Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1927 2139

Page 6 Text:

PfcfcSTO-TlMES
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT -
Editor*
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrlaoo 234
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com.
merclal Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-cla«s matter Jan. 29. 1896, at the
Post Office. Chicago. ffiTnols, under Act of March 3. 187».
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4.
In advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, Cuba 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.
>•" *
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the
editorial or news columns of Presto-Times.
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of pro-
duction will be charged if of commercial character,
or other than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is
requested that their subjects and senders be carefully
indicated.
Forms close at noon every Thursday. News mat-
ter should be in not later than eleven o'clock on the
same day. Advertising copy should be in hand before
Tuesday, five p. m., to insure preferred position. Full
page display copy should be in hand by Monday noon
preceding publication day. Want advs. for current
week, to insure classification, must not be later than
Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street. Chicago. III.
SATURDAY, JULY 30, 1927.
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur-
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that
is not strictly news of importance can have
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they
concern the interests of manufacturers or
dealers such items will appear the week follow-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the
current issue must reach the office not later
than Wednesday noon of each week.
SALES AND REPOSSESSIONS
In another part of this paper is printed a
most enlightening' analysis by Mr. H. Edgar
French, president and general manager of the
Jesse French & Sons Piano Co., New Castle,
Ind. The results bear out Mr. French's oft-
expressed belief that piano advertising is
wrong where low prices and too easy terms
are the allurements. They also show the mis-
take of printing player-piano purchase in-
ducements based on the ability of anyone to
become a Paderewski or Josef Hofmann by
inserting a roll in the player.
Mr. French holds that low prices, easy
terms and silly presentation of the player-
piano result in too many unprofitable deals.
Repossessions are possibilities under the best
of selling methods; they are probabilities
where the inducements to purchases are based
on low prices and misrepresentation. People
who buy pianos to satisfy a musical desire in-
variably pay for them, making sacrifices to do
so if necessary; those whose prompting is the
spectacularly slashed price are accountable for
too many repossessed pianos. These are facts
the truth of which becomes obvious on reading
Mr. French's keen recital of common causes
and their inevitable effects. One thing wrong
with the piano business is the neglect of many
dealers to push the instruments that stay sold,
Mr. French says, and his analysis of reposses-
sion results in a large retail store, points to an
obviously wise course.
The plea for the player-piano should not
be for an instrument that "plays itself" but
for one that has to be "played." One of the
greatest delights of owning a grand or up-
right is the opportunity to express oneself.
In this relation Mr. French's analysis is
most interesting. The Jiighest percentage of
repossessions are in phonographs where the
machine did all the work; next in the percent-
age of repossessions are player-pianos at
which the player does some of the work. The
percentage is lower in straight uprights and
practically negligible in grands, which as a
rule reach people of musical appreciation.
A THRILL OUT OF LIFE
July 30, 1927.
was in part, Mr. Furbush found, a cause of
low stocks, but a more encouraging reason for
a reduced showing of pianos was a sensible
preparation for a pleasant eventuality—the
spirited opening of the fall business with period
grands and uprights as predominating require-
ments of customers.
Somewhat similar views were also expressed
recently by Mr. Elmon Armstrong, the results
of his keen observation in a wide tour of
southern and southwestern states. He, too,
considers low stocks of pianos as shrewd prep-
aration for installing big, fresh supplies of the
new, desirable models when the proper time
arrives. That most of the dealers are assured
of the certainty of a new era of liveliness, is
shown in store enlargements, extensive alter-
ations to aid in a spirited piano presentation
and in a marked spirit of assurance of a satis-
factory fall and winter business.
The disposition to reduce stocks is not con-
fined to the piano trade according to an opin-
ion of Mr. E. H. Story, president of the Story
& Clark Piano Co., Chicago, expressed in a
recent talk with a Presto-Times representa-
tive. He cited other industries in which re-
duced stocks were easily observable facts.
And in many instances the motives were sim-
ilar to those of the piano trade—shrewd, well-
considered preparation for a fall opening
marked by new demands in models, designs
and finishes by the buyers.
It very often happens that the vigilant re-
porters for the daily newspapers and the music
trade press, eager for newsy incidents at the
conventions, miss episodes of considerable im-
portance from their unusual character as well
as the personal interest they create.
On the opening day of the convention of the
Northern Music Trades Association in San
Francisco recently, Mr. I. N. Rice, Pacific
Coast representative for the W. P. Haines &
Co. and Bradbury pianos, breezed into the St.
Francis Hotel, feeling like 25, looking like 50
and proceeded to vigorously celebrate his 81st
birthday anniversary by selling a carload of
grands.
