Presto

PRESTO-TIMES
PRESTO PUBLISHING CO.
Publishers
417 So. Dearborn St.
Chicago, 11L
ISSUED THE
FIFTEENTH OF
PUBLICATION MONTH
FRANK D. ABBOTT
Jan.-Feb., 1933
Editor
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Entered as second-class matter April 9, 1932, at the
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issue. Nothing received at the office that is not strictly
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that date. If they concern the interests of manufactur-
ers or dealers such Items will appear the issue following.
CHICAGO, JAN.-FEB., 1933
A group of music trade men, mostly piano men, sat together at a recent music trade
gathering discussing, naturally, the trend of the times today and the bearing of the conditions
on the music business, a consensus of which remarks would be that:
There are today more families throughout the country, from coast to coast, without
In a lecture given at the annual meeting of the pianos than ever before. That:
Chicago Kiwanis Club, William M. Lewis, president
More old pianos are meeting home requirements than ever before. That there are:
of the La Fayette College, Easton, Pa., was telling
Fewer
families, newly married couples, and new homes pianoless today than ever before.
how a man out of work could improve his time by
study and research. He illustrated the point brought That:
out in his lecture by relating how the automatic musi-
More pianos have been taken back within the past three or four years, for non-payment,
cal instrument was popularized. Speaking of the in-
repossessions,
etc., than ever before in the history of the music trade.
vention of these automatic instruments he said: "It
was during a time of depression and this man got
These conditions, it was plainly shown, have produced more prospects for sales than ever
permission to use the workshop of a pipe organ fac- have existed before and the old pianos still being used are more junkable than ever before.
tory, which was idle. In six months he had perfected
All persons who go over the situation carefully these days invariably come to the conclu-
the idea of the automatic player."
The gentleman referred to was, of course, the late
sion that with the revival of better times, revival of employment, and some money coming in,
William B. Tremaine and the statement made is about there will be a golden era in the music trades and industries.
correct.
Our esteemed contemporary and the leading music
trade paper of Germany, "Zeitschrift Fur Instrumen-
tenban," published at Leipzig, in a set of illustrations
of piano trucks used for long distance delivery, is
shown the Steinway & Sons' truck from the Steinway
factory at Hamburg, Germany.
There has been a good deal of cutting out of branch
stores in the music business the past year. Generally
this change in the operation of moving of goods has
been the taking over by dealers generally of the con-
cerns which formerly represented the branch houses.
Notable among these discontinuances have been
the C. G. Conn Company's stores heretofore con-
ducted as branch stores. The W. W. Kimball Com-
pany have also given up most of their branch houses
and in some cases the former managers have become
local representatives.
Perhaps one hundred and fifty thousand pianos, old,
new and what-not, were sold during the past twelve
months, a statement that has not been satisfactorily
challenged, but what share of these sales was fac-.
tory output within the same period is also not clearly
defined. However, be these estimates as they may, it
is certain that the piano supply men have been sor-
rowing with harrowing tribulations these many days,
and the trade papers are among the mourners.
The New York Evening Journal recently gave a double column editorial to the interests of
piano music in the home. The subheading of this article was, "There should be some musical
instrument for every child." The piano was the main topic discussed, that instrument being
the foundation instrument or, as might be said, the master instrument of musical creation. The
Journal goes on to say that Henry Ford, who, himself, plays the violin, said, "Every child
should be taught to play some kind of musical instrument; merely to listen to music is not
enough; merely to enjoy it is not enough"; his idea being that one who plays an instrument
not only enjoys the music himself, but gives pleasure to listeners by really creating the music
he produces.
This Journal story goes on to say that, "A good piano"—and observe that the paper applies
the adjective "good" to the piano—"should be in the center of the family group." Around
this piano may be gathered other musical instruments to form a little band or miniature
orchestra. A photograph was reproduced with this story showing a distinguished British
family, each member playing an instrument. The picture is Lady Instone, who is at the piano,
and her five daughters with the eminent Sir Frederic Cowen as leader of this little band of
players.
The Journal editorial is, indeed, a beautiful tribute to the piano and to musical instru-
ments in the home.
tions by radio. Members of this society, however, MR. WRIGHT HERE AND MR. WRIGHT
reap their share of license fees paid for broadcasting
THERE
and, by the way, only persons who have written or
composed as many as five successful compositions are
Among the interesting visitors to Chicago recently
eligible for membership. The ban on copyrights was Mr. Leonard Wright, whose home is in Boston;
applies almost solely to musical compositions, prin- a son of A. M. Wright, at the head of the Mason &
cipally of so-called popular sheet music. The limiting Hamlin Company up to the time of its change of
There is inquiry in the trade and there seems to be, of productions of popular music has its advantages, ownership and close association with American Piano
really, some anxiety as to whether Steinway & Sons particularly as applied to semi-musical productions Company interests.
will put out a small grand piano. Nobody seems to where if the musical selections of such plays were
Mr. Wright, Jr., was the guest of members of the
be able to give a satisfactory reply to this inquiry, broadcast freely the music might become either worn Cable Piano Company at the annual Chicago Piano.
out
-V-
popularized
in
advance
of
future
stage
per-
but it can be safely stated that a smaller grand will
& Organ Association banquet in January. Speak-
not be placed on the market unless Steinway & Sons formances.
ing of his father, Mr. Wright says that he is still at
are absolutely sure that a smaller instrument than
his St. Petersburg, Fla., home, where he remains
their present 5 ft. 7 can be a perfect instrument and
each year up to about the first of May. Early in
give perfect satisfaction.
It has recently been made public that upwards of May Mr. and Mrs. Wright return to Boston and oc-
45,000 composers, authors and publishers of musical cupy their apartment there until the beginning of
works at home and abroad have made their compo- summer, when they go to the seashore, usually up
The same week that the Chicago Automobile Show sitions available to the American public through the Maine-way, for two or three months until late fall,
was held the daily papers reported that for that week American Society of Composers, Authors and Pub- then return to Boston and later to their Florida home
fifteen hundred tuild'ng permits were issued, a mere lishers. Foreign musical works cannot legally be at St. Petersburg, where they have been going each
bagatelle for ordinary times when oftentimes 50,000 used in the United States without license of copy- winter for the past ten years.
and more permits are issued.
right owner, the same as American songs cannot law-
Mr. Wright has become one of the best golf players
fully be used abroad without permission. All this in the St. Petersburg-Tampa district, and is so much
work of licensing song production by radio is done by occupied with his pastimes generally that he is quite
Through the American Society of Composers, Au- uniting with the Society's representatives. The rusty no music trade news and affairs, but when he
thors and Publishers, the members of this organiza- American Society, for instance, licenses the use in does chance to meet an old friend from the fra-
tion and, incidentally, some who are not members, this country of the music owned by members of all ternity "he has the time of his life," as Mr. Wright,
are able to regulate performances of their composi- the affiliated foreign societies.
Jr., says.
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