Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1925 2042

Page 12 Text:

September 12, 1925.
PRESTO
12
STRUCTURAL MERITS OF
SCHUMANN DESCRIBED
Approved Ways of Securing Tensile Strength
In Wood Used Pointed Out and Other
Excellences Told in Detail.
The Schumann piano is described in a highly in-
teresting way in a new booklet issued by the Schu-
mann Piano Co., Rockford, 111. The methods of
booklet making followed are artistic, novel and im-
mensely suited to the unique characteristics of the
Schumann, the piano "built like a violin."
"There is more in the building of a piano than just
the desire to accomplish a task. Supplementing the
actual materials employed in building Schumann
pianos, there are further scientific steps contributing
to their tonal mellowness," says an introductory para-
graph. The booklet points to the prevalent belief that
the highly skilled artisans of the sixteenth and sev-
enteenth centuries developed and perfected the art
of ply wood. "Let us say rather that they revived
it after the science had lain dormant for 2,800 years,"
says the booklet, which adds:
"And the principles employed during these periods
are carried out in their entirety in the fabricating
processes of Schumann pianos, to the remotest de-
tail. The result is the vital, tensile strength of the
growing tree, combined with a surface showing none
of the high spots or depressions due to warping—
and warping is the most deadly enemy of a durable
finish."
The booklet states many instructive facts for the
benefit of the piano prospect. It tells, for instance,
how tannic acid and foreign substances in uncured
wood form resistance in the wood; and resistance is
responsible for warping and twisting as the wood
dries, and adds: "All lumber used in Schumann
Pianos for the past eighteen years has been prepared
by a steam bathing process."
Commenting on the great tension of bass piano
strings and the immense pressure on bridge and
sounding board the buyer of the Schumann is as-
sured as follows:
Because the ribs—spruce braces that preserve the
crown or convex shape of the sounding board—are
attached fan shape to the Schumann board, there arc
five ribs instead of three under the bass bridge;
thereby giving added support to the sounding board
at the point most needed. Furthermore, ribs and
bridge are anchored to the sounding board, not by
metal nor by glue alone. Wooden pins which go
DECKER
mJ
EST. 1856 & SON
Grand, Upright
and
Welte-Mignon
(Licensee)
Reproducing
(Electric)
Pianos and Players
of Recognized
Artistic Character
Made by a Decker Since 1856
699-703 East 135th Street
New York
KREITER
The Leading and Most Popular
Pianos and Players
Grands, Players, Uprights and
Reproducing Pianos
The Results of Over Forty Years'
of Experience.
Kreiter Pianos Cover the Entire Line
and no Piano Dealer who tries these in-
struments would supplant them by any
others. A trial will convince.
Kreiter Mfg. Co., Inc.
310-312 W. Water St., Milwaukee, Wis.
Factory: Marinette, Wis.
through bridge, sounding board and ribs, make a
permanent unit of the whole.
Other features of Schumann construction which
make for excellence of tone and durability are
pointed out:
Schumann pin blocks are equalized by building up
on both sides of the core, thus avoiding warping.
The rims of Schumann Grand pianos are built up
of five thicknesses of wood—ply wood again—with
the alternate grains running at right angles to each
other. So are the backs, or frames, on which the
sounding board rests, built up; and corresponding
rim and back for each piano are shaped together in
a mold while the glue is wet. After they have dried,
having been molded together, they cannot creep or
vary; they positively fit one another. There is no
patching—so deterrent to good tone—to be done.
Likewise, no metal is used in assembling the reso-
nant parts of Schumann Pianos.
ARTISTIC
LOCAL NEWSPAPER TELLS
OF THE PIANO'S APPEAL
IN EVERY
DETAIL
Write-up of Retail House at Muncie, Indiana,
Contains Suggestions for Other Dealers,
in Whatever Locality.
In an article on the Bell Music Company, of
Muncie, Ind., the Daily Star, of that city, presents
some good local "stuff" on the subject of the piano.
