Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1929 2241

MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1884
Established
1881
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE JOURNAL
10 Cents a
I Year
Copy
$1.25
10 Months. ..$1.00
6 Months. .75 cents
NEW YORK CROWDED
WITH SHOPPERS
There Are Always Hosts of People with
Money to Spend at Holiday Time, for
Pianos, Radio, Gewgaws or
Necessities.
To see the New York crowds surging on Sixth
avenue, Broadway, 34th street, 42nd street and Fifth
avenue and shopping for Christmas presents, one
would think there had never been any such thing as
a stock slump. This great city is anything and
everything to all men, according to the individual
viewpoint. Some call it a feminine city, yet it is
anything but effeminate or effete. Some call it a crim-
inal city, yet it manages to punish its major criminals
in the main.
It is a city full of the inquiring, the curious; yet
it does not practice meddling inquisitiveness, probably
through fear of being considered unsophisticated. In
spots it is very old in its quaintness and in other
spots it is as much up to date as Chicago, Los An-
geles, Detroit, Minneapolis, St. Louis or Dallas. In
the total volume of its business it is a giant.
It has had some winter; 5,200 shovelers tackled the
snow there last week.
Christmas Tree for Animals.
New York is a religious city, a charitable commu-
nity, if such a vast town can be alluded to as a com-
munity. It keeps every holiday and is hunting for
more holidays. The habit of its people of taking
vacations is lengthening their lives and giving them
something to look forward to. It even sets up a
Christmas tree for animals. The eighth Christmas
tree celebration for animals will be held December
24, at 2 p. m., in front of the Humane Society, 44
Seventh avenue. Last year thousands of children and
drivers visited the Christmas tree and with their pets
received presents of dog discuits, salmon, collars,
leashes, dog and cat baskets, soap, etc. Drivers got
a pail with a Christmas dinner for their horses, as
well as a blanket and other articles. The children and
drivers also received suitable gifts for themselves.
Orchestral Scholarships.
Orchestral scholarships sponsored by the Philhar-
monic Society were offered again this year to about
seventy students attending the New York city high
and junior high schools, and the first lesson was
conducted at the High School of Commerce late in
the afternoon of December 3. George H. Gartlan is
director of music in the city schools.
Knabe 92nd Anniversary.
It is natural that the Metropolitan Opera be fea-
tured in the New York celebration of the historic
Knabe 92nd Anniversary, since the Knabe is the offi-
cial piano of the Metropolitan Opera Company and
has long been used and endorsed by its artists. Dur-
ing Metropolitan Opera week, Knabe introduced eight
new Knabe and Knabe-Ampico baby grands.
Lead Public Away from Jazz.
A campaign to lead the public away from jazz and
in the direction of melody is being started by the
Radio Corporation of America and two music pub-
lishing houses.
An anti-jazz organization, called the Radio Music
Company, was incorporated at Albany on December 4
with a capitalization of $6,800,000. Its organizers are
the music publishing houses of Carl Fisher, Inc., and
Leo Feist, Inc., and the National Broadcasting Com-
pany, a Radio Corporation subsidiary. The new
organization will be linked with the phonograph in-
dustry through the Victor-Radio Corporation and
with the talking pictures through Radio-Keith-Or-
pheum.
The Bechstein and Debussy.
A historic piano, a Bechstein, arrived in New York
on the Steamship De Grasse, on her last arrival in
this port. It is an instrument w T hich was specially
made by the firm of C. Bechstein of Berlin, Germany
for the composer Debussy, and upon which that noted
French composer and, incidentally, fine pianist, com-
CHICAGO, ILL., DECEMBER 15, 1929
posed some of his most famous compositions. This
historic instrument is now on exhibition at the Wan-
amaker piano warerooms in the first gallery of the
Wanamaker building, the Wanamaker company being
the representatives in New York of the' Bechstein
piano. It is planned to give a series of recitals at
WanamakerV in the near future, featuring various
works that Debussy composed on this instrument.
Buys Three Publishing Houses.
Warner Brothers Pictures corporation recently pur-
chased outright the music publishing houses of
Harms, Inc., ,M. Witmark & Sons, and J. H. Remick
& Co. in order to obtain control of their copyrighted
hits"
, ." •
Prima Donna Dies.
Mrs. Ida Brooks Hunt, who in 1908 was the prima
donna of Victor Herbert's "Algeria" at the old Broad-
way Theater, New York, died in Brooklyn, Decem-
ber 8. She w r as the widow of Dr. G. Edwin Hunt,
an Indianapolis surgeon. Her last appearance was in
"Robin Hood" as Dame Durden on November 18.
