Music Trade Review
Issue: 1920 Vol. 70 N. 2 - Page 7
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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JANUARY 10, 1920
ST. LOUIS PIANO MERCHANTS GET BREATHING SPELL
Holiday Trade Was Excellent and Local Piano Men Are Cleaning Up Odds and Ends in Readi-
ness for Active Business During the New Year—Wurlitzer Headquarters Being Remodeled
ST. LOUIS, MO., January 5.—What with Christ-
mas money and bonus money and the announce-
ment that prices would go up on January 1,
business in pianos was fairly good between
Christmas and New Year's, and the drop which
usually comes after Christmas did not come
until after New Year's. Several of the piano
houses made an advertising pull right after
Christmas for the bonus money, reminding re-
cipients in newspaper advertising that pianos
were good things to buy with bonuses, and the
suggestion seems to have brought results not
only to the advertisers, but to those who did
not advertise. It was a suggestion of such
general application that the benefits accrued to
the entire trade. An even more effectual appeal,
probably, was the reminder to prospects, right
after Christmas, that prices would go up on
January 1 and that a purchase made during the
holidays would mean a substantial saving. The
Conroy Piano Co. was one that made this ap-
peal. All prospects who were hesitating were
notified what to expect on January 1, and a good
number of them purchased. Toward the end
of the week the New Year holiday and a con-
current cold wave crimped business pretty
badly. No great expectations are entertained for
January and February.
With the Christmas rush out of the way the
work of remodeling the Wurlitzer Building has
been energetically started under the direction of
Manager J. B. Moran. It has started at the top
and will proceed downward. The sixth floor,
hitherto unused, has been prepared for the shop,
which has been moved from the fifth floor, and
the latter has been altered and decorated and
will hereafter be the automatic department. The
fourth will be the Victor salesrooms. The third
will be for grands and uprights. The players will
be on the second. The first floor will be com-
pletely made over, with the entrance in the mid-
dle of the front and booths for Victors and
music rolls on either side and part of the open
space occupied by the complete line of band in-
struments which is to be a new feature of the
store. The finishing of the first floor will be
in walnut.
after Christmas H. A. Kieselhorst, vice-president
of the company, and John Wheeler and Fred
Goedeke, employes, were sailing past Russell
and Longfellow avenues in the Kieselhorst
flivver when a big, overbearing machine rubbed
against it and turned i,t upside down on the
sidewalk, smashing it beyond repair. The three
were thrown out, but Kieselhorst and Goedeke
escaped injury and Wheeler received only a
scratch. New Year's Day A. Furner, a tuner,
driving another machine, was in the same kind
of a fracas. He did not get off so easily. His
head was cut and his hands skinned and he re-
ceived severe body bruises. E. A. Kieselhorst,
president of the company, will hear about the
automobile casualties and other mishaps when
he gets home to-day or to-morrow from Santa
Fe, N. M., where he and Mrs. Kieselhorst spent
the Christmas holidays with the three young
Kieselhorsts.
The formal opening of the new Scruggs, Van-
dervoort & Barney auditorium has been set for
January 16. Details of the program have not
been completed, but the reconstructed organ,
moved from the sales floor, will play a large part.
William M. Jenkins will be the organist. It is
probable that the opening program will be ex-
tended over several days. All employes of the
music department who had been with the firm
prior to May 1 were given two weeks' salary as
a Christmas bonus and all whose service was
more recent than May 1 received one week's
salary. O. A. Lovell, of the piano department,
returned to-day from a hunting trip in the
Ozarks, on which he started New Year's Day.
Mr. Betts, of Chickering Bros., Chicago, spent
part of the holidays in St. Louis.
O. R. Bowman, of the Steger & Sons Piano
Co., after spending a few days in St. Louis,
leaves to-morrow on a trip through the South.
E. B. Walthall, formerly with the Wurlitzer
Co., at Louisville, Ky., has come to St. Louis
to take charge of the automatic department at
the local store of the Wurlitzer Co.
Oscar Bollman, formerly of Bollman Bros.,
is now selling pianos for the Famous & Barr
Co.
It is just one automobile smashup after an-
N. C. Shannon, Wurlitzer manager at Louis-
other in the Kieselhorst organization. The day ville, Ky., has returned to that city after spend-
ing the holidays with St. Louis relatives.
