Presto
Issue: 1920 1756 - Page 6
RE8TO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C A. DANIELL anrl FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones: Chicago Tel. Co., Harrison 234; Auto. Tel. Co., Automatic 61-703.
U O O ^ T S 1 ] ? 1 ^ , t 0 a " Departments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code),
P R t S T O , ' Chicago.
i&iiromd 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 «Ktr*
««»ar?c m U 8. possessions, Canada. Cuba and Mexico
~~
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Ratest—Three dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions
Six dollars per inch per 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
84, 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 musicai
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-
ern hemispheres.
The Presto Buyeis' Guide Is the only reliable index to the American Music*!
Instruments; it analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimates *t
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
5 Items of news, photographs and other matter of general interest to the rnuil*
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communications to
Prvst* Publishing Co.. Chicago. III.
THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 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.
THIS CHANGING TRADE
Unlike most other lines of industry and trade, that of the piano
has been one of almost complete change, and changes many times
repeated. With other manufactured articles, growing out of inven-
tion and eventually general adoption of the thing created, the piano
is the result not only of change in details of construction, but very
largely in fundamentals and in the ultimate results of its performance
or operation.
Watt's engine has changed from the first little stove-pipe smoke-
stack and diminutive power, to the giant locomotive of today. Ful-
ton's little steamboat has grown to the monster floating palaces and
terrifying dreadnaughts of the seas; Gutenberg's clumsy wooden
types have steadily refined until we have the endless varieties of the
printer's art, and so on through the mighty lists of progress. But the
original specimens, as they came at bid of the creative brain, persist
and the changes have been along the line of improvement of kind, and
not departure into new species or principles.
With the musical instrument the sequence of creative chapters
discloses many inventors and a succession of instruments each follow-
ing its predecessor, as the chrysalis falls away and leaves the more
beautiful creature of evolution. The dawn of the piano, in the mono-
chord did not give much promise of the spinet, and the spinet gave
little hint of what Cristofori would do two thousand years after. The
upright piano, which came in time, could have given little suggestion
of the player-piano, and the piano-phone could not have been fore-
shadowed by the player roll but for the invention of the phonograph
and its wedding to the player-piano.
It has been, a succession of many creations, an evolution from one
instrument of music to another and, as the point of perfection was
neared, a change from established conditions to something different,
something newer. What will be the next change no one can say with
certainty. The ambitious industries whose energies are devoted to the
March 18, 1920.
production of pianos in whose powers are included everything that
can reproduce musical sound, seem to be taking time by the forelock.
They do not appear to leave any opportunities unprofited. But even
their many-sided activities can give no absolute assurance that the
future will not evolve something so different from anything of the
past as to demand again complete changes of plan and purpose.
It would be interesting to know how a great piano man of fifty
years ago would regard conditions in the trade today. And it is
possible that were such men as Jonas Chickering, William Knabe,
Henry Hazelton, Henry Steinway, Myron A. Decker, George Steck
and Frederick Mathushek to come back and form a jury to pass upon
piano progress, from their time to this, they would not grow enthusi-
astic over the glories of the wonderful instruments of today. They
would, perhaps, point to the substantial and quaintly beautiful, but
silent, squares of their time and declare that no musical results by
mechanical means could compare with the possibilities that lay con-
cealed in them. For there is no such thing as lifting the present back
into the relatively primitive past. And what suits conditions and
people of today might not be expected to meet the approval of those
who lived and worked many years ago. It is a matter of mental evolu-
tion and adaptation no less than creative and material.
Nevertheless, we of today know that in all the piano's past there
has been nothing to compare, in tonal splendor, constructive beauty
or recreative powers, with some of the great instruments that are
coming forth, in increasing numbers, from the great industries of the
present time.
WHAT IS NEWS?
Last week a prominent retail piano merchant said, in a letter to
this paper, that because of late mail delivery the trade news was fre-
quently no longer fresh when he read it. He is not alone in his
protests against dilatory mail service. Daily newspapers everywhere
have published protests which explain the cause of their tardiness in
reaching the hands of a considerable share of their readers. And
from all appearances there is nothing that can be done, under existing
conditions, to expedite deliveries.
