Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
JULY 19,
1924
THE
MUSIC TRADE
REVIEW
Retail Music Merchants of Milwaukee
Report an Active Demand for Pianos
All Local Dealers Report Good Business Despite the Fact It Was Expected to Fall Below
Volume of Last Year for Same Time—Kesselman-O'Driscoll Employes Receive Dividends
A / f l L W A U K E E , W I S , July 15.—Business in
-L'-*- Milwaukee music stores is good in spite of
the fact that it was expected to be a little slower
during Summer months. Local stores report
pianos active and note some action in phono-
graphs, records, band and stringed instruments,
as well as other departments. Some stores are
using special methods of attracting business for
these months, while others are lying low until
the Fall business opens.
Business for this month has been good at
Charles J. Orth, Inc., according to A. V. Orth.
Phonographs are moving chiefly at this store,
although records have also been good.
"Business in pianos and string instruments is
very good," stated R. J. Gierach, advertising
manager of the Kesselman-O'Driscoll Co.,
which features Knabe Ampicos. "Radio is
picking up and is coming out of a slump. The
old radio bugaboo has been eliminated entirely
from the phonograph business and this depart-
ment is also good. Band instruments are hold-
ing their own."
The sheet music business has been wonderful
at the Kesselman-O'Driscoll store, according to
Mr. Gierach. It has inaugurated the new
practice of giving every purchaser a ticket
which entitles him to to a 15-cent reduction on a
ticket to a local moving picture theatre. This
plan enabled the sheet music department to
make over its month's quota in three days, Mr.
Gierach said. The plan has directly stimulated
:he sale of player rolls as well as sheet music.
The Kesselman-O'Driscoll Co. has announced
that used pianos may be rented for a week, a
month or for the entire vacation season. This
offer does not refer to the regular courtesy
pianos which the company provides for con-
certs and similar purposes. About a dozen
" pianos have already been rented under this new
plan for the Summer. Free instruction in the
care of a piano and some information concern-
ing the make-up of these instruments is also
offered by the company. This information
shows the owner how to make a piano last
longer. It has also given the store a number
of new piano prospects.
L. J. Monroe, sales manager of the Kessel-
man-O'Driscoll Co., is taking two weeks' vaca-
tion at Mineral Point, Wis., where he is visit-
ing relatives.
"Business seems to be picking up generally,"
stated Eric S. Hafsoos, of the Flanner-Hafsoos
Music House, Inc. "We have made a number
of good sales of Kurtzmann grands and Brink-
erhoff player-pianos and other departments are
holding their own. Quite a few people are
dropping into the store this month and we are
making a number of sales in this way."
John B. DeSwarte, manager of the tuning
and repair department of the Flanner-Hafsoos
Music House, Inc., is touring the State of Wis-
consin by automobile during his vacation. H. W.
Boone, manager of the band instrument depart-
ment of the store, spent a- few days in north-
ern Wisconsin on a fishing trip. He made sev-
eral good catches while fishing at Lake Shawno.
J. W. White, manager of the phonograph de-
partment of Gimbel Bros., and Adam C. Schroe-
ter, manager of the piano department, report
a fairly good business for the first part of July.
This month has been a vacation period at
Edmund Gram, Inc., and little special effort to
get business is put forth in addition to regular
work, according to Edward Herzog, sales man-
ager.
Edmund Gram, of Edmund Gram, Inc., who
has been convalescing at Cambridge Springs,
Pa., is now at Mount Clemens, Mich., where
he plans to spend several weeks or more. The
trip was made from Cleveland to Detroit bj
boat and from there on by automobile. Mr.
Gram writes that he is much better, although
rather weak. His return to Milwaukee is still
indefinite.
Fifteen employes who were made stockhold-
ers in the Kesselman-O'Driscoll Co. last Christ-
mas have received their first dividends. The
checks were distributed by L. M. Kesselman,
who made the suggestion that they be used
as initial deposits for savings accounts.
