10
September 1, 1928
P R E S T O-T 1 M E S
STIMULATING THE
AUTOMATIC PIANO
Big Part Played by the Improvement in Music
Rolls for the Pianos and Orchestras
Is One of the Obvious Facts
in Industry.
The observant music dealer realizes the importance
of good music rolls in the development of the trade
in automatic pianos. Indeed, the improved character
of the automatic music rolls made today is an im-
portant factor in the stimulation of the automatic
piano trade. They are in such strong contrast to the
crudity of the first productions that they must be
cited as one of the reasons for the success of auto-
matic instruments.
A Helpful Motive.
Making pleasure easier is the motive that influences
all the inventors in the music industry. Note every
improvement in music rolls and their containers and
you will admit the truth of the foregoing assertion.
A comparison of the materials in the rolls today and
in the earlier rolls will also show that the thought
of the inventor was the gaining of more pleasure in
the use of the rolls by the buyers.
But of course the improvement of the music in the
rolls was a paramount thought with the makers. The
earlier users of automatic instruments were easy to
satisfy in the matter of musical selections. There
was little thought of timeliness in the methods of the
roll makers, and dealers never got a calldowu because
their stock of rolls was more than six weeks from the
cutting machine. A popular song wasn't called an
antique when it had been heard a few times.
Credit to Makers.
The instruments owe something to the improve-
ment in the music roll, but there's no denying thai
the improved automatic instruments necessitate! a
corresponding degree of improvement in the rolls. The
growth in importance of the automatic pianos and
orchestrions has, of course, been accompanied by a
corresponding increase in the calls for the rolls 1o
suit the instruments. The regular issues of up-to-
date music by a number of houses equipped for the
making of automatic music rolls, show a steadiness
in the demands for that class of music. The marked
variety in the selections also shows a wide range of
taste in the owners of electric pianos and orchestrions.
*
Its Significance.
Possibly there is no clearer indication of t'le im-
provement in the public taste in music than the higher
character of the requirements for the music for auto-
matic instruments. Automatic pianos and orches-
trions are more truly the people's musical instruments
than anything else in the music dealer's stock except
pianos themselves. The roll orders of the automatic
instrument users expresses prevailing taste n an
unerring way. In recent years people have hee'i
enabled to hear good music in a great many ways—
at the movie shows, on phonographs and player-
pianos, on bands and, more recently still, on the;
radio. But the automatic pianos themselves have been
powerful in the encouragement of music.
Enlightening Fact.
It used to be the rule that users of automatic p'anos
in the cafes, and other places of resort, in foreign
communities limited their purchases of rolls to the
particular music of the nationality in greatest num-
bers there. You heard nothing but Polish music in
a Polish neighborhood, German in a German neigh-
borhood, and so on. Today the patrons are more
universal in their musical desires. They are broader
in their tastes, a fact that is clearly shown in the
greater variety of the music ordered by the auto-
matic piano owners in the so-called foreign sections
of the cities, and the country generally.
Automatic pianos have improved musical tastes,
but the truth is that the older standard selections are
far from being the best sellers. The big winners are
the hit reviews, the latest and hottest, and the fact is
made clear by the certain issue each month of several
rolls of that character by the roll manufacturers. The
makers of automatic pianos say the review rolls have
made the instruments more popular than ever before.
And when tht roll maker combines groups of big
musical hits on one roll the dealer sells more rolls
and the piano owners take in more money.
STAFF FOR T. J. MERCER.
Because of the growth of its Pacific Coast and far
Western business, the Bankers-Commercial Security
Company, Inc., has provided offices at Room 815,
Commercial Exchange Building, 416 West 8th street,
Los Angeles, Calif., with a trained staff for Thomas
J. Mercer, who has been acting as the Pacific Coast
representative of the company since February, 1926.
Mr. Mercer is very well known in the music trade.
Before beconrng affiliated with the Bankers-Commer-
cial Security Company, Inc., he was sales manager
for the Gulbransen Company; prior to that, he was an
editor of the Music Trade Indicator.
GEO. L. SHAW STILL AT IT.
