Music Trade Review

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THE
MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
DETROIT PIANO DEALERS INTERESTED IN SALESMANSHIP
PIANO CONSTRUCTION SHOWN
World's Salesmanship Congress Attended by Many Members of the Music Trade—New Storage
Warehouse for Grinnell Bros.—E. P. Andrew on Musical Education—Other News
Interesting Exhibit of the Various Parts Used
in Making a McPhail Piano
DETROIT, MICH., July 11.—Salesmanship has been
on the tongue of every piano dealer and every
piano salesman during the past week. There
was a reason—the first convention of the
World's Salesmanship Congress which took
place under the auspices of the Detroit Board
of Commerce. Saturday was devoted to regis-
tration and a salesmanship clinic held at the
Hotel Statler in charge of the Carnegie Insti-
tute of Technology. The applicants were put
through various tests by Prof. Walter Dill
Scott and Prof. Bingham, of the Carnegie In-
stitute. On Sunday many of the sales managers
delivered addresses on Salesmanship at local
churches. Monday was President Wilson's Day.
The President, accompanied by Mrs. Wilson,
arrived in the morning and was escorted to the
Arcadia auditorium, where he delivered an ad-
dress; at noon he was the guest at luncheon at
the Detroit Athletic Club; in the afternoon he
visited the Ford Motor Co. plant and at 3
o'clock he left for Washington. Tuesday morn-
ing was the official opening of the congress.
Many fine addresses on Salesmanship were de-
livered on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Next week we can say more about this con-
gress. Many piano dealers and salesmen at-
tended the various sessions.
Grinnell Bros, have purchased the building
and property on First street, near Michigan,
formerly occupied by the People's Outfitting
Co., for warehouse purposes. As soon as tht
company vacates, Grinnell Bros, will use same
for storage purposes.
It only requires a walk through Grinnell
Bros.' main building to realize what a big insti-
tution it really is. In the basement are the
Victrola booths, the recital hall and the retail
Victrola department, comprising close to thirty
booths. On the main floor is the sheet music
department; the small goods department, ship-
ping and moving, tuning departments, box office
and general offices. On the mezzanine floor
is the collection department. On the second
floor are electric pianos, the office of President
I. L. Grinnell and the real estate department.
On the third floor are the offices of C. A. Grin-
nell, vice-president and general manager; A. H.
Howes, manager of the piano department; and
pianos. On the fourth floor is the player-piano
department. On the fifth floor are the offices
of the advertising manager; S. E. Clark, secre-
tary of the company; A. A. Grinnell, treasurer;
Jay Grinnell, sales manager; E. W. Grinnell,
manager of the State branches and player
music. On the sixth floor is the correspondence
department in charge of Mr. Lewis; also the
stool and bench departments.
Burton Collver, manager of the Knabe-Am-
pico division at the New York Knabe ware-
rooms, is spending two weeks in Detroit—his
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BENNETT & WHITE, Inc.
67-71 Gobel St., NEWARK, N. J.
former home. He expects to leave later in the
month for Lake Placid, N. Y., where he will
give informal recitals on the Knabe-Ampico.
E. P. Andrew and E. K. Andrew, of the J.
L. Hudson piano store, returned early in the
week from their three weeks' vacation. It is
the first vacation for E. P. Andrews in three
years. In commenting on The Review article
several issues ago relative to the advancement
of musical education, Mr. Andrew said: "I
haven't had time to give this matter thorough
consideration, but speaking off-hand I would
say that something certainly should be done to
encourage more people to take up music, and
the more people who are musically educated,
the better it will be for the piano business and
the dealers. We so often hear people say, 'Well,
I'd get a piano in a minute if I could play or if
anybody in our family could play.' The place
to get a musical education started is in the
public schools and it should begin when boys
and girls are around ten or twelve years of age.
Every person should know music—it is just as
essential as knowing mathematics, history or
physiology."
The front of the Grinnell Building on Wood-
ward avenue (which is of white terra cotta) has
been washed and the structure looks as if it
was brand new. The front has been attractive-
ly decorated all week in honor of President
Wilson and the World's Salesmanship Con-
gress.
C. W." Cross, manager of the Bush & Lane
store, is spending the week in Cleveland.
