12
April 28, 1928
PRESTO-TIMES
TRADE EVENTS IN
NEW YORK FIELD
Spirit of the Trade Shows Evidences of the
Spring Feeling of Endeavor for Sales—
Plans to Add to the Interest in
Pianos in Evidence.
By HENRY MAC MULLAN.
1 leads of the Steinway & Sons organization here
are delighted over the beautiful pictorial ad. by the
Shackleton Piano Co., exclusive Steinway representa-
tives. Strand Theater building, 324 West Chestnut
street, Louisville, Ky., that appeared in the Sunday
Courier-Journal, that city, this week. It shows a
Steinway Grand in a modern room in the home of
Mr. and'Mrs. T. P. Taylor, 59 Hill road, Castlewood,
the ad. saying: "A tastefully furnished living room
in which the simplicity of a Steinway drawing room
Grand blends perfectly."
An Active Welte-Mignon Salesman.
H. W, Ashmore, salesman at the Welte-Mignon
studios, Welte headquarters, second floor of 665 Fifth
avenue, New York, is an active piano man of ripe
experience, and just now he is associating pretty
closely with William C. Heaton, general wholesale
sales manager. T. Lyttle, general manager, is out of
the city, but is expected back next week. Mr. Heaton
is shaping up things for some big runs of business
later on.
Mr. Ashmore said: "My work will require me to
sell Welte Reproducing Grands and Welte regular
hand-played grands, instruments with which I have
had long familiarity and take great pride in recom-
mending, knowing their wonderful merits."
R. W. Lawrence Is President.
Richard W. Lawrence, formerly president of the
Autopiano Company, was elected president of the
National Republican Club this week in New York.
He was unopposed for president. Mr. Lawrence was
formerly Republican leader of the Bronx.
Ernest Urchs on Committee.
Ernest Urchs of Steinway & Sons is a member of
the committee which arranged the music program
for the Parents' Exposition to be held at the Grand
Central Palace, Xew York, on Thursday night of this
week. The chairman of this committee is Dr. David
Stanley Smith, dean of the Yale University School of
Music.
To Choose Winner.
Walter Damrosch has sailed from New York tor
Europe as American delegate at the meeting of the
International Jury to select the grand prize winner
in the International Schubert contest for prizes of
$20,000 contributed by the Columbia Phonograph
Company. There are forty-four American manu-
scripts among 250 received.
Story & Clark Removal Sale.
Story & Clark held a removal sale on Friday and
Saturday, April 20 and 21. This sale was for both
stores—the one at 33 West 57th street, New York,
and the other at 282 Livingston street, Brooklyn. In
part the announcement read: "Story & Clark, in
business since 1857, are going to move from their
THE LATEST JESSE
FRENCH PRODUCTIONS
57th street store as well as from their Brooklyn
store, therefore a genuine closing-out sale of every one
of the remaining pianos, player-pianos and grand
pianos at prices we believe unheard of heretofore or
probably never to be duplicated."
Welte Factory Busy.
"Our Welte factory in the Bronx is running full
tilt, building fine grands and reproducing grands," said
William C. Heaton, wholesale sales manager of the
Welte Mignon Corporation at the offices, 665 Fifth
avenue. "We are preparing to take orders on a large
scale and to push for business."
Robert T. Lytle and Messrs. Webster and Fletcher
of the Welte Mignon Corporation were on a trip into
the Central West getting legal matters fixed up in
connection with the launching of the larger Welte
organization when Presto-Times man called. These
gentlemen—the powers that be in the new organi-
zation—are all business men of vast experience and,
what is best of all, they are very enthusiastically
going at the job of putting lots of new life into the
old Welte industry. W. C. Heaton, sales manager,
was never more eager in his work than he is today,
so altogether there is plenty of spirit in the new
company.
Alfred R. Spoerl on Gyp Selling.
About as fine a display of excellent pianos as can
be seen in the heart of New York is the exhibit in
the warerooms of Paul G. Mehlin & Sons, 509 Fifth
avenue, where Alfred R. Spoerl is manager. Here are
to be seen grand, inverted grand and playerpianos
and electric reproducing pianos of the stylish Mehlin
makes, produced in their factory at West New York,
N. J. Mr. Spoerl is a piano man of long experience,
both in the manufacturing and retailing end of the
business and he is a staunch supporter of the idea
that piano playing should be much more generally
taught than it is. He was for seven years retail man-
ager at Wurlitzer's in New York, including the period
of the W'orld war.
Chas. Jacob in Cuba.
