Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
a single-track mind; the mark of unprogres-
siveness. The piano dealer who approaches
the prospects along the broad lines of modern
The American Music Trade Weekly
merchandising and makes sales as a result,
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn thereby stimulates the business of his fellow
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
piano dealer.
PRESTO P U B L I S H I N G CO., Publishers.
The history of the world is filled with an-
F R A N K D. A B B O T T - - - - - - - - - -
Editor
alogies
to the piano trade conditions today.
(C. A . DANIELL—1904-1927.)
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
_ _ _ _ _ Managing Editor
Clans and feudal groups have selfishly warred
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
with one another for the real or alleged re-
Private Phones t o all Departments. Cable Address ( C o m -
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), " P R E S T O , " Chicago.
ward of arms to find themselves in a state of
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
vulnerability when an organized claimant for
Post Office, Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.
the disputed rewards marched over the fron-
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1.25; Foreign, $4.
tiers. It always was disastrous for the war-
Payable in advance. No extra charge In United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Rates for advertising on
ring clans made impotent by fool competition.
application.
Knocking a fellow dealer or his line in the
Items of news and other matter are solicited and if of
general interest to the music trade will be paid for at
piano business today is the survival of an in-
space rates. Usually piano merchants or salesmen in the
smaller cities are the best occasional correspondents, and
stinct of paleolithic man. Habits and customs
their assistance is invited.
have
changed in the passing of the ages but the
Payment is not accepted for matter printed in the edi-
torial or news columns of Presto-Times.
archaic
promptings are only suppressed. But
Where half-tones are made the actual cost of produc-
tion will be charged if of commercial character or 1 other even in the late periods of the stone age, the
than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is re-
archaeologists tell us, there was the use of
quested that their subjects and senders be carefully indi-
cated.
co-operative action that would shame some
groups of piano men today.
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.,
Much competition that is legal and sanc-
to insure preferred position. Full page display copy
should be in hand by Tuesday noon preceding publication
tioned by practice is ruinous not only to the
day. Want advertisements for current week, to insure
classification, should be in by Wednesday noon.
supposed competitor but to the dealer who
tries
the competing practices. Forms of com-
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
petition
that lower the prestige of a house
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
naturally degrade the whole trade. Square-
shooting piano dealers help themselves, their
SATURDAY, MARCH 31, 1928.
fellow dealers and the trade at large. The
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press piano merchant who evokes a good opinion of
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring his own store, produces a good effect about
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur- pianos and the piano business generally in the
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that community. The old competition is lost mo-
is not strictly news of importance can have
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they tion and a waste of energy; cooperation with-
concern the interests of manufacturers or in the trade, to attract the money possibly
dealers such items will appear the week follow- destined for outlay on other commodities, is
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the the sensible action necessary today.
current issue must reach the office not later
f ban Wednesday noon of each week.
A. G. GULBRANSEN'S JUBILEE
MUSIC ON WALL STREET
Phonographs and radio are commodities now
found in almost every music store so that all
incidents in which they participate are natural-
ly considered music trade news. When Wall
Street last week heard what were considered
definite reports that a merger of the Radio
Corporation of America and the Victor Talk-
ing' Machine Company is tinder consideration,
the fact had a marked influence on the stocks
of both concerns. Both are leaders in their re-
spective fields, the Victor Talking Machine
Company being the largest manufacturer of
talking' machines in the world.
It was the first time on Wall Street that the
music business stood out so big and prominent-
ly in the financial searchlight. Completion of
such a deal would bring together two concerns
the market value of whose securities is com-
puted at more than $285,000,000. Such a com-
bination, it was pointed out, would mean that
the Victor Company would enter the patent
exchanges not only with the Radio Corporation
but with the chief stockholders in the latter—
the Westinghouse Electric Manufacturing
Company and the General Electric Company.
NOW FOR COOPERATION
Cooperation, not competition, should be the
stimulating force for the promotion of piano
sales. The piano dealer's competitor is not
the piano dealer up the street or over the way
but the dealer in other commodities with the
power to lure the dollar of the spending public.
