Music Trade Review

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The Music Trade Review
REVIEW
(Registered in the XJ. S. Patent Office)
Published Every Saturday by
Federated Business Publications, Inc.
at 420 Lexington Avenue, New York
President, Raymond Bill; Vice-Presidents, J. B. Spillane, Randolph Brown; Secre-
tary and Treasurer, Edward Lyman Bill; Assistant Secretary, L. B. McDonald;
Assistant Treasurer, Wm. A. Low.
B. BRITTAIN WILSON, Editor
CARLKTON CHACE, Business Manager
W. H. MCCLEARY, Managing Editor
RAY BILL, Associate Editor
F. L. AVERY, Circulation Manager
E. B. MUNCH, Eastern Representative
WK8TERN IMVI8ION:
FRANK W. KIRK, Manager
E. J. NEALY
333 No. Michigan Ave., Chicago
Telephone: State 1266
BOSTON OFFICE:
JOHN H. WILSON, 324 Washington St.
Telephone: Main 6950
Telephone: Lexington 1760-71
Vol. 87
G
Cable. Elbill New York
July 21,1928
Again It Proves Itself
No. 3
JULY 21, 1928
is one of the best he has ever worked during his long experience
in retail musical instrument merchandising.
The second example is the Gross Piano Co., of Chicago, which
has carried on this work for the past two years. Here again it is
stated that the results in actual sales have been extremely good,
so good, in fact, that the work of the Gross Co. has been inves-
tigated by a number of other piano merchants in that city who have
inaugurated such classes in their own warerooms, and who are
reporting similar results.
Merchants who have been successful with group instruction
work are unanimous in declaring that the selling expense involved
is not high when taken in connection with the results, and that it
is especially low when the indirect returns in good will and prestige
are considered. But group instruction to-day has proven itself to
the extent that these indirect results may be given no consideration,
and that this method of selling may be considered directly upon
the basis of actual sales. On that basis the evidence is practically
unanimous it is a success.
I
*
The Cable Company Display "
HE exhibit of Cable Midget uprights held by The
Cable Company in Chicago, in which thirty-six dif-
ferent styles of case design and finish were displayed,
is a remarkable example of the way in which the piano manufac-
turer has developed case design in the piano during the past five
years. The interview with W. E. Guylee, printed in another section
of this issue of The Review, is an interesting analysis of what the
manufacturer has accomplished to give the retail piano merchant
facilities to meet every varying type of taste in home furnishing
prevalent at the present day.
The grouping of these thirty-six different styles in a single
display is impressive evidence of all that Mr. Guylee states. We
are confronted at the present day with a steadily advancing
standard of beauty in the American home, which is reflected in
every industry which supplies any part of its equipment. This
new standard is carried into every room and has developed require-
ments that have made the discussion of industrial art one of the
most vital topics, from a sales standpoint, that confronts the manu-
facturer. That the piano manufacturer, in common with all other
producers of equipment for the American home, has definitely met
this new requirement upon the part of the American buyer, has
been no better demonstrated than in this exhibition of the products
of the Cable factories. The manufacturer has given the dealer
merchandise to meet these new conditions; it now remains for the
dealer properly to exploit these instruments and to demonstrate
to the American buyer that every requirement of taste and beauty
may be had in the piano which she purchases for her home.
ROUP piano instruction is no longer an experiment
with the retail piano merchant since sufficient time
has elapsed for it to pass from that condition to a
definite and accepted part of the dealer's selling policy. That this
statement may be made without qualification is shown by the re-
ports from dealers who have continuously utilized this method of
propaganda for periods ranging from eighteen months to two years
and a half, surely sufficient time to show definitely whether such
a selling policy is profitable or not.
In this issue of The Review the experience of two such retail
piano merchants is given in detail. The first of these, Charles H.
Yahrling, of the Yahrling-Rayner Co., Youngstown, O., states
definitely that direct sales to the parents of children taking this
company's group instruction courses and who have no pianos in
their homes now average 22 per cent, this not including sales of
radio and other musical instruments to people who were attracted
to the warerooms through the piano instruction work. Beside
these sales Mr. Yahrling has built up a prospect list
he states
In which
1916 he
was appointed supervisor of
H. G. Grubbs Joins
the Victor T. M. Go.
agencies in the Eastern district, where he built
up a strong sales organization with twenty-five
agencies, and in 1920 he was appointed vice-
Appointed Commercial Vice-President of That president, director of foreign and domestic sales
Company, a Newly Created Position in the and a member of the board. In 1927, when
the Dalton Co. merged with the Remington-
Organization.
Rand organization, he became general sales
manager of the mechanical division.
CAMDEN, N. J., July 16.—'Harry C. Grubbs has
Mr. Grubbs' first contact with Victor was
been appointed to the newly created office of
commercial vice-president of the Victor Talking when he visited the purchasing department
Machine Co., according to an announcement some years ago to sell his product. His demon-
stration and sales methods so impressed E. E.
made last week.
Mr. Grubbs has been for the past twenty- Shumaker, then purchasing agent, that after
four years in the office equipment industry, the latter became president he took occasion
having been general sales manager of the me- to learn more of Mr. Grubbs' ability and
chanical division of the Remington-Rand Busi- achievement. Mr. Grubbs has already made a
ness Service, Inc.,- before coming to Victor. tour of the East and Middle West, studying
His original connection in this field was with prevailing conditions at first hand.
the Universal Adding Machine Co., of St.
Louis, and later with the Dalton Adding
The Sterchi Music Co., Terre Haute, Ind.,
Machine Co., working up to foreman of the has been incorporated with a capital stock of
assembling department. In 1909 he joined the $5,000 to take over the music business of Victor
company's San Francisco branch as repair man, Harkness and Glenn Collins, 659^4 Wabash
where, anxious to enter selling, he paid an avenue, as well as the Trade Shop.
assistant repair man out of his own salary and
devoted part of his time to selling. In 1912
The Bennab Music Co. & Sport Shop, New
he was sent as sales agent to Richmond, Va., York, has been incorporated with a capital stock
where he opened up that territory for the com- of $10,000. S. Loewy, 2 Lafayette street, is
pany.
named as sole incorporator.
French President Hears
New Columbia-Kolster
A Columbia-Kolster phonograph was a
feature of the program at a gala concert given
recently at the famous Opera Comique Theatre
in Paris when it played a record by M. Fugere,
"the grand old man of French singers," now
eighty years old and a former star of the
Opera Comique. The guests at the concert in-
cluded M. Doumerque, President of France;
M. Herriot, Minister of Public Instruction;
N. 1'ainleve, Minister of War, and other
notables.
Opens School for Organists
PHILADELPHIA, PA., July 16.—The Rudolph Wur
litzer Co. has opened a school for the teaching
of theatre organ playing at its local headquar-
ters, 1033 Chestnut street. The department will
devote itself particularly to instructing or-
ganists in the playing of the company's Hope-
Tones organ.
Consult the Universal Want Directory of
The Review. In it advertisements are inserted
free of charge for men who desire positions.