Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1925 2039

August 22, 1925.
PRESTO
KEEPING "SOLD"
ON YOUR LINE
EEBURG
Veteran Traveler Tells of a Common Condi-
tion Among the Selling Fraternity Where-
in Even Optimistic Ones Go Stale
on the Goods.
CONTRIBUTORY CAUSES
T YLE "L"
The KEY to
OSITIVE
ROFITS
MANUFACTURED ONLY BY
J. P. Seeburg
Piano Co.
"Leaders in the
Automatic Field"
1510 Dayton St.
Chicago
Address Department "E"
A Job So Easy That in Time Energy Turns to
Apathy, Is a Frequent Cause of Selling
Degeneration.
Occasionally in the confidences of the smoker on
the train or the commercial room in the hotel, some
trusting piano traveler confesses that he is no longer
"sold" on his line. And sometimes retail salesmen
of long acquaintance make a similar confession to me.
Whether they are impressed hy my years, experience
or all around wisdom, they 'fess up to me as they
would to a lawyer when in search of advice or to a
father confessor with the desire to be shriven from
something troubling to the conscience.
But once in a while the traveler or retail salesman
has no humility in his confession. His words show
an attitude of resentment to the goods and their
makers. That kind of a confidence might distress
me were I unaware of the variety of causes bringing
about that condition of mind in the young men. For
usually they are in that category.
The Zestful Condition.
The condition of the mind determines the zest with
which the piano traveler or retail salesman will seek
to discover and sell the prospects. The clear, eager
desire to accomplish sales is the condition that leads
to ? ~hievement. The salesman's wits are the tools
of iiis trade. Should they become dull or out of ad-
justment his first care should be to put them in
order.
From one cause or another, mental or physical, a
salesman goes stale on his line. If he encounters an
old-timer like myself and humbly confesses his lapse
from loyalty he may hear advice of a curative kind
to yank him back to normal. If, on the other hand,
he misses the beneficent philosophic advice and lets
his ego provide a solution, the worst may happen.
The Petted Ego.
A petted ego may tell him his attitude toward his
line is not his fault, due to some temporary mental
or physical condition, but the fault of the line, the
firm, the prices and terms, anything but himself.
When the salesman finds that he is no longer "sold"
on his line he should submit himself to an exhaustive
personal examination. Possibly he will soon see the
reasons for his condition and also the way to correct
it.
Exhibit No. 1.
While getting shaved in the barber shop of the
Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City, last week I was
distracted by the woebegone look on the face of a
young man in a neighboring chair, seen in the mirror.
When the barber straightened him up to give the
finishing touches to the hair-cutting operation I rec-
ognized a piano traveler, usually of cheerful person-
ality. He saw me at the same time and acknowl-
edged my soundless greeting with a rueful nod.
"Now, what's the matter?" I asked with the free-
dom of the veteran when I took an adjoining chair
to his in the rotunda after the operations in the bar-
ber shop. But I needn't have asked. I knew the
symptoms before he stated his pathetic case. The
hopeful chap who had joyously chatted with me a
couple of months before in the Blackhawk Hotel in
Davenport, la., had become a fellow of lugubrious
mien and dismal conversation. He had gone stale on
his line.
Easily Diagnosed.
But his case was nothing new to me and the causes
were plain. He was physically tired. His ardor had
burned out his endurance. He had tried to see too
many customers a day, talking pianos and two side-
lines in music goods. He had got himself physically
jaded, and this had reacted on his mentality. Low
spirits, inertia and a decrease of his ability were
natural sequences.
But in this young fellow's case it was not the thrill
of keen competition that had physically weakened
him and made him sour on his line or lines. He had
been proceeding along the line of least resistance
since he had taken up the job six months previously
and every day enervated his sales ability. Every day
the so-called arguments in his perfunctory talk be-
came more flabby. His wit weakened. There was
no occasion in his job for the play of offense. The
time-keeper in the factory at home had more thrill
to his job. This chap had gone stale on his line be-
cause his job was too easy. His work was tiring
because there was no zest to it.
