Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1928 2196

September 1, 1928
PERCY KIMBERLY
DIES IN ACCIDENT
His Wife Suffers Broken Arm, While Grand-
child Is Unhurt, When His Automobile
Is Hit by Another MEchine.
The many friends of
Percy R. Kimberly were
shocked on Tuesday of
this week to learn that
he had been killed Mon-
day night on the high-
way near his home at
Barrington, 111., a sub-
urb of Chicago.
Mr. Kimberly w a s
riding in his own ma-
chine on the Northwest
H i g h w a y when the
driver of a n o t li e r
machine coming along
the highway hit the
Kimberly auto on the
side and tipped it over.
Mr. Kimberly lived
but a few hours after
the smash. Mrs. Kim-
berly, who was in the
PERCY R, KIMBERLY.
machine, had an arm
broken and received
other hurts. She was taken to a hospital in Bar-
ringtou where she received the care of physicians and
nurses. Their little granddaughter, Susanne Barrett,
and the chauffeur, who was driving the Kimberly
machine, were unhurt.
There was no more popular piano man anywhere
in his day than Percy Kimberly. He was retail man-
ager of the Cable Piano Company's Chicago store
for many years, having succeeded "Joe" Leimert to
that position. Upon leaving the Cable Piano Com-
pany he first engaged in the automobile business;
later he set up a radio business on north Michigan
avenue, Chicago, and was proprietor of the Kimberly
Radio Corporation, 154 East Erie street, Chicago, at
the time of his sudden death.
Mr. Kimberly was one of the earl ; er enthusiasts
who made the Piano Club of Chicago a prominent
and enduring institution of the piano trade, and
started with his farm home in Barrington as a joy-
ous distraction. He found great pleasure in motoring
and was one of the earliest automobile owners among
men of the music trade.
Mr. Kimberly was 55 years old. After the acci-
dent he was rushed to the Sherman Hospital, at
Elgin. 111., where he died. Mrs. Kimberly is now in
the Evanston Hospital. The Kimberlys maintained
an apartment at the Edgewater Beach Hotel. A
daughter, Mrs. James W. Barrett, Jr., resides in
Evanston.
A meeting of members of the Chicago Piano and
Organ Association and the Piano Club of Chicago
was held Wednesday at the offices of Eugene
Whalen, of the W. W. Kimball Co., where prelim-
inary arrangements were made to send floral pieces
and attend to other signs of respect at the funeral,
which was held at 2:30 Thursday afternoon at Rose-
hill Chapel, Clr'cago.
It is remembered that Air. Kimberly went to the
Cable Piano Company from the Bush & Gerts Piano
Company's Chicago retail house with Leo P. Twy-
P R E S T O-T I M E S
man. At that time there were at the Cable Piano
Company such popular salesmen as Frank W. Barry
?.nd B. H. Ryder, husband of the famous musician.
Mine. T. Sturkow Ryder, and with these men Mr.
Kimberly became a favorite. When Mr. Kimberly
opened his radio shop on North Michigan avenue,
William L. Bush took offices with him and from that
location handled the W. L. Bush pianos, then man-
ufactured for Mr. Bush by the Bush & Lane Piano
Company at Holland, Alich.
Mr. Kimberly's company has been handling the
Zeir'th radios since its inception and he was an
intimate friend of Paul B. Klugh of Zenith. Sherman
F. Patchin of Mr. Kimberly's staff is in charge of
the business of trie company in the meantime.
The funeral was held at Rosehill Cemetery on
Thursday and was largely attended by the Chicago
musical instrument trade.
Presto-Times acknowledges its indebtedness to the
editor of the Barrington Review for early particulars
as to the manner of the accident.
SUCCESSFUL PLANS
TO AID CABLE SALES
The Cable Company, Chicago, Offers Trade
"101 Successful Plans" to Help Increase
Piano, Radio and Phonograph Profits.
Several years ago The Cable Company, Chicago,
sensing the need for an authoritative compilation of
those songs which have become part and parcel of
our daily lives, undertook the task of collecting and
publishing, in a volume within everyone's reach, the
best of those songs which folks have hummed, whis-
tled and sung for the past century.
"The 101 Best Songs" was an instantaneous suc-
cess. In a few short years over 8,000,000 copies have
been purchased by people everywhere. Thousands are
in use in schools and colleges and many state boards
of education have adopted or endorsed this Cable
collect'on.