Milwaukee is enjoying a continued building
boom which has exceeded the banner year of
1923 for the first six months. So far this year
permits have been issued for $20,865,227, against
$19,206,377 for the first half of 1923.
W. E. Steinberg, piano merchant of Eau
Claire, Wis., recently prepared an address on
"My Industry" for the Kiwanis Club there. Mr.
Steinberg told of the origin of the piano, stat-
ing that its real origin was lost in antiquity.
He called attention to an old spinet style piano
which has been placed in the Eau Claire library
by a pioneer collector. This piano was built
in London by Collard & Collard, among the
first piano builders in the world, and was built
in the year 1759. It contains 73 keys instead
of 88 as on the modern piano.
Radio tables are now being turned out by the
Kem-Etta Mfg. Co. plant, which was recently
opened at Janesville, Wis. The company will
feature novelty furniture, particularly radio
cabinets and end tables.
Prof. George Glass, director of the city band
of Peshtigo, Wis., has secured a lease on the
Nelson Building on Main street and plans to
open a music store in that location.
Harry Sohmer, president of Sohmcr & Co.,
of New York, spent the last week-end with
Hugh W. Randall, president of the J. B. Brad-
ford Music Co., of Milwaukee, at the Randall
Summer home on Pine Lake.
Old Chinese Classic
Music Interesting
Weaver Chinese Representative Sends Account
to Factory of Interview With Old Chinese
Musician
Bliss M. Wiant, who recently sailed for Pe-
kin, China, to become head of the Music De-
partment of the Pekin Union University, took
with him a Weaver piano as best suited for
his needs there as was reported in a recent issue
of The Music Trade Review. Mr. Wiant also
made arrangements to represent the Weaver
Piano Co., Inc., of York, Pa., in a sales capac-
ity in China. Pekin University just established
the first Western music department in Pekin,
China, and he is, therefore, "blazing the trail"
for Western music. Recently he wrote the
Weaver Piano Co., Inc., a letter of his impres-
sions of China and from which the following
interesting quotation concerns his interview
with a Chinese musician:
"A few days ago we had the privilege of
spending an afternoon with a Chinese musician
of the old school. Through the courtesy of two
of the Chinese professors in the University I
was invited to go to visit with this man. Wil-
liam Hung went along and acted as interpreter,
although his knowledge of musical terms was
at times rather inadequate. This man is an old
gentleman who has devoted his life to the study
of his own country's music. He is the master
of the ancient Chinese instrument, the seven-
stringed chin, which was the favorite of the sage
Confucius. In his home he has sixty of these
old instruments, several of which are over one
thousand years old. After talking for a while
and drinking tea he took down his favorite chin
and began tuning up on it and for an hour or so
he entertained us with the old classical music of
this old race. It was truly fascinating to see
him play on it and to hear him hum along as he
played the tunes.
"This old chin is played somewhat like a
Hawaiian guitar, for a string is plucked and
then the finger slides up and down the vibrating
string, thus making a sliding melody. The test
of every instrument of this kind is in its ability
to sustain the various tones made by slipping
over the vibrating string. It has a very low
and soft tone. On the side of the instrument
are white dots which indicate the places where
harmonies may be found—that is, the places
where the string is divided into vibrating seg-
ments to produce the octave and other intervals
which vibrate on the fundamental.
"This man is a master of the chin—one of a
very few men in China. He has written a great
deal of music for it and showed it to us. He
has also studied into harmony and has discov-
ered lost books on the subject. No one had
ever talked to him about the theoretical side of
it before and he was intensely interested in it.
He wants to learn, although he is an old man,
so we have agreed that we will mutually teach
each other. The chin only plays well the fine-
toned scale, which is the classical scale of Chi-
nese music. All the other tones can be played,
but do not sound pleasing to the Chinese ear.
To develop an interest in this ancient instru-
ment will be a pleasant undertaking and to
adapt it for use in the Chinese church. He
also had the pipes of Pan and the ocarina and
other instruments the like of which do not exist
in Western countries. You will have to wait
until we get home to have a real demonstra-
tion."
Pratt Read
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