Presto

PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editora
Telephones: Chicago Tel. Co., Harrison 234; Auto. Tel. Co., Automatic 61-70S.
Private Phones to all Departments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code),
"PRESTO," Chicago.
Bntered as second-class matter Jan. 29, 1896, at the Post Office, Chicago. Illinois,
%
under Act of March 3, 1879.
Subscription, $2 a year; 6 months, $1; Foreign, $4. Payable In advance. No « t r *
rice in TL S. Dossessions, Canada. Cuba and Mexico. ' "
~
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Ratet<-Three dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertion*.
Bix dollars per inch p«r month, less twenty-five per cent on yearly contracts. Th«
Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment Is not accepted for articles of de-
scriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Business notices
will be Indicated by the word "advertisement" In accordance with the Act of August
24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in the Tear Book issue and Export Supplements of The
Presto will be made known upon application. The Presto Year Book and Export
issues have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical
instrument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
•ffectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and West-
•rn hemispheres.
The Presto Buyeis' Guide is the only reliable Index to the American Muskml
Instruments; It analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimates •#
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
& Items of news, photographs and other matter of general interest to the muiM
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communication* to
Prtste Publishing Co.. Chicago. III.
T H U R S D A Y , JANUARY, 29, 1920.
TO CORRESPONDENTS.
PRESTO IS ALWAYS GLAD TO RECEIVE NEWS OF THE
TRADE—ALL KINDS OF NEWS EXCEPT PERSONAL SLANDER
AND STORIES OF PETTY MISDEEDS BY INDIVIDUALS. PRESTO
WILL PRINT THE NAMES OF CORRESPONDENTS WHO SEND IN
"GOOD STUFF" OR ARE ON THE REGULAR STAFF. DON'T SEND
ANY PRETTY SKETCHES, LITERARY ARTICLES OR "PEN-PIC-
TURES." JUST PLAIN NEWS ABOUT THE TRADE—NOT ABOUT
CONCERTS OR AMATEUR MUSICAL ENTERTAINMENTS, BUT
ABOUT THE MEN WHO MAKE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND
THOSE WHO SELL THEM. REPORTS OF NEW STORES AND
THE MEN WHO MAKE RECORDS AS SALESMEN ARE GOOD. OF-
TEN THE PIANO SALESMEN ARE THE BEST CORRESPONDENTS
BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT THEY LIKE TO READ AND HAVE
THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR FINDING OUT WHAT IS "DOING" IN
THE TRADE IN THEIR VICINITY. SEND IN THE N E W S -
ALL YOU CAN GET OF IT—ESPECIALLY ABOUT YOUR OWN
BUSINESS.
A CONTRAST
Next week New York will have the biggest music show in this
country's history, save one. And that exception was the greatest
music show the world has ever witnessed. It took place in Jackson
Park, Chicago, nearly twenty-seven years ago, and it was known as
Section I of the Columbian World's Exposition.
At that music show there were 427 instruments—pianos and or-
gans—on display. They came from every civilized nation of the earth,
and they represented the finest skill in acoustics and activity in wood-
working up to that time. It may be that the highest attainment of that
time was crude as compared with the piano-results of today. But no
piano man who participated.in the glories of Section I in 1893 could
be made to believe it.
At the time of the greatest music show in all history, the automo-
bile had not been invented. It had scarcely yet disturbed the dreams
of any inventor. But since the motor came, it has been customary with
piano men to draw contrasts between the automobile industry and
their own. It has been common for the music love propagandists to
declare that, because the limousine fills large space in the newspapers,
without cost to the manufacturers, the piano should be equally the
subject of thrilling and free printer's ink discussion. The absurdity of
the proposition does not seem to have dawned upon some otherwise
bright minds even yet.
This week there is an automobile show in Chicago. Every news-
paper bulges with news, pictures and descriptive matter. Thousands of
dollars have been invested in advertising the cars on display. One of
the newspapers devoted two pages to the reproduction of trade-name
fac-similes, after the manner of the piano names in Presto Buyers'
Guide. An evening paper started the automobile show week with an
issue of about 100 pages, mostly about cars. Portraits of all the auto-
mobile industry presidents were published, together with pictures of
January 29, 1920.
their cars. And one of the newspapers declared that eventually the
auto would supersede the street car in the big cities.