C. A. Grinnell has been spending most of the
past week at the Red Run Golf Club, where he
has participated in the first golf tournament of
the season. At the tournament held several
weeks ago at Long Island at the Oakland Golf
Club, he was a prize winner.
The population of Flint is now estimated at
75,000. This is a tremendous gain for the past
twelve months. The local Board of Commerce
believes Flint will be a city of 100,000 by the
end of 1917.
F. M. Ramsdell, of the Detroit Piano Co., 73
Broadway, says the first six months of 1916
were the best the firm ever had. The company
moved to its present location in December, 1915,
and business each month is better. "For the
past sixty days we have not had a run on any-
thing special—it seems that everything has been
selling fairly well—players, grands and up-
rights. Emerson and Lindemann business, since
we took on these lines, has been quite good,"
said Mr. Ramsdell. Panel partitions have been
installed to separate the offices from the store.
L. E. Behmyer, Pacific Coast impresario,
with headquarters at Los Angeles, has been
spending a few weeks in Detroit as the guest of
James Devoe, whose business is similar—that
of managing musical recitals. While in Detroit
Mr. Behmyer was tendered a dinner at the De-
troit Athletic Club, the event celebrating his
thirtieth anniversary as a manager of musical
attractions, all of them having been passed on
the Pacific Coast. Bendetson Netzorg, one of
Detroit's foremost pianists, played one of his
own compositions. J. Herman Thumann, of
Cincinnati, gave a brief history of the May fes-
tival recently held in the Ohio city.
The Hough Organ Co., Bay City, Mich., has
completed its first two organs, which have al-
ready been sold.
STARR PIANOS FORJUDSON COLLEGE
MARION, ALA, July 10.—The Starr Piano Co.
has received a contract from Judson College,
located here, for $11,000 worth of new pianos,
to equip fully the music department of the col-
lege. These new instruments will greatly in-
crease the capacity of the piano department, and
several improvements are also being made in the
dormitories in order to accommodate the ex-
tremely large number of students which are ex-
pected to register during the coming season.
WATERBURY, CONN., July 10.—The Sonnenberg-
Skinner Co. recently had a window display
consisting of the 8,000 pieces which go to make
up the McPhail piano, manufactured by the
McPhail Piano Co., of Boston, the second old-
est piano manufacturing house in the United
States.
Among the most interesting parts of the pi-
ano exhibited were the compensation rods, with
which all McPhail upright pianos are con-
structed. The strain of the strings on the
skeleton and plate of an upright piano is about
fifteen tons and the natural tendency of these
strings, fastened at the top of the case and the
bottom of the plate, is to spring the front of
the case in and the back out and the piano can-
not withstand the strain. The steel construc-
tion rods form a counterdraft on the case as
against the springs and give the piano solidity
of tone, besides making it endure for years.
The manifold parts which go to make up keys,
pedals, sounding boards and case, were also
shown.
An alteration sale is being held by Barrett
Bros., of 75 Collier street, Binghamton, N. Y.,
prior to the making of extensive improvements
in the store operated by the concern.
The Triumph
of the
American Tone
AWARDED
The position won by the
American Steel & Wire Co.
demonstrates clearly how
right, in the end, must tri-
umph over prejudice.
The high tension cry of
years ago has entirely sub-
sided, and America's great
wire manufacturing com-
pany, by continuing its
campaign of education, has
finally won the piano trade
to see the correctness of its
position.
Gradually America's
leading piano manufacturing con-
cerns have accepted the American
standard and artists and amateurs
are now thinking less of the high ten-
sion idea and more of beauty of tone
than ever before.
The special brands of the American
Steel & Wire Co.—the "PERFECT-
ED" and "CROWN"—were the out-
come of an ever alert anticipation—
anticipation backed by the ability to
know—the ability to fight undeviat-
ingly for the maintenance of correct
principles. For years it clung relig-
iously to an ideal, in the face of the
most discouraging opposition, and
now the whole world recognizes its
triumph, which has resulted in giving
a purer musical tone than ever before,
and in showing that art is oftentimes
concealed by art.
American Steel & Wire Company
Chicago, New York, Worcester, Cleveland, Pitt*-
burgh, Denver. Export representative: U. S. Steel
Products Co., New York. Pacific Coast representa-
tive: U, S. Steel Products Co., San Francisco, Los
Angeles, Portland, Seattle.