Music Trade Review
Issue: 1907 Vol. 45 N. 11 - Page 11
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE:
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
PHILADELPHIA A GREAT RETAIL PIANO CENTER.
Ten Thousand Pianos Are Sold in That City Every Year, or More Than the Total Output of
France—Inventory of Instruments in Stock There Shows Great Variety of Makes Bidding
for Public Favor—List of Representative Dealers and the Lines Handled.
"There are more pianos sold in Philadelphia
than there are in all of France," was the some-
what startling statement made by a man who
has traveled throughout France.
"Oh, that's absurd," came in a chorus from
his listeners.
"But it is not absurd," said the man, stoutly,
"i know it seems a hard matter to demonstrate,
but I believe I can do it. I have never been in
the piano trade, but I have been interested in it
for many years. 1 have spent more than a quar-
ter of a century traveling through this country
into every State and territory and considerable
time in Europe.
"Being a passionate lover of music, I have
spent my spare time in visiting piano stores and
hearing what music 1 could, rather than putting
it in in billiard and bar rooms, that are so fre-
quently the only resorts open for a traveler in
this country.
"Now, let me tell you something about pianos
in France as I found them. Begin with Paris.
1 do not believe there are more than half a
dozen makes of pianos sold in Paris. J. B.
Frantz, a t tne corner of Rue Lafayette and the
Rue Cadet, is the largest retailer of pianos in
Paris. I know him personally and have been in
his store many times. I think sixteen pianos is
the largest number I have ever seen in stock
there. Through Wolf & Pleyel's windows I have
never seen more than half a dozen. At the Salle
Erard, the home of the greatest of French
pianos, I have never seen more than twenty.
FRENCH HAVE NO HOME LIFE.
"I lived for ten months upon the Rue de la
Pompe, a residence street in the west end of
Paris. I have walked from the house to the Arc
de Triomphe scores of times, and I never heard
pianos played save in two hoiises. The people
of Paris have no home life. They spend their
evenings out in France and save heat and light
in their houses.
"The same thing obtains all over France. There
is not a theatre in France where there is a note
of music played between the acts. In the very
limited number of opera houses they have orches-
tras, but nowhere else. When the curtain falls
aipon an act in a theatre the men resume their
hats and move about visiting the women seated
elsewhere. The music consists only of a bell
that is rung as a warning to resume one's seat.
"In my office in France a spiral stairway led
up to the second floor, the office of almost the
only piano concert manager in Paris, an Ameri-
can, too, by the way, Robert Strakosch, who has
been over there in that business for twenty-odd
years. He has told me repeatedly that, while all
the great pianists of the world give concerts in
Paris under his management, not more than one
in every one hundred pays expenses.
"They give them in order that they may pay
for favorable notices in the Paris press, which
make such entertaining reading when they come
to America to give concerts. It is an open fact,
that every newspaper has its price, and a stiff
one, at so many francs per line for anything you
may want to print over your own signature.
PAPERS ACCEPT PAID ADVERTISEMENTS.
"There is no secret about it at all. The rates
are quoted openly, and you may have anything
up to a column at so much a line, and write it
yourself, if you want to. I know for I have paid
for that kind of matter myself.
"You must remember one thing; that is the
Authors' Society. It was established by a law
passed in 1791 and amended in 1793, since which
time it has never been touched. For 110 years
POOLE
5
and
in France the law has given to that society the
right to demand 6 per cent, of the receipts from
any sort of a public entertainment or the further
right to make a treaty with the person giving
the entertainment to pay a certain sum in lieu
of the 6 per cent.
"For example: When the Barnum & Bailey
show was exhibiting in France it made a treaty
with the society to accept 500 francs a week in
place of the percentage. When the society saw
the show and the kind of business it did they
tried by every means possible to annul the treaty,
but did not succeed. But it was bad enough as
it was to have to pay $100 per week for the
privilege of playing a program of American
music in a circus.
