Music Trade Review

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THE
VOL. 85. No. 4
REVIEW
Published Weekly.
Federaled Business Publications, Inc., 420 Lexington Ave., New York, N. Y., July 2 3 , 1 9 2 7
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' tl« C oT l e er8 Ye°ar ent8
The Period Model
In Piano Trade of Today
John H. Parnham, President of the Cable-Nelson Piano Co.,
Discusses Period Model Tendencies ; in Pianos Before the
Annual Meeting of the Western Music Trades Association
John H. Parnham
Y having been asked by your dis-
tinguished president to talk to you on
the subject of "Period Model Ten-
dencies in Pianos" is assuredly not due to any
reputation I have acquired as a speaker. I take
it that it is because Mr. Clay and his co-officers
in your association feel that we have made some
strides in the period model piano art, especially
those of moderate price, and while I perhaps
cannot present the subject to you in as lucid a
way as many others, yet I do welcome the op-
portunity to talk to you for a few minutes as
one business man to another on a subject that
undoubtedly deserves the attention and study of
every manufacturer, piano merchant and sales-
man in our trade.
In business to-day it is style and beauty that
rule in practically every commodity of every-
day life and the biggest single style influence in
the country is its women, and we must not
overlook the fact that it is the woman who in-
fluences and controls, to a large extent, the
family purse strings—especially when it comes
to buying anything for the home. I have a full-
page newspaper advertisement before me of a
well-known magazine. It is headed:
"Style—that makes and breaks everything
from hearts to pocketbooks"—and the first
M
lines of this real advertisement read: "In busi-
ness to-day it is style all the while. Wise manu-
facturers have sensed this fact—others have
had it thrust upon them."
You will all agree that the sale of shoes, hats
and clothing is affected by style and beauty,
and it certainly is equally true that the sale of
furniture, house decorations and the building of
the home itself, is affected by them also.
In Grand Rapids, just about sixty-five miles
from the small city in which I live, a large pro-
portion of the furniture manufactured in the
country is produced. A few years ago the com-
panies paid very little attention to the designs
of their products and the furniture business
went along very much the same as the piano
business. To-day it is entirely different—there
is not a single furniture concern in Grand
Rapids producing the old box-like furniture;
each company is vying with the others to turn
out attractive furniture that will appeal to the
eye and beautify the home.
And they are
searching the world for new designs, new
woods and veneers to use in their product. The
designer, or designers, occupy very important
positions in these factories—I say designers,
because one factory I know of employs fifteen
artists in this department, and this company
(and this applies to practically all of the other
companies in Grand Rapids), changes its styles
four times a year. In the piano business there
have been changes about twice in forty years.
The efforts of the furniture companies have
borne fruit, as evidenced by the greatly in-
creased sales of their products in the last five
years.
Let us touch on the automobile trade for a
minute. In reading the Chicago Tribune a few
days ago, I ran across an article on the auto-
mobile business, and at the end of it this com-
ment was made:
"There seems to be no limit to the number of
cars the public will take so long as the cars are
new models."
We all know what has happened to the sales
of one automobile manufacturer because he
continued to make the same old car in the same
old style, relying entirely on price appeal to sell
his product. We know, also, in this same field,
where another manufacturer of a small car,
made a special appeal to the eye in design of
bodies and selection of colors, advertising his
product with the picture of a peacock, surround-
ing it with the impression of beauty. We know-
that the sales of this car have, in contrast with
the other car mentioned, increased by leaps and
bounds—and at higher prices.
In talking with some piano merchants I have
gathered the impression that there is a feeling
that because the piano is a musical instrument,
no other appeal is necessary—or is very sec-
ondary. This appears to me to be a great mis-
take. One might just as well say that because
we eat on a dining-room table, there is no need
to pay any attention to its design and beauty
or how it fits into the rest of the«woom—as a
pine board would be just as useful—but I am
afraid the good wife would object to any such
argument.
We have to deal to-day with a luxurious age
and a modernized woman—with a woman who
has rolled fifteen to twenty years from her
shoulders by shortening her skirts and bobbing
her hair. She is thinking and acting in terms
of style and beauty, in her person, in the color
and upholstery of her car, in the taste displayed
in the building and furnishing, or refurnishing,
of her home. We insult her intelligence by try-
ing to sell her an upright or grand piano that is
practically the same as her grandmother
bought. Make no mistake, the average Ameri-
can woman hasn't one "thin dime" to spend for
anything that is ugly or out of style, but she
can always raise the money to buy something
smart and beautiful for herself or for her home,
and it is our job to show her that to own a
beautiful period model piano will not only add
the one distinctive touch of beauty to the liv-
ing room, but that to own such an instrument
is the vogue in smart and stylish homes.
I do not want to give the impression that I
am speaking of the families who have a lot of
money to spend. In talking with an interior
{Continued on page 4)