Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
PLAYER PROGRESS IN CHICAGO.
Closing a Year Which Has Marked Substantial
Progress in the Piano-Player Industry—The
Proportion of Players to Pianos Sold in West
-—C. D. Allen Joins Schaeffer Forces as
Player Representative—Schaeffer Co. to
Place New Player Action on the Market
—Melville Clark Achievements.
(Special to The Review. 1
Chicago, 111., Dec. 27, 1910.
Whatever may have been the experience of the
piano trade as a whole, there can be no question
but that the player-piano industry, from a Western
viewpoint at least, has scored a big increase, as
compared with 1909. Interviews with conservative
men in the trade would indicate that this gain can
safely be put at from 20 to 25 per cent, over last
year.
It is true that these figures are general. There
are instances in which the gain has been much
greater. There are also instances where it has
been much less. The latter cases, however, are
due either to some mysterious lack of interest on
the part of a particular manufacturer or to the
fact that he has found that he was not out of the
experimental stage, so far as his player-piano is
concerned, and is consequently resting on his oars,
so far as the market is concerned, until he can
perfect his instrument.
A careful survey of the trade here in the West
leads one to believe that the proportion of player-
pianos to the total number of pianos sold is about
15 per cent. In dollars the proportion is about
25 per cent. The Review correspondent sincerely
believes that these estimates are much more than
mere guesses. He has taken the reports made to
him, averaged them up, and then submitted the
estimates to men whom he had not previously in-
terviewed, and has had them confirmed.
As to the future, one, of course, can only specu-
late. Everyone believes, however, that the advance
of the player proposition will be far more rapid
in the future than in the past. This advance will,
of course, bring with it serious problems—problems
which are already abundant in existent conditions.
For instance, the large number of good pianos of
famous makes, taken in exchange for player-pianos,
are already reaching formidable proportions. This
fact would seem to foreshadow the time when the
output of playerless pianos will be seriously affect-
ed. Of course, there is no special cause to worry
about this. The trade will adapt itself to it, even
should it come sooner than is expected, as it has
adapted itself to other epoch-making changes in
the past. It is bound to cause some temporary
suffering, as every birth, whether it be of a physical
or mental character, is always accompanied by the
pain of travail. There are many other problems
of equal importance confronting the trade in con-
nection with the phenomenal development of the
player proposition. That they will be worked out
calmly and sanely is the belief of most men in the
trade.
Schaeffer Progress.
The trade has become pretty conversant the past
year with the excellent player-piano product of
the Schaeffer Piano Co. It has become very evi-
dent that when President T. E. Dougherty decided
to establish a special department at the factory at
Kankakee and to there develop his own player ac-
tion that he builded better than he knew. To-day
the Schaeffer player-piano represents a succession
of triumphs over minor difficulties; the success of
the basic principles on which the player was built
was apparent from the start. The letter files of the
company show that the trade has accepted the in-
strument as worthy of a high place.
With this evidence that he has reached a high
stage of progress in the manufacturing end, Mr.
Dougherty has naturally turned his attention to
the organization of the selling end of the player
business. Great things have been accomplished by
the enthusiastic corps of Schaeffer travelers, but
the necessity of specialization is, of course, ap-
parent.
On January 1 Charles D. Allen will join the
Schaeffer forces as special player representative.
His field will be the country, that is, he will travel
CHAS. D. ALLEN.
over all the territory covered by the other travel-
ers, will missionarize, as well as sell, and will co-
operate in every possible way with his noble col-
leagues. He will not only give the dealers the
benefit of his knowledge of the player business,
both from a mechanical and pneumatic as well as
sales viewpoint, but will also give recitals in the
dealers' stores or at places which the latter may
select. Mr. Allen possesses a fine equipment for
doing this work. He was educated for a profes-
sional musician, church organist and trainer of boy
choirs. He studied with Clarence Eddy in Chi-
cago, and afterward went abroad. On his return
ht devoted himself to the lines indicated for sev-
eral years, but being naturally of a mechanical
turn of mind he became vitally interested in the
problem of pneumatics, and this led him to take
up the selling of pipe organs. He was with Lyon
& Healy for some time, and when that house dis-
continued that branch of their business, he became
the Western representative of the Austin Organ Co.
Fixing his ambitions on the player trade, he
• took a preparatory course in the retail business,
and last January went on the road for Price &
Teeple to exploit their player-piano. This he has
done most successfully, selling, giving recitals, and
even aiding the dealers in the organization of re-
pair and regulation departments. He resigned his
position, only to go with the Schaeffer people.
