Music Trade Review

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THE
TRAINING PLAYER SALESMEN.
J. L. Eggleston, the Wholesale Representative
of the Farrand Co. Approves of This Move
for Which The Review Has Long Contended
Steps Taken by Manager Schwankovsky
at Gimbels to Have Salesmen Instructed in
the Individual Characteristics of the Players
Handled.
J. L. Eggleston, wholesale representative of the
Farrand Co., Detroit, Mich., has been in town for
some days looking after the Cecilian line at Gimbel
Bros. In the course of a recent talk with The
Review, Mr. Eggleston emphasized the necessity,
for which this paper has so long contended, of
training player salesmen in the demonstration of
their instruments, as well as in familiarity with the
structural principles of pneumatic mechanism. At
the Gimbel store, Manager Schwankovsky has taken
steps to have all salesmen carefully instructed in
the individual characteristics of all the players on
the floor, so that each man can demonstrate effec-
tively any player in which a customer is interested.
Both he and Mr. Eggleston firmly believe that
gentle, musical, pianistic playing attracts the hearer
much more than the mere reeling off of noisy
marches, overtures and other pieces of the kind.
These very often cannot be played on the ordinary
piano with one pair of hands, and when ground
out carelessly on the player-piano tend rather to
repel than to attract the customer.
The idea of carefully training all salesmen to
differentiate between the use and abuse of the
player-piano is a most excellent idea, and all who
have the future of the instrument at heart must
commend the excellent ideas which the gentlemen
mentioned are putting into operation.
PLAYER ACTIVITY IN MILWAUKEE.
Bradford to Have Special Electrelle Room—
How Melcher Came to Purchase an Apollo
Interior Player-Pano—Paul B.. Klugh a
Visitor to the Trade in Milwaukee.
(Special to The Review.)
Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 25, 1910.
Special arrangements for handling the Electrelle
have been completed by the J. B. Bradford Piano
Co., which have secured the Wisconsin agency for
the new line. A special display room will be given
over to the Electrelle and a big business from the
very start is expected. The Bradford house is
daily looking for a shipment of the instruments.
A. E. Melcher, a wealthy lumberman of Wild
Rose, Wis., was intercepted in Milwaukee last
week by Hugh W. Randall, manager of the player
department of the J. B. Bradford Piano Co., who
succeeded in selling the lumberman a Melville
Clark Apollo interior player, despite the fact that
the Wild Rose man was on his way to Chicago to
purchase another style of player.
Paul B. Klugh, manager of the player depart-
ment of the Cable Company, Chicago, called upon
the Milwaukee trade this week.
A SOUTHERNER'S VIEWS.
The Head of the Lee Ferguson Piano Co., Rich-
mond, Spends Week in New York Calling on
Manufacturers—High
Praise for Sohmer
Grand—Considers Welte-Mignon a Wonder-
ful Instrument—Also Handles Apollo Lin*
—Reports Excellent Business in Old Do-
minion.
Lee Ferguson, of the Lee Ferguson Piano Co.,
Richmond, Va., accompanied by Mrs. Ferguson,
was in New York the whole of last week, leaving
Saturday for home via the Old Dominion line.
Before his departure Mr. Ferguson was encoun-
tered by The Review in the warerooms of the
Welte Artistic Player-Piano Co., on Fifth avenue,
and in a short chat of trade affairs in the Virginia
capital, he said:
"We handle the Welte-Mignon Autograph piano
and sell quite a few. It is a wonderful instrument
and one never tires of listening to the superb
music it renders. We also stock the Apollo player
of the Melville Clark Piano Co., and it is a good
fine. I have been in New York the entire week
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
buying goods, the chief purpose of my visit being
to order a lot of those elegant grands of Sohmer
& Co. Few grand pianos in the market, in my
judgment, equal the Sohmers. Their wonderful
tone and beautiful case design and finish is not
surpassed. The Sohmer is a very popular line in
our section of the country and we sell a lot of
them in the course of the year.
"Business with us is very good and the pios-
pects for its holding up for the remainder of the
season are excellent. Of course, trade is always
slow in the summer, but we put out a couple of
men through the State then and the results were
very satisfactory. We kept our business on an up-
to-date basis, and as we have a fine community
to work in, our business is never allowed to become
fossilized."
about the latter, or something which should not be
inquired into. How absurd! How utterly silly!
Popular means "liked by the people." And who
knows how many people like music which has
some ideas in it? The sole difference between one
and the other is that serious music is full of
ideas and the so-called "popular hits" empty of
them. That is all. The one makes you think, the
other doesn't.
MANY BEHNING PLAYER SALES
At the Fifth Avenue Warerooms—A Letter to
the Behning Piano Co. That Speaks for
Itself—Mr. Blumenthal's Eighth Behning.
