Presto

PRESTO
BUSINESS PROSPECTS
FOR 1926 LOOK BRIGHT
Prominent Member of the Chicago Trade Sug-
gests Plan for Greatly Increasing Piano
Sales During Coming Year.
By CHARLES E. BYRNE,
Vice-President of Steger & Sons Piano Mfg. Co.
The outlook for a good piano year is very bright.
All signs point to increasing prosperity.
The record-breaking traffic of the railroads reflects
healthy commercial activity. Widespread improve-
ments in the agricultural situation is a powerful influ-
ence that will serve to produce thousands of piano
sales.
The tax reduction program is another favorable
factor which will have a good effect on business.
Progress is evident in the rehabilitation of foreign
nations.
Our country has been showered with blessings.
Its wealth and material resources are tremendous.
However, we are particularly fortunte because our
national administration deserves and enjoys the con-
fidence of the people. It is directed by men who are
capable, conscientious and constructive—alive to our
needs and eager to advance the best interests of com-
merce and industry. We are particularly fortunate
in having the leadership of such men as President
Coolidge, Secretary Mellon and Secretary Hoover.
This is a nation of one hundred millions of music-
lovers. They need music, want music and are able to
pay for it. A National Piano Playing Contest would
enable us to give them more music and, incidentally,
double the sale of pianos within a year. There are
250,000 music teachers, who would be enthusiastic in
promoting it.
Just think of it, 250,000 influential men and women
are willing to advocate such a contest in every home
and convey the message that a piano is a real neces-
sity, because it provides culture, happiness and oppor-
tunity. Why not avail ourselves of their potent
assistance?
This is the best plan to bring overwhelming pros-
perity to the music industry during the coming year,
and we ought to be sufficiently enterprising to do
something about it.
CALIFORNIA PIANIST
MAKES DUO=ART RECORDS
talk on "Real Estate Values in Cook County." His
firm is the one that is putting up the Metropolitan
Building at La Salle and Randolph streets, Chicago,
part of which is on the site of the old Bismarck
Hotel. The La Salle street side of the new structure,
one of the largest in the Central West, is to be known
as the Metropolitan Building. The Metropolitan
Realty Co. is also engaged extensively in suburban
subdividing operations.
NEWS ITEMS OF THE
SCHAEFFER PIANO CO.
A Big Surprise Is Promised the Trade in Jan-
uary When the Progressive Industry Cele-
brates Its 53rd Anniversary.
The Schaeffer Piano Mfg. Co., 209 South State
street, Chicago, will celebrate its fifty-third anniver-
sary next month, and at the same time has an inter-
esting surprise for the trade in commemorating its
fifty-third anniversary. The Schaeffer Piano Mfg. Co.
has adhered to the high ideals of its founder, who was
a German piano technician of the old school, and the
surprise which the company has promised the trade
is regarded as fitting to the occasion.
The report is made at the company's offices this
week that the entire Schaeffer line is being accorded
an excellent demand. Dealers who have secured the
agency of the Schaeffer Piano Mfg. Co. have found
that the merits of the Schaeffer line are a big factor
in profitable sales. This is testified to by the fact
that orders, liberal in size, continue to come in at
the company's offices.
The demand for the Schaeffer line is not confined
to any certain locality, but extends throughout the
country and is growing rapidly in foreign countries.
The Pacific Coast territory is a fertile field for the
Scheaffer, and the report is made that George P. Bent
has been very successful in acquainting dealers of the
fine possibilities the line possesses.
E. S. Sears, who capably represents the Schaeffer
line in the Mid-West territory, went to Cincinnati
this week, where he will spend the holidays.
EFFECTIVE PIANO DISPLAYS
STIMULATE DEALERS' TRADE
Chicago Music Business for Holiday Season Consider-
ably Aided by Allurements of Instruments.
Wade-Twichell Co., South Wabash avenue, repre-
Constance Mering, Gifted Artist from Pacific sents the Kurtzmann and the A. B. Chase line and
has made these fine pianos the center of a pleasing
Coast, Triumphs Recording New Duo-
and colorful display. C. H. Taylor & Co., on the
Art Rolls in New York.
same street, has placed a Christmas tree in one corner
Miss Constance Mering, Pacific coast pianist, re-
cently arrived in New York to record a series of new
Duo-Art rolls for the Aeolian Company. Miss Mering,
who is a Californian, has been appearing with great
success in concerts on the coast and in the leading
picture houses of San Francisco with the Duo-Art,
has been recording her playing exclusively for that
instrument for about a year during which time the
rolls she has made of both light and classics and
popular selections have attained a tremendous vogue.
This talented young pianist from the Pacific coast
was brought up in a musical atmosphere, her mother
having been an accomplished vocalist and now one
of the best known vocal coaches in the West. Miss
Mering attended the University of California and
studied piano under such eminent artists as Tina
Lerner, Josef Lhevinne, Frank La Forge and others.
During the season of 1924 she was coach for the Met-
ropolitan Ballet.
She averages three rolls a month for the Duo-Art
bulletin, and in the January list four of her recordings
will be listed.
CHICAGO TRADE HOLDS
ITS GET-TOGETHER MEETING
The New Officers of Chicago Piano & Organ Asso-
ciation Were Installed on Thursday.
The December get-together luncheon of the Chi-
cago Piano & Organ Association on Thursday of this
week at the Great Northern Hotel, was well attended.
A drawing card was the installation of the newly-
elected officers, the principal ones responding to
cries for "speech"! The new officers, as published in
Presto at the time of the election, are: Will T. Brin-
kerhoff, president; C. M. Reichardt, first vice-presi-
dent; F. P. Whitmore, second vice-president; Adam
Schneider, treasurer; Roger O'Connor, secretary.