CHARACTER
PROPORTION OF RENT TO SALES
"Admirable Quality; Acknowledged Reputation"
Some Interesting Figures Brought Out by a
—(Standard Dictionary)
PIANOS
Manufactured by
Smith, Barnes
Strohber Co.
have for 33 years
justified their right
to be called ,„
Pianos of Character
FACTORIES
North Milwaukee, Wit.
Chicago, 111.
OFFICE
1872 Clyboum Avenue
Chicago, III.
Turn over a
New Leaf
and improve your
opportunities for
1920
with the new
Marshall
Player-Piano
STYLE 77
Recent Questionnaire
The returns from a questionnaire issued by
the Taxation Committee of the National Build-
ing Managers and Owners Association on the
subject of the ratio percentage of rent and ad-
vertising to sales showed that there is Httle
difference in what large retail stores in the
principal cities of the country pay out as ren-
tals. The concerns that furnished the figures
are capitalized at $500,000 or more and have
annual sales exceeding $1,500,000.
One store in Washington pays but 1.31 per
cent, although another in the same city is pay-
ing 3 per cent on sales. Tacoma has a store
paying only .77 per cent and another whose
rental amounts to 3 per cent of the sales. Min-
neapolis furnishes an instance where it costs
one establishment but 1.5 per cent of sales and
another 4 per cent. The highest amount paid
out in rent percentage given is 5 per cent, paid
by one store in San Francisco and another in
Los Angeles.
A store in Buffalo, however, pays the least
in both rent and advertising, the former being
.88 per cent and the latter 1.08 per cent. The
highest percentage on sales paid out for adver-
tising is in the case of a Toledo store, whose
appropriation amounts to 5 per cent of the sales.
The rent item averages a little over 2 l / 2 per
This instrument is an
incorporation of all that
skilled workmanship and
painstaking effort could
effect. Remember, then,
that we build Good Player-
Pianos Exclusively.
cent on sales, and advertising about 2 per cent.
1508-1510 Dayton Street, Chicago, 111.
Why not write us today
and give us an idea of
what your needs are ?
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
JANUARY 10, 1920
ST. LOUIS PIANO MERCHANTS GET BREATHING SPELL
Holiday Trade Was Excellent and Local Piano Men Are Cleaning Up Odds and Ends in Readi-
ness for Active Business During the New Year—Wurlitzer Headquarters Being Remodeled
ST. LOUIS, MO., January 5.—What with Christ-
mas money and bonus money and the announce-
ment that prices would go up on January 1,
business in pianos was fairly good between
Christmas and New Year's, and the drop which
usually comes after Christmas did not come
until after New Year's. Several of the piano
houses made an advertising pull right after
Christmas for the bonus money, reminding re-
cipients in newspaper advertising that pianos
were good things to buy with bonuses, and the
suggestion seems to have brought results not
only to the advertisers, but to those who did
not advertise. It was a suggestion of such
general application that the benefits accrued to
the entire trade. An even more effectual appeal,
probably, was the reminder to prospects, right
after Christmas, that prices would go up on
January 1 and that a purchase made during the
holidays would mean a substantial saving. The
Conroy Piano Co. was one that made this ap-
peal. All prospects who were hesitating were
notified what to expect on January 1, and a good
number of them purchased. Toward the end
of the week the New Year holiday and a con-
current cold wave crimped business pretty
badly. No great expectations are entertained for
January and February.
With the Christmas rush out of the way the
work of remodeling the Wurlitzer Building has
been energetically started under the direction of
Manager J. B. Moran. It has started at the top
and will proceed downward. The sixth floor,
hitherto unused, has been prepared for the shop,
which has been moved from the fifth floor, and
the latter has been altered and decorated and
will hereafter be the automatic department. The
fourth will be the Victor salesrooms. The third
will be for grands and uprights. The players will
be on the second. The first floor will be com-
pletely made over, with the entrance in the mid-
dle of the front and booths for Victors and
music rolls on either side and part of the open
space occupied by the complete line of band in-
struments which is to be a new feature of the
store. The finishing of the first floor will be
in walnut.
