MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
10 Cents a Copy
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 1927
AGITATING CAUDAL APPENDAGE
In Other Words, "Should the Tail Wag the
Dog, or Should the Dog Wag the Tail," Is
Subject of Frank J. Bayley's Speech
to Music Industries Committee.
DISCUSSION OF A FREAK
And He Styles It "A Philosophical Essay on the
Dog," with the Faithful Friend of Man Used
to Typify the Piano Industry and Trade.
Frank J. Bayley, of Detroit, came to Chicago this
week to attend the Music Industries Committees
meetings and to repeat his position on piano promo-
tion, and especially as regards the workings of the
Piano Manufacturers' National Association Com-
mittee. Presto-Times presents herewith Mr. Bayley's
speech made at the meeting of the Board of Gover-
nors, in which the Detroit gentleman made it clear
that he had no axe to grind and that he is not look-
ing for any office or job at the hands of the music
industries convention. All the job he wants, Mr.
FRANK J. BAYI.KY.
Bayley says, is his own business in his own town of
Detroit.
Comments on His Attitude.
Mr. Bayley's use of keen satire, which he uses as
his weapon to defend his principle, will be appreci-
ated. He admits that he may, and probably will,
have a lot of opposition, but if he is wrong he says
he would like to have some one "show him" how and
why. "At any rate, he says, "I am aiming at no
one in particular and my motive is purely construc-
tive." Mr Bayley styles his speech "a philosophical
essay on the dog," and its general caption is "Should
the Tail Wag the Dog, or the Dog Wag the Tail?"
Mr. Bayley's Essay.
The question might be answered very quickly
were this an ordinary dog and were it not for the
added complication that the dog, about which I shall
speak, appears to have several tails. Paleontologists
inform us that the dog has a remote ancestry, and
Xature has been striving for several million years to
produce for us an efficient dog. Evolution "has fol-
lowed the law of the survival and development of the
tittest and we now have a creature with one head
and one tail, the head governing the body and the
body wagging the tail. We can always learn from
.Nature, and our observation shows us that a normal,
healthy dog functions creditably with one bead and
wagging one tail.
However, the dog of which I speak, the Piano
Industry, is a sort of a freak. We can scarcely even
detect a head, and note several tails flopping inde-
pendently. We have a Chamber, or brain and nerve
center, but it has functioned as a sort of hump worn
on the back; thus the dog has floundered around
aimlessly and little has been accomplished for the
promotion of the Piano Industry. The tail is the
manifestation of the dog's activity, but it seems in
our great industry that everyone is hitching on a tail
and attempting to wag the dog. For instance; take
the case of stamps; we have Chamber stamps, Mer-
chants' Association stamps; Piano Promotion stamps,
Ohio Association stamps and someone has even
suggested that we have Cheese-hound stamps.
Tail Number One.
The first tail that comes to my mind is the fifty
activities of the Chamber of Commerce; the second
tail, that of the Merchants' Association, which has
seventeen activities; the third tail that of the Ohio
x\ssociation, with fifteen activities; and now we are
sprouting a fourth tail, that of the National Promo-
tion Plan, by a group of manufacturers which, if we
are to believe all its advance press-agency work,
promises to be of "stupendous magnitude," involving
some thirteen activities. Thus we shall have ninety-
live activities. Who is there that believes we can
efficiently carry on ninety-five activities? Is it not
obvious that two or three good activities, properly
handled, will produce greater and better results than
one hundred, poorly handled?
Personally, I have always thought the Chamber
should be the head of our dog in practice, but since
it is such only in name I am convinced the Merchants'
Association should promote and foster such activi-
ties as are purely merchants' work, such as depend
entirely upon the direct contact of the merchants in
their local communities. Let us not bother about the
fleas; all dogs have fleas. "The dog licks the hand
that feeds it." Therefore, the National Association
must provide activities that not alone appeal to the
merchants, but those that really depend upon mer-
chant organizations for their execution. Thus only
can we place the National Merchants' Association in
its "place in the sun." The one hundred activities are
undoubtedly all excellent, but let us choose from this
diversified list only those in which the mediants are
directly interested, with which we can weld a strong,
enthusiastic, united Merchants' Association.
Concentration Needed.
I suggest we concentrate all our energy upon three:
three that DO promote the sale of pianos and are of
inestimable benefit to the merchants—ones that DO
produce business and profits that we can actually
count. I refer to:
1—Group Instruction;
2—Piano Playing Contests;
3—Tie-up local advertising.
Each one of these would be incomplete without the
other and, taken together, constitutes a complete
promotion plan for the merchants of any community.
Group instruction on the piano for school children
is a promotion movement for the piano in that it
provides the facility for starting the child in a knowl-
edge of the piano. The piano playing contest focuses
widespread attention and excites public interest in the
child playing the piano.
