Presto

March-April, 1935
"We in the piano business." he says, "as in many other
lines of trade are looking for a fixedness; a finality
which does not exist. We are slow to realize that
change is the one unchanging condition in the Uni-
verse; that just because a situation is so and so to-
day, is the one sure reason why it would not be so
tomorrow." Mr. Wylie is a fine man to meet; re-
freshing, inspirational and interesting.
Keeney's Music Store, Maquoketa, Iowa, has
moved to a new location, in the Ely Building on
N. Main street, that city.
Oscar Overby has moved his music shop at Rice
Lake, Wis., to the second floor of the Overby Build-
ing. The first floor of the building is occupied by
another Overby line of business.
The Campbell-Temlett Piano Company has been
incorporated for business at Paterson, N. J.
Thomas Smith, violin maker, Cleveland, Kans., is
seeking a location in some enterprising town to open
a violin making and repair shop.
Vinson Brothers have opened an electric appliance
establishment and intend to handle pianos also, at
313 Erie street, Toledo, Ohio.
The business associates of Edward Dorwaldt, Jr.,
of the music house of McClure & Dorwaldt, Albany,
N. Y., gave that gentleman an anniversary dinner on
the occasion of his twenty-fifth year as partner in
the firm. Mr. Dorwaldt joined the business in 1910
and from time to time bought out several of his
partners. The present senior member of the firm,
Mr. Frank H. McClure, is a son of the founder of
the business. There are now three Dorwaldts, Louis,
Edward, Jr., and Edward, Sr.
Edwin Vogt, who has been a general salesman for
several months past for the Kalamazoo branch of
Grinnell Bros., has succeeded Emory Aborn as man-
ager of the Kalamazoo store now located in the Hen-
derson-Ames Building, 334 W. Michigan avenue. Mr.
Aborn takes the management of the Grinnell store
at Lansing.
When, about a year ago, that indomitable Arizona
piano man, air pilot and aviator, Gene Redewell of
Phoenix, slipped down to "terra firma" at "100 per,"
the plane which he was piloting got a good crack-up,
his friends thought he had had enough air sailing for
that season. Newspapers in and about Phoenix re-
corded the story and part of it got into the music
trade papers. After a spell in the hospital Gene was
out and ready for longer and higher flights but just
as he was fairly at work again another smash-up re-
sulting in a dislocated shoulder befell him. Latest
reports, however, say that he is out again all game
and ready for more. Mr. Redewell's voyages extend
to points all around the Arizona region and on over
to Pacific Coast points. The latest is that Gene plans
aeroplaning to Chicago for the Music Merchants Con-
vention in July.
Frank Lesley, who for many years carried on a
business identified with piano finishing known as
the Lesley Chemical Company, has given up that
line of work and become a farmer. As he puts it,
he is now "a man behind the plow," getting, as he
says, plenty to do, plenty to eat, good food and good
appetite. Evidently Mr. Lesley is now particularly
happy and good for Lesley!
When Ossip Gabrilowitsch first came to the United
States on a tour of piano playing he was greeted in
song and prose in many ways and in many places.
Here is one verse dedicated to him at the time:
Full fifty million ears await
With eager longing your approach
With wondering eyes we read how great
The realms of art your hands encroach
We long to lay our tribute down,
Your bulging coffers to enrich,
With wreaths of laurel for your crown
Gabrilowitsch, Gabrilowitsch!
