Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1931 2260

August, 1931
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
River avenue; Hubert S. Ratcheller, 15828 Wark
street; Becker Piano Mfg. Co., 2262 Monroe avenue;
Paul Stanislaw, 8102 Kentucky street; H. Schwes-
inger, 3790 Columbus street; I. F. Pratt, 446 Navahoe
street: Peoples Outfitting Co., ISO Michigan avenue;
John J. Kollmer,. 1780 Townsend avenue; Ford Lefler,
8545 Dumbarton'road; E. C. Brink. 3046 Hazelwood
avenue; Dean D. Brown, 15881 Muirland avenue;
Detroit League of the Blind, 1363 East Jefferson
avenue; Detroit Piano Tuning Co., 3809 Bagley
street; Homer R. Dill, formerly with Bush & Lane
for 20 years, 14896 Indiana street; Dean S. Gray, 2700
Vicksburg street; E. B. Gregor, 3024 Whitney street;
Frank F. Hopkins, 320 Puritan street; Bryant G.
Marble, 3809 Bagley avenue; Ray H. McElmurry,
3610 Wayburn street; Russel W. Oak, 11757 Broad
street; Passage Piano Service, 52 Putnam street;
Charles F. Bernhardt, 1525 Church street; Walter M.
Blinn, 2661 Taylor street.
LYON & HEALY-DE ACRES
The resignation of Mr. C. H. De Acres as general
manager of Lyon & Healy, is made in the following
announcement, sent out under date of July 15, over
the signature of Raymond E. Durham, president:
ANNOUNCEMENT
Effective today, Mr. C. H. De Acres has resigned
as vice-president and general manager of Lyon &
Healy, Inc., to accept greater personal opportunities
that he has been offered elsewhere.
During Mr. De Acres' lour years' association with
Lyon & Healy, Inc., he has made valuable and last-
ing contributions to our business, so that the com-
pany is now better organized and is operating more
efficiently than at any time in the many years of its
successful business operation.
We regret that, owing to the reduction in the vol-
ume of business in the industry and the proportionate
reduction in our volume, our business does not permit
the retention of the services of a man of Mr. De
Acres' experience and ability.
The present official roster of Lyon & Healy is:
Raymond E. Durham, president; W. P. Roche, vice-
president and secretary; F. G. Le Mar, treasurer.
As to Mr. De Acres' future connections, nothing
up to the time of going to press has been settled. It
is understood that he will take a prominent official
position with the house of Sherman, Clay & Co., but
at the time these lines are written the details of this
connection are not obtainable, nor has any other in-
formation concerning any possible changes in the
house of Sherman, Clay & Co. been given out by
that house.
FORMER MUSIC TRADE MAN NOW
BANK RECEIVER AND BROKER
Will H. W T ade, formerly associated with the music
trades of Chicago as dealer and manufacturer, now
an investment broker at 39 South La Salle street,
Chicago, was appointed receiver by State Auditor
Oscar Nelson of the Builders and Merchants Bank
& Trust Co., Chicago. A petition was signed by
many depositors of the bank to replace Mr. Wade.
Mr. Wade is also receiver for the Millard State Bank,
3645 West 26th street, Chicago.
OPPORTUNITY FOR GOOD BUSINESS
CONNECTION
The advertisement in our classified columns keyed
"Opportunity," care Presto-Times, is worthy of the
attention of anyone desiring to line up with a profit-
able paying business. The house offering this oppor-
tunity is well known and is a house of strict reliabil-
ity and capability. Anyone desiring to make a change
or get into a well-established business we advise to
get in touch with this advertiser.
PIANOS FOR RASPBERRY GROWERS
There's money in raspberries, and some of the
money that is now pouring into Cheboygan County,
Michigan, ought to go into the purchase of pianos. A
Presto-Times staff member was in that county last
week, when thirty prominent agricultural men from
Otsego county interested in raspberry growing made
a special trip of inspection of the cultivated rasp-
berry fields and patches in Cheboygan county.
KANSAS CITY WURLITZER MANAGER
M. W. Newman, recently connected with the Mil-
waukee store of Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, has be-
come manager of the Kansas City Wurlitzer store,
located at 1015 Grand avenue, Kansas City, Mo. The
store at Kansas City is enlarging its school of music
and is making plans for radio broadcasting from its
studio.
Two professional musical publications, the Music?
