July, 1930
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
ISSUED THE
FIFTEENTH IN EACH
MONTH
F R A N K D. A B B O T T
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The American Music Trade Journal
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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 the
Post Office, Chicago, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.
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$3.00. Payable in advance. No extra charge in United
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tising 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.
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Publishers
417 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, 111.
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Address all communications for the editorial or business
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The last form of Presto-Times goes to press at 11 a. m
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piring after that hour cannot be expected in the current
issue. Nothing received at the office that is not strictly
news of importance can have attention after 9 a. m. of
that date. Tf they concern the interests of manufactur-
ers or dealers such items will appear I he ispiie following
CHICAGO, JULY, 1930
A CERTAIN NEW YORK RAVEN
IS "QUOTHING" AGAIN
Like Poe's Raven, He "Quoths" "Nevermore" and
Blindly Pins Faith on a Columnist's Joke.
Presto-Times, which gets in daily touch with the
piano trade far and near, finds much amusement in
the "Quoth the Raven" mental pabulum that reaches
this office from time to time from New York. The
principal source of this satire comes from a highly
intellectual man who gets his fun out of taking up
the side of the opposition. His two hobbies when
writing to Presto-Times are "quothing" and quoting,
and he is very clever at both.
His last letter starts with a quotation from Walter
Winchell on Broadway in that columnist's depart-
ment in the Daily Mirror, under the caption, "Things
I Never Knew Till Now," and the paragraph reads:
"That one day a few weeks ago not a single piano
was sold in any store in Manhattan. Yessir, business
is great!"
Suppose it were true, Mr. Winchell, what of it?
(But this supposition is ridiculous—that in the great
city of New York with its hundreds of dealers not
one piano was sold in a day.) How very vague the
statement—"one day"—"a few weeks ago"—"not a
single piano" (did some stores sell two?)—"store in
Manhattan," but Manhattan is a very small part of
New York city. And even if New York city didn't
sell a single piano for a whole week, what of it?
How infinitesimal a part of this great nation is New
York, although Mr. Winchell may be laboring under
the popular delusion of the hoi polloi that civilization
of the kind that plays the piano does not exist west
of Weehawken, N. J.
But the pessimist friend of Presto-Times gives an
inner view of his thoughts by attaching to his letter
the following verse:
"When I have ceased to break my wings
Against the faultiness of things,
And learned that compromises wait
Behind each hardly opened gate.
When I can look life in the eyes
Grown calm and very coldly wise,
Life will have given me the truth,
And taken in exchange—my youth."
NOT GIVING UP THE PIANO.
The Cincinnati Star says: "The piano has appealed
to many races through many centuries. It is claimed
that while there are fewer pianos in the United States
than there were twenty years ago, more pianos are
being played. Recent musical inventions have ren-
dered a real public service in bringing music into
homes which did not know it before. That does not
mean that humanity is going to be foolish enough to
give up the instruments which have produced music
in what has been, and undoubtedly will, continue to
be its highest form."
TREND TOWARD RADIO=PHONOQRAPHS
The causes for trends in the music trade at the present time call for more than horse-
sense methods of reasoning. We must take it for granted that causation is uniform ante-
cedence. There are formal causes, material causes, efficient or moving causes, first causes,
immanent causes, adequate and inadequate causes, occasional causes and peculiar causes that
make trade in any particular commodity take a certain course and run in it.
There is more musical appreciation in the world today than ever before, and so it is
upsetting to the light thinker to observe what is happening to the musical instrument indus-
try as a whole—the piano, the radio, the phonograph ; and also to the professional musicians
all over the world, for they are harder hit than any of the other lines mentioned. But let
us reason together for a few moments.
Read here the observations of a thorough-going musical instrument dealer, a man who
has been selling pianos, phonographs and radio for a long time and who is noted for con-
ducting special sales in such goods. He said to a Presto-Times representative last week:
"There seems to be «r very peculiar trend to the combination radio-phonograph in the last
few months. In my experience in special sales with the buying public, T have more calls for
the combination of these two instruments than most any other.
"There is a saving in this kind of an instrument of about 20 per cent and when the
radio fails to function then the phonograph is called upon to perform its duty.
"I also note a very peculiar thing relative to the percentage of folks who call at the
special sales store. With a close tab on calls, T find that one out of five calls for pianos
want the grand, and price plays its part here. Two out of five who call for pianos want the
studio or small instrument to anything else. And one call out of seven prefers the player-
piano to all others. This condition seems to me very strange, inasmuch as one in every seven-
ty-two can play a little. As there are so few who play the piano, one would naturally
suppose that more people would take to the player-piano.
"It is just this state of affairs which makes it hard for the manufacturer to know how
to meet the public's demand. I have had folks come in the store who were at least 70 years
of age with children all married and gone, and who wanted to buy a small piano or grand,
and who did not even know the first thing about music, and could not even play chopsticks.
I have sold to such people, and have tried to ascertain just why they wanted this kind of an
instrument, and why the desire, but I never as yet found this secret. There are puzzling
things in the. music business of selling, and there always will be, and if it were possible to
penetrate into the peculiarities, we could sell all the pianos made for years."
Now if causation is uniform antecedence, the causes that puzzle Presto-Times' friend
out in the selling field are farther back than he thinks. The desire tor self-expression is as
old as the human race; it is part of the spirit of man. The desire for self-expression in music
is natural to the average human being, just as it is natural for boys to enjoy a game of ball
on the vacant lot more than to sit on the bleachers and watch two teams play. Participation
is the thing. As to the old people who wanted a grand of the kind that can only produce music
when played by hand, who knows what young relatives they may have who would come to
the house if the instrument were there?
OUTLOOK BASED ON GOOD JUDGMENT
There are influences at work that are bringing about an ample quota of hopefulness in
the piano trade. No longer is it necessary to search anxiously for evidences of this upturn in
conditions, for better trade in many lines is already on the highroad to a sober realism. Not
the piano trade alone, but every line of business has suffered from the depression. The slack-
THE PIANO COMES INTO ITS OWN.
ening
up has hindered-lrjfcde in autos, chain stores, foods, radio, building operations, real
A good example of the trend of the times is the
recent experience of a Cincinnati automobile sales- estate, tax collecting; and a thousand and one other interests have been delayed or impeded.
man. When asked concerning his business he la-
The man who thinks the piano business was alone hurt is reasoning from absurd premises
mented the fact that two prospects for automobiles
—from
notions which he should never have given lodgment in his mind. It is easy to induce
that he had considered very good, had just told him
they had bought grand pianos instead. Crowded the credulous to believe in such nonsense, to have them close their eyes to experience and
traffic conditions, the wearing off of the novelty of
accept ancient error for truth. But the man who is making and selling pianos knows better
automobile ownership and an increasing interest in
or he would not be talking about it. He will make no foolish coercions with the world of
music, are turning the tide toward greater interest
sense; nor is he so narrow as to imagine that he is alone in observing the facts. He is con-
in the home.
tinuing to manufacture pianos—probably limiting his output according to methods and plans
The Stewart Dry Goods Co., Louisville, Ky., makes which have arisen out of the consideration of such problems as those under discussion here.
this declaration: "Chickering for more than a cen-
He has drawn his own conclusions and is scheduling himself accordingly.
tury America's.most illustrious piano."
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