"This Authors' Society also is entitled under
the law to three 'premier places,' or best seats,
at every performance given. It has an agent
in every town and city in France. Every week
you must submit to the agent of the society your
program of music, and there is a heavy penalty
for changing your program without first getting
the approval of the society.
SOCIETY
PROTECTS AUTHORS.
"Perhaps you may be giving a musicale in your
own home. The agent of the society has the
right to enter your house and bring two of his
friends, to occupy the three seats he may regard
as the best in your parlor. You must have his
approval of your program. If the agent is pass-
ing your house and he hears a piano, he has the
right to suspect that you are giving a concert, and
he may come in and demand your program.
"Can you wonder, then, that Frenchmen don't
want pianos in their houses? Of course, the
agents don't make a practice of intruding upon
the privacy of your home, but the possibility is
always present, and in these days of French
political equality the local politician is of a
worse average type, if such a thing is possible,
tnan the petty officeholders of our own municipal-
ities.
"Go outside of Paris. Take Lille, as an exam-
ple. Lille is tne fourth city in France in popu-
lation. It has about 700,000 inhabitants. Four
miles from Lille is Roubaix, with 400,000 inhab-
itants. In Roubaix there are no piano stores;
or, there were none two • years ago. In Lille
there were two. I visited both of them. In one
there were three pianos in stock, in the other
there was one piano in stock. Think of that!
"Only four pianos exposed for sale in a popu-
lation of over 1,000,000 persons, and I suppose if
you were to take the surrounding towns of Val-
enciennes, Donai, Lens, all small cities, in none of
which I could find a piano store, those four pianos
at Lille, were the visible supply for more than
2,000,000 of people.
NO PIANO STORES AT ALL.
"In dozens of towns in France of from twenty
to fifty thousand population I have been unable
to find a piano store. They simply don't exist.
Now I am going to start out and find what there
are in Philadelphia."
Piano dealers smiled when they were told of
tne information wanted. In nearly all of them
the information was supplied quickly and cour-
teously. In others it was given grudgingly with
the statement that the competition here was so
keen that they did not want to reveal to their
competitors what they were doing. At only one
place was the information refused, but, unfor-
tunately, the manager was not present, and the
clerk was ignorantly apprehensive.
In giving the result of the investigation it is
not the intention in any manner to make any
comparisons or recommendations of any sort.
Not the slightest comment upon the quality of
the pianos nor the number sold is made. It is
left to the reader to decide, each for himself
the number of pianos that are sold. It is solely
the effort to convey sorfte idea of the compara-
tive magnitude of the piano trade in Philadel-
phia with that of the whole of France.
BIG VARIATION IN PRICES.
If any one wants to attempt to compute the
value of the pianos sold in Philadelphia, it must
be remembered that the prices of new pianos
vary from $175 up to as high as $2,000 or even
$3,000, and $350 may be taken as a fair average.
The different stores are given in the order visit-
ed, and the figures are approximately given by
the managers of the several establishments al-
most without exception.
Makes of pianos handled by the Philadelphia
stores are also given to show the comparative
makes of pianos as compared with the extremely
limited number of makes in France. It is also
necessary to state that the scores of establish-
ments scattered through the city away from
Chestnut and Market streets, from Eighth to
Eighteenth streets, were not visited, and the
thousands of pianos sold in them are necessary
to anything like an accurate computation of the
piano trade of Philadelphia.
At James Bellak's Sons, 1129-31 Chestnut
street, 200 pianos are carried in stock. The total
stock number of the house, extending over a
period of fifty-three years, is 44,600. The list of
pianos includes the Hardman, Bellak, Harring-
ton, Marshall & Wendell, Haines & Co., Arm-
strong, Brewster, Regal and Autotone piano play-
er—9.
G. Herzberg & Son, 1717 Chestnut street, there
are 100 pianos in stock of the following makes:
Kranich & Bach, Straube, Mehlin, Goetzmann
and the Behning player piano—5.
