November 3, 1928
TRADE CONDITIONS
IN INDIANAPOLIS
Business Noticeably Improved in Sales in
Which Higher Grade of Pianos Are Best
Sellers and Trend Generally Is To-
wards That Kind of Instrument.
Business conditions in Indianapolis are improving"
and gradually becoming healthier. The better grade
of instruments are selling and the volume of sales are
in high grade pianos. The radio sections in all of
the music stores report a very satisfactory business.
Talking machines are coming into their own again,
and the sales of records is much improved.
John Pearson of the Pearson Piano Company, Indi-
ana's largest and most complete music house, says
that indications point to a healthier business, and the
volume of sales in high grade merchandise is very
satisfactory.
H. G. Hook, general manager of the Starr Piano
Company, reports business normal with no complaint
to make. Mr. Hook, too, notices theg radual trend to
the better made pianos. The adverse weather, a con-
dition over which no one has control, has been re-
sponsible for a slight lull in sales, but colder weather
in the past week has helped bring up the sales vol-
ume which is now back to normal.
Conditions Much Improved.
Mr. Stockdale, manager of the Wilking Music Com-
pany, says business is normal, and conditions are
much improved. "We are working harder today than
we ever did, but in order to get the desired results, it
is necessary to work, nad work hard." Frank Wilk-
ing is spending several days in Cleveland, Ohio, on a
little vacation. The Woman's Department Club of
Indianapolis have purchased one of the Jesse French
& Sons Style G upright pianos in golden oak for
their club room.
The Marion Music Company have already sold
three of the exquisite Schumann grand pianos, and
prospects for several more sales in the near future
are very good.
Other News.
Frank Davis, manager of the House of Baldwin,
tells of the Baldwin instruments being placed in the
new Fox Theater in Detroit, Mich. Mr. Davis, who
was in that city recently, reports conditions very good.
George Pearson of the Pearson Piano Company
has returned from Pittsburgh, Pa., after a two weeks'
vacation there.
George Shaffer, representative of the Kurtzmann
Piano Company, was one of the recent visitors to the
Hoosier capital.
Clyde C. Holcombe, representing the Kohler Indus-
tries of New York, was in the city during the past
week.
Harry Wunderlich, representing the Schiller Piano
Company, was a visitor at the Pearson Piano Com-
pany during the week.
WURLITZER CO. BUYS
MOHAWK CORPORATION
Secures Substantial Interest in Chicago Corporation
Manufacturing Radio Supplies and Parts.
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, Cincinnati, has
purchased a substantial interest in the Ail-American
Mohawk Corporation, manufacturers of radio equip-
ment and radio-phonograph combinations, it was an-
nounced last week.
The Ail-American Mohawk Corporation has exten-
sive interests in Chicago. It is understood the Wur-
litzer Company will concentrate its radio interests
intensively in the Mohawk Company.
The All-American Mohawk Company was formed
last May by the consolidation of the All-American
Radio Corporation and the Mohawk Corporation of
Illinois.
The holdings of the Mohawk Corporation at the
close of September were about $2,000,000, according
to the accounting of expert statisticians.
The acquisition of the interests in the Mohawk Cor-
poration was confirmed last week by Thomas P.
Clancy, vice-president of the Wurlitzer Company.
TRADE GOOD SAYS E. B. BARTLETT.
"Trade is now fair," said E. B. Bartlett, vice-presi-
dent of the W. W. Kimball Company, Chicago, to a
Presto-Times representative on Thursday evening.
"We had a nice retail trade last month and wholesale
is coming in better all the time. Altogether, things
begin to look quite a bit improved." Mr. Bartlett
is one of the most conservative men of the more
prominent manufacturers, either in showing undue
P R E S T O-T I M E S
enthusiasm over a spurt in trade or in getting panicky
over a slowing-up period such as comes to every busi-
ness once in a few years. For these reasons his
words bear more weight than if some excitable crea-
ture had uttered them. What he has to say at any
time may be taken as a true index of conditions as
they are.
SOME VERY LATE OPENINGS
IN THE RETAIL MUSIC TRADE
A Few of the New Ventures in the Bert Business in
the World.
L. F. Hammond, proprietor of Hammond's Music
Store, Logan, O., has rented the east room in the
new Armstrong building now under construction.
For a number of years past Mr. Hammond has been
operating his business in the Case building on S.
Mulberry street, under the name of Case's Music
Parlors. This name was recently changed.
Mr.
Hammond expects to be in his new location by the
first of October.
The Cowman-Hughes Co., Drumright, Okla., has
opened a music store with a big line of phonographs
and music goods.
A grand opening was announced in the Chicago
Sunday Tribune of the "North side home of Majestic
radio" in Uptown Chicago at 1022 Wilson avenue.
The Gateway City Music Shop has opened a new
display room in Niles, Mich., handling Baldwin pianos,
Columbia phonographs, Federal, Sparton, Crosley and
Fada radio.
A. J. Westwood, formerly with the Piano Exchange,
San Francisco, has opened a music store at 30 Mason
street.
Sherman, Clay & Co., San Francisco, has taken
over additional space in the Doe Building, adjoining
the building occupied by the main store at Kearny
and Sutter streets. The piano department will be
given more space and it is now planned to give over
part of the added room to offices.
The lama Novelty & Music Shop, 6305-07 South
Kedzie avenue, Chicago, is now owned by A. G.
Conners, one of the founders of the firm.
Ye Music Box Corp. is the name of a new music
store opened in Martinsville, Ind.
Mr. Elmore, formerly connected with the music
business at New Castle, Ind., is now manager of one
of the branch stores of the Bergstrom Music Com-
pany, Honolulu, Hawaii.