Elmer T. Good, an official of the Metropolitan
Realty Company, gave the association members a
of its spacious window in which a diversified display
of instruments is to be seen.
The usual P. A. Starck Christmas tree, with Santa
Claus sitting on a piano stool and exploiting a player-
piano, is always an attraction. Radio, phonographs
and other merchandise are used in the display.
Witzel Bros. Piano Co., 3051 Lincoln avenue, has
made each one of its windows interesting, decorating
them with holly, mistletoe and other Christmas col-
ors. A line of pianos, radio and band instruments is
exhibited.
The Schultz Piano Co., 2265 West Madison street,
has sold the fine Poole instruments for many years,
and recommends this piano as the ideal Christmas
gift. The large windows of the active company are
arranged to attract attention to the fine merchandise
displayed.
FEATURES THE KURTZMANN.
Charles E. Wells Music Company, Denver, Colo.,
advertises the Kurtzmann as the "Piano that En-
dures," and says: "Many a family has bought a
cheap piano, only to find out that it could have
afforded a good instrument just as well. Purchase a
Kurtzmann in the first place and you will always be
as proud of your good judgment as you are proud of
the instrument. There is Economy in Quality." The
Denver company has built up a big business in the
Kurtzmann piano.
NEW PAINESVILLE, O., STORE.
The Winter Piano Company, of Erie, Pa., has
opened a store on North State street, Painesville,
Ohio., with a large stock of pianos. Hunter Darling
will manage the Painesville store. The following- in-
struments are represented: Francis Bacon, Solo Con-
certo, J. H. C. Fischer, Winter and Foster.
The Sterchi Music Store is conducting the busi-
ness at 712 Wabash avenue, Terre Haute, Ind., for-
merly carried on under the name of the Wabash Shop.
December 19, 1925.
PLACE OF UPRIGHT
IN TODAY'S TRADE
Tremendous Market Exists for the Style of
Piano Which Has Sustained the Brunt in
the Trade Through Many Years
Since Squares Disappeared.
CHEAP GRAND IMPOSSIBLE
Mark P. Campbell, President of Brambach Piano Co.,
Goes on Record as Advising Dealers to
"Sell the Upright."
Mark P. Campbell, sometimes called the "father of
the modern baby grand," is heart and soul a music
man. And when one thinks back to his early train-
ing, recollection recalls that it was in the upright
piano field. As his first love, the upright must have a
great attraction for him. Consequently, when he
speaks of the upright piano it is from the bottom of
his heart. Mr. Campbell says:
"The main work of our industry is to get music
into the home. Extremely few homes can accommo-
date the larger size grands. And there is a saturation
point to those homes that can afford a properly built
small grand. The market comprising people who
want pianos, but cannot afford a real grand, is tre-
mendous. Those homes should be sold uprights.
More Uprights Than Grands.
"There will probably always be more uprights man-
ufactured than grand pianos. Although the grands
are showing a very large increase, it is not at the
expense of the upright piano. The volume of piano
production is as great as ever. The method of con-
structing an upright piano lends itself to price econ-
omy. It is not possible to build a cheap grand piano
the same way that it is possible to build a cheap
upright piano.
"Years ago, before getting into the grand business,
it was my plan to do this. I very quickly found
out that it was not possible to make a grand piano
that was a musical instrument without following cer-
tain methods of construction and adhering to certain
procedure which was expensive, slow and painstaking
in its requirements. In fact I could not even com-
pete in a profitable way with expensive uprights, let
alone the cheaper product, until I could manufacture
from four to five times as many grand pianos as the
largest producer of high grade upright pianos in the
country.
"One of the greatest pleasures derived from sitting
at the keyboard of a grand piano of any size is the
perfect functioning of its action. It possesses a
smooth, strong feeling; a responsiveness and tone
control, that is not found in the upright type of
action. This is due to the grand's construction. But
no grand action is better than its regulation, conse-
quently it costs as much to regulate a grand piano
action as it does to build it.
Cheap Watch Illustration.
"I once heard a man make the statement in a hotel
lobby; 'If it keeps time, it's a cheap watch.' How
well that would have checked with our own experi-
ence if he had said, 'If the action does not give
trouble, it's a cheap action'!
"Every action should function perfectly and prop-
erly in a grand piano. It should be an action that is
made so that it will adjust itself with use, rather |
than made with an attempt to make it so loose in its i
joints that it could not possibly give trouble. That
would be a much cheaper method of procedure, but|
not nearly as good for the musician.
"Sometimes I have heard dealers and manufactur-l
ers of uprights state that in the past their business!
has been poor because of the increase in the vogue ofl
the small grand piano. By small I mean less thanf
five feet. This is not true. During the current
year the production of uprights will be off 50,000 in-
struments compared with last year. There will be
200,000 uprights manufactured, and only about 20,00C
small grand pianos.
Upright Still Leads.
"This is such a small part of the whole that it is
hardly a factor. Imagine—the decrease alone in up!
right production over twice as great as the total
grand production! Even if all these small grand{
are sold to customers who otherwise would havj
bought an upright, it would only have decrease*!
their business 10 per cent; whereas they are pracl
tically twenty-five per cent behind. So the blamf
cannot be laid at the door of the small grand piano.I
"The upright business is one that should have th|
closest attention, and no opportunity should be los
to sell one in a home where the financial restrictioi
preclude their buying a grand piano, in order the
music may find its way into all the homes in tl
land."
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