Observer and the Musical Courier, have merged, b\
the music trade papers are continuing their indivic
uality as units of this division of trade and business
papers.
FILING THE USEFUL FACTS
The Method Involves and Encourages a Systematic Way of Doing Things
and Every Record Is a Reminder That Has a Most
Valuable Suggestive Quality
One music trades dealer finds a'memory-jogger i
most valuable first aid in his daily business transac-
tions. This is kept by the office girl who shoulders
all of the minor details. Whenever he wants to do
something or be reminded of anything he jots it
down on a blank slip of paper and then passes it along
for file in his memory-jogger.
A small pad of blank paper, 2 by 3 inches, is
constantly carried in his coat pocket for this pur-
pose. No matter where he may be, he always takes
out his little memo pad and jots down his ideas
before there is any chance of forgetting them. Then
at a convenient moment he turns these slips of paper
over to his guardian, the memory-jogger. He never
goes anywhere unless he is armed with his memo
pad. It is as valuable to him as his pocketbook.
At just precisely the right moment, time and place,
the memory-jogger brings up the matter for atten-
tion, and a typewritten memo card is placed on his
desk every morning of all the things that have to be
done that day or planned ahead for the week.
Good for Sales.
This system is aiso used to record sales events. A
complete description of t iie idea as conceived and
what it hoped to accomplish is dictated before the
plan it, started. Later a recapitulation sheet is added
showing preparations made and total costs, with the
results obtained stated by days, until the sales died
cut and the effects of the drive wore off. The com-
plete record is then filed away for his future guidance
in the memory-jogger under the title "Selling
Stunts."
On ail seasonal advertising or for the holidays, a
copy of the advertisement used or the sales circular
or letter sent out, is always filed away for future
reference, with a statement of results obtained on any
particular item or items featured.
Recording Window Displays.
If a good window display is staged on any partic-
ular line, the date the window was opened and closed
is noted, with a detailed description of the window
or a photo, and a summary of all sales by days on
that particular line. At the end of each year this
music trades dealer can get a pretty good bird'seye
view of what his windows did for him in a mer-
chandising way during the year, and which windows
pulled the best results, and why.
He is constantly (hanging the interior of his store,
moving items to the front which are not ordinarily
called for and moving things back which will be
most likely asked for anyhow. A notation of results
on each shift helps him out in the future, does away
with guess work, and gives him a complete picture of
"what's what," thus enabling him to do more sci-
entific planning in his interior arrangement and dis-
plays.
Prizes for Staff.
The many little details of successful selling meth-
ods are also cornered and filed away in this memory-
jogger for future use. Weekly sales conferences take
place with the sales force, and at every meeting each
salesman is supposed to offer up something new that
happened during the week, between himself and the
buying public. For the best suggestion at each sales
conference a prize is awarded of merchandise valued
at $2.50 and once a month a cash prize in that amount
is offered. All of the suggestions made are jotted
down by the stenographer at the conference and filed
away in the memory-jogger.
Watching Competitors.
This music trades dealer also believes in keeping
in close touch with what his competitors are doing in
the way of newspaper advertising and window dis-
plays, and each week a runner reports on windows of
other stores, while his stenographer clips and files
away all advertisements and news items under the
head of "Competitors, Week of January 10, Adver-
tising," and another for "Window Displays." In this
way he keeps well informed along merchandising
trends in his city and what is going on in the music
trades generally.
The Call Book.
A call book is a!so kept in which each salesman
notes "requests" from customers which could not
be filled because the item or line was not carritd.
If at the end of a month enough calls come in on
any particular item he is sure to stock it, and here
again the memory-jogger turns the trick, for the
15th of every month is "call" day, and the stenog-
rapher goes over the call book reports and lists all
items not carried in stock, with a statement of the
total number of calls received for each item during
the month.
These varied experiences in buying, selling, adver-
tising and management are thus carded on perpetual
record instead of in this man's head, and he can refer
back at any time to what happened last year this
time, or what happened around Washington's birth-
day, or Labor Day, or Christmas, for everything is
at his finger's ends in the memory-jogger.
