Music Trade Review

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44
THE
Ml-SIC
TRADE
REVIEW
APRIL 18, 1925
The Sheet Music Trade in the Garolinas—(Continued from page 43)
worth while listening to, but you can't blame
her for she certainly is a busy individual. Miss
Dunham is just as active on Sunday as she is
during the week, for she is a willing church
worker, and a leader in the Sunday school. I
am sorry I was unable to be in Asheville on
Sunday.
Hood Music Co.
The Hood Music Co. is located at 159 Hay-
ward street and is just three and a half years
old. While Mr. Hood is a youngster in the
local musical activities, he is a credit to the
community. He has a beautiful store, with par-
ticularly attractive and novel window displays.
Many reliable makes of pianos are handled as
well as a full line of Victor goods. In sheet
music he has a selective stock of standard and
popular publications. Vocalstyle and U. S. rolls
are also stocked. The small instruments are
displayed very intelligently and that is one of
the lines which Mr. Hood is particularly inter-
ested in. The store is known as "The Home
of the Victor." Mr. Hood is a member of the
Asheville Apollo Club, a male organization, also
the Social and Civic Music clubs.
The bright little lady assisting Mr. Hood in
the music department is Miss A. A. Hirsch, and
she takes a great rielight in pleasing her cus-
tomers. Mr. Hood believes Asheville is a good
spot for business because of its beautiful sur-
roundings, which attract the Northerners in
the Winter and Southerners in the Summer.
Mr. Hood tells me that many of the finest Flor-
ida families have their Summer homes on the
mountain tops in the vicinity of Asheville.
There are things aplenty to do in Asheville.
The golf bug boasts about the golf courses,
and they are open the year 'round. There are
never any white blankets visible there. Then
again, deep breathing and the mountain air
are good preservers of the swelled chest. Many
piano men make it a habit to take a few days
holiday and spend them in Asheville.
Asheville is a good musical town because of
its home life. There is the Asheville Music
Festival Association, which is about five years
old. It conducts a Summer season for music
and for the first time last year it had the San
Carlo Opera Company for two weeks. This
was such an unusual success it will be an an-
nual event. The high school pays a lot of at-
tention to the musical education of its students.
There is a special music course given in instru-
mental and vocal music. The Aeolian Choir, of
which Dr. Crosby Adams is the director, con-
sists of from fifty to one hundred voices. This
choir was organized about five years ago.
Spartanburg, S. C.
Spartanburg is in the heart of the Piedmont
section of the Carolinas, in the northwestern
part of South Carolina. The population is
about 35,000. This busy little city is built on
a plane that is much higher than the Wool-
worth Building and then some. The local trade
board gives ten reasons why sensible people
should go to Spartanburg. One is that they
can be corn fed and another is that while you
are there you will never be thirsty. The milk
is rich and delicious. The other eight are just
as good. Spartanburg boasts of its splendid
highways.
More than thirty years ago the South At-
lantic States Music Festival was inaugurated
under the auspices of the Converse College and
the Choral Society and has continued with
success.
To-day, it brings to the city
world-wide artists. The choruses consist of
more than 500 trained children's voices and
about 500 adults. The orchestral part is sup-
plied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the
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Metropolitan Opera House Orchestra or the
New York Symphony Orchestra, led by Walter
Damrosch. The Festival is held in the audi-
torium of Converse College, which has a stat-
ing capacity of 2,600. Music lovers from a wide
area fill the city during Festival week.
A. M. Alexander & Co.
A. M. Alexander & Co. are factory distribu-
tors for the Hobart M. Cable line and the sole
agents for Checkering, Henry F. Miller, Brani-
bach and Gulbransen. The Victor line is fea-
tured in phonographs and an extensive stock of
sheet music is carried, which is quite visible and
attractive upon entering this emporium. A
complete line of the Fischer publications is
kept in stock, as well as the Century and Mc-
Kinley editions. The firm claims to be the
oldest Victor dealers, having given uninter-
rupted service for over twenty-five years in the
South. The manager, Pleasant S. L. Whitlock,
exemplifies his given name to the extreme. He
supervises everything in the institution and is
capably assisted by many clerks. Musical mer-
chandise in the way of instruments is quite an
item due to the fact that Mr. Whitlock is an
old-timer in the field. He has known music
from childhood. That is why he is so "pleas-
ant."
My visit with Mr. Whitlock was very inter-
esting and I admired his activity in his busi-
ness. He was very proud when he showed me
the splendid advances the business has made
from year to year, which he feels is a reimburse-
ment for his labors and energy. Mr. Alexander,
the proprietor, is interested in outside affairs
as well as his music company and depends en-
tirely upon the good judgment and manage-
ment of Mr. Whitlock. As Mr. Whitlock says:
"Success in business is not altogether a matter
of waking up some fine day to find yourself
in a lucky nest. It is not a matter of chance.
It is the result of personal application, being
on the job, and keeping at it."
