Music Trade Review
Issue: 1946 Vol. 105 N. 2 - Page 11
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just as foolish as the man who wrote it, because the spinet
piano is going to constitute 80% of the sales of pianos
in this country and maybe even more, as long as there
is going to be a scarcity of grands. We can't believe that
any dealer, who is out to sell all the pianos he can, is going
to be so foolish as to hurt 80'V of his business by refer-
ring to that letter. When Mr. Alexander said that the
Spinet "as an article made to sell is a success" he told the
truth. It has proved itself as that. And we would like to
ask Mr. Alexander what piano manufacturers, dealers
and he himself are in business for. The former sell instru-
ments and he sells service and if his services are not
bought, he doesn't eat. Then when he says: that the
Spinet "as a musical instrument is a failure" he isnt telling
the truth. The proof that he isn't lies in the fact that
several hundred thousand of them are in daily use by
persons who have purchased them since 1935 when they
were instrumental in bringing the piano back again so
that Mr. Alexander and his ilk could earn enough with
which to live. No—it is high time, in our estimation, that
tuners realize on which side their bread is buttered and not
go around knocking the Spinet or another type of
piano. The National Piano Manufacturers Association has
been working diligently to better the tuner's position and
put him where he can make more money than he ever
dreamed he would see. Advertising, promotion, publicity
and the efforts of the National Association of Music Mer-
chants are all working toward the same ends. The most
lucrative opportunities which tuners have ever had awaits
them. It is time that tuners, as well as the other branches
of the industry, help educate the public to the value of
the Spinet. This is the atomic age. a far cry from the
horse and buggy days.
2,700,000 Homes in 24 Months
V ]f ^
~**~ 2,700,00 homes in the next twenty-four months
should be a stirring item for all piano dealers. We hope
that the National Piano Manufacturers Association as
well as the National Association of Music Merchants will
immediately start a movement to see that, when the plans
for these homes are drawn, there will be ample place in
the living room for a piano. If even fifty per cent of the
purchasers of these homes buy pianos the piano industry
will have no fear of top production for many years. The
tendency in building homes on the mass production scale
is that rooms are so small that no place is provided for
even the smallest spinet. Now is the time to forestall this
with the proper promotion through the proper sources.
Recognition
w
of Long and Faithful
Service
E had the honor and privilege of being present
at a little ceremony recently which proved to
us, that after all the heart of a big corporation
lies* within the attitude of its officials toward its employees
and that if that attitude is right there need be no fear of
an employee not being loyal, and painstaking. "Charlie"
Brady had never become a manager or a vice president or
a president but he had spent fifty years doing his duties
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, FEBRUARY, 1946
Edwin Marcus In The New York Sunday Times
first as a messenger, then as a shipping clerk and finally
a superintendent of shipping and receiving for The Aeolian
Co. and Wm. Knabe & Co. Hours never meant anything
to "Charlie". The main object was that when a job was
lo be done it should be finished irrespective of time. Forty
hours a week was unheard of when "Charlie" started work-
ing for the Aeolian Co. in 1896. And "Charlie" never
thought about that small amount of time in all the fifty
years he has been with the company. So, on the day
after he had been with the company for fifty years there
was W. Lee White, President of The Aeolian Co., and
executive vice president of the American Piano Corp., in
the presence of Charlie's wife and son, H. B. Wood, gen-
eral manager and over thirty members of the organization,
presenting "Charlie" with a $250 gold watch and Mr.
Wood as host at a dinner in his honor at one of the
smartest restaurants in New York. It was a complete sur-
prise to "Charlie". No wonder he was almost overcome.
But. to all those present, as well as "Charlie", besides being
a tribute to him it was also one to the thoughtfulness
of the executives of a great corporation, so contrary to
the rule of thumb of modern business about which we read
so much in these distressing times.
"/«'* the'Tuning That's So Upsetting"
MARCUS in a cartoon in The New York
Sunday Times recently likened the present efforts to
adjust wage scales to the efforts of a piano tuner
who is tuning a piano, while Uncle Sam stands by with
a copy of "Happy Days are Here Again." We appreciate
the permission of The New York Times to reproduce this
cartoon and commend Mr. Marcus for using the piano
as a symbol. We hope, however, that when wage scales are
adjusted they will last longer than it takes the ordinary
piano to sel out of tune. To be kept up to par a piano should
be tuned every six months at least; sometimes oftener.