A condition of that kind can be avoided—if the
man gives up his job. But there's a way by which
it can be cured. So I told him to make a supreme
sales effort on the commodities in his lines that were
seemingly hard to sell. He admitted there were such,
but that the competition rendered sales almost im-
possible.
"Great," I exclaimed. "There's your cure for de-
jection. Hop to the joust with your competitors."
There was nothing original in my prescription. A
good mind exercise creates keenness. The aggres-
sive attack on his prospects prevents a man going
stale on his line. Competition engenders spirit in the
work. Salesmanship is finely shown in the ability to
demonstrate the desirability of one's own line in such
contrast to the strength of a competitor's line that
the prospect is impressed. Such a happening in-
vigorates a salesman's belief in himself, in the house
he represents and in its goods.
Keeping sold on your line is selling it to yourself
and through yourself.
M. D. S.
FINE PROGRESS OF
UNITED_PIANO CORP'N
Factories at Norwalk, Ohio, Display Steadily
Increasing Activities and Draw High
Compliment From Prominent Dealer.
A recent call on the United Piano Corporation, at
Norwalk, Ohio, found much activity in all branches
of the extensive factories of that industry, and a feel-
ing of optimism in the general offices throughout
the entire system of operations.
J. H. Williams, president of the corporation, re-
marked that business had shown steady increase
from month to month, all through this year, and the
record this month is far ahead of a year ago and
twenty-five per cent better than a few months back.
First Vice-President J. H. Shale recently returned
from a vacation and, incidentally, he brought several
good orders in his pocket which were "just tossed"
to him, as he puts it.
L. D. Richardson, who has been covering some
western territory of late, is sending in good orders
with very encouraging reports concerning the sea-
son's prospective business.
As everybody in the trade knows, the United
Piano Corporation's factories, as now organized,
present a model institution with up-to-date piano
building facilities. A prominent piano man, the head
of a great music house, visited the Norwalk factories
not long since and in the course of a conversation
with the Presto representative who happened to lie
there also, remarked that he was never more in-
terested in seeing pianos made, or had ever spent a
day better, than when he visited the Norwalk fac-
tories. He said that he had never met a more con-
genial group of men, all so enthusiastic to do any-
thing and everything to make pianos of the best
grade. He remarked especially on the harmony and
good-fellowship which prevailed throughout the en-
tire organization. There was that atmosphere of
satisfaction and contentment which means every
man striving to do his best to build good pianos.
"No factory that I have ever visited," remarked
the gentleman, "and I have been through all the big-
gest and best ones in this country, is better organ-
ized or equipped than the United, at Norwalk. Mr.
Williams and Mr. Shale and their lieutenants should
be proud of what they have accomplished."
SOME ONE IS TUNING
A PIANO SOMEWHERE
[The following poem was written by a sixteen-year-
old young lady of Oregon, 111. Miss Robinson has
written numerous poems, and her "Blue Boy" was
copied.by the "Line" in the Chicago Tribune.]
"Some one is tuning a piano somewhere—."
Middle C—a soft touch, lingering there;
D—a deep voice, humming a time-old strain;
K—sunshine smiling through mists of rain,
Moments of silence, then sounds of gold—
Swift, timid runs, and chords, proud and bold;
F—a plowman at work in the fields,
G—a knight with his heart on his shield—
Clear treble notes, love singing through,
Deep, resonant tones, each ringing true;
A—rose-clustered lattice with sun shining through,
B—a lyre, long-lost, jewelled with diamonds of dew,
C—a songster with quivering throat—•
Calm, lovely, aloof, a soft, silvery note.
Each mellow tone tested and tried.
Playing soft chords, as if satisfied.
Lovely chords touched, caressing the air—
"Some one is tuning a piano somewhere."
