Music Trade Review

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DECEMBER 17, 1921
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
BRIGHT OUTLOOK FOR ST. LOUIS
Dealers Expect Splendid Holiday Business —
Extensive Advertising Results in Sales
ST. LOUIS, MO., December 12.—It is going to be a
piano Christmas in St. Louis. That is evident
[rom the way that the people began buying
pianos, reproducing pianos, player-pianos and
used pianos last week. With the stores all deco-
rated for the holidays and business humming
there is a Christmasy feeling in all establish-
ments where pianos are sold. With only one or
two exceptions the dealers say that December,
tnus far, is running ahead of the early part of
December of last year.
Extensive advertising in the local papers is
again the order of the day among the music
merchants here. The almost total lack of adver-
tising during the Summer and Fall months has
been replaced by vigorous and effective ads.
As evidence that it pays to advertise even used
pianos Manager Russell Elam, of the Scruggs,
Vandervoort & Barney piano department, tells
how one such advertisement brought forty-eight
inquiries by mail from Illinois points. The Van-
dervoort department has been making a drive
the past week on Vandervoort players at $478
and uprights at $278 and Manager Elam says a
lot of them have been sold on terms usually
better than advertised.
Frederick Colber, general representative of
William Knabe & Co., Baltimore, spent all of last
week in St. Louis, giving informal recitals and
demonstrations of the Knabe Ampico at the store
of the Conroy Piano Co. The result was that
there was such an impetus given to the demand
for Knabe Ampicos that a rush order had to
be sent by telegraph for more, to be delivered
by express.
W. H. Alfring, wholesale manager for the
Aeolian Co., New York, was a local visitor last
week. He came via Chicago and, after consult-
ing with Manager Chrisler, of the local branch,
went back to New York by way of Cincinnati.
Henry G. Bunte, of the H. E. Johnson Piano
Co., Bellevue, la., was here last week.
The Kieselhorst Piano Co. is advertising the
Mason & Hamlin as "the highest-priced, highest-
praised piano of to-day," with this explanation:
"Mason & Hamlin pianos cost more to build
and are higher in price than any others; but the
added science, labor and time that go into their
construction produce a result of unequaled beauty
of tone and durability worth many times the
additional price.
"It is this super-excellence that distinguishes
Mason & Hamlin from other fine pianos, and it
is this that is paid for, in a small part, by the
extra price. Before investing in a new piano
investigate the Mason & Hamlin 'Tension
Resonator' and what it accomplishes."
FIFTEEN PIANISTS TO PLAY
Notable Galaxy of Stars to Appear at Benefit
Concert for Moszkowski Fund
What promises to be the most elaborate pro-
gram of piano music ever heard in New York
will be at the concert given at Carnegie Hall on
December 21 to aid the destitute composer Mosz-
kowski, for, according to the announcement, fif-
teen pianists of international note seated at as
many concert grand pianos will play in unison
on the Carnegie Hall stage on that occasion.
The list includes Harold Bauer, Fanny Bloom-
field-Zeisler, Ignaz Friedman, Ossip Gabrilo-
witsch, Rudolph Ganz, Leopold Godowsky,
Percy Grainger, Ernest Hutcheson, Alexander
Lambert, Josef Lhevinne, Yolando Mero, Elly
Ney, Germaine Schnitzer, Sigismund Stojowski
and Ernest Schelling.
It is also announced that in addition to the
simultaneous playing of all the pianists there
will be numbers rendered by two, three and four
of them at a time, as well as solo playing.
THE BEST KNOWN
MUSICAL
NAME
IN THE. WORLD.
MEHLIN GRAND IN MANY CONCERTS
REAL STATUS OF FOREIGN TRADE
Instrument Manufactured by Paul G. Mehlin &
Sons Figures in Various Recitals Held Re-
cently in and Around New York
Greater Quantity of Goods Exported by the
United States During Last Fiscal Year, Al-
though Total Valuation Is Much Lower
The Mehlin concert grand, manufactured by
Paul G. Mehlin & Sons, West New York, N. J.,
has been used in many recitals in New York and
in New Jersey this Winter, which included one
on December 6 at the Apollo Theatre in which
Miss Van Vollenhover was the artist. Another
was held on December 8 in the auditorium of the
New York School of Music and Arts, 150 River-
side Drive. This was a piano recital by Morino
Felliu Balseiro. On December 4 memorial serv-
ices were held by the Elks Lodge both in New
York at 108 West Forty-third street and at
Union Hill, N. J., where the Mehlin piano was
used. This was also the case at the annual Win-
ter concert of Rutgers College, New Brunswick,
N. J., given by The Chamber Music Art Society.
The Mehlin grand which was used at this con-
cert was furnished by Hart Bros., Mehlin repre-
sentatives in New Brunswick.