^
j
just as foolish as the man who wrote it, because the spinet
piano is going to constitute 80% of the sales of pianos
in this country and maybe even more, as long as there
is going to be a scarcity of grands. We can't believe that
any dealer, who is out to sell all the pianos he can, is going
to be so foolish as to hurt 80'V of his business by refer-
ring to that letter. When Mr. Alexander said that the
Spinet "as an article made to sell is a success" he told the
truth. It has proved itself as that. And we would like to
ask Mr. Alexander what piano manufacturers, dealers
and he himself are in business for. The former sell instru-
ments and he sells service and if his services are not
bought, he doesn't eat. Then when he says: that the
Spinet "as a musical instrument is a failure" he isnt telling
the truth. The proof that he isn't lies in the fact that
several hundred thousand of them are in daily use by
persons who have purchased them since 1935 when they
were instrumental in bringing the piano back again so
that Mr. Alexander and his ilk could earn enough with
which to live. No—it is high time, in our estimation, that
tuners realize on which side their bread is buttered and not
go around knocking the Spinet or another type of
piano. The National Piano Manufacturers Association has
been working diligently to better the tuner's position and
put him where he can make more money than he ever
dreamed he would see. Advertising, promotion, publicity
and the efforts of the National Association of Music Mer-
chants are all working toward the same ends. The most
lucrative opportunities which tuners have ever had awaits
them. It is time that tuners, as well as the other branches
of the industry, help educate the public to the value of
the Spinet. This is the atomic age. a far cry from the
horse and buggy days.
2,700,000 Homes in 24 Months
V ]f ^
~**~ 2,700,00 homes in the next twenty-four months
should be a stirring item for all piano dealers. We hope
that the National Piano Manufacturers Association as
well as the National Association of Music Merchants will
immediately start a movement to see that, when the plans
for these homes are drawn, there will be ample place in
the living room for a piano. If even fifty per cent of the
purchasers of these homes buy pianos the piano industry
will have no fear of top production for many years. The
tendency in building homes on the mass production scale
is that rooms are so small that no place is provided for
even the smallest spinet. Now is the time to forestall this
with the proper promotion through the proper sources.
Recognition
w
of Long and Faithful
Service
E had the honor and privilege of being present
at a little ceremony recently which proved to
us, that after all the heart of a big corporation
lies* within the attitude of its officials toward its employees
and that if that attitude is right there need be no fear of
an employee not being loyal, and painstaking. "Charlie"
Brady had never become a manager or a vice president or
a president but he had spent fifty years doing his duties
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, FEBRUARY, 1946
Edwin Marcus In The New York Sunday Times
first as a messenger, then as a shipping clerk and finally
a superintendent of shipping and receiving for The Aeolian
Co. and Wm. Knabe & Co. Hours never meant anything
to "Charlie". The main object was that when a job was
lo be done it should be finished irrespective of time. Forty
hours a week was unheard of when "Charlie" started work-
ing for the Aeolian Co. in 1896. And "Charlie" never
thought about that small amount of time in all the fifty
years he has been with the company. So, on the day
after he had been with the company for fifty years there
was W. Lee White, President of The Aeolian Co., and
executive vice president of the American Piano Corp., in
the presence of Charlie's wife and son, H. B. Wood, gen-
eral manager and over thirty members of the organization,
presenting "Charlie" with a $250 gold watch and Mr.
Wood as host at a dinner in his honor at one of the
smartest restaurants in New York. It was a complete sur-
prise to "Charlie". No wonder he was almost overcome.
But. to all those present, as well as "Charlie", besides being
a tribute to him it was also one to the thoughtfulness
of the executives of a great corporation, so contrary to
the rule of thumb of modern business about which we read
so much in these distressing times.
"/«'* the'Tuning That's So Upsetting"
MARCUS in a cartoon in The New York
Sunday Times recently likened the present efforts to
adjust wage scales to the efforts of a piano tuner
who is tuning a piano, while Uncle Sam stands by with
a copy of "Happy Days are Here Again." We appreciate
the permission of The New York Times to reproduce this
cartoon and commend Mr. Marcus for using the piano
as a symbol. We hope, however, that when wage scales are
adjusted they will last longer than it takes the ordinary
piano to sel out of tune. To be kept up to par a piano should
be tuned every six months at least; sometimes oftener.
^
j
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