13
P R E S T O-T I M E S
March 31, 1928
ELMON ARMSTRONG TO
A. G. GULBRANSEN
commission plan. The war is over. Conditions have
changed. The commission plan doesn't apply.
"With good wishes, I am,
"Very truly yours,
"ELMON ARMSTRONG."
Prominent Piano Traveler Compliments Head
of Gulbransen Company on His Attitude
on the Salesmanship Question.
INTERESTING TALKS AT
PIANO CLUB LUNCHEON
A. G. Gulbransen, president, Gulbransen Co., Chi-
cago, has received the following interesting letter from
Ehnon Armstrong, the piano traveler, who is ac-
knowledged to be highly qualified to treat the topic
discussed.
"Dear Mr. Gulbransen: Piano dealers and espe-
cially piano salesmen, were all thrilled with admira-
tion at your advertisement of March 10 in the trade
paper. This "broadside" of a full page containing the
following is a remarkable truth: 'The Greatest Need
of the Piano Business Is 100.000 Retail Piano Sales-
men.—Gulbransen Company.'
"Shakespeare said that 'a tale speeds best being
plainly told.' Tn this advertisement you stated a
stubborn fact. You struck the key-note of the piano
industry's need. In my travels everywhere the piano
merchants all admit that you have told the truth.
"There is just one other thing to state, and that is,
'HOW' the piano merchants are going to draw into
the music arena these 100,000 retail salesmen that are
so much needed. It is beginning to be generally
accepted as a fact that the 'starvation commission con-
tracts' that the retail piano merchants have been offer-
ing their salesmen have depleted the number of sales-
men in the last two or three years. Isn't it time to
abandon this ruinous policy to this grand old industry
of ours? Isn't the solution a simple one? Could
merchants not employ the retail piano salesmen on a
weekly nominal salary with a monthly bonus suffi-
ciently large to induce salesmen to come into the
piano business?
''That inducement, generally put out by the piano
merchants of this nation, and backed up in a coopera-
tive way, should within a year or two bring back fully
100,000 retail piano salesmen into the business. They
have left the business because of the old war time
Motion Picture Film Manufacturer Gives Interesting
Information About Film Production—
Ed. Lapham Talks.
At the luncheon of the Piano Club of Chicago, this
week, G. A. Rehm. president of. Atlas Educational
Film Company, told members all about motion pic-
tures in business. "Now-a-days motion pictures are
recognized as a very able, if not indispensible. aid in
telling the story to the consumer about what one has
to sell—a timely message which everyone should hear
—and illustrated with some very interesting films,"
said Mr. Rehm.
Ed. Lapham in an instructive talk passed along
a bit of information for the music trade, valuable
to dealers whose sales extend into Indiana. "Ordi-
nary judgment notes are not as safe in that state
as elsewhere, owing to the difficulty in collecting on
them," said Mr. Lapham, who explained certain oddi-
ties in the operation of the laws there.
Gordon Laughead, who made his first appearance
for several weeks at the Monday luncheon, had just
returned from a successful trip through the southwest.
OHIO STORES COMBINE.
Work of moving the stock of the Baker Music Co..
237 West Central street, Marion, O., to the Henry
Ackerman Piano Co., 148 South Main street, in the
same city, was completed last week. The two stores
have been combined and will now be owned and oper-
ated from the Ackerman store. Lines of musical in-
struments, sheet music and other goods sold at the
Baker Store will be continued to be carried at the
Ackerman Piano Co. and the Baker employes will
also be transferred there.
WESSELL, NICKEL & GROSS
Manufacturer* of
FRANK M. HOOD RETURNS
FROM SOUTHWEST TRIP
General Traveler for Schiller Piano Company Gives
Satisfactory Report of Conditions
and Expectations.
Frank M. Hood, general traveler for the Schiller
Piano Co., Oregon, 111., returned this week to the
offices in the Republic Building, Chicago, from a long
trip which included Texas, Oklahoma and a large
portion of the Mississippi Valley.
"While business could be improved the conditions
on the whole are encouraging," said Mr. Hood. The
piano business is coming back and every week that
pleasant fact is becoming more noticeable.
"The lively dealers, the ones who never let up on
the pursuit of sales, are attaining results. The piano
business is in line for a revival and that pretty soon,
and when the good times return it will be the ones
who continue the good spirit and activity who will fall
right in for the rewards."
E. E. ROBERTS DIES
E. E. Roberts of the Cincinnati retail department of
The Baldwin Piano Company, died on Friday morn-
ing, March 23, at the Bethesda Hospital in Cincinnati.
Had he lived until fall Mr. Roberts would have
rounded out fifty years of service with The Baldwin
Piano Company, having started his career as a mes-
senger in the office of the company. He was a mem-
ber of many civic and musical organizations. Few
men in the piano business had such a wide circle of
friends as Mr. Roberts. It was a varied circle, too,
including a great army of customers of the retail
department, dealers, trade journal men and people
generally attracted by his pleasant personality.
SHOWING FINE LINES.
The Hyman H. Raieff Piano Co., rooms 500 A and
B, 410 South Michigan avenue, Chicago, is repre-
sentative of the lines of the Haddorff Piano Co. and
the Bush & Gerts Piano Co., Rockford, III., and also
of the Schumann Piano Co., Rockford.
MOVING TRUCKS
for
PIANO ACTIONS
ONE GRADE ONLY
HIGHEST GRADE
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The Wessell, Nickel & Gross action is a
guarantee of the grade of the instrument
in which it is found.
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DOLGEVILLE. N. Y.
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Manufacturer* of
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