Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
are on the right track, and in time it will again
be an easy matter to finance a well-conducted
piano store.
THE BEATEN TRACK
Some time ago a piano man in a small city
illustrated his advertisement in the local paper
with a cut of a small dog running around a
big post to which it was tied. When he reached
Entered ag Second-cJass matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the the end of his rope he turned back and unwound,
Post Office, Chicago, Illinois, under Act of March 3, 1875.
and wound the rope up again the other way.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4.
Payab.s In advance. No extra charge in United States
The
caption of the adv. was: "We follow up;
possessions. Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
application.
we keep after it."
It has probably been observed that the same
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if
of general interest to the music trade will be paid for system is followed by the music trade papers.
at space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen And it's all right; there is no other way. It
in the smaller cities are the best occasional covre-
spondents, and their assistance is invited.
applies to most lines of business.
In the trade papers the editor keeps running
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the
around
the post of duty, and when he gets to
editorial or news columns of Presto-Times.
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of pro- the end of his "collect" argument, he starts
duction will be charged if of commercial character, back and covers the ground of "prices"; then
or other than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is he switches back again and tells about some
requested that their subjects and senders be carefully mistakes of the retailers, with a pleasing nov-
indicated.
elty in the way of reproducing some local ad-
vertising
in the trade. And the monotony of
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the the themes discussed seems to suggest the
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full paucity of sharp angles in the music business.
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
But it remains true that, were it not for the
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current
discussion
of the stock themes of the trade,
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
Wednesday noon.
the dealers would miss a good deal, the man-
Address all communications for the editorial or business
ufacturer would feel that they were neglected,
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
and the trade papers themselves might perish.
For it is the stock theme that interests the
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1927.
trade in any line. And, most of all, it is the
encouragement
and the stimulation of sugges-
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring tion, and the assurance that trade really ex-
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur- ists that please the average merchants most.
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that
The worst of all topics in some trades is
is not strictly news of importance can have
what
is often misnamed "news." News is as
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they
often
harmful
as otherwise. And it should be
concern the interests of manufacturers or
dealers such items will appear the week follow- sparingly mixed with the stock topics, just as
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the strong poisons are often mixed with harmless
current issue must reach the office not later drugs to make the dose palatable and effica-
than Wednesday noon of each week.
cious. And, so far as Presto-Times is con-
cerned, about the only first-class news in the
MORE HOMES, MORE PIANOS
piano trade is to truthfully say, and with em-
The "realtors," as the real-estate men now phasis, that trade is good.
call themselves—just as if piano men referred
to themselves as "pianors"—have declared
The Period styles are having the front of
there are too many small apartments of the the warerooms just now and most of the piano
"kitchenette" order. They are campaigning factories are turning them out as rapidly as
for more real homes and cozy cottages. This is consistent with high class workmanship.
applies particularly to the large cities, and the The often quaint designs are giving new life
big bond houses have joined in the cry and to trade and practically all of them display
say that they will finance no more of the sky decorative effects so ancient as to seem nov-
scrapers and homeless hotels where no meals elties. Presto-Times has illustrated a number
are served save in the miniature kitchens.
of the Period designs and will present still
The movement promises to mean a larger more of them.
number of comfortable homes, in which people
* * *
may show "why we live like human beings."
Boston, usually considered so dignified as.
And that means more room for pianos, more to be slow, appears to have brought the art
parlors of the old fashioned kind where the of advertising on the air to the finest point on
children may have opportunity for practicing record. The Shopping News Radio Section, at
their music lessons.
the Hub, has been sending out particulars of
Everything that helps along the home life, the Henry F. Miller pianos, under the direc-
and affords opportunity for the encouragement tion of Publicity Manager R. D. Elliott, of the
of intellectual development and cultural re- old Boston industry, and the talks have proved
finement, must prove advantageous to the a very effective means of sales.
piano business. The homes are places for
* * *
pianos. The dwellers in homes are the kind
If the piano industry and trade could be
of people who can enjoy pianos without danger made to agree with Mr. A. G. Gulbransen in
of "disturbing the peace" of people who have the matter of burning the old pianos, the prob-
no soul for music.
lem of the tracle-in would be settled in a blaze.