Mr. Rice is one of the grand old men of the
trade who continues to find keen joy in his
work. He does not look back at the years he
has passed but at the days he has lived. Men
THE DETROIT WAY
like Mr. Rice understand the distinction. To
such active ones, mere existence for a pro-
The Michigan Music Trade Association has
longed period is not the matter for pride ; that again ignored the conventions associated with
emotion is in the power to keep young in heart conventions. At the forthcoming big r.nnual
by the joyful processes of congenial work.
meeting of the state association in Detroit, a
Mayor's Ball will be substituted for the usual
discreet convention dinner. Instead of meas-
NEW STEINWAY PRESIDENT
ured utterances by grave men of the music
The election of Mr. Theodore E. Steinway trade, the welkin will resound with frantic
as president of Steinway & Sons, New York, dance music and the vigorous foxtrotting of
to succeed his cousin, Mr. Frederick T. Stein- the Prince and Princess of Music and their
way, who died July 17, is considered an ideal free-footed court of 428 school piano cham-
selection. The new head of the great piano pions.
house is a man markedly fitted to uphold its
Mr. Frank J. Bayley of Detroit and his fel-
traditions and ideals.
low convention promoters believe that suc-
The name Theodore in a Steinway & Sons'
cessful piano promotion involves processes to
high official is a notable recurrence that
thoroughly interest the people in pianos. They
prompts a look backward to another Theodore
consider this is affected by a piano playing
Steinway closely associated with the produc-
contest culminating in a "Second Annual De-
tion of the first Steinway piano by Henry En-
troit Music Carnival." Instead of an as-
gelhard Steinway. That famous first piano,
semblage of a limited number of diners in
built for a namesake of the new president,
decorous "soup and fish" regalia around a
was so well perfected that it took a premium
hotel table, the grand finale will be a masked
at the Brunswick Fair, an official acknowl-
ball and an outdoor expression of piano in-
edgement that augured well for future expo-
terest by the proletariat. In short, the piano
sition triumphs.
men are going to give an opportunity to
prospective piano buyers to take part in a
piano dealers' convention, thereby increasing
DEALERS' PREPARATION
the popularity of the piano.
In recent interviews observant piano men
voiced a cheerful meaning from the admittedly
low stocks of pianos in the average store. The
The music publishers believe that too much
salesrooms, in many cases almost bare of in- advertising over the radio can be given to a
struments, they understand as evidences of song and it is easy to understand their com-
preparedness rather different from the usual plaint against the managers of certain sta-
conception of the word. In fact the dealers tions. A new song—even of the best kind—
positively prided themselves in the condi- needs introduction to the public and the most
tion, which they said represented the ability potent means toward sales of the sheet music
to make a "cleaner start" when the new sea- are radio, movie organists, vaudeville head-
son opened.
liners and the bigger bands. By means of these
Mr. E. W. Furbush, wholesale manager of agencies a song may be popularized. Too much
the Haddorff Piano Co., Rockford, 111., in an- singing and playing of the song, however, may
other part of this paper, gives his interpreta- quickly depopularize it. When the public re-
tion of what he witnessed in a series of sum- acts by whistling or humming it, good buying
mer trips throughout the country. The an- is possible; when the advertising is carried to
ticipation of the usual "Summer slowness," excess, a general damning is inevitable.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

Page 7 Text:

July 30, 1927.
PRESTO-TIMES
IMPORTANT WURL1TZER
NEWS FROM LOS ANGELES
Big Wurlitzer Factory in Southern California
City a Possibility, According to Belief
of Music Trade There.
A meeting of the Wurlitzer company interests is
scheduled for Los Angeles this week. Our corre-
spondent states that this gathering of Wurlitzer per-
sonnel is an "important meeting"; that Cyril Farny
and probably other Wurlitzer high officials will be
I at?" he asked as the judge nodded permission to present. He also states that it is rumored in and
proceed.
about Los Angeles that a Wurlitzer factory will be
"On the lovely waters of the river Lee," prompted established on the Pacific coast, probably at Los
Col. Potter.
Angeles on the site of the present warehouse, in
"O yes—river Lee, a quality striven after but
East Forty-eight street. The company may add
seldom obtained, of which a thorough trial is all t^j -its present capacity at that location or possibly
that's necessary to convince a musical public of its put up an entirely new structure, in which case prob-
pre-em-in-ence and unrivalled reputation with the ably the Tonawanda, and even the De Kalb, 111.,
world's greatest artists—"
factories would be cut down in output.
"Stop! Stop! !" shouted the lawyer.
