Presto

August, 1930
PRESTO-TIMES
14
Atwater Kent, Majestic, Philco, Victor, Radiette—
and a complete line of band and stringed instruments,
Victor, Columbia and Brunswick records, sheet music
and accessories.
A. N. Lang, radio buyer for the Witzel Music Co.,
1454 Barry avenue, Chicago, is on a two weeks' fish-
ing trip at Haugen, Wis.
The Oliver H. Ross Piano Co., 1101 Elm street,
Dallas, Tex., has been conducting a contest with the
No. 7 problem.
The Elder Music Store has opened for business at
Red Cloud, Neb.
In addition to manufacturing its own line of band
instruments, Walberg & Auge, 86 Mechanic street,
Worcester, Mass., handle the Conn band instruments
from Elkhart, Ind.
The RCA-Victor Co., Camden, N. J., has increased
its force in that city by 7,000 employes.
Dowler's Music Store, Marion, Ohio, has been sold
by William Dowler to the Henry Ackerman Piano
Co., of that city. Mr. Dowler, who has been in the
music business for 25 years in Marion, has not an-
nounced his plans for the future.
The fire department at Litchfield, Minn., was able
to save the Olson Music House building last month
when the McGowan building close to it burned down.
The San Antonio Music Co., 316 West Commerce
street, San Antonio, Tex., advises: "Know the joy
of a Grand in the home. The cost is too little to
forego the pleasure to be had."
The Parker-Gardner Co., Charlotte, N. C , says:
"Steinway pianos will last 30, 40 and even 50 years.
It is an investment in culture."
The Duff-Gore Corp., 131 Fayetteville street,
Raleigh, N. C, has been keeping open every evening
during a piano sale it is holding and makes free
delivery to a distance from the store of 100 miles.
"There is a price and a model to suit your special
need," is a declaration by Thos. Goggan & Bros.,
advertising Steinway pianos at San Antonio, Tex.
Kimball grand pianos are featured in the Fitzgerald
Music Co.'s alteration sale at Los Angeles, Calif.
Purchasers of pianos are offered a free course of
piano lessons "by the renowned Jack Baldwin at the
Fitzgerald studios."
Charles Colandrelli, 390 Passaic street, Trenton,
N. J., trading as the Colandrelli Piano Co., last week
filed a voluntary petition in bankruptcy in federal
court, listing liabilities at $11,609.80 and assets of
$9,700.
The Wurlitzer Co. will open a piano store at
Georgetown, Ky.
The Kelsall Music Co., Louisville, Ky., has opened
a branch store in the Brown Hotel building, that city.
The O. K. Houck Piano Co. has been conducting
a midsummer sale of traded-in used pianos at Nash-
ville, Tenn.
Workmen are building an addition 25 feet deep to
the Kuyper Music House at Pella, Iowa. Mr. Kuyper
handles pianos, radios and small musical instruments.
WM. THOMSON IS LEAVING
FOR HOME IN SCOTLAND
santly keep before our members the necessity of keep-
ing payments within reason.
"The piano trade is all right if we keep the retail
end up. In our Glasgow store and branches we have
sold more pianos up till the end of June, 1930, than we
did during the same period last year."
William Thomson, prominent musical instrument
Mr. Thomson says that he had intended to come
dealer of Glasgow, Scotland, has had some wonderful
trips in this country and Canada in the last few to Chicago and very much regretted that his engage-
weeks. He had been on a speaking tour which took ments lecturing for the cause of home rule in Scotland
him out to Vancouver, and he spoke in Montreal, precluded the Chicago trip. In these lectures he ex-
Toronto, New York and other cities. Wherever he plained that the new National party in Scotland stands
for a complete measure of self-government. This
went he was welcomed by old friends, for this man
does not involve separation from the British common-
is a cosmopolite, known and esteemed far and wide.
wealth of nations, but it means that any connection
Mr. Thomson has for many years, in fact since
about the establishment of his business, taken much with England shall be entered into freely by the will
of the Scottish people through the Scottish parliament.
interest in American musical instruments and always
Mr. Thomson says, speaking of Scotland: "We
has in his store American pianos, organs and other
send in taxes over 119 million pounds to London, and
goods of this country.
receive about one-quarter of that amount back for
The Thomson Music House was one of the largest her own administration, the balance being used in
buyers of American reed organs when the reed organ
England for English purposes; while if Scotland had
was prominent. His house was the agent and dis- allocated to her to pay her fair proportion of the
tributor for the Story & Clark organs and sold many general utilities, such as the army, rjavy, postoffice,
hundreds and into the thousands of these instru- etc., she would have something like 50 or 60 million
pounds to develop her own land. Matters of serious
importance to Scotland get scant or no treatment
at all from a parliament that is preponderatingly
English and out of sympathy with Scottish needs and
requirements."
STORY & CLARK GIVE
SOME TRADE POINTERS
R. A. Burke Foresees Fall Business—F. F.
Story Regaining His Health—Texas
Salesman Taking Lessons.
AVILLIAM THOMSON.
ments. Since the reed-organ days the Thomson house
has dealt to some extent in American pianos, and
always has a showing of American pianos in its ware-
rooms.
