MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
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CHICAGO, SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1928
SIGNS OF SPRING
IN NEW YORK CITY
Stores Suggest Assurances of Dealers That a
Lively Piano Business of a Seasonable
Character Is at Hand and Factories
Give Other Evidences.
AROUND THE FACTORIES
Cheerlul Anticipations Are. Heard from the Men Who
Make the Piano and Statements Are Supported
by Shipping Room Figures.
By HENRY MAC MULLAN.
As the month of March advances towards the offi-
cial date of spring's opening, the retail piano husiness
gives a more seasonahle representation of what spring
husiness should be. That character is denoted in
the redecorating of warerooms and special a'lure-
ments in show windows of music stores. Any time is
a geod time to show the artistic Period models, but
for two weeks past the tasteful designs seem to be
more in evidence in the piano house displays.
Of course the most convincing evidences of the
spring awakening are given by the piano factories,
where the shipping rooms present the most undoubt-
able signs. The make-up of the shipments express
the fact that the small grand continues to hold favor
with the buyers.
Gordon Campbell on Production.
"My idea of distribution," said Gordon Campbell
of the Rrambach Piano Company, New York, to the
Presto-Times correspondent, "is 350,000 pianos a
year
the division would be 200,000 new instruments and
150.000 used ones."
"Do you think there were more than 175,000 pianos
manufactured in this country in 1927?" he was asked
"I do not," replied Mr. Campbell. "Now, in regard
to the propriety of dealers, my observations show
that only one piano dealer can prosper in a town of
10,000 inhabitants; two can do very well in a town of
25,000. Of course, there are generally others who
sell a few violins, accordions and what not, but I have
in mind piano dealers. The retail business here in the
East has been through some tight places during the
winter, but it seems now that the tide has turned
toward better trade."
Mr. Campbell believes the larger concerns in the
piano manufacturing business, as in every other line,
are the fittest for survival and expansion, and cited
in proof the keen rivalry in the automobile business
that is shoving the larger firms farther and farther
into the foreground.
Mr. Campbell's father, Mark P. Campbell, was in
California when the reporter called, but Gordon
Campbell had nothing to say of the results of his
father's activities there or of the general significance
of the chief's trip. After this brief interview, Gordon
Campbell hurried out of the office to catch a Penn-
sylvania train for Phi'adelphia.
American Piano Supply Co. Moves.
A sign on the door of the former headquarters of
the American Piano Supply Company, 110-112 East
13th street, New York, informs the caller that the
company has just moved to the sixth floor of the
I lammacher, Schlemrr.er & Co. building, at 102 East
13th street.
Wanamaker Was Piano Man, Too.
The death of Rodman Wanamaker, aged 65 years,
head of the Wanamaker stores, New York and Phila-
delphia, which occurred at Atlantic City, at 1:30 a. m.
on March 9, removes a man whose stores handled a
great many pianos in the last ten or twenty years.
Kreisler Is Also a Pianist.
Eritz Kreisler's compositions made up the entire
program of the Ampico hour Thursday evening at
Xew York. Kreisley has composed many selections,
and though he is generally known as a violinist his
piano playing has also received favorable note. His
own composition, "Caprice Vienois," was played dur-
ing the hour as played by the reproducing piano.
Several of the Kreisler compositions that had been
transcribed by Rachmaninoff appeared on the pro-
gram .
Getting Tuning-pin Business.
"Of course you know the piano business has not
been as large in the last year as formerly," said O.
Hessmer, of the American Musical Supply Company,
441-447 Communipaw r avenue, Jersey City, N. J., to
the Presto-Times correspondent. 'However, we are
getting our share of the tuning-pin business, and piano
manufacturing is on the upward trend once more."
GREAT PIANISTS
PLAY STEINWAY
Tuttle Fights Loan Sharks.
United States Attorney Charles H. Tuttle, who is
credited with being the most fearless tighter of law-
breakers in the east, and who spoke recently to the
assembled piano dealers of New York City at the
Hotel Breslin, is now hot on the trail of loan sharks
who have counted among their victims some of the
music teachers and piano workers. He said: 'T am
anxious to educate exploited people to their rights,
and I want to give them all the encouragement I can
to come to me with their troubles under the promise
that their names will not become public."
Scarcity of Machinists.
"It is very hard for me to find machinists who can
do our work," said J. Erlandson, proprietor of the
J. Erlandson machine shops at 331 West Broadway,
New York, on Wednesday. "You see," 1 make tools
for all sorts of piano factories, and the work is very
particular, many of the designs being on very special
orders to have the devices made just so. Now, these
orders come often accompanied by hurry-up produc-
tion commands, so that I need a very fine machinist
or two to help me get ready in time, and where
in all New York can I find them?" Mr. Erlandson is
not pessimistic about piano trade conditions, but he
says it can stand a lot of new prosperity.
