June, 1930
17
P R E S T O-T I M E S
tarck
Pianos sustain the critical examination
and proof of superiority and excellence in
high degree which has been awarded them.
The Starck Piano is one of the triumphs
of the piano manufacturing industry.
We are prepared to meet the
trade in Prices and Terms.
P. A. STARCK PIANO CO.
Manufacturers
FACTORY:
Ashland Ave. and 39th St.
NEW FORM OF PIANO
CHICAGO
SCIENCE AND THE PIANO.
At the interesting convention at the Hotel New
Yorker in New York on Wednesday afternoon, June
A musical instrument, said to he so rare that ic
ii, the director of acoustic research of the American
is the only one ever made in the United States, with
Steel & Wire Co., William Braid White, in co-opera-
1 >vit three of them known in Europe, has been entirely tion with Messrs. Steinway & Sous, presented to
constructed in Pasadena, Calif., by R. Shero, 71 North
the manufacturers, merchants, and their representa-
I'asadena avenue. The new instrument, called a
tives, an extraordinarily interesting talk on "What
double-bass forte piano, was heard for the first time
Science Says About the Piano." In the course of this
in the music of "Parsifal" played by the Symphony talk he demonstrated the apparatus and methods
Orchestra in San Francisco. Alfred Hertz, who sug- used in the laboratory to study piano tone. This
gested the building of the instrument, directed the included the Projection Osiso. For the past three
orchestra. The tone of the forte-piano is like that years the American Steel & Wire Co., subsidiary of
of a gong or chime with a tremendous reverberation. the United States Steel Corp., has been conducting
It gives but four tones, these being of extraordinary researches in a specially equipped acoustic laboratory
depth and resonance, as there are twelve strings to at Chicago into the phenomena of acoustics with spe-
each tone. The strings are sounded by plucking, as
cial reference to musical instruments and particularly
with a harp, or by striking with a padded hammer. the piano. The basis of the company's interest has
been, of course, its large manufacture of wire for
pianos and other musical instruments.
PLAZA PIANO CO'S TROUBLES.
A petition against the Plaza Piano Co., of Indian-
apolis, was filed in tlic Federal court in that city
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST.
recently for the involuntary bankruptcy of the con-
The latest available reports from the radio indus-
cern, the petitioning creditors being the Brunswick-
Balke-Collender Co. of Chicago, the Capehart Corp. try at large are to the effect that the liquidation of
of Fort Wayne and the Q. K. S. Co. of Chicago, radio inventories is now approximately 85 per ceni
which companies listed claims amounting to $16,374.96 completed. Resumption of manufacturing activities
against the piano concern and asserted that it now is on a normal basis is expected shortly. While the
being operated by a receiver appointed in the Marion recent radio depression may have been painful in
many quarters, it is the opinion of J. E. Smith, presi-
countv Superior court.
dent of National Radio Institute, Washington, D. C-,
that it has been a blessing in disguise. It has served,
he says, to bring the radio industry down to bed
BAND NEWS
rock, and to build on a firmer foundation henceforth.
A splendid parade was the sight that greeted Chi- There is ample evidence of a strengthening of the
cagoans on Dearborn street one morning last month radio personnel, with a marked increase in the de-
as the Senn High School Band of 120 pieces marched mand for trained men. The opportunists who rushed
to the Dearborn station to entrain for Flint, Mich., into the field with little or no knowledge of radio
to take part in the national band contest. Twelve have to a large extent been eliminated by the recent
high school bands from small towns and big cities depression which served to bring about the survival
left Chicago that morning over the Grand Trunk road of the fittest.
amid impromptu concerts and the sunlit gleam of a
thousand musical instruments. The next day at Flint
A FEW NOTES.
the Senn Band captured first prize.
William Howard Taft and Miss Margaret Tracy
SUES SENNETT FOR COPYRIGHT BREACH. have opened a new music shop at 826 Asbury ave-
Harry McCoy, song writer, has sued Mack Sennett nue, Ocean City, N. J.
Owners of radio load speakers may be sent to
in Federal Court at Los Angeles, Calif., demanding
$100,000 and an accounting of profits for Sennett's jail—even for as long as one year—in Washington,
D. C, according to the application of a new police
alleged infringement of his copyright on a song.
OFFICES:
228-230 So. Wabash Ave.
regulation just issued in response to many complaints
of shattered nerves by citizens.
W. S. Dutton, lawyer, bought the Kane Music Store
in Lancaster, Ohio, last week for $540 when it was
sold by the sheriff to satisfy a judgment in the Frank-
lin County Court.
The Salida Music store at Salida, Colo., Mr. Upp,
proprietor, has moved from East Second street to
East First street. He is handling small goods and
Atwater Kent radios.
W. G. Demuth, radio salesman, has purchased the
L. A. Barker Music Store at Ulrichsville, Ohio. Mr.
Barker had conducted the store for five years.
In the Vose & Sons schedule for the coming year
the player-piano has been eliminated. From now on
the company will manufacture grands and uprights
only.
The Radio Music Co., a subsidiary of the National
Broadcasting Co., has announced the purchase of a
controlling interest in the music publishing firm of
Davis, Coots & Engle, Inc.
Postmaster Arthur C. Lueder of Chicago asks
patrons to cooperate with the delivery men on the
routes by marking boxes with names of those ex-
pecting mail—visitors as well as others. He says
this will help substitute carriers while many of the
regular carriers are absent on summer vacations.
A photographic portrait of Percy Grainger, noted
composer, pianist and arranger of old melodies, is on
view in the second annual exhibition of contemporary
American photography in the galleries of N. W. Ayer
& Sons, Inc., Philadelphia.
George W. Allen, formerly president of the Milton
Piano Co., is now selling pianos for Winter & Co.
of New York. He lias been making a trip through
Ohio.
England is planning to censor all disks of phono-
graphs, as some of them are declared to be "vulgar
and offensive."
Assistant Trade Commissioner Gilbert Redfern,
Warsaw, reports that despite a sharp recession in
Polish import trade during the second half of 1929,
imports of phonograph records increased in that year
100 per cent over 1928.
The unit of measurement of the piano business for
this year is, of course, the aggregate amount of energy
that all the piano salesmen put into one day's work.
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