PRESTO-TIMES
The American Music Trade Weeklj
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DAN I ELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT •
Editor*
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com*
merclal Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Post Office. Chicago, Illinois, under Act of Marcn 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign. |4.
Payable in advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, CuDa 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.
February 19, 1927.
more because some of the high class manu-
facturers have adopted the many-name plan
of doing business. But, whatever the cause,
it remains as true today as ever that a good
name is a great asset to any industry. Pianos
which have won greatness and recognition and
bear names known because of their merits,
are still the best assets and are most wanted
by the retailers. They sell easier, and there is
never a challenge by the well informed public.
The Hardman advertisement is a strong one
because it precisely fits the Hardman piano.
the Bay region. Dealers in Oregon and Washington
are also considering 'the promotion of contests along
the lines of the recent successful event in Detroit.
* * *
As long as the prospects are alive it's too soon to
say business is dead.
EDISON'S ANSWER
(From Musical Times, February 19, 1882.)
The Cleveland, Ohio, agency of the Sohmer piano
has been transferred to Mr. Dreher.
The A. B. Chase Organ Co., of Norwalk, Ohio,
has taken hold of the Emerson piano with promising
results. (An item of 45 years ago which seems like
a shadow cast before to the present time.—Ed.
Presto-times.)
Mr. A. de Anguera, manager of the W. W. Kim-
ball piano house, Chicago, was married recently to
Miss M. E. Smith.
Mr. C. S. Brainard is the author of the popular
piano pieces published by his Cleveland house, under
the nom de plume of Charles Warren.
On the occasion of Thomas Edison's eight-
ieth birthday that remarkable American was
asked this question: "Will radio take the
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the place of the phonograph?" And his reply
editorial or news columns of Presto-Times.
was:
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of pro*
"No: they ought to get on together. Radio
duction will be charged if of commercial character,
is good for current things, but what has it to
or other than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is do with music? As soon as people finish pay-
requested that their subjects and senders be carefully ing their installments on their automobiles
indicated.
they will buy more phonographs."
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
Substituting "pianos" for "phonographs,"
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the
same
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full same that a large proportion of piano men
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current have been asking. And the answer might be
week, to insure classification, must not be later than identical with that of the famous inventor.
Wednesday noon.
There can be no other invention to wholly
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
supplant
the phonograph, though it may have
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
many accessory wonders. So with the piano.
There are, and will be, more of the things
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1927.
designed to co-operate with the older instru-
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press ment, and to give emphasis to its absolute en-
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring durance. There is not, nor can there be, any-
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur-
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that thing to supplant it, so far as at present may
is not strictly news of importance can have be conceived, and much less demonstrated.
The coming of the phonograph was by some
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they
concern the interests of manufacturers or timid ones hailed with fear lest the piano be set
dealers such items will appear the week follow- aside for the newer instrument. And when ra-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the
current issue must reach the office not later dio came the same tremor disturbed the trade,
in spots. But radio musically is only an ac-
than Wednesday noon of each week.
cessory to the piano. It could have little place
in the world of music, or the higher entertain-
ABOVE THE KEYS
ments, without the piano. And, as Edison says,
The New York newspapers recently con- "as soon as the people finish paying their in-
tained a well-displayed advertisement, the text stallments on their automobiles they will buy
of which, illustrated by a series of grand more pianos." Or, perhaps, even before that—
pianos, was this:
when the roads become so clogged that the
"Look above the keyboard for the name people can't ride in the automobile for which
Hardman if you want tone perfection."
they are paying their installments.
The value of a name in the piano business
was at one time the principal point stressed
Something new again. How would it do in piano
in the plan of promotion. It is not so much business? A Rochester, N. Y., auto concern, having
so today, though it should be always. The accumulated a lot of used cars, advertised a sale to
at 8 o'clock one morning, the first buyer to
name of a fine piano is the assurance to the begin
get a used car for 66 cents, with prices slowly in-
public that the investment is a good and per- creasing till noon. Is that any better, or much
manent one. It is the only absolutely certain worse, than the scrap heap.
* * *
guide to quality in the instrument, in cases
This
should
be
a
good
for the advertising
where the purchaser is not well posted in specialists. The slogan has year
become epidemic. It is
piano matters.