after Christmas H. A. Kieselhorst, vice-president
of the company, and John Wheeler and Fred
Goedeke, employes, were sailing past Russell
and Longfellow avenues in the Kieselhorst
flivver when a big, overbearing machine rubbed
against it and turned i,t upside down on the
sidewalk, smashing it beyond repair. The three
were thrown out, but Kieselhorst and Goedeke
escaped injury and Wheeler received only a
scratch. New Year's Day A. Furner, a tuner,
driving another machine, was in the same kind
of a fracas. He did not get off so easily. His
head was cut and his hands skinned and he re-
ceived severe body bruises. E. A. Kieselhorst,
president of the company, will hear about the
automobile casualties and other mishaps when
he gets home to-day or to-morrow from Santa
Fe, N. M., where he and Mrs. Kieselhorst spent
the Christmas holidays with the three young
Kieselhorsts.
The formal opening of the new Scruggs, Van-
dervoort & Barney auditorium has been set for
January 16. Details of the program have not
been completed, but the reconstructed organ,
moved from the sales floor, will play a large part.
William M. Jenkins will be the organist. It is
probable that the opening program will be ex-
tended over several days. All employes of the
music department who had been with the firm
prior to May 1 were given two weeks' salary as
a Christmas bonus and all whose service was
more recent than May 1 received one week's
salary. O. A. Lovell, of the piano department,
returned to-day from a hunting trip in the
Ozarks, on which he started New Year's Day.
Mr. Betts, of Chickering Bros., Chicago, spent
part of the holidays in St. Louis.
O. R. Bowman, of the Steger & Sons Piano
Co., after spending a few days in St. Louis,
leaves to-morrow on a trip through the South.
E. B. Walthall, formerly with the Wurlitzer
Co., at Louisville, Ky., has come to St. Louis
to take charge of the automatic department at
the local store of the Wurlitzer Co.
Oscar Bollman, formerly of Bollman Bros.,
is now selling pianos for the Famous & Barr
Co.
It is just one automobile smashup after an-
N. C. Shannon, Wurlitzer manager at Louis-
other in the Kieselhorst organization. The day ville, Ky., has returned to that city after spend-
ing the holidays with St. Louis relatives.
CHARACTER
PROPORTION OF RENT TO SALES
"Admirable Quality; Acknowledged Reputation"
Some Interesting Figures Brought Out by a
—(Standard Dictionary)
PIANOS
Manufactured by
Smith, Barnes
Strohber Co.
have for 33 years
justified their right
to be called ,„
Pianos of Character
FACTORIES
North Milwaukee, Wit.
Chicago, 111.
OFFICE
1872 Clyboum Avenue
Chicago, III.
Turn over a
New Leaf
and improve your
opportunities for
1920
with the new
Marshall
Player-Piano
STYLE 77
Recent Questionnaire
The returns from a questionnaire issued by
the Taxation Committee of the National Build-
ing Managers and Owners Association on the
subject of the ratio percentage of rent and ad-
vertising to sales showed that there is Httle
difference in what large retail stores in the
principal cities of the country pay out as ren-
tals. The concerns that furnished the figures
are capitalized at $500,000 or more and have
annual sales exceeding $1,500,000.
One store in Washington pays but 1.31 per
cent, although another in the same city is pay-
ing 3 per cent on sales. Tacoma has a store
paying only .77 per cent and another whose
rental amounts to 3 per cent of the sales. Min-
neapolis furnishes an instance where it costs
one establishment but 1.5 per cent of sales and
another 4 per cent. The highest amount paid
out in rent percentage given is 5 per cent, paid
by one store in San Francisco and another in
Los Angeles.
A store in Buffalo, however, pays the least
in both rent and advertising, the former being
.88 per cent and the latter 1.08 per cent. The
highest percentage on sales paid out for adver-
tising is in the case of a Toledo store, whose
appropriation amounts to 5 per cent of the sales.
The rent item averages a little over 2 l / 2 per
This instrument is an
incorporation of all that
skilled workmanship and
painstaking effort could
effect. Remember, then,
that we build Good Player-
Pianos Exclusively.
cent on sales, and advertising about 2 per cent.
1508-1510 Dayton Street, Chicago, 111.
Why not write us today
and give us an idea of
what your needs are ?
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