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.
Editor
F R A N K D. A B B O T T
- - - - - - - -
(C. A. D A N I ELL—1904-1927.)
Managing
Editor
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
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
Post 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. JULY 21, 1928.
The last form of Presto-Times goes to presa
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
fhan Wednesday noon of each week.
which has held good since the days when the
first bazaars were established along the cara-
van routes. And accessibility has never been
more important to the music merchant than it
is in the present day. Even in the location of
an office the question of accessibility is assum-
ing greater importance.
The consideration of the store location
question involves that of city and suburban
transportation. Good street travel is the most
important aid to the music merchant's busi-
ness. The problem of street transportation is
one that intimately concerns him all the time.
It is the rural bus, the electric train, the steam
railroad, the street car, the taxi and the family
motor car that bring the necessary stream of
customers to his counters.
The more available his store is to a large
number of people the greater are his oppor-
tunities for success. And whatever may be
for him the share of the people who use trans-
portation, it is the result of the degree of
accessibility his store possesses. The drawing
power of a store extends out and along every
street and artery of travel to the home of his
most remote prospective customer.
The very increase in business in a section
of a city may be detrimental to the music store
in a supposedly desirable location. Street
traffic congestion is one of the undesirable ef-
fects of increased business in a city. It is pos-
sible for business to outgrow its streets. The
establishing of branch stores by several music
houses in the larger cities is a recognition of
this fact.
SHEET MUSIC CUSTOMERS
There are no age restrictions, impediments,
reservations or limitations in the sheet music
dealers' appeal for customers and his list of
prospects in his mind's eye or set down on
paper—includes all people who can sing or
ERNEST URCHS' WORK
play or think they can. But in his heart he
The funeral services last week for Mr.
has the greatest hope in the youngsters as his
Ernest Urchs, director of the artists' depart-
continuous clientele. The older people repre-
ment of Steinway & Sons, were significant of
sent the ebb of his business; the newer gen-
his activities during- the past thirty-five years
erations the flow. And the sheet music dealer
in which he accumulated a host of friends in
who anal) r zes the present conditions in life and
the world of musical art. Friends among the
notes the great part that music is given in the
artists present provided the appropriate music.
affairs of the youth is cheered by the possi-
In playing they expressed personal feelings
bilities they suggest for future business.
that the deceased could have understood and
Never before in the world have young peo-
appreciated, The famous artists present were
ple
depended so much oh music in their social
representative of a wide circle of mourning
functions
and social amusements. Perhaps the
artists here and abroad.
music they are most attracted to is of the
But the most notable incident of the sad
so-called popular kind, but they certainly make
rites was the brief talk by President Theodore
themselves familiar with that. Not to know
E. Steinway who eulogized the peculiar abil-
that latest song-dance in certain circles is to
ities of Mr. Urchs and his active service to his
invite loss of social caste. The young people
company and to the art of music during the
who dance and sing are the biggest buyers of
past thirty-five years. It was effective service,
music and it is the plain duty of the sheet
the concentration of effort along the lines he
music dealer to keep track of their predilec-
loved which had an admirable dual object.
tions.
If the young folks love to listen to radio and
THE BEST STORE LOCATION
music from the use of rolls" and records on
News items of the most numerous kind playerpianos and talking machines, it should
coming to Presto-Times relative to new store not cause dismay to the music dealer or the
locations and removals to new quarters by music teacher. With the desire to hear the
established firms, the problem of choosing be- broadcasted or "canned" music there goes the
tween one location and another is a frequent strong inclination to emulate the artists repre-
one in the music trade.
sented in radio, the music roll and the talking
And what is best in a music store location is machine record. In this pepful age the num-
a topic which has been discussed since discus- ber of amateur musicians increases with the
sions became a habit of the trade. In the pass- passing of the days and tomorrow has bigger
ing of the year's circumstances, notably those possibilities than today for the sale of music.
of transportation, have changed the view-
Modesty is the best policy in the piano bus-
points in the old debatable question.