Cable dealers, realizing the appeal of "101 Best
Songs" were quick to fit this book into their retail
selling plans and the gratifying results from its use
Changes, Renewals and New Enterprises in Different led the sales promotion department of The Cable
Company to study this particular use of their creation
Parts of the Country.
with unusual care.
Edward Boon, who operates the Blue Bird Music
From the mass of sales schemes in wlv'ch "101
Shop, 6020 Lansdowne avenue, Philadelphia, Pa., has Best Songs" has played an important part, 101 of
opened a new store at 119 South Eighth street, Ches- the most successful were selected, summarized and
ter, Pa., with musical merchandise and phonographs published in the new Cable Portfolio "101 Ways to
in addition to radio.
Sell More Pianos, Phonographs and Radios," and
H. L. deRemer,. Anacortes, Wash., has opened a this book is now offered to any retail miuic merchant
music store.
—whether he handles Cable-made pianos or not—
Jacob Goodman, who operates two stores in Piiila- without cost or obligation of any kind.
delplr'a, one at 4 North Eleventh street, and the other
One hundred and one ideas are not picked up every
at 4314 Lancaster avenue, is closing out the former day—certainly not 101 ideas which have been proved
store and after this week will confine his business profitable by as practical a group of merchants as
to the Lancaster avenue address.
those who contributed to the production of this book.
J L. Goodman, who has been engaged in the music
business in Cleveland, O., for the past ten years, has
AMERICAN PIANO CO. ACTIVITIES.
taken over the Euclid Music Co., at 10526 St. Clair
avenue.
Great girders are being put in place with all rea-
Vincent Costelli has opened a music store at 5509 sonable speed as the tall new building to be occupied
by the American Piano Company as its Chicago
Chester avenue, Philadelphia.
The Manufacturers Distributing Co., Milwaukee, headquarters is being erected. This structure occu-
Wis., has opened a branch store at 824 Third street, pies a position directly north of the tall Steger &
Sons Piano Mfg. Co.'s skyscraper building, on
with Francis Garstelke as manager.
Wabash avenue, and it will add one more piano
house to Chicago's famous Piano Row. The ex-
BLAMES FASHION; NOT POVERTY.
pectation
now is to have it ready for occupancy by
A dispatch by Associated Press from London,
October 1, and this will require some hustling on
England, which appeared in the daily papers of this
country on August 23, said: "Popularity of the phono- the part of the builders. The manager for Chicago
graph and changes in fashion are blamed for a de- is to be Mr. Schoenewald, now manager of the retail
cline in British imports of musical instruments this piano department of Chickering & Sons on West
year, the decrease being especially noticeable in pianos 57th street, New York.
and organs." The Associated Press writer might
have gone farther than to have put part of the blame
USING THE PIG'S SQUEAL.
on "changes of fashion"; for the principal change
Although known as catgut, the strings of violins and
which seems to have overtaken Great Britain lately other musical instruments do not come from cats but
is a want of cash, the need of lucrative employment from sheep and hogs. Dr. W. Lee Lewis, of the Insti-
for several millions of its workers
tute of American Meat Packers, told members of the
American Chemical Society Institute, meet : ng at the
WILL BUSH RETURNS.
Northwestern University, Chicago, on Tuesday of this
W. L. Bush, who had been in Moline. Rock Island week. It is presumed that some of the younger
and Davenport arranging for group piano classes in members of his audience were hearing this well-known
stores, when apprised of the death of Percy Kim- fact for the first time. Anyway, it is a fulfillment
berly, got to Barrington in time to attend the funeral of the late Philip D. Armour's predict : on that some
day a use would be found for the squeal of the dying
on Thursday.. Mr. Bush was delayed by an accident
to a bus preceding one on whie'n he was riding. The pig. The art of the violin maker changes that squeal
bus carrying thirty-live passengers was overturned into something divine. Here's another basis for start-
and two people killed and most of the others injured. ing a discussion about evolution.
SOME OF THE LATE CHANGES
IN RETAIL PIANO TRADE
BOWEN PIANO LOADER HELPS SALESMEN
Outside Salesmen must be equipped so as to "show the goods." The season for country piano selling is approaching. Help your sales-
men by furnishing them with the New Bowen Piano Loader, which serves as a wareroom far from the store. It is the only safe
delivery system for dealers, either in city or country. It costs little. Write for particulars.
BOWEN PIANO LOADER CO.,
Winston-Salem, N. C.
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
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
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/

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