MUSICAL
TIMES
PRESTO
Established
1884
Established
1881
THE AMERICAN MUSIC TRADE JOURNAL
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CHICAGO, MARCH, 1931
PIANO CLASS MUSIC STEADILY INCREASES
IN THIS COUNTRY
A steadily growing recognition by this country's
educators of the importance of music in the curric-
ulum was manifested in the enthusiastic response
given by them to the third National High School
Chorus at the recent Detroit convention of the De-
partment of Superintendence, National Education As-
sociation, according to a report made by Kenneth S.
Clark, associate secretary, vocal affairs committee,
Music Supervisors National Conference. This mass
choir of more than 500 boys and girls from some 157
high schools gave, with four days' rehearsals, a highly
exacting program and with a very large degree of
vocal and interpretative excellence. The gratifying
reaction of the nation's school superintendents to the
thrilling performance was indicated by the demon-
stration at the close, in which the conductor, Dr.
Hollis Dann, was called back to the platform again
and again and the chorus members were summoned
to their feet to acknowledge the tribute of the
audience.
A systematic regime as to rehearsals and the daily
routine made practicable the welding together of these
individual vocal units from twenty-six different states.
Arriving in Detroit on a Friday and presenting their
concert on the following Tuesday evening, the young
singers went through a series of three rehearsals a
day, including a special rehearsal for Detroit school
children and a pre-concert performance over a hook-
up of fifty broadcasting stations. A hotel was set
apart each for vhe boys and for the girls, who were
in charge of chaperons and counselors and who fol •
lowed strictly an "early to bed" schedule of physical
preparation for the concert.
These rehearsals, under Dr. Dann, were not only
highly educational to the young people but illuminat-
ing to the teachers who had accompanied their stu-
dents and were admitted as visitors.
Develop Piano Classes in New Jersey School
An example of the personal service of the National
Bureau for the Advancement of Music to the piano
class movement is provided by the recent visit of its
group piano advisor, Ella H. Mason, to Montvale,
New Jersey. That visit was made at the request of
Mary Grissom, in charge of the piano classes in the
Montvale school. Following a personal consultation
with Miss Mason at the bureau's headquarters, 45
West 45th street, New York city, Miss Grissom asked
the bureau's help in extending the class work to meet
the increased demands. At her request Miss Mason
was sent to give a talk at a meeting of the parent-
teacher association of that school. She explained fully
the purpose and methods of the class work, and
aroused considerable enthusiasm. The favorable re-
sponse of the gathering of parents was typified by the
remark of one mother who enthusiastically exclaimed:
"Now I see what these modern ideas in piano study
are driving at! My Johnny learned to read in school
without a knoweldge of the alphabet, but I worried
because he had no scales and finger studies in his
music lessons. Now I think I understand."
Maryland Legislating for Music
Otto B. Heaton, president of the National Associa-
tion of Music Merchants, in company with Past Presi-
dent C. J. Roberts and Executive Secretary Loomis
of the association, attended a hearing on house bill
No. 4 before the committee on education of the Mary-
land House of Delegates at Annapolis, Maryland,
Thursday, February 19. The bill, designed to make
it possible for boards of education to include the
teaching of instrumental as well as vocal music in the
public schools, with proper credits, as a regular cur-
ricula activity, was introduced by the Honorable
Thomas L. Popp of Cumberland, a member of the
National Association of Music Merchants, who was
elected a member of the house of delegates at the last
election.
Mr. Popp spoke on the general merits of the bill
and then introduced Mr. Heaton, Mr. Roberts and
Mr. Loomis, each of whom presented various phases
of the subject.
As the Maryland legislature is in session for 90
days and meets only once in two years, it is hoped
that the education committee will report out the bill
and that it will be acted upon at this present session.
It follows the general lines of the bill which was in-
troduced in the Ohio legislature and is now before
the education committee.
Returning to Baltimore from Annapolis, President
Heaton delivered his radio address over s t a t i o n
WFBR, Baltimore, arrangements for this broadcast
having been made by Mr. Loomis.
Issued Monthly—
Fifteenth of Each Month
VITAL NECESSITY FOR PIANO
Galperin's, 17 Capitol street, Charleston, W. Va.,
gives most convincing reasons for the necessity of
buying a piano—reasons well worth reproducing here.
And here they are: "Your home is not complete with-
out a piano. It is vital to your standing and your
children's education that you have a piano and that
the children be given some opportunity to acquire
skill in its use, in the same way that they would de-
velop any other activity for a well balanced life. The
absence of a piano is a signal to your friends that
your home does not appreciate or love music. Per-
haps you have not thought of it in that way."
COMPLETING PLANS FOR THE GREAT JUNE
CONVENTION OF MUSIC MEN IN CHICAGO
A circular letter which has been sent to the trade
generally from the office of the executive secretary
of the National Association of Music Merchants, 45
West 45th street, New York, sets out some of the
historical features of the rise and progress of the
association, which has now had thirty years of exis-
tence, and gives reasons why every piano man who
can get away ought to attend the coming convention
at the Hotel Stevens, Chicago, during three days of
the week beginning June 7.
