Presto

April 14, 1928
P R E S T 0-T 1 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. 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), " P R E S T O , " Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the
l'ost Office, Chicago, Til., under Act of March 3, 1879.
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Payable in advance. No extra charge in United States
possessions, Cuba and Mexico. Kates 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 of other
than strictly news interest.
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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
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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 14, 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.
CONVENTION INDUCEMENTS
Tlii' interest in any trade convention usually
is in equal ratio to the expectations of conven-
tion benefits by the prospective conventioners.
That fact is always a spur to the officials of an
association and the out-of-the-ordinarv con-
vention programs are the results. Several
forces are at work providing" inducements to
people in all phases of the music trade to come
to the meetings at the Commodore Hotel dur-
ing the week of June 4.
"What can we do for the dealer in pianos at
the June convention that will enable him to
make more sales?" That is the motive that
actuates the officials of the National Associa-
tion of Music Merchants and the promotion
committee of the National Piano Manufactur-
ers' Association. Showing the war to make
more piano sales is considered the most im-
portant business of the coming convention.
One feature of the plans to interest the dealers
is the contest in presenting methods of piano
gi"()U]> instruction.
In fact, the main idea of the convention pro-
moters is to give the dealer who attends the
convention value for everv dollar he spends
for expenses and railroad fare. The worth of
the convention to the man who sells piano-;
will be the enlightenment, encouragement and
stimulation he receives thereat.
The character of novelty in main of the con-
vention procedures is promised by the officers
of the National Association of Music Mer-
chants. The presence of prominent men from
other phases of trade and notable men in public
life who will bring" their wisdom and experi-
ence to bear on our music trade problems is a
scheme that should add great allurements to
the gathering. Several men of note in bus-
iness and public life already have been secured
for addresses. They will provide opportunities
to the men of the music trade to hear the hard,
cold presentation of facts that apply to other
industries and from which the alert man of the
music trade may adduce lessons.
AIDS GROUP TEACHING
The action of the Hoard of Control of the
National Association of Music Merchants in
providing" for a prize for the best plan for oper-
ating a scheme of group piano instruction to
be awarded at the convention at the Commo-
dore Hotel, New York, during the week of
June 4, is an effective aid to piano promotion.
Cash prizes totaling $200 will be offered for
the best exhibits of phases in the operation
of such a plan.
The Board of Control has chosen a most ef-
fective method for extending the system of
group instruction in making; the exhibits fea-
tures of the annual convention. The plans of
piano merchants operating as groups and
those of merchants operating as individuals
will surely be incentives for similar activities.
Piano merchants generally agree that the
group instruction classes at dealers' stores or
in schools are potent for the encouragement
of the desire to learn to play the piano. And
it follows that the desire to play created in
the children results in the determination of
parents to buy pianos the better to enable the
ambitious children to master the keyboard.
The scheme of the Board of-Control should be
of great educational and stimulative value to
the trade and merchants who have had expe-
riences along those lines should provide
exhibits.
COOPERATION IS KEYNOTE
Cooperation is to be the keynote of the fif-
teenth annual convention of the National Asso-
ciation of Sheet Music Dealers to be held at
the Hotel McAlpin, New York, June 11 and 13.
The sheet music publishers' association will
meet on the intervening day. A temporary
depression in the sheet music business came to
an end with the close of last year. At the
present time sheet music is showing a decided
upward trend, which presages well for the
entire music industry. At the coming conven-
tion ways and means will be considered with
a view to further stimulating trade in music
and music books. A reaction in favor of musi-
cal instruments can be reasonably expected
with a revival of interest in printed music.
The welfare of the sheet music trade is bound
up with that of the other music industries.
The National Association of Sheet Music Deal-
ers is pledged by its constitution to the promo-
tion of music in all its branches.
The spread of sheet music departments m
music stores is a significant phase of the music
business. Of course the vast increase in in-
terest in band and orchestra instruments and.
the growth of amateur and professional or-
ganizations naturally leads to the grer.ter uses
of sheet music. The formation of new sheet
music sections in music stores and depart-
ment stores is a spontaneous response to an
urgent demand.
German dealers are having- their unethical
piano sale troubles, according to the Bureau
of the Association of German Piano Dealers,
which says that since the end of October, 1927.
advertisements have appeared in the press of
east and west Prussia, offering pianos made
by well-known piano makers at great reduc-
tions and on easy terms of payment, and that
similar announcements are being made by well-
known talking machine firms, the reductions
amounting to about 30 per cent.
* * *
The announcement of the New York Times
last week that pianos have "gone" modernistic
created curiosity as to how modern they have
gone, but not much surprise among piano men
that the pianos are included in the art hysterics
of the day. Change of any kind is improve-
ment in the mind of the ultra-modernist so
that the elimination of the grand piano's legs,
as intimated in the newspaper story, is a mat-
ter of course. New treatments in finish have
been presented for several years, showing the
use of other materials than wood veneers for
the cases and the painted cases have been ac-
cepted by the world and the public. The "sky-
scraper" treatment of an upright, threatened
by the newspaper, has vet to be presented.
*
*
*
A recent decision by the Cuban Patent Of-
fice which declared the trade-mark of a well-
known American product to be a "generic
term" and consequently not registrable under
the Cuban trade-mark law. Of course, Cuban
manufacturers were using the trade-mark. It
is an old grievance for American manufactur-
ers. When an American company undertakes to
expand its business into foreign markets, it is
too often met with the problem that another
already has secured the registration of its mark
to cover the same line of goods. This experi-
ence, of course, is unfortunate, but probably
cannot be prevented except by a wholesale
registration in foreign countries prior to the
indication of any possibility of using the mark
there.
* * *
It is certain that—largely because of the
enterprise of some of the great piano indus-
tries—the demand for artistic designs has been
stimulated. The notion that pianos cost so
little has in a measure been dissipated. The
number of line case designs, with artistic de-
tails, is increasing. And they are meeting- with
the kind of reception that proves that the piano
buying public is not all looking for the cheap-
est, but often the finest—for pianos that fit the
purposes for which they should be made. Not
necessarily many case designs by any manu-
facturer, but more variety in the industry as a
whole, and something fine from every ambi-
tious factory.
* * *
Credit is not a tangible thing; it is difficult
to visualize it. In giving credit it is not so
much what the man to whom it is extended has
done, or even what he has seemingly failed to
do, as what he is and is really known to be.
An honest plugger is a better risk any time
than a rly-b\ -night meteoric fellow whose head
may be bright enough, but whose system
scatters and weakens like a tail ol star-dust,
making collections diHicult.
* * *
The New York Division of the National As-
sociation of IMano Tuners has opened a city
headquarters in a conveniently situated build-
ing, and tuners from out of town are invited
to call, make themselves at home there. The
New York Division is one of the lively units of
an energetic association.
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