A series of 5 by 8 envelopes, indexed on the out-
side, such as "Window Displays," "Selling Stunts,"
"'Advertising Ideas," "Interior Displays," etc., by
months and years, contains all the data for any one
month and year, thus January 1930; February, 1930,
etc. For holidays special folders are used, such as
"Easter, 1931," "Graduation, 1931," "June Weddings,"
"Christmas," etc. Any scheme which has proved val-
uable in the past is thus taken out and re-used, im-
proved upon and enlarged, and put over stronger
than ever, and then filed away again for next year'i
benefit from the experience angle.
Featuring Lines.
Every week he makes a feature of pushing a cer-
tain line and the backs of his sales folks are bent
in this one direction during all of that week, by
calling attention of all comers to a certain item which
is being pushed, and in this way, through suggestive
selling, many other items are moved which might
otherwise have moved only on call or through vigor-
ous advertising measures.
This sales-aid and management memory-jogger
and experience guide has proved worth its weight in
gold, for this music trades dealer has doubled his
sales since the system was inaugurated and this year
lie expects to treble his sales volume.
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUSIC
MERCHANTS COMMITTEES NAMED
President Edwin R. Weeks of the National Asso-
ciation of Music Merchants has announced the ap-
pointment of the following standing committees for
the ensuing year.
Membership Committee
Charles H. Yahrling, Yahrling-Rayner Music Co.,
306 West Federal street, Youngstown, Ohio, chair-
man, ex-officio, as elected secretary of the association;
Ben. F. Duvall, W. W. Kimball Co., 308 South Wa-
bash avenue, Chicago 111.; John J. Glynn, Mathushek
& Son Piano Co., 14 East 39th street, New York,
N. Y.
Press Committee
Charles H. Yahrling, Yahrling-Rayner Music Co.,
306 West Federal street, Youngstown, Ohio, chair-
man, ex-officio, as elected secretary of the association;
Miss Mayme Zechmann, Davidson Bros. Co., Sioux
City, Iowa; Fred W. Bush, Hush's Music and Radio
House, 132 Main street, Penn Yan, N. Y.; Fred G.
McKinley, Germain Piano Co., 400 South Washing-
ton avenue, Saginaw, Mich.
Legislative Committee
Melville Clark, Clark Music Co., 416 South Salina
street, Syracuse, N. Y., chairman; Merritt Alfred,
Gallup & Alfred, 201 Asylum street, Hartford, Conn.;
Homer L. Kitt, Homer L. Kitt Co., 1330 G street
Northwest, Washington, D. C ; Fred R. Sherman,
Sherman, Clay & Co., 536 Mission street, San Fran-
cisco, Cal.; Charles E. Wells, The Charles E. Wells
Music Co., 1624 California street. Denver, Colo.
Resolutions Committee
B. E. Neal, Neal-Clark-Neal Co., 473 Main street,
Buffalo, N. Y., chairman: Will R. Shutes, El Paso
Piano Co., 215 Texas street, El Paso, Tex.; Carl Wit-
tich, The Wittich Stores, 635 Penn street, Reading,
Pa.
LETTER TO PIANO CLUB MEMBERS
The following communication addressed to mem-
bers of the Piano Club of Chicago explains itself:
"Dear Fellow Members:
"As there is practically no attendance at the Piano
Club luncheons during the summer, it has been
decided to discontinue the weekly meetings at the
Illinois Athletic Club until the lirst Monday of Sep-
tember.
"A special evening event probably will be staged
later in the summer, and due notice will be given
at that time.
"Sincerely yours,
"BEN F. DUVALL.
"President."
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/
August, 1931
PRESTO-TIMES
THINGS SAID O R SUGGESTED
for argument, since their good intentions offset the
obvious errors." He made a few pessimistic remarks
about the Kroeger factory not running at present and
the factory full of goods, and then remarked: "Con-
necticut is one grand state. If I could sell the idea
to Bill Betz down at Hammond, and get him here
pianos—he had the same line of pianos but didn't so that I could enjoy a good talkfest once in so often,
know the people—so another, though high power, well, it would be the Almost Perfect State that old
Don Marquis used to write about. And speaking of
might follow up and fail.