While it refers to the Muncie business, dealers else-
where will find suggestions in it applicable to their
own dilatory prospects:
The piano is a real need in every home. It is
the foundation instrument for all musical education.
The child or grown-up can soon learn the piano
sufficiently to play simple melodies and popular tunes
and later study and practice become an accomplished
musician if they so wish.
The playerpiano (ills a long-felt need, as it gives
people who have no musical training the ability to
create music as it should be played correctly. In
the home the phonograph supplies music for the en-
tire family. All sorts of music to fit every mood
and each individual like.
The piano and phonograph will create within a
child the love of music and secondly the desire to
make music for themselves. If a small child has
that desire it should be fostered and his efforts
praised and encouraged.
Give them the musical instrument they want and
provide competent instruction. You will be more
than repaid, for your dividends will be an honest
pride and the realization that you have helped your
child to realize his ambition.
The field is large for musicians and opportunities
are many. In addition the happy home life musical
education brings it gives the child social status as he
grows older and a means of making extra money
and a pleasant and good paying profession.
NEWSY FACTS ABOUT THE
MEN WHO RETAIL PIANOS
Items gathered From Various Sources Relate Inci-
dents in the Trade Activities.
The Louisville Music & Radio Co., Louisville, Ky.,
is now advertising a special sale on Victrolas.
Raimundo Marquez, Jr., eight-year-old piano
wizard, gave a concert recently at Chickering Hall,
Los Angeles, under the auspices of the Southern Cali-
fornia Music Co.
The Knight-Campbell Music Co., of Cheyenne, of
which Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Reed are managers,
recently placed a Steinway Duo-Art grand in the new
hotel at Parco, Wyo.
Brook Mays & Co., 820 Travis street, Houston,
Tex , is featuring summer specials in new pianos, new
playerpianos, slightly used grand pianos, benches,
cabinets, music rolls.
The Emporium, San Francisco, Cal., recently
brought to a close its series of free afternoon con-
certs offered to stimulate interest in good music and
to help increase the sales volume.
The Adam Schaaf Piano Co., located for some
years at the corner ground floor, Main and Linden
streets, of Hotel Chisca, Memphis, Tenn., is holding
a sale.
A number of concerts were given at the Schmidt
Music Co., Davenport, Iowa, booth at the exposition
grounds during fair week, held recently. The
Schmidt Music Co. Concert Orchestra, which played,
was composed of firm members.
J. Raymond Smith, San Francisco, Cal., dealer, is
taking on a full line of Starr pianos.
HADDOKFF PIANO CO.
KOCKFORD.ILL.
Wholesale
New fork Cil
130 W. 4ZndS*
Offices:
Chirifo
410 S. Mknigan A*..
San Fr«n- »n
I I I California St.
Schaff Bros.
Players « nd Pianos have won their stand-
ing with trade and public by 54 years of
steadfast striving to excel. They repre-
sent the
LARGEST COMPETITIVE VALUE
because < and moderate price. They are profitable
to sell and satisfactory when sold.
Brighten Your Line with the
SCHAFF BROS.
The Schaff Bros. Co.
Established 1868
Huntington, Ind.
The Good Old
SMITH & NIXON
Pianos and Player Pianos
Better than ever, with the same
"Grand Tone In Upright Case."
Grands and Players that every deal-
er likes to sell, for Satisfaction and
Profit
ADDS REPAIR DEPARTMENT.
The Home Music Co., Canton, Ohio, has opened
an up-to-date repair department for the repair of all
makes of talking machines and radios. The new de-
partment has been given the requisite space in the
rear of the store. The Home Music Co. is one of
Canton's newest retail music stores, and is located in
North Market avenue.
Smith & Nixon Piano Co.
1229 Miller St., Chicago
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/

Page 13 Text:

September 12, 1925.
PRESTO
POWER OF WINDOW
SHOW IN SALES
KURTZMANN
Grands—Players
Ability of Window Dresser to Correctly De-
vine Point of View of Prospects Strong
Means in Creating a Winning Dis-
play of Music Goods.