If the realtors can build more homes, and And, after all, what a relief it would be to the
give more families the opportunity to spread, business, and what a boon to the manufactur-
and furnish places for pianos, the piano sales- ers and blessing to the rising generation of
men may return to the old fashioned habit of pianists.
ringing door bells and telling the folks what
* * *
It isn't often that you see a lawyer so deeply in
they want to make homes happy. The realtors
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.
love with music as to own a piano factory. And
February 26, 1927.
besides that, Mr. Lawrence Maxwell, who died in
Cincinnati last week, owned the Krell Piano Co., and
had the distinction of capturing the largest single
fee ever paid to an Ohio attorney. He at one time
received a million dollars in a case of a big fruit trust.
* * *
According to a Berlin statistical professor, the
probable length of life a single man of 25 may look
forward to is 35 years. A married man, 41 years.
If wife plays the piano, 50 years. There's a good
argument.
WHAT WE WERE DOING
And Saying When the Trade
Was Young
45 YEARS AGO IN THE TIMES
(From Presto, February 25, 1882.)
W. W. Kimball's organ factory in Chicago is ap-
proaching completion. The building is 240 feet in
length by 80 feet. It has four stories.
The facilities of the installment plan nowadays are
such that many people who are "living on the town"
purchase and pay for pianos or organs.
The cost of a good quality of piano action is very
much more than that of an inferior one, yet to the
uninitiated both qualities of actions appear alike.
The house of H. D. Munson & Son, Zanesville, O.,
has been established more than thirty-five years.
They handle the Chickefing, Knabe and Emerson
piano.
35 YEARS AGO IN THE TRADE
From Presto, February 25, 1892.)
Chicago visitors: Leopold Peck, Fred Lohr (Hard-
man, Peck & Co.), New York; Frank H. King (Otto
Wisner),Brooklyn; Capt. Fitz Herbert Ruxton, Theo-
dore Pfafflin, E. Ambuhl (Chickering & Sons); T. Y.
Crowell, R. S. Howard (New England Piano Co.),
Boston; Benj. Starr (Jas. M. Starr & Co.), Richmond,
Intl.; Edward McCammon (McCammon Piano Co),
Oneonta, N. Y.; Joseph Planner, Milwaukee; Wm. B.
Stevens (Pratt, Read & Co.), Deep River, Conn.
The tuners of Chicago, recognizing the advantages
to be derived from "rubbing up against each other
occasionally," met last Saturday evening, February
20, in the store of Estey & Camp, and took the pre-
liminary steps to forming an association which will
do them credit.
Business in music trade circles continues at the
same dead level and from all accounts it is a very
dead level, if in fact it is not below any level at all.
25 YEARS AQO THIS WEEK
(From Presto, February 27, 1902.)
The old factory at Thirty-sixth street, between
Tenth and Eleventh avenues, New York, built by the
late J. P. Hale for the purpose of manufacturing the
first low-priced pianos ever put on the market in
this country, is being remodeled. Hereafter it will
be used as a general factory building. In Mr. Hale's
time a "cheap" piano sold for $225.
Work is proceeding rapidly on the new piano fac-
tory building of Steinway & Sons in Steinway, L. I.,
and the structure will be occupied in April. This
new factory, in connection with the firm's three large
factory buildings in Steinway, completes a plant cov-
ering an area probably larger than any other factory
of similar character in the world.
While our total exports for 1901 showed a consid-
erable falling off from those of 1900, it is gratifying
to note that musical instruments are among the arti-
cles in which an increase in exports is recorded. The
exports of musical instruments for 1900 amounted to
$2,112,516, while the figures for 1901 are $3,598,645,
showing an increase of $1,486,129, a very appreciable
gain.
SLOGANS.
Say it with flowers is surely right,
Say it with candies sweet,
Say it with anything that's bright
And makes life more complete;
Say it with Music's better still,
It means more joy in life,
With visions of happiness to fill
A world of toil and strife.
Say it with anything you will
That stirs the heart of man;
Say it with words that yield the thrill
Like those no other can;
Give us the slogan full, complete,
To ring throughout the world—
The rythmic beat of marching feet,
With streaming flags unfurled.
Slogans are hints of stir and life,
Ambition's call and cries,
Signals of progress, the whirl and whirr
Of ceaseless enterprise;
Say it with music, say it with song,
Play it with key and string,
Say it till echoes, loud and long,
Make all the wide world sing.
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