Testimonial letters in praise of the Behning
player are particularly strong and highly compli-
CHOOSING MUSIC ROLLS.
mentary. The appended, recently received by the
Behning Piano Co., New York, from Mine. Amie
The Dealer's Position in This Important Mat-
Jeams, nee Peters, is an example:
ter—The Need of System—How Customers'
"It gives me great pleasure to be able to write
Purchases May Be Encouraged and De-
a few words of merited praise in regard to your
veloped.
excellent piano. I had been the possessor of a
Steinway grand for a number of years and would
The formation of a music-roll library is a task not have parted with it if I did not know that 1
well worthy of a good deal more attention than is was getting something which would give me even
usually given to it by player-piano purchasers. A greater pleasure. The purity and resonance of
great many people have a way of selecting a num- tone, allied with touch, convinced me, skeptic that
ber of names at random from a catalog and then I was, of the merit of your instrument.
trusting to luck as to whether they will ultimately
"In regard to your player, I cannot express my
like what they are purchasing. One rule is always satisfaction in words. The convenience and ar-
good for the purchaser to follow—don't throw rangement of the buttons over the old method of
away money on music which has not first been the levers appealed to me instantaneously. This
played over. And equally important—don't turn arrangement facilitates the manipulation of a
from a composition because it is not appreciated player and augments perfection of interpretation
the first time. No music that is worth hearing is of the music. Your instrument has given me the
intelligible at the moment of acquaintance. If it very best of satisfaction for a number of years
were not necessary to give it some study it would and it places itself in the zenith towering above
all others."
not be worthy of acceptance.
Of course, it might as well be understood first as
This week a $1,050 Behning player was sold by
last that the music roll salesman will, in nine cases the downtown warerooms to Harry C. French, of
out of ten, suggest what he himself likes, or else the McCall Co., New York, one of the handsomest
will simply hand out the contents of the latest instruments in their catalog, for immediate delivery.
bulletin. The customer is likely to be disappointed
Tuesday M. F. Renz, attached to the 295 Fifth
each way. The best plan is to have the latter avenue warerooms, sold a Behning style 22 up-
try out the music before he buys it and see right, in highly polished oak, costing $550, to
what he himself can make of it. If the customer Benjamin Blumenthal, of the Board of Education
trusts to the demonstrator the latter will do one of New York City. This makes the eighth Behn-
of two things. If he be a clever person and in ing piano purchased by Mr. Blumenthal as wed-
sympathy with the music he is playing he will ding presents to his own children—boys and girls
contrive to invest it, unconsciously, with a glamor —the eighth and last being recently married and
that may be impossible for the customer to im- set up a home of her own, for which the beautiful
part later. Or if he is an indifferent manipulator instrument is intended.
he will make everything sound miserable.
In this matter of dealing with purchasers of
A WASTE OF ENERGY
music rolls the retailer himself has much to an-
And Its Effects—Something That
Player-
swer for. As a matter of fact, is it not a ridiculous
Salesmen Should Know.
thing that the customer should be considered in
a purely negative way by the seller? In one great
One of the commonest faults of which owners
and successful New York house the system is
of player-pianos are guilty is over-pedaling. So
pursued of keeping at all times an exact record
of the best selling rolls, and salesmen are in- many people confuse the player-piano with the
old-fashioned reed organ, or at least act as if
structed at the beginning of each week as to what
selections have been most called for during the they did so. While it is perfectly true that a cer-
previous period. And even more, the well-selling tain bellows tension must always be maintained, in
standard compositions are listed and classified, so order to keep the motor running, if for no other
that a customer who is graduating from the pop- reason, it is also the fact that for ordinary play-
ular music class into something better can be ing very little pedaling energy is required. It is
gradually and gently led from the desert below to not a question of providing the maximum tension,
the heights above, all so quietly and easily that but rather of giving just as much power from
the transition is almost imperceptible. That is moment to moment as the nature of the music
suggests. Heavy pumping means heavy touch
salesmanship of the highest order.
Every man who keeps a store where music rolls and consequent loudness, and conversely light
pumping means soft playing. Hence, it is utterly
are sold should have his library so systematized
absurd to pump very energetically all the time
that not only will it be possible to keep in stock
through a whole piece while continually applying
only thoroughly salable music, but also that there
^he softening device when pianissimo effect is
will be no necessity for accumulating stocks of
wanted. This is a double waste of energy, and
slow-moving numbers. It is not lightly to be con-
puts a quite unnecessary strain on the playing
cluded that only popular music should be kept in
mechanism. With a good player-piano the speed
stock, for the fact is that the average customer is
progressing musically all the time, and soon comes of the motor will remain constant, no matter how
much the force of pedaling is cut down. Many
to demand better and better music. Therefore it
is the part of wisdom to be there with the goods people who complain of the difficulty experienced
in pedaling player-pianos are finding fault simply
when the demand comes.
Of course, it is absurd to attempt the guidance because they work much too hard when hard work
of customers' selections unless one has some pre- is not required, and so have no reserve of energy
liminary knowledge one's self. So many people for obtaining climaxes when the latter are neces-
talk about music as either "popular" or "classic," sary. Common sense is as important here as any^
just as if there were something undemocratic where else.