June IS, 1929
P R £ S T 0-T I M E S
ISSUED THE FIRST AND THIRD
SATURDAY IN EACH
MONTH
F R A N K D. A B B O T T
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(C. A. DAN I ELL—1904-1927.)
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
Publishers
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Chicago, III.
The American Music Trade Journal
Editor
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ers or dealers such items will appear the issue following.
CHICAGO, JUNE 15, 1929
QUALITIES OF LEADERSHIP
The men who led in the work of the recent music men's con-
ventions in Chicago, gave their time, their money and their efforts
for the benefit of the entire trade. They bestowed as a gratuity and
ungrudgingly their talents in constructive planning for the good of
Tom, Dick and Harry after the manner of the Lord sending His
showers of rain to water the crops of the just and the unjust.
Will Mr. Tom, Mr. Dick and Mr. Harry now have the decency
to acknowledge their great debt to these workers who have taken
the lead in rescuing the perishing, in initiating right-about-face
methods of approaching and handling the public, in taking the lead
in the housecleaning that had become a necessity?
These teachers did not preach. Rather, they went about their
work under the principle that "men must be taught as if you taught
them not, and things unknown proposed as things forgot." They
spoke plain. Handled the present situation in the piano trade without
gloves. Reported truthfully that the present trend is constantly
toward more sales of good, well-made pianos and yet not near what
it ought to be or can be made.
In all they did, they showed qualities of leadership, coupled with
modesty which is the usual accompaniment of real ability. Not all
who remained at home or aloof from the work of the conventions
were slackers; in fact, very few were of the ilk that would even think
of sponging personal advantage at the expense of their broader-
minded and more public-spirited brothers. However, Presto-Times
takes off its hat to the men who took the lead in the recent conven-
tion and "put across" the better principles of advertising, of leading
the young into piano performance and of training young men how to
sell instruments, as well as to those who planned and executed its
most instructive and entertaining programmes.
IT WAS A GRAND CONVENTION
Differing in glory from all previous conventions, entertainments,
dinners and social activities, the programmes at Chicago last week
at the greatest assemblages of music men and women the world has
ever seen, presented a new galaxy of stars whose brightness added
luster to the famous hospitality of Chicago. This success was not
mere "happenstance," but the result of weeks of careful planning
and insistence on having the very best of talent, the best of food,
the best service, the most artistic displays, the finest music and the
most genial welcoming that any great metropolis has ever given.
The individuals who planned all this and carried it out so gracefully
and engagingly are leaders in music and the music industries. To
officers and leaders in the Piano Club of Chicago and the Chicago
Piano & Organ Association went much of the work of initiation and
execution, ably backed by assistance from all those from other cities
who took part in the programmes.
PREFER BETTER-CLASS MUSIC.
Thousands of letters in appreciation of the Edison
radio broadcasts have been received by Thomas A.
Edison, Inc., West Orange, N. J. These letters come
not only from every section of this country, but from
foreign countries as well and are of especial signifi-
cance, because they indicate a marked preference
for better-class music. Thomas A. Edison, Inc., to-
gether with other interests identified with the phono-
graph, has undoubtedly done more than any other
medium to get people to appreciate good music, and
it is fitting that quality radio entertainment should
now be vested more and more with such interests.
CONVENTION A GREAT SCHOOL
The men who attended the recent conventions in Chicago—piano,
radio and what not—are now scattered far and wide, perhaps con-
sidering how far they have gone and the charred bridges they have
left behind them. A w r eek's preoccupation with association matters
has brought them in contact with men who could direct five railroads
from a wheel-chair, and who would not hesitate to make the sacrifices
that such an ambition would entail, has shown them the nobility of
men who have been directing incalculable labors to prevent the slips
of tradesmen and the subtle omissions of lawyers, has caused them to
meet men with an innate capacity for business affairs. The conven-
tions have been a great school and its pupils have been apt learners.
THE CONVENTION EXHIBITS
Among the piano exhibits at the convention in the Drake Hotel,
Chicago, last week, there were several instances of a unique instru-
ment, differentiating it from all others, and every one of these merited
in a full degree this distinction. The groups that gathered around
the pianos of such individuality were groups that represented "one
for all and all for one." These groups chatted pleasantly about im-
provements in construction and all seemed much indebted to those in
attendance for their hospitality and conversation.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
Although hinted at by several of the speakers at the Chicago
conventions, the unique character of American secondary education
was not elaborated upon. It requires the freedom of bigness in the
first place to make a nation or a section broadminded. Breadth of
mind brings freedom of action and the inventions of a free people
are more likely to be pianos or radio than mousetraps or face powder.
The secondary education of the people of the United States has made
of them a nation distinct, and whether European peoples look upon
them as geniuses or boobs, they certainly recover rapidly from dis-
aster and branch out in new and startlingly successful ways that
even astonish their fellow citizens of their own class of advancement.
Even while talking blue the American may be planning a new method
of achieving success.
YEAST OF THE CONVENTION
The yeast in the recent convention was furnished by a few of
the most active men in the trade, and to them the trade now owes its
thanks for furnishing the preparation for raising the "dough."
Whether these men furnished hypothetical accounts of the causes
that made for the late mistakes in the trade, incurred the rancor of
men who have the incurable habit of getting into difficulties or
pointed out new ways of carrying on, they trod the path of pioneers
in a new route of practical sagacity. At least they pointed out that
patient labor for the good of the public redounds to the financial
success of the piano dealer.
WM. BRAID WHITE TO BOSTON.
William Braid White, accoustical engineer, who is
associated with research work at the American Steel
& Wire Company, Chicago, went to Boston, Mass.,
this week to attend the convention of the Federation
of National Music Clubs. And in the fall he will
attend the National Music Teachers' Association con-
vention in Cincinnati.
SCHAAD CONCERT DIRECTOR OF N. B. C.
Thirty-one years' experience in the management of
musical stars and the staging of musical events are
taken to radio broadcasting by H. B. Schaad, for-
merly of the Aeolian Co., whose appointment as asso-
ciate managing director of the National Broadcast-
ing and Concert Bureau, New York, was announced
recently.
HENRY L. MASON RESIGNS
Eduardo Marzo, music teacher, composer and or-
Henry L. Mason resigned from the presidency of
ganist, aged 77 years, died on June 7 at his home in the Mason & Hamlin Co., his resignation becoming
the Bronx, New York.
effective June 1, 1929.
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