At Irimbel Brothers there are in stock 400, with
the following makes represented: Sohmer, Gim-
bel, Ivers & Pond, Packard, Cecilian, Chase,
Cramer, Singer, Davenport & Treacy, F. Radle,
Furbush, Anderson, Warren and Draper Brothers
—15.
Henry F. Miller & Sons Piano Co., 1105 Chest-
nut street, carries 300 in stock, including the
Henry F. Miller and R. S. Howard pianos, and
the Miller player piano and the Simplex player
piano.
N. Stetson & Co., 1107 Chestnut street, carry
230 pianos in stock, the Steinway and Sterling
pianos and the Welte player piano, Electrelle
player piano and the Sterling player piano.
400 PIANOS IN STOCK.
C. J. Heppe & Son, 1117 Chestnut street, carry
400 in stock, with 1,200 always in process of
construction at their factory, where they make
the Heppe, Marcellus and Edouard Jules pianos.
Other pianos handled by them include the Web-
er, Wheelock, Stuyvesant and pianola pianos.
F. A. North & Co., 1308 Chestnut street, carry
a stock of 200 in their store, with a big reserve
at their factory. Their list includes the Lester,
the Lester player pianos and a number of other
instruments.
Jacob Brothers, 1031 Chestnut street, carry 125
in stock, with a reserve at their factory. They
sell these pianos: The Jacob, Mathushek & Son
and James & Holmstrom.
Cunningham Piano Co., 1101 Chestnut street,
carry 400 in stock, with a reserve at the factory
of from 700 to 800. They make and sell the Cun-
ningham, Girard and Opera pianos.
At Weyman's, 1010 Chestnut street, there are
100 pianos in stock, including the Weyman, Stod-
dard, Baldwin, Howard, Ellington and Hamilton
pianos and the Baldwin and Ellington player
pianos.
SELLS MANY MAKES.
Lit Brothers, Eighth and Market streets, carry
Appeal to cultivated tastes. They are
marvels of beauty and form at once a
valuable accessory to any piano store
S T R E E T . BOSTON. MASS.
PIANOS
7 APPLETON
11
THE:
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
PHILADELPHIA A GREAT RETAIL PIANO CENTER.
Ten Thousand Pianos Are Sold in That City Every Year, or More Than the Total Output of
France—Inventory of Instruments in Stock There Shows Great Variety of Makes Bidding
for Public Favor—List of Representative Dealers and the Lines Handled.
"There are more pianos sold in Philadelphia
than there are in all of France," was the some-
what startling statement made by a man who
has traveled throughout France.
"Oh, that's absurd," came in a chorus from
his listeners.
"But it is not absurd," said the man, stoutly,
"i know it seems a hard matter to demonstrate,
but I believe I can do it. I have never been in
the piano trade, but I have been interested in it
for many years. 1 have spent more than a quar-
ter of a century traveling through this country
into every State and territory and considerable
time in Europe.
"Being a passionate lover of music, I have
spent my spare time in visiting piano stores and
hearing what music 1 could, rather than putting
it in in billiard and bar rooms, that are so fre-
quently the only resorts open for a traveler in
this country.
"Now, let me tell you something about pianos
in France as I found them. Begin with Paris.
1 do not believe there are more than half a
dozen makes of pianos sold in Paris. J. B.
Frantz, a t tne corner of Rue Lafayette and the
Rue Cadet, is the largest retailer of pianos in
Paris. I know him personally and have been in
his store many times. I think sixteen pianos is
the largest number I have ever seen in stock
there. Through Wolf & Pleyel's windows I have
never seen more than half a dozen. At the Salle
Erard, the home of the greatest of French
pianos, I have never seen more than twenty.
FRENCH HAVE NO HOME LIFE.
"I lived for ten months upon the Rue de la
Pompe, a residence street in the west end of
Paris. I have walked from the house to the Arc
de Triomphe scores of times, and I never heard
pianos played save in two hoiises. The people
of Paris have no home life. They spend their
evenings out in France and save heat and light
in their houses.