Shepard Pond, of the Ivers & Pond Piano Co.,
"And paralleled," proceeded the witness, ignoring Boston, is a Los Angeles visitor this week. Our
the interruption, "only by the ber-ight po-sition it correspondent says Mr. Pond is working on an "'im-
oc-cu-pies in the hearts and homes of citizens of
portant problem" with a leading music house in
ree-fine-ment and culture the universe over not to that city.
mention the nobility and crowned heads of Europe
The members of the Music Trades Association of
and Asia argument to convince judges, juries and
Southern California who have been attending the
dense lawyers that a good article costs more than a convention at San Francisco last week, arrived home
poor one and doesn't lose its value to the owner when last Saturday by train, boat and automobile. They
smashed into smithereens the quality remains ma- are enthusiastic over the hospitality they received
terial workmanship ree-liabil-it-ee are there—"
in the Bay City and from the fact that the conven-
Col. Potter lay back and smiled at the dazed Wed- tion will be convened next year in Los Angeles.
derburn. Billings had arrived at the stage where he They state that no stone will be unturned or no
scorned punctuation and the colonel knew that noth- expense spared to render a return of the courtesies
ing could stop him but physical force.
to the visiting members from the north during the
"Un-sur-passed in power fullness bee-uty and next convention.
ger-r-r-an-jure of tone," rolled out Joe. "World-
E. Palmer Tucker and Ed. H. Uhl both feel the
famed features of construction designed to please the responsibility of the important offices bestowed upon
ter-ue artist the wealthy and pro-fesh-o-nal in an age them at the convention, respectively, secretary of
of progress and advancement when good instruments the Southern California Music Trades Association, and
get due ree-cog-nition for attractiveness unsurpassed president of the Western Music Trades Association,
novelty and,.finished character with a dee-light-ful that they both expressed themselves as highly hon-
sense of grace and charm which no mere description ored by the confidence reposed in them by the inem-
can convey to the eye a correct im-press-ion of the bers and that they promise to give the association
bee-ut-ee the—"
their best efforts during the coming year.
"I must protest judge," pleaded the young lawyer
Frank P. Whitmore, secretary W. W. Kimball com-
whose dignity was powerless to prevent the humorous pany, Chicago, was a visitor at Los Angeles several
aspect of the incident.
days last week, having gone to that city from attend-
"Go ahead. Joe. Tell 'em about the quarter-sawed ance at the convention of the Western Music Trades
billycock and the guts of 'er," prompted a court Association in San Francisco the week before. Mr.
loafer, while the bailiff pounded for silence.
Whitmore made headquarters at the Platt Music Co.
"The pure sci-en-tif-ic and ter-ue math-em-atic-al most of the time while in Los Angeles.
lines and ab-sol-ute rigidity of the sum total which
E. R. Jacobson, president of the Straube Piano
unbiased minds will concede when examining the Co., Hammond, Ind., was a visitor to Los Angeles
indiv-idool parts," bellowed the witness, now under during last week.
full head of gas. "The patent adjustable hewgag the
automatic accumulator the ingenious tectificator the
marvelous emphasizer and general unificator which
interprets and executes and masters the elusive mys-
teries of musical interpretation attaining the personal
conception—"
"And only $500 is asked for the wonderful thing,"
sneered the young lawyer while Joe paused for a Incorporators Are Rockford Business Men
second to fill his lungs.
Who Will Move Industry There
"—dreamed of by the high potentates of art and
take it assunder and what have you? Extry vibratory
About October.
sounding boards grooved and double crossplied to
The Bennett Organ Company, Rock Island, 111.,
the pivot sockets of the patent con-tin-u-ous damper
sags reducing friction to a minimum and fa-cil-itating will move to Rockford, 111., within three months, it
the jigging of the sustaining hard maple gumgee not was announced this week by W. A. Brolin. The
to mention judge and gents of the jury the German Bennett company was recently purchased by Rock-
silver-plated double-swing bearing bar of quarter- ford interests, and papers of incorporation were this
sawed glue and porous pivots in three and one-third week applied for. The incorporators are Mr. Bralin,
Oscar Sundstrand and John Wester.
octaves finished in best Zanibar varnish and—"
The organ company will operate at Rock Island
"The witness is excused, gag him," ordered the
until a building is erected in Rockport. As yet no
court. "The jury will now take the case."
When the jury named $150 as the amount of dam- site for the factory has been picked, but it is planned
ages allowed, Col. Potter admitted that $145 of it to erect a building containing 50,000 square feet of
was gained by the expert testimony of Joe Billings. floor space to house the $250,000 concern. The move-
ment of the plant to its new home will be accom-
* * *
plished within the next three months it is said.
The fit piano man is the useful one. There are
Products of the Bennett Organ Company are na-
several kinds of usefulness, too. The trade, whether
out of its own innate goodness or in response to tionally known. The business was established in 1866
the moral revolution in business, presents a majority in Rock Island. R. J. Bennett, who now heads the
of fittest ones and only a comparatively small repre- concern, will be president and general manager when
the company locates in Rockford. Other officers of
sentation of the foxiest ones. It is an illustration of
the unerring law of adjustment to environment. It the firm will be elected at a directors' meeting to be
couldn't help becoming better. Bait ad piano deal- held soon.
