Music Trade Review

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THE:
MUSIC
TRADE:
REVIEW
TRADE HAPPENINGS IN THE WEST.
Great Activity in Rural Trade—Wurlitzer Not to Remove Headquarters to Chicago—Arnold
With Thearle & Co.—Death of Frank D. Bryant—J.
V. Steger
Well
Pleased—Next
Association Luncheon—Reisenauer's Success—Schumann With Hubbard—F. W. Teeple
Believes Prosperity in Piano Trade is Permanent — Cable-Nelson
Expansion — Calve
Disappoints Audience—Novel Idea in Piano Exploitation—Something of the Bauer Piano
— Rothschild & Co. to Build—The News of the Week in Detail.
Telephones:
(Harrison 1521.
(Automatic 2904.
Review Office:
1362 Monadnock Block
( Special to The Review.)
Chicago, 111., Dec. 13, 1905.
Trade with the country retail trade must be
good. Otherwise the continual rush of orders
being received by the manufacturers could not
be in evidence. It is much greater than usual.
The manufacturers here have supposed that this
condition was general throughout the country, but
a supply man who was here last week is quoted
as saying that while manufacturers generally
were pretty busy in the East, yet it was possible
to find a few who had trouble to get enough busi-
ness to keep them running full capacity, while he
had yet to visit a single Western piano plant
which could care for any more business if it
had it.
Retail trade on the Wabash is steadily improv-
ing, but can hardly be said to exhibit the snap
and spontaneity that the dealers would like. '
Manager E. H. Uhl, of the Chicago house of
the Rudolph Wurlitzer Co., says there is abso-
lutely nothing in the report printed by a local
trade paper that the company intended moving
their headquarters from Cincinnati to Chicago.
As was clearly stated in The Review, the fine
large building recently leased by the Chicago
branch for a term of years from next May will
not be occupied in its entirety by the Wurlitzer
Co. for the present at least. They will sub-rent
some of the space; but their own quarters will
be much larger than those at present occupied.
Ion Arnold, well known in piano circles in the
East as well as Chicago, has been made manager
of the piano business of F. G. Thearle & Co., 63d
street and te>tew r art avenue, Englewood. Mr. Ar-
. nold has succeeded in securing the Henry F.
'Miller agency for his firm. Although it may
seem strange that such a well-known piano
should go to a .firm outside the loop, yet as a
matter of fact Mr. Thearle sells pianos all over
town, and an additional force of salesmen will be
put out now that so prominent a leader has been
secured. Other pianos handled by Thearle & Co.
are the Packard, some of the Cable-Nelson prod-
uct, the Knight and the F. G. Thearle. Another
explanation of the Henry F. Miller deal may be
found in a whispered rumor that Mr. Thearle
has designs on the "loop."
The piano trade was again visited by death
last week. Frank D. Bryant, brother of John A.
Bryant, the well-known Wabash avenue retail
piano dealer, died early Thursday morning after
a short illness. Frank Bryant had been his
brother's head assistant in his extensive retail
business for nearly a quarter of a century, and
was a very popular man in the trade. He was
41 years of age, and leaves a widow and two
boys. The funeral was held from the residence
of J. A. Bryant on Saturday afternoon.
In a talk with your correspondent, J. V. Steger
expressed himself as more than pleased with the
volume of business he has been having of late
on the Steger grands. "One of the latest products
of their great factories is their Mission style 15
parlor grand. It is a really beautiful instrument,
and gives an effect of elegance as well as mission
simplicity, which is seldom secured. Tonally, it
is magnificent. The Mission style 12 upright re-
cently put on the market is also well worth the
inspection of the trade.
!
The Clayton F. Summy Co. are doing some good
display advertising in the dailies on the Chicker-
POOLE
ing, Kurtzmann, Gabler and Mathushek. The
space used.is not large, but the best possible use
is made of it.
The F. G. Smith Piano Co. is advertising a fac-
tory removal sale at its Chicago store and says:
"The removal of our Brooklyn manufacturing
interests to our immense new plant at Leomin-
sler, Mass., has made necessary great shipments
of pianos. Our warerooms are overcrowded." A
new $250 upright piano is advertised for $145.
George D. Turner, superintendent of the piano
plate department of the Superior Foundry Co.,
Cleveland, O., was a Chicago visitor last week.
Nothing definite was done regarding the annual
banquet at the luncheon of the Chicago Piano
and Organ Association last week, but the banquet
will come along about the middle of January, and
as soon as President W. L. Bush returns from the
West the matter will be taken in hand.
Reisenauer again appeared in Chicago at the
concerts of the Chicago orchestra last week using
the Everett piano as usual. The dailies referred
to him as the greatest living exponent of Liszt,
and highly praised his work throughout.
Louis P. Hubbard, who, as stated in last week's
Review, has established himself in suite 532
Republic Building, has secured a good leader
in the Schumann piano, which he has at retail
for the city of Chicago. He has other instru-
ments in view, but is very enthusiastic regard-
ing the merits of the Schumann.