That the piano dealer's rival for sales is his
fellow dealer is an obsolete thought. Per-
sistence in that belief is really the evidence of
Mr. A. G. Gulbransen, head of the Gulbran-
sen Company, Chicago, this week celebrated
the golden jubilee of his association with the
music business, which really began fifty years
ago when he got a three-dollar-a-week boy's
job in an organ factory. The urge within him-
self and the nature of the work of the fac-
tory stimulated an instinctive interest in the
phenomena of tone. Studying the violin eve-
nings after the day's work at the factory in-
volved more than the common ability to play
tunes. To him the hours of practicing were
absorbing occasions for the study of the whys
and wherefores of the various sounds. He made
experiments adjusting the sounding post for
the different effects he could get.
With much instinctive promptings and early
investigations it seems natural and inevitable
that Mr. Gulbransen eventually followed up his
tone study with more important materials and
with ambitious definite purposes. There was
practically a lifetime of thought and experi-
ment back of the memorable day he rented a
small loft in Chicago and proceeded to make
the dream of a playerpiano a realization. The
subsequent events make up Gulbransen Co.
history and that is epitomized in an epigram
of Gulbransen's : ''Success comes to the man
who is willing to keep on working."
INSTALMENT SELLING
Instalment selling is a fixed part of the
piano business in the United States and is con-
sidered in the same way in Canada. The sys-
tem is in vogue in England where it is called
hire-purchase, a distinction without a differ-
ence. But by whatever name it may be known,
March 31, 1928
it is, in the final analysis, simply a form of
credit. It is not even a new form; is old
enough to be considered an antiquity in com-
mercial customs. It is new today only in the
great extent to which its use has been de-
veloped.
In this country, circumstances aided the
adoption of the instalment system of buying
pianos and other things. It was the democrat-
ization of credit. In common with other forms
of credit it is based on the expectation of re-
payment in the future; an essential difference
between it and other credits is in the method
of liquidation. Instalment selling was evolved
to meet the needs of new conditions. The
grim task of saving up the full price before
he bought his piano does not appeal to the
American. The instalment system enables
him to use his piano while paying for it in
regular periodic sums.
The instalment system of paying for a dur-
able commodity like the piano, permits both
the needs of the public and the requirements
of the piano merchant and piano manufac-
turer to be met and economic reformers who
attempt to stop the custom are trying to im-
pede progress.
The vigor, forethought and splendid spirit
of co-operation of the West is shown in the
preparatory work and publicity for the Inter-
national Pageant of Music to be held in Los
Angeles June 18 to 30, under auspices of the
Music Trades Association of Southern Cali-
fornia and the Western Music Trades Associ-
ation. The international aspect of the pageant
is assured by devoting every day to a differ-
ent nationality. That feature will be further
aided by different national types of architec-
ture in the erection of the display booths.
* * *
You cannot dampen the ardor or minimize the
courage of the piano travelers who are wedded
to their work. Periods of quiet in the business
does not discourage them but only prompts them
to more strenuous efforts and always in an op-
timistic frame of mind. In this issue of Presto-
Times the experiences and views of three active
roadmen, Mr. R. K. Maynard, Mr. Frank M.
Hood and Mr. Gordon Laughead are presented.
The first is still on his trip and the two others just
returned, but all give reports of a cheery kind
which are all the more convincing because of
their conservative character.
* * *
That the "Was and Now" plan of enticing
piano customers is still followed in New York
City sounds like a surprise. Presto-Times had
believed that such a form of the "bait'' piano ad-
vertising was one of the bitter memories of the
trade, until Mr. John I. Glynn, secretary of the
James & Holmstrom Piano Co., pointed out to
our New York correspondent that the hurtful
practice is still in vogue.
* * *
The Indiana Music Merchants' Association is
all set for a vigorous time and the number of
progressive dealers who have been appointed on
one or other of the committees by President
Moores is an assurance that the plans will be car-
ried out in the manner set forth. The trade-in
problem is considered such a formidable one that
three different committees have been appointed
to ameliorate the conditions arising from it.
* * *
When foreign markets are considered from the
viewpoint of ordinary pianos, Australia leads all
others, but not to the same extent as it did in
playerpianos.
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