Activity at Steinway's.
There is great activity at Steinway & Sons head-
quarters, Steinway Hall, 109 West 57th street, New
York, these pre-Christmas days. Many special instru-
ments are being delivered—specially designed pianos
in fine cases—and others are being exhibited in the
warerooms de luxe of the company. At the Stein-
way factories the departments are working at prac-
tically full capacity most of the time. Everything
about the Steinway establishments bears the appear-
ance of being at least normal, and the inside informa-
tion is that this year is better than many another year
has been.
Music Dealers Handling Radio.
In an advertisement of the places where Edison
radio is sold in New York and suburban cities there
are many piano stores and other musical instrument
establishments mentioned, including, in Manhattan:
Alba Music Shop, Dyckman Music Shop, Goldsmith
Music Shop, Marconi Brothers, J. McCreery & Co.,
Reubert Piano Company, Surma Book & Music Co.,
and Weser Brothers. In the Bronx: Charming Phone
Company, Inc., Joseph Mancusi, Nardone Piano Com-
pany and West Farms Grafonola Shop. In Brook-
lyn: Brody's Music Shop, Bushwick Music Store,
Ferm's Music House, Fifth Avenue Grafonola Shop,
Flatbush Piano Company, Ideal Piano Company, and
Parkinson & Irvine. In Westbury: The Defarrari
Music Shop. In Newark: The Lauter Piano Com-
pany and Griffith Piano Company. In Jersey City:
The Brunton Piano Company. In Passaic: The Para-
dise Piano Company. In Bloomfield: The Jersey
Music Company.
CHICAGO CHILDREN
SHOW MUSICAL TALENT
Even Seven-Year-Old Little Folks Entertained Dig-
nitaries of the City.
Proof that music is a civilizing influence was given
in Chicago on December 12. The third semi-annual
civic assembly, which convened on that day at Or-
chestra Hall to show Chicago what the schools are
accomplishing in the way of musical education, par-
ticularly in piano playing, convinced 2,000 parents that
their children, if not more civilized than in the past,
are at least better musicians.
Samuel Insull, industrial magnate and patron of
the Chicago Civic Opera, made an address to the
children in the course of which he said:
"I never had your opportunities, but I can only
advise you to make the most of them; and choose
for your goal the mountaintop rather than the valley."
Mr. Insull went on to say that this applied in music
or in any other profession. "But speaking of music,"
he said, "I know of no other country where music
has developed so far in recent years, and I know
of no city that has given so freely of its time and
money as Chicago. Our opera and symphony orches-
tra are educating adults and children alike."
The slowest of us cannot but admit that the world
moves.—Phillips.
Issued Semi-Monthly
I iis( and Fifteenth of Kuch Month
WONDERS OF
THE OSISO
Musicians Can Now See as Well as Hear Their
Own Music by Reflected Light Upon
Revolving Mirrors Which Pro-
ject It Upon a Screen.
By means of a new device, known as the projec-
tion osiso, it is now possible for singers, speakers,
actors, pianists, violinists, and other vocal and instru-
mental artists to see the sound waves they produce
dance visibly across a screen, just as they dance in-
visibly through the air to the ears of their audience.
This device was developed by C. Anderson, engineer
of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Com-
pany, Newark, N. J., in collaboration with William
Braid White, acoustic engineer of the American Steel
& Wire Company, a subsidiary of the U. S. Steel
Corporation, who is using it in a series of studies of
A LARGE PICTURE OF A SOUND WAVE TAKEN BY
THE PROJECTION OSISO AS IT WOULD APPEAR
THROUGH A SCREEN FKOM A SLIDE. THIS IS A
TRACING OK A SOUND AVAVIO MADE BY RUDOLPH
GANZ AT THE PIANO IN THE ACOUSTIC LABORA-
TORY OF THE AMERICAN STEEL &. WIRE COMPANY.
musical sounds at Steinway Hall with the coopera-
tion of Messrs. Steinway & Sons. It consists of sev-
eral different parts. The sound waves are caught by
a microphone, which can be placed in any convenient
location, and are conveyed electrically to an osiso,
which consists essentially of a delicately suspended
mirror that is oscillated in unison with the received
sound waves. A beam of light, directed on this mir-
ror, is reflected by it to a system of revolving mir-
rors, which, in turn, project it upon a screen where
it can be viewed by any number of people.
