Classic Mode

Presto

Issue: 1939 2290

MUSIC DEALERS WHO
ARE DOING THINGS
Why A Music Dealer Wins The
Highest Rewards From His
Fellow Citizens
ENRY P. MAYER started in business with the dry-
goods firm of M. Schneider and Brother in Paris,
Texas. With money earned and saved from this posi-
tion, young- Henry took a business course at college. A lit-
tle later he was employed by the T. Cohen Music House of
Paris. Here he gained an interest in merchandising music.
H
In 1889, Henry started a music business of his own, known
as the Henry P. Mayer Music House. The history of this
man and his music business is largely the civic history of the
city of Paris. No other man in that city has made so continu-
ous and valuable a contribution to civic progress, so his fel-
low citizens say. A tribute to the man himself is also a tribute
to the music business.
ENJOYS BEING A MUSIC DEALER
On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of his entrance
into the music field, Mr. Mayer made this interesting state-
ment : "During the past fifty years my experience in the mu-
sic business has been a pleasant one. It has given me the
rare privilege of dealing with people whose aim in life is to
add to the joy of living. Patrons who have entered my place
of business during this long period came that they might be
better equipped to develop their talent and to advance in
music. This fact has stood constantly as a source of great
satisfaction to me. I go on the theory that every man wants
to feel sincerely that his business is rendering a worthy ser-
vice, a service essential to the happiness, comfort and well-
being of the greatest possible number of people. On this
score I have felt that the music business has always had and
today has an important place in the affairs of life.
"From my youth no other business has appeared to me
as a preference to the music business. T have enjoyed my
work and I appreciate, more than 1 can ever tell, the loyalty
of the thousands of customers of this business. In fact,
my chief purpose in this anniversary statement is to let the
people know that I appreciate their friendship and their good-
will. I appreciate every kind word spoken in behalf of this
business and deeply do I appreciate the confidence of the peo-
ple with whom it has been my pleasure to deal.
"Like old songs that shall never die, the music business
will go on and on and at this very time has promise of greater
progress than ever known before—and that means more hap-
piness for more people."
On Sunday, September 24, there was an entire section of
the Paris News published as the "Henry P. Mayer Section."
It was filled with interesting features of the life and busi-
ness of Mr. Mayer. There were personal, business, profes-
Henry P. Mayer
sional and civic tributes in this section, which goes to prove
what tremendous possibilities a music dealer has to make fine
and lasting friendships and to become a civic leader.
A LONG RECORD OF SERVICE
Among the civic and business honors he now holds and has
held are: President of the Sanitarium of Paris; of the Paris
School Board; of the Paris Building and Loan Association.
Vice-President of the Liberty National Bank; Director of the
Paris and Mt. Pleasant Railroad; Councilor U. S. Chamber
of Commerce; Past Vice-President, National Association of
Music Merchants; Past President of the Texas Music Mer-
chants Association; of the Old Paris Board of Trade; of the
Paris Rotary Club; and of the Civic Music Association.
Mr. Mayer has a great ambition to see a large auditorium
built in Paris and his friends think he will never be satisfied
until one is erected.
In a letter to PRESTO MUSIC TIMES, Mr. Mayer states
that he has attended thirty-four out of thirty-eight of the an-
nual conventions of the National Association of Music Deal-
ers.
Such a business and civic career is a real inspiration to all
music dealers!
The next issue of PRESTO MUSIC TIMES will carry in this
department the story of one of the most colorful music dealers
of the country. His personal life and his business methods are of
interest to all music dealers.
[ P A G E
S E V E N ]
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/
AMERICA
WANTS
MUSIC
Four Nationally Known
Leaders Pay Tribute
to Music
Chicago Music Festival Luncheon, August 17, 1939, Stevens Hotel. Left
to right: Miss Marjoric Farrage, John T. McCutchcon, George
Ade, Henry Weber, Edith Mason, Philip Maxwell.
MR. MAXWELL ORGANIZED ONE OF THE MOST
MAGNIFICANT MUSIC FESTIVALS IN AMERI-
CAN HISTORY AT SOLDIERS FIELD, CHICAGO
, / T F YOU want to promote something that is worth while
I and cultural, promote a great music festival. America
is waiting for just such promotions. If you desire to put
on a music festival in your city, you must be musically mind-
ed—and a good business man," states Philip Maxwell, Direc-
tor of Chicagoland Music Festival.
"You music dealers are in a business of which you can be
mighty proud. Music means a lot to the hospitality of people
and the joy of a gathering. Pianos give harmony of love,
life and good fellowship. I believe the piano dealer should
do more to win the new generation. Invite boys and girls to
visit your stores. Give them demonstrations of how a piano
is made. Start right now w ith the young generation and
teach them all about the piano. Young Americans are going
to be the future buyers. Get out of the children's mind the
idea that you have to be a sissy to be a pianist.
"You have the right to be the greatest movement in your
city for the promotion of music. Say to your fellow towns-
men : 'My store is the headquarters of music. I don't want
to sell a thing, but I feel that I am helping to educate our
youth.' Formulate a plan to put on outdoor festivals. Music
should be the dominant source of happiness in every town.
Put yourself into the life of your community and you will
get many rewards in the joy of seeing that community go
forward in American citizenry."
* * * * *
GREAT MUSICAL DEVELOPMENT
AHEAD FOR AMERICA
Mr. Thomas A. Lowery, Advertising Counsel of the Chicago
Daily News, made some telling comments recently about the
future of music in America. He said, "We have not begun to
see the real field of music in America yet. There will be
more progress along musical lines in the next ten or fifteen
years than we ever dreamed of. This means development
not only in the quality of music but also in the larger num-
ber of persons participating in music as performers, and in
the vastly increased groups of listeners. America is on the
verge of a real Musical Renaissance."
[ P A G E
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND PIANOS
"THE American Public Schools," according to Helen Howe,
Director of Music for the Chicago Board of Education, "are
the most dominant force in the world behind all musical in-
strument business. With the cooperation of the piano manu-
facturers in the Chicago area who furnished pianos to the
public schools, class piano instruction came into the school
system as an extra-curricular subject. This spring 1,000 stu-
dents took part in three piano festivals sponsored by the
schools. Then, too, there was a large spring festival of bands
and orchestras."
INTERESTING
FACTORS IN MUSIC
By W. J. Cameron
The Ford Company
On Sunday evening, October 22, Mr. W. J. Cameron of the
Ford Motor Company, devoted his talk to the place and im-
portance of music in American life. He said that 65 per cent
of the ten to thirteen million people who listen to the Ford
Hour are of the rank and file. They evidently approve of
"good" music, a combination of what may be called "popu-
lar" in the highest sense of that term.
Pianos are played by about 9,000,000 persons in 5.865,296
families. There are approximately 150,000 piano teachers in
America. According to various estimates a million pupils
study the violin in the schools. Nine hundred thousand play
for their own pleasure.
" ; ••""••
There are more than 6,000 High School bands and orches-
tras. To these add the professional, church, and fraternal
bands and orchestras, and the number is great indeed.
Mr. Cameron said; "We believe w r e have given American
music a worthy place in our program-making, but there is
one thing we hope never to lose sight of, namely, that the
tone world is universal, that in the great Republic of Music
no national, racial, nor language boundaries exist nor can
exist.
E I G H T ]
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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