P R E S T 0-TI M E S
promotes ability for expression.
develops esthetic nature.
develops imagination.
provides inspiration for writers, composers and the socially ambitious.
Culture
Content-
ment
THE ABILITY TO PLAY THE PIANO . . .
inspires love of nature,
inspires love of beauty,
develops broader vision.
THE ABILITY TO PLAY THE PIANO
dispels worry.
alleviates mental disorders.
promotes peace of mind.
promotes happiness.
provides rest for a mind filled with care.
gives understanding".
gives mental precision.
dispels moodishness.
A BIT OF A LETTER
FROM SO. CALIFORNIA
Some Defective Advertising Referred to by
Presto-Times Correspondent
Who Booms Pianos.
By MARSHALL BREEDEN.
Louis Danz, who operates a snug business in Ana-
heim, is in Europe while the rest of us, including
M. F. Martin and Don C. Preston, must continue to
slave at the wheels of business.
The honor of displaying pianos on this day goes
to the Barnes Music Company, the Wiley B. Allen
Company, and the May Company. What is the mat-
ter with the other folks? If they all think that pianos
arc in the limbo they are mistaken.
Today I looked through our four main newspapers.
and this is all the musical display advertising I found:
In the Times, Fitzgeralds ran one of their short
dialogues on the value of music. I found nothing
more, in the Examiner the George J. Birkel Com-
pany were represented with a quarter-page an-
nouncing a big end-of-the-month sale, featuring
pianos from the magnificent Duo-Art lines to used
uprights, and that was all. In the Morning News
was a double-page spread extolling the Apex Radio
and the various Apex dealers, and in the Evening
Express the Birkel advertisement was repeated, and
on the same page a large Stewart-Warner radio dis-
play. .
What? No more ads than these? No more, no
more, no more.
The Broadway Department Store is undergoing
many changes. When the carpenters are finished
its radio and music department will be housed in
a fine, ample space. The May Company is building
;i ten, or is it a twelve-story addition, to its already
huge building, and Richardson's, Inc., is using the
vacant store windows next door. B. J. Chandler of
Santa Ana has completed some alterations in his three-
story building, and Frank Ford has but now re-
decorated his new store in Pomona, while Moore &
Fazio of Ventura have just seen the last of the
painting 1 crew.
Many Radio Men in Los Angeles.
There are more than 1,700 radio retailers listed in
our bulky telephone book. This does not include
the hundreds in the surrounding towns. What, are
you intending to open a radio store in Los Angeles?
In the same book the listings under pianos shows less
than forty. It's a sad, sad story, mates, a terribly
sad, sad story.
Ed Wolmer, who not so long since was manager
of pianos at the San Diego store of the Southern
California Music Company, has taken unto himself a
store at Ocean Side. Ed went right out and joined
every thing jomable in the community and his busi-
ness is prospering. Whether there is an analogy
there or not I do not attempt to say.
Meditations whilst driving from Santa Barbara.
Wonder why the furniture dealers in Santa Paula
do not make a greater effort with the radio? Two of
them had their sets thrust into the deep background.
One of them had five pianos, in the rear and dust-
covered.
Pace Smith keeps his small store polished like an
artillery officer's boot. When Pace is not flying
like a bird he is selling Kimball and other pianos, as
well as radio.
Leslie White has been working lately. He was
home this day with a bad head. And no wonder.
Leslie lias been playing the drum during a dancing
marathon. It went on for more than five weeks
and Mr. White .meantime rather neglected his sheet
music and radio business, although the lady at the
August 1, 1929
EMOTIONS THAT MAY BE APPEALED TO IN SELLING PIANOS
Pride
Fear
Imitation
Envy
Pride of ownership.
Pride of ability to play.
Pride of position in the community which possession of a piano affords.
Pride of accomplishment.
Fear, that by not owning a Piano you may be overlooked socially.
Social advancement may be retarded.
There will be less opportunity for advancement.
There will be less opportunity for diversion and amusement.
Your opportunity for broader knowledge may be dwarfed.
Others own Pianos.
Others have the added beauty of home which a Piano affords.
Others have become accomplished.
Others have enhanced their popularity.
Others have given their children the advantages of a Piano.
the social advancement of others due to their possession of a Piano.
the friends and acquaintances which the Piano has attracted to other
homes.
the attractive appearance of other homes due to the Piano.
the entertaining facilities at the disposal of Piano owners.
store tells me they did sell a player-piano. For
which Leslie should have a king's medal.
There used to be several snappy piano bill boards
on the coast road. I do not notice them any more.
And that's a pity.
In Santa Barbara the Victor folks had a blow-
out and a come-on party. They demonstrated their
new Victor radios and combinations. The soiree
was held at the store now known as "The Santa
Barbara Music Company." Time was when it was
called Bolton & Jones. Bolton & Son are now sell-
ing mother earth, and I know not where Jones layeth
his head.
The Santa Barbara Music Company have builded
a wall in the front portion of their massive display
room, and rented it to a clothier. Thus do music
stores reduce their overhead.
Friend L. F. Durfee and his crew of merry men
came from Ventura to view the Victor. Durfee
operates the splendid Bartlett Company at the sea-
port town of Ventura. He knows how to run a
business. Tn addition to pianos (Gulbransen and
Lagonda) he sells radios and books, stationery and
what not. One must keep the home lires burning
these happy clays.
