Music Trade Review

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REVIEW
THE
VOL. LXXXIII. No. 3
PMblUhed Every Satirday. Edward Lyman Bill, Inc., 383 Madison Aye., New York, N. Y., July 17, 1926
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A Window Display of a Small Upright
That Sold the Instrument
How Hardman, Peck & Co., in Their New York Retail Branch Store, Made a Direct Appeal to the Child
Prospect in Featuring the Small Upright in a Nursery Setting in Their Show Window and
How the Instrument Itself Was Sold Directly From the Display
N any nation-wide campaign to expand the
market for pianos the cultivation of the
idea of placing more than one piano in a
home is certainly a happy corollary and a no-
tion worthy of much consideration. It was
partly with this in view that Hardman, Peck &
Co., New York, decided this Spring to make a
"play" to the nurseries of the more wealthy
Fifth avenue promenaders by showing a small
Harrington upright with a nursery setting in
their show window at 433 Fifth avenue.
The idea was really that of Stephen Czukor,
manager of the artists department
of the company, according to Calvin
T. Purdy, manager of the Hardman
warerooras. While talking over a
suitable window display for the
music industries' convention week,
Mr. Czukor recalled the success met
by the company with the display of
a Harrington junior upright during
the Christmas holidays. The piano
had been placed in one corner of the
window with a view to inducing
some particularly generous daddy to
purchase it. for his youngster as a
Christmas present. Mr. Czukor sug-
gested an entire display to show the
adaptability of this small instru-
ment for a child's nursery or play-
room.
Although there had been a large
Hardman art model grand used in
the Christmas window, the small
piano with its baby-pink enameled
case dominated the window and attracted much
attention on the avenue. To the piano was
attached a large colored tag with the message:
"To Baby Peggy—From Her Daddy." The whole
effect was striking and succeeded in drawing
three or four sales for duplicate instruments as
well as the one in the window.
The idea of devoting a whole window to a
small upright with children as prospects was
a radical one, departing from the usual practice
of Hardman, Peck & Co. of showing Hardman
period grands in drawing-room settings. Noth-
ing better suggested itself at the time, however,
and the novelty of the plan recommended it
sufficiently for a trial. The decorators were in-
formed of the scheme for the nursery window
I
and work was started at once to construct it.
Arrangements were made with the toy depart-
ment of R. H. Macy & Co. to provide certain
"properties" for the setting and a load of minia-
ture chairs, tables and dishes, to say nothing of
several very attractive "dollies" of the popular,
old-fashioned variety, arrived in a Macy truck
a few days later. A Harrington, Style 10, junior
upright, this time with a robin's-egg blue enam-
eled case, was placed in one corner and the
dolls, looking for all the world like kiddies,
were placed around a table as though in the
A Unique Display of the Small Upright
midst of a meal. A box of blocks was scat-
tered about the floor to add a slight note of dis-
order, so often present in a playroom.
From a publicity standpoint the window was
a winner from the start, according to Mr. Purdy.
Groups of passersby of all ages stopped to take
in the amusing details of the window. Those
who lingered longest were the "prospects"
themselves, tots of the kindergarten age, con-
versing animatedly with their "govies" about
the window and the tiny piano.
Not content with suggesting the idea for the
setting, Mr. Czukor determined to add a
stronger personal touch to the display, and ar-
ranged one afternoon to have his own two
children, aged two and four years, playing in
the window for over an hour. The children
entered fully into the spirit of the affair and
found plenty of ways of amusing themselves,
one of them playing one-fingered selections on
the piano from time to time. The best part of
it was that the tots were completely oblivious
of the sensation they were creating outside t{ie
glass window, where a crowd gathered almost
out to the curb.
Proof of the broad sweep of publicity from
this display was secured a morning or two
after the appearance of the children in the win-
dow, when the editorial departments
of two magazines, Art and Decora-
tion and Toyland, wrote to request
photographs of the nursery window.
These have been since provided by
Mr. Besserman, of Hardman-Peck's
advertising department, and will
appear in early issues of the per-
iodicals with appropriate acknowl-
edgment to Hardman, Peck & Co.
The climax of every show window
story is usually contained in the
anecdote of "who bought the piano."
Hardman-Peck have an enviable
record of selling at least one model
of every instrument displayed right
out of the window, and this case
proved to be no exception. Early
one morning toward the end of the
nursery display, a little girl marched
into the warerooms from an expen-
sive limousine, drawn up at the curb.
She was accompanied by her mother
and governess and the former asked to be
shown the small upright which had attracted
her attention.
An alert salesman demonstrated the instru-
ment and a contract was quickly drawn up and
signed. The mother stated that she was leav-
ing for Europe on the following day, and left
a substantial deposit with instructions to deliver
the instrument to her Park avenue home early
in September. She stated that she had noticed
the baby window from her car on several oc-
casions and was so impressed with the idea of
providing music for the nursery that she wanted
that particular piano for her little daughter.
After leaving her check she followed the gov-
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