August 1, 1925.
PRESTO
Presto
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY.
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. D A N I E L L and F R A N K D. ABBOTT
-
Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com.
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), " P R E S T O , " Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1879.
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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
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page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
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Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 1. 1925.
THE TEACHER RETURNS
It is about twenty years since the first cry
that the piano teacher's job was in danger, that
the "automatic" piano would certainly drive
the flesh-and-blood performer from the parlors
of the people. The day of darkness for the
aspiring pedagogue of the piano had arrived,
or was about to begin.
But to the present writing there has been no
public provision proposed for starving piano
teachers, and the music store counters disclose
the same calls for piano instructors and suit-
able teaching pieces as before the playerpiano
arrived. The demand may not be quite as
urgent, and the piano teachers may not be so
numerous, though the change is not noticeable
and the schools of music appear to have rather
increased in number than otherwise.
And of late there have come signs of a recall
of even the few piano teachers that may have
fallen from the ranks. The special efforts of
some of the tireless workers in the piano's in-
terests have of late years been "starting some-
thing" that is bringing back the old-time en-
thusiasm for the instrument as our mothers
and our grandmothers and dads and grand-
dads knew it and loved it. As good speci-
mens of the workers of the kind alluded to it
is safe to cite Mr. Otto Miessner, of Milwau-
kee, and Mr. W. L. Bush, of Chicago.
Both the piano manufacturers named have
devoted about as much time and effort to es-
tablishing music schools and teaching the ris-
ing generation what it means to actually play
the piano, as they have to making and selling
p:anos. And they are doing it systematically
in a way that helps the piano dealers in a prac-
tical way. It is certain that if all piano mer-
chants could grasp the viewpoint of such
gentlemen as we have named, the piano busi-
ness would never again have occasion to fear
any "slump." If the dealers would so adjust
their piano selling that the piano teacher and
the tuner would be interested also in even-
sale, after it is made, it would prove a great
help to the enthusiasts who mean "make
America musical' when they say it.
J felp the piano teachers to "come back" and
stay as important aids to the progress of the
better part of life, and the piano industry and
trade will continue to be the best line of busi-
ness in the worLd.
SPRINKLE'S SPECIAL SALE
It has been long since such a stir has
been created by a special sale as was devel-
oped by the action of the Better Business Bu-
reau in the suppression of a picture contest
put on by Mr. J. W. Sprinkle, of Fort Wayne,
Indiana. When a representative of Presto
called at the store of Mrs. W. C. Murray, in
Fort Wayne, of which establishment the of-
fending piano man is manager, that gentle-
man expressed surprise that anyone on earth,
in any way connected with music trade journal-
ism, hadn't a close understanding of his store
and his own remarkable performances in set-
ting up special piano sales. He told of his
plan, and declared that at times the good-
sized wareroom had been literally "filled with
buyers." He expressed no contrition nor gave
any sign that his methods had not been cor-
rect and at least of the kind to sell instru-
ments, far and wide, in the face of keen com-
petition.
The incident shows again that advertising
is the most effective means to an end. But in
this case, also, it seems to suggest that the
Better Business Bureau has made needless
use of the Fort Wayne puzzle picture offense
in promoting the personal interests of the
salesman who tried hard to show his employer
that he could dispose of the goods. For if
Mr. Sprinkle feels that he has become a na-
tional institution because of the efforts of the
"warning" published in the newspapers and
the liberally distributed printed matter of the
Music Industries Chamber of Commerce—
even to this editorial in the American Music
Trade Weekly—how many other more or less
misguided young piano store managers may
try the same scheme ?
There can be no question about the need of
energy, vital effort and resourcefulness in-
conducting the piano business in cities like
Fort Wayne, where competition is keen and
the prospects come, to a large extent, from
the country 'round about. Merely to announce
that music is an essential, and to invite the
farmers to "Make America Musical," will not
do the business. And when a dealer over-
steps the ethical bounds, it seems that a good
way would be to let the local dealers, or asso-
ciation, if there is one, so conduct the case as
to stop the slaughter even to the extent of
slaughtering the offending store, and not to
make so much noise about a local offense as
to make it a national trade disaster. Mr.
