Presto

PRESTO
PRESTO
PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY AT 407 SOUTH DEAR-
BORN STREET, OLD COLONY BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
C. A. DANIELL and FRANK D. ABBOTT
Editors
Telephones, Local and Long Distance, Harrison 234. Private Phones to all De-
partments. Cable Address (Commercial Cable Co.'s Code), "PRESTO," Chicago.
Entered 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 extra
charge in U. S. possessions, Canada, Cuba and Mexico.
Address all communications for the editorial or business departments to PRESTO
PUBLISHING CO., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
Advertising Rates:—Five dollars per inch (13 ems pica) for single insertions.
Complete schedule of rates for standing cards and special displays will be furnished
on request. The Presto does not sell its editorial space. Payment is not accepted for
articles of descriptive character or other matter appearing in the news columns. Busi-
ness notices will be indicated by the word "advertisement" In accordance with the
Act of August 24, 1912.
Rates for advertising in Presto Year Book Issue and Export Supplements of
Presto will be made known upon application. Presto Year Book and Export issues
have the most extensive circulation of any periodicals devoted to the musical in-
strument trades and industries in all parts of the world, and reach completely and
effectually all the houses handling musical instruments of both the Eastern and "West-
ern hemispheres.
Presto Buyers' Guide is the only reliable index to the American Pianos and
Player-Pianos, it analyzes all instruments, classifies them, gives accurate estimates
of their value and contains a directory of their manufacturers.
Items of news and other matter of general interest to the music trades are in-
vited and when accepted will be paid for. All communications should be addressed to
Presto Publishing Co., 407 So. Dearborn Street, Chicago, III.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 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.
NO STENCIL ADVS.
A somewhat remarkable fact, in connection with the retail piano
trade, is the almost total absence of stencil advertisements in the local
newspapers. There was a time when almost every other piano house
in the country announced some strange and parentless instrument,
with the printed assurance that it was not only a work of art but the
biggest bargain on earth. Today that has all changed. There are
comparatively few stencils in the trade—that is, the old kind of
stencils that pushed the legitimate instruments aside with rude shove
and persisted in boisterous claims to being just what they were not.
How do you account for the purification? Is it that the public
has become "wise," or is it that the dealers have become virtuous and
the manufacturers too proud of their products to permit of disguises
designed to more or less deceive? Whatever the cause, the change
is a good one and the trade is better for it as is, of course, also the
innocent public.
Of course the stencil is, or was, a child of misfortune, the same
as all illegitimates are. It came into the world as the result of a lack
of business conscience, and it was intended to deceive. It was made
up to resemble other pianos, and bore names identical with, or nearly
the same as, some pianos of genuine power and distinction. There
was a time when the old New York house of Decker Bros, found it
necessary to institute lawsuits in several cities to restrain the use
and abuse of their name. The house of Steinway was in a similar fix
because, in more than one part of the globe, conscienceless manufac-
turers were willing to turn out "Stienway" instruments, of uncertain
parentage and Very certain mediocrity. And many other famous
pianos were similarly imposed upon, dealers even going so far as to
have stencils made and changing the names in their stores—back
where the callers couldn't see the nefarious work.
But the point now in mind is the comparatively clean character
of the piano dealers' local advertising. Instead of loud-mouthed
braying about some strange stencil, the retailers are sticking to
facts. They are promoting legitimate piano names, and they are
August 7, 1920.
thereby building up for permanency and profit. In more than a hun-
dred advertisements in local newspapers throughout the country, the
exchange editor of Presto found but four stencil names, and some of
them were in lists of second-hands.
Work is now in progress upon the 1921 edition of Presto Buy-
ers' Guide, "the book that sells pianos." A feature of that book, as
most piano men know, is the list of trade mark instruments, the origin
of which is not positively known to the editors. There was a time
when that chapter was characterized as the roll-call of the stencils.
The word "stencil" has been almost eliminated, but the list remains,
to characterize the comparatively few pianos whose makers will not
make themselves known. If all the makers of popular grades of in-
struments would let us know what names they employ, it would be
easy to give their products the correct classifications. And it would
not be necessary to tell the trade, and public at large, where the in-
struments come from. It would be enough to know their origin, for
that would at once indicate the character of the instruments, because
the piano manufacturers and their claims and capacities are familiar.
Won't the manufacturers respond to this invitation, and so insure
proper classification? And won't the retailers give us the names of
any trademark instruments they may handle, for the same purpose?
The day has gone when the piano business could be done on any basis
of concealment. Any piano that is good enough to sell is good
enough to be openly recognized—and advertised.
THE FARMER'S PIANO
There has been a good deal printed of late about the influence
of music in the factories. Proof has been presented that a number of
large industries have introduced pianos, or other musical instruments,
for the refreshment of the workers and to stimulate them in the
rhythmical motions of their toil.
Of course the plan is a good one—to a degree. Unless carried
too far—to the point familiar to popular hotel parlors—the piano
may be a very useful adjunct to the workshop. It depends upon the
management of the place. And there are other instruments which
may serve equally as well, and are doing so to some extent. Mr.
Tremaine, of the Advancement of Music Bureau, has made good use
of the proposition, and by his influence, no doubt, factories have
tried the music-while-you-work system with good results.
But there is another department of human toil and strain to
which not much attention has been directed, but where the soothing
influences of music seem to be fully as much needed, if not more.
We mean the farm—often away off from musical centers, where the
only sounds resembling music are the twittering of the birds, the
ripple of the streams, the lowing of the herds and the hum of the
harvester.
;
In the country, away from the urban excitement, the brass bands
and the cabarets, the sound of music is needed more than almost any-
where else. And the piano dealer in any small country town under-
stands why, and knows that his best "prospects" are off somewhere
in the fields and woods. He makes it his business to hitch his horse
to the wagon, or to attach his Atwood Loader to his flivver, and
travel over the dusty roads to the distant farm houses, where the
people are charmed, and even amazed, at the wonders of the player-
piano. There are both duty and the delights of the missionary. The
farms need the pianos more than big factories. The silence of the
broad acres need the stimulating strains of music with which to soften
the monotony and to hold the young ones at home.
And all this was better said in a recent article in a farm paper
called the "Prairie Farmer." The editor, no doubt, saw the effort that
has been made to establish music in the city factories. He appealed to
the class of readers to which his paper is devoted. The result was a
lot of entertaining letters by the mothers on the farms, who told just
why music is essential and how it helped the workers in the fields.
Every retailer in the smaller places understands the value to him of
the farmers' trade. He can understand the arguments of the women
who wrote to the "Prairie Farmer," even if he can't see the force of
the promotion of music in the noisy factories of the big cities.
i
TURN ON THE LIGHT
Turn on the light for more production at the piano factories.
Turn on the light for more prompt orders from the dealers, so that
manufacturers may know how much they are expected to produce.
Turn on the light for prompt service from the supply houses. Turn
on the light in explaining to customers just why initial payments
must be larger than ever before and the rest of the payments exactly
on the date the contracts call for.
Light gives liberty, and liberty in turn enlightens the world.
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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/