PRESTO-TIMES
to meet and rub elbows with such men is beyond
comprehension. And I have not mentioned the old
guard of traveling men who called on the trade in
those days—Frank King, P. J. Gildermeister, Fred
Lohr, De Volney Everett, E. W. Furbish and George
Dowling (both still in the game and going strong).
And I had several years in "Dear Old Boston," and
Life Story of a Hard Worker in the Trade am very thankful for the experience, for the knowl-
edge I gained in piano ethics, and something of
Who Has Found Enjoyment and Tonic-
financing, from my association with those sterling
Exhilaration in the Best Business
houses and men—Vose & Sons, the late Handel Pond
and my chief, Mark P. Campbell! (Ah, there's a
in the World.
man!)
I also got some good pointers in salesmanship
from the late Geo. W. Lyon, whom I consider the
best salesman I ever encountered. I said to my wife
today: "What a wonderful thing it is never to grow
Starting as a Retail Salesman, then Selling "On the old," drawing in my mind's eye that bunch of young
Road" and as Head of His Own House,
fellows, smoking, laughing and telling stories at the
Geo. P. Bent "dinner to old-time friends" at the Com-
the Lesson Is Instructive.
modore Hotel last June in New York.
On March 25, 1885, forty-two years ago, in Buffalo,
Mr. Bent himself, Mr. Parsons the toastmaster,
N. Y., the writer was among about twenty-five or Herman Leonard, Pat Conroy of St. Louis and many
more who answered an ad which read:
others. And it flashed upon me that I must have
"Wanted—Salesman, at 352 Main street; permanent caught some of their spirit or view of life, because
pisition to the right man."
in starting out for Texas this week to look the field
This writer got the job, which only paid $6 a week, over, with a view to establishing a winter home and
to open a shop there, I feel the same thrill I had
but was promised $12 a week if he sold a piano or
two organs in the three weeks to be "tried out." when as a boy I went on my first surveying expe-
Did I get out and dig? You can write your own dition. And I have only recently gotten out of the
hospital, but I sold two grand pianos—a Lester and
a Premier—and that is a good tonic.
MORETHAN 40 YEARS
AT PIANO SELLING
MEMOIRS OF E. A. FRANCIS
K. A. FRANCIS.
ticket, for 1 sold three Hallet & Davis pianos to
three school teachers, two of them being squares
and one an upright.
1 had never sold anything before, much less can-
vassed. I had been out on the prairies surveying
and riding the range for three years and went to
Buffalo to visit my mother and sister, going there
with the Buffalo Bill Wild West outfit.
Old "Sitting Bull," the Indian warrior, was on
the same train and there met Colonel Cody for the
first time since the Custer massacre.
Start in Life.
I was just turned 21 and had not seen much of
city life, so my mother and sister had not much diffi-
culty in persuading me to stay back East. I laid
aside my chaps, spurs, riding boots, with their high
heels, and the wide-brimmed Stetson, etc., and started
on what has proven to be a thrilling, interesting and
enjoyable life work. I have gotten a tremendous
kick out of the personal contact I've had through all
the years. I've met with such artists as Von Bulow,
Dr. Albert Tevessa, Carreno, Fannie Bloomfield Zeis-
ler, Paderewski, Florence Macbeth, Gaili Curci and
others. I've had more sport out of beating the other
fellow to a sale than I ever did in trying to stand
pat on a pair of deuces, and trying to look as though
I had four of them.
The old guard of real piano builders and traveling
salesmen that it was my privilege to know in the
earlier years are nearly all gone.
William Steinway, Earnest Knabe (second gen-
eration) of these celebrated houses, as well as Frank
Chickering. Mr. Keidel, the Knabe representative
in New York—Albert Weber, the Decker Bros.,
Frank Shaw—among the manufacturers—all passed
on, but the " good they did lives after them"—to
change Shakespeare around a bit.
Some Prominent Names.
Just how any one in the piano business can't fail
to be happy in it—when they have the opportunity
No Substitute for Work.
And say, folks, before closing I'd like to say that
all this propaganda, circulars and so-called "helps
to piano sales," conventions and "special sales," con-
ducted by men who don't know the first rules of the
piano game, are on a par with .the bald-headed bar-
ber selling his victim, who is also bald, a cure for
baldness. There is no substitute for work. These
grand piano sales made recently I worked on for the
last three years, calling at intervals and gradually
overcoming procrastination.
A "piano playing contest" may go over big in a big
cky, but never in a small one. I spoke to our super-
intendent of schools about one, and he replied that
"all the music teachers and music schools would be
fighting over it like Kilkenny cats inside of a week,"
that he had tried for years to arrange for credits for
pupils taking music lessons, but had found "nothing
but grief." Can you imagine the one or two dealers
in a small city getting together?
If you can, then you can write a book (fiction)
that will be a "best seller." And this is just the
rock that has so far and will still keep the "mer-
chants' association" beating the air as the majority
of the 7,000 merchants, dealers, or "what have you"
do business in the smaller cities. And none of the
"big boys," whether manufacturers, trade paper
writers, or members of the M. I. C. C. ever show
their noses in the Main street cities. But we manage
to "carry on" despite this neglect.
