Presto

THE NCW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY
40S660A
PRESTO
MUSICAL
TIMES
Established
1884
Established
1881
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
10 Cents a Copy
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, JANUARY 7, 1928
GLORY THE MOTIVE
BEHIND CONTESTS
Frank J. Bayley of Detroit Declares Only 1
Ten Per Cent of the Children Tested
Out in Hundreds of Schools
Like Piano-Playing.
LIKE SPECTACULARITY
That He Found to Be the Most Impelling Motive
with Parents and Children to
Push for Winning.
By HENRY MacMULLAN.
There are secret motives in all parents and school
children that not one school teacher in a hundred
thousand knows about or would comprehend if told
about them. And there are men and women outside
the teaching profession who know what a boy or
bric-a-brac, suburban lots and lately even clothing
among the installment payments.
"Because this is the age of automatics, the playing
of the piano does not appeal to the child; he gets
his music by means of the phonograph and radio and
his rides in an automobile. His toast is crisped on
the table in an electric heater and he gets his warmth
in winter at the radiator. So in studying children, I
found that there was another way to interest them
in something that appealed to them—it was the
spectacular.
Proud to Be Feted.
"To become the champion piano player of a school
or even champion of a city was not enough of an in-
ducement in these days of ultra-stunts to please either
the boy or girl or the parents; but to be paraded, to
be introduced to assembled hundreds of thousands
from a street platform; to be crowned publicly as
princess and presented with a gilt sword as prince
by the governor of a great state or the mayor of a
great city—ah! that was something worth striving
for! Glory! Fame! Publicity!
Piano Retrieval.
"I believe that the piano will commence to come
back within the next five years but will require a
whole lot of assistance from the dealers, because the
piano is the cultural and the basic musical instrument.
The next question is how can the association ap-
proach the problem? 1 say by popularizing the use
of the piano. The use and future of the piano lies
with the rising generation. From the first I have
labored to popularize piano-playing by school chil-
dren, and so invented the piano-playing contest as a
public and parochial school activity.
"My investigations disclosed that piano playing is
not popular with children—that less than ten per
cent of children want to play the piano. I have ob-
served that the honor of being champion piano player
of the city has little attraction for the ordinary child.
But the glory of being acclaimed as champion before
an assemblage of hundreds of thousands, aye, they
will strain every nerve to win that distinction!''
Mr. Bayley is already planning a greater campaign
for this year.
$2 The Year
PLANS OF PIANO TUNERS
ASSOCIATION FOR 1928
In a Statement President Chas. Deutschmann
Sets Forth Cheerful Plans for the
New Year.
In a letter dated December 20, which, like many a
letter mailed about that time, was delayed in the
mails, Chas. Deutschmann, president of the National
Association of Piano Tuners, Inc., makes the fol-
lowing purposeful statement:
"The National Association of Piano Tuners, Inc.,
can report a very successful year for 1927, and our
program for 1928 will run along the same line. First,
to cultivate a stronger cooperative spirit between
TRIBUTE FOR MATT KENNEDY.
FRANK J. BAYLEY.
girl likes better than does any school teacher, so
classified. FYank J. Bayley of Detroit, piano man
and piano-contest promoter, is an observing man who
knows a whole lot about children and incidentally
quite a lot about the average parent.
He observed minutely a long time before starting
his first piano contest in Detroit; he noted that nature
is manifold and her cards multitudinous and that her
duplicates are scattered about in the most inconspicu-
ous places and in the plainest of the homes.
Mr. Bayley Interviewed.
"Most associations are for the purpose of policing
the trade—their own members," said Mr. Bayley
when asked for an interview. "In spite of associa-
tions and the expenditure of large sums of money,
the piano business got in a very bad way some three
years ago. The manufacturers became helpless, the
dealers were helpless.
"Investigation proved that the piano business had
lost out for several reasons. At first the piano used
to be a mark of culture; it showed the state of the
family—its standing in the community. It was the
only artistic article of furniture sold on the monthly
payment plan for family use and installed proudly in
the music room.
Rivals for Installments.
"But today it has more than 100 competitors in the
installment field. There is the vacuum carpet cleaner,
the washing machine, the radio set, refrigeration out-
fit, the telephone, the automobile, furniture and
Matt. J. Kennedy is rounding out a quarter of a
century in his present location in the Republic Build-
ing, after a life-time association with the music in-
dustry, says the Columbian. He is the proprietor of
the Sonora Music Shop on the fifth floor of the
building at 209 South State Street. After several
years on the road, Mr. Kennedy established his own
business, keeping step with each new development
in the musical world, and was among the first to
recognize the revolutionary influence of radio on
the industry. He has been active in all of the trade
organizations, md has a gold medal given him by the
Chicago Piano Club for his good work in promoting
that organization.
G. F. JOHNSON, TOASTMASTER.
G. F. Johnson of the G. F. Johnson Piano Co. of
Portland, Ore., was the toastmaster at a banquet
given at the Hotel Portland in that city December 20,
when more than one hundred prominent musicians
and music patrons assembled to give honor to E.
Robert Schmitz, French pianist and international
president of the Pro-Musica, who was in Portland as
the guest artist of the Portland symphony orchestra
at their concert December 19, when he played two
numbers with the orchestra, which was directed by
William van Hoogstraten, its conductor.
THE GULBRANSEN TIE-UP.
The Gulbransen Co., Chicago, has issued a useful
booklet to aid dealers in taking advantage of the
Gulbransen January Tie-up Plan which is largely
advertised. It includes pictures of store and window
displays with instructions for their arrangement and
also cut of window shops, advertisements and letters
for prospects. Accompanying the booklet is an
order blank on which the dealer may check off his re-
quirements.
CHANGE OF NAME ANNOUNCED.
The secretary of state has announced that the
Bennett Organ Company, 4401-03 Third avenue,
Rock Island, 111., has changed its name to the Rock
Island Organ Company. No other changes in the
firm were reported.
CHAS. DEUTSCHMANN.
manufacturers and merchants and service men of the
piano industry. Second, to continue our educational
program in regard to the care of the piano, and third,
to emphasize as strongly as we can to have mer-
chants junk trade-ins which cannot be put in good
playable condition so as to be worth something as
a musical instrument.
"A fourth purpose is to interest all piano tuners in
the objects and aims of the association and make
every effort to induce them to become members. A
fifth is to put our best efforts forward to bring
to fruition our promotional campaign which was so
carefully outlined and discussed at our last conven-
tion.
"This is our general plan for 1928."
The members of the National Association of Piano
Tuners have been invited to suggest a slogan which
will present in a few words the character and pur-
poses of the association. In an announcement this
is said:
"The N. A. of P. T. believes that if it had a
slogan which would permanently fix in the minds of
piano owners the need and importance of regular
tuning, and if it were broadcast with energy and fre-
quency that in time it would create a very noticeable
increase in the demand for tuning.
"It further believes that somewhere in the profes-
sion there is a mechanic of words who can give us
just what is needed as a slogan.
"The slogan must not exceed ten words, and it
should stress the importance of regular and frequent
tuning. The National office offers a cash prize of
twenty-five dollars to the tuner whose slogan is
selected, the selection to be made by a committee of
three judges nationally known in the trade and music
circles. All tuners whether members of the N. A.
of P. T. or not may enter the contest and there
will be no limit to the number of slogans one tuner
may submit.
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