But there is another side of the subject. And that side suggests
that perhaps the real trade news is not of a kind to grow stale even
while the post office department struggles with seemingly insurmount-
able problems and the rain and the wind threaten to destroy the sec-
ond class matter—to which, of course, Presto and all other printed
matter belongs. For after all what is music trade news? What kind of
second class matter constitutes" first-class piano trade matter? And
can that first-class second class matter grow stale or seem to be late
in its delivery?
If we believed that the function of the trade paper could be to
give space to the record of small talk about the peccadillos of dishonest
or unfortunate workers whose fingers were as light as their heads; or
to. items of gossip by which the enterprise of manufacturers might be
upset by disclosure of the plans of their representatives; or to the
kind of stuff that shadows personal character, we would consider it a
poor business. But if, as is the case, we believe that trade news is of
the stuff that may educate, and encourage, and help, then it isn't easy
to see how a day or two, or even a full week's delay can make news
of that kind "stale."
From the point of useful, up-to-date trade journalism, we believe
that one such story—everything that goes in a modern newspaper is
called a story today—as the one in Presto two weeks ago about a new
piano industry to meet the famishing demand just now, is a bit of
rare news. It is just the news the piano dealers want, because they
want, most of all, to know how and where their need of instruments
may be fulfilled. We also know that it was news that awoke a re-
sponse, for the new piano industry was promptly the center of trade
interest, as the letters of inquiry amply proved.
And the news that every week in this paper tells of what the
established manufacturers are doing to increase supplies and to help
the retailers is equally of the kind that can not grow stale or lose any
interest because of the delays of the mails. Nor is the news of the
advertising columns any the less permanently interesting and valu-
able.
When the cover page of Presto carries a letter to the trade direct
from President Jesse French, Jr., of the big industry at New Castle,
Indiana, we feel that our first page presents a feature of distinct
value. When a new art style Reed & Sons player-piano is announced
in an art-page in which the beautiful veneer is shown to perfection
with the completed instrument shining through, that is trade paper
news. When the Starr Piano Co. presents a similarly artistic page
drawing attention to the timely records for Easter, that is fine trade
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C A. DANIELL anrl FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones: Chicago Tel. Co., Harrison 234; Auto. Tel. Co., Automatic 61-703.
U O O ^ T S 1 ] ? 1 ^ , t 0 a " Departments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code),
P R t S T O , ' Chicago.
i&iiromd 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 «Ktr*
««»ar?c m U 8. possessions, Canada. Cuba and Mexico
~~
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., Chicago, III.
Advertising Ratest—Three dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions
Six dollars per inch per 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
84, 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 musicai
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-
ern hemispheres.
The Presto Buyeis' Guide Is the only reliable index to the American Music*!
Instruments; it analyzes all Pianos and Player-Pianos, gives accurate estimates *t
their values and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
5 Items of news, photographs and other matter of general interest to the rnuil*
trades are invited and when accepted will be paid for. Address all communications to
Prvst* Publishing Co.. Chicago. III.
THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 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.
THIS CHANGING TRADE
Unlike most other lines of industry and trade, that of the piano
has been one of almost complete change, and changes many times
repeated. With other manufactured articles, growing out of inven-
tion and eventually general adoption of the thing created, the piano
is the result not only of change in details of construction, but very
largely in fundamentals and in the ultimate results of its performance
or operation.
Watt's engine has changed from the first little stove-pipe smoke-
stack and diminutive power, to the giant locomotive of today. Ful-
ton's little steamboat has grown to the monster floating palaces and
terrifying dreadnaughts of the seas; Gutenberg's clumsy wooden
types have steadily refined until we have the endless varieties of the
printer's art, and so on through the mighty lists of progress. But the
original specimens, as they came at bid of the creative brain, persist
and the changes have been along the line of improvement of kind, and
not departure into new species or principles.
With the musical instrument the sequence of creative chapters
discloses many inventors and a succession of instruments each follow-
ing its predecessor, as the chrysalis falls away and leaves the more
beautiful creature of evolution. The dawn of the piano, in the mono-
chord did not give much promise of the spinet, and the spinet gave
little hint of what Cristofori would do two thousand years after. The
upright piano, which came in time, could have given little suggestion
of the player-piano, and the piano-phone could not have been fore-
shadowed by the player roll but for the invention of the phonograph
and its wedding to the player-piano.
It has been, a succession of many creations, an evolution from one
instrument of music to another and, as the point of perfection was
neared, a change from established conditions to something different,
something newer. What will be the next change no one can say with
certainty. The ambitious industries whose energies are devoted to the
March 18, 1920.
production of pianos in whose powers are included everything that
can reproduce musical sound, seem to be taking time by the forelock.
