Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Music Trade Review
SEPTEMBER 25, 1926
s of the Music Tradesmen Who Attended the Convention of Ch.o Association in Columbus
National Playing Contest
(Continued from page 3)
and July directly to the contest and so with
every dealer in Detroit.
Sell Pianos
We received thousands of inches of high-
class advertising in news form. The contest
does sell pianos—that all of the Detroit dealers
will tell you. Now, let me sum up the real
results:
1. Stimulates piano sales.
2. Interest the child.
3. Interests the parents.
4. Combines the civic authorities, the dealer,
the schools and the music teachers, all
working for one common good.
5. Prepares the way for piano instruction in
the schools.
6. It gives the piano and music the necessary
publicity.
It would be a pity to lot a business builder
of this kind be stifled, and I offer to you men
of the industry the following plan for a nation-
wide piano contest:
The National Plan
Relieving that t lie best results can be ob-
tained by a well-organized and definite cam-
paign, the writer herein sets forth a plan for
the staging of the piano-playing contest on a
country-wide scale.
It is realized that a contest- can be held in
any town or city, but the greatest value from
a publicity and interest standpoint can be ob-
tained by employing the press of the greatest
circulation and in the largest trading area. It
has been the experience of the writer that the
surrounding territory had been benefited as
much as the contest city itself, because of the
large circulation out of town of a metropolitan
daily. I am submitting herewith a suggested
list of the cities which would accomplish the
purpose so vital at this time to the entire piano
industry:
Alabama, Birmingham; Arkansas, Little Rock; Califor-
nia, Los Angeles or San Francisco; Colorado, Denver;
District of Columbia, Washington; Florida, Jacksonville;
Georgia, Atlanta; Illinois, Chicago; Indiana, Indianapolis;
Iowa, Des Moines; Kansas, Wichita; Kentucky, Louis-
ville; Louisiana, New Orleans; Maine, Portland; Mary-
land, Baltimore; Massachusetts, Boston; Michigan, De-
troit; Minnesota, St. Paul or Minneapolis; Missouri, St.
Louis or Kansas City; Montana, Butte or Great Falls;
Nebraska, Omaha; New Jersey, Newark; New York, New
York City, Buffalo or Rochester; Ohio, Cincinnati, Cleve-
land, Columbus or Toledo; North Carolina, Charlotte;
North Dakota, Fargo; Oklahoma, Oklahoma City; Oregon,
Portland; Pennsylvania, Philadelphia or Pittsburgh; Rhode
Island, Providence; South Carolina, Charleston; Tennessee,
Memphis; Texas, Dallas, Houston or San Antonio; Utah,
Salt Lake City; Virginia, Richmond; Washington, Seattle
or Spokane; Wisconsin, Milwaukee.
Letting the Public Know
If we are to interest the public in the piano
we must first let them know the importance of
the instrument from a musical standpoint. I
think that all will agree that the place to start
is with the children. The Detroit piano-playing
contest recently brought to such a successful
conclusion has proven beyond doubt that the
public are actually interested in the piano.
The sum total of the various plans on foot
at the present time is to raise some $200,000
annually from the manufacturers and an ap-
proximate like amount from the dealers. If
these two sums were pooled together we would
have a total of $400,000. It has been suggested
that the chief activity to be thus financed would
be a campaign of magazine advertising. Were
we to select the acknowledged advertising
medium I think we would all agree on the Sat-
urday Evening Post. If we were to place there-
in an advertisement every week of the year,
(Continued on page 5)
More Trade Members Gathered in Front of the Ohio State Capitol in Columbus