- ^
the photographers' association that comes now with
In years gone by it was the custom of all a fund of $2,000,000 for publicity purposes. An In-
dianapolis advertising concern will have the contract,
trade papers to advocate, on the part of the and
the slogans are "Photographs Tell the Story,"
piano dealers, the choice of instruments which and "Tell It and Sell It with Photographs."
possessed familiar names, or whose makers
*
•
•
' i i
It is estimated that credit frauds cost American
displayed a determination to win power for
the names they employed. The piano's name business $500,000,000 a year. The music business
failures and frauds contribute comparatively a small
was the symbol of ambition, or of distinction mite to the great fund. But it is enough.
* * *
already attained.
It's easier to sell a stick of chewing gum than a
The same applies to pianos of today, but in a
piano, but it doesn't swell your self-respect
lesser degree because what was once known grand
nearly as much.
as "stencilling" and was referred to with dis-
* * *
Patience ceases to be a virtue when it permits
respect, is now a very common practice and
with the sale.
carries with it comparatively little of the some other fellow to get * away
* •
stigma which was everywhere understood in
The enthusiasm for piano playing contests is also
the trade.
evident in the southern portion of California, where
Possibly this is because the piano is more the Music Trades Association of Southern California
launched a contest along the same lines as that
nearly uniform in its construction, and still has
now being actively promoted in San Francisco and
WHAT WE WERE DOING
And Saying When the Trade
Was Young
45 YEARS AGO IN THE TIMES
35 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
(From Presto February 18, 1892.)
At the meeting of the Chicago Music Trade Asso-
ciation, held last Saturday evening, the following
officers were elected for the ensuing year: E. S.
Conway, president; P. J. Healy, first vice-president;
G. K. Barnes, second vice-president; Chas. H. Mac-
Donald, secretary; E. H. Story, treasurer. Mr. I. N.
Camp was named as the choice of the association for
re-election on the World's Fair directorate represent-
ing music trade interests.
A bit of humor, even in the midst of seriousness,
was that expressed by Mr. P. J. Healy at the Music
Trade banquet last Saturday evening, when, speak-
ing on the subject of commissions he retorted to Mr.
Reed's remarks with the suggestion that if the asso-
ciation could dispose of the subject so easily as Bob
Ingersoll disposes of Hades, it would facilitate matters
wonderfully.
A parade, participated in by 24,000 bicyclists, may
be a sight at the exposition. Efforts are being made
to bring about that result.
25 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK
(From Presto February 19, 1902.)
The Executive Committee of the National Piano
Manufacturers' Association of America, composed of
Messrs. E. S. Conway, president; W. B. Price, secre-
tary; George P. Bent, E. H. Story and A. S. Bond,
met, in special session on Tuesday of this week at
the offices of the Story & Clark Piano Co., Chicago.
Christman & Son have purchased a plot of ground,
75 by 100 feet, including three lots—Nos. 869, 871 and
873—East 137th street, New York. Upon two of
these lots they will immediately begin the erection
of a handsome and substantial piano factory, five
stories and basement.
The man who talks about the supply of pianos
being greater than the demand is somewhat mistaken
in his reckoning. At the present rate of progress it
will be many, many moons before such a plethoric
condition will be a fact.
The Lester Piano Company, of Philadelphia, has
recently purchased four building lots adjoining the
company's factory at Lester, and will immediately
commence to make extensive additions to their piano
factory.
CLOSE IT.
When you find a door wide swinging,
And the cold wind blowing through,
With a threat of danger bringing,
What's the thing that you should do?
Do you hustle heedless through it,
With no thought for other's good?
Or with care, as if you knew it
Was a duty, as you should—
Close it?
When perhaps you're sorely tempted
To give answer to a fool
With some words not quite exempted
By the good old Golden Rule,
What's 'the better way for winning
With no loss of self-respect?
How to keep your mouth from sinning—
There's but one way all correct—
Close it.
When you have a stubborn buyer,
With a will so loose and limp
That you think you'll try a flyer
In some sort of mental blimp,
What is best to end the matter
And to cinch the doubtful sale,
Shutting off some rival's clatter,
Here's the rule that cannot fail—
Close it.
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