Sprinkle was not "cured" of his faith in spe-
cial sales, and he has had many requests for
the outline of his schemes and his loud sound-
ing advertisements. It's a great business, this
piano selling in small places, and we can't
change it in a hurry.
It was a mistake to say that Mr. Geo. P.
Bent had returned to his Los Angeles home.
Before going to California the originator of
the "aged" in the piano trade will give two
more of the celebrated dinners to the ancient
of all ages. One will be at Minneapolis and
the other at Decorah, Iowa. Dinners to the
Aged promise to be popular affairs with many
of the youngsters of the American piano in-
dustrv.
# * *
The fish bit well on Sunday of this week at
the little lakes of Michigan and Wisconsin,
during the "Julv norther,'' as the resorters
christened the foggy, damp, all-day and all-
night wave of chilly weather. The resort sea-
son is not the most propitious period for get-
ting piano orders, but the fisherman-salesman
who angles just right can always get a "bite."
As showing how the corrective influence
applied to unethical piano dealers may work,
the gentleman at Fort Wayne, Ind., who was
recently disciplined by the Better Business
Bureau for putting on a picture puzzle sale,
believes that his prosecution has made him
famous and says he is doing more business
than ever before. Mr. Sprinkle has certainly
had a lot of advertising.
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
(August 1, 1895.)
Jerry Bauman, of New Castle, Pa., wlio deals in
pianos and organs, visited a neighboring town with
his steam calliope. Wherever he drove his noisy
machine he scared the people nearly to death, and
many ran for their suns.
Jacob Wendell, who was born in 1691, of good old
Holland stock, at Albany, was the common ancestor
of John Phillips, the first mayor of Boston, Wendell
Phillips, his son, Oliver Wendell Holmes, the author,
and of Mr. Wendell. Marshall & Wendell, the well-
known piano makers.
There is nothing JO dangerous to a liberty-loving
people as over-done legislation. Law that means
nothing more than the exercise of petty authority is
a small species of despotism. In McKeesport, Pa.,
the ancient question as to whether music is a de-
stroyer of holiness is being agitated. The mayor,
who happens to be one of the pin-headed fraternity,
decided that the performance of a brass band play-
ing in the public park on Sundays is a desecration.
The upright piano seems to have reached the high-
est point of development consistent with its present
principles of construction and the conventional style
of case. The results seem susceptible of no aug-
mentation. The limits, both of tone and beauty of
Finish, have been reached. In many pianos the sale
seem,s to be absolutely without a flaw. What then
will be
the next development of the popular instru-
ment 0
The Piano Man's Vacation.
He's coming from the woodland
Where cooling waters ran,
The while he stood a-fishing
On the installment plan.
He's
As
And
To
also been a-hunting,
all his game affirms.
now he's steering homeward
sell on easy terms.
He swam in living waters,
He sailed the raging main,
And now he's back in harness
To toil and trade again!
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
(From Presto, August 3, 1905.)
"Avoid the 'tin pan" piano,' is the caption of a
Hallet & Davis Co. advertisement in the Cleveland
papers.
The mark-down lists of piano bargains in some of
the store windows place the piano in the same class
as the Panama hats in August or the peek-a-boo
shirt waists in January.
If there could be any further testimony required
to prove that the piano business has grown to pro-
portions of a great industry the recent addition of
exclusive buyers to the forces of some houses seems
to supply it.
The talking machine horn to amplify the vibra-
tions imparted to the diaphragm by the needle fol-
lowing the pulsations of the record is dispensed with
by a Pennsylvania inventor, who proposes to replace
ihe horn by a violin.
E. B. Rogers, of Ashtabula, Ohio, puts the case
Avell in his local advertising when he says:
All pianos are made to sell. Some made to wear
a lifetime. Such is the reputation of the old reliable
"Kurtzmann." beautiful sweet-voiced Raymond and
Langdon."
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