Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
6
Tt-i
REVIEW
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
will rejoice in the possession of a perfected ex-
clusive instrument, different from the common
herd, and not to be owned by all.
BEHNINO EXPANSION.
The Subject of Some Pertinent Remarks by
Charles A. Eyles.
At this point it might be added that the manu-
facturer who believes that grand player-pianos can
be successfully sold when they are not designed on
entirely artistic lines is wrong. The player grand
is destined to put the whole idea of pneumatic
playing on a higher plane than it has ever yet
reached, or could reach without this assistance.
The musical world will begin to wake up to the
real facts about the player mechanism when that
mechanism, united with a concert grand piano, is
seen as a common visitor to the concert stage.
"Charlie" Eyles, the popular road ambassador
for the Behning Piano Co., left New York this
week for an eight weeks' trip through the west-
Published Every Saturday at 373 Fourth Avenge, New York
ern and southern parts of the country. Before
SUBSCRIPTION,
RIPTION, (including postage ), Un
United States and
leaving on this journey he spoke of the splendid
PCr y year;
Canada
PCr
ear; C
d
11 other
h
S Ses $4
$4 00
' $ 8 8 - B B ° °: a11
year the Behning Piano Co. had closed and the
outlook in the wholesale field for the ensuing
Telephones-Numbers 5982 and 5983 Madison Sq.
_
Connecting all Departments
year.
"Before leaving for my initial trip of the year,"
NEW YORK, JANUARY 25, 1913
stated Mr. Eyles, "I am prompted to express my
enthusiasm over the splendid year we have just
By this time we have all, no doubt, broken our
closed, and the encouraging outlook for the fu-
New Year's resolutions and have settled down
In spite of all the progress which has been made
into the conventional ways of darkness. It is to in the mechanical development of the player mech- ture. The excellent reports we are receiving
hope that we have also settled down into uncon- anism, the number of really masterly player-pian- from our dealers, coupled with the success of our
ventional ways of hustling for business. The year ists is yet small. This is doubtless due, to a large new player styles, certainly augurs well for Behn-
1913 bids fair to be the biggest player year yet. degree, to "the fact that the trade at large has noi ing prosperity in 1913, and the advent of our
There is no reason why it should not be so. Con- yet awakened to the necessity for real ''playing" new 5 ioot 3 inch player grand is being hailed
ditions are everywhere better than they were this as against mere "demonstration." Musicians, too. with universal commendation.
"It is merely a truism to state that one of the
time last year. And at that, 1912 was the biggest have so obstinately refused to recognize the artis-
most
important factors in the year's progress has
player year up till then. The fact is that the tic possibilities of the player that their influence
player-piano proposition is growing in spite of all has been against the development of true player- been the many active and progressive dealers who
the dire predictions that have been made for it. pianism. The very name "player-piano," of course, have joined our list of representatives, and it is
due to our agents' unswerving loyalty and hearty
It seems scarcely possible that there should yet is a hideous thing, although doubtless the best that
be dealers who distrust the player, who cannot could be found. Certainly it is too late now to belief in the merits of the Behning products that
see anything in it. Yet such men exist. What make a change, yet one cannot but regret that the we are able to report such an excellent increase
will become of them if they do not reform their adoption of that name has rendered impossible any over last year. The man on the road is usually
in a position to feel the pulse of the trade's
ideas is a question. But there is no question that decent nomenclature descriptive of other kindred
tenor, and from my observations I feel safe in
such sentiments as theirs have no place whatever activities. "Player-pianist" is certainly a better
predicting a banner year for Behning products in
in the piano business of to-day. The player is the name than "operator." But, even so, it is neither
big end of the piano business even now; big in graceful nor strictly intelligible. When it comes all sections of the country."
importance if not yet in terms of actual money. to devising a term to describe the state of being a
Now is the time to get out and secure the big player-pianist, or of playing the player-piano, one
share of the business. To-day the situation is par- simply is at a loss. It is too bad that something Elaborate Plant Being Completed for American
allel with that of the automobile industry in the cannot be done, especially as this very absurdity
Foto-Player Co.—Demand Increases.
years between 1902 and 1905. Anybody who has has much to do with preventing proper respect for
Among
the visitors to New York this week were
kept his eyes open for ten years past can draw the instrument and consequently for the art of
F.
K.
Ricksecker,
vice-president of the American
the moral to suit himself.