Although Jay Grinnell, one of the principals of the
great music house of Grinnell Bros., Detroit, Mich-
igan, is noted primarily as a music trade man, music
trade man of the first order, nevertheless he is also
famous as the owner of a gourd farm, a circumstance
which qualifies him for distinction in that feature of
vegetation. Mr. Grinnell says of his gourd farming
enterprise that "the gourd farm is a success although
what makes it successful is not entirely clear." How-
ever this is a delightful hobby for Mr. Grinnell and
brings back to him childhood days when he worked
on a farm near his birthplace town, Ann Arbor. About
, forty years ago Mr. Grinnell went to Detroit, started
to work for his two uncles who established the great
Grinnell Music House. The uncles started their
promising nephew, Jay, at the bottom of the ladder,
putting him to work as a helper, a janitor. A Presto-
Times correspondent says further of Mr. Grinnell
that, "he is an active member of the group of De-
troiters who are organizing and planning the Inter-
national Music Festival to be held here May 26 to
11
P R E S T 0-T I M E S
:NOW
Music
TRADE CONVENTION, JULY
22-23-24
Chicago is planning to do itself proud in caring for
the Music Merchants National Convention, which city
was named for the 34th Annual Convention to be held
July 22, 23, 24 at the Stevens Hotel, the official con-
vention and exhibit headquarters.
Instructions from D. L. Loomis, executive secre-
tary, advise Presto-Times that reservations should be
made early and intending exhibitors write to John F.
Bowman, director Exhibits and Conventions, Hotel
Stevens, Chicago, who has charge of the assignments
of sleeping rooms as well as exhibits. Some of these
rooms and suites have b"ed closets and roll-away beds,
particularly adaptable where sleeping apartment is re-
quired in close proximity to exhibits. It is an-
nounced that sessions of the convention will be held
each forenoon; the afternoons being given up to ex-
hibit interests. The exhibit fee is $15 00, payable at
the time of making reservations, which item should
be directed to National Association of Music Mer-
chants D. L. Loomis, Executive Secretary, 40 S. E.
First Street, Miami Florida.
The meeting at Miami some weeks ago brought up
several interesting subjects for discussion there and
which might be introduced during the July conven-
tion. If these topics and suggestions are brought up in
July, the convention will have plenty to do and plenty
to think about in the matter of trade economics and
betterment of trade conditions which are important to
the trade.
Two important bills before Congress have been
agitating the music trades and industries. One of
these the Black 30-Hour Bill; the other the National
Labor Dispute Bill, sponsored by Senator Wagner
and known as Bill No. S 1958, the Wagner Labor Bill.
Presto-Times' readers are made aware of these bills
through the daily press and by reports sent from
the headquarters of the National Association of Music
Merchants by Secretary Loomis. And aside from
these bills other conditions that may come up for
legislation will furnish ample subject matter for dis-
cussion, many of such vital interest and vast impor-
tance that the round table discussions alone will well
repay attendance at the convention for all of them af-
fect the position of music and the music trades and
industries. The program for the convention is fast
taking shape and suggestions for topics for the round
table and other discussions should be sent at the ear-
liest possible moment either to Edwin R. Weeks,
President, Binghamton, X. Y., or to the secretary,
40 S. E. First Street, Miami, Florida.
The list of exhibitors who have so far engaged ex-
hibition suites at the Stevens Hotel, is not ready to
be announced at this writing but there will be an ex-
cellent showing, a really representative group of the
music industries, and allied interests. The band
instrument concerns will be liberally represented, in-
cluding such houses as Conn, Martin Band Instru-
ment Co., York Band Instrument Company. In small
goods supplies, etc., there will be a splendid showing
and the music publishers will be well represented. Of
the piano manufacturers who will have instruments at
the Stevens are Baldwin, Krakauer, Mathushek,
Gulbransen, Everett, Schiller, Settergren, Charles
Frederick Stein, Story & Clark, Winter & Co., Wur-
litzer. Of the music supply houses, Tonk Bros., Targ
& Diner. Pratt, Read & Co. have engaged rooms.
Chicago music houses will set up something fine
and good to behold, regardless as to whether they
show at the Fifth-Sixth floor individual exhibits or
nay. Several piano manufacturers, at least, are al-
ready working on new models, designs, case work
and finish that will be a worthwhile "eyeful."
However, regardless of what the manufacturers
may be doing at the Stevens Hotel headquarters
every music house of prominence in Chicago and the
manufacturers at their factory showrooms will show
things that will attract the attention of visitors.