Manufactured by
C. KURTZMANN & CO.
ARGUMENT OF ROLLS
How Lcng and Varied Lists of Reproducing Piano
Music in Kansas City Store Incited Unusual
Interest in Public.
Factories and General Offices
526-536 Niagara Street
BUFFALO, N. Y.
STRICH & ZEIDLER, Inc.
GRAND, UPRIGHT and PLAYER
AND
HOMER PIANOS
740-742 East 136th Street
NEW YORK
BRINKERHOFF
Grands - Reproducing Grands
Player-Pianos
and Pianos
The Line That Sells Easily
and Satisfies Always
BRINKERHOFF PIANO CO.
OFFICES, REPUBLIC BLDG.
209 State Street
CHICAGO
The Steppe, Marcelius and Edouard Jules Pfao9
manufactured by the
HEPPE PIANO COMPANY
are the only pianos In the world with
Three Sounding Boards.
Patented In the United States, Great Britain
France, Germany and Canada.
Liberal arrangements to responsible agents only*
Main Office, 1117 Chestnut St.
PHILADELPHIA, PA.
To make lookers into customers is the job of the
man or woman who plans the displays in the show
windows. Women are included in the sharing of
the responsibility because music dealers in many
places have seen the wisdom of enlisting the fair, and
admittedly tasteful, sex in the scheme to allure the
transient prospect with arguments provided in win-
dow displays. The trade papers have had a lot of
interesting things to say for instance about the young
lady art director of the Wiley B. Allen Co., San
Francisco.
Women have not only an instinctive sense of taste
in arranging the goods in a display, but also have the
advantage which the woman's point of view gives
them. Perhaps the woman window dresser analyzes
her own mind when she plans a window attraction
of music goods. She knows that many customers
will not buy until they have visited several stores.
In the sales in a big city music store a great many
customers are of the kind known as "transients."
never appearing on a prospect list previous to their
entering the store ready to be waited upon. They
are customers, very often, converted from the looker
stage by the window displays.
The Ingenious Appeal.
The window dresser uses objects where the adver-
tising man uses type and pictures. The plan may be
to forcibly direct attention to the piano, or other
musical instrument, or may be to influence the pos-
sible customer with the details of some merits in the
commodity shown. The latter is based on demon-
strating the selling points printed in newspaper ad-
vertisements and circulars, and catalogs distributed
by the dealers.
The good window display working on the eyes of
beholders creates desire to buy in efficacious way.
The managers of the talking machine department of
the Dreher Piano Co., Cleveland, O., and in the same
sections in Grinnell Bros., Detroit, and Lyon &
Healy, Chicago, attribute the wonderful sales of
portable talking machines this summer to the con-
vincing object lessons of the delights of music in the
camp, on the yacht, in the mountains, and on the
fishing trip, made in show windows at intervals since
early spring.
Fixing the Credit.
In the talking machine department of Sherman
Clay & Co., San Francisco, an inquiring salesman dis-
covered that the origin of the desire to buy, in most
instances, was in one of the displays showing the uses
of the portable machine in the out-of-doors. The dis-
plays were the most powerful aid to the seasonable
advertising for the little instruments.
Surprise for Manager.
The sales manager of the reproducing piano de-
partment in the J. W. Jenkins Sons' Music Co.,
Kansas City, Mo., was pleasantly surprised at the
great number of inquiries about the instruments dur-
ing last July, a period during which it has always
been hard to stimulate interest of any kind to an
unusual degree in the Missouri city. A good percen-
tage of sales resulted from the inquiries, but it was
the great number of inquiries that set the manager
looking for a direct cause.
Displays of reproducing pianos in the show win-
dows had been the rule, week in and week out, pre-
viously, and ingenious devices of the window display
artist had shown the merits of construction in con-
vincing detail. The shows had always brought to the
department an average number of interested people,
ADAM SCHAAF, Inc.
