Presto

P R E S T 0-T I M E S
TRADE NOT SO DULL NOW
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. DAN I ELL—1904-1927.)
J. FERGUS O'RYAN
_ _ _ _ _
Managing Editor
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 0234.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Com-
mercial Cable Co.'s Code), " P R E S T O , " Chicago.
Entered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at th«
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 of other
than strictly news interest.
When electrotypes are sent for publication it is re-
quested that their subjects and senders be carefully indi-
cated.
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.
Address all communications for the editorial or business
departments to PRESTO PUBLISHING CO., 417 South
Dearborn Street. Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1928.
The last form of Presto-Times goes to press
at 11 a. m. Thursday. Any news transpiring
after that hour cannot be expected in the cur-
rent issue. Nothing received at the office that
is not strictly news of importance can have
attention after 9 a. m. on Thursday. If they
concern the interests of manufacturers or
dealers such items will appear the week follow-
ing. Copy for advertising designed for the
current issue must reach the office not later
fJian Wednesday noon of each week.
PRESTO BUYERS'
GUIDE NOTICE
The 1928. Edition of Presto Buyers' Guide,
the "Book That Sells Pianos," is already en-
tirely exhausted. It is the second time in the
twenty-nine years since the book first ap-
peared that the demand has been such as to
render this announcement necessary. A lim-
ited number of preceding- editions may still be
had, and the issues of 1925 and 1926 are so
nearly up-to-date as to be almost equally use-
ful in the hands of salesmen. The "Premium
Edition" also is good for selling purposes, and
it may be had for 25 cents a copy—one-half
the regular price.
The entirely new Presto Buyers' Guide for
1929 is in preparation and will be ready in Jan-
uary. Advance orders, especially for quanti-
ties, should be placed early. Subscribers to
Presto, the American Music Trade Weekly,
will receive a copy of the new Presto Buyers
Guide for 1920 without charge as soon as it
appears.
ORDER NOW.
PRESTO PUBLISHING
CO.
417 South Dearborn St., Chicago, 111., U. S. A.
Readers of the Presto-Times column,
"Thirty-five Years Ago," have been comment-
ing on reprinted items about the hard times
that prevailed then, while the Columbian Ex-
position was on, in the piano trade and in-
dustry—factories shutting down, retailers go-
ing into bankruptcy, piano salesmen quitting
to engage in house-to-house soliciting for ten-
cent industrial insurance on members of any
poor family including the babies in their cribs,
etc., etc. In those far-off days of adversity,
when misforttune and calamity stalked abroad,
when millions of men could find no better use
for their ambition and "pep" than to pace
over the railroad tracks to distant and forbid-
ding cities in a vain search for work, piano
men, too, found the sledding hard and the
ground bare.
So these readers of Presto-Times who lived
through that trying period pooh-pooh at any-
body and everybody who says that the present
is a very hard time for piano men; they dub
such men as cowards and slackers—the sort
who shy at bugaboos and goblins of their own
fancy or scarecrows they have set up in their
own cornfields. They declare that these men
do not know the meaning of such a dull period
as befell the trade in the fall of 1893 or the
whole of 1894 and into 1895.
Presto-Times reporters, who call upon lead-
ers regularly and widely, keep in touch with
every phase of the development of the piano
trade, and it is a most encouraging announce-
ment that all of them have made at this office
recently that trade is constantly getting bet-
ter. Furthermore, they have noted that the
sales have been of the better and more artistic
grades of instruments.
RADIO IN MUSIC STORES
The plans for the conventions of the music
trades and the radio interests in Chicago next
June are indications of the recognition
of mutual interests by the people in both
industries. It is now an admitted fact that
the sale of radio sets is well served in the mu-
sic store and that the musical phase of radio
broadcasting constitutes a radio set a musical
instrument. The finer, higher-priced radio
sets are possible of easier and quicker sale in
the music store because of the experiences of
the music stores in sales of fine pianos.
The class of people who buy good pianos
also are prospects for the finer radio sets. To
customers of that kind the ability to give the
best musical results is the foremost argument.
So the radio sets have the best chance of
quality customers in the store with a charac-
ter for handling fine pianos and other high
grade musical instruments.
Indeed the position of radio in the music
store is no longer a matter of doubt. Instead
the association of music and radio in a store
is one of mutual advantage. The music mer-
chant is a logical distributor of radio and mu-
sic merchants may be depended upon to de-
velop the radio business intelligently. Every-
where there is the recognition of the recipro-
cal character of the relations between the
radio manufacturers and the music dealers.
The proportion of music dealers handling ra-
dio has grown so great it makes plain the
fact that the music dealer who does not yet
include radio in his lines is a good prospect
for the radio manufacturer.