While I am selling side-lines and hankering for a Bill, did you know that he has a new grand with
"Chinaman's chance" to again sell pianos, I often some new ideas? And, by the way, how reluctant
wonder what is the psychology of the whole piano the trade is to accept a new idea. I don't find pianos
trade from the viewpoint of manufacturers. Have any better than old Henry Kroeger made them back
they laid off their salaried salesmen, curtailed produc- about 1888, but gosh! to hear them tell it you'd think
tion, withdrawn liberal terms to representatives? All that each new style represented an advance in some
this seems obvious, but what are they going to do new method of co-ordinating string plan, sounding
to revive the sale of pianos? People have to be sold board and hammers, so as to get better tone. After
on any proposition—even the Gospel has to be all is said and done, T O N E is the only reason for
preached—or are they going to follow the idea of the building a piano, and it is about as much a. mystery
Singer Manufacturing Co., . the biggest installment and an unknown quantity to the average piano man
manufacturing concern in the world, by establishing as would be an exposition of the theory of the nebu-
lar hypothesis."
their branches with salaried managers?
OPEN FORUM
THE LOGICAL WAY OF
SELLING PIANOS
Minot, N. D., July 10, 1931.
The Presto-Times.
Gentlemen:
You have complimented me by publishing two of
my letters and I do not feel like imposing upon you
and your readers by a third, unless you find a kernel
worth cracking the nut for, so I will leave it with you.
A young man who had severed his connection
with one of the biggest piano manufacturing and
distributing concerns came to Minot and vicinity and
I was advised that he sold 19 pianos in less than
three weeks, where neither he nor the piano was
known.
His father-in-law, a prominent lawyer with an
analytical turn of mind and understanding more than
Blackstone, asked me how he did it, and it is my
line of logic—or illogic—that may be worth relating.
There are always a number interested in buying
pianos, and, although right at this time at a very low
ebb, there are some, and he dropped in at just the
logical moment and prepared the form of "ad" used
in the first prospect-getting known—"having some
pianos mis-shipped," or "on hand to sell at a very
special price sooner than re-ship," etc., and got in-
quiries like one elevator man, one highway main-
tainer, and the wife of a rural mail carrier in one
town where he sold, within a few hours, with good
down payments, a line of customers anyone would
be glad to get.
Up to a year or so ago this locality was combed
by two resident dealers with high-power cars, one
manufacturing concern with two salesmen and driv-
ing hard, one branch with three or four salesmen
with cars, two retail dealers in eastern North Dakota,
and one factory represented by men traveling with
train, and myself with my "T" Ford, driving night
and day—some thirteen, and all out with one object—
to sell pianos and educating families of prospective
buyers to want pianos.
The branch closed, the manufacturer withdrew, the
dealers quit coming, as did the one selling direct,
and my company discontinued me, saying they "were
marking time—not enough money to pay the freight
out here," etc., one dealer in California, the other
paying much attention to tuning, so that the desire
to own pianos created by twelve high-power sales-
men and myself had its effect on people ready to buy.
1 told the lawyer that I had spent my time trying
to secure other connections, to find one manufacturer
willing to take a chance of benefitting by the per-
sonal advertising, but none saw things as I did, pos-
sibly thinking my letters over-optimistic, visionary,
or possibly hysterical, or wanting to attach myself
to a pie-card in my old age; and I mentioned another
company for whom I had sold, nearly 500 pianos,
but they refused to accept the slump following the
war, so discontinued a dozen traveling representatives,
and, while my best year was '89, during the twelve
years following I doubt if they sold twelve pianos in
the territory; another writes that they are not in a
position to consider my proposition of representing
them, and I doubt if they have sold one of their
pianos, whole others have sold a thousand in this
locality; their travelers "representing the Dakotas"
live in Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis or Omaha,
"withdrawing liberal terms to dealers and losing."
It is possible that not another salesman in a thou-
sand could have put over the deal this man did, as
illustrated by a personal experience of my own:
starting from Fargo with $7.10 in available cash to
go until I had enough to get back; spending $1.50
at my first stop to follow a prospect who did not
buy; selling two organs in the next town, spending
Sunday there to read "David Harum"; the next town,
one for cash and one on time, and was out nine
months without revenue outside of down payments,
and was followed by a factory man on salary with
plenty of expense money and three pianos; he spent
his expense money and re-shipped two of the three
Like the millions of acres of arid land in the
mountainous valleys made fertile only when water is
let loose from reservoirs, so the fountain head of
the piano trade is the manufacturers, and until they
open the gates there will be a depression in the piano
trade. Men who can and have sold pianos, made
homes happy, and point with pride to those who
have developed their musical talent upon pianos they
sold, will resort to something else, but, unlike royalty,
a thing of the past, piano salesmen will continue to
be necessary to the continuing of piano manufacture.