And now the music show will be an attraction in New York. What
proportion of the newspapers of that city will be given over to t^e
pianos and other things of music? What will be the expenditures in
the advertising pages? How will the response of the public compare
with the crowds at the Chicago Automobile Show?
We hope that the comparison may be in favor of the New York
Music Show. But when we consider the vastness of the automobile
industry, it can create no suspicion should it be otherwise. For it is
said that the automobile industry now pays $747,000,000 in yearly
wages; that there are more than 6,500,000 motor cars in use in the
United States; that the number of persons employed in the automobile
industry and trade exceeds 1,000,000; that the automobile factories
pay $275,000,000 in yearly wages, the supply industries pay $228,000,-
000 and the dealers and garages pay out $184,000,000.
It is plain enough that to compare the figures of the piano with
those just quoted is out of reason. And to try to base any propaganda
of either publicity or piano promotion along similar lines is imprac-
ticable. The two industries, while catering to the social side of life, in
a sense, are essentially different. One is the canary bird in the sun-
parlor; the other the rooster in the rear, crowing loudly.
And these are some of the considerations that have led Presto to
suggest that it is easily possible to go too far into the realms of the
impractical in some of the plans of music propaganda. We still be-
lieve that the piano that is promoted as a unit, and along the independ-
ent lines of its own maker's initiative and enterprise, will win better
than can be possible by any co-operative effort designed for the general
"betterment." Advertising good for goodness' sake may be very well,
but advertising a good piano in a way to let the world know that
other pianos are not quite so good is a better plan.
THE MUSIC SHOW
For some reason not yet made clear the Music Show next week
will be an exposition of New York instruments so far as pertains to
pianos. According to late reports from Manager Green, only two Chi-
cago piano industries are entered and, with two others from the West,
the list of instruments east of New York ends. Therefore the Music
Show may not be representative in a national sense. Therefore, 1 also,
it can not convey to a large proportion of the trade anything like the
interest to which so large an enterprise should be entitled.
Nevertheless, no one will question the character and splendor of
the display so far as concerns the eastern piano industry. The list of
exhibitors, which appears elsewhere this week, proves that many of the
most influential piano industries will be liberally represented. And
the aggregation of talking machine industries surpasses, by far, any
display ever seen in this country. In fact the phonograph seems to
monopolize a very large share of the show. But the facts of the show
week may prove this impression an error. But why are the Western
pianos not in on the advantages of the big Music Show? How does it
happen that its possibilities are so generally permitted to pass?
We have our own ideas in the matter, of course. They have been
in a measure expressed so far as possible without in any degree haz-
arding the success of the project. And next time, whether this year's
show proves a success or not, we believe that more real piano under-
standing will be mixed with the undeniable show-man skill in forming
the basis of the best results in any future similar enterprise. It is not
possible to apply general show principles to piano trade promotion.
Not even the rules of automobile exhibitions can successfully be
adopted in similar displays of musical instruments.
But it is too early to talk about what might make still greater the
success of a Music Show that has not yet begun. It is certain that
the influential piano men who are behind the event in New York 'will
not be satisfied with anything short of correspondingly large results.
And the plans perfected for drawing crowds to the Grand Central
Palace are such as to insure that all Manhattan will be there, with a
good crowd, also, from outside the metropolis, near and far.
A look at the list of exhibitors is enough to guarantee plenty of
interest and instruction, to every dealer who may attend. It will be a
show well worth a trip from the furthermost points of the continent.
The representatives of the trade from the Pacific Coast will be there
in numbers almost equal to those from points in New Jersey and
Massachusetts. Of course the Middle-West will send crowds and the
week will prove an inspiration to every piano man who can get there.
This year there are not so many points of trade discussion at the
convention as have stirred some of the earlier meetings. Conditions in
the industry and trade have, in a large measure, settled back, and the
heaviest burdens, upon both manufacturer and dealer, have their foun-
dation in national complications and conditions. The real worries of
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