Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1928 2207

MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1881
Established
1884
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE WEEKLY
10 Cents a Copy
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1928
JESSE FRENCH &
SONS' RADIO SET
Important Announcement This Week from
New Castle, Ind., Industry Tells of Intro-
duction of a Radio Line Fulfilling All
the Requirements of the Tra.de.
The Jesse French &
Sons Piano Co., New
Castle, Ind., announces
its entry into the radio
manufacturing field, a
fact of undoubted im-
portance in the music
trade.
It prompts an
assurance that the new
manufacturing phase of
the company will he
operated with the same
thoroughness that dis-
tinguished the produc-
tion of fine pianos in the
great New Castle plant.
The technical and de-
signing departments of
Jesse French & Sons
Piano Co. have pro- THE MADRID CONSOLE,
duced a radio, after
months of research, which will make its official
how to the public on November 17. To all who
have seen and heard it this set is truly a revelation
because of its mechanical excellence and beauty of
design.
To find a circuit combining selectivity, truth of tone
reproduction and volume without distortion with
sturdy construction was the object of the research.
Only after a very careful investigation of the several
in popular u:;e was the circuit used selected. The
finished product certainly speaks well for the thor-
oughness with which many tests were conducted.
An Eight-Tube Set.
The Jesse French radio employs eight receiving and
amplifying tubes (with a rectifier tube in addition).
The frequency amplifier and detector comprises one
untuned and four tuned stages using two 171A, one
227 and five 226 tubes. The rectifier uses a 280 tube.
Push-pull amplification and an output transformer
are features. The set is self-contained with power
supply built in. All transformers, choke coils and
the condenser block are wax sealed as a protection
against moisture.
The single dial, which is illuminated, tunes the
radio. For the gaining of selectivity several broadly
tuned radio frequency stages rather than fewer
sharply tuned stages are used. The exceptionally
acute selection of the set is one of its strong features.
The location of the volume control between the
antenn<-e and the grid of the first tube prevents the
overloading of any part of the circuit when it is tuned.
The cutting down of the volume of a strong local
station is by a soft and loud switch which operates
in favor of improved control. The set has full elec-
tric operation (light socket) 60 cycle 110 volt A. C.
current.
Other Features.
The wiring of the set is through or in the base
and it is mounted on a heavy steel base which makes
it exceptionaly sturdy. The fact that all connections
are made in the base makes an unusually compact
and easily inspected mechanism. The buyer may
have a choice of either a dynamic speaker or mag-
netic; the dynamic, however, is slightly higher in
price.
The first offering in the cabinet style is to be the
Madrid Console. It is 48 inches high, 27 inches wide
and \6yj inches deep. The same finish as is given
• the world-famous Jesse French & Sons pianos—hi-
lited lacquer rubbed to a satin finish—is given to this
beautiful case which is strongly constructed and faced
with fancy walnut veneer.
The design of the Madrid Console was adapted
from the Spanish by the case design department of
the Jesse French & Sons Piano Company. The beau-
tiful design and excellent workmanship of their
musical instruments have made Jesse French & Sons
pianos famous for years, and the Jesse French
Radio certainly lives up to the traditions of its
makers. Within a very short time two other styles, a
Consolette and a table model, will be added to the
line. They will also be equipped with the same high
quality 8-tube set as the console model.
Music lovers will find that the Jesse French radio,
like the pianos bearing the same well-known name,
will fill a special place in their homes. Great technical
excellence and beauty of design are represented in
this last product at the lowest price compatible with
such quality. Radio dealers and experts who have
viewed the Madrid Console have given it their un-
qualified approval.
MOVE TO DISSOLVE
BUSINESS OF A. B. SMITH
Case in Common Pleas Court in Ohio Not a
Bankruptcy Case, But a Means to
Close Akron Business.
In a motion to dissolve the business of the A. B.
Smith Piano Co., Akron, Ohio, Rexford C. Hyre,
secretary of the Music Merchants' Association of
Ohio, has been appointed receiver. The company, of
which A. B. Smith is president, has been engaged in
the music goods trade for over forty years.
This is not a bankruptcy case, according to Mr.
Hyre. For some time Mr. Smith has been desirous
of ret'ring from active business while at the same
time his son has been desirous of continuing the
music business. A. B. Smith, Jr., has incorporated
his own business under the name of Allen B. Smith.
On October 22, 1928, A. B. Smith, who owns fifty-
one per cent of the stock of the A. B. Smith Piano
Corp., filed a petition in the court asking for a dis-
solution under receivership of the corporation, at
which time he presented a financial statement which
showed the company to be solvent as of June 30, 1928.
At Mr. Smith's suggestion Mr. Hyre was appointed
receiver.
