Music Trade Review

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The Music Trade Review
W. F, Frederick Co- in Pittsburgh
Finds Big Field for Mortuary Organs
Well-Known Retail Store Achieves Remarkable Success With Seeburg Line of Repro-
ducing Instruments—Maintain Finely Appointed Department
D I T T S B U R G H , PA., February 11.—The re-
wards that come through recognizing op-
portunity and having the vision to sense chang-
ing conditions and meet them are well ex-
emplified in the case of the W. F. Frederick
Piano Co., which has just made public a review
tone quality, beauty of case design or simplicity
and dependability of construction.
"Our own opinion is corroborated and em-
phasized by the highly enthusiastic manner in
which it has been received by the morticians.
"The music dealer who is willing to feature
FEBRUARY 16, 1929
establishments in the country. The company
was incorporated in 1908, and at present oper-
ates some twelve retail music stores in west-
ern Pennsylvania, western Maryland and in
West Virginia, as well as conducting a large
wholesale business in pianos, Victrolas and
radios. In 1917 the Frederick Investment Co.
was formed to finance the subsidiary organiza-
tion as well as music dealers generally.
The field for the mortuary organ is a logical
one. Not so many years ago the idea of con-
ducting funerals from an undertaking establish-
ment was repugnant to many. Funeral direc-
tors, however, through the opening of attractive
and elaborate funeral chapels, have succeeded
in winning public favor with the result that a
very substantial number of families have come
to prefer holding the services in some such
place rather than in the home. With the mor-
tuary chapels becoming more elaborate there
came the demand for music and thus was
created a rich field for the mortuary pipe organ,
a field that was quickly appreciated by the J.
P. Seeburg Co. and has been capitalized by
many of its dealers, including the Frederick
Co. as referred to.
The Seeburg reproducing pipe organ was first
launched in 1910 and has been constantly im-
proved. It has served to fill a genuine ne-ed
not only in funeral chapels but in small motion
picture houses and in other places where organ
music is desired. The fact that it can be
played with a roll and does not necessitate the
hiring of an organist has been an outstanding
point in its favor.
Shuman Bros. Broadcast
Programs of German Music
PHILADELPHIA, PA., February 11.—Shuman Bros.,
music dealers of 1501 Germantown avenue, with
a large patronage among patrons of German
descent, are now making weekly broadcasts
of special German programs. The firm, of
which David Shuman is head, is giving high
class German selections from the various
recordings of the more prominent of talking
machine artists in the weekly radio exploitation.
A Group of Interior Scenes of the Frederick Store in Pittsburgh, Showing How Artistically the
Various Departments Can Be Arranged. In Center is C. R. Hoop, Master Salesman in the Fred-
erick Organization for the Seeburg Line
of its 1928 business wherein special reference is
made to the results obtained in selling the See-
burg Reproducing Mortuary Pipe Organs to
the mortuary profession, much of this good
work being credited to C. R. Hoop, of the
organization, who specialized in those instru-
ments.
> In a letter to the J. P. Seeburg Piano Co.,
•E. B. Heyser, vice-president of the Frederick
Co., said:
"After having represented the Seeburg mor-
tuary pipe organ for more than one year, we
feel urged at this time to express our sincere
admiration and appreciation of this splendid in-
strument. It is peculiarly suited to the needs
of the modern mortician and while there are
other instruments of this type in the field we
have seen nothing that can compare with it in
— > • * - • — *§ ' I / ^ ~rJ
^%
this instrument intelligently and aggressively
will find it a most satisfactory and profitable
acquisition to his other business.
"Y'our merchandising program is complete in
every respect, and we find that the central
theme idea around which your entire publicity
centers augments our efforts and convincingly
presents the salient features with excellent
force. Our thanks to you for your co-opera-
tion."
The W. F. Frederick Piano Co. is the out-
growth of the music business established by
W. F. Frederick in 1881. He started selling
pianos and organs on commission from a
wagon and a few years later opened a small
retail store in Uniontown, Pa. The venture
developed and grew until the Frederick Co.
became one of the largest retail and wholesale
Music Dealer Honored
H. W. Hagcmeistcr, music dealer of St. Clair
and Hayden avenues, Cleveland, O., has been
elected to the presidency of the East Side Ex-
change Club. Mr. Hagemeister has completely
recovered from the injuries he suffered in an
automobile accident last month in which his wife
met death.
Record Sales Improve
MILWAI'KKK, Wis., February 11.—Record busi-
ness is keeping up at a good rate, according to
Miss Helen I. Gunnis, manager of the phono-
graph and record department at Edmund Gram,
Inc.
While January saw a slight decline in
the record demand, the decrease was seasonal,
Miss Gunnis declared, and some numbers re-
ceived an outstanding call. In phonographs
combinations are getting a better play than the
straight phonographs,, she observed.
—i—i
,^,
—
is
f
••••
:
•JrUZ — 1/HJ.LTO 1
| |
is; = (Pia no ~ forte in — n
1 ~c4mericato?day — |l
-^Will attract-tKcattcntion
of
tKosc—
r
America's =i | =wKoltnowand apprcciatGitpnc:guaUty^ | = owned and con~~—m
1 —trolled, by the II
1 —directJdeccndents — fl
J" GM^S.^^S^IEEF Inc;
—-Miano
« "
I = oftltQ founder ^—- |l|
d'tieff-Hatt—^ Baltimore
i
~—~^*^^
•-
—
_
A.
L^fk