Mr. Allen has advanced ideas as to the educa-
tional advantages of the player, and endeavors at
all times to impress upon dealers the importance of
following up all sales, by keeping in touch with the
purchasers and instructing them in the artistic
manipulation of the player.
New Player Action Will Soon Be Ready.
Some time since The Review stated that the
Schaeffer Co. had nearly ready for the market a
new player action which would fit any upright
piano. The coming year will witness the market-
ing of this action for player-pianos which will be
brought out by the company as an addition to
their present line. The new instrument will be
known as the Auto-Lyric. What other channels
will be found for the distribution of the new action
cannot yet be told, but the significance of Mr.
Dougherty's new departure may be understood
when it is said that it is a new type of action,
possessing many of the same points of excellence
as those possessed by his present player action, but
is more simple, easier of access, and more easily
comprehended by the tuner and regulator, as every-
thing is right in sight, as there are no hidden
chambers to bewilder the tuner. Mr. Dougherty
states that it will be practicable to take this action
out of one piano and put it in another. Each of
these actions turned out by the factory will be
applicable to any piano, no matter what the par-
ticular scale. Already no less than twenty claims
have been allowed on this player action, according
to the manufacturer.
Apollo Attainments.
No better evidence of the virility of the player
industry can be cited than the continued progress
made by the older concerns. Take, for instance, the
11
Melville Clark Piano Co., one of the pioneers in
the player field. Mr. Clark has been working his
inventive faculties overtime the past year. He has
not only been meeting present conditions, but has
been literally creating new ones. That this state-
ment is not exaggerated will be abundantly proved,
The Review believes, in the very near future, when
some, at least, of the results of the year's experi-
mental work will be given to the trade. In the
meantime wonderful progress has been made this
year along lines visible to the eyes of the trade.
It has been one of the biggest years, if not the
biggest, in the history of the company. Some new
things have been done, chronicled by The Review
from time to time, but the perfect co-ordination
of the activities of the manufacturing, sales, and
office work of the company is illustrated by the
smoothness with which everything has moved.
Excellent work has been done through the medium
of popular periodicals in forceful advertising,
which has proved a powerful auxiliary to the dealer
handling Apollo instruments. Mention should also
be made of the excellence of the product of the
player roll department of the company. Some
notable improvements have been made to the already
extremely popular "Q. R. S." perforated music
rolls the past year.
A National Proposition.
When the United States Music Co. selected their
name they must have been gifted with a prophetic
faculty. The company's player music product has,
in a comparatively short time, attained to a thor-
oughly national reputation and distribution. The
book records of the year 1910 should have been
written in carmine. It has been a red-letter year
in every particular. It has witnessed the erection
and occupation of the company's magnificent new
plant at West Lake street and Sacramento avenue;
the introduction of 88-note rolls and of the hard
rubber spool ends. To the latter innovation, as
well as to the arrangement of the music and the
promptness with which selections from popular
musical comedies have been placed on the market
is due the phenomenal increase in the company's
business. Arthur Friestedt, the chief executive ot
the company, states that in the first twenty days
of December their shipments were as large as those
during the month of November, which was their
record month.
Other player news will be found in the regular
Chicago department in this issue of The Review.
NORR1S ON PLAYER EXPANSION.
Believes It Will Grow Tremendously Each
Year and Has Produced Some Important
Specialties in the Player-Piano Line.
(Special to The Review.)
Boston (Stoughton), Mass., Dec. 26, 1910.
The Norris Noiseless Pedal Action Co., pioneer
makers of patented piano hardware, are among the
large manufacturers of player-piano specialties.
Prominent in their output are the Norris noiseless
all-metal player-pedal, pedal action and their noise-
less pumping pedals for operating feeders. These
two devices appear to be a greater success than
their famous pedals and piano pedal actions, as
Mr. Norris claims that for workmanship and dura-
bility they have been recognized as standards.
Mr. Norris has been and is a firm believer in
the player industry; he believes it will grow tre-
mendously each year and is making a study of
component parts with an idea of creating the most
useful devices. The two foregoing mentioned parts
—all-metal player-piano pedal action and pumping
pedals for operating feeders—have met with a won-
derful reception from the trade, as they are being
adopted by many manufacturers entering the player
field.
H. C. Frederici, representing the Claviola Co.,
363 Rider avenue, who is calling on old and new
trade in the Keystone State is sending in nice or-
ders, and further informs the home office that
dealers figured too low on their holiday stock and
practically have little stock on their floors. This
will mean new business from now on. Prior to
starting out on his trip Mr. Frederici spent Christ-
mas at his old home, Auburn, Pa.