When all is quiet around the microphone, a long
white line is seen on the screen, but as soon as any
kind of a sound reaches the sensitive electrical ear,
the white line on the screen is thrown into waves,
much as a clothes line is thrown into waves when its
RUDOLPH GANZ AT THE PIANO MAKING A SOUND
WAVE RECORD.
end is shaken. The form of these waves varies with
the sounds producing them, and they range from
gentle ripples, produced by low pure tones, to the
most intricate of patterns produced by loud complex
chords and noises.
"Two practical investigations are now being car-
ried on with the aid of the projection osiso," stated
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/
j
December IS, 1929
PRESTO-TIMES
Mr. White, "although its possibilities seem almost
endless.
"In the first place, we are using it to study the con-
struction of pianos and other musical instruments in
order to improve them. You need only watch the
waves formed on the screen to notice that when I
strike successive keys on this piano, though I strike Tells Listeners that Most of the Nine Coun-
each with approximately the same force, some notes
tries He Visited Last Year Are Five
produce distinctly larger waves than others. This
Years Behind on Radio, but
means that those particular notes produce louder
Up on Pianos.
sounds than the rest due to some peculiarity in the
construction. Your eye can see it although, if you
An
unusually
large
attendance marked the noon-
are not a musician, your ear may not detect the dif-
day
luncheon
meeting
of
the Piano Club of Chicago
ference.
on December 2. The chief attraction was the an-
"Another application of this instrument is to help nouncement that Paul B. Klugh, vice-president of
the student improve his technique. The sound waves Zenith Radio Corporation, was to be speaker of the
produced by the touch of a master pianist differ from day, and Mr. Klugh certainly was at his best, both
those produced when the same keys are struck by an as to the information he furnished and his eloquent
unskilled hand.
delivery. Mr. Klugh was presented by Henry Hewitt
"Master musicians are also interested in studying of the M. Schulz Company, who said: "Mr. Klugh,
the details of their own technique. For example, one a past president of this club, needs no introduction
well-known pianist has learned by osiso sound-wave here—I rather commend him for your attention."
photographs that he can produce a single note with
Mr. Klugh said he didn't feel like an outsider. If
at least 18 different gradations, each individual both
in tone color and loudness. He can thus determine his auditors expected an inspirational talk, he was all
the actual difference between his 'cantabile' and his out of that. He started in the piano business in 1893,
accompanimental notes, between his 'forte' and his and had used up all his inspirational talks selling
pianos later. He reviewed the early history of the
'fortissimo, 1 and so on."
club, telling of the days when it met at the Welling-
Mr. White's chief interest lies in the improving of
ton Hotel and w T as kept alive by one of the most
wire for musical instruments, since the American beloved members of the piano trade, the late James
Steel & Wire Company is a large producer of wires F. Broderick. Later it met at the Stratford Hotel,
for pianos and other instruments.
and in rooms of its own at another location. Men
who attended its meetings included Col. E. S. Con-
way, P. J. Healy, George P. bent, Edward Lyman
Bill, Sr.; John C. and Harry Freund, Editor Toms
and William L. Bush, always with a fund of good
stories and other sorts of entertainment.
The speaker remembered that when he engaged in
Stanley & Sons Take Hold of Pipe Organ Agency the piano business the Steinways and the Knabes
for the Wolverine State.
were still cataloguing square pianos. Later he had
seen
the phonograph arise, run a career and fall back.
Stanley & Sons are distributors for the state of
Michigan of the celebrated Seeburg pipe and mortu- And then had arisen the radio, "or Raddio," said Mr.
ary organs that have been finding such great favor Klugh, "a pronunciation which caused a distinguished
in the funeral homes throughout the United States. candidate to lose the recent election."
Radio had made Mr. Klugh so busy, he said, that
Charles Stanley's headquarters will be at Grand he goes to New York oftener than to Chicago's Loop
Haven for the coming year, until more central head- in the daytime, and he asserted that "we haven't
quarters in the state can be found. A number of
scratched the surface and the mystery of it yet. The
these organs have been sold recently to funeral homes mystery of it is so overwhelming that none of us can
of the state of Michigan. Among them are:
understand it."
Balbirnie Funeral Mansion, Muskegon; Hyatt's
Broadcasting, he said, was costing over $75,000,000
Funeral Home, Bay City; Gorsline and Runciman, a year. Nearly $100,000,000 a year of entertainment
Lansing; Burton Spring, Grand Rapids; Farmer, that anybody with a radio set could tune in upon at a
Pontiac; Weatherby, Jackson, and several others.
cost of a cent an hour. And he added: "It doesn't
Mr. Stanley's son, Charles A., is manager of organ cost a cent more to do it with a good set than a poor
one." (Laughter.)
sales for the Seeburg Corporation, Chicago.