E. A. FRANCIS.
BALTIMORE'S BIG MUSIC
STORE, AND A NEW ONE
Kranz-Smith-Hammen-Levin Co. Has Three Ware-
rooms; New Concern in Maryland Music Co.
The Kranz-Smith-Hamman-Levin Company, large
Baltimore musical instrument dealers, has decided to
continue the store formerly occupied by the Ham-
man-Levin Company, 412 North Howard street, as
a branch store for an indefinite period. The Ham-
man-Levin Company merged, several months ago.
with Kranz-Smith, at which time it was planned to
discontinue the store operated by the former for the
past twenty years and to maintain only one store, at
Charles and Fayette streets.
The concern also operates the Sanders-Stayman
Company, former large musical instrument dealers at
308 North Charles street. Charles Levin is president
of the company and Joseph Fink vice-president.
A new musical house known as the Maryland Music
Company has opened for business at 501 North Haw-
ard street, Baltimore.
JOHN H. McKANNON DEAD.
John H. McKannon, president of the McKannon
Piano Company, Denver, Colo., died March 2 after a
long illness. He was 64. Mr. McKannon was a
native of Trenton, Me. He established his business
in Denver in 1906. He was known as an authority
on many musical instruments. His widow and one
daughter survive him.
The U. S. Forest Products Laboratory, Madison,
Wis., urges makers of benches and cabinets and
other wood using industries to buy more short length
yard lumber in the interest of wood economy.
March 12, 1927.
ITEMS IN THE TRADE
AT INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
Jesse French, Jr., Returns from West Indies,
and Other Incidents in the Stores
of the Capital City.
A matinee musicale was held in the warerootns of
the Starr Piano Company on Monday afternoon and
a complete demonstration of Starr instruments was
the principal feature. The new reproducing grand
played a very important part and was highly praised
by the audience. Mrs. R. S. Kinnaird rendered sev-
eral vocal numbers and was accompanied by Mrs.
S. K. Ruick. Both ladies are very prominent in
musical circles.
The Christena-Teague Company is conducting a
special campaign in which they are featuring the Gul-
bransen instrument. Musicales are given in order to
feature the possibilities of the popular piano, which
are proving very successful.
The Rose-Polly Technical Institute, of Terre
Haute, Ind., will open a broadcasting studio in the
Demming Hotel, which will be equipped with a Bald-
win style "K" grand piano. WFBM, Indianapolis
Light & Power Co. broadcasting station, recently
destroyed by fire, is now ready to open and has
chosen the Baldwin grand piano. The Taylor Uni-
versity, at Upland, has purchased a new Hamilton
piano to be used exclusively in the auditorium. The
Indiana Theater, at Washington. Tnrl., has bought
a Hamilton piano.
Jesse French, Jr., was in the city during the past
week, having just returned from his West Indies trip,
and presented Mr. Wilking. of the Wilking Music-
Co., with a cane made from the backbone of a man-
eating shark. Mr. French related many of his ex-
periences on his .trip and said he had a very enjoyable
time. The Wilking Music Company reports a very
good month during February, and made some excel-
lent sales of French instruments, among them several
style "S" grands.
BROUGHT FIRST PIANO
TO SPENCER CO., IND.
Items in the Trade of Southern Indiana Which
Show That Things Give Promise of
Good Spring Business.
Bert Burkhart, of Evansville, Indiana, who was
born and reared in Spencer county, a few miles east
of Evansville, recalled a few days ago that Uriah
McCoy was the first man to bring a piano into
Spencer county. Mr. Burkhart says this was very
many years ago. McCoy's daughter was the first
woman in Spencer county to learn to play the piano,
and her father was nicknamed "Piano Uriah" and
carried the name with him to the grave.
Henry Hudson, of the Hudson Music House,
Boonville, Ind., was in Evansville on business a
few days ago. He says trade conditions in Boonville
are holding up well and he is looking for a good
spring and summer trade. Mr. Hudson said, in spite
of the threatened strike of the coal miners in southern
Indiana after the first of April, that he is looking for
a very good business.
Miss Dilday. who is connected with the Harding &
Miller Music Company of Evansville, took part in
a recent entertainment at the West Side Nut Club,
playing the harmonica. She made a decided hit. W.
B. Miller, of the Harding & Miller Music Company,
is expected home from Miami, Fla., in a short time,
where he and his wife have spent several weeks.
A. J. Barclay, manager of the Warren Music Com-
pany of Evansville, and one of the pioneer dealers of
that city, is looking forward to the spring ceremonial
of Hadi Temple of Shriners of that city which will
be held in April.
VETERAN SALESMAN DIES.
Amon Buckley, a veteran of thirty years' service in
the retail piano department of Hardman, Peck & Co.,
New York, died last week from heart disease. Mr.
Buckley, whose successful activities extended over
the Metropolitan district, is survived by a son.
SCHILLER PIANO FOR SCHOOLS.
The Schiller Piano Company of Oregon, 111.,
through its Chicago office in the Republic Building,
State and Monroe streets, has again received orders
from the Chicago School Board for the little Schiller
School pianos, otherwise known as the Baby LTpright.
In seasons past Schiller pianos have been selected
each year for the Chicago schools, and the latest
requisition, on this year's orders, is for a supply of
small uprights for some of the new school buildings
which are now being occupied.
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