Apropos of this comment on Mr. Thomson's long
years of loyalty to American-made musical instru-
ments, here is a paragraph printed in the June, 1930,
issue of our "30 Years Ago" department as a clipping
from The Presto of July 19, 1900:
"Mr. William Thomson, of Glasgow, and a personal
This cut gives an idea of the appearance of the friend of Charlie Wagner, the European representa-
beautiful and rich-toned new 1930 Style 4 special up- tive of Story & Clark, arrived in Paris on the 10th
of July. Mr. Thomson is a warm admirer of Ameri-
right piano of the Kohler-Brambach Piano Co.
The Kohler-Brambach company in getting out its can organs and other American musical instruments
new models is in the lead in originality and designing. and sells large quantities of American-made goods.'
When these manufacturers start out to produce some-
Mr. Thomson gave an address in Philadelphia on
Scotland on one of the hottest nights this red-hot
summer and his auditors listened intently until after
11 p. m. Mr. Thomson finishes his trip in North
America on August 13 and is booked to sail on Au-
gust 16, as the forms of this issue of Presto-Times
are on the press, on the steamship Minnedosa for
home. To a Presto-Times correspondent he said in
New York last week: "The radio business here in
New York appears to me like as if each dealer was
trying to cut his neighbor's throat. Radios marked
new are offered at prices I could not buy them at for
my business.
"Why can't the dealers get together and stop this
suicidal policy? The public will buy radios, and if
the manufacturers were only to select their represent-
atives from dealers with sufficient dignity to at least
hold their prices with some margin of profit, the radio
trade might flourish for years; otherwise it will go
NEW STYLE 4 BY KOHLER-BRAMBACH PIANO CO.
the
way of the piano trade which, so far as I can see,
thing new or to introduce an improvement they do
the job in a full-fledged way. In research work is being seriously affected by offering good goods at
they spare no expense, and are always anxious to ridiculously low payments.
"Make the public feel that a piano or radio is some-
produce the best. Certainly the designer of this up-
right is entitled to credit from trade and user for thing worth striving to have, and they will value it
chaste lines of beauty, but it must be heard to be as an article worth having, and all musical instruments
fully appreciated. Its tone is so satisfactory to music are in that category. We have the same trouble in
lovers that it is bound to make a large market for Scotland. Luckily, the Scottish Music Merchants As-
sociation is a pretty lively association and we inces-
itself,
KOHLER-BRAMBACH'S NEW
1930 SPECIAL, STYLE 4
Frank F. Story, president of the Story & Clark
Piano Co., who submitted to a major operation in
St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago, was released from that
institution a few days ago and taken to his residence
in Riverside, 111., where at last report he was rapidly
regaining his rugged health. He is expected back
at the Story & Clark headquarters, 173 North Michi-
gan avenue, Chicago, this week, where he will be
thoroughly welcomed by his efficient lieutenants in
the big house.
R. A. Burke, general sales manager of Story. &
Clark's, was called upon by a Presto-Times repre-
sentative last week after his return from a motoring
vacation. Mr. and Mrs. Burke, accompanied by some
Chicago friends, took two trips—one through Elkhart,
Ind., and on up through Dearborn, Mich., into various
parts of the Dominion of Canada, then back and down
into scenic parts of Illinois, including pleasant visits
at the homes of Mr. Burke's mother and Mrs. Burke's
parents.
Mr. Burke is paying close attention to the piano
end of the Story & Clark business. He said indica-
tions point to a broader trade in pianos this fall than
that of 1929. Just now there are piano orders coming
in, but from widely scattered districts. However,
from letters from dealers and from these advance
orders, Mr. Burke is greatly encouraged that the
piano is staging new and larger trade for the coming
fall season.
Russell C. Shambaugh, an intelligent and enterpris-
ing young man, arrived at Story & Clark's a few days
ago to take lessons in piano selling from the expe-
rienced salesmen of that house. Mr. Shambaugh was
sent to Chicago for this purpose by Charles P. Pace,
president of the W. L. Pace Piano Co., Houston,
Texas, with instructions to learn all he could about
methods of selling pianos. Mr. Pace recommends Mr.
Shambaugh as an earnest young salesman, so he sent
him on to the headquarters of Story & Clark, believ-
ing that the knowledge he would gain by actual con-
tact with men of such large experience for a few
weeks would put the young man on the high-road to
permanent success.
The importance of starting right in a piano career
can not be emphasized too much, and Air. Pace and
Mr. Shambaugh both showed excellent judgment in
their choice of the place to get the best schooling.
NEW CORPORATIONS.
Electromatic Record Changer Corp., Room 918, 134
North La Salle street, Chicago. Capital, $30,000.
Deal in phonograph parts and accessories. Incor-
porators: B. Wolan, L. Sass, K. Kelly. Correspond-
ent: Pritzker & Pritzker, 134 North La Salle street.
Bloomington Radio Service Co., 105 North Main
street, Bloomington, 111. Capital, 100 shares non par
value. General merchandising business. Incorpora-
tors: Donald N. Clausen, Eva M. Charles and Nor-
man A. Miller. Correspondent: Donald N. Clausen,
137 South La Salle street. Chicago.
Henrichs Radio Co., Inc., Milwaukee, Wis.; 300
shares, no par value. Install radios, accessories, sup-
plies, equipment. E. W. Henrichs, L. Henrichs, W.
Henrichs.
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