W. S. Rice Music House
W. S. Rice conducts a splendid music house
and wants it to be known that he is right next
door to the Post Office. He figures he gets a
good break by telling people he is right next to
Uncle Sam and then again folks, young and
old, must go to the post office at some time or
other. Mr. Rice was formerly a wholesaler for
a piano factory in one of the key cities of the
North. He carries reliable brands of pianos,
the Hallet & Davis, Kimball, Cable and Nelson
and Krell. Air. Kice has used individual taste
in arranging his store. He has a splendid mu-
sic roll department, where the best lines are
carried. He has what might be termed a "care-
fully" stocked music counter and display racks
which feature all late popular tunes as well as
a good assortment of the better class songs and
well-known studies.
Mr. Rice is a congenial sort of fellow and
has a wide knowledge of the business particu-
larly in the piano line. However, he is a firm
believer in the fact that the small goods de-
partments and sheet music arc absolutely essen-
tial. He has found through actual statistics
that many piano sales are made through pros-
pects that materialize from the sale of a sheet
of music or a phonograph record.
Mr. Rice disclosed the fact that he came to
this beautiful city of his own free will. He
finds life worth-while here, where it isn't neces-
sary to rub shoulders with millions of individ-
uals and where you have to side step to take a
deep breath. Life to him is worth more in the
Carolinas. He will make a wager and is optim-
istic about winning it to the effect that the life
insurance companies are going to make a lot of
BABY DOLL
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W A L T E R W A S S E R M A N M U S I C P U B . C O . , 423 N. Eutaw St., BALTIMORE, MD.
money on his policies before his heirs collect.
At any rate, he is feathering his nest in his
own way and is very happy. Before I left Mr.
Kice was very nice and gave me some advice.
He said: "It is wise to get your heart set in
the right place and keep it there. It insures
your own happiness and the happiness of
others."
S. W. Gardner Music Co.
The S. \V. Gardner Music Co. is located next
to the Carolina National Bank. A nice next
door neighbor. Its leaders are the Kranich &
Bach in pianos, Victor, Edison and Brunswick
in phonographs, and a popular sheet music de-
partment. The headquarters of this firm are in
(iastonia, N. C. This branch at Spartanburg
was recently opened by S. W. Gardner al-
though he makes his home in Gastonia. The
young lady in the music department is Miss
Lucille V. Smith, who disclosed the fact that
the music was carried purely as an attraction
and she was devoting her energies only to pop-
ular music with just a few of the important
methods and studies.
After a good luncheon at the Cleveland Hotel,
I was on my way on one of the famous pull-
man bus lines that are so well-known through'
out the Carolinas. I disguised myself as a real
tourist, leaving aside all my music talk just
taking a keen interest and delight in the beauti-
ful country. T no longer wonder where our
famous literary men get their inspirations.
They all must have gone South.
"Mercenary Mary" Now
Playing on Broadway
Musical Comedy Based on "What A Wife"
Opens at Longacre Theatre—Score, Pub-
lished by Feist, Full of Tuneful Numbers
"Mercenary Mary," a new musical comedy in
two acts, based on the farce "What A Wife,"
with a book by Isabel Leighton and William IS.
Friedlander, music and lyrics by William B.
Friedlander and Con Conrad, and produced by
Lawrence Weber, opened at the Longacre
Theatre, New York City, on Monday night of
this week, following appearances in Washing-
ton and other Eastern centers, all of which were
played to enthusiastic audiences.
At its New York appearance the show was
heralded as a success. The critics of the vari-
ous New York papers are especially enthusiastic
and all of them invariably mention the song
hit of the piece, "Honey, I'm In Love With
You."
The show T has an exceptionally good cast, in-
cluding Allen Kearns, the Fairbanks Twins,
Winnie Baldwin, Nellie Breen, Ira Jacobs, Jazz
Ambassadors and sixteen steppers in the chorus
who do their share in carrying the show along.
The show will be noted for its musical score,
the arrangements of which were made by Louis
Katzman. The other outstanding songs are:
"You and I and the Baby," "Beautiful Baby"
and "Charleston Mad." The music is published
by Leo Feist, Inc.
New Ditson Numbers
Among the new compositions for the piano
released by the Oliver Ditson Co. are "The
Little Coquette" and "Parfum," by Miner Wal-
den Gallup, a piano composition for four hands
by Frances Terry entitled "The Denuded For-
est," "Arabesque" and "Humoresque," by
Gladys V. Gilbert, and "Novellctte Russe," "In-
termezzo," "Lost Illusions" and "Magyar Fes-
tival," by F. Sabathil; "Dot and Dash," de-
scribed as a polka by Clara Lambert Hill, which
is enclosed in a most artistic frontispiece; "On
the Promenade," by Arthur Graves Granfield;
"Love's Caprice," by Charles F. Carey; "Gon-
dolier's Love," "Saltarello" and "Valsc Joy-
euse," by Charles Dallier.