Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Warm Wave Takes Life Out of Business—Cunningham Co. Redecorating Quarters—To Enlarge
Factory Later—Prominent Trade Visitors—Convention's Stand on Illegitimate Advertising
Pleases Dealers—Heavy Selling Expenses Causing Dealers to Look Around for Means to
Effect Economies—Fine Automatic Pipe Organ for Estey Warerooms.
(Special to Tlie Ueview.)
Philadelphia, Pa., June 23, 1908.
The very warm weather we have been experi-
encing the past week has taken the life out of
business of all kinds, and the piano men are
suffering accordingly. With the manufacturers
business is also a little slow, as far as orders are
concerned, but several of the factories here are
working along as hard as they can all through
the summer in an effort to get as much stock
ahead as possible, which they hope to be able to
find use for when the business is resumed in the
fall.
The Cunningham retail establishment at
Eleventh and Chestnut street is being treated
this week to a fresh coat of paint on the exterior.
It will be a drab or steel color, and will be very
much of an improvement over the ecru tint
which has been conspicuous for a number of
years. The Cunningham Co. seem never to be
disturbed on account of any conditions, but when
business is quiet they go ahead and make im-
provements about the place and are always in
good shape when it resumes again. Patrick
Cunningham is very much of an optimist, and
is always spending lavirhly in keeping his ware-
rooms in excellent shape, and even now, when
things do not lend much encouragement toward
looking with confidence to the future, he is going
ahead and is making extensive plans for the
building of a very large addition to his factory
this fall. He says he finds it absolutely neces-
sary to do this if he wishes to compete with his
competitors in the player-piano business, and
this big addition is meant as a "help-out" of that
department of his business, for he has been hav-
ing splendid success with his Cunningham and
Girard player-pianos.
Harley Hart, president of the Hart Piano Co.,
of Cincinnati, was a Philadelphia visitor this
week. Mr. Hart's father was formerly a Phila-
delphian, having been connected here for a
number of years with the house of Henry F.
Miller & Co.
Another visitor here was B. B. Crew, who
spent several days visiting friends in and near
the city, and left for the South on Friday of last
week. His son, Ben Lee Crew, also stopped off
here and remained several days prior to return-
ing home to Atlanta, Ga. R. K. Maynard also
spent the better part of a day here on his way
home to Chicago.
In speaking with one of the leading piano
dealers this week on the subject of the conven-
tion, he said he thought that the most impor-
tant thing that was accomplished at this con-
vention was the attacks made upon illegitimate
piano advertising. He said: "Any person who
was present at these meetings should have been
impressed with the fact that a great deal of good
can be accomplished in this line, and the dealers
who resort to such advertising merely stand in
their own light. And, to think of it, a member
of one of the local firms who was present at
these sessions seems to have been so benefited
and impressed by what he heard that he imme-
diately came home and placed a piano in his
window and marked it '$125, Brand New, with
Stool and Scarf.'
"As long as a big dealer will resort to such
methods, what can be the future of the trade?
How can he ever hope to sell $400 and $500
pianos when he is pushing the $125ers under the
people's noses and making them believe they are
getting a first-class instrument for that price?"
More and more is the discussion coming up
among Philadelphia piano dealers regarding the
expense required to do business. This is par-
ticularly marked just now when the firms—not
one or two of them, but quite a few of them—
are each month calling on the bank surplus to
pay their rent and other expenses, and this has
been going on for some time. Some of the more
13
Varnish Co., are en route to Jamaica on one of
the fruit steamers plying between New York
and that point. Both gentlemen will be jolly
tars during the trip and expect to have a royal
good time in the land of milk and honey. They
will visit Point Antonio and other points of
interest in this great fruit country, and return
via slow steamer, to fully enjoy the ocean trip.
They will be away about two weeks.
far-seeing believe that the piano men ought to get
together and devise some plan whereby they
would be able to do the same amount of busi-
J. D. McLEAN'S TRIP
ness they are doing with much more profit.
This could only be possible by the piano men In the Interest of the Mason & Hamlin Co.