Thus, one depends upon the other, the facility with-
out the interest, or the interest without the facility
is each ineffective. Likewise, if the merchants, then,
do not cash-in on the promotion by means of adver-
tising their merchandise in a hook-up campaign, the
results for them fall far short of the possibilities thus
created. Is it not obvious that the merchants have
the local contacts and knowledge of their own pecu-
liar political and civic conditions, without which it is
impossible to get anywhere?
Commendably Liberal.
The group of piano manufacturers who are gener-
ous and loyal enough to subscribe $200,000 for a
national advertising campaign, for the benefit of
the whole industry, cannot be too highly commended,
and it would be most ungracious in the merchants
not to demonstrate their deep appreciation by extend-
ing complete and enthusiastic cooperation.
However, do we merchants require the services of
an advertising employe to do our work for us? Is
the National Association so incompetent to organize
its own members into local and state associations that
it requires the services of an outside advertising
agency to do its work at $30,000 per?
T do not believe it; nor do you. I refer to the
fact that the man placed in charge of this advertising
plan has recently announced his intention, not only
of executing his carefully prepared advertising cam-
paign, but of actually going outside his professional
$2 The Year
experience to engage in work of which he boasts he
has no knowledge. Why?
This man recently announced before the Chicago
Piano Club that "he is a stranger to the piano busi-
ness"; then, proving it to the satisfaction of all, by
stating that, in using his head the past year, he has,
unassisted, evolved the startling plan of "giving free
music lessons with the sale of each piano," I can
imagine him working another year and producing the
novel idea of adding a piano-lamp. True, he is learn-
ing fast, but, I am not yet convinced that he has
progressed far enough, at this stage, to run the
whole industry.
Ideas Needed.
The Chamber has compiled an incomplete booklet
on the Piano Playing Contest. It adds one new idea,
that of recommending the restriction of the pieces
of music to be played by the children. This fact,
alone, demonstrates its total lack of grasp of the
whole idea, since, being publicity, the success depends
upon the number of entries, and any rule tending
to lessen the number cuts down public interest and
defeats its own purpose.
Mr. Boykin, in his laudable enthusiasm, announces
that he, also, will issue a booklet. This gentleman
may be a good advertising man, but publicity and
advertising are as different as medicine and law, and
I do not think he is.as well fitted for this service
as the Chamber, which, at least, is presumed to know
the piano business.
Does it not occur to you that our dog needs organ-
izing? Why do we have the Chamber, the National
Association, the Ohio Association and now the
"gigantic" Promotion plan, all with separate funds
and organizations for doing the same work? Why
do we require four booklets describing the piano
playing contest and four fountain-heads for group
instruction? Why one hundred activities? Why this
seeming jealousy and lack of mutual confidence?
Why is there only forty per cent of the manufacturers
in the Chamber? Why does a group find it neces-
sary to go to an advertising agency for assistance?
Did Mr. DeRochemont discover Mr. Boykin, or did
Mr. Boykin discover Mr. DeRochemont? Mr. Boy-
kin informs us that, in his estimation, $200,000 is a
most unusually fat contract, thus we cannot help but
admire him in wishing to make good and making a
"trans-continental tour to get suggestions from the
dealers."
The Playing Contest.
The piano playing contest is acknowledged to be
the best available promotion plan. It was invented,
put in operation and brought to a successful working
model by merchants. It is copyrighted and con-
trolled by the National Association for the use and
benefit of the merchants and thus far, some twenty-
odd cities have utilized this service and are well
advanced in their plans for the approaching season.
The group instruction was first taken up and fos-
tered by the National Association, beginning early in
last year's administration, through President Henry
Weisert, with great success.
Therefore, I propose that the Merchants Associa-
tion use the Piano Playing Contest and Group
Instruction as exclusive and primary activities, fos-
tered and coordinated from the office of the executive
secretary, which is now supported by the Association
stamps. I should increase and extend the service
and provide for the expense by licensing each contest,
charging a nominal fee, thus working with the local
and state associations, extending assistance and utiliz-
ing the experience of all for the benefit of each,
organizing state contests with finals at state conven-
tions and with a grand final for the Child Champion-
ship Piano Player of America at the National Con-
vention each year, utilizing the tremendous oppor-
tunities for national publicity for the piano that
thus becomes possible.
Here is a concrete, workable merchants plan of
promotion that will organize the whole country into
strong local and state units and weld the whole into a
grand National Music Merchants' Association of
America, with tremendous power and influence for
the benefit of the whole industry.
WM. H. MANN IN EGYPT.
President Wm. H. Mann, of the Chase-Hackley
Piano Co., whose residence is in Pasadena, Cal., is
enjoying a tour of the ancient lands. When last
heard from he was in Cairo, Egypt. Mr. Mann gives
very little attention to the piano business, his interests
being largely in western mines. Meanwhile Secretary
Atherton looks after the piano industry at Muskegon,
Mich.
MUSIC HOUSE DESTROYED.
The Fisher Piano House, Valparaiso, Ind., was
among the retail stores destroyed recently when a
fire destroyed a business block in the heart of the
town, causing damage estimated at $150,000.
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