"The same thing obtains all over France. There
is not a theatre in France where there is a note
of music played between the acts. In the very
limited number of opera houses they have orches-
tras, but nowhere else. When the curtain falls
aipon an act in a theatre the men resume their
hats and move about visiting the women seated
elsewhere. The music consists only of a bell
that is rung as a warning to resume one's seat.
"In my office in France a spiral stairway led
up to the second floor, the office of almost the
only piano concert manager in Paris, an Ameri-
can, too, by the way, Robert Strakosch, who has
been over there in that business for twenty-odd
years. He has told me repeatedly that, while all
the great pianists of the world give concerts in
Paris under his management, not more than one
in every one hundred pays expenses.
"They give them in order that they may pay
for favorable notices in the Paris press, which
make such entertaining reading when they come
to America to give concerts. It is an open fact,
that every newspaper has its price, and a stiff
one, at so many francs per line for anything you
may want to print over your own signature.
PAPERS ACCEPT PAID ADVERTISEMENTS.
"There is no secret about it at all. The rates
are quoted openly, and you may have anything
up to a column at so much a line, and write it
yourself, if you want to. I know for I have paid
for that kind of matter myself.
"You must remember one thing; that is the
Authors' Society. It was established by a law
passed in 1791 and amended in 1793, since which
time it has never been touched. For 110 years
POOLE
5
and
in France the law has given to that society the
right to demand 6 per cent, of the receipts from
any sort of a public entertainment or the further
right to make a treaty with the person giving
the entertainment to pay a certain sum in lieu
of the 6 per cent.
"For example: When the Barnum & Bailey
show was exhibiting in France it made a treaty
with the society to accept 500 francs a week in
place of the percentage. When the society saw
the show and the kind of business it did they
tried by every means possible to annul the treaty,
but did not succeed. But it was bad enough as
it was to have to pay $100 per week for the
privilege of playing a program of American
music in a circus.
"This Authors' Society also is entitled under
the law to three 'premier places,' or best seats,
at every performance given. It has an agent
in every town and city in France. Every week
you must submit to the agent of the society your
program of music, and there is a heavy penalty
for changing your program without first getting
the approval of the society.
SOCIETY
PROTECTS AUTHORS.
"Perhaps you may be giving a musicale in your
own home. The agent of the society has the
right to enter your house and bring two of his
friends, to occupy the three seats he may regard
as the best in your parlor. You must have his
approval of your program. If the agent is pass-
ing your house and he hears a piano, he has the
right to suspect that you are giving a concert, and
he may come in and demand your program.
"Can you wonder, then, that Frenchmen don't
want pianos in their houses? Of course, the
agents don't make a practice of intruding upon
the privacy of your home, but the possibility is
always present, and in these days of French
political equality the local politician is of a
worse average type, if such a thing is possible,
tnan the petty officeholders of our own municipal-
ities.
"Go outside of Paris. Take Lille, as an exam-
ple. Lille is tne fourth city in France in popu-
lation. It has about 700,000 inhabitants. Four
miles from Lille is Roubaix, with 400,000 inhab-
itants. In Roubaix there are no piano stores;
or, there were none two • years ago. In Lille
there were two. I visited both of them. In one
there were three pianos in stock, in the other
there was one piano in stock. Think of that!
"Only four pianos exposed for sale in a popu-
lation of over 1,000,000 persons, and I suppose if
you were to take the surrounding towns of Val-
enciennes, Donai, Lens, all small cities, in none of
which I could find a piano store, those four pianos
at Lille, were the visible supply for more than
2,000,000 of people.
NO PIANO STORES AT ALL.
"In dozens of towns in France of from twenty
to fifty thousand population I have been unable
to find a piano store. They simply don't exist.
Now I am going to start out and find what there
are in Philadelphia."
Piano dealers smiled when they were told of
tne information wanted. In nearly all of them
the information was supplied quickly and cour-
teously. In others it was given grudgingly with
the statement that the competition here was so
keen that they did not want to reveal to their
competitors what they were doing. At only one
place was the information refused, but, unfor-
tunately, the manager was not present, and the
clerk was ignorantly apprehensive.