Reckless haste is the direct road to error.
December 15, 1928
THIRTY-FIVITVEARS AGO
(From Presto December 15, 1893.)
I was talking with Mr. Melville Clark the other
day about the probable effects of the new tariff bill.
Mr. Clark takes a very gloomy view of the matter.
He told me, that, much as they would regret it,
the Story & Clark Organ Co. would have to cut their
salary list fully one half, if that bill became a law.
Mr. W. W. Kimball, while in New York recently,
was interviewed as to the probability of opening Kim-
ball warerooms there. He denied all the rumors to
that purport. He said, "We have a good trade at
home. Why would it be wise to come to New York
and open a branch?"
Mr. M. R. Slocum, traveling representative of the
Starck & Strack Piano Co., is making a Southern trip
in the interest of his house.
Steinway & Sons have grown so accustomed to
honors that they wear lightly the recent distinction
conferred upon them by the Princess of Wales and
her brother-in-law, the Duke of Edinburgh, now a
reigning German Prince. The royal individuals be-
stowed the right upon Steinway & Sons to serve
them by "special appointment." At one time this
was a questionable phrase, but in recent years, by Act
of Parliament, all claims to this dignity have to be
substantiated by Royal Warrant before it can be
used.
We learn that Mr. M. A. Paulsen, of the Century
Piano Co., Minneapolis, has purchased for cash all
the finished pianos on hand (some seventy) of the
Anderson Piano Co., Rockford, 111.
Mr. A. M. Sweetland, representative of the Newman
Bros. Co., has just returned from a three weeks' trip
in Ohio. He reports having received a fair amount
of business, and says, that in the present state of
things, he thinks his house is getting fully its share.
Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co. report a constantly
increasing trade. A visitor to their fine New York
store cannot fail to be impressed with the stock they
carry; that is, if he is at all familiar with piano hard-
ware materials, etc. Hammacher, Schlemmer & Co.
are conservative and yet very progressive.
The Starck & Strack Piano Co., are, so Mr. C. C.
Russell reports, having a fair show of business now
and prospects are very good. Mr. M. R. Slocum is
now on a trip south in the interest of the house and
is sending some good orders. The Starck & Strack
piano made a host of friends at the World's Fair
among the visitors who were capable of appreciating
its fine qualities.
During the excitement of the World's Fair, a good
many people imagined that piano and organ houses
that were not represented there, were scarcely "on
earth." That was a mistake, as the Miller Organ Co.
of Lebanon, Pa., can verify.
The factory of the Starr Piano Co., Richmond, Ind.,
is running full force and full time at present, and busi-
ness is looking up a good deal. While business with
them is not as it was last year the Starr people have
had a fair share and are thankful for it.
Mr. C. G. Cheney, of Comstock, Cheney & Co., has
been in the city for a few days. He leaves today
(Thursday).
Mr. E. H. Story, of the Story & Clark Organ Co.,
will sail for London on Wednesday next by the S. S.
City of Paris.
The sheriff is still in possession of the business of
C. A. Gerold, 65 North Clark Street, this city, and
pending the final arrangements for resumption of
business, a sheriff's sale of the goods will not take
place.
Mr. E. S. Payson, cr "Ned," as he is called by his
familiar friends of the Emerson Piano Co., is enjoy-
ing the difference between the Hub and "the rest of
the world." His friends in Chicago are very glad to
see him.
The third annual meeting of the Hollenberg Music
Co. of Little Rock, Ark., will be held at the ware-
rooms of the W. W. Kimball Co., this city, January
16, 1894. It is probable that Mr. E. N. Kimball cf the
Hallet & Davis Co. will be present at this meeting as
he was at the last.
The record for shipments of Conover pianos is
kept up this week as it has in the past three. The
dealers, who order Conover pianos, want them "right
away."
Recent styles in Wissner pianos are meeting with a
great deal of favor, and their fine qualities are very
marked.
* * * * Feeling thus, and having "done" every place
in this country, the Business End of the Presto looked
around for a place where tired nerves and weary
brains could rest. Accordingly, in the last days of
March, 1892, he determined to take a "run" over to
Europe. On the 30th of March he set sail from New
York on the steamer "Majestic," in company with a
choice coterie of Chicagoans. In the immediate party
travelling with this scribe were Mr. E. H. Story of
Story & Clark Organ Company; Mr. R. B. Gregory
and J. C. Freeman of Lyon & Healy; Mr. C. H.
Wagener of Story & Clark Organ Company, and
Mr. W. T. Richards and Mr. D. B. Dewey, bankers of
Chicago.
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