W. E. GUYLEE ON GRAND JURY.
William E. Guylee, vice-president of The Cable
Company, Chicago, whose home is at 2515 Orrington
avenue, Evanston, is a member of the sixth and final
special grand jury to inquire into election crimes.
Joseph T. Ryerson, steel manufacturer, is foreman.
The jury was sworn in by Chief Justice John J. Sul-
livan of the Criminal Court. Special Prosecutor
Frank J. Loesch hobbled into court with the aid of
a cane, making his first court appearance since he
suffered a broken ankle four weeks ago. The an-
nounced purpose of this jury, which will be in direct
charge of Mr. Loesch, will be the investigation of the
political activities of the police prior to and at the
April primary.
NEW NAME CONTEST,
Selvi G. Carlson, proprietor of the Xorth Shore
Music Parlors in the McKillip Building on Central
avenue. Highland Park, 111., is seeking a new and
distinctive name for his popular store and has insti-
tuted a contest with that end in view. The reason for
changing the name is to clearly distinguish the store
from several others in similar line of business on the
north shore, and whose names also too nearly resem-
ble the one now in use for the local music store.
NEW GRINNELL BROS. BRANCH.
Lincoln Park, Mich., is to have a branch of the
largest music house in the state of Michigan, when
Grinne'l Bros, opens the new store at 1672 Fort
street, between Arlington and Warwick, this week.
This store will handle pianos, radios, a full line of
musical instruments, player rolls, records, Orthopho-
nic Victro'as, and other musical merchandise. Spe-
cials will be offered for opening week, it was an-
nounced. The Lincoln Park store will be under the
supervision of Paul Shaver, manager of the down
river district. Mr. Shaver has been connected with
the mus : cal business for the past 18 years.
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.
$2 The Yew
THE RECENT NEWS
IN INDIANAPOLIS
Pearson Piano Co. Celebrates Fifty-fifth Anni-
versary by Rousing Sale—New Starr
Grand Presented in Local Branch—
Other Items of Interest.
One of the special attractions this week in the
music industry of Indianapolis, is the fifty-fifth anni-
versary sale of the Pearson Piano Company. The
store has been beautifully decorated in the seasons
colors and hues, and an abundance of potted and
blooming plants. For the occasion one of the spa-
cious windows has been purposely decorated and the
place of honor is occupied by a Steinway & Sons'
grand piano finished in ebony, set in a black velvet
setting, with scarf and bench cushion in black bro-
cade, and cloth of silver. The window is attracting
an unusual amount of attention, and passerbys hesi-
tate and admire the beautiful instrument. One of the
real attractions is the founder himself, George C.
Pearson, who fifty-five years ago founded the insti-
stution, after visiting Indianapolis, and seeing its
opportunities. Mr. Pearson is still active and alert,
and when in the city can be found at the store, in
which he takes a keen interest.
New Starr Grand.
H. G. Hook, manager of the Starr Piano Company,
was wreathed in smiles the other day when he an-
nounced the arrival of the new style 40 grand piano.
Two of the instruments just arrived by truck from
Richmond, Ind., one in mahogany and the other in
walnut hilighted.. In discussing business with Mr.
Hook it was found that conditions were satisfactory
and Mr. Hook believes that business is governed by
the attitude of the manager.
"The whole force in any establishment is affected
by the attitude of the leader of the establishment.
Too many managers are affected too easily, and their
attitude has a very narrowing effect on the sales-
force. Selling pianos is hard, and can be made very
hard by the attitude of the manager himself. It is
better to think along the opposite line when business
is not so good, as thought has a great influence. En-
courage rather than discourage and hope for the
best," said Mr. Hook.
Sells Fine Ampico.
William Christena of the Christena-Teague Piano
Company reports the sale of one of the Mason &
Hamlin A. A. Florentine with the Ampico. This is
the most expensive piano the company has ever sold,
and was sold to a devout lover of the Mason & Ham-
lin piano. Mr. Christena says business is look'ntf
better, but it requires a lot of hard work to get it.
People who anticipate buying a high grade piano
don't make up their mind in \]\e minutes, and the
sales tactics that one must use in se'ling high grade
instruments are different from those used in selling
the lesser priced pianos.
Recent visitors in Indianapolis were F. M. Hood,
vice-president of the Schiller Piano Co., and C. A.
Whittier of the American Piano Company.
GERWIN SCHOOL FAVORS CHURCH.
The First Bohemian M. F. Church, 1'isk street and
19th place, Chicago, holds its 30-year anniversary
ce 1 ebration all of next week. On Thursday at 7:30
p. m. the Gerwin School of Music gives an artist
recital and concert gratis to the church. Both instru-
mental and vocal music is on the program.
