Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
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), "PRESTO," 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.
sible places where the parking privileges were
greater and freer.
It is the force of circumstances which has
caused reforms in the building of store fronts.
Street traffic was bad enough, but crowded
sidewalks had taken away the selling power of
the show windows in many places. Thus came
the necessity for recessed show windows and
so-called arcades paralleling the sidewalks.
This increase of window display space means
a relief of existing sidewalk congestion.
The space wherein to show the pianos and
other musical instruments in the proper man-
ner is no longer the most important thing. A
store in a busy center is all right, but when
the streets of the busy center become frantic
with a gorge of traffic and the sidewalks al-
most impassable from the immensity of the
crowds, the "busy center" is no longer desir-
able. In the search of a new location it may
be wise to look in the new centers that are
not vet too busv.
August 11, 1928
in his ability to make and keep friends. One
doesn't have to mention names to prove the
point. Readers of Presto-Times can do their
own naming and selecting of the drumming
geniuses who have bound their friends to them
by bands of steel.
Someone may arise to remark that the old
days when the successful drummer's progress
through his territory was a frolicsome one has
departed, and that high art has given place to
highballs and all that sort of thing. Very
true, but the quality with which some of the
men won in the old days is an essential re-
quirement today. Processes are less lush to-
day than in the old days and more laudable on
that account. But the ability to make friends
and keep them is just as necessary in these
later matter-of-fact days as in the old ones.
True friendship between roadman and cus-
tomer helps the growth of business without
irrigation.
The aim of the piano trade frankly is to
sell
pianos. Advertising induces the prospects
AUTOMATIC PIANO PROFITS
to
select
certain pianos from the stocks of cer-
For steady, persistent profit, there are few
tain
dealers
and so its purposes are affected.
things that beat an automatic piano in a good
Pianos,
piano
music and piano playing already
place and properly managed. But, no matter
are
features
of
life so that the purposes of
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South how good the instrument may be, or how well pianos do not have to be explained in the man-
Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
situated, profits will be poor if there is not
good management applied to it. Good man- ner that other nationally advertised things
SATURDAY, AUGUST 11, 1928.
agement is a simple thing and consists in con- have to be explained to readers. But the gen-
sistent renewal of the rolls. It is something, eral knowledge of the piano's uses is not of
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press
itself potent to prompt piano sales. Pianos are
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring too, that does not require constant thinking bought because they are the means to making
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur- by the busy cafe manager or manager of any music and their sales appeal most strongly in-
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that other kind of business made more profitable
is not strictly news of importance can have by good music. A standing arrangement with fluences those who are able to make use of the
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they dealer or roll manufacturer will bring an as- means.
concern the interests of manufacturers or sortment of new rolls at the proper time.
dealers such items will appear the week follow-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the Few owners of automatic pianos are indif-
current issue must reach the office not later ferent to profits from their instrument, but
fhan Wednesday noon of each week.
quite a few do not realize the necessity of re-
(From Presto August 18, 1898.)
newing the rolls frequently. But only the
In the course of a pleasant talk with a Presto rep-
dullest can't understand why the coin box does resentative one day recently, Wm. L. Bush thus
A NEW CONDITION
not
give up its expected amount of nickels if expressed himself on trade conditions generally and
The increased use of the automobile has
new
rolls do not allure the money from the the Bush & Gerts interests in particular: "Business
vastly changed the relation of the buyer to the
the past thirty days has fallen off, as is usual
patrons'
pockets. Few people will spend their during
seller. It has given the buyers a bigger field
in the months of July and August, but in spite of that
of choice. This applies to the smallest town money twice to hear the same tune. A new fact we are considerably ahead of the business of the
corresponding months of last year, and there has been
as well as to the largest city. A piano store roll each week will work wonders in reju- quite
a number of dealers in Chicago during the past
venating
a
non-productive
electric
piano.
that was once remote from certain people is
month who express every confidence in the general
condition of trade and its early improvement."
now close up, considering the element of time.
THE TRAVELER'S FUNCTION
Even in the music store in the smallest village
The Chicago Title & Trust Company, which on
the range of customers has been greatly en-
The relation of manufacturer to dealer in July 8 was named assignee of the A. Reed & Sons
Company, was appointed receiver for the same
larged.
the piano trade has considerably changed with- Piano
firm by Judge Burke yesterday in the Circuit Court.
The limited "carriage trade" of the old days in a decade, an inevitable result of circum-
The Strich & Ziedler grand piano was used ex-
is replaced by the creation of automobile cus- stances in the piano manufacturing industry. clusively at the Eighteenth National Saengerfest of
tomers who may be attracted from what a few The sales department admittedly is more im- the Saengerbund of the Northwest, held in Daven-
years ago would be considered incredible dis- personal today than heretofore although the port, Iowa, on the 28th, 29th and 30th ult.
S. Bond, of the Fort Wayne Organ Coi,
tances. But unfortunately the advantages of personality of the representatives of the house was Mr. in A.
Chicago last Friday and made The Presto a
quick travel over long distances often results is still considered an important element in the pleasant call. Mr. Bond is particularly pleased with
in a congestion which lessens the opportunities pursuit of new customers and particularly in business, as it now exists, and believes there will be
a continuation and even gradual increase in piano
the retaining of all old ones.
of merchants in the large cities.
trade prosperity.
The effort of ambitious piano manufactur-
The growth of automobile shoppers has
The death of Mr. Rudolph Gross, which was an-
changed opinions on what is desirable in a ing concerns is to make the goods "sell them- nounced last week, will cause no interruption oir
in the distinguished house of Wessell, Nickel
music store's location. The creation of shop- selves." It is a trite and joyful phrase often change
& Gross. The loss is a great one to the surviving
heard
in
the
trade
and
occasionally
seen
in
ping centers outside of the "downtown" dis-
members of the firm, among the partners of which
trict is a result of the increase of automobile print. It is more or less a poetic license of there has been a warm personal attachment from the
of the house more than a quarter cen-
shopping. A question that confronts the music the gentlemen of the advertising departments. establishment
tury ago.
True,
there
are
pianos
so
worthy
that
they
merchant down town is, "Can my automobile
With the return of peace and increasing prosperity
customer find a place to park his or her car possess the self-selling character.
the time is ripe for the application of the good old
after I have attracted him or her to my store?"
But the piano traveler is a necessary factor rule of trade which runneth thuswise: "Now is the
time to advertise."
Music merchants in many of the large and even in the case of a lot of pianos that possess
The Weaver Organ & Piano Co. of York, Pa.,
growing cities have recognized that traffic undoubted worthiness. Under present condi- are preparing two special exhibits of organs and
congestion was an interference with business. tions the trade is not ready to bounce the road pianos, one for the Farmers' Encampment at Mt.
Gretna, Lebanon County, Pa., to be held the third
The more automobiles and street cars on the missionaries en masse.
week in August.
streets after a certain point is reached, the
Somebody has said that genius is but the George B. Chaney of Terre Haute, Ind., agent for
fewer customers reaching the counters. The ability for work; the taste for untiring indus- D. H. Baldwin & Co., celebrated manufacturers of
music merchants solved the difficulty by at- try, or words to that effect. It might also be pianos and organs, has sold to J. W. McClane of
tracting trade to branch stores in more acces- said that the genius of the piano traveler lies Salem, 111., an Ellington piano, which is a "thing of
beauty and a joy forever."
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.
THIRTY YEARS AGO
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