Baldwin, Cable, Kimball, Lyon & Healy (Stein-
way display), Starck, Story & Clark, Wurlitzer,
Wyman, Wurlitzer, Gulbransen and Chas. Fred.
Stein at their factory showrooms, are planning to
show their goods in an attractive way.
June 2, an event which is expected to enlarge De-
troit's place in the world of music.
"What time he can spare from his business and
from his duties as president of the Detroit Convention
and Tourist Bureau he spends with his six grand-
children. He lives at 1126 Virginia Park.
L. W. Peterson who has been associated with Gul-
bransen Company for the past seventeen years as
credit manager and who held a similar position prior
to then with the M. Schulz Company, has severed
his connection with Gulbransen. Mr. Peterson's plans
for the future in music trade activities are not as yet
definitely decided upon but he intends to remain a
music trade man.
THE NEW DENVER MUSIC EMPORIUM
Percy Tonk, president of the Tonk Piano Bench
Company, has just returned from a three-week vaca-
tion trip by motor to Florida. Mr. and Mrs. Tonk
motored pretty well over this noted winter resort
terranc and made a few hurried stops enroute home.
Another distinguished gentleman identified, in a way,
with the music industries, David Sarnoff, president of
the Radio Corporation of America, has been honored
by the French government with the cross of the
Legion of Honor which was recently conferred, in
the Consulate General at Rockefeller Center, New
York City.
UNIQUE ANNOUNCEMENT
The Zorian Music House, Amarilla, Texas, in con-
nection with the arrival of a carload of Gulbransen
pianos from the factory at Chicago, made an attrac-
tive display as part of a street parade in that city
when they displayed an upright Gulbransen on either
side of which and on a placard placed above was
printed in letters large enough to be read half a block
away, their announcement as
GULBRANSEN DISTRIBUTORS
At each halt of the parade along the route a piano
concert was given that attracted more attention than
is ordinarily shown at out-door piano playing events.
The Zorian Company is already contemplating an-
other carload shipment of Gulbransens.
The Binion-Stocker Music Company, Carthage, Mo.,
has moved from South Main street and leased the
H. C. Griep building located on the "Square" at
Carthage.
The opening of the Chas. E. Wells Music Company
in the National Broadcasting Company building, 1625
California St., Denver, Colo., was an interesting and
rather auspicious occasion. It is announced that all
that modern engineers and architects could devise if.
the way of comfort, convenience and availability for
carrying on a general music business, has been in-
corporated in this new modern music emporium, oc-
cupying three floors of a spacious and magnificently
equipped structure.
The first floor is devoted to sheet music, miscel-
laneous musical merchandise and instruments and
band instruments, including a library said to be the
most extensive in the West associated with music.
The piano display parlors and general salesrooms art
on the second floor, the work and repair shops on
the third floor and the basement is given over to
radios and electrical goods. There is a special Stein-
way parlor on the second floor and the Wells Com-
pany is also giving prominence to other instruments
of value and reliability which they represent in Colo-
rado, one of these in particular being the Gulbransen.
an instrument which the Wells concern has handled
for many years and with remarkable success and
satisfaction.
WHEW! 86/100 OF 1 PER CENT!
Yes, that is correct: 8/10 of a cent on one dollar;
8.6 cents on a ten dollar account and 86 cents on one
hundred dollars; and five to ten cents for cashing the
check. This is what creditors of the Straube Piano
Company, Hammond, Ind., have received for "first
and final" dividend of their claims.
The late William Beach who was eighty-one years
of age when he passed away at his home in Holland,
was the father of C. L. Beach, now carrying on the
Bush & Lane piano at Holland, with Mr. Clevey as
a partner. He joined Bush and Walter Lane when
they moved the Bush & Lane business from Chi-
cago to Holland and became a factor as well as a
sponsor in carrying on the Bush & Lane business
during its existence and on to the time of the failure
of the business a few years ago.
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