1
""mNos "
3
Established
GRANDS AND UPRIGHTS
Reputation
13
ft^
and Quality Since 1873
FACTORY
OFFICES AND SALESROOMS
1020 So. Central Park Ave.,
319-321 So. Wabash Ave.,
Corner Fillmore Street
CHICAGO, ILL.
of course, but the over-the-normal number in hot
July was easily explained when he reviewed the char-
acter of the displays from January to July 1.
Music Rolls Win.
About the latter date the window dresser made
the music prepared for the reproducing pianos shown
a most prominent feature of the window displays.
Previous to that the available list of fine music was a
mere incident of reproducing piano ownership pre-
sented to onlookers. About the first week of July,
however, the window dresser picked upon the wealth
of music, standard, classical and popular, as the main
point in his reproducing piano display and his clever
featuring was an appeal to lovers of music of all
degrees of taste and refinement. That the repro-
ducing piano could do such wonderful things in play-
ing had been well impressed in previous displays; this
time he gave prominence to the music provided by
the manufacturers as the means to perform the won-
derful things. 'The amazing number of people who
flocked to the department to inquire further about
the instruments showed the value of the show win-
dow appeal.
Helps the Salesmen.
Of course quite a number of people visiting the
reproducing piano department were the kind which
looks elsewhere before buying. The clever salesman
knows the futility of "rushing" that kind of customer.
At the Kansas City big music house the salesmen,
devining the reason of the visit, were ready to utilize
the interest aroused by the character of the window
display. They presented the callers with the alluring
catalogs of music for the instruments with whose
musical merits they already were familiar. The lists
pressed home the argument of the show windows.
SOME OF THE LATE CHANGES
IN RETAIL PIANO TRADE
Changes, Renewals and New Enterprises in Different
Parts of the Country.
The Houston Piano Co will open in the New Hafer
Building, Council Bluffs, Iowa, this week.
Chestnut Bros. Music Co., 108 West Oklahoma
avenue, Guthrie. Okla., will move this week to 11.3
South Division street, that city.
I. W. Guisinger has succeeded G. W. Kennan,
music dealer, at Springdale, Ark.
F. M. Turpin will open a music store next week in
the Long Building at Springdale, Ark.
Howard W. James has opened a radio store at
Putnam, Conn., with a full line of Radiolas and kin-
dred lines.
The Woonsocket Phonograph Co. moved last week
to 115 North Main street, Woonsocket, R. T.
Mansfield Music Co. is the new music store in the
Richardson Hotel, Greenwich, Ohio.
The Bensberg Music Shop has opened at West
Main and Cleveland streets, El Dorado, Ark.
FEATURES CABLE MIDGET.
The Cable Piano Co., Toledo, O., recently ex-
hibited pianos and phonographs at the Summer Pure
Food Show. The Cable Midget piano this week
occupies a window in a tie-up with recent trade paper
advertising of The Cable Company, illustrating eight
places where the piano may be used to advantage.
CAFE HANDLES PIANOS.
The American Cafe, Martin, Tenn., has taken over
the agency for the Edison phonograph and piano.
They have a good stock of sheet music and will
handle the latest sheet music at all times. This ar-
rangement followed the moving of the Fowler Music
Store to Tiptonville.
HOLDS ANNUAL OUTING.
D. H. Holmes Co., Ltd., Canal street. New Or-
leans, following a regular custom at this department
store, observed August 22 as a holiday for the em-
ployees. This was the seventeenth annual outing
and was held at Biloxi, Miss.
S. Ernest Philpitt & Son, 444 Central avenue, St.
Petersburg, Fla., is featuring the latest Victor rec-
ords and finest models in Victrolas.
RADLE TONE The Musician's Delight
Whenever yoti hear the name RADLE you immediately
think of a wonderful tone quality, durabili y and design.
Musicians insist on RADLE
New Adam Schaaf Bufldlnfi,
F. RADLE, Inc.
Est. 1850.
609-11 W. 36th St., New York City
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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