While on His Way to His Old Home in
making a trek to some cheaper location. It is
Texas—His Creditable Record.
not possible that rents along Chestnut are going
to come down, but instead they can be expected
J. D. McLean, general sales manager of the New
to go up, and considerably after business adjusts
York
house of the Mason & Hamlin Co. left last
itself. The piano business to-day is done at a
very much closer margin than it was done ten week for a vacation trip to his old home in
years ago. Every year it is being done on a Texas. Mr. McLean will combine business with
more economical basis, so far as the purchaser
is concerned, and the percentage of piano profit
is hardly half of what it was ten years ago. In-
stead the expenses of doing business have been
increasing right along. Rents have been going
higher, salesmen are better paid, expenses gen-
erally are greater and profits are considerably
less. Then, why not now, when business is
quiet, take the situation by the forelock and trek
to some more economical home, or follow the
advices of a certain man in the trade who has
for years been advocating the building of a large
piano mart in some convenient location where
each house could share alike in the expenses,
where every one would be on an equal footing,
and where expenses, if rightly run, would hardly
be half as much as at present. Under such cir-
cumstances the piano men could double their
present profits and business could be done on a
far more satisfactory plan.
The Estey Co. are this week erecting a very
fine automatic pipe organ in their warerooms.
PRAISE FOR THE^SOHMER PIANO.
Concert Grand Placed in Kidd-Key College
Gives the Greatest Satisfaction—A Letter
from the Ross & Heyer Co.
J . I). MCl.KAN.
Sohmer & Co., the eminent piano manufac-
turers of New York, are constantly in receipt of
letters testifying to the exceptional merits of
their creations. It is not their custom to ex-
ploit, these to any great extent, but there are
times, however, when exceptions must be made,
as in the following letter received from the Ross
& Heyer Co., the well-known piano dealers of
Fort Worth, Tex. Writing to Messrs. Sohmer &
Co., under date of June 8, they say:
"Gentlemen:—We have your very kind letter
of the 3d inst., regarding your new style 15a. Its
appearance is very pleasing indeed, and we there-
fore ask you to ship one some time soon.
"The concert grand which we ordered some
time ago for Sherman, Tex., was installed in the
Kidd-Key College on Saturday, and Mrs. Key,
the school's president, is the wife of a Methodist
bishop, Bishop Key, and they have the finest
school for girls in the South, and when we tell
you that she is delighted with the piano, you can
feel that it Is a compliment to the Sohmer prod-
uct, and which is rare and exceptional. Mrs.
Key says that It Is the most beautiful concert
piano she has ever had the privilege of looking
over, and she likes Its soulful musical tones.
They have had the leading makes In their recital
hall, and they like the Sohmer better than any-
thing they have ever had. Mrs. Key states that
she is not going to allow anyone play this piano
except their director, Mr* Mickwitz. We enclose
a slip showing what they think of Mr. Mickwitz,
and we are going to have a good strong testi-
monial from Mr. Mickwitz when he opens up his
work, which will probably be in September.
Frankly speaking, gentlemen, our admiration for
the Sohmer piano increases constantly."
PIANO MEN JOURNEY SOUTH.
Otto Mehlin, of Paul G. Mehlin & Sons, accom-
panied by Lawrence Frank, with the Standard
pleasure by calling on the wholesale trade in
Texas in the interest of the Mason & Ham-
lin Co.
Mr. McLean has been in the piano business
•since, at the age of 14, he began with Thos.
Goggin & Bro. in their San Antonio house. He
later went to Chicago, where he entered the
factory of the Cable Company, in which he
served a regular apprenticeship, later being em-
ployed by the same company in their retail de-
partment as tuner and salesman both in Chicago
and St. Louis. After remaining with the Cable
Company six years, Mr. McLean returned to his
native state to enter the employ of the Bush &
Gerts Piano Co. of Texas, taking charge of the
tuning and advertising departments. He later
was made territorial manager and special trav-
eling representative with headquarters at Aus-
tin, Tex. After seven years in this work he left
in October, 1906, to accept a position as outside
sales manager with the Mason & Hamlin Co. in
the New York branch. The following June he
was advanced to general sales manager. Mr. Mc-
Lean is a hard worker, and in his position with
the Mason & Hamlin Co. he has proven himself
the right man in the right place.
VENEZUELA TARIFF ON PIANOS.
The new Venezuelan tariff has just been made
public. It is based on the metric system, and
some of its provisions are as follows: Music,
manuscript, In loose sheets, copy book form or
on boards, .0193c. per kilogram (approximately
2.21 pounds) ; pianos, even silent, .0482c; organs,
and parts thereof. .1447c; player-pianos and their
accessories. .1447c; piano stools, of whatever
material, .1447c; accessories and cylinders for
photographs, .241c; cords for musical instru-
ments, .241c; phonographs and graphophones,
.241c; musical instruments and boxes, not other-
wise mentioned, .241c