TRIBUTE TO HERMANN IRION
"Our Guest from America," is the heading of an
editorial in Music Trade Review of London in which
this is said: "On another page we give a report of
the Federation's dinner to Mr. Hermann Irion, presi-
dent of the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce
of America. This was in every sense a delightful
function, gracefully conceived and admirably car-
ried out. May we modestly hope that the distin-
guished guest of honor went back to New York with
as pleasant an impression of the British music trade as
we are quite sure the British music trade will cherish of
himself! May we also express the hope that Mr.
Irion will soon again be our over-welcome guest.
His speech at the May Fair Hotel gave us a most
illuminating glimpse o£ American conditions. It em-
phasized also the great lesson that, here as in Amer-
ica, it is. by strong organization only that music
itself even lives."
HEPPE PIANO COMPANY'S ELECTION.
The annual meeting of the Heppe Piano Co., Phila-
delphia, was held in the office of the corporation, Sixth
and Cooper streets, Camden, N. J., last week, and the
following officers were elected for the coming year:
President and treasurer, Florence J. Heppe; vice-
president, M. F. McDowell Heppe, and secretary and
assistant treasurer, George W. Witney. The semi-
annual dividend of 3 per cent was declared by the
directors. At the closing of the session of the Heppe
Piano Co. the stockholders of the Philadelphia retail
house of C. J. Heppe & Son also held annual meet-
ing and re-elected the present officers.
RETIRING AFTER 45 YEARS.
In its issue of October 20, Presto-Times reported
that S. A. Hawke, proprietor of Hawke's Piano Store,
54 Ferry street, Maiden, Mass., was retiring from
business after "twenty years" of active piano selling
in that city. It should have read "forty-five years"
and we stand corrected in a letter from Mr. Hawke
himself. And Mr. Hawke has been on the subscrip-
tion list of this paper all of that nearly half a century.
Gulbransen and other standard makes were handled
by Mr. Hawke.
USED PIANO SALES
BLOTCH ON TRADE
It Is Matter of Regret That Dealers Are Con-
centrating on This Phase of Business and
a Discouraging Thought That Manufac-
turers Encourage the Traffic.
By A. G. GULBRANSEN,
President Gulbransen Company, Chicago.
In certain sections of the country a very alarming
development affecting the piano business, is taking
place. This is the policy of some of the dealers of
doing a very large proportion of their business in
used pianos, instead of concentrating on the sale of
new instruments.
Probably in every piano store in the country there
is a certain normal amount of business to be done in
used instruments—in second-hand pianos taken in
trade. While many are undoubtedly reconditioned
and put into shape that really belong in the scrapheap
instead, there is nevertheless justification for a small
amount of this business.
Manufacturers Encourage Practice.
But to me it is very discouraging to learn that piano
manufacturers are engaged in a regular traffic of
selling used pianos, are printing lists of them, circular-
izing the dealers, offering these old piano relics at
very low prices; selling them "by the yard,"' as it
were. It is almost unbelievable that manufacturers
would be so shortsighted as to take up an angle such
as this.
From a selfish standpoint, every sale of a used in-
strument, kills the saje of a new one. From the
broad standpoint of the piano business, every old piano
relic sold hurts the whole business.
Erom the standpoint of home owners, every one
sold helps to spread the thought in the minds of
people that pianos are old-fashioned, that any kind of
a piano will do for the home; from the standpoint of
the student, every used instrument is a discourage-
ment to the child in music study, fails to inspire and
directly retards the advancement of the piano as an
important factor in child music education.
Blotch on Piano Business.
Investigation shows that most of these old instru-
ments are old-fashioned, clumsy, bulky, unattractive.
Their continued use in American homes is a blotch
on the piano business. In appearance they are eye-
sores, in tone they are inharmonious, displeasing; in
touch they are repulsive to the student and to the
pianist. The sale of these instruments to the Ameri-
can homes has not a single point in its favor.
In the districts where a specialty is being made of
used instruments, public opinion is being molded un-
favorably; the public will soon judge the piano by
these decrepit old instruments that the merchants are
offering and selling.
The Spreading of Disease.
In his traffic in these instruments the piano mer-
chant becomes a party to the spreading of disease,
vermin and filth, for it is a proved fact that epidemics,
uncleanliness have had their origin in the exchange
of used furniture between families. The piano, on
account of its hundreds of small crevices, the presence
of felt and leather and other absorbent materials, is
an ideal resting place for germs out of a slovenly
home.
It is a poor compliment to the merchants of a dis-
trict or a state to have piano manufacturers use it as
a dumping ground for old instruments. It would be
far better to temporarily restrict the volume of piano
business in a territory than to try to stimulate de-
mand, to try to overcome buying resistance with low
priced, worthless instruments. These piano relics,
remember, will continue to exist and to curse the
piano industry, for years, and some of them for gen-
erations.
Body Blow to Business
The piano manufacturers and the piano merchants
engaged in this traffic, I am sure, do not realize the
full seriousness of their step. If they did, they would
hesitate to administer this supreme body-blow to the
business which has for years been their means of live-
lihood and a prosperous livelihood at that.
I predict that there will be a sweep of indignation
against this practice. It is too destructive, it is too
serious to result otherwise. The damage that has
already been done will take years and scores of years
to overcome. In no other field is the public offered
household merchandise relics on a scale worth talking
about. Public thinking toward the piano is wrong, it
is true, but that is no excuse for piano manufacturers
and piano merchants to help along this wrong think-
ing on the part of the people. It is their job to
change public opinion and it can never be done by
making the small merchants' store the dumping place
for the cast-off pianos of the big cities.
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