MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
10 Cents a Copy
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1927
TREND OF PIANO
TRADE IN NEW YORK
Movement Created by Location of New Stein-
way Hall at 109 West 57th Street
Continues to Show Its Effects in
Determining Similar Moves.
MUSIC TRADE NEWS
Premier Grand Fiano Corp. Victor in Trademark
Decision—Arthur Hahn in West—Hermann
Irion Appoints Committee.
Since Steinway Hall moved up from 14th street to
West 57th street in New York City a retail trade
migration has occurred to the upper Fifth avenue
section, extending as far north as 57th street.
Aeolian Hall is one of the recent and most notable
of the new uptown establishments. Old Aeolian Hall
on 42nd street is now but a memory, the site of the
old warerooms of the Aeolian Co. now being occupied
by a monster Woolworth 5 and 10 cent store. The
American Piano Co. lias vacated its former home at
Fifth avenue and 39th street for a bailding farther
uptown, while other trade leaders contemplate similar
moves in the near future.
Hardman, Peck & Co. still retains its Fifth avenue
warerooms below 39th street, while Horace Waters
& Co. now holds the distinction of conducting the
only well-known and old-established retail piano
warerooms located below 23rd street.
Desert from Bronx.
In the wholesale and manufacturing field there have
been several desertions from the Bronx piano dis-
trict. The Bjur Bros. Co., formerly located on Whit-
lock avenue, has moved to the lowest West Side
manufacturing center. The Behning Piano Co. is
now located at 637 West 55th street, and indications
are that others among the well-known Bronx firms
will make similar changes in location in the near
future.
Amalgamations have been responsible for some of
the changes that have taken place in the Bronx piano
section, but other factors also enter into the situation.
Property values in the vicinity of Southern boulevard,
where most of the Bronx piano factories are located,
have risen consistently during the past few years,
and the apartment house district is gradually en-
croaching on the manufacturing district. It is appar-
ently only a question of time when the character of
the entire section will change and the Bronx piano
colony be but a memory of the past.
The Piano Factories.
The piano factories in the metropolitan district are
rapidly assuming an air of holiday activity in prep-
aration for the approaching winter season. Excep-
tional activity is evident at the big plant of the Kohler
Industries on Tenth avenue. All divisions of this
great organization are working to capacity in an effort
to catch up with orders already placed by dealers
throughout the country. Other plants in New York
already engaged busily on holiday orders are those of
the Mathushek Piano Mfg. Co., at 132nd street and
Alexander avenue; the James & Holmstrom Piano
Co., Inc.; the Krakauer plant at Cypress avenue and
136th street; Ludwig & Co., Willow avenue and 136th
street; William Tonk & Bro , Inc., Tenth avenue; E.
Leins Piano Co., Christman Piano Co., Inc., Strich
& Zeidler, Hardman Peck & Co., W. P. Haines &
Co., Becker Bros., and, last but not least, the great
plant of Steinway & Sons in Long Island City.
An Aeolian Luncheon.
The Aeolian Co., in appreciation of his long period
of service, recently gave a luncheon party in honor
of Frank E. Edgar in a private room at the Park
Lane Hotel. Previous to the luncheon the party met
in the Dealers' Clubroom in the wholesale depart-
ment of the New Aeolian Hall, where E. S. Votey,
senior vice-president, on behalf of the company, pre-
sented Mr. Edgar with a handsome traveling bag.
Those present were: W. H. Alfring, vice-president
and general manager; C. H. Adams, C. W. Browne,
Franklin Dunham, Serge Halman, F. W. Hessin,
C. A. Laurino, W. F. G. Steele, C. H. Votey and E. S.
Yotey.
The inauguration on Wednesday evening of last
week by the Aeolian Co. of the first of a notable
series of broadcast programs available through six-
teen stations, featuring Duo-Art artists, the Duo-Art
reproducing piano and the Duo-Art reproducing resi-
dence pipe organ, releases an especially helpful sales
medium for representatives of this house throughout
the United States. The first program was favorably
received by a large audience. The program was
broadcast from WEAF, New York, with a hook-up
of fifteen stations.
Strich & Zeidler, Inc., New York, is distributing a
folder embodying testimonials from satisfied owners
of their instruments. The leaflet is designed for the
dealer's use and is aimed at the reduction of sales
resistance.
On the folder are three pictures of Strich &
Zeidler pianos in the studios of Bucknell University,
Lewisburg, Pa. Testimonials from prominent per-
sonages are representative of all sect'ons of the
United States and embody glowing tributes to this
well-known line.
A Trademark Decision.
A decision was recently rendered by the U. S.
Patent Office in favor of the Premier Grand Piano
Corp., New York, and held that the use of the words
"Prenr'er Radio" for which the Premier Radio Corp ,
Defiance, O., had filed an application.
The decision affirms the right of the Premier Grand
Piano Corp. to a word covering a combined piano
and radio instrument.
When radio was rapidly coming into use the Pre-
mier Grand Piano Corp., as a new development,
manufactured a number of grand pianos combined
with radio receiving sets, and registered the correct
word, Premieradio, as a trademark in the U. S. Patent
Office.
Subsequently the Defiance company placed what
it called the "Premier Radio" on the market and
filed an application in the Patent Office. The Patent
Office in its decision held that these applications
were in conflict and that registration could only be
granted to the prior user.