Mr. Klugh referred to his visits to nine countries
last year. Taking cigars in one's satchel into France
NOTED PIANIST PASSES AWAY.
or any one of those countries, such as France, Czecho-
The Associated Press reported that Michele Espos- slovakia, Italy, is regarded as a criminal act.
ito, noted pianist and composer, aged 64 years, died
"The radio situation over there is pathetic," said
on November 26 at Florence, Italy.
Mr. Klugh. "They are five years behind. They use
PAUL KLUGH ADDRESSES
PIANO CLUB OF CHICAGO
MICHIGAN DISTRIBUTORS
FOR SEEBURG ORGANS
WHEN
ll\l
DOUBT
old sets that we had discarded five years ago. Be-
lieve it or not, gentlemen, but in New York city I
stood on Fifth avenue recently and saw a crowd of
fifty persons gathered around an automobile where a
radio such as was thrown out as obsolete by manu-
facturers five years ago was playing inside the ma-
chine."
Continuing about Europe, Mr. Klugh said: "Gen-
tlemen, you think you know of poverty in this coun-
try, but you never saw such abject poverty as I saw
in Italy where families live in holes in the wall. You
wouldn't put a dog in such quarters. The poverty is
astounding to American eyes in Italy, Czecho-Slo-
vakia, Austria and other places I visited. They are
too poor to buy pianos or radio."
In England, radio stands better, Mr. Klugh said.
They are only two years behind there. They are still
in the peak of phonograph selling in England and
they gather about the phonograph, or gramophone, as
they call it, and play record after record.
As for pianos, all European dealers advertise and
sell them as lively as ever. In fact, according to Mr.
Klugh, the piano is the most beloved instrument
among Europeans of any of the devices for pro-
ducing music.
Mr. Klugh himself admitted that despite the suc-
cess he had made with radio, he got the greatest
pleasure of his life these days by playing his piano,
the instrument that beats anything else as a music
producer in the world.
Among those in attendance at the meeting were
Jay Grinnell, president of Grinnell Bros., Detroit, and
E. W. Grinnell of the same house, and Dr. J. Lewis
Browne, director of music of the Chicago Public
Schools.
The death of I. N. Rice was reported through tele-
grams sent to Presto-Times and the secretary of the
club was instructed to prepare a letter of condolence
to send to the bereaved family at Los Angeles.
LOOMIS' CHICAGO EXPERIENCE.
A New Yorker who visits Chicago only occasionally
during the year, almost had his fear of being held up
while there realized, on the night of December 9.
Delbert L. Loomis. secretary of the National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants, was awaiting with Carl
I). Kinsey, manager of the Chicago Musical College,
the arrival of Mrs. Kinsey, with whom they were
planning to see the opera. While they were seated
in Mr. Kinsey's office they were unaware that a high-
wayman had emerged from an alley just after Mrs.
Kinsey had entered the building at 64 East Van Buren
street, poked a gun into the ribs of Mr. Kinsey's
chauffeur, entered the car, and forced the chauffeur
to drive west. After the stickup man had made the
chauffeur drive to the northwest side of Chicago, he
forced him to get out. Then the robber drove the
car away. According to Mr. Loomis, the next day
the car, a brown seven-passenger Stutz limousine,
was still missing.
REFER
TO
Presto Buyers' Guide
1930 EDITION NOW IN PREPARATION
ADAM SCHAAF, Inc.
HALLET & DAVIS PIANO CO.
P!AEO?' NG
GRANDS AND UPRIGHTS
Established Reputation and Quality Since 1873
FACTORY
OFFICES
4343 Fifth Avenue
& SALESROOMS
319-321 So. Wabash Ave.,
Corner of Kostner Avenue
New Adam Schaaf Building
CHICAGO, ILL.
XH E
Established 1831—Boston
FACTORIES - - NEW YORK CITY
Executive Offices and Wholesale Warerooms
% East 3tth St. (at 5th Ave.)
New York City
CO MSTOCK, C H E NET Y
& CO.
IVORVTON, CONN
IVORY CUTTERS SINCE 1834
MANUFACTURERS OF
Grand Keys, Actions and Hammers, Upright Keys
Actions and Hammer . Pipe Organ Keys
Piano Forte Ivory for Ihe Trade
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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