Air-Mail Is Bottle-Necked.
Rottlc-necking congestion in large cities is one of
the world's greatest drawbacks today. Take delivery
of air mail, for instance! Your correspondent's let-
ters are mailed in the air-mail chutes here on Wednes-
day; they reach Chicago on Thursday morning at 5
o'clock. They reach the Presto-Times office one
block from the main postoffice of Chicago on the
next day; more than 24 hours in traveling from the
Chicago air field to the Presto-Times, although they
flew the thousand miles round trip in a few hours
Of what use is air mail with the alighting field miles
away from the postoffice, and all kinds of congestion
in that short distance?
"We found the same difficulty since father went
away on his present trip," said Ed. G. Tonk, of Wil-
(Continued on page 13)
Two great piano events in Chicago on Friday and
Saturday of last week and on Sunday of this week
were essentially occasions in which the Steinway
piano participated in the triumphs of the artists. They
were the appearance of Vladimir Horowitz with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra March 9 and 10, and
that of Paderewski on March 11 at the Auditorium,
where the number of those who heard him is to be
measured by the total capacity of the Auditorium,
plus its orchestra pit, plus 350 more on the stage. But
there were so many more that he will play in the
same house again on the afternoon of Saturday,
March 31.
Chicago is familiar with the great Polish pianist;
it was Horowitz who provided the amazing surprise.
As an artist he has well justified the estimates made
by Ernest Urchs of the
a r t i s t s department of
Steinway & Sons, when
he met Mr. Horowitz in
Europe last summer. Ed-
ward Moore, the Chicago
Tribune music critic said:
"Vladimir Horowitz is all
that they have been say-
ing about him, and a con-
siderable bit m o r e , b e -
sides. He is the most ex-
citing person who has sat
in front of a piano key-
board this generation."
In his report of the
concert Herman Devries
March 11
Paderewski, Galli-Curci,
of the Chicago American
Maier and Pattison
said:
"Nobody, I am
Mnreh 9 and 10
Vladimir Horowitz
sure, in this busy town
Steinway, of Coarse!
has ever heard of Vladi-
mir Horowitz until yes-
terday. The name was
m e r e l y a name, even
when the press depart-
ment of Orchestra Hall
gave details of Horowitz'
birth and education, his
achievements and success
abroad. But you may be
sure that every one inter-
ested in music is talking
about him today.
ATLANTA TUNERS' EXHIBIT.
The Atlanta, Ga., division of the National Asso-
ciation of Piano Tuners played an active part from
Wednesday to Saturday of this week at the 1928
convention of. the Georgia State Federation of Music
Clubs when it met in Rome, Ga. The division had a
complete display of piano working models, with a
member present at all times to explain to those inter-
ested the function and working of different parts of
the piano. The exhibit in the municipal auditorium
consisted of charts, diagrams, and working models of
the upright action piano, the grand action piano and
the playerpiano action, and a great deal of interest
was roused in the piano and its care.
COUNT DU BARRY A VISITOR.
Count George May du Barry, head of the Royal
Court of Music, formerly the Du Barry Piano Co ,
Seattle, Wash., visited Chicago this week as a stop-
off on his wide tour of exploitation for his "Tone-
Wavc-Dome," a patented contrivance for enhancing
the tonal qualities of pianos, and his "Music Cap," or
ear tone guard, which selects the vibrations and gives
more tonal elegance to orchestra and other music.
A KRAKAUER DIVIDEND.
A meeting of the board of directors of Krakauer
Bros., piano makers, Cypress avenue, 136th and 137th
streets, New York, was held on February 7, at which
time the regular quarterly dividend was declared, pay-
aide March 15, 1928.
When Horowitz, with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra, Fills Music Lovers with Amaze-
ment, He Justifies Estimate of His
Art Made by Ernest Urchs.
"Beside the remarkable,
prodigious, beautiful pian-
ism of Horowitz, all the
established, s t a n d a r d
piano celebrities had bet-
ter look to their laurels,
WAB.VSH AVK.AT JACKSON BOl'l
for he sets their stars into
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the dim background. He
is a flame, a poet, a tech-
REDUCED REPRODUC- nician. He is a human
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a temperament.
The appearance of the two great artists was a
natural incentive to Lyon & Healy to associate the
Steinway piano with the remarkable displays of piano
artistry. As usual, the active Steinway representa-
tives in Chicago made the musical event at the Audi-
torium and Orchestra Hall the basis for very effec-
tive Steinway piano publicity.
ADOLPH SPICKER DIES,
Friends of Adolph Spicker, aged 60, of Cincinnati,
Ohio, last week were shocked to hear of his death,
which occurred at his home on Friday. He was pro-
prietor of a violin store and repair shop in Cincinnati
and numbered among his clients Ysaye, Kreisler and
MacMillen. He received his musical education in
German v.
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