•playing it. The player-pianist is a new and nec-
Foto-Player Sales Co., of San Francisco, Cal., and
essary element in the trade, and there ought to be
Burt R. Van Valkcnburg. general manager of the
This number of the Player Section might be many, many more of him. Without doubt the ab- American Foto-Player Co. Mr. Van Valkenburg
called the "Get up and Hustle'' number. Every surdities perpetrated in giving names to every- is directly interested in the factory details of pro-
article in it is pointed toward some definite posi- thing connected with the player have had some- duction, and although the recent fire, which partly
tion in the player business with the intent of un- thing to do with the lack of competent musicians destroyed the company's factory in Oakland, Cal.,
uncovering facts and inducing the trade to hustle who have studied and mastered the intricacies of
seriously handicapped their plans for expansion
toward a better state of things. Outsiders do indeed pneumatic playing.
and production, Mr. Van Valkenburg is enthusi-
see most of the game very often, and trade paper
astic over the outlook for the future, and predicts
writers, placed in a position where they observe
What a good thing it would be if the few an excellent year for his company.
every move on the board of business, yet removed player-pianists who are recognized as masters
"We will undoubtedly have one of the finest fac-
from personal bias, are usually enabled to form would form a little society, or club, and tackle
tories in the West devoted to the manufacturing of
predictions and draw conclusions with consider- among other things the job of creating a school
niuscal instruments," stated Mr. Van Valkenburg
able accuracy. It is one thing to know what is of player artists! For one thing, the founding of
in a chat with The Review. "We have completed
wrong, however, and another to propose practical such an academy could not fail to influence the
the major part of it, and within a very short while
and suitable remedies. The articles which appear player trade for the better. For another thing,
our entire new plant will be working to full
in the present number all treat of specific troubles these gentlemen would have a better opportunity
capacity in order to turn out the orders which are
and all suggest remedies. It is the aim of the to know each other, to compare styles, and to
coming in every day. We are very much pleased
Player Section not to be content with uttering frame some general scheme of musical education
at the cordial reception tendered the advent of our
platitudes, but to study conditions and then make through the medium of their instrument. Inci-
Foto-Player. Turner & Denken, well-known theat-
suggestions based on this study. In no other dentally their collective pressure would doubtless
rical men in the West, have already ordered Foto-
way can a publication of this nature attain to its have much influence upon future design; a pious
Players for eight of their houses. We have other
end; that of giving valuable service to its con- hope! The worst thing about it is that there are
orders on hand from this firm for early delivery to
stituency.
certainly not the requisite forty to be brought to- their houses, which will be filled as soon as our
gether as the future academy. And we all know factory is in working condition. A pleasing fea-
It is hardly to be expected that any very radical that an academy cannot be founded according to ture of the orders received from Turner & Denken
changes will be announced in player design during precedent without forty immortals, no more and is the fact that part of the houses which have Foto-
the coming year. Of course there is little doubt no less.
Players are vaudeville houses, where the demands
that the player grand will assume during 1913 an
on the Foto-Player are very exacting."
importance never before possessed by it. Not only
Mr. Van Valkenburg will leave for the Coast the
TAKE NORTHWESTERN AGENCY.
will new models appear, but old ones will be im-
latter part of this month.
proved and refined. The trade at large has been
Wm. J. Dyer & Bro., of St. Paul, Minn., have
Mr. Ricksecker will probably make his headquar-
inclined to ignore the development going on in taken the Northwestern agency for the "Ameri-
ters in New York and contemplates establishing
this branch of design and construction, but there
can Orchestra," manufactured in Oakland, Cal. retail stores in New York and Chicago, in addition
can be little doubt that the player grand will find
The new instrument combines a pipe organ, piano, to a Pacific Coast retail headquarters in San Fran-
for itself a field of usefulness that will make busi-
drums, traps and cymbals, and is especially cisco, Cal. The New York store will act as a
ness in ordinary grand pianos look small. Some
adaptable for use in moving pictures and small sort of distributing station and will carry all nec-
dealers profess to think that the future will see
theaters.
essary requisites for their products.
just two types of piano; the upright player and
NEW FACTORY TOJBE READY SOON.
the straight grand. The player grand is left out
of this calculation altogether. But this is a mis-
take. That instrument is, truly, always going to
be expensive, and its sale will therefore be more
or less limited, but it would be wrong to suppose
that this will operate greatly to its disadvantage.
For the player-grand will have always a strong
appeal to music-lovers of wealth and refinement,
who will appreciate its artistic possibilities and
MUSIC ROLL BUSINESS SHOULD BE MORE PROFITABLE.
(Continued from page 5.)
and such established prices would of course make for the reason that everybody else very quickly
impossible the temporary increase of sales on the meets his price and then all have to sell at a profit.
part of the price cutter with corresponding reduc- Often times not worth while the goods that are not
tions in his profit as likewise against the reduc- profitable are no cost to- the dealers. And sooner
tions in the sales of his competitor, the price cutter
or later he diminishes cm far in promotaimig this
invariably hurts himself. He hurts nobody else, business or abandons it