Presto

P R E S T 0-T I M E S
The American Music Trade Weekly
Published Every Saturday at 417 South Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois.
PRESTO P U B L I S H I N G CO., Publishers.
F R A N K D. A B B O T T - - - - - - - - - -
Editor
(C. A. DAN I ELL—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), " P R E S T O , " Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
Tost 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. Full 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, APRIL 7, 1928.
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur-
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that
is not strictly news of importance can have
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they
concern the interests of manufacturers or
dealers such items will appear the week follow-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the
current issue must reach the office not later
f han Wednesday noon of each week.
SELF=SELLING PIANOS
One phase of piano promotion that should
not be overlooked when the promotional activ-
ities are being estimated, is the self-selling'
ability of certain pianos. "The piano which
sells itself" is something- more than a line ; it
is a truth the correctness of which is proven
in numerous satisfying incidents in the piano
trade.
Xo matter how earnest and active the sales
force may be nor how admirable and alluring
the regular line may be, crises often arise that
baffle the salesmen. THere are exasperating-
occasions when perfectly willing- prospects
continue in an undecided mood that worries
everybody until something" occurs to save the
sale.
In a story in the news pages of Presto-
Times this week, Mr. H. Edgar French, presi-
dent of the Jesse French & Sons Piano Co.,
asks a question of a trade paper man that calls
attention to the self-selling qualities in good
pianos. In the incident suggesting the story, it
really was the photograph of a special grand
of great case allurements that was instru-
mental in saving sales for two dealers admit-
tedly at their wits end to interest prospects
insistent on being shown a piano with a per-
sonal appeal for them. But the picture faith-
fully showed the beauties of line and design
that enamoured the exacting customer.
The personal equation enters into every
piano sale and the dealer's appeal to the moods
of their prospects only in a general way. You
cannot standardize the point of view. The
piano manufacturer keeps in mind the highest
requirements of the artistic piano and strives
to meet the demands of the appreciative cus-
tomer. It is a factor in the promotion of
pianos which has endured from the first. To
make his pianos prized by their owners he
made them tuneful and satisfactory ; to make
them appealing to the eye and the artistic
sense, he made them as beautiful of case as he
could. He may not have voiced it, but he tried
to make every piano "sell itself."
April 7, 1928
pride to note what has been done and is still
being done to improve the artistic character
of the cases here. The Period and art styles
in the presentations of American piano manu-
facturers prove the artistic ability and clever-
ness at adaptation of the designers as well as
the judgment of the manufacturers themselves
to keep in advance of the modern artistic de-
mands.
Standardization has been applied sensibly
in the foremost factories but the beauties of
CONTEST SPIRIT GROWS
the cases have not been endangered by the
The piano playing contests are promised
economical processes. It is certain that—
features in the musical activities in many
largely because of the enterprise of some of
cities throughout the country and are stirring
the great piano industries—the demand for ar-
up the kind of interest that insures activity in
tistic designs has been stimulated. The notion
the industry and trade. Whether or not many
that pianos cost so little has in a measure been
pianos are sold, as an immediate result of the
dissipated. The number of fine case designs,
contests in any community, it is positively
with artistic details, is increasing. And thev
true that eventually the effect must be to
are meeting with the kind of reception that
stimulate the people to buy pianos. The seed
proves that the piano buying public is not all
must be planted before the harvest can be ex-
looking for the cheapest, but often the finest
pected. It may require some waiting, but as
—for pianos that fit the purposes for which
sure as the sun shines the crop will develop.
they should be made. Not necessarily many
And so it is in any special line of business.
case designs by any manufacturer, but more
Until recently pianos have never been pro-
variety in the industry as a whole, and some-
moted in the same sense that some other
thing fine from every ambitious factory.
things have been pushed forward. The real
need of pianos has never been made a part of
One indication that the radio industry is
the public consciousness ; never in an organ-
ized way been presented as an active influ- passing from a transitory to a settled state is
ence in the cultural training of children and the elimination of the amateur radio builder.
the preservation of the home feeling. The Everybody has met him and his presence in
piano has been permitted to make its appeal any house where you may be invited for a
through the urge of family pride, and because listening-in party is productive of continuous
of its place in the social attainments, rather static. He is the chap who wants to run the
than because it is an essential in education parlor show and delights in playing on the
and the mental development of the young. index board like a church chimes operator,
That it is not only a sign of refinement, but a yanking the auditors from a Muscatine, Towa,
necessary part of the educational equipment fiddle solo to capture an ether lost shriek from
has never until now been given great emphasis. Timbnctoo.
* * *
The contests are doing this, and doing it ef-
The element of economy enters into the in-
fectively.
And the playing contest has developed into ducements to dealers and others to attend the
other realms than that of the piano. It has trade conventions at the Commodore Hotel,
taken hold of the other instruments of music. New York, the week of June 4. The special
Bands are now forming into classes and meet- rate of one and one-half times the regular
ing in competition. The annual school band one-way fare has been secured from the Trunk
contest is now an important feature in mu- Line Associations and the various passenger
sical events. Study of the band instruments associations of this country and Canada by the
is becoming almost a regular feature in the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce.
* * *
music life of many cities and towns. Even
the humble harmonica is coming in for its
When the announcers in one hundred and
share of the contest plans for spreading music, fifty-eight broadcasting stations throughout
and prominent men in community life are tak- the day, evening and night announce the vocal-
ing personal interest in the practical side of ists and instrument soloists and add the names
music. Which means the spread of the de- of the accompanists "at the Baldwin," it is
mand and sale of musical instruments of all rather an important continuous advertisement
kinds.
for the fine piano.
* * *
It looks like the day of the music store.
The spring piano deliveries rather than the
And there is no place so indifferent to music
but that the live dealer may help along the spring orders, indicate the increase in sales in
playing contest with direct profit to his bus- the piano business, according to the M. Schulz
Co., Chicago. Urgent requests just now for
iness.
prompt deliveries is at once a sign that the
dealers are being rushed by customers and a
PIANOS, HERE AND ABROAD
confession of unpreparedness on the part of
If standardization is being striven for by
dealers.
French and German piano manufacturers, it
* * *
does not apply to the outward appearance of
Now that Belgium and France have allotted
the instruments, if one may judge by the pic-
tures of the instruments in the music trade special days for celebrating the musical joys
paper exchanges. Variety, even oddity, seems of the accordion, the British are asking why
to be the aim of the French piano manufac- England does not declare a national fete in
turers particularly. Some of the original honor of the English concertina.
* * *
models are admirable, and others are not so
good.
Some pianos had greatness thrust upon
Looking at the novel styles in the French them ; others reached out and took it.
* * *
lines naturally suggests a reference for pur-
poses of comparison to the pictures of the
The piano customer's viewpoint is of the
newer American models. It is a matter of salesman's making.
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