Presto

11
PRESTO-TIMES
May 26, 1928
City Hall Park and which is generally known as
'The Rough Guy' was certainly the most advertised
thing of its kind ever created out of marble. I ques-
tion if that advertising ever influenced any potential
St. Gaudens.
Edwin Jarrett, Widely Known Piano Man, Takes
"By all means let us have 'more music in the
home.' What passes for music in many homes is
Newspaper Item as Text for Interesting Letter.
generally, as the navvy said, 'a lot of bloody awful
" 'Music can be made more popular through more noise.' And at the same time, why not a little music
intensive and attractive newspaper advertising,' C. B. in the piano trade. A distressingly large number of
Amorous, of New York, told the Pennsylvania Asso-
p'ano men of this day could not tell the tone of a tin
ciation of Music Merchants in convention in Phila-
whistle from that of a tuba. 'Tis true, 'tis pity, and
delphia recently. I don't know Mr. Amorous, but
pity 'tis, 'tis true.—Edwin Jarrett."
after reading the item in the Herald-Tribune I sus-
pect that he is a gentle josher.
TO MOVE IN BROOKLYN, N. Y.
"Music was never more advertised than it is today,
The
Chandler Piano Company of 222 Livingston
but look at the piano business. The compiled figures
street, Brooklyn, N. Y., has taken new warerooms in
for January, February and March show a steady
decline in productive volume as against a year ago. the Nutting Building at 166 Livingston street, a
block below its present quarters. This firm, the
Or if Mr. Amorous is excluding the piano business
from the range of his observations, to what particu- oldest piano house in Brooklyn, was established in
1869, adjoining the old Academy of Music on
lar branch of music does he intend his remarks to
Montague street, by the late F. H. Chandler, a vet-
apply?
eran of the Civil War. T. F. English, who began as
"Isn't it about time for the piano trade to quit
a boy under Mr. Chandler, the dean of Brooklyn
camouflaging its situation? Those of us who held
piano men, is now its president and general manager.
steadily to our belief that the straight piano would
In the rear of the handsome new store a complete
continue to be the backbone of the industry have
repair department extends through to Schermerhorn
lived to see our views substantiated. And we know
street.
that the debauching of the player piano down to the
level of a street hurdygurdy has killed its sale so far
as concerns any appeal to discriminating buyers.
BUYS CALIFORNIA BUSINESS.
"Why not recognize and admit the outstanding
J. Edgar Robbins, who has been manager of the
fact that the certain future of the piano (and it is
Visalia, Cal., branch of the Hockett-Cowan Music
certain) depends wholly and solely upon the develop-
Co., has purchased the stock, fixtures and lease of
ment of music as an art, the foundations of which
the store in that city and the business will be con-
are found only in human instincts and are not to be tinued in the same location as Robbins' Music House.
created by newspaper appeal.
Mr. Robbins has been in charge of the business for
"The interesting piece of sculpture that stands in the past eight years.
PIANO'S FUTURE DEPENDS
ON MUSIC AS AN ART
ARTHUR L. WESSELL
SUGGESTS REFORM
Cramped Dimensions of Living Rooms in
Many Apartment Buildings Already Built
or Under Construction Discourage
Piano Purchases, He Says, and
Proposes Action.
Arthur L. Wessell of Wessell Nickel & Gross, 10th
avenue and 45th street, New York, has some very
positive ideas concerning the size of rooms that
should be put into new apartments to accommodate
pianos. He expressed himself very sensibly on this
question this week. He said: "This country is fast
approaching the time when it will be a very musical
nation. This is due to the general teaching of music
by many thousands of piano teachers throughout the
HENRY F. MILLER PERIOD GRANDS
ARTHUR L. WESSELL.
Ql"EEN ANNE MODEL.
Henry F. Miller Piano Co., Boston, has announced
that the Henry F. Miller Period Grands are now
ready for delivery. The new Henry F. Miller Period
Grands are made in three periods, Louis XVI, Wil-
liam and Mary and Queen Anne.
These period grands are made standard in dull
mahogany, in the new Style C Mezzo Grand, 5 feet
2 inch size, which has met with such overwhelming
popularity since its announcement last fall. The in-
creased length of the strings and the increased sound-
ing board area in this size give an appreciable refine-
ment of tone and increase in volume over the Bain-
Grand size. Henry F. Miller Period models in other
sizes and in walnut will be made on special order.
The new Henry F. Miller Period models are en-
tirely up to expectations of what Henry F. Miller
Period grands should be. They are exquisitely beau-
tiful in design and finish, with tone quality which
will meet the requirements of the most critical, and
typical Henry F Miller high quality construction
and dependability, These Period grands are sold at
popular prices so that they can be profitably handled
by the dealers.
The addition of these Period grands to meet the
present trend in demand makes the Henry F. Miller
line exceptionally complete. This world-famous line
with its wealth of convincing selling points is meeting
favor with many of the progressive dealers who are
finding that the demand for such high grade pianos
can be depended upon to remain much more constant
than is the case with pianos which are sold on a price
basis alone.
Henry F. Miller officials are very enthusiastic
about the new Period models and are well pleased
by the reception accorded them by the dealers. The
company will be represented at the convention by
G. Wilson MacDow, president, and Frederick R.
Allen, sales manager.
nation. The rising generation will demand pianos
and they will demand apartments and houses with
rooms spacious enough to accommodate a piano."
He said this question should be brought home in a
forcible manner to every builder in the nation.
Apartments were being built too small; in many of
the new buildings that are going up now, not only
in New York, but in Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles,
or where not, there was absolutely no room large
enough in which to set the piano and have any kind
of living space around it.
This, he said, was all wrong. It was the wrong
way to put up a residence, in view of the fact that a
generation of people were coming on the scene now
who would see to it that they would not rent from a
andlord or buy from a builder who cramped up
things too much.
He suggested that the piano trade organizations
get this matter strongly, intelligently, and pesistently
before the public, in the piano trade press and also
in the various builders' magazines.
Consider the Dealer.
"I believe the state associations are powerful aids
to piano dealers," said Mr. Wessell. "The more the
merrier; the more state associations of musical in-
strument dealers, the wider becomes the interest in
pianos and piano playing.
"The national conventions are all right and very
effective for the purposes for which they exist, but
there the interest centers on the bigger men of the
industry. How often have I seen a dealer from some
small town stand by modestly like a wall-flower,
neglected and lonely, at a big national convention
while whole groups were swarming around every
prominent man. Xow. this is all wrong; it is not a
common-sense way to treat a small dealer who goes
out into the highways and by-ways in all kinds of
weather to break the ice with hitherto unpropitious
piano prospects.
"The state convention, on the other hand, meets the
small man on a common footing. He hasn't to
travel far; he knows nearly everybody in the con-
vention; he shakes hands with them all; he feels at
home, expresses his ideas, swaps experiences, gains
very much in knowledge and leaves the convention
city filled with an intensity of enthusiasm for his
business that he had never known before and over-
flowing with a determination to work his territory
thoroughly, keep his records in better shape, improve
the attractiveness of his store and aid his assistants to
top-notch efficiency."
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