George Bascomb, of Eidora, Iowa, and H. W.
Voell, of Fond du Lac, Wis., were among the
visitors at the Kimball Company the past week.
Tom Pletcher, the ambassador extraordinary of
the Melville Clark Piano Co., has returned from
a trip to Philadelphia and other Eastern points,
in the company's interests. He had excellent
business.
The Wulschner-Stewart Piano Co., Indianapolis,
had an incipient fire last Saturday. The firemen
were compelled to tear up a portion of the floor
to get at the root of the matter, but it was
controlled before damage of any importance was
done.
F. W. Teeple, of Price & Teeple Piano Co.,
said: "It looks as though this prosperity in the
piano trade was not going to let up in a hurry.
As a matter of fact the spring should witness
an excellent trade as the effect of the big crops
will be felt then even more than now. There
will be more money in circulation and there's
no lack of it now. Another thing that lends
security to our present prosperity is that the
advance in scientific agriculture of late years has
made such a thing as a general crop failure at
any time the most remote possibility in the
world. Every freshwater college in the West
nowadays is a center for the diffusion of exact
agricultural knowledge which spells increasing
and permanent prosperity to the farmer."
Word comes from Salt Lake City that while,
as previously stated in these columns, the firm
of Vansant & Chamberlain will dissolve the first
of the year, J. M. Chamberlain and J. W. Vansant
will engage in the piano business in that city in-
dividually, thus there will be two piano estab-
lishments where one grew before.
The Cable-Nelson Piano Co. continue to be very
busy indeed, and the big new factory at South
Haven is distinctly "put to it," to take care of
the business which is flocking to it from all
points of the compass. Mr. F. S. Cable said to-
day that while much of the business now being
PIANOS
11
received is of the "telegraph" order, they are
getting quite a little carload work as well. It
is all they can do to get enough pianos for the
Chicago Retail trade.
A large number of the piano stores on the
Wabash are already beginning to keep their
stores open in the evenings to accommodate the
more or less theoretical holiday trade.
Calve disappointed a big audience Saturday by
not appearing. Rheumatism was the cause as-
signed but it did not prevent the fair prima-don-
na from going shopping the day before, or from
wining and dining Fritzi Scheff the day after,
or from leaving Sunday night to fill an engage-
ment at Minneapolis, if report be true.
The Illinois Manufacturers' Association, of
which a number of piano people are members,
will hold its annual trade dinner to-night.
W. L. Bush, president of the Bush & Gerts
Piano Co., returned this week from his far West-
ern trip. He bagged a fine lot of orders as
usual. One of the most delightful incidents of
his trip was a visit to the new Dolgeville in
California.
Rather a new idea in piano exploitation is be-
ing indulged in by F. L. Ryder, in charge of
the Mason & Hamlin department of the Cable
Company's retail, and who arranges the delight-
ful musicales which are being given so fre-
quently in Cable Hall. Mr. Ryder has hit upon
the advantage of giving concerts composed of
vocal numbers entirely, and frequently of recitals
by one singer. "Singers all use pianos and they
are interested in hearing accompaniments well
played on a good instrument. So far as my
experience goes, even larger results accrue from
our vocal entertainments than from those of an
instrumental or mixed character," said Mr. Ryder.
Tuesday afternoon a program of "original songs
and stories" was rendered by Carrie Jacobs Bond
to a large and very enthusiastic audience. It is
needless to say that her accompaniments were
played on a Mason & Hamlin grand.
The following very effective advertisement ap-
pears in the current programs of the Theodore
Thomas orchestra:
The "Bauer Tone" may well be said to be a
factor in our musical life. When you consider
that the Bauer piano is at present used and
endorsed by some twenty members of the Theo-
dore Thomas orchestra—nearly one-fourth of the
entire membership—including Conductor Fred-
erick A. Stock and several of the principals—
the above phrase will not seem like a mere fig-
ure of speech but a well founded claim. Are
you familiar with the "Bauer Tone" and the
other superior qualities of the'Bauer piano?
Plans are said to be under way for the con-
struction of a fine new $2,000,000 department
store for Rothschild & Co., on the site of their
present structure. According to the prospectus
issued by Mr. Hammer when he took charge of
the piano department recently, about $1,000,000
worth of that building will be required for his
end of the business.
Lyon & Healy, in their holiday announcements
of small goods, lay great stress on their free
lesson plan.
President F. S. Shaw, of the Cable Co., is still
away, but is expected back the latter part of
the week.
Rudolph Ganz gave bis annual recital at Music
Hall last Sunday. He received handsome treat-
ment on the part of the musical critics.
Harold Bauer will appeal- next Sunday. Emil
Paur will give a recital in Chicago on January
17. All three artists use the Mason & Hamlin
piano.
Brahm Van den Berg will appear in recital
at Music Hall the evening of December 12, using
the Smith & Nixon piano.
The house of George P. Bent is sending out
some extremely handsome 190(5 calendars.
Appeal to cultivated tastes. They are
marvels of beauty and form at once a
valuable accessory to any piano store
5 and 7 APPLETON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.