They do not appear to leave any opportunities unprofited. But even
their many-sided activities can give no absolute assurance that the
future will not evolve something so different from anything of the
past as to demand again complete changes of plan and purpose.
It would be interesting to know how a great piano man of fifty
years ago would regard conditions in the trade today. And it is
possible that were such men as Jonas Chickering, William Knabe,
Henry Hazelton, Henry Steinway, Myron A. Decker, George Steck
and Frederick Mathushek to come back and form a jury to pass upon
piano progress, from their time to this, they would not grow enthusi-
astic over the glories of the wonderful instruments of today. They
would, perhaps, point to the substantial and quaintly beautiful, but
silent, squares of their time and declare that no musical results by
mechanical means could compare with the possibilities that lay con-
cealed in them. For there is no such thing as lifting the present back
into the relatively primitive past. And what suits conditions and
people of today might not be expected to meet the approval of those
who lived and worked many years ago. It is a matter of mental evolu-
tion and adaptation no less than creative and material.
Nevertheless, we of today know that in all the piano's past there
has been nothing to compare, in tonal splendor, constructive beauty
or recreative powers, with some of the great instruments that are
coming forth, in increasing numbers, from the great industries of the
present time.
WHAT IS NEWS?
Last week a prominent retail piano merchant said, in a letter to
this paper, that because of late mail delivery the trade news was fre-
quently no longer fresh when he read it. He is not alone in his
protests against dilatory mail service. Daily newspapers everywhere
have published protests which explain the cause of their tardiness in
reaching the hands of a considerable share of their readers. And
from all appearances there is nothing that can be done, under existing
conditions, to expedite deliveries.
But there is another side of the subject. And that side suggests
that perhaps the real trade news is not of a kind to grow stale even
while the post office department struggles with seemingly insurmount-
able problems and the rain and the wind threaten to destroy the sec-
ond class matter—to which, of course, Presto and all other printed
matter belongs. For after all what is music trade news? What kind of
second class matter constitutes" first-class piano trade matter? And
can that first-class second class matter grow stale or seem to be late
in its delivery?
If we believed that the function of the trade paper could be to
give space to the record of small talk about the peccadillos of dishonest
or unfortunate workers whose fingers were as light as their heads; or
to. items of gossip by which the enterprise of manufacturers might be
upset by disclosure of the plans of their representatives; or to the
kind of stuff that shadows personal character, we would consider it a
poor business. But if, as is the case, we believe that trade news is of
the stuff that may educate, and encourage, and help, then it isn't easy
to see how a day or two, or even a full week's delay can make news
of that kind "stale."
From the point of useful, up-to-date trade journalism, we believe
that one such story—everything that goes in a modern newspaper is
called a story today—as the one in Presto two weeks ago about a new
piano industry to meet the famishing demand just now, is a bit of
rare news. It is just the news the piano dealers want, because they
want, most of all, to know how and where their need of instruments
may be fulfilled. We also know that it was news that awoke a re-
sponse, for the new piano industry was promptly the center of trade
interest, as the letters of inquiry amply proved.
And the news that every week in this paper tells of what the
established manufacturers are doing to increase supplies and to help
the retailers is equally of the kind that can not grow stale or lose any
interest because of the delays of the mails. Nor is the news of the
advertising columns any the less permanently interesting and valu-
able.
When the cover page of Presto carries a letter to the trade direct
from President Jesse French, Jr., of the big industry at New Castle,
Indiana, we feel that our first page presents a feature of distinct
value. When a new art style Reed & Sons player-piano is announced
in an art-page in which the beautiful veneer is shown to perfection
with the completed instrument shining through, that is trade paper
news. When the Starr Piano Co. presents a similarly artistic page
drawing attention to the timely records for Easter, that is fine trade
Enhanced content © 2008-2009 and presented by MBSI - The Musical Box Society International (www.mbsi.org) and the International Arcade Museum (www.arcade-museum.com).
All Rights Reserved. Digitized from the archives of the MBSI with support from NAMM - The International Music Products Association (www.namm.org).
Additional enhancement, optimization, and distribution by the International Arcade Museum. An extensive collection of Presto can be found online at http://www.arcade-museum.com/library/
Future scanning projects are planned by the International Arcade Museum Library (IAML).