SEEKING LINES FOR AUSTRALIA.
William Blogg. managing director of Amplion
(Australasia) Limited, the Australian branch of Gra-
ham Amplion, Ltd., of England, was a recent trade
visitor in New York city. Mr. Blogg made his head-
quarters at the executive offices of the Amplion Cor-
poration of America at 133 West Twenty-first street.
While here Mr. Blogg conferred with manufacturers
who are desirous of placing merchandise on the Aus-
tralian market on an agency basis. The Australian
executive remained in New York until October 27.
Ye Music Box Corp. is the name of a new music
store opened in Martinsville. Ind.
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/
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
ference. The board of control of the Music Mer-
chants' Association at its last meeting adopted a res-
olution covering the situation as follows:
"Whereas, The executives of the radio associations
a short time ago made it known to the executives of
our association that it would be agreeable to them for
the convention of our association and Music Trade
Industries to occur at the time and place that the
next joint radio convention or exhibition is to be
held, and assured us of their assistance and coopera-
tion in making our convention a success, and being
impressed by this demonstration of friendliness on
the part of our friends—the radio manufacturers, job-
bers and broadcasters; be it
Resolved, That it is equally agreeable to us for our
conventions and exhibitions to occur simultaneously
in the same city, and that for this reason we have
decided upon holding our convention and meetings at
the Drake Hotel, Chicago, during the week of June 3,
up to and including Thursday night, and that with a
view to fully cooperating with them in making our
associated convention and exhibition the greatest pos-
sible success, we shall be very glad for a committee
of our association to meet with their representatives
for the purpose of arranging our respective programs
in such a manner as to avoid any possible conflict, and
to increase the interest in the programs of all con-
cerned."
Possibilities of Conventions.
It is believed by those who have closely studied
the possibilities of the associated conventions that
programs can be worked out that will avoid conflict
in the scheduling of business meetings, get-together
meetings, banquets, exhibitions, etc, and will add
tremendously to the interest and benefit of all who
attend both conventions and exhibitions.
MUSIC DEALERS'
INTEREST IN RADIO
An Increasingly Apparent Fact Today Is that
Interests of the Music Trade Now In-
cludes Radio, and Circumstance
Points to Opportunity of Radio
Manufacturer.
By C. J. ROBERTS.
During the past few weeks it has been increasingly
apparent that the interests of music merchants and
different branches of the radio trade have been identical
in many respects and this feeling or knowledge has
been crystallized in the arrangements which have been
made by the two groups to hold their conventions
simultaneously in the same city. It is now also real-
ized that music merchants who sell radios and even
those who do not (and there are now very few of the
latter, and untimately there will be practically none
at all), have interests that are in common with those
of exclusive radio merchants. It is important that
music merchants shall attend radio conventions and
exhibitions. It is equally important for members of
the radio trade to attend conventions of the Music
Industries.
Interests in Common.
Music merchants now handling radios are vitally
interested in keeping up to date in regard to the
progress of the radio trade and as music merchants
distribute such a large percentage of the output of
the radio manufacturers, it is important that the latter
keep informed of the need of music merchants and co-
operate with them in disposing of as many of their
finished units to the public as possible.
The music merchant who does not now sell radio
i> a prospect for the manufacturer.
New Line of Prospects.
Many of the exclusive radio dealers are prospects
for the manufacturers of pianos and other musical
instruments and supplies. Not a few dealers w r ho
began handling radio exclusively have later become
music merchants and now sell pianos, talking ma-
chines and other musical merchandise. Very many
more will ultimately do so. A number of formal
and informal conferences of executives and leaders in
the two industries have occurred, mainly in order
to pave the way for a definite, formal joint con-
Sees Great Convention.
I earnestly believe that the next convention of the
Music Industries will be the greatest in history. The
radio convention and exhibition is certain to be a
great event. We are beginning apparently very early
to form our plans, but this is necessary to insure the
success of the occasion. The splendid committees
that have been appointed are already at work. The
executives of the various organized bodies within the
trade are earnestly and enthusiastically attacking the
problems which confront them. The next convention
will be very much of an experiment, but this is not a
time to "stand pat." Without experiment no prog-
ress is ever made. We must go forward and will go
forward.
The executives of the organized bodies in the trade
need the cooperation of every one in the trade.
Dealers v..
Profiting
by Straube
Difference
HE SUPERIOR construction of the
T
Straube Grand, the difference which can
be seen as well as heard, is helping hundreds
of piano merchants to make more, easier
and quicker sales.
The dramatic way in which dealers can
prove Straube superiority to prospects, the
exclusive features such as laminal construc-
tion of the key bed, the rim and the braces,
afford exceptional opportunity for profit.