At all times it has been conceded that acces- iness. That is the stated belief of a clever,
sibility is the prime factor in the choice of a original and successful piano house advertising
retail store location. In fact, it is a truism man, but he enjoins it with reservations and
July 21, 1928
qualifications. The truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth is the first commandment
flashed on the field of unethical darkness by
the better business movements. The results
are daily in evidence. Some people in the
piano trade tell the truth and some tell noth-
ing but the truth; some tell the whole truth
and some blow themselves inside out and stand
unrecognizable in their veracious nakedness.
Long ago in piano salesmanship it came to be
realized that one of its arts is to be entirely
truthful and yet know when to stop.
* * *
One of the most important problems of the
piano salesman is in determining just who to
class as his prospects. The successful piano
salesman is the man with enough courage to
be willing to face almost certain failure with-
out giving in to it. He must be a tactful gen-
tleman who refuses to take "no" for an answer
early in the game. He is always the man who
considers as his prospects all the people who
do not own pianos. He knows that all non-
owners are piano prospects until proven oth-
erwise by signing on the dotted line.
'WAY BACK IN PRESTO
(From the Presto of July 23, 1890.)
Chatting with the head of one of the great New
York music houses the other day your correspondent
noticed on his desk, an envelope labeled Steger &
Co., and jokingly asked him if the envelope contained
a declaration of war because of some infringement on
the amenities of music traffic. "Oh, no," replied Mr.
C
, "that envelope contains a letter from a party
in Missouri who wishes to purchase a SOHMER
piano. When we receive letters of this kind we nearly
always refer the same to the agent of the piano called
for, in the territory in question."
This is certainly a commendable way of looking at
business and if the principle would be generally ob-
served it would work to the mutual advantage of all
concerned.
In dedication of the golden wedding of Mr. and
Mrs. Chas. Palmer, of St. Louis, which occurred this
week, the following lines were written by Mr. Louis
H. Freligh:
Two lonely melodies, one major-rare,
The other sweetly minor, softly fair,
Met in accord upon the morning air,
Just fifty years ago.
Julius Bauer & Co., who have taken the Chicago
agency for Jacob Bros.' piano, now represent the same
in their daily newspaper advertisements.
Mr. E. A. Potter, of Lyon, Potter & Co., Chicago,
has been on a pleasure tour to Yellowstone Park. He
stopped in St. Paul and Minneapolis last week on his
return.
Mr. W. W. Kimball is summering in Maine.
Mr. E. S. Conway, of the W. W. Kimball Co., ac-
companied by his wife and family, who left Chicago
a week ago for the Pacific Coast, via the Canadian
Pacific Ry., sailed from Vancouver yesterday (Fri-
day) for Alaska, on a pleasure trip.
It will not be a long time hence, before a certain
large Chicago house will have manufactured its first
piano. This house will soon become a prominent
piano manufacturing concern.
J. W. Jenkins, a well known music dealer of Kan-
sas City, Mo., died on Monday, July 21st, of apoplexy.
A deal is in progress between Chickering & Sons
and the Chase Piano Co., of Grand Rapids, Mich., to
form a combination.
The contractors engaged to erect the new store for
the W. W. Kimball Co. commenced preparations this
week for laying the foundation of the building.
Last Saturday some of the workmen employed by
the Chicago Cottage and the Story & Clark Organ
factories engaged in a game of baseball out on the
prairie near Eighteenth street and Western avenue.
The annual meeting of the Everett Piano Co. was
held in Boston this week, Monday.
During the second week of July, Haines Bros., New
York, shipped ICO piano-fortes to their agents.
Mr. Frank Conover had a very successful trip in
the West. The Conover Grand is now ready and is
said to be a very superior instrument.
The Salt Lake Music Co., No. 175 West South
street, Salt Lake City, Utah, has commenced busi-
ness.
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