The Bennett company employs 150 persons. Local
ers should notice that public opinion compels the
straight commercial gait. Public opinion is on the employes will be used in its woodworking depart-
side of the guesser who gets the lemon or the pack- ments, though organ experts will move from Rock
age of lemon drops. Even legislation, which is char- Island with the factory.
Despite the purchase of the plant by Rockford in«
acteristically slow, has begun to embody the popular
ideas and already in many states says in plain, legal terests it will still be known as the Bennett Organ
verbiage what is cold fact and what is hot air in a Company. Incorporation papers have been applied
for under the name of the Rockford Organ Company
piano ad.
to comply with incorporation rules, but the name wjll
|i.
* * *
be resumed later.
jj. ^ji.|j-;,^jj
In Willesden, England, recently, Peter Stinkovich,
an organ-grinder, was fined for failing to put his
The Garrett Owen Music Store has been moved to
name on his instrument. He didn't claim his name
a location at South Berkeley, Cal.
was a justification of his neglect.
THINGS SAID O R SUGGESTED
GLUED TO PLATE
Last Saturday afternoon the factory employes of
the W. W. Kimball Company, Chicago, witnessed the
annual baseball game between the married men and
the bachelors, which proceeded according to rule
until Martin Kinealy, a bachelor star proffered by
the retail shipping department, came to bat.
Martin, who landed from Ireland only a year ago,
is big and broad. So is his brogue, a mellifluous
drawl which peculiarly interests Gene Whalen, the
expert in brogues, who has been enabled to acquire
an added effect for Piano Club characterizations, by
engaging the young Irishman in conversation.
With the Ballingarry Gaelic football team Kinealy
did the heavy work in many a well contested game
for the Limerick county championship. In the Rob-
ert Emrhett hurling club in Chicago last fall he was
considered a broth of a boy. But what he doesn't
know about baseball would fill a book as big as the
Chicago Telephone Directory.
The pitcher put over a straight one and Kinealy
knocked the ball clear to the fence. Instead of start-
ing for the first base he braced himself and stood
stock still.
"Run, run, run!" screamed the bachelor fans. But
Kinealy kept his position, shedding genial smiles all
around.
"Get a move on. Scoot! Are you paralyzed?"
howled the enraged bachelor rooters. Kinealy never
budged. "Run, you idiot! Why in thunder don't you
run?"
"Run?" calmly queried the big shipping room man
as he spat on his hands and gripped his bat. "What
the divil would I run for? Haven't I got two more
clouts at it?"
* * *
AN EXPERT WITNESS
A piano owner of Johnson City, Tenn., was suing
the C. C. & C. Railroad for the full price of a piano
destroyed in a wreck and Wm. Silver, the music
dealer, suggested Joe Billings, a piano salesman, as
expert witness for the complainant. He had declared
in direct examination that the piano was the best
made and worth every cent of the $500 claimed and
was then turned over to the lawyer for the railroad.
The general attorney for the road indicated that
his associate, Alex J. Wedderburn, might have the
honor of the cross-examination. This young barrister
believed in getting at the facts. Angels might have
deliberated before adventuring upon the investigation
ahead of him, but he tramped right in.
"You said that the piano was the best made," be-
gan the young lawyer, "how do you know?"
Joe Billings looked him frankly and innocently
in the eye.
"You want to know how I know that the piano
was the best ever?"' he asked.
"Well, yes. I think we're entitled to know what
we're asked to pay $500 for," returned the young
lawyer loftily.
Col. Lige Potter, the counsel for the plaintiff
smiled at young Wedderburn's temerity in unloosing
Joe Billings' descriptive floodgates. The Colonel
knew their inundating terrors. Joe sold him a piano
once.
"Well," said Billings, beginning in a slow assertive
way, "first, I know what every piano dealer and
tuner in the United States knows and one lawyer
in 10,000 knows, that the piano was a reliable instru-
ment particularly rated for durability and for purity,
clearness, sweetness and volume of tone, with a scale
far surpassing any—"
"Stop!" exploded the young lawyer, "that's mere
catalogue poppycock opinion and hearsay. I sup-
posed you were an expert witness."
"So I am," said Billings blandly. "Wait till I get
to the expert part. Where was I at? Yes—with a
scale far surpassing anything else in a distinguished
line of brilliant scales with a touch like a nine-pound
boy baby, soft, resilient and as clear and sweet as the
bells of Shandon that sound so grand on the lovely
waters of the river Lee, a quality striven after but
seldom—"
" 'Bject," shouted the young cross examiner. "This
is nonsense. Nobody knows what he's talking
about."
"That's why I want to talk, judge," exploded Bill-
ings. "When I'm through everyone will be wise. Or
crazy," was the whisper to Col. Potter. "Where was
BENNETT ORGAN CO.
IS INCORPORATED
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

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