Music Trade Review
Issue: 1946 Vol. 105 N. 2 - Page 5
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
The (/Husk jf/iaJe
Established 1879
Vol. 105, No. 2
THE
PIONEER
REVIEW
PUBLICATION
February, 1946
2793rd Issue
OF THE M U S I C
INDUSTRY
Retail Piano Selling Offers
Lucrative Career to Young Men
/"\NE of the important projects the
piano industry now has before it
now that it is starting on a new era
and one that promises to go far beyond
any experienced in the past, is to
inject into all its branches new and
younger blood which can carry on in
the future. For some reason the music
business has not been attractive to
young men entering business and yet
for many it has proved a most lucra-
tive occupation and in an atmosphere
and of refinement and culture.
For instance there are several thou-
sand retail piano salesmen throughout
the country who have spent their en-
tire business lives at this occupation,
have worked in pleasant surround-
ings, made incomes of four or five
figures and have found many advan-
tages through their contacts with mu-
sicians and persons of culture which
are entirely foreign to any other line
of business. As one successful sales-
man has stated: "There is always a
great satisfaction in selling a piano
because it brings happiness into the
home as well as culture and many
times the piano I sell starts some
young person on a musical career".
Many piano salesmen have started
as tuners, others have started in minor
positions in a music store and many
after having sold pianos for several
vears have become managers of de-
partments or stores or have opened a
piano wareroom of their own. Many
a prosperous piano merchant of to-day
had a very small beginning and al-
though the business may not be classed
as a millionaires business it offers
many opportunities both in environ-
ment and income which surpass those
in many other lines of endeavor.
The best proof of this is manifested
in the experiences of some of the retail
salesmen still active in several sections
of the country.
T a k e for in-
stance t h e ex-
perience of Er-
nest J. Mehmel,
salesman in the
p i a n o depart-
m e n t of Fred-
erick Loeser &
C o . , Brooklyn,
N. Y. He has
spent 40 years
in the p i a n o
business start-
E. J. MEHMEL
ing 1 in the plant
of E. Gabler & Bro. and then doing
chipping and rough tuning with E.
Leins and in the Jacob Bros, plant. He
started selling with Marchander & Co.
and in Jan. 1917 joined the Loeser &
Co. staff, as an outside salesman. To-
day, although he has now become a
great grandfather, he is still success-
fully carrying on having through the
years built up a following covering
two generations who come to him for
advice when a piano is to be purchased.
With the same organization is F. E.
Fitz g e r a 1 d.
"Fitz" as he is
familiarly,
known to his
associates h a s
had a most var-
i e d experience
but has always
stuck to selling
pianos at retail.
He started sell-
ing in the piano
department o f
the o r i g i n a l
Seigel & Cooper
store in N e w
E. E. FITZGERALD
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW. FEBRUARY, 1946
York which was then located at 18th
Street and what is now The Avenue of
The Americas. That was in 1904. La-
ter he sold for Wanamakers, New York,
Wm. Knabe & Co., and managed the
retail store of Estey Piano Co., when
that was operating. Later he went to
London and sold pianos in the store of
the Aeolian Co. in Bond St. and when
he returned to the United States be-
came manager of the outside salesmen
for the retail store then conducted in
New York by the Story & Clark Piano
Co. He has now been back with Loeser
for the past fifteen years and still be-
lieves that piano retailing is a profit-
able occupation.
Another illustration of success as a
piano salesman over a period of 42
years, in a more rural territory, is
that of Grayson T. Sanner of the
Weaver Piano
Co.'s r e t a i l
store in York,
Pa. whose rep-
utation for sell-
ing brought the
comment from
W a l t e r L.
B o n d , Secre-
tary and Treas-
urer of t h e
Weaver Piano
Co.: "It is our
o pi n i o n that
throughout the
G. T. SANNER
past 37 years
Mr. Sanner has sold more fine pianos-
grands, fine uprights and spinets-than
any other salesman in this area."
