Presto

June 20, 1925.
PRESTO
25
SHEET MUSIC AND RADIO
NEW COLUMBIA ATTACHMENT
Columbia Phonograph Co. Places on Market a Unit
Converting Tone Chamber Into Loud Speaker.
The Columbia phonograph attachment is a new
device of the Columbia Phonograph Co., New York,
by which the tone chamber of a phonograph may be
used as a radio loud speaker. The new unit comes
in two different styles, one adaptor suitable for
Columbia phonographs and the other suitable for
other makes of machines.
The new Columbia phonograph attachment comes
ready for immediate adjustment and is available for
any machine by using a short piece of rubber tubing.
The company believes the new unit has a distinct
place in the trade but incidentally announces that it
has no intention of entering the field of radio sets or
parts manufacture.
COMPARISON OF WAR SONGS
Milwaukee Newspaper, Replying to Critic, Has Good
Word to Say for Recent Compositions.
The Milwaukee Journal comments on the song crit-
icism of General Sherwood, oldest member of the
Illinois Legislature, delivered in a Memorial day
address in which he terms the present a jazz age and
says that it has nothing to compare with the prin-
cipal songs of Civil War days. "In the sixty years
since the war," he asserted, "there has only been one
great dramatic poem written—the lyric—equal to the
soldier's songs sung in that war." The newspaper's
reply is:
For General Sherwood's backward looking we have
no criticism. It is understandable. The great day of
our national crisis ran so deep into the souls of men
that their vision was fixed by it for all time. But
neither can we accept his viewpoint. The soul-stir-
ring songs sung by our soldiers in France are not to
be passed over. "There's a Long, Long Trail"; "Over
There"; "Joan of Arc," and "Keep the Home Fires
Burning," are, we believe, the equal of "John Brown's
Body," "Somebody's Darling," and "Marching
Through Georgia."
And as for pure lyrics, what poem stands a better
chance of immortality than "In Flanders' Field"? If
we had to believe for a moment that the greatest
REMICK SONG HITS
I Can't Stop Babying You
Why Couldn't It Be Poor Little Me
Swanee Butterfly
By the Light of the Stars
Old Pal
Somebody Like You
Sweet Georgia Brown
Me and the Boy Friend
My Best Girl
Dreams
Lucky Kentucky
Just Lonesome
Isn't She the Sweetest Thing
Don't Bring Lulu
Take Me Back to Your Heart
J. H. REMICK & CO.
New York
Chicago
Detroit
of wars had produced no song, no poem, to move the
human soul we would indeed feel that we had fallen
on evil ways.
The Journal's comments are all right, but the
writer misses the real "war songs" of the Rebellion.
The greatest of them all, even if the simplest were
Dr. Geo. F. Root's "Battle Cry of Freedom," Henry
Tucker's "Weeping Sad and Lonely," and "Tenting
on the Old Camp Ground."
WHO SELLS MOST POPULARS?
Questioned Answered by Retail Music Dealer in Ad-
dress Before Convention in New York.
Jack Harden, in an address at the convention of
the National Association of Sheet Music Dealers at
the Hotel McAlpin, New York City, last week said
that his estimate was that between 60 and 75 per cent
of popular music is sold outside of the legitimate
trade. "This estimate is purely my own personal
opinion," he explained, "and the only way to get ac-
curate figures on the subject would be to take
the statistics of four or five of the popular houses and
average their figures. After this is done there is a
possibility of my having estimated a high percentage
of sales for the dealer.
"To start with unless popular music is sold in large
quantities it is very unprofitable because of the fact
that in meeting competition the margin of profit is
very small and its life very short. All of this is 'old
stuff' but it brings into the subject our competitors.
They are principally, as we all know, the syndicate
stores, department stores and song shops.
"However, I cannot help but emphasize the fact
that it is not how much popular music business the
legitimate dealers gets but 'how much of the standard
end of the business is the illegitimate trade getting
and how soon will our association deem it necessary
to try and stop the supplying of our material to the
outsider except at prices that would force them to
retail at correct prices!' "
REPORT PUBLISHING SUCCESS.