Thank you for publishing a list of those manufac-
turers who have become a memory, others combin-
ing or in liquidation, and would that I could prod
some progressive manufacturer to see things as I
do and who is not afraid to invest a little money as
I would my experience and hard work.
Yours very truly.
NEW TYPE OF PIANO ACTION GETS
RECOGNITION
The following communication is explanatory of
tests made last month on piano actions, something
that appears to be the first time that tests of this
nature have been undertaken by the Bureau of
Standards at Washington.
.-•This new type of piano action seems to have devel-
oped remarkable capabilities, especially in repetition
under minimum release of the key.
The system and the results appear to be almost
revolutionary in piano action achievement and it is
said that many musicians are free to express the
thought that it is a step forward in action design.
The Bureau of Standards, Department of Com-
merce, of Washington, D. C , made some very inter-
D. ERNEST HALL.
esting tests on piano actions at their laboratories on
July 8 and 9, 1931.
Three types of grand actions were tested by the
department, under the supervision of Dr. Heyl. One
was the accepted type of standard design; the second
was the Swiss type of action invented by Arthur Flint
in Boston some 25 years ago; and a cam type of re-
Presto-Times has in a pigeonhole quite a sheaf of
peating action, patents for which were recently taken
editorials from the daily and weekly papers of the out by Mr. Gordon Campbell and Mr. Joseph Klepac.
nation about the piano situation. Some of these may
Below is a table of the findings of the department:
be traceable to the disseminated propaganda and ex-
Maximum Repetition Per Minute Without
tension of teachings by C. M. Tremaine's department
Dropping Beats
for the promotion of music, others may have been
Beats
inspired by local piano men in their contacts with
per minute
their community's editors, and many are suggested
by the music and music trade press. That they are Erard principle or standard design
787
printed at all is an indication of revived interest in Swiss action
716
the piano and piano playing as a subject for school Cam type
1,602
curricula. It is a guess as to whether the local piano
An attempt was made to standardize the blows per
man stirred up the torpid editor with a stick, or
minute at the speed of which a musician would en-
whether the town and the newspaper really had an deavor to repeat a single note. This was estimated
editor with enough vitality to see that the music at 425 blows per minute. It is exceedingly difficult
business had been shamefully slighted.
to establish this exact figure for direct comparisons,
and due to the highly sensitized timing mechanism of
Following is an editorial from the Stamford (Conn.)
the oscillograph, it was not possible to get an identical
Advocate:
number of blows. However, the comparison was
"PIANOS COME BACK
close enough for ascertaining the facts and measur-
"Pessimism on one subject has recently been proved ing the minimum escapement from the bottom of the
groundless. When player pianos were followed by touch necessary to attain this positive repetition of
phonographs and radios, many people gave up the the blows.
piano as a vanishing instrument. Before long it would
The results were as follows:
be as extinct as the dinosaur, they said. Why spend
Minimum
time and money learning to play the piano when one
Type of Action
clearance
could have canned music so easily?
169 inch
Piano factories here and there had to go out of Erard principle, 430 blows per minute
184 inch
business. It was a gloomy decade for piano teachers, Swiss action, 447 blows per minute
123 inch
musicians and factory workers. Then came a change. Cam action, 434 blows per minute
"There may be many factors in this revival. One is
A third test was the speed of travel of the hammer
surely the new 7 methods of group instruction, making under given blows on the key. The oscillograph meas-
piano study more interesting. Another, quite likely, ured the length of time required for the hammer to
is the familiarity with piano music brought about by travel the last three millimeters to the string and
those supposedly arch-enemies, the player piano, the rebound. A w r eight of 170 grams, dead weight, was
phonograph and the radio. As people learn to enjoy placed on the end of the key. The Erard type of
hearing piano music, they learn also that it is even
action indicated that there was an elapsed time of
more fun to play well themselves than merely to .008 second, and with the cam action an elapsed time
listen to others.
of .006—indicating that there was one-third more of
Commenting on this editorial, Edwin Jarrett, piano the good power transmitted to the string with the
man residing in Sound Beach, Conn., only two miles cam action than with the standard type.
from Stamford, saj's: "In the main, I find no reason
KOHLER-BRAMBACH PIANO CO., INC.
CONNECTICUT PHILOSOPHY
ABOUT PIANOS COMING BACK
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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