Winning with Krakauer.
Arthue Hahn, treasurer of Krakauer Bros., New
York, who recently left for a Western trip which
will extend clear to the Pacific Coast, is confident
of his power to interest the dealers in an effective
way with the company's new line of Period models.
The range is wide and every model has the historical
accuracy which distinguishes Krakauer Bros, designs.
Included in the array of Period models in Mr. Harm's
piano allurements are the Louis XVI, Colonial, Early
American, William and Mary, Jacobean and Queen
Anne. His first stop was Chicago, and his latest
report this week was from Texas. Leaving Cali-
fornia, he will return to New York by the Northern
route, on which he will make a considerable number
of calls.
Hermann Irion Names Committee.
An important committee has been named by Her-
mann Irion, president of the Music Industries Cham-
ber of Commerce, the duties of which are to complete
details for the slogan campaign recently proposed
by the National Association of Musical Instrument
and Accessories Manufacturers.
The object of the campaign is to create and stimu-
late a desire in people to play a musical instrument.
When an effective set of slogans is drafted they will
be used in a variety of ways determined by the com-
mittee, which is composed as follows: C. M. Tre-
maine, director of the Bureau for the Advancement
of Mus:c; C. L. Boykin, executive secretary of the
Piano Promotion Committee; Wm. J. Haussler, pres-
ident of the National Musical Merchandise Associa-
tion; Max de Rochemont, chairman of the National
Piano Promotion Committee; C. D. Greenleaf, presi-
dent of the Band Instrument Manufacturers' Associa-
tion, and Walter M. Gotsch, president of the National
Association of Musical Instrument and Accessories
Manufacturers.
GOOD STORY & CLARK ORDERS.
The Story & Clark Piano Co., Grand Haven, Mich.,
has added 100 men to the force within the past two
weeks and orders sufficient to keep the plant in full
operation until the first of the year are on the books,
according to an announcement this week.
$2 The Year
KNABE ANNIVERSARY
IN BALTIMORE, MD.
City Proud of Great Wm. Knabe & Co. Plant
Established in 1837 and in Which Ideals
of Founder Have Been Sustained
for Ninety Years.
OTHER BALTIMORE NEWS
National P.ano Company Announces Innovation in
Awarding One Hundred Scholarships to
Purchasers of Its Pianos.
Wm. Knabe & Company, Inc., Baltimore, Md.,
celebrates this week the 90th anniversary of its estab-
lishment. From a modest shop in a tiny building
founded in 1837 by William Knabe has grown one
of the largest and finest piano making plants in the
world, a model pianoforte manufacturer, employing
the ancient and tried methods of construction.
The first Knabe piano was built in Baltimore, and
so Wm. Knabe & Company, Inc., is regarded as a
Baltimore institution of which Baltimoreans are justly
proud. During the 90 years of its existence the Wm.
Knabe company has produced and marketed more
than 103.900 instruments. Today this piano is dis-
tributed in every part of the world, and the center of
this vast distribution system is culminated in the new
Knabe tower, now under construction on Fifth ave-
inie, New York City.
The present Baltimore plant, which is the out-
growth of the tiny shop of the founder, occupies a
iloor space of nearly 160,000 square feet. It is pres-
ently to be enlarged by an addition with 74,400
square feet.
A Notable Tradition.
Of the 500 skilled craftsmen now employed in the
William Knabe & Company plant, 98 of them have
been employed from 25 to 50 years, following a tradi-
tion early established by which outstanding workmen
have their sons learn their trades. It is not unusual
to find three generations in the shops at the same
time.
An Interesting Instance.
Charles P. Vogt, recently elected a vice-president
of the company and superintendent of the plant, is
the son of an early skilled workman, Peter Vogt, who
joined the Knabe staff in 1856. John Hensel, Jr.,
now supervisor of the grand sounding board depart-
ment, began work as a boy with his father, John
Hensel, Sr., who served in various capacities from
1861 to 1902. The younger Hensel's employment
dates from 1872.
A notable present day group consists of August P.
Lamana; his son, Charles P. Lamana, and four
grandsons. Some of the senior workmen learned
their trade under famous European masters before
entering the Knabe plant. Some were August Palle
and Samuel Schmidt, whose sons hold responsible
places in the manufacture of the Knabe world-known
musical instruments. A corps of especially able
craftsmen for experimental work are found necessary
in the manufacture of these instruments because the
Knabe system requires that practically every me-
chanical operation shall be hand-work.
Gets Chicago Contract.
The Ho^ise of Stieff, owned and operated by the
Charles M. Stieff, Inc , world-known and famous
manufacturers of the Stieff pianos since 1842, have
been awarded a large contract to exclusively furnish
the Chicago schools with Stieff grand pianos. A
large number of the Chicago schools are at present
equr'pped with Stieff pianos.
Scholarships for Buyers.
An interesting innovation in the piano business has
been made by the National Piano Company, 322-324
North Howard street. This is the awarding of 100
free scholarships to the first 100 customers who pur-
chase pianos at the establishment. The children of
the first 100 purchasers during this offer will be given
free piano lessons in the National Piano Company's
own studios. The lessons will be continued until the
children are deemed thoroughly familiar with the
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