Chas. Jacob, of the Jacob Bros. Co., New York, is
enjoying the pleasant April climate of Cuba, where
he purposes to remain for about a month.
Gottlieb Heller Returns.
Gottlieb Heller, vice-president of Winter & Co., 863
East 141st street, New York, has returned from a
trip to Boston and other Massachusetts cities.
He said he didn't feel competent to predict the
exact future of the piano business for the next six
months or year, but was working along the lines of
an expected improvement. The company has seven
travelers on the road right now, he said, selling its
makes of pianos. He discussed an injurious phase
of the trade at the present time—the price-slashing
methods of some manufacturers, who not only hurt
every other manufacturer of pianos, but were prob-
ably paving the road for their own downfall later on.
A Call at Bush Terminal.
A call was made upon the Pianostyle Music Com-
pany. Inc., Bush Terminal No. 9, at 33rd street,
Brooklyn, N. Y., this week. This concern, of which
R. H. Louis is president, has long been manufac-
turing music rolls for player pianos. Recently its
trade has been largely with chain stores, and the
company follows up and looks for re-order trade.
Connorized Music Co. to Quit.
The Connorized Music Co., 817 East 144th street,
New York, of which James O'Connor is president,
has decided to quit manufacturing and is negotiating
for the sale of the stock and manufacturing equip-
ment.
Outlook Brighter, Says A. R. Learey.
A call was made on Thursday upon A. R. Learey,
president of the International Player Roll Company,
66 Water street, in the Sweeney Building, Brooklyn,
N. Y., where there were signs of considerable activ-
ity. "There were too many companies in the roll
manufacturing field and that made the struggle for
business hard," said Mr. Learey. "Things are now
taking a turn for the up-grade and our trade is grow-
ing more active."
KIMBALL SALES SHOW
INCREASE FOR SPRING
March and April Orders Show Upward Trend
in Wholesale Department and Prospects
for Good Year Are Bright.
The W. W. Kimball Company, Wabash and Jack-
son, Chicago, makes a cheerful report of wholesale
trade conditions during the months of March and
April, and with every indication of continued activity
by Kimball dealers throughout the spring and early
summer months.
James V. Sill, secretary, described conditions much
improved and that the volume of business had ex-
ceeded the early anticipations of the company. The
demand calls for all Kimball models, although styles
in grands and small uprights are being favored. In
his talk with a Presto-Times representative, Mr. Sill
said:
"The wholesale business is most encouraging as our
orders this March were 20 per cent greater than last
March and our business in April so far has exceeded
that of last April. We are all working hard and look-
ing forward to a bigger and better year."
THE GULBRANSEN DINNER
The following invitation has been mailed to a num-
ber of fortunate people in the trade who are given
an opportunity of pleasantly celebrating the jubilee
year of A. G. Gulbransen in the piano industry:
"The directors of the Gulbransen Company re-
quest your presence at a Golden Jubilee Dinner to
Mr. A. G. Gulbransen, our president, in commemora-
tion of fifty years of achievement in the music indus-
try, on Tuesday, May the first, Nineteen Hundred
Twenty-eight, at Six-Thirty P. M., at the Midwest
Athletic Club, 6 Xorth llamlin avenue, Chicago, Illi-
nois."
CONGRATULATE MR. HINKLER.
John L. Hinkier of the home office of the Rudolph
Wurlitzer Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, called at the
sales headquarters in Chicago of the W r urlitzer fac-
tories last week. Mr. Hinkier received the hearty con-
gratulations of everyone in the Wurlitzer organization
over the recent arrival of his new son, John Theodore
Hinkier. Both the young man and his mother are
reported to be doing nicely.
KREITER
The Leading and Most Popular
Pianos and Players
Grands, Players, Uprights and
Reproducing Pianos
The Results of Over Forty Years'
of Experience.
Kreiter Piano* Cover the Entire Line
and no Piano Dealer who trie* the*e in-
ttrument* would supplant them by any
other*. A trial will convince.
Kreiter Mfg. Co., Inc.
310-312 W. Water St., Milwaukee, Wis.
Factory: Marinette, Wia.
E. Leins Piano Co.
Hesse "frerrchfre*
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Makers of Pianos and
Player Pianos That Are
Established L e a d e r s
Correspondence from Reliable
Dealers Invited
FOLLOW THE TRADITION OF
UNQUESTIONABLE QUALITY
Factory and Offices, 304 W. 42nd St
NEW YORK
TTieCABLECOMPANY
Makers of Grand, Upright
and Inner'Player Pianos,
including Conover, Cable,
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Chicago
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