In giving the result of the investigation it is
not the intention in any manner to make any
comparisons or recommendations of any sort.
Not the slightest comment upon the quality of
the pianos nor the number sold is made. It is
left to the reader to decide, each for himself
the number of pianos that are sold. It is solely
the effort to convey sorfte idea of the compara-
tive magnitude of the piano trade in Philadel-
phia with that of the whole of France.
BIG VARIATION IN PRICES.
If any one wants to attempt to compute the
value of the pianos sold in Philadelphia, it must
be remembered that the prices of new pianos
vary from $175 up to as high as $2,000 or even
$3,000, and $350 may be taken as a fair average.
The different stores are given in the order visit-
ed, and the figures are approximately given by
the managers of the several establishments al-
most without exception.
Makes of pianos handled by the Philadelphia
stores are also given to show the comparative
makes of pianos as compared with the extremely
limited number of makes in France. It is also
necessary to state that the scores of establish-
ments scattered through the city away from
Chestnut and Market streets, from Eighth to
Eighteenth streets, were not visited, and the
thousands of pianos sold in them are necessary
to anything like an accurate computation of the
piano trade of Philadelphia.
At James Bellak's Sons, 1129-31 Chestnut
street, 200 pianos are carried in stock. The total
stock number of the house, extending over a
period of fifty-three years, is 44,600. The list of
pianos includes the Hardman, Bellak, Harring-
ton, Marshall & Wendell, Haines & Co., Arm-
strong, Brewster, Regal and Autotone piano play-
er—9.
G. Herzberg & Son, 1717 Chestnut street, there
are 100 pianos in stock of the following makes:
Kranich & Bach, Straube, Mehlin, Goetzmann
and the Behning player piano—5.
At Irimbel Brothers there are in stock 400, with
the following makes represented: Sohmer, Gim-
bel, Ivers & Pond, Packard, Cecilian, Chase,
Cramer, Singer, Davenport & Treacy, F. Radle,
Furbush, Anderson, Warren and Draper Brothers
—15.
Henry F. Miller & Sons Piano Co., 1105 Chest-
nut street, carries 300 in stock, including the
Henry F. Miller and R. S. Howard pianos, and
the Miller player piano and the Simplex player
piano.
N. Stetson & Co., 1107 Chestnut street, carry
230 pianos in stock, the Steinway and Sterling
pianos and the Welte player piano, Electrelle
player piano and the Sterling player piano.
400 PIANOS IN STOCK.
C. J. Heppe & Son, 1117 Chestnut street, carry
400 in stock, with 1,200 always in process of
construction at their factory, where they make
the Heppe, Marcellus and Edouard Jules pianos.
Other pianos handled by them include the Web-
er, Wheelock, Stuyvesant and pianola pianos.
F. A. North & Co., 1308 Chestnut street, carry
a stock of 200 in their store, with a big reserve
at their factory. Their list includes the Lester,
the Lester player pianos and a number of other
instruments.
Jacob Brothers, 1031 Chestnut street, carry 125
in stock, with a reserve at their factory. They
sell these pianos: The Jacob, Mathushek & Son
and James & Holmstrom.
Cunningham Piano Co., 1101 Chestnut street,
carry 400 in stock, with a reserve at the factory
of from 700 to 800. They make and sell the Cun-
ningham, Girard and Opera pianos.
At Weyman's, 1010 Chestnut street, there are
100 pianos in stock, including the Weyman, Stod-
dard, Baldwin, Howard, Ellington and Hamilton
pianos and the Baldwin and Ellington player
pianos.
SELLS MANY MAKES.
Lit Brothers, Eighth and Market streets, carry
Appeal to cultivated tastes. They are
marvels of beauty and form at once a
valuable accessory to any piano store
S T R E E T . BOSTON. MASS.
PIANOS
7 APPLETON
11
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