Ed. White has a thriving, radio business. He is an
alert merchant and the citizens of Ventura and round-
about go to him often for their machines that do
babble in English, Spanish and jazz. Likewise the
Ventura Electric Company sells radio, but "nary"
a piano is shown in the Poinsettia City save by Dur-
fee and Moore & Fazio.
Fine Room for Starr Pianos.
Moore & Fazio have just finished paying the dec-
orator for making the white interior of their store
into a "burn" orange. It livens the store up and
makes quite a fetching display room for Starr pianoM
and Kolster, Patterson and other radios. An error
crept into this story above. Because Moore & Fazio
do have a piano sign board opposite the main high-
way.
At Santa Barbara, F. E. Hendricks complained bit-
terly that the rent stock had been returned. It seems
that the channel city has many winter visitors. They
rent pianos and send them hack again when they
hie themselves "hither and thence "
At Oxnard. lives Carl Newcomb, a little bundle
of energy. He is a radio man, and woe to the man
who bawls him out for not having pianos.
Here in Oxnard is the Austin Music House, pre-
sided over by Mr. Austin. When he is not showing
his Spartons, Atwater Kents, and various pianos he
is busy with his dogs. Austin has a pack of hunt-
ing hounds. Maybe Austin uses them to run down
piano prospects.
Langlands & Schade, of Lankershim, otherwise
known as North Hollywood, are booming a special
piano sale.
CONTESTS FOR WORLD'S FAIR BAND.
Frederick A. Stock, conductor of the Chicago Sym-
phony Orchestra, will be one of the judges in the
band concert contesst which will decide just what
musical organization will be given the right to call
itself the Chicago World's Fair Symphony Band.
Many of Chicago's civic and business leaders, seeing
in the contest plan an opportunity to show up the
city as a place of culture instead of a city of gangsters
and hoodlums, have come forward with offers of
assistance and cooperation.
DEDERICK WITH WURLITZER'S.
The many friends of Louis Dederick will be inter-
ested to know that at the present time he is asso-
ciated with the Wurlitzer music house at San Fran-
cisco and Oakland, Calif., as credit manager, which
is a very important division of the Wurlitzer com-
pany's Pacific Coast business.
SUMMER BUSINESS GOOD
WITH M. SCHULZ CO.
Henry Hewitt Says Trade Shows Irregularity, But on
the Whole Is Much Larger.
Henry Hewitt, Otto Schulz, Jr., and Messrs. Shel-
don and Olson are hard at work every day at the
M. Schulz Company's headquarters, 711 Milwaukee
avenue, Chicago. Mr. Hewitt when asked by a Presto-
Times representative about the midsummer trade said
that sales were increasing right along, making con-
ditions generally much better, although orders were
coming in with a degree of irregularity that brought
surprises.
Fred P. Bassett, secretary and treasurer of the
company and president of the National Piano Manu-
facturers' Association, who has been at Minocqua,
Wis., with his family for two or three weeks, is ex-
pected back about August 5. The Bassett cottage at
Lake Minocqua is one of the largest at the resort.
Thej r dine in the large hotel and sometimes prepare
a breakfast in the cottage. Two sons of Mr. and Mrs.
Bassett are getting well-trained in athletics in the
vicinity of the camp.
CARL SHACKLETON JOINS
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
Prominent Leader in Music Trade Circles Is Head of
Big Male Chorus.
Anticipating in a way the membership promotion
campaign which President Parham VVerlein of the
National Association of Music Merchants is planning
to inaugurate, J. P. Simmons of Lexington, Ky.,
State Commissioner for Kentucky for the National
Association and one of the charter members of the
association, has sent to the Executive Office another
new member from Kentucky, Carl Shackleton, Presi-
dent of the Shackleton Piano Company, Inc., of
Louisville. Mr. Shackleton is one of the most promi-
nent musicians in Kentucky as well as being a leader
in music trade circles in that city. He is organist and
choir director of the Second Presbyterian Church, also
Conductor of the Louisville Male Chorus, an organi-
zation of forty male voices.
The Shackleton Piano Company is the Louisville
representative of the Steinway, Aeolian, Kurtzmann,
Hazleton Brothers and Kohler & Campbell lines of
pianos. The company has a fine wareroom at 324
VVest Chestnut street.
VOGET SELLING HADDORFFS.
Ernest Voget, dealer at Wayne, Neb., says in a
recent bit of private correspondence that piano pros-
pects for the near future, as well as for the autumn
trade, are considerably better than they were a year
ago.
He is selling Haddorfif pianos, particularly
Haddorff grands, of which he has disposed of a
goodly number recently. In fact, Mr. Voget is a very
enthusiastic Haddorff man. "I claim that the Had-
dorff is one of America's finest pianos," said Mr.
Voget. "For me and my trade, there is nothing
better."
COMPLIMENTS PRESTO-TIMES.
Presto-Times likes compliments, so its publishers
are pleased to note a compliment in a letter just
received from a dealer who has read this paper for
twenty years—E. A. Francis of Galesburg, 111.—who
says: "Your paper is the only trade paper that seems
to take an interest in the merchant out in the
'sticks.' "
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