—OLIVE L I O N E ROBINSON.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
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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, 94.
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.
incorrupted by the continual jangling of
strings out of tune.
The need of a better understanding of the
piano's care is still apparent. And Mr. Gul-
bransen's suggestion seems timely. To keep
the piano in the place its deserves, and to
continue to extend its popularity and demand,
requires some such procedure as the Chicago
manufacturer proposes. We hope that the
response may be of a kind to eventually in-
sure the piano against the neglect or abuse
which has followed its delivery from store to
home, in thousands of instances, every year.
Competent piano tuners, whether as an as-
sociation or individuals, as well as well regu-
lated and equipped tuning schools, deserve the
support and encouragement of the industry
and trade. Mr. Gulbransen has suggested
plans which seem as applicable to all compe-
tent workers in one of the important branches
of the business.
THE INVENTIVE SPIRIT
Nothing could more conclusively dispute
the talk about "a slump" in matters pertain-
ing to musical instruments than the lists of
patents pertaining to music which have ap-
Address all communications for the editorial or business peared in recent issues of Presto. We have
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
another long list this week, and all concerned
with music trade affairs will find it interest-
SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1925.
ing. And the scope of the inventive spirit
is peculiarly large, embracing almost every-
SUSTAIN THE TUNERS
thing from a child's music rack to scientific
We believe that piano manufacturers, and development, radio amplification and new
most of the serious retailers will indorse what methods for treatment of woods.
is said by Mr. A. G. Gulbransen, in this week's
Science, ingenuity, convenience and novelty,
Presto, on the need of support of the tuners' in their relations to musical instruments, are
association. For a good many years Presto all represented. Pianos, phonographs, reed
has been trying to pump into the conscious- organs and small stringed instruments are
ness of the piano trade the necessity of better among the objects of the wide ramifications
attention to keeping the instruments in order of the inventors' genius. There is also a col-
after their sale.
or piano, which appears to have been created
The slip-shod custom which has prevailed, by a descendant of the famous Munsell family
of letting the pianos take care of themselves, which, from days of the Revolution, have held
save for the solicitation often of itinerent high places in the annals of New York State.
tuners, has been a detriment to the business,
It was a Munsell that the school book story
from factory to final payment by the dealer, tells about when as a Continental soldier, driv-
and after that.
ing a heavy commissary load, he was ordered
If a history of almost any good piano sold, to turn aside to let a young officer pass. "No,"
say, twenty years ago, could be written in said the soldier, "not on such a command!"
detail, it would be surprising that the instru- And the under-officer drove around the load-
ment had lived to tell the tale. That it had ed wagon. Soon another officer came along
been the center of dispute, doubt and per- and in gentlemanly tone asked the soldier if
haps despair, on its owner's part would not he would kindly permit the newcomer to pass.
be surprising. For is there anywhere a piece "Certainly," assented the teamster, and cleared
of mechanism, even of far less delicate nature, the road. The polite officer was General
that could satisfactorily withstand the usage Washington. The driver of the heavy load
often—almost as a rule, accorded to the piano was Jacob Munsell. Presumably the inventor
in the average home? We doubt it.
of the color organ of today came from the
It is almost a marvel that, under the cir- same stock.
cumstances, the piano, as an article of trade,
And the lists of inventions includes also a
has withstood the hard usage, and worse "pneumatically played piano" by W. M. Bauer.
neglect, that is given to the beautiful instru- The inventor's name is sufficient to awaken
ments of music. While very often, to be sure, interest amounting to curiosity. For when a
the piano in the home is treasured and used Bauer in the piano industry speaks the rest
with corresponding care, in most homes it is of the piano making and selling fraternity
permitted to gradually lose its place and be- listens.
come an object of neglect of a kind to almost
The inventions of this week and last week
insure its ruin. No thought of its require- have a good deal to do with talking machines,
ments is given.