With the approach of the holiday season
this opportunity for profit with the Straube
is intensified. It is easier to turn"shoppers"
into purchasers when you can demonstrate
quality in construction and in tone so clearly.
Have the advantage of Straube's exclusive
points in your holiday selling. Get all the
facts now; it will not obligate you in the
least. Let us show you the Straube difference
which means profittomerchants.Write today.
STRAUBE PIANO COMPANY
1107 Manila Ave.,
O N E
Hammond, Ind
traube
O F
T H E
Pictured above is the Straube Florentine Grand, one of
the many period models available in various sizes — in-
cluding the world's smallest full scale grand. The Sonata,
four feet, four inches.
Inset in the circle is the back of a Straube Grand, show*
ing the laminal construction of key bed, rim and braces-
exclusive Straube features.
W O R L D
Rationally F I N E S T
P I A N O S
November 17, 1928
DEALERS RESENT
BUREAU'S SLAPS
Chicago Piano & Organ Association Indig-
nant Over a Signed Advertisement in the
Chicago Evening Post Which Seems
to Impugn Honesty of All Dealers.
At the annual meeting of the Chicago Piano and
Organ Association last week, held in the Great North-
ern Hotel, Chicago, public inspection was sharply
focussed upon the sort, the kind, the variety, the
intent of the propaganda that has recently appeared
in the Chicago Evening Post as advertising matter
about the piano business and signed by the Chicago
Better Business Bureau.
A recent advertisement, so signed, was read at the
meeting, every word of which was followed by tense
interest by the entire audience for evidences of some
hidden dagger pointing insidiously at the very vitals
of the entire trade under the cloak of fighting a few
carelessly worded ads in the daily papers.
A Blow Against Honesty.
The copy of the objectionable advertisement was
then turned over by unanimous vote to the executive
board of the association for further study and for
recommendations for action at the next meeting of
the trade in Chicago. It would seem that in its effort
to cure some small sore spot in the trade the Better
Business Bureau has unwittingly, or witlessly, struck
a body blow at the entire trade, the insinuation being
that no piano man is to be trusted or trustworthy.
And this, in view of the honesty and the progress that
has been made during several years of improving
their advertising and their honorable selling methods,
does not sit well on the stomach of any honest piano
man in Chicago (and from 95 to 99 per cent of them
"are on the square," perfectly reliable and eager to
give a dollar's worth of value for every dollar a cus-
tomer gives them).
Some Sore Spots, Perhaps.
The bureau may have found some sore spots. So
far, so good. But it has overreached in its accusa-
tions, which have hit the entire trade (the better
part of it the hardest) by abominable generalizations.
A rhetorician may indulge in metonymy or synec-
doche by putting a part for the whole, but an entire
piano trade of a great city strenuously objects to
being classed with one or two offending members.
It is positively blighting to permit such misleading
propaganda to go before a public which has a right
to have the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth.
Why Make Goat of Piano Trade?
"Why pick on the piano business? We certainly
have our troubles getting business without having
outsiders who do not understand, butting in?" asked
a prominent piano manufacturer yesterday. "Our
business is conducted on the cleanest basis of any
that I know of. If the Better Business Bureau must
have a victim, why not pick on the opticians, a few
of whose ads are said to be under suspicion? But
of all business, that of the piano is the least deserv-
ing of criticism at the present moment; we give more
than money's worth; the piano was never so well-
made or so satisfactory as a musical instrument as
it is today.
"We eliminated knockers from our own trade years
ago. That was a long step in advance. The trade
then took a high place among absolutely reliable
merchandising men. What dry goods man, what real
estate man, what doctor of medicine would dare
today accuse a dealer in standardized pianos in Chi-
cago of doing business other than fairly and squarely?
"What druggist would dare do it? What preacher
gets up and denounces the piano man from his pul-
pit? What producer of tin cans, of paper, of bus
rides across the country, of neckties or dog collars
would go out of his way to throw a lie at the honest
dealer in fine pianos?
The Latest "Knocker."
"Yet, here bobs up this hobgoblin knocker in the
form of a Better Business Bureau and knocks and
knocks and knocks. It shoots its mud-guns directly
at the finest and cleanest piano houses in America
It seems to glory in the bespatterment it causes
along piano row.
What Is the Underlying Purpose?
"Several dealers in St. Louis told me last year
that a so-called Better Business Bureau there had
made a lot of mischief and really damaged the piano
business in that great city. Is it the purpose of the
Chicago Better Business Bureau to do likewise here?
And who is paying for this propaganda? I'd like to
know the source of this tearing-down effort."
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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