Now in his 67th year Mr. Sanner
started in life as a collector for a life
insurance company. During his duties
he was compelled to visit Troup Bros.
store in Chambersburg where he used
to play on the organs displayed there
for his own amusement. Soon he was
offered a position to sell organs at a
very small salary. After two years
pianos commenced to appear and he
The (/Husk jf/iaJe
Established 1879
Vol. 105, No. 2
THE
PIONEER
REVIEW
PUBLICATION
February, 1946
2793rd Issue
OF THE M U S I C
INDUSTRY
Retail Piano Selling Offers
Lucrative Career to Young Men
/"\NE of the important projects the
piano industry now has before it
now that it is starting on a new era
and one that promises to go far beyond
any experienced in the past, is to
inject into all its branches new and
younger blood which can carry on in
the future. For some reason the music
business has not been attractive to
young men entering business and yet
for many it has proved a most lucra-
tive occupation and in an atmosphere
and of refinement and culture.
For instance there are several thou-
sand retail piano salesmen throughout
the country who have spent their en-
tire business lives at this occupation,
have worked in pleasant surround-
ings, made incomes of four or five
figures and have found many advan-
tages through their contacts with mu-
sicians and persons of culture which
are entirely foreign to any other line
of business. As one successful sales-
man has stated: "There is always a
great satisfaction in selling a piano
because it brings happiness into the
home as well as culture and many
times the piano I sell starts some
young person on a musical career".
Many piano salesmen have started
as tuners, others have started in minor
positions in a music store and many
after having sold pianos for several
vears have become managers of de-
partments or stores or have opened a
piano wareroom of their own. Many
a prosperous piano merchant of to-day
had a very small beginning and al-
though the business may not be classed
as a millionaires business it offers
many opportunities both in environ-
ment and income which surpass those
in many other lines of endeavor.
The best proof of this is manifested
in the experiences of some of the retail
salesmen still active in several sections
of the country.
T a k e for in-
stance t h e ex-
perience of Er-
nest J. Mehmel,
salesman in the
p i a n o depart-
m e n t of Fred-
erick Loeser &
C o . , Brooklyn,
N. Y. He has
spent 40 years
in the p i a n o
business start-
E. J. MEHMEL
ing 1 in the plant
of E. Gabler & Bro. and then doing
chipping and rough tuning with E.
Leins and in the Jacob Bros, plant. He
started selling with Marchander & Co.
and in Jan. 1917 joined the Loeser &
Co. staff, as an outside salesman. To-
day, although he has now become a
great grandfather, he is still success-
fully carrying on having through the
years built up a following covering
two generations who come to him for
advice when a piano is to be purchased.
With the same organization is F. E.
Fitz g e r a 1 d.
"Fitz" as he is
familiarly,
known to his
associates h a s
had a most var-
i e d experience
but has always
stuck to selling
pianos at retail.
He started sell-
ing in the piano
department o f
the o r i g i n a l
Seigel & Cooper
store in N e w
E. E. FITZGERALD
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW. FEBRUARY, 1946
York which was then located at 18th
Street and what is now The Avenue of
The Americas. That was in 1904. La-
ter he sold for Wanamakers, New York,
Wm. Knabe & Co., and managed the
retail store of Estey Piano Co., when
that was operating. Later he went to
London and sold pianos in the store of
the Aeolian Co. in Bond St. and when
he returned to the United States be-
came manager of the outside salesmen
for the retail store then conducted in
New York by the Story & Clark Piano
Co. He has now been back with Loeser
for the past fifteen years and still be-
lieves that piano retailing is a profit-
able occupation.
Another illustration of success as a
piano salesman over a period of 42
years, in a more rural territory, is
that of Grayson T. Sanner of the
Weaver Piano
Co.'s r e t a i l
store in York,
Pa. whose rep-
utation for sell-
ing brought the
comment from
W a l t e r L.
B o n d , Secre-
tary and Treas-
urer of t h e
Weaver Piano
Co.: "It is our
o pi n i o n that
throughout the
G. T. SANNER
past 37 years
Mr. Sanner has sold more fine pianos-
grands, fine uprights and spinets-than
any other salesman in this area."
Now in his 67th year Mr. Sanner
started in life as a collector for a life
insurance company. During his duties
he was compelled to visit Troup Bros.
store in Chambersburg where he used
to play on the organs displayed there
for his own amusement. Soon he was
offered a position to sell organs at a
very small salary. After two years
pianos commenced to appear and he
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