Reports were made on the progress of the South
Bend Music Publishing Co., South Bend, Ind., at a
meeting of stockholders at the Chamber of Com-
merce building last week. The stockholders were
told that three songs which the company has pub-
lished are meeting with gratifying success. These
are "Matrimonial Blues" by Eagles and LeBetz,
which Harry Denny's orchestra is featuring; "Alpine
Girl," an unsual composition of A. Franic, president
of the company, and composer of "Sounds of the
Orient," which was so favorably received at the con-
cert of the South Bend Popular orchestra this week,
and "On the Air" by Harry Snodgrass.
COMPOSER OF HIT DIES.
Charles B. Lawler, who in 1894 wrote "The Side-
walks of New York," favorite song of Tammany
Hall and the campaign song of Governor Smith's
supporters in the last national Democratic conven-
tion, died of heart disease in New York, May 31.
The song, which was a great hit in the 'nineties
when "populars" were fewer in production, was re-
newed in the memories of a great many people during
the Democratic convention in Madison Square Gar-
dens last summer, when, played by the Sixty-ninth
Regiment Band, it became as familiar as "Alabama,
Twenty-eight votes for Underwood."
LEE S. ROBERTS' NEW SONG.
Lee S. Roberts, the composer of "Smiles," has
written a new song and dedicated it to the memories
of the past in San Francisco. It is called "Dear Old
South Market Street Days/' and the author has
agreed to turn over all profits from the sale of the
song to the fund of the South Market Street Boys,
Inc., a recently formed organization of which he is a
member.
BROADCASTING THE HITS
Relation of Songs to Radio and Possibilities
of Radio Advertising the Numbers
Discussed at Conventions.
Radio was a topic considerably discussed in rela-
tion to song broadcasting at the recent conventions
of musical instrument makers and dealers and the
annual meetings of the national associations of sheet
music dealers and publishers. Songs and radio are
so closely related that one hardly thinks of one with-
out a thought for the other.
The possibilities of advertising a song by means of
radio were about the first considerations suggested
when radio came into use, but the abuse of the pur-
poses were condemned long before the conventions
last week and the circumstances arising from the
broadcasting have given cause for complaint to the
publishers and composers.
But the publishers and sheet music dealers admitted
that radio broadcasting may be a valuable aid to dem-
onstrating a song in a wide manner. One can con-
ceive no quicker way of acquainting the public with
the musical and lyrical merits of a composition than
radio.
All the same there is such a thing as killing a song
by too much radio plugging. If a song is sung over
and over, from one station to another, the effects of
the first hearing are nullified. People at the receiv-
ing end may continue to listen with pleasure to the
second and even the third performance of the song,
but their feelings change at the subsequent hearings,
listeners get bored, tired of the repetition and in the
end so disgusted that the very title of the song is
abhorrent.
The trade was presented with another view of the
matter that involved the limitations of radio. There
are times when the weather governs the radio send-
ing processes. At such a time the publisher's prized
song is at the mercy of electrical disturbances, his
audiences at the receiving end hear a muffled vocali-
zation of the song accompanied by derisive hoots and
other weird sounds. In fact, the weather man as
well as the broadcasting stations should be consulted
before a song is given to the radio audiences.
RETAILING BY PUBLISHERS.
"Put me down on record, as being decidedly op-
posed to publishers soliciting direct where there ex-
ists a dealer capable of serving his clients," said L. J.
Tomaselli at the National Convention of Sheet Music
dealers last week. "Rather help him in advertising
schemes locally, in papers, circulars and otherwise,
co-operate with him and have a uniformity in prices.
I feel that soliciting direct on their part is unfair to
the dealers. I also feel that all dealers like myself
share my sentiments in this regard. More harmony
should be the slogan."
A SHERMAN, CLAY & CO. HIT.
"E Wa-Yea," an Indian lullaby brought out a short
time ago by Sherman. Clay & Co., San Francisco, has
won favor with music lovers, with the result that
there has been a rush for the song in sheet music
form. The lyric is by Jesse G. M. Glick, director of
display at the main store of Sherman, Clay & Co. and
a song writer of prominence, with many successes to
his credit.
ORGANISTS HOLD CONVENTION.
With prepared papers, free discussions, and recitals
of various kinds, the American Guild of Organists
held its fourth general convention at Kimball Hall,
Chicago, this week. The meetings were extended
over two days.
Manufacturers of
RADIO
Tables
Cabinets
Consoles
Elgin Phonograph & Novelty Co.
Elgin, 111.
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