suggesting that perhaps that instrument is
Even, in not a few homes, it has proved "coming back" with a rush. There is very
rather a hurt to the sensitive ears of the chil- little that applies to radio—strangely enough.
dren than a help. There are cases, within the And the items pertaining to the smaller things
knowledge of tuners, where the families have of music, and its trade, are many, and signfi-
lost all sense of tonal sequence because of the cant of the activities of years ago. The piano
piano's condition, and after having been tuned innovations include, besides the color piano, a
the work has given dissatisfaction rather than "rectifying device for player rolls," by Mr.
the pleasure which must come to trained ears C. E. Cameron of the Lauter Company, New-
August 22, 1925.
ark, N. J., and a damper attachment by Mr.
David Mcllwrath, of the Jesse French & Sons
Piano Co., of New Castle, Indiana.
There is a sense of satisfaction in the return
of the one-time familiar trade-name of "Coli-
bri" to the list of special piano attractions.
Forty years ago—nearly sixty, perhaps—the
Colibri piano appeared in New Haven, Conn.
It was the creation of the late Frederick Ma-
thushek, and it created a sensation. It now
appears, in modern form, as a small grand
piano of peculiarly pleasing design, and is ad-
vertised in the New York newspapers by the
Mathushek Piano Co., 37 W. 37th street.
* * *
Two new instruments which seem to pre-
sent a kind of phonograph-radio combination
are announced in an article which appears in
this issue of Presto. The matter is of no small
trade interest. While the remarkable 40-min-
ute discs, or records, may not interfere with
the piano, and possibly but little with radio,
they must go far toward reviving interest in
the phonograph.
* * *
The witty writer of the anonymous dialect
letter in this issue, aimed at the Bent-Putnam
controversy may think that the Irish brogue
conceals his identity. But it is as thin a dis-
guise as if it had been clothed in the German
dialect in which his earlier "good stuff" has
appeared. It is very seldom that a poet can
conceal his identity by employing prose in-
stead of rhythm and rhyme.
* * *
Every dealer should take advantage of the de-
mand for small grands which is now at its height.
30 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From the Files of Presto
(August 22, 1895.)
Governor Matthews, of Indiana, last week ap-
pointed delegates from his state to the Mexican Ex-
position, which will open next April and will con-
tinue six months. Among the number appointed was
Benj. Starr, of Richmond.
A stock company to be known as the Automatic
Musical Stenciling and Combination Piano Company
is being organized in New York for the purpose of
putting the "Pianophone" (description of which ap-
peared in Presto of three weeks ago) on the market.
All his worldly possessions the late George F. Root
left to his wife, Mary O. Root. The composer's will
was filed Monday in the Probate Court and the estate
he left aggregated something like $17,000, of which
$12,000 was personal property and the remainder real
estate.
A little machine, whose purpose is to register ex-
actly the manner in which a piece of music is played,
has been brought into use by the savants of the Sor-
bonne, in Paris. It is an adaptation of the phono-
graph, which can easily be applied to any piano, and
is capable of giving, on a slip of paper, a full record
of any piece performed, including the duration of the
notes, the rapidity of playing, the variations in touch,
etc., with an exactness which no ear could equal.
20 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
(From Presto, August 24, 1905.)
In the summer the special sale seems to spread
most vigorously. The dealers find things dull and
they can't stop the expenses, so they push in the
trade ethics stop and pull out the plunger that starts
price-cutting and general demoralization.
The Fox Piano & Organ Co., York, Pa., offers a
cash cut of ten dollars to every purchaser who brings
in one of their advertisements in seeking a piano.
This is a peculiar method of advertising—but not
more peculiar than some other piano methods.
Officers of the National Association of Piano Deal-
ers of America will meet in New York August 25 and
26 to arrange for an immense exhibition of musical
instruments at 1906 convention of the association in
Washington next May. A resolution will be proposed
at the meeting requiring that all pianos placed on the
market shall bear the names of their makers.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

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