Presto

February 18, 1928
PRESTO-TIMES
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., Publishers.
FRANK D. ABBOTT - - - - - - - - - -
Editor
(C. A. DANIELL—1904-1927.)
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
- - -. - - - Managing Editor
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Post Office, Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1.25; Foreign, $4.
Payable 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 correspondents, and
their assistance is invited.
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the edi-
torial or news columns of Presto-Times.
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of produc-
tion will be charged if of commercial character or other
than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is re-
quested that their subjects and senders be carefully indi-
cated.
Forms close at noon on Thursday. Late news matter
should be in not later than 11 o'clock on that day. Ad-
vertising copy should be in hand before Tuesday, 5 p. m.,
to insure preferred position. Pull page display copy
should be in hand by Tuesday noon preceding publication
day. Want advertisements for current week, to insure
classification, should be in by Wednesday noon.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1928.
Presto Buyers' Guide for 1928, now on the press, is
the most complete book of the kind ever published by
Presto Publishing Co. Orders will be filled in the
order in which they are received. Get your orders
in now and be served in the earlier mailing lists.
Address Presto Publishing Co., 417 South Dearborn
street, Chicago.
TELLING THE AD MEN
The New York Piano Merchants' Associ-
ation took a pleasant and effective method of
tackling- the objectionable piano advertising
problem when it arranged a meeting" preceded
by a dinner on Tuesday evening- of next week
at the Hotel Breslin, to which the advertising
managers of the New York newspapers have
been invited. To add to the interest of the
meeting and as an assurance of a definite pur-
pose, effectively aimed at, Hermann Irion,
president of the Music Industries Chamber of
Commerce and Charles H. Tuttle, United States
District Attorney, were announced as speakers.
It is a businesslike proceeding to get to-
gether representatives of all the interests con-
cerned in piano advertising and other adver-
tising that may be discussed. The individual
opinions of the members of the New York
Piano Merchants' Association favor the pur-
suit of an ethical course in their newspaper
publicity and the unequivocable stand of the
Music Industries Chamber of Commerce will
no doubt be set forth by Mr. Irion in an un-
mistakable way. It is certain that the adver-
tising managers of the newspapers invited to
attend, will be given a clear understanding
of the essentials of proper and ethical piano
advertising as the piano men at the meeting
see them.
The newspapers are highly interested par-
ties in any consideration or discussion, for
instance, of the printed "bait" display ad evil.
Obviously, that kind of inducement by one
dealer is hurtful to the mass of the trade. The
average piano prospect influenced to visit a
store by the "bait" means, is incensed against
the store when he discovers the printed at-
traction is plain duplicity. But the worst is
that his rancor is extended more or less to
dealers innocent of anything furtive or out-
rageous in their newspaper advertising. That
the ethically-minded piano advertisers ,stfffer
from the reaction of the "bait" piano ads is
sure; that the advertising managers of the
newspapers have a responsibility in the matter
is also a certaintv.
THE PROPER APPROACH
"The public properly approached will buy
pianos," is a slogan of the Gulbransen Com-
pany, Chicago, that converts mere hopes into
firm convictions in the reading. A fact based
on beliefs created from experiences is ex-
pressed in the Gulbransen phrase and it needs
no embellishments nor qualifications to make
it effective. It is one of the most stimulative
sentences and should inspire every piano sales-
man.
It is also instructive in stating a require-
ment in the circumstance. The public must
be properly approached.
The approach is
proper,, of course, when the piano proposed for
purchase is one the manufacturer backs with
his reputation. The approach is the reverse
when the instrument suggested to the pros-
pect is something that lacks the merits con-
stituting a good piano, no matter how gracious
may be the attitude of the salesman. One can-
not properly approach the public with a bait
ad of allurement nor with promises that are
impossible of realization, except the dealer
who thus promises is working- for recreation.
But the essentials of the proper approach are
readily understood by the earnest and honest
salesman.
USE OF USERS LISTS
The value of the "user list" in indicating-
possible prospects for the purchase of new
phonographs was pointed out at a recent meet-
ing of the Talking Machine Group of the Radio
and Music Trades Association of Seattle, Wash.