WASHINGTON, D. C, December 12.—Lower prices
rather than diminished quantities are responsible
for the three billion dollars decline in the value
of American foreign trade in the last fiscal year,
as compared with the immediately preceding year,
in the opinion of Dr. Julius Klein in his first
annual report as Director of the Bureau of For-
eign and Domestic Commerce of the Department
of Commerce.
"In fact," says the Director, "a compilation of
exported commodities, reduced, so far as possi-
ble, to a quantity basis, shows weight increases
of 34 per cent for the groups of raw materials
and of 37 per cent for foodstuffs in 1921 over
1920, with a decrease of 4 per cent for such partly
or wholly manufactured articles as can be shown
in weight."
• "It will surprise many pessimists to learn,"
declares Dr. Klein, "that the final totals in this
compilation, which included articles forming 69
per cent of the value of domestic exports in 1921,
indicated that the exports of these goods in-
creased 23 per cent in quantity over the amounts
sold last year, though their value decreased 19
per cent."
The world-wide exchange situation, revived
competition in foreign markets, and decreased
demand for American raw materials on the part
of Europe, combined with a drastic cut in Ameri-
can imports of raw materials, are the principal
factors contributing to the lower foreign trade
totals, says the Director.
The Director refers to the fiscal year 1920-21
as "the most dramatic in the entire history of
the foreign trade of the United States." He says
(hat "the extraordinary episodes of that year in
our business overseas" resulted in a most severe
strain upon the facilities of the Bureau of For-
eign and Domestic Commerce—first, as a conse-
quence of the "amazing.strides" made by Ameri-
can export interests during the early months of
the year and, secondly, as a result of the dis-
organization and confusion which spread through-
out the markets of the world with the accom-
panying panic of cancellations during the period
of depression which marked the closing months
of the year.
A new and unusual feature of Dr. Klein's re-
port is a sixty-page review of world trade and
of economic conditions in each of the important
markets of the world.
PRAISE FROM ELMAN ACCOMPANIST
Philip Gordon Uses Christman Studio Grand in
Home and Sends Message to Christman Co.
The Christman studio grand piano, manufac-
tured by the Christman Piano Co., 597 East 137th
street, New York, has again been highly praised,
this time by Philip Gordon, the well-known
PJiilip Gordon
pianist and accompanist of Mischa Elman, the
eminent violinist. Mr. Gordon has one of these
instruments in his home and, upon sending the
photograph which appears herewith to the Christ-
man Piano Co., he wrote upon it the following:
"To the Christman Piano Co., with compliments
on their new creation, the Studio grand," to
which he has attached his autograph.
LAST OF "PIANISTS SERIES"
The twelfth, and last, of the interesting little
booklets in the "Great Pianists Series" issued by
the Chase-Hackley Piano Co., Muskegon, Mich.,
has just made its appearance. This last volume
is devoted to the story of Leopold Godowski and
is particularly timely because of the prominent
position held by Godowski in the music world.
JOHN A. KRUMME, JR., RESIGNS
WOMAN C0NTR0LSLONG BEACH FIRM
Mrs. E. J. Wightman Buys Partner's Interest
in Big Music Concern and Makes Important
Changes in Personnel of the Organization
LONG BEACH, CAL., December 12.—The interest of
Charles F. Patrick in the Patrick Music Co., 334
Tine avenue, this city, has been taken over by
Mrs. E. J. Wightman, for the past five years
joint owner in the business with Mr. Patrick.
Mrs. Wightman is the active manager of the
store and immediately after securing the exclu-
sive ownership of the business it was completely
reorganized. The store has been departmental-
ized with L. D. Holley and F. G. Mogle as heads
of the piano department, H. W. Stanton in
charge of the talking machine and record de-
partment, and Mrs. Rose V. King managing the
sheet music department. Howard Deems will
handle advertising and the small goods depart-
ment.
John A. Krumme, Jr., formerly associated with
the Christman Piano Co., the Standard Music Roll
NEW STORE TO OPEN
Co. and the Republic Roll Corp., and lately asso-
ciated with the DeRivas & Harris Co. as man-
The Flugstad Piano Co. is a new concern in
ager of this concern's retail stores, has resigned. Black River Falls, Wis., which will soon open a
Mr. Krumme's plans for the future have not been store in the Roseland Building as soon as altera-
announced.
tions are completed.
THE BEST PROFIT
PRODUCER FOR THE
DEALER IN THE TRADE.