This thirtieth annual convention is to be held dur-
ing the days immediately following the annual radio
trade show and at the same hotel at which this trade
show is to be held. The directors of the Radio Man-
ufacturers Association, in turn, have taken a very
keen interest in these plans and have extended every
possible cooperation to the extent of arranging to
carry on their exhibits during the period of the mer-
chants' convention.
The music merchants will, at this coming conven-
tion, have an opportunity to view the new radio prod-
ucts with every possible ease and will be assured of
every attention from the radio manufacturers and
their representatives. As the circular letter says: "The
radio exhibits will be shown in the magnificent exhibit
hall on one of the lower floors of the Stevens and
many of the radio manufacturers will have suites in
the hotel for demonstration purposes.
Pianos to Be Exhibited
"It is expected that there will also be exhibits in
the suites and rooms of pianos and other musical in-
struments. The music merchants will thus have a
complete convention program touching all divisions
of the musical instrument field which they can cover
with an absence from home, in most cases, of not
more than seven or eight days, and in many cases
less. In the interest of economy this is looked upon
as a very important feature at this time by the officers
of the merchants' association.
Open Forum and Other Features
"The business sessions of the merchants' associa-
tion will not only include an open forum, which has
proved so successful at the last two conventions, but
there will also be some unusual features which will
be highly important from the angle of retail mer-
chandising.
Banquet to Be the "Finest Ever"
"According to present plans, the Radio Manufac-
turers Association will not hold a banquet during the
trade show week and it is possible that some of the
radio dealers may stay over for the merchants'
banquet which will probably be held earlier in con-
vention week than usual.
"Arrangements will be made to secure the usual
reduced round trip railway fare."
Chicago Meetings of Officials
After the meetings of the officials of the Piano Club
of Chicago, the National Association of Music Mer-
chants, the National Piano Manufacturers' Associa-
tion and the Music Industries Chamber of Commerce
at the Drake Hotel, Chicago, on March 10, at which
meetings there were lengthy discussions about set-
ting the exact dates for the coming June convention,
the whole matter was referred to a committee consist-
ing of C. Alfred Wagner, chairman; D. L. Loomis
and Ben Duvall to meet in New York this week and
have the dates settled.
The week, chosen before, has not been changed; it
is to be held on three of the five days of June 8 to
12, but the question which seems to be the "sticker"
is whether to have it Monday, Tuesday and Wednes-
day, or Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. It is
this question that the committee is to have settled in
connection with these mid-winter meetings.
The place of the convention is not to be changed—
it is to be at the Stevens hotel, Chicago. And piano
and radio are supposed to become better friends than
ever on account of the dual conventions at the same
hostelrv.
PAST PRESIDENTS' NIGHT
AT PIANO CLUB OF CHICAGO
Former Presidents Honored as Well as the Visiting
Officials of the National Association
Wednesday night, March 11, was past president's
night for the Piano Club of Chicago, and the occa-
sion was celebrated with a dinner and oratory at the
Medinah Athletic Club, 505 North Michigan avenue,
Chicago.
The speaker of the evening was Leon Lang of
Lyon & Healy's, and the guests included the visiting
officials and secretaries from the eastern cities who
were in Chicago that week in attendance at the con-
ferences of the Music Industries Chamber of Com-
merce, the piano manufacturers and the music mer-
chants.
The past presidents of the club, who were guests
of honor at the dinner, included John McKenna, Eu-
gene Whelan, H. D. Schoenwald, James T. Bristol,
Henry Hewitt, Roger O'Connor, Gurney R. Brownell
President Ben Duvall presided.
At the banquet in the Medinah Athletic Club build-
ing the night of March 11, President Ben Duvall
turned the meeting over to Eugene Whelan as tem-
porary chairman and announcer. Mr. Whelan spoke
in the highest terms and with affection of the founder
of the club and its first president, the late James F.
Broderick, the only president of the club who has
died.
Mr. Whelan regretted that the second president of
the club, Paul B. Klugh, was not present, and that the
third president, E. H. Uhl, was in far-away Califor-
nia. He said there had been fifteen presidents in all.
"Matt Kennedy, one of our most aggressive presi-
dents, should be here, but he is not," said the speaker.
Walter S. Jenkins, another ex-president, now at De-
troit, was not present.
Ex-President James T. Bristol was introduced as
"a real banker." Mr. Bristol said: "The training a
man gets in the p:ano business fits him for any walk
of life. This piano club at one time had 450 members.
My best friends are and have been members of this
club."
Ex-president John McKenna, when called upon,
said he had served seven years in the piano business
but was now out of it. Those seven years were the
pleasantest of his life. Mr. McKenna had been intro-
duced as "the man who brought Mary Garden into
the club as one of its worshipful stars." Ex-President
Schoenwald echoed Mr. McKenna's remarks about
the pleasant years he, too, had enjoyed in the piano
business.
Piano Men Doing Well
Henry Hewitt, another former president, said the
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