The use of lists of owners of phonographs
should result in more sales according to Mr.
A. S. Cobb, chairman of the Group, who point-
ed out that the idea was used to advantage in
the automobile trade.
The method advocated by the Seattle talking
machine man has also been used to good ad-
vantage for a good many years by piano sales
managers. The owner of an old piano, phono-
graph or motor car obviously is a possible
buyer of a new one when properly approached
when the conditions are right.
Less vocal energy is required to convince
the owner of an old upright piano that a baby
grand, filling the same floor space, is a desir-
able thing to buy, than to bring to the same
view a man who has not yet bought a piano
for his home. The owners of old pianos and
old talking machines are more readily affected
by the merits of the new instruments. Com-
parisons are potent aids to sales. What is
viewed as an important problem is the stimu-
lation of the prospect to that degree that he
agrees to a demonstration. Then he becomes
a probable buyer. Anyway a lot of sales talk
is spared the salesman who tackles the names
in the list of owners, no matter in what line
he labors.
Chicago piano dealers and piano movers are
in agreement with the Chicago Home Eco-
nomics Council which is seeking to convince
landlords and tenants that it would be better
business all around to have the leases for
apartments date from any month. Half of
Chicago moves every year, according to the
pessimistic estimate, of the ,Chicago public
utilities. Around May 1 and October 1 nearly
ajl of the city is demanding "instant service."
The gas company alone reports nearly 200,000
changes. The number of piano moving calls
above normal at those periods must be con-
siderable. In spite of obvious advantages
suggested, it probably will be long before the
new scheme of leases is generally accepted.
* * *
The O. K. Houck Piano Co., with stores in
Memphis and Nashville, Tenn.; Little Rock,
Ark., and Shreveport, La., publishes the an-
nouncement of the removal this week of the
Nashville store to new and considerably larger
quarters at 611 Church street, in the choice
part of the city, with the explanation : "The
old store having proved inadequate for our
rapidly growing business." The house natur-
ally points to its widely known policy of "One
price—No commissions" as a prime cause of
success in its years of piano selling. The O.
K. Houck Piano Co. has made the phrase a
slogan that has advertised the definite stand
of the house in a most desirable way.
* * *
Among the promotional plans for the use of
the piano and incidentally its greater sale,
those of the individual dealers have a fore-
most place. An enlightening instance is the
result of a sectional piano playing contest car-
ried on last fall by C. J. I leppe & Sons, Phil-
adelphia. Under the auspices of a group of
women's clubs the successes of the children
have been made progressive, through the aid
of the programs of the Saturday Matinee Mu-
sical Club. In the club concerts, children who
have achieved successes in the piano contest
and in school entertainments are given an op-
portunity to appear before larger audiences.
As things now stand, nobody knows what
will happen to the Federal control of radio
after March 15, according to the National As-
sociation of Broadcasters.
If no action is
taken by Congress it will revert to the De-
partment of Commerce which, under present
circumstances, is not ready to handle it. Very
few people appear to realize the seriousness of
this situation, and the only voices heard in
Washington are those of malcontents who be-
lieve they would be able to better themselves
in the scramble which would follow the re-
turn of radio chaos.
*
*
=H
A recent statement by the United States
Inter-Coastal Conference is another proof of
the efficacy of the service for the music trade
of a large section of the country by the Music
Industries Chamber of Commerce. The Cham-
ber, co-operating with the traffic manager of
Sherman Clay & Co., San Francisco, and with
the president of the Central California Traffic
Association, secured a reduction of 15 cents
per 100 pounds on new pianos shipped by
steamship from the Atlantic to the Pacific
coast.
* * *
The Music Supervisors' National Conference
has announced a series of contests for school
orchestras in South Carolina which is an earn-
est of what it can do in stimulating music
in the South and elsewhere. The contests
will be held under the auspices of Winthrop
College, which also has arranged music mem-
ory contests, piano playing contests and other
activities that should stimulate music interest
and naturallv increase music goods sales.
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