every
individual sale seems of almost vital importance.
And that kind is, after all, the backbone of the
business. He doesn't buy pianos in carload lots,
but he buys them regularly, and he represents his
leader with the kind of enthusiasm that goes far
in building the name and fame which in time be-
comes an invaluable asset to the manufacturer.
It seems plain that the piano man who works
in the manner implied is not doing easy work.
1Fis days are often tense. He is after the illusive
prospect early and late. He is anxious, from start
to finish, lest some competitor succeed in upset-
ting his plans and get the sale which may have
seemed his own. And when he has the prospect
in hand, every bain-cell is busy and the combina-
tion of argument, assertion and reasoning often
applied demands concentration of mind at once
fertile and exhausting. It is not easy work.
Consequently most piano men need what few of
them get. That is an occasional recess—rest and
change. If more of them would take it, the re-
sult would be better progress financially and
much less talk about dull times which may mean
only that the dealers themselves are dull because
of too steady application and too intense eager-
A STAPLE INDUSTRY
The piano is the most stable of all articles of
commerce. It is one of the few things of industry
and trade that remains essentially the same, while
everything else is changing. And so the exposi-
tions, which will add greatly to the interest of
next week's convention in Chicago, will bring
nothing of radical novelty for the gratification
of the merely curious.
There will be minor improvements, and the ap-
proximately perfect developments of electric re-
producing pianos will create wonderment. But
the piano will be essentially the same as two years
ago, five years ago, twenty-five years ago. It will
even occur to some of the older delegates and
guests that the striving for still more power,
resonance or sweetness of tone quality is no longer
discussed. The piano's tone, as exemplified in
the famous instruments, has been accepted as
perfect, or as nearly so as is within the possi-
bility of the creation of the utmost skill.
So that musically there is no undiscovered
country for the piano maker of today. And the
same may be said of the piano's action. It is as
responsive and as dependable as the most accurate
machinery in any other created thing. Even the
mechanism of the master work of omnipotence is
scarcely more pliant or responsive. And what
then ?
There remains the never-ending change in the
details by which the eye is pleased and satisfied.
The beauty of the piano is already so great that
it seems that no degree of skill can better it. But
so our grandmothers thought of the first uprights.
And so, too, with the delicately beautiful little
grand pianos which are now in the forefront in
demand.
These, with the steady progress of the repro-
ducing pianos, and the returning love of the hand-
played instrument, furnish all that can be desired
by experienced piano men who know what they
want because they know what is wanted by the
music-loving public whose preferences and judg-
ments it is theirs to serve and direct.
eray says, "it is a friendly heart that has plenty
of friends."
It has been said by a social observer that the
average return in the large gatherings of men by
special invitation is about twenty per cent, to use
the language of commerce. That would make
Mr. Bent's party net about two hundred guests.
And that may be called "some party" in consid-
ering the call of an individual to his friends.
It will therefore by an event of convention
week importance. And no one who knows the
host, and understands his place among the men
who have done things in and for the piano in-
dustry and trade, will doubt the degree of enter-
tainment and satisfaction which will be the share
of all of Mr. Bent's friends who may be so lucky
as to attend.
Bait advertising- isn't so bad if the worm
isn't there just to hide the hook. It is as nec-
essary to use bait to draw trade as trout. The
kind of bait is the chief consideration.
* * *
It is quite customary to find the cabalistic
letters "B. Y. O." on cards of invitation to
stag dinners. It is said that the symbols
mean "Big- Yellow Oranges," and had its ori-
gin in Los Angeles, Cal. But who ever heard
of stags drinking oranges ?
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
(May 30, 1895.)
The formal opening of the new warerooms of the
Conover Piano Co., 215-221 Wabash avenue, Chicago,
occurred Wednesday and Thursday, and proved a
distinct social and artistic success.
If any evidence were needed that piano-making
lias grown to enormous proportions in this country
it could be found in a new sign on 35th street, New-
York. The sign reads, "Piano Makers' Machinery,"
and the enterprising foundryman is making a spe-
cialty of the heavy machines adapted to the musical
industry.
A somewhat lively piano crowd did justice to a
"free and easy" supper at the Wellington, Chicago,
last night. Among the guests were Messrs. J. R.
Mason, Billy Bush, C. H. O. Houghton. Pop Wins-
low, E. I\ Lapham and Geo. Bothner, supplemented
later in the evening by Messrs. Geo. Crane, I. N.
Rice, C. G. Cheney, j . G. Ebersole and Geo. B.
(Irosvenor.
Tt is again reported, and very generally credited,
that son-in-law Stone will re-enter the piano trade.
The immense Hale factory on 35th street, N'cw York,
has stood idle for several years, and Mr. Stone
despairs of ever finding a tenant, so he has almost
decided to resume piano manufacture. If he does
start the wheels in the old Hale factory, thump boxes
will probably take another tumble in prices—some-
thing terrible to contemplate.
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
A CONVENTION EVENT
You must have noticed that it often happens
that the men who least like to be talked about, and
especially praised or publicly complimented, are
the very ones that fill the printed line, or must
listen to the spoken word. And it is probable
that the man who is to play host to one of the
largest "private" parties in music trade history
on June 11th, will not like what is now being
written.
As most members of the piano trade know, Mr.
(ieo. P. Bent is to give a dinner to his friends at
the Drake Hotel on the evening of Thursday«of
convention week. It has been said that at least
a thousand invitations have been sent out. If the
worth of a man may be measured by the number
of his friends, as some one has said, the man
who has helped also to make the piano industry
and trade must be classed as one of great worth.
For the number of invitations must be an indica-
tion of the number of his friends and, as Thack-
(From Presto, June 1, 1905.)
It is estimated that not more than one in ten of
the interior players invented have sufficient merit to
insure their adoption by the piano manufacturers. Of
the 10 per cent adopted not more than one-tenth give
any promise of permanency.
There is a Chicago piano man whose name if trans
lated into pure American would be spelled "Strong,"
and that is but another name for Hustle. His
familiar name is Starck, and he is both strong and a
hustler. He has made pianos and will soon be mak-
ing more of them than ever.
Makers of the good grades of reed organs say
that trade in these instruments is all that could be
desired. In several cases we are assured that the
demand for reed organs increases. This is, of course,
partly due to the steady thinning out of the ranks of
the industries producing the reed instruments.
As in the past there will be no exhibition or com-
mercialism allowed at the Put-in-Bay convention.
Notwithstanding the fact that the question as to the
advisability of holding an exhibition at future meet-
ings is to be discussed at the Put-in-Bay session,
President Miller will hold to the precedent already
established that it is better to eliminate all such fea-
tures, and therefore the manufacturers are requested
to kindly respect the dealers' wishes in this particular
and not attempt to forward goods to convention
headquarters.
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