George L Shaw, who was with the H. C. Bay Com-
pany, 305-307 South Wabash avenue, Chicago, which
recently went into bankruptcy, was met by a Presto-
Times representative last Saturday in Chicago. "I
am still doing some work straightening out accounts
for Mr. Bay," he said, "and doing some other work
on the side." "You'll stick to the piano business, Mr.
Shaw?" he was asked. "Of course I will. It's the
business I'm familiar with." he replied.
DANIEL MAYER DIES
IN LONDON, AGED 72
Man Intimately Associated with Artistic Pianos and
Artists for Many Years Widely Mourned.
Dairel Mayer, internationally known impresario
of musical artists and concert manager, aged 72. years,
died in London, England, on August 23.
At the age of 20 years he joined the music publish-
ing house of Weeks & Co , Ltd., of London. Later
he entered the piano business and introduced into
England the German piano of J. & P. Schiedemayer,
and still later he became proprietor of the English
piano firm of S. & P. Erard.
In 1890 he introduced Paderewski to English audi-
ences, and in the winter of 1890-91 he brought Pad-
erewski to this country for his first American tour in
association with the Steinw r ays. The venture was a
triumph for the Polish artist.
Mr. Mayer was the first manager of Pavlowa,
Mischa Elman and Mischa Levitzki. When Josef
Hofmann, as a boy, made Irs first tour of England he
was under Mr. Mayer's direction.
Other musical genuises who had been under Mr.
Mayer's management, were Kreisler, de Pachmann,
Nikisch, Caruso, Carreno, Sarasate, d'Albert and
Busoni.
He was responsible for many British festivals, and
in 1900 he was given the freedom of London as "Cit-
izen and Spectaclemaker." For many years he had
charge of the musicales at Buckingham Palace. He
was four times elected Mayor of Bexhill-on-the-Sea,
England, a record in the history of the town.
OPENS THREE OAKS SHOP.
Ralph Robinson, formerly of St Joseph, who re-
cently purchased the Moyer Music Store and who is
conducting his business in the store lately vacated
by the Hamblin jewelry store, is opening a branch
music shop in Three Oaks, Mich. Mrs. Verna Wright
of Three Oaks will be in charge of theb ranch store.
THE LATEST JESSE
FRENCH PRODUCTIONS
FRANK M. HOOD'S SUCCESS.
Frank M. Hood of the Schiller Piano Company's
Chicago offices, ninth floor of the Republic building,
returned on August 29 from a brief outing in the
widest part of Wisconsin. The biggest fish in the
Badger State hid beneath a log when Mr. Hood was
around, but he was deft enough with the rod to catch
the second biggest.
ACQUIRES NEW WAREROOMS.
The Jones Piano Co., Des Moines, Ta., has leased
new warerooms at 915-917 Walnut street, Des
Moines, la., which will give this firm five times the
space occupied in its old store at 819 Walnut street.
The Jones Piano Co., which was founded in 1893,
carries the American Piano Co. line.
'Jesse TrorrchB'ei
/$75-
BALDWIN GRANDS IN SPECTACLE
FOLLOW THE .TRADITION OF
UNQUESTIONABLE ^QUALITY
The LEADING LINE
WEAVER PIANOS
Orandu, Uprights and Players
Finest and most artistic
piano in design, tone and
construction that can be
made.
YORK PIANOS
Upright! and Playar Planoi
A high grade piano of great
value aud with charming tone quality.
Livingston PUnos— (Jprlchts and Playar Pianos
A popular piano et a popular price.
Ten Baldwin grand pianos were made a
in a striking spectacle at Loew's State Street
in St. Louis recently. It was an incident in
play in which the resonance and purity of
feature
Theater
the dis-
tone in
the instruments told with convincing effect. The
use of the fine instruments in the well-advertised
display provided a splendid advertisement for the
pianos.
Over 70,000 instruments made by thli company are sing-
ing their own praises in all parts of the civilised world.
Write (or catalogues and state on what terms yon would
like to deal, and we will make you a proposition if yon arc
located in open territory.
